The Fighter

Chapter 5

|Andy|

My breathing was slow as Simon and I sat together in my bed. I was still hesitant, and he understood that, but his patience was slipping. I moved closer to him, twining my fingers with his.

"Andy, can I hold you?" I nodded, not trusting my voice. He lifted me onto his lap, then gently brought his arms down around me. We sat there for a while, and it was starting to get rather uncomfortable.

"Simon, can we sit differently, or lay down, or something?"
"Oh yeah, here." He moved me off of his lap and laid down on his back. "Head on my chest, Andy." I obliged, setting my head down gingerly. He held on to me tightly, as if I were going to vanish if he loosened his grip.

As the night wore on, we changed positions several times. We were currently lying on our sides, facing each other. I ran my fingers gently across his bare shoulder. He reached up, gently grasping my fingers and kissing them.

"You're beautiful."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

"I am holding you."

"Har har, very funny."

"Are we gonna skip school again today?"

"There's a fight tonight, right?"

"Yeah. Only time they're ever back to back."

"Then I'd prefer to skip." We ended up falling asleep whilst spooning. He'd almost tried to argue that he should be the little spoon, but that had been a no go.

"Good morning," Simon said drowsily. His voice was even deeper when he'd just woken up and it surprised you a bit.

"Good morning. What time is it?" He looked over my shoulder at my alarm clock and frowned slightly.

"It's 11."

"We should get up."

"I don't want to."

'But Ryan said you had to be there really early today."

"Fine." The next two hours was a disaster of the two of us attempting to get ready at the same time.

"If you get any closer, I will pull this wand out of my hair and burn you with it," I warned. Simon had been bugging me for a good ten minutes about how long my hair was taking.

"Oo, I'm so scared, Andy." I yanked the curling wand out of my hair, somehow managing not to rip the hair out and waved it towards him. He put his hands up and backed up. "Nevermind." You finished, shaking the curls out a bit.

"Okay, now we can go."

"Simon, my man. New toy you've got there I see." I was about to make a sarcastic comment right back at him, but Simon stopped me.

"Cal's on of the few guys that's okay. Go easy on him."

"Sorry, princess. I'm Cal, but they call me Freezy. What's your name, princess?"

"Andy, not princess."

"Oo, she's got a tongue on her, doesn't she?"

"She threatened to burn me with a curler earlier. I'd watch myself around her if I were you, Freezy."

"If she bites, I'm all in." I nearly choked when Cal said that, causing Simon to look down at me in concern.

"Oh god, I'm already ready for this one to be over," I said. Simon bid farewell to Cal for now and steered me to a dressing room.

"Up, on the table, Andy."

"Why?"

"They're going to think I-"

"If you were about to say what I think you were, i swear. Simon."

"It would keep them away."

"It wouldn't keep Jack away."

"Jack is a whole other ballpark."

"We're not doing it."

"But-"

"No buts. unless we mean butts cause some of you fighters have nice ones."

"Mine's the only one you should be looking at."

"You keep telling yourself that, sweetie." He lifted me onto the counter anyways.

"I like it when you call me that."

"Sweetie?"

"Yeah, usually you just call me Simon."

"I didn't know you minded."

"It's fine, I just like it when you give me a little pet name."

"So needy."

Jack made another go for me, and I though Simon was going to burst a blood vessel.

"She's actually a decent girl, so get your head out of your-"

"We need to go talk to Ryan!" I dragged Simon away, almost ending up on the floor a couple of times.

"Simon, come on. You've thrown enough punches tonight."