AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What the fuck do you mean, why?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at him. “I have two fucking weeks to–”
“Yeah, two weeks,” he says simply. “So why this big push tonight?”
I lift my glove, pointing it towards Max’s empty office as I stare back at him in disbelief. “Did you not fucking hear Max earlier? I need to be sparring this week, and we need to get in the cage soon. But this fucking fear has me in a fucking choke hold and I can’t fucking do that!”
Luca sighs with a nod. “Yeah, I know. But, fuck. You’ve been making progress, and quickly. Why can’t you fucking see that?”
“It’s not–”
“Not good enough?” he asks, tilting his head. He scoffs when I don’t answer. “Yeah, of course. If it’s not absolutely perfect, and you can’t control every aspect of it, it’s not good enough. You still can’t just take a fucking second to appreciate the steps you’ve taken and the achievements you’ve made. You’re just always pushing, and always seeking that control. Well, guess what? You don’t have it. And you don’t fucking need it.”
Those words hit me like a fucking knife to the chest. I do fucking need it. Because without it, I’m clearly failing.
I glare back at him. “Yeah? And what about you then?”
His eyes darken. “What about me?”
“You want to talk about control? Then maybe you need to fucking take some.” I take a step closer to him. “You’re letting your parents control you, and you’re just ignoring it. You say everything you do now is for yourself, and it has to make you happy. So, what’s different about this situation with your parents then? Why are you letting them get to you, when you could just tell them to fuck off?”
His jaw tics as anger flashes in his eyes. “It’s obvious you’ve never had parents.”
My vision tunnels as rage takes over, and the only thing I can do is step forward and punch him hard in the face.
“The fuck!” Luca yells as he stumbles backwards, bringing his glove up to his face.
I just stare back at him as the anger rolls through me, and I let it do what it needs to do. Enough words have been spoken. This is how we communicate, and he needs to start fucking talking.
“Hit me,” I say, keeping my arms at my sides.
Luca scoffs as he drops his glove from his face. “I’m not going to–”
I step into him again with a straight punch to his face, but he raises his arm just in time.
“Hit. Me.” I drop my guard again and glare at him.
But he just stares back at me as his jaw tics, and he lowers his gloves.
“I said fucking hit me!” I come at him with a combo, getting him again in the face before he can block me, and I back him into the corner of the ring.
When I back off him and lower my gloves again, his eyes are on fire. He looks like he’s about to explode.
So I need to make that happen.
“Or are you going to let me walk all over you too?”
The force of his glove on my cheekbone sends a zing of electricity straight through me, and my body lights the fuck up. Like life has just been breathed into my body after being vacant and void for so long. My arms immediately lift as my body reacts, and the only thing I can think of is to return the hit.
I go at him with a straight right, which he blocks and then lands a push kick right to my stomach, pushing me back so he can move out of the corner.
And I don’t fight it, stepping back easily so I can let him come at me. I parry his jab and catch a glove to the side of the head as I go in for a low left hook.
He grunts from the force of the blow to his ribs, but quickly takes advantage of me in a low position, landing an uppercut to my chin, then grabs the back of my neck and brings his knee up to my ribs.
I manage to duck out of his grasp and give him a jab and right hand, setting up a crescent kick. When he sees my right hip turn, he moves to block me on his left, but my kick comes at his right. My foot connects with his left arm to kick it out of the way, opening him up to land a spinning right crescent kick to his head. Which he just manages to block.
With every hit we land on each other, a weight seems to lift. Every punch and kick is a release, and each hit I take makes my soul fucking sing. My muscles are tingling and my mind is begging for more, as every wall comes crashing down and every door unlocks.
And as our gloves eventually fall and we step back from each other, our eyes lock.
