Zoe. | Recharged. | Book One.

Marissa Bryan. | My Safe-haven.

September 3rd, 2011

Time moves slowly here. Nothing else matters; it's just me, my boxing gloves, and a punching bag. These are the times that I appreciate, and I don't take any of this for granted. I don't have to put on a façade or keep my identity hidden. I can be me. I can be Marissa. My parents pay for private lessons at a state-of-the-art gym every day. They also paid for a personal trainer to help me forget about the pressures of my double-life and the things that I have to deal with daily. It's not easy being who I am or doing what I do.

I can't stop thinking about what uncle Ben told me to do. I keep seeing the Images of us in his office as he explains to me the steps that we need to take to keep Julian under control.

"It's time to take a different approach, Marissa. you have to become best friends with Zoe again." Uncle Ben's voice echoes in my head. How am I supposed to regain the trust of my twin-sister when she doesn't even know who I am? I hit the punching bag so hard that it moves. "You need act as friendly as possible towards Zoe and Julian, so that when the threat against Julian's family is made, we can reveal our true motives to him, and hopefully keep him under control." Uncle Ben's voice in my head once more as I jab the punching bag again.

"Nice, Marissa," my instructor, Rodney says.

Beads of sweat drip off of my skin as I jab the punching bag harder with every single, negative thought that pops into my mind. The thoughts wouldn't stop, they just kept going, and they were relentless. Furthermore, with every exhale, I took on another problem in my world, which specifically relates to my family. Now, whether or not the future difficulties of my relatives are insignificant doesn't matter because I know I have to take care of it.

I look over at my instructor out of the corner of my eyes as I continue to hit the bag. I suddenly became fatigued. My fists come into contact with the punching bag once more before I stop.

"Nice job, Marissa," Rodney commends.

My chest continued to heave. "Thanks." I remove my boxing gloves and walk over to the blue mat on the other side of the room to work on my jujitsu technique. Rodney begins to use a Jujitsu stronghold on me, which he expects me to block, but I'm in my head too much about the dinner at Zoe's house tonight. Therefore, I fail to prevent his attack, and he gets me square in the shoulder. "Ahh," I yell and retreat from him.

"Focus, Marissa, focus." My instructor barks at me. I try to attack him, but he blocks me by grabbing my forearm. I don't think there's any way out of this one, I thought to myself.

"Time," I call out to him, and he let me go.

"What's wrong?" Rodney asks me, taking a step back as we both try to slow our breathing down.

"Nothing," I say, exhaling as I walk over to my bag in the corner, and retrieve my water bottle from the messed cup-holder on the right-hand side.

"No, you don't get to try that with me. Remember? I know you, Marissa. The real you. So tell me the truth." Rodney tells me as I open up my water bottle and take a sip. I roll my eyes as I finish the water in my water bottle and put it back inside the mesh cup-holder.

"Fine." I exhale once more and cross my arms over my stomach. "I'm nervous about this dinner that I'm having at Zoe's house," I confess as my stomach begins to do somersaults.

"Don't you mean your house? And why are you nervous?" Rodney's lips draw up into a small smirk.

I feel a ghost of a smile appear on my lips. "Because my uncle Ben told me that he wants me to become friends with Zoe."

"Isn't that a good thing. Don't you want to be loving towards your sister again?" Rodney asks me with a smile.

I scoff. "It would be if my uncle Ben didn't have an ulterior motive."

"Meaning what?" Rodney frowns.

"Meaning that he wants me to pose a threat to a boy that just entered my sister's life who could dismantle our entire plan."

"Is he a bad influence on Zoe thus far? And do your parents know about this?"

I cross my arms. "I don't know if they do. And it's too early to tell whether Julian's a bad influence or not because he's only been in town for about a day or two. However, I'm pretty sure that he likes her." I smile at Rodney feeling slightly giddy about the possibility of my sister having a boyfriend.

"Well, if he likes her, don't you think that he would want to protect her?" Rodney asks me while scratching his arm.

"I should hope so. But my uncle Ben says that this new kid Julian is a wildcard." I sigh in defeat.

"If you ask me, I think that Ben is the wildcard." My instructor tells me while shrugging his shoulders. "But, hey, what do I know."

I not in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. I think that he's a bit of a wildcard himself." I smirk. "But I know that neither of us will ever tell him that because he'll murder us both."

I look over my shoulder at the clock that's mounted on the wall behind me. My eyes become wide in fear. "Oh, shoot. I'm going to be late." I turn to walk away and grab my bag in a hurry

Suddenly my instructor calls upon my name to get my attention, and I go back over to stand in front of him."Look, you don't have to treat this dinner like you're on a mission of some sort." He tells me. "You're going to be able to hang out with your family for the first time in a very long time." I attempt to interject, but he continues his inspirational speech. "I know that you can't reveal who you are to Zoe, but don't be so hard on yourself either. have fun being with your parents, enjoy the presence of your sister, and honor your brother."

My eyes well up with tears at the mention of my little brother. However, I wink rapidly to stop tears from spilling out of my eyes. I miss you more and more every day, Jake. I nod my head in agreement.

"Okay, Rodney, I hear you." I look over my shoulder and sniff. "I don't want to be late, so I'm going to go shower." I turn on my heels and walk off of the mats, heading towards the showers.

• • •

References 

Giphy. (n.d.). Boxing Girl GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY. Retrieved April 1, 2020, from https://giphy.com/search/boxing-girl