TEN
When I arrive at Breaking Point after my classes to join Kayden for his afternoon session, he still has the whole brooding thing going on, choosing to outright ignore me.
I’d been looking forward to sparring with him today, needing to pour all my stress and frustrations out after a grueling five fours worth of lectures. But as soon as I see him—darkened eyes looking anywhere else but at me, facial features irritable—all the excitement drains from my face.
“Are you finished?” I ask Kayden as I grab the boxing pads from the shelf behind me. He’s seated on the floor beside the cage, taking forever to wrap his left hand, drawing out the simple action like he wants to stretch out the tension as long as he can.
“Do you need help?” I throw another question at him, my patience wavering. “Kayden?”
He just grunts.
“Okay, what the hell is your problem?” I snap at him.
This time, Kayden finally looks at me.
“I don’t have a problem.”
“Of course you have a problem.” The aggravation in my voice is difficult to keep at bay. “What happened? I thought we got along just fine yesterday. We had a good time training together. Did I do something wrong?”
“Sienna,” he says in a warning tone. “I’m not in the mood.”
“You’re never in the mood.” I almost want to laugh.
“Look, if you want out of this deal we have—”
“I’m considering.” Annoyance infuses in his eyes, dark and fierce.
Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me.
“All right, that’s it.” I throw the pads to the floor and jab a finger at him. “You think you can do this without me? Think again. I beat you yesterday. Which means you probably won’t even last thirty seconds in that cage against Jax. It makes me wonder how the hell you managed to be a runner-up in a competition like this, because you must be fighting against amateurs.” I blow out a breath, trying to thin out my anger, but the action only serves to fuel the feeling, like a bellows against a fireplace. “I don’t know what happened between last night and this morning, but this can’t continue. At least not in that cage. I did not sign up to work with someone who doesn’t treat me with civility. I deserve to be treated with respect.”
He clenches his jaw tightly, as if trying to keep all of his emotions from spilling out of him.
“You don’t know what I’m going through, Sienna,” he says through gritted teeth.
My mouth tightens. A part of me feels guilty for being so hard on him. But he’s gonna need a massive wake-up call and if I have to be the villain and break it to him, that’s more than fine with me.
“You’re right. I don’t know what you’re going through,”
I say, my tone softening. “But I believe you’re better than just beating yourself up about it. You know what makes a person a fighter? It’s not the number of punches he can throw or how long he can last in a cage. It’s when he shows real courage and strength to overcome his battle wounds.
You have scars, Killer. Own up to them. Otherwise, I don’t know what the hell we’re doing here.”
He doesn’t say anything for a while. He merely remains silent, pondering what I’ve said. Instead of waiting out the awkwardness, I turn my back on him, snatching the pads off the mats and making my way back to the shelf.
“Go home, Kayden. Take the rest of the day off. If you still want out, I’ll leave your apartment first thing in the morning,” I mutter.
I turn to see if he heard what I said, but as I look around I notice that—
He’s already gone.
One step forward, two steps back.
***
When I realize he’s not coming back, I sigh in defeat and plunge my hand into my bag, beside the bench, to grab my phone. As much as I’m frustrated with Kayden right now, I still wonder if he’s all right. If what Brent said about him is true—that he needs to be checked up on because he gets this way a lot—then I’m worried that he’s not going to be able to do this with me.
I can only hope he’ll get out of it. He needs a strong, focused mind if he’s going to fight in this competition.