Unconditional Love (slow updates)

Nineteen

The skipping rope whipped the air then hit the floor during each cycle. My feet hopped in sync with the rope, making me increase my speed from time to time. Just as I thought that I was getting the hang of it, a burning sting hit my leg.

"Man f*ck!" I cursed and dropped the rope.

I bent over to rub over the whipped area, hoping to ease the pain. That did not tickle... I sighed, picked up my equipment then tried again. That time I skipped longer, until the rope eventually hit my shoe. I tried some more until I managed to skip two hundred times.

I was working more on my speed these past days, just like my trainer had instructed me to. I already had it bad everywhere else, I din't want sh*t to go downhill with boxing too.

Once my small workout session was over, I grabbed my stuff and went up to the kitchen. My hand swiped against my forehead, letting my sweatband soak up all the sweat. I passed by the living room where Maïa was playing to finally reach my destination. Hearing two sets of giggles, I stopped with a confused expression, and went back to the living room. Thankfully I saw two little girls playing, or I would've blamed it on post-exercise exhaustion.

"Hey Maïa, who's this?" I asked, leaning on the door frame.

"My friend Jalyssa." she answered.

"I'm Maïa's brother Jaheem."

"Hi!"

A kid more energetic than my sister, no thank you. I went back to the kitchen and took three eggs out the fridge.

"Your brother looks like Hulk, but chocolate and with a nicer face."

I chuckled at the little girl's comment. I am pretty attractive.

"It's because he does boxing and eats broccoli."

"He eats broccoli? Ew!"

Although I don't like them, children always manage to crack me up. I cracked the eggs in a glass, tuning out the kids in the living room. With a look of disgust, I grabbed the glass and chugged down its content as quickly as I could. They say eggs contain lots of proteins and increase reflexes, better damn be true.

Next stop: shower and sleep.

__________

My body felt as agile as ever. My feet were hopping around really quickly and my reflexes felt sharper. I easily dodged the punches Amir was throwing at me and got him a few times in the face. He kept fighting though, keeping up with my speed and strength.

"That's enough!" Jason announced, clapping his hands.

"Yo good job man." I told him through my heavy breathing.

"Same to you bro." Amir replied and we bumped our gloves.

I went under the ring rope then hopped off. My trainer was standing there, smiling proudly and had his arms crossed against his chest.

"Annnnnnnnd he's back!" he exclaimed.

"It's good to be back."

My hands slid out of my unwrapped gloves, before grabbing my water bottle. I drank as much as I could without choking and sat down on the bench.

"Yo Jaheem, how much do you weight?" Jason asked.

"I dunno." I answered with a shrug.

"Step on that scale for me please."

I drank once more then got up. I walked over to the scale, that wasn't too far from us, then stepped on.

"Look straight ahead."