Holding On

Chapter Thirteen

I was looking straight at a fighting arena. Everyone was cheering, and shouting out a person's name. I'm guessing that name belongs to one of the two shirtless guys fighting in the cage. Jake grabbed my arm, and pulled me through the crowd of cheering people. I was half dragged, and half stumbling my way through the crowd. This reminded me of the party, it was way too crowded, and people were pushing. We made it to where the fighters stood, away from all the crowded people. Some of them went up, and greeted Jake. When one of them saw me, he started eyeballing me, which eventually made everyone look at me.

"Um...Hello," I spoke nervously, it came out more of a question. One of the guys burst out laughing, which caused everyone to laugh. Jake pulled me away before I humiliated myself. We stepped into a room. I mumbled to myself, "well, they seem like jerks."

"You'll get used to it, sweet heart." Someone from behind me said it. I turned around slowly, a guy was standing there. He was pretty muscular, he definitely had to be a fighter. His hazel eyes scanned over my petite frame. He looked at Jake frowning, "she doesn't have much upper body strength, but her feet reflexes are fast. Her legs look pretty sturdy. She can definitely win at least two fights with out using any upper body strength."

Jake replied, "Watson I told you earlier, I didn't bring her here to fight. Come on, you said you would help me." The guy, who seemed to be 'Watson' looked at me again, and said, "fine, I'll see what we can do." Are they going to sign me up to street fight?? Oh no they don't, I won't get into that cage. Watson walked towards a door, obviously leading else where. He opened it, and looked at us (specifically me), then said, "well, are you coming or not??" I plopped down on a couch, "nah, I'm good. I'll just stay here, and relax." I closed my eyes. Were they actually going to leave me alone that easily. All of a sudden I was yanked up from the couch by my wrist. Then I got dragged to the door by Watson. I tried to pull my wrist free, but my strength against his, well that ain't a competition. He's definitely going to win.

I was eventually in the other room, it was like a training room. There were punching bags, and other stuff like that, but mostly punching bags. Jake walked in, and closed the door behind him. All three of us walked to one of the punching bags. Watson stopped in front of the punching bag, and turned facing me. "Punch me in the chest," he said. I looked at him, then at Jake, before replying, "what, no. I'm not going to punch you. Right?? Jake, tell him I won't punch him." Jake responded, "you have to, if you don't we can't help you."

I sighed, and punched Watson in the chest. He grabbed my fist in his hand before I punched him. He looked at me, and said something to himself along the lines of, "we need to work on speed." Watson let go, and said, "again. But use all your strength, and speed." I had pretty fast reflexes, I only use them when I need to. I swung my right fist at his chest. He didn't even have time to hold my fist this time, but it didn't do much damage. My punches were pretty weak. Watson smirked, "now we have something to work with. Like I predicted you have fast reflexes with your feet which means your hand reflexes are fast. But you went pretty slow the first time. I wonder why. Anyways, you're weak. You are going to need to build up some muscle."

I whined, and looked over at Jake. He didn't say anything so I did, "why do I have to do this??" Jake just stared at me for a while. Before Jake could answer, Watson spoke up, "I'm going to go, I have a fight pretty soon, Jake you better teach her some moves."

When Watson left, Jake answered, "because I want you to be able to defend yourself." I didn't answer, and just waited for him to teach me something. He walked away, but then came back. He put the weights he got on the ground. "Pick them up," he told me. So I obeyed, and picked them up. They were only 5 pounds. "By the way, is Watson related to you??" I asked him, he responded, "he's my cousin. Do 20 push-ups." I put down the weights, and got down on the floor. I can do a perfect push-up, but I can't do more than 10.

Jake dropped down in front of me as I got in a push-up position, then he balled up his hand into a fist. He put it under my chest (NOT my breasts), and then Jake said, "every time you go down, your chest has to touch my fist. When your chest touches my fist that counts as one." I nodded, then went down, and my chest touched his fist. Then I went back up as he counted, "1..." We kept doing that until I got to ten. My arms started to shake, but I kept going. Jake looked at me worried. When I got to 20 I just collapsed on the ground. Jake helped me sit up.

Jake stood up, and left. I stayed there, just sitting. He came back with a cup of water. Jake sat in front of me, then handed me the cup. I gulped down the water, and mumbled, "thanks." Jake didn't answer, he just patted my head. When I finished from the water, he grabbed the cup and put it on the ground. Jake stood up, pulling me up with him. He pulled me towards the punching bag, and instructed me, "punch it until you can't punch anymore." I started punching it nonstop. Jake left my side, and he was also punching one of the bags.

I heard somebody open the door, and walk in. I didn't look back, I just continued punching the bag harder every time. I felt strong, bulky arms wrap around my waist. The guy whispered in my ear, "well, hello there sexy." This sent a shiver down my spine, and I elbowed him in the nose. He stumbled back, I turned around, and his nose was bleeding. Holy shit, he didn't look happy. I turned around to run to Jake, but the guy wrapped one of his arms around me, the other covered my mouth. I struggled, and elbowed him repeatedly in the ribs. Jake started watching. The guy loosened his grip on me, and I turned around. I hit him in the nose with the palm of my hand repeatedly, he let go of me. He kneeled down. I was about to walk away, but a hand grabbed my ankle. I was yanked back. I fell on the ground, and my head hit it. I felt blood oozing down the side of my face. I saw Jake panic, he punched the guy in his temple which knocked the guy out. I started to feel dizzy. Jake said something to me, but I didn't hear it. I felt him pick me up. My dizziness got the best of me, and I went unconscious.