Behind Her Smile

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen: Punching Bag

The crowd congratulating Penn on her win went to the back of Dex's mind. Even the smug smirk Penn sends her isn't enough for her to take her attention off Ro. She only had one thought on her mind;

Where to hide?

The closest exit is through the two guys and she wanted to avoid that like the plague. The only way she could hide is....without a second too soon she jumps on top of the punching bag and clings to the cloth like a monkey on its mother's back.

"What are you doing?"

"Shush! I'm playing hiding and no seeking." She whisper yells as she glances somewhere behind Marc, one of the trainers at Nero's gym, who is looking at her with a mixture of confusion and amusement.

"What are you looking at?"

He tries to turn around, but Dex grabs his pant leg to stop him. "Don't look behind you, you'll just draw attention to us."

She takes another look. A guy she had never seen before was dribbling a basketball between hands, but the person that held her attention, as it always did, is Ro who is standing beside him. He had a grumpy expression on his face as he held two gym bags on each shoulder. Despite herself, she felt a tiny smile grace her lips.

Marc follows her line of vision despite her warning not to. "Is he from your school?"

"Yeah."

"He's cute."

"Adorable." The she blinks away from looking at Ro to see Marc staring down at her with a strange expression. "What?"

"Is that why you freezed out at the end of the fight? For some guy?"

"No, of course not." Dex immediately denies, "I never freeze. Just something was in my eye."

Marc snorts. "Something was in your eye alright and it wasn't winning." Marc says raising her eyebrow at her daring her to disagree.

Dex didn't try to.

"You can believe whatever you want. I will neither confirm nor deny." Dex says as indifferently as she could. From the disbelief on his face, she could see he wasn't convinced. "Oh, shush with your judgmental stares. In fact, can you move? Your drawing attention to yourself."

Marc rolls his eyes. "And how am I possibly drawing attention to myself?"

Dex looks at him seriously. "People are going to think you are the crazy instructor who talks to himself."

Marc laughs out loud, throwing his head back. Dex cringes and hunches behind the punching bag more. She glares at him. "It doesn't matter now anyway."

"What do you mean?" Dex pauses in adjusting her position to look up at him, but he wasn't even looking at her. "Marc," she hisses. "What did you do?"

She tries to grab the edge of his pants to grab his attention, but she freezes when she catches sight of sneakers approaching. Swiftly she retracts her hand and lay hanging as still as she possibly could.

'Don't be Ro. Please, to any holy person out there, don't let my best friend discover me here.' Dex sends a silent prayer.

"Hey bro, do you have any guest passes for my friend over there?"

Dex let out a breath of relief pass out of her lips. It's just Ro's friend, the one with the basketball. She could handle that. Even if he did see her, he wouldn't recognize her.

She hopes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Marc glance at her. She tightens her grip on the bag until her knuckles are white. 'The idiot is going to get me found out.' She resisted the urge to scowl at him as she keeps her face turned pointedly the other way.