The Fighter (Matthew Espinosa Fanfiction)

Prologue: - Matthew's POV -

beep beep beep

I lazily turn the alarm off and sat up. I stretched out my arms and heaved a sigh. I look over at my clock and it's 5:30 a.m. I rubbed my eyes and finally got out of bed. I changed out of my pajamas into my workout clothes. I slip on my shoes and grab my phone. I take my headphones off the beside table and walkout of my room.

As I head down the hall I peek into Christian's room, he was still sound asleep. I quietly close the door and continued to walk downstairs. I grab my keys by the door and walk out. I place my keys under the flower pot and start walking down the steps. I plug in my headphones and start playing my music.

I jog to the park as the sun starts to peek through the side of the hill. I reach the park and do my daily routine. I can feel the blood start to pump through my veins. I let the music swallow me whole as I continue running. Each step quicker than the last.

After doing my laps, I do my workout. The sun is starting showing halfway through the hills. I hear my music pause as my alarm starts ringing. I glance at my phone and I see the notification pop up.

You're done for the morning.

I turn off my ringer and start jogging back to the house. Once I reached the house, I immediately go to my room and into the bathroom. I strip off my sweaty clothes and hop into the warm water. I let the warm water relax my body and let out a huge sigh. I wash up and fifteen minutes later I'm out of the shower.

I wrap the towel around my hips and walk out of the bathroom. My hair is still wet so I shake out the remaining water with my hands. I grab some clothes from my dresser and put them on. I hear my phone ring and I walk over to the bathroom to answer it.

Aaron

Hey Matt, do you need a ride today?

Matt

Yeah

Aaron

I'll be there at 7, be ready

Matt

Aren't I always

I put my phone back down and looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. My hair was damp and I looked tired. I shook out the water from my hair again and grabbed my toothbrush. After I brushed teeth, I grabbed my stuff and walked out my room. I walk into Christian's room to wake him up.

"Psst, Chris. Buddy you gotta wake up." I gently shake him and he slowly opens his eyes. I get up and picked out his clothes from the dresser.

"Matt?" I head him say softly.

"Yeah?" I asked still choosing his clothes.

"Are you, mommy and daddy fighting again?" He continued to ask. I pause for a minute before I turned back around with his clothes.

"No, what makes you think that?" I asked him, handing him his clothes.

"Well, I heard you guys fighting last night, so I thought you were fighting again." Christian said softly.

I let out a sigh, "Don't worry the fighting stopped. Now you gotta get dressed."

I walked out of his room and closed the door. The sun was already up and peeking through the window at the end of the hallway. I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Good morning Matthew." I hear someone say.

I walk up to the fridge and grab a bottle of water. I turned around and take a sip. "Good morning Anne." I look up at the clock on the oven, it's already 7:00 a.m.

"Honey do you want-" I hear Anne start to say.

"I have to go." I mumbled before walking out of the kitchen. I can hear James and Christian come down the stairs. James is talking to Christian about some movie he wants to watch. As I reach the door knob I feel small arms wrap around my leg. I look down and see Christian hugging my leg.

"You didn't say goodbye yet!" Christian said as I squatted down to his level.

"Good thing you stopped me." I give him a reassuring squeeze and kiss the top of his head.

"I'll see you soon buddy." I ruffled his hair before I walked out the door.

I walked to the stop sign as a familiar silver car pulled up.

"Hey baby how much for you to show me a good time?" I hear Aaron call out.

I look over and give him a glare. "Too much for you to afford." I shot back.

"Get in the car hooker, we're going to be late." Aaron laughed. I open the door and take my spot in the passenger seat.

"How's the morning with your step-parents?" Aaron asked as he started driving. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. It was starting to get dry.

"Anne tried talking to me as usual, I left before James could say anything to me." I answered.

"Matt, it's been almost a year since they took you in, when are you finally going to start calling them 'mom and dad'?" Aaron asked giving me a look.

I glared at him, "When hell stops burning." I answered, turning my attention back to the road.

"Alright then." Aaron breathed out. He turns the radio back up and continues driving. I felt this feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something about today was...off. I just didn't know what.