Eternal Love

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Lucy
November 2017

"All I'm saying is that you need something else to deal with everything." Mikey tells me as he wraps my hands in tape.

I roll my eyes. "There's nothing to deal with," I pull my hands away from my ex-boyfriend. "I'm handling it, ok, Mikey. This won't work."

"Yes it will," he grabs my hands and continues wrapping them. "First of all, it's a great workout," he pats my hands. "Second of all, it's mind numbing once you get the hang of it. After that, with enough heart and dedication, you should be able to kick your nasty habit."

"It's not a nasty habit." I roll my eyes even harder as Mikey grabs a duffel bag and leads me out of the changing room.

"It's a habit you formed after your...miscarriage," he whispers the word. "And it's a particularly nasty one that can get you killed if you don't stop."

"Shut up, Michael, and teach me how to box, damnit." I throw a weak punch at him and he dodges it.

"You gotta be quicker than that, Luce. I trained with Rocky Balboa. Remember that." Mikey teases me.

"Kiss my light skinned black ass." I turn toward a punching bag and walk over to it. I get into a boxer stance and do a quick right jab. The bag barely moves.

Mikey is cracking up behind me. When I turn, he's doubled over in laughter. "Yo, Luce. I knew you were weak, but goddamn!"

"You know what? I don't need this shit. I'm better off popping pills. At least that shit hasn't failed me yet." I try to pull the tape off of my knuckles as I walk away from Mikey.

"Lucy," Mikey grabs me and turns me around. "Listen, you know I love you, girl. We used to joke all of the time. I did fail you, though. I shouldn't have broke up with you, but I did and I'm trying to make it right without telling Luke what I know."

"Whatever, Michael. I don't have time for this." I push away from and walk toward the changing room.

He easily keeps up with me. "Lucy, you do have time for this. You owe it to yourself, to Luke, to Lola. You can't keep doing this, Luce. It's not healthy."

I don't say anything to him. "If you won't do it for anyone, do it for your baby. I don't think you would want your baby to look down on you like this. Right?"

I close my eyes as tears threaten to fall. The thought of my baby looking down at me from Heaven breaks my heart. I know I'm not living right, but it's so hard to stop living wrong.

"Okay. Let's start." I nod my head as I open my eyes.

Mikey goes through different exercises to build up my core and stamina. We spend the few hours we have doing that instead of actually working on boxing.

"You have to build certain things up before you can get to boxing." Mikey tells me when I voice my frustrations.

"Then why did you tape my hands?" I hold up my hands that have thick tape wrapped around them like I was about to get in the ring.

"Make you feel like a boxer," Mikey shrugs as he gives me his dimpled smile. I shake my head as I grab my water bottle. I take a long sip and, while Mikey has his back to me, I slip two pills into my mouth. When he turns back around, I've already chased the pills down with more water. "Ready to get something to eat?"

"Yeah. After I get this shower." I nod toward the shower rooms. I feel dirty and sweaty as hell. That needs to change ASAP.

"Bet. Twenty minutes?" Mikey says and I nod. We make our ways to the separate shower rooms. After my quick shower, I swallow two more pills before meeting Mikey at the entrance.