The University of the South

Train (4 of 8)

"That's it Monty! Only ten more to go. Come on, you punch like a bitch! You're losing tone!" My coach tells me as I swing the next punch into the bag.

It was always like this every training session. I had to maintain my physique and coach would always rile me up with his words.

Sometimes I grew tired of it, but I had to keep going.

"Okay, stop. Take a break, Monty. Better yet, take a few laps with Victors." He says as I nod, taking my water bottle, taking a swig.

I walk over to Theo once I was done and ran next to him on the treadmill beside him.

He nods at me once before continuing to run.

"You okay, Atlas? You're usually smiling all the time." He asks me as he sees the frown on my face.

I kind of was.

"I just can't keep up with coach that's all. Nothing new, I'm kinda used to it." I tell him as he nods.

Theo was always coach's favorite. Theo always kept up with him.

I wonder what his secret was.

I turn to him.

"How come you're so good at training? I can never keep up with coach. It's impossible." I say as Theo's eyes go dark as if he's thinking about something.

He shakes his head and sighs.

"Before I was with Eva, I remembered something from my childhood, but now I remember the fucker that tried something on Eva and I release that anger on the ring. Easy as that." Theo says with anger in his tone.

Anger. He gets his motivation from anger?

I slowly nod and sigh.

"That seems like a lot." I say with a chuckle as he nods with a shrug.

"I feel strongest when I'm protecting my girl." He says as I nod.

My memories flash back to when I was with Delilah.

Fuck, I missed her.

"You're thinking about her?" Theo asks as I shake my head.

"About who?" I ask.

"About Lila. Eva told me she saw you both leaving together last week." Theo says as I chuckle at him.

Yeah, last week was wild.

We had both had too many to drink, I wasn't myself but I did remember us hailing a cab to my apartment and fucking.

It wasn't how I imagined it to go, but I had no regrets at all.

"You slept with her didn't you?" Theo asks with a smirk as I fake shock.

I shake my head and scoff.

"What?..no? What why would you..why would you...yes." I say in defeat as he chuckles.

We did sleep together, but we were keeping it casual.

For some reason, Lila didn't seem to be herself. Although we had just met, she was hiding something.

I was hoping I could find out what that was and break her out of her shell.

She did say some interesting things after we had slept together.

I'm not sure if she recalls.

I mean she had forgotten how many rounds we went at it.

I wasn't blaming her though, I lost count after five.

"Atlas, I know what you're thinking about. Just tell her the truth and it'll be like a weight has been lifted off of you." Theo tells me as my eyes widen at him.