The Girl With The Gloves

Dragging On

As soon as I step into the building Milo catches my eye and immediately comes marching over to us. Instinctively, I back up right into Adrian's chest.

Milo is dangerous when he's angry. Adrian looks down at me. "Hey, what's wrong?"

I don't get a chance to respond before Milo says, "Why are you so late?" I frown looking down at my watch.

"It's only been five minutes." I point out. He narrows his eyes at me. Uh oh.

"Yeah, five minutes Boss has been on my ass, he almost sent me into The Rink, Allie!" My eyes widen and my mouth forms an 'o' shape.

The Rink is the worst invention ever created. It's not so much The Rink itself but the horrible things that go on inside of it. It's your average boxing rink the only difference is by the time you get out of there you'll be sporting heavy bruises and cuts for at least three weeks. Yeah, that bad.

I smile shyly. "Well, good thing I'm here now right?" He just glares at me.

"What is he doing here?" I open my mouth to respond but am cut off.

"AALIYAH!" The emotions in Milo's eyes automatically switch from anger to concern. I'm definitely in trouble now.

"Who is that?"

Oh crap. I forgot about Adrian. I turn around so fast I almost fall. "Okay, thanks for the ride, you can leave now. I'll see you around?"

He nods but his face is completely blank. Just like it was in the cafeteria. "Yeah, see you." And then he's gone. I blink. Once. Twice. I turn around to a very pissed off Boss.

"You're late." Boss is in his late forties early fifties, maybe. I doubt anyone actually knows for sure, even his own mother. He has gray eyes which are almost always angry except for the very rare times when he acts almost bearable.

Almost.

He's bald, which makes sense considering he's always and eternally stressed out. I'd actually be worried for the poor guy if he did have hair because he would spend half of his time pulling it out. He's very fit though. So much that I sometimes wonder if he's on steroids.

I roll my eyes. Stating the obvious, are we?

"What?!"

My eyes widen to the size of saucers. I hadn't realized I'd said that out loud. Out of nowhere Boss smirks. This cannot be good.

"Into The Rink."

~°~

I drag myself into the house struggling to not pass out right there in the doorway. I close the door as quietly as possible, not wanting to attract my mom. In my condition my mom would ask questions until I ran out of lies. And running out of lies means getting the police involved. So no mom, no police.

I tiptoe as best I can up the stairs only to hear someone running down the hallway towards me just as I reach the top step. I squeeze my eyes close and hope for the best.

"Allie?" I open one eye at very small, underdeveloped, voice.

Mickey.

I sigh in relief. Safe. I don't even try to crouch to his level, knowing that the ever intensifying, jarring pain will only get worse. "What's up, Mick?" I internally cringe at the sound of my raspy, pain filled voice.

I hate being like this. I hate that Boss made me into this. But most of all I hate that my little brother had to see me like this. Dad wouldn't want this and neither do I. Mickey has went through and seen things no seven year old boy should ever have to experience and me boxing just makes it harder for him.

He looks up at me with wide, curious eyes. "Why are you home so late?"

I shake my head before grabbing his hand.

"You know why, come on, let's go to bed."

He only nods.

After putting Mickey to sleep, I take a quick shower, dress my wounds and put on my pajamas more than ready to pass out on my bed. As soon as my head touches the pillow my phone vibrates, alerting me of a new text message. I almost scream.

Why can't I just go to sleep?!

I reach over placing my hand onto my bedside table before patting around for the smooth surface of my IPhone.

From Milo:

How's it going?

Although it's a normal question to ask I'm already realizing the hidden meaning behind it as I type in a reply.

To Milo:

Could be worse, tomorrow's gonna be killer. I'll deal though. goodnight, big brother ;). Allie xx.

I don't even bother waiting for a response as I close my eyes and drift off into another dreamless sleep.

~°~

"Should we wake her up?"

I hear a voice whisper as I slowly gain consciousness. I keep my eyes closed, hoping that they see I'm not waking up anytime soon they'll go away.

"I don't know, she looks really tired." This time I hear a distinctly male voice that's slightly cautious and I furrow my eyebrows.

I'm about to open my eyes to see who it is when I'm suddenly pushed off of my warm, comfy, queen sized bed and onto to the cold, unforgiving, hardwood floor.

Ouch.

I open my eyes, squinting from the sunlight flooding the room.

"What the heck, Kate?!" Me and Sam say it at the same time. She just blushes and smiles sheepishly.

"Oopsy, I guess I didn't see you there, anyways, get up off of the floor we're going to the mall!" She says excitedly.

I groan. I hate the mall, there's all ways too many people and too many boys who like to hit on me and Kate. Plus, shopping takes a lot out of me. It's almost worse than boxing.

Almost.

Kate gives me a harsh glare and I sigh and try to get up. Keyword: try.

As soon as I move I feel a sharp pain in my stomach and I almost yelp. Sam gives me a concerned look. "You okay?"

I nod and shoo them out so I can get up without having to worry about people watching me struggle.

After a solid two minutes and extreme pain I finally manage to get up. Walking the door, I look in the mirror and cringe at what I see.

A black eye that's a mixture if blue, purple and black. It matches the bruise on my jaw.

I look down at my stomach that filled with yellowish bruises and cut going from my belly button to my right hip. The bandage is red with new blood. I wince.

Other than the fact that my entire body is sore as hell I seem okay.

I sigh. Just another day in the neighbor hood.

~

Please don't hate me :0 I know it's late (and I have writer's block so it probably sucks butt). I got grounded and wasn't able to work on this chapter. But I'm back! Okay here's your new chapter. Enjoii ;) .