Here Comes the Fighter | M.C

ONE

Once I couldn't take my lungs crushing any more, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, bending over and I was panting. I paused my music so I can hear my breath, plus without music, I can concentrate better. I pulled my phone out to see the timer, only to discover that I ran that mile for seven minutes and ten seconds. I gasped and I had to blinked my eyes once again since I couldn't believe it, I was aiming for eight minutes and eighteen seconds but I went faster than that, for the first time ever, I didn't pass nine minutes.

"Wow, this is great." I mumbled to myself as I push my sweaty fringe out of my face, already grinning to myself. You know that happy sensation you have when you're really happy? I'm not actually happy, but I feel accomplished so I had that strange sensation running through my body. I would keep running, but I know I'm too tired to, plus my house was just two blocks away, no need for me to run no more.

I played my music once again as I walked to my house and I'm A Mess from Ed Sheeran's X album started to play. I'm really not an obsessed Sheerio, that name they gave the Ed Sheeran fandom, but his music is actually really good and I love listening to it while I walk home from the bus stop or just feeling relaxed. It was seven-thirty and the sun was setting, giving the sky an portrait orange tint, and I feel pretty serene so of course, I'd listen to his beautiful voice.

As I ran up the front steps, I fished my keys out from the inside of my volleyball spandex and I opened the door. My white golden retriever puppy was the first to greet me when I opened the door, already jumping. "Hey there, Nellie." I greeted, bending down and hugging my dog close to me. She starts to bark and then lick my face, I started laughing since I love being loved by my dog.

"Avery honey, is that you?" I heard my grandma call from the kitchen.

"Yeah!" I cried back. I stood back up and I closed the door behind me and placing the keys on the front table. I snapped my fingers at Nellie and she starts to follow me as I walked to the kitchen, where I found my grandmother sitting at the table with her glasses on, reading what I assumed was her monthly subscription of People's magazine.

"People can't get over Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez, Jesus." She mumbles as she licks her fingertip and flips the page.

"Well, welcome to twenty-fifteen grandma," I chuckled. I walked to the fridge and I grabbed a Poland Spring water bottle, already chugging it down the moment I ripped the cap off. "I'm going to the gym." I proclaimed.

I heard the magazine fall and when I looked at my grandmother, I found her looking at me through her reading glasses. "Sweetheart, don't you think you need to calm down a bit?"

"No?" I questioned confusingly.

"First you had volleyball practice, then you came home and walked the dog, then you went and ran a mile and now you're going to the gym?" She explains, and I nodded. "You're going to be like this-" She puts her pinkie in the air. "- by the time you graduate high school, Avery." I looked down and the only thing I noticed was my six-pack and really flat stomach and scrawny hips- okay, maybe that'll be true. That's actually my routine everyday and she just now noticed?

"Hey, you're not young forever, mind as well be healthy while you can." I nodded the bottle to my grandmother and she started to berate me. Her sixty-fifth birthday had recently passed and the one thing she's obsessed about is being fit and looking young. She's on this diet where she can't eat anything but veggies, she wears what Spanish people call 'fajas' to keep her stomach from popping out in her outfit. I wish I was skinny like you, she'd always say to me; I'm actually surprised she didn't go for Botox or liposuction since thinking about her wanted young figure is unhealthy.

"Let me go and clean myself up so I can head to the gym." I stuck my tongue out at my grandmother and started walking towards the door. "I'm bringing Nellie with me, I'd bring her down in a little!" I yelled over my shoulder as I walked to the front entrance. I whistled to command Nellie, and I waited for her to come, once she did, I bent down and I carried her. Nellie is actually my grandmother's dog she bought because she's bored with her life, but I love calling Nellie mine since she is so adorable, I take better care of the dog more than my grandmother does- I actually tried convincing her to let me keep Nellie but she said no. Although, we agreed, since I love the dog so effing much, I get to walk her every morning before school and every afternoon after volleyball practice and babysit her an hour a day.