Fighter | l.h.

8

Easily getting out of school, we walked together to a large brick building. I was still excited about reviving the part and quite honestly, I enjoyed walking with Luke. His hand would occasionally brush up against mine and his body would tense up and he'd shove it quickly into his pocket. The air around us was getting colder, but not to the point where you could see your breath. The autumn air blew my hair messily past me, and I decided to put on my beanie, only making my hair go directly into my face.

"So, do you work here or something?" I asked as he held open the door for me.

"Yeah, or something. No, I help train people and stuff. And if I get angry I come here and I just take it out on the punching bags," he said as he lead me to a big boxing ring. "Normally when there are fights, they're here."

"Have you ever been in one?" I ran my hands over the ropes that bounced back in my grip.

"One is an understatement." He walked over to where corner of the ring and leaned up against the stake. "I've been in probably more then twenty."

I stopped walking when I ran into his body. "More then twenty?! Have you ever gotten seriously injured?"

"Once. Dislocated my jaw. But that when I was just a rooky. I've been in a lot more since then and I've put a lot more people in the hospital then probably needed to be there." His blue eyes held this sparkle, this glint almost talking about how he was a fighter, how he injured people. It was strange how he found the enjoyment of pain, but then again, everybody has different things that get them going. "Want me to show you how to fight?"

"Like, you and I go at it right now?" He simply nodded, holding the ropes apart and motioning for me to get in. "Luke, I can't fight you."

He pushed against my back to urge me to get into the ring. "I'm not asking you to fight, I'm asking you if you want me to show you how to fight. Just, throw a couple of punches and stuff. The basics. I'm not gonna put you in any danger Christine."

Walking around the large, cream colored floor, I felt how it bounced slightly, similar to the ropes on the outside of the ring. There were red stains splattered across the floor and I knew it was intense if there was noses breaking hard enough for blood to go everywhere. "So, what happens to the losers?"

"If they're hurt enough then they go to the hospital. If not, they get taken into the back room and cleaned up. They go home, that's about it. Nothing really. It's more or less fights between the employees of drug lords." He walked to meet me in the middle of the ring. "Ready to learn how to fight?"

"Wait," I said turning around and walking towards the edge, but stopping midstep. "You...do you work for a drug lord?" I knew that Fresno was an hour and a half at most from San Fransico, and I knew that there were so major drug rings there.

"What?" He shook his head and fixed his hair. "No, I work here. I live down the street in the highrise apartments."

"Really? That's so far away from like...everything." I went and walked back to the middle with him and he walked up behind me.

"Eh, I have a motorcycle," he said sliding his longer arms down mine and lifting up mine. "I can take you on a ride on that later." I looked up and saw him smirk before raising both are arms. "Ready to fight?"

**********

"Okay, now throw a left hook," he said from the outside of the ring. I lifted my arm and swung it, making an impact with his open palm. "Now, what do you do with your leg?" I quickly brought my knee up and he pressed his hand down on it. "You pick up fast," he said smiling.

"I guess it just comes naturally," I said looking out on the street. More people were beginning to come out, seeing as it was one in the afternoon. "It's really nice out." I said looking back from the street and onto him. I want to say I lost my breath a bit because his hair was side swept, his blue eyes having that same glistening effect like earlier in the ring, but most like a week ago, when I first saw him.

"Christine," he said snapping in my face. "You alright?"

"Y-yeah I'm fine. Sorry I got distracted," I said holding my hand to my stomach. "Guess I'm just hungry."

"Let me take you out to eat, come on."

"Luke, no really. You don't have to."

"Christine please, let me. You've done a lot for me in the past week let me make it up to you." He held out his hand to me and I looked down at it before looking back at him. "I promise, nothing bad will happen."

Sighing, I took his hand and it eagerly squeezed mine. He smiled down at me and I...I guess I smiled. He began leading me through the city. We went through The District, which is sort of like this big mall with hipster and indie stores and rock stores and amazing resturants and this big fountain. It felt picturesque and that was the nice thing, it didn't really feel real. It felt like a fairytale. I was with this amazing guy and he was showing me around a city I had lived in my entire life and had never really explored.

"Hey, let's go there," he said pointing to a small cafe. I reluctantly nodded, but when I walked in, I recognized it. "I havent' been here in like...a month."

"Wow, a month. You must be dying with seperation anxiety." I guess my crappy joke was funny to him because he chuckled as he pushed my chair in for me. "I feel like I've been to this place," I said looking around at the walls with the modern art hung on the walls and the subtle sound of the radio in the over all resturant.

"It's kinda popular I guess." A waitress came over and handed us menus.

"Hi, my name is Mindy. Can I get you two anything today?" She leaned towards Luke, brushing him slightly with her arm.

"Want me to order for you Christine?" I nodded, not really paying attention. "Uhm, two Cokes and two french onion bowls. Is that all right with you babe?" He asked, reaching for my hand.

"Y-yeah that's perfect," I said grabbing his hand and squeezing it. She gave me a look of slight disgust and walked away, our orders in hand. "Why'd you call me babe?"

"Well it's not cause I think you're one, but because I know that waitress. Michael Clifford dated her and she was clingy, and annoying and I know to stay away from her. Did me calling you babe really bother you?" His hand was still enclosed in mine and he ran his thumb over my knuckles.

"No, I...it's just that I haven't been called babe in over a year." I turned my head and looked out the window, looking at the people passing by.

"What happened over a year ago?" Mindy brought our drinks to the table and said something about how our food would be right out. "I mean, if you don't want to tell me I understand."

"No, no it's fine. It's just that I had my first boyfriend in freshman year, and I guess we...we had a bad break up last year. He...he was moving and we got into an argument and words were exchanged and...he moved away." I wiped my hand under my eyes and got away the few tears that were beginning to collect. Yes, I may have liked Luke, but it had been a week and there was no way in hell I was gonna tell him all about Teddy.

"Wow, sounds tough. Do you still talk to each other?"

I shook my head and looked down at my lap. "Not as muchc as I would like. He's hard to see now." I looked up and noticed how there was food in front of me. Quickly, I took my spoon and began eating. "So, what's your love life like?"

"Haven't had one in a while. Like two years. Just can't find the right girl I guess." He twirled his spoon around his long fingers before putting it into the ceramic bowl.

"Yeah, I guess that's the thing about love. It just gets overly tricky."

"Yeah, tricky is a good word to describe it."

I guess that's something I had in common with Luke, it was just tricky to find the right person. But with the way things had been playing out lately, things would stop being so tricky.