Worth The Fight

I stood in the bathroom in front of the mirror. I brushed the knots out of my long dirty blonde hair before throwing it up into a messy bun. I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face before examining it. I sighed at the purple and blue color that was around my eye. My dad got drunk and hit me once again. Carefully opening my makeup-covered black bag and grabbing my concealer that was a little too dark for my pale skin. I applied some to my bruising eye before using a bit of powder on my face. Just to keep it from coming off later.

I wiped under my other eye trying to get rid of the messy mascara that was left over before applying some mascara to my long eyelashes. I quietly walked out of the bathroom looking down the hall to see my dad Zach's door closed. I slipped into my room quickly putting on my gray joggers and a black T-shirt before throwing light ripped up skinny jeans and an olive green T-shirt into my bag along with boxing gloves and my hand wraps. I grabbed my backpack and my shoes before quickly making it out of my room and out of the house without waking my dad up or as i like to call him, the beast.

I ran down the street to Main Street. I ran past our local bakery and our local police station before stopping at the usual bus stop "Good morning' Erin." Sally, the older lady I see every morning waiting for the same bus, greeted "Morning Sally." I smiled as she smiled back. Sally owned the animal clinic here in town. I looked over towards her only to see her frowning "Young girls like you shouldn't be doing boxing." She told me as I looked down the street impatiently waiting for the bus "I know Sal. Just it's tough when that's all I have left." I told her truthfully as she sighed "Here comes the bus. Don't miss out on school kid." She said as she slowly stood up "I won't Sally. I have a free first period if boxing ever runs late." I assured her as she hummed in response before the bus stopped in front of us "Let's go." She said, wrapping her arm around mine as usual. I helped her carefully into the bus before sitting next to her and patiently waiting for our stop.

I looked both ways before throwing my bag through the fence and squeezing through the broken part of it. Grabbing my bag and I ran straight down the alley into the back door to the gym building. You may wonder why I'm going to the back door. It's because I typically meet my trainer who also happens to be my uncle. The gym doesn't actually open until 9am. My trainer locks the gate in the alley until he arrives, but sometimes he forgets to unlock it. As you see he gets the privilege of going through the front door, as he owns the place. I opened the old rustic door before pulling it closed behind me "Glad you could make it kiddo." My trainer Joey smiled, "Hey joe." I smiled innocently at him as he shook his head "Your late again." He mentioned as I sighed "I was helping old Sally to work you know the old vet building down a few streets and then I had to run all the way over here." I told him truthfully as he smiled "Since you love running so much why don't you go on and run some more for me." I glared at him as he chuckled "Damn that sucks for you Kid." Mark said as I shook my head giving him the finger before going to treadmill for a run.

After what felt like an eternity, happened to only be an hour of running I got off and started working with the bags. Boxing and kickboxing was what I got into when I was 10. A year after my mom and I got into a car accident where sadly i lost her. Since then everything in my life has changed.

~FLASHBACK~

I walked into the gym just looking for my mom's old friend who I used to call uncle Joey though he wasn't actually related. "How can I help you kid?" A tall brown haired guy asked, "I'm here to see Uncle Joey." I said as he looked at me with a weird face before yelling out to the back room "Joey you got a visitor!" I patiently waited when uncle Joey came out with sweat covering his face. "Mark I told you when I'm training they need to wait-" he stopped when he saw me "Oh my, how have you been? How is everyone? How is your father?" He asked, pulling me into a tight hug. For such a muscular tall dude he sure was like a teddy bear. "He-he is okay, I know you do boxing and I was wondering if you could teach me self defense." I mentioned as he chuckled before looking at me "You're serious? Why would a 10 year old need self defense classes let alone how did you get here? Who did you come with?" He asked looking around "Uncle Joey, I'm here by myself. Some kids are picking on me and I want to defend myself." I said with pleading eyes as he sighed "Fine only if you promise to whoop some ass!" He said as I giggled.

~END OF FLASHBACK~

Ever since then I have been training with my quote on quote uncle, Joey. It's been almost 7 years since I started boxing.

I walked over to Joey to say goodbye and grab my bag for school since it was getting late and I needed to get to school. Though I told a small lie to Sally so she wouldn't worry about me skipping school if practice ran late. "Hey Joey?" I said more as a question "What's up kiddo?" He asked before taking a drink of his water, correction downed his entire bottle of water. "I want in." He closed the bottle of water and looked at me with a serious face "I will never and I mean this, I will never let you get in the ring." He said as I sighed "Uncle Joey when you took me to watch my first match you told me when I turned 17 you'd let me get in there." I told him as he clenched his jaw "Erin, no means no. Now get on your way to school before you're late." He told me before walking off. I sighed knowing that he's angry with me, he used my name and my nickname.

I walked into school and quickly made my way to my locker grabbing what I needed and running straight to the bathroom to change into my skinny jeans and shirt. I fixed my makeup as I heard the bell ring. I groaned as I grabbed all my stuff carrying everything as I ran out of the bathroom and ran into something hard and by something I mean someone. "Shit." I mumbled grabbing my boxing gloves that fell out trying to hide them in my bag quickly when the guy handed me my sweatpants and shirt. "Here's your um clothes?" He said more as a question as I sighed "Yeah sorry." I grabbed them quickly, shoving them into my bag "Sorry about that." I mumbled loud enough for him to hear "I'm Damon." He said as I blinked while looking at him before shaking my head and walking away from him. I know it must seem rude but with the rumor that was spread I don't take chances with talking to anybody.