Fighting Liliana

Chapter Three

It's been two weeks since I've been practicing with Parker and he's still kicking my ass. "Ow, what the hell Parker!", I yelled, picking myself off of the ground. He laughed, "I'm sorry, but you have to be trained correctly. I can't half-ass train you because you'll be out here half-ass fighting." "Maybe I won't have to fight anyone.", I exclaim, looking at him. He stopped and stared at me, "Yeah maybe, but maybe you'll be stuck in a situation where you need help. Your knight in shining armor, won't always be there to protect you.", Parker says, smirking.

I snort, "I don't have a knight in shining armor." "Yes, you do. It's me.", he says with a straight face. "Alright knight in shining armor, let's get back to work", I say, blushing. He puts me into a headlock and suddenly I have flashbacks. "Stop! Josh, get off of me!", I start kicking and screaming. "Liliana! Liliana, it's Parker. You're okay, Josh isn't here.", he says, reassuring me. I stop and look around to see everyone staring at me. "I am so embarrassed. I'm sorry", I frown. "Lil, it's okay. We don't have to do this.", Parker said. "No, I need to. We should do this.", I try to say confidently.

"Okay, well if it becomes too much at any point, just tell me to stop.", he sighs. "I will, I promise. Thank you for caring so much.", I say, smiling. "It's no biggie, Lil, I just want you to be okay when I'm not around.", he says. I giggled and he stared at me. "What?", he asked. "What makes you think you're going to be around me outside of the ring Parker?", I laugh.

He turns his head and raises his eyebrows "Oh please, you won't be able to keep yourself from around me. I'm so cool, it's addicting.", he says, looking at me. I laugh, "You're funny." "Oh yeah? Why don't you put all of that sass into fighting me back Lil." , he says, pushing my shoulder lightly. I push Parker down and put him in a headlock. He stares at me completely shocked. "I'm not completely helpless.", I say while winking at him.

"Alright Johnson, let's do this.", he says. Parker and I spent about 2 hours in the ring before I called it a day. "Okay, I'm worn out.", I say, falling on the ground. Parker laughs and looks at me. "What?", I ask. "Nothing. I just don't know how you can still look so perfect while sweating like a pig", he laughed. "Well thank you, I think.", I laugh. Before he could say anything else, my phone starts to ring. "Nice ringtone. Is that Crazy Frog?", he asked, laughing. "Yes.", I reply shyly. I look at the caller ID and see that it's Gigi. "You should answer it.", Parker says, staring at me.

I smile at him, "Hey Gigi", I say. "Hey, where the hell are you?", Gigi yells into the phone. "Lil you're late! We're coming to get you. ", I hear Cierra yell. "What am I late for?", I asked confused. "Liliana, we have the meeting with our academic advisors, so we can pick our classes for next semester!", Gigi yells. "Oh shoot, I'm at the boxing gym downtown", I say quickly. "Okay! We're on our way. Wait why?", Cierra asked. "We have no time for that!", Gigi yells then hangs up.

I look at Parker, "I'm going to have to go soon", I say frowning. "Aww, how sweet. You're already sad you have to leave me.", Parker says while pointing at my poked out lip. "Whatever you say honey", I say. I get off of the ring floor and then I head to the showers. When I come back, I see Cierra and Gigi talking to Parker. "Oh, there's our favorite idiot.", Cierra says sarcastically. "Hey guys, I see you've met Parker.", I say. "Yeah. Why didn't you tell me you knew a boxing hunk", Gigi says, staring at Parker. "Alright let's go. Bye Parker, thanks for everything", I quickly say.

I rolled my eyes at Gigi as we were walking to Cierra's Jeep. "What? He is a hunk", she laughs. "It would be a whole lot better if that hunk, was a female.", Cierra says. We all laugh and head to the advising center. After speaking with my advisor and getting the worst migraine of my entire life, I notice that Gigi and Cierra still aren't done. I texted them and told them that I was walking to Ora's and that I would get their favorite drinks before I started my shift. While I was walking down the street, I couldn't help but feel like I was being followed.

I looked behind me, but nothing was there. I shrugged it off and walked into Ora's. "Hey boss", I say waving to Mr. Hamilton. "Hey, I'm sorry about a couple weeks ago. If you're too upset with me, you can take a paid day off", he says apologizing. "It's okay! I need the money anyway, so I'm fine to work.", I smile. I clocked in then I put in Cierra, Gigi, and I's favorite drinks. Gigi always gets a Watermelon Passion Twist Tea, and Cierra gets the Peppermint Double Shot Expresso. I keep it simple and I get a lemonade. Ora's has the best lemonade in CR, it's fresh squeezed and I love it. I make the drinks and then I hear Gigi walking in. "Lil! Hi, love", she says loudly. "Quiet down Gigi, this is a quiet place", I say shushing her.

"Sorry", she says laughing. "Where's Cierra?", I ask. Gigi laughs, "She thought her advisor was super cute and stayed super late. She was her type, brunette and bitchy" "Oh my goodness, that is great", I reply laughing. Gigi looks at me and starts laughing. "What now Gigi?", I asked rolling my eyes. "You're trying to hide the fact that you don't like Parker. You suck at it", she says. "Umm, I was never hiding anything because I don't like Parker", I stated. "I think she's lying", Parker says walking in. "Ooh, la la. Well, I must be off now. See you, Lil, see you Lil's boyfriend. ", Gigi winks. I look at Parker, "I'm sorry about her. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yeah, you can let me walk you home when you get off at 10.", he says smiling. "I'll think about it while you're ordering something", I smirk while pointing at our sign. "Must order in order to stay.", I read out loud. "You are very good at business ma'am.", he says pulling out his wallet. I push his wallet back down, "It's on the house", I smile at him. He looks at me, smiling like a kid on Christmas. "I knew you liked me. This is a nice first date.", he says. "Whoa, this is not a date, Parker.", I laugh. "You sure? Seems like one to me.", he states while staring into my eyes. "I don't think I'd wear my work apron to our first date.", I say.

"Good point. Well, how about you and I go for a drive to the Clearwater lake later?", he asks. Suddenly, my entire mood changes and I have another flashback. I was 17 years old again and Josh was near me. A week after Josh raped me, he followed me up to the lake when I was jogging one night. He knew that I'd be going to the cops about him soon, so he blackmailed me for a while.

When he raped me, he took pictures of me naked. He told me that the second I told someone about what he did, he would send those pictures out to everyone. I told him I didn't care, but he hit me. He took my phone and threw it into the lake. There was no one around and I had no phone to call for help. I did everything he said because I knew that even though I truly wanted to die, I couldn't. I knew I had friends and a brother who cared about me so much. I had to live to be able to tell my story, but in the end, it didn't even make a difference.

"Liliana, are you okay?", Parker asked. I snap out of my thoughts and reply with a quick "yes." "I'll wait for you to get off, okay?", he says. "Yeah of course. I'll be done in about 30 minutes. My boss should let me go early because of what happened this morning, it's empty anyway.", I smile. Parker walks over and sits at a table near the windows and waits for me to get off.