Let it be known now I hate public transit, but there was no way I was staying at my mom’s any longer than I had to. It’s times like this I wonder why I ever ride to the fights with my brother. I try really hard not to breathe during my twenty-minute ride back to normalcy. The buses here smell of a cross between body odor and vomit. Not to mention all of the strange people I encounter every time I find myself without my jeep.
The kid in front of me keeps wiping his boogers on the top of the seat and I want to puke. I’m never having kids. Why do they have to be so dang gross?
Finally, it’s my stop and I am running away from the bus stop, eager for a shower.
I open the door and call out that I’m home in warning in case Tiff
is still here and they are getting freaky. I don’t need to see whatever it is they do together.
No one answers me, and when I pass by my brother’s room his bed is unoccupied.
Good, the apartment is empty. Kline is probably at the gym. I love having the place to myself, I’d move out, but neither of us can afford to live on our own. It sure as hell beats living with Charlie though.
I can’t help but feel anxious about the cage girl stuff coming up in a few days, after the stare down I shared with Parker Garrett last night.
I need to work on my routine. I don’t know why but one of the requirements is that we perform a dance number.
I suppose they want to see how fit we are.
There are so many stories about Parker. I guess you might say I’m not one of the girls he normally dates.
He’s rumored to date a few of the cage girls, but he’s usually seen with B-class celebrities.
Stepping into the shower, I imagine what it would be like to give him a private performance at my audition— his eyes would roam my curves as I dance for him. Would he want to do more than just watch me?
Screwing around with anyone under contract with Lucky 7 would kill my chances, but Parker doesn’t strike me as a man who follows rules—but instead one who makes them just as good as he breaks them.
Most guys are afraid to ask me out because of my brother and Royce. Sure it sucks, but that just means that they aren’t man enough for me anyways. I twist my hair in a knot on my head after toweling off. I go to my room to dress in my workout clothes and grab my gym bag. I’m on the evening shift working the desk. I hope Sug is working, she always knows what to do with my unruly waves. My hair seems to have a mind of its own—it never does what I want it to. If I want it curly it lies stick straight and if I want it straight, it curls up.
There’s a note on my dresser from Tiff.
Slutbag,
I bummed a shirt. I’ll give it back next time I’m over.
Love you mean it.
Tiff
I laugh, she has a real way with words. I park my jeep in the gym parking garage, and when I exit my vehicle I see Royce walking towards me. His muscles flex under his white form fitting tee. His light brown hair is spiked at the tips. Why does he have to be so sexy? Jerk.
“Can we talk?”
“Why?” I cross my arms. He didn’t want to talk when he stomped on my heart.
He tries to take my hand and I pull away. His touch jolts my heart. It’s been months upon months, and his touch still feels like home. Kline warned me not to get involved but I didn’t listen. I couldn’t stay away.
Royce was my first love.
He was attracted to me for me, he didn’t make an issue of my weight. He never said a word about my needing to shed some pounds.
When we first got together some of the gym bunnies would make snide comments about how my face was pretty for a big girl. Bitches. They don’t say shit about me now. Other than Sasha, a real clinger. She hooked her claws into my brother before he got with Tiff. After fucking with my brother the skanky bitch had the nerve to come onto me. That’s just gross. Like I’d ever screw around with someone who bumped uglies with my brother. No way. After that she moved onto Royce. Chick is weird and I couldn’t believe it when I saw her on Royce’s arm at one of the fights.
“Why do you want me back? You dumped me. Remember?”
Royce and I first met at the gym. When we first met he was in a bad place. It was a long time before he opened up to me about what it was that kept him so guarded with me.
Royce was in love once before me, with a girl named Elizabeth, but he wasn’t the only one. His best friend at the time loved her as well. It tore their friendship apart. A long story short, Elizabeth was killed in a car wreck. Royce and the other guy were pressuring her to make a choice. She took off driving while distraught, and when she crashed her car, the trauma killed her. However, the most fucked up part is that when she died she suffered a miscarriage. Elizabeth was carrying a child; which no one knew she was pregnant with.