Dead by Tomorrow

Chapter 4 | New Encounters

Today has been long, and I just want to take a shower and sleep off this awful headache. After my training this morning, I hit up the pits just to check on the new settings. A few days earlier, we've got a new partner who's been paying for new rings and equipment. Too bad we never stay at the same place for long, for this would be a great outdoors gym. The forest that we usually hold the tournaments in is pretty secluded from other parts of the town, and it serves as a great gateway for all of the illegal fighters. Police never even checks this place, and nobody in town suspects anything. Since there is a lot of animals in the woods, people don't really want to walk through them on their own, and even if they do, I doubt that they would come straight to the spot where we are.

 I didn't even know that James planned on fighting anymore, for he is only coaching the fighters lately, but this morning in the woods I saw him practice with one of the guys that do pit fighting as well. I overheard their conversation, and I was shocked to hear that he took up an offer of the new investor. He was supposed to fight in three days, and he didn't even tell me. 

After his training, I approached both of the guys and requested some alone time with James. We were going on and off about it, he got mad at the fact that I requested to know everything about his life, and I got mad because I thought that he wasn't only my trainer, but that he was my friend as well. Turns out James considered me a girl that he taught some moves, and that was it. 

I was furiously pacing back and forth when I got home, and I decided to do something that he would not like at all. I called Dean, another trainer of the pit fighters, and asked him for someone on one practice. Considering the fact that Dean liked to play dirty, he didn't even ask why wasn't I going to train with James, instead, he told me to meet him at the gym, tonight at eight. I had a few more hours to get well-rested so I decided that taking a nap is the only type of resting that I needed.

Once I woke up I noticed that I'm supposed to meet Dean in just half an hour. I quickly got dressed and stormed out of the house, with my sister looking after me like I was some kind of a lunatic escaping the mental institution. 

The gym that Dean worked at was just five minutes away from the one where I'm usually spending my time in, and it wasn't hard to find it at all.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late. I overslept." I said while throwing my gym bag on the hardwood floor. 

Dean was a younger guy, probably in his mid-twenties, and he was known as the craziest fighter of the pits. One time he almost bit off a guy's ear, just because the other one said something offensive. When you think about it, Dean was exactly the person that I needed. I would never want to befriend him, and we would keep it strongly professional, so I won't be fooled into thinking that he wanted me as a friend. This time, I was sure that nobody like James will be working with me, and it felt assuring. 

"It's okay, I don't believe we've ever actually met. I'm Dean." He shook my hand while eyeing me from head to toe. 

"Mia, nice to meet you." I smiled and pulled my hand out of his grasp.

"I'm just going to call you Pixie. I'm kind of used to it." Dean smiled at me and it wasn't hard to figure that he was following my fights.

"Suit yourself, Dean. Should we start?"

"Eager to start fighting. I like that." Dean gave me a smirk that I didn't appreciate at all, but boys will be boys, right? We headed towards the podium and he tried to instruct me on which moves I should use, and which ones should absolutely be out of the picture. He was a good instructor, and I actually didn't hate working with him. Sure, I was used to a completely different thing while working with James, but Dean had a different approach, a more aggressive one, and I figured that that was just his thing.