Love on Opposite Sides of the Ring

Part 1

Harry's pov...

I sit on the bench in my personal locker room, thinking about my life...from being 11 all the way till now. It seems like time is passing me by too quickly for me to comprehend. I had been stuck in foster care for too long, since any adopting agency even bothers to contact my foster mom to get me out of this hell hole. Since the parents of any adopting agency find out I'm a boxer in training, and I can be very temperamental, they don't bother. I'm sixteen at the moment and I have the mentality of a twenty year old. I had been trying to emancipate myself for too long, months even, and no one can ever believe that a sixteen year old can take care of themselves.

My trainer, Dany, had found me one time at a local park near my foster home. I had ran away, because I had gotten into a fist fight with one of my older foster brothers, and I had a black eye. I was 11 at the time, and I was fed up with not being able to fight back as well as I wanted to. Then, I was sitting on an empty bench, feeling completely miserable until Dany came and walked up to me. My first intention was to take off running, but there was something about him that made him look like a father figure.

Dany sat next to me and said, "That's a pretty big shiner you got there." I ignored his statement and continued staring at my overused black and white converse shoes. Dany picked up a conversation, "My name is Dany and I'm a boxing coach, or you can call a personal trainer. I got a nice gym three blocks down. I know I might be a stranger to you, but I promise not to hurt you. Can you tell me your name?"

I decided to direct my stare towards him and he didn't look too bad or that he will snatch me and kidnap me. A wave of confidence took over me and I introduced myself, "I'm Harry Styles." The friendly, yet respectful man, smiled at me and said, "Well Harry Styles, how would you like to join me and I could make you into a boxing champion." With one look and one smile I gave him, my life had begun.

In the distance, I heard someone calling my name, shaking me out of my thoughts. I hadn't noticed for how long I had been sitting here. Then, I hear close footsteps and some panting, right after I hear the door to my locker room open and slam close.

I meet my eyes with Liam, Dany's assistant boxing coach, and he said out of breath, "Styles, we need to get started with your training for today if you want to beat Tomlinson at the championship." My forest green eyes meet his dark brown ones, and reply, "I know, just I lost track of time, that's all." Liam nodded and I started to tape up my hands; starting at the wrist then going down to my knuckles, followed by in-between my fingers. Then, with Liam's assistance, I slipped on my black gloves, tying them up afterwards.

As I followed Liam to the ring, walking out of the locker room, I kept thinking of how did this Tomlinson guy look like, and will he be strong enough to beat me in this championship. I am sure my stats are way better than his, considering his stamina is a little slow and he is four inches shorter than me. Since I will be fighting him a year from now, I still had to prepare every single day if I wanted to keep my stats up.

We will be fighting the minor to legal fight championship, since we were too young to compete in the championship for adults. According to my experience for a 16 year old, and how great my stats were, I could easily fight with an adult. Tomlinson is 19 so I wasn't to afraid of him. Dany would have me to spar with opponents that were way older than me, since I was 11 when I started. It was so that I won't feel intimidated once I would start competing in the ring. Liam was hired when I was 12, since Dany was busy setting up amateur fights for me so that I could compete and get my name out there. He needed the extra help.

Liam and I finally reached the ring, again shaking me out of my thoughts, and we climbed the small set of stairs on the side of the ring so that we could step in.

Liam put on his matted set of practice sparing gloves and we got started. He instructed me on which punch and side to use and hit first as we continued to switch sides, moving around the ring. I tried to make my hits fast and precise, my five years of experience shining through. I felt really confident, since Tomlinson only had two years of experience, starting at the age of 17. I had a great advantage over him so he should be very scared.

After sparing for forty minutes, Liam gave me a water bottle, as I uncapped it, shugging down its contents, and placing it aside. Liam had me climb back down from the ring so that I could start my usual 65 push ups, 50 sit ups, and 20 jumps on the rope. That was my usual routine from Sunday's to Wednesday's and from Thursday's to Saturday's, he will have me practicing on the normal punching bag and on the speed  punching bag.

Once I was done with all my reps, I was free to go.

I went back to my locker room with Liam so that he could help me take off my gloves. After we were done, he told me the times we will meet up and he headed home, locking up. I went to the shower area to have a quick and nice shower, dressing up afterwards and making my way out of the gym with my duffle bag. I walked to my car and got in.

I dreaded going back to the foster home, wishing my parents never walked away from me. They divorced when I was 10, months away from my birthday. My oldest sister was staying with our aunt and uncle, since she couldn't stand the fights mom and dad had. On Christmas, they had the biggest fight of the century, so they had me stay with my grandma. Around January, I had found out everything was packed up, and they had left for good; all of my things were sent to my grandma's. Then, on my 11th birthday, I had come home from school, finding my grandma incredibly still on the couch. I started to panic after I touched the side of her face and it was ice cold.

Endless tears had streamed down my face as I called 999 so that my grandma could be taken away. After that, I was sent to a foster home, and I had been there ever since.

My sad thoughts had ended as I turned on the ignition, driving to my so called home until I turn 18.