Into oblivion

Forbidden secrets

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"One two, COME ON MIA HARDER!!"

Shifting my feet as fast as I can, I twist my whole body into this punch. The contact echoes through the whole gym, gaining some attention onto the both of our sweating and panting bodies.

"NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT" Donte yells smacking his beat up pads together with proudness written all over him.

"I'm going to break you old man" I chuckle taking the bandages of my hands to take a small break, or more like a break for him.

"Break me?" he laughs "I can take everyone here my girl don't you doubt me for a second"

I watch in amusement as he circles around the ring fighting his imaginary opponent, the oversize shirt he's wearing tries to keep up with the fast movements but ultimately stays delayed. He stops abruptly facing me "and who calling old huh?"

"My bad" I hold my hands up in defeat making him nod his head likes he's won the damn lottery. Donte is seventy two years old and yet manages to move likes he's in his twenties, impressive wouldn't even cover the half of it.

"Okay kid tomorrow you're running with Nikita"

"What that's it, a young and handsome man like you is hanging in the towel already?" I tease.

He carefully gets off the high ring shaking his head with a smile planted on his face "See, this is why you're my least favorite student"

I put my hand over my chest hurt by his evil words "how dare you old man" I meet him down on the ground "plus I'm literally your only student"

"Well you make it feel like there's sixty Lucciola"
( Firefly )

I laugh taking a seat at the small wooden table that's been here since god knows how long. Donte was about to take a seat too until the gyms phone began to ring "I got it" he yells running towards it, i shake my head again at him. I seem to be doing that all the time when he's around.

"No of course not why would you think I- yeah well it goes without saying just fix it"

I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I also can't help it if he's loud.

"Fix it ragazzo!" I hear the phone click back into place and quickly go about pretending to be interested in everything but his phone call.
( Boy! )

"How much did you hear?" he asks pulling back a chair, sighing loudly as he sits down.

No point in lying now "not much"

"Good" he nods staring off into space.

Something isn't right, not with the way he's acting. He looks I don't know, worried maybe. Sometimes I can read people like they came with they're own synopsis, but it seems that when it comes to Donte it's like his came in all smudged and ripped. It's difficult to say the least.

"Something wrong?" I ask carefully. I'm not trying to upset him or make him close himself off to me, Donte has been like a father to me my whole life pretty much, although I've only lived with him for two. After that night I couldn't just go back to my old life, funnily enough there wasn't really one to go back to anyways. One thing however was for sure, England wasn't an option anymore, I needed a fresh start. At first it was just about survival, making sure to get away as far and fast as I could but that quickly turned into something more. Somewhere along the lines of survival I switched off, I don't remember parts of the cities I brushed past or the kind people I met, I just remember that one action led to me to stand at a crosswalk in NY. Now I live with the man sat in front of me, 'the gym' he said to me one day, 'the gym is how you'll repay me' and we never spoke about that day ever again.

"I don't tell you much Mia" he begins only to stop.

"Don't ask questions you know won't get answered, got it" I say, first lesson he taught me, one that makes the most sense in this world.

"Yes, but in this case no."

Well this has never happened before.

He laughs, clearly amused by the shock that's probably written all over my face.

"Do you know what I do?" he asks and I almost laugh, the only reason I don't is because the look on his face is giving angry father vibes and I for one do not wanna meet that side of him, haven't yet and will not if I can help it.

"Run a gym?"

"Well yes but also no"

"If you tell me you run a stripper place I don't think I could ever look at you again" I cringe at the mere thought of him with half naked girls, don't get me wrong the ladies gotta make a living I more than understand but he's just so pure, so.... well old.

"No Jesus Mia" He moves his chair closer to the table as if to make sure no else hears what he's about to say.

"The family that I have is very close, wouldn't even be able to make a proper circle with how close I'm talking here" he stops for a second looking at me for something but when he doesn't find it he carries on "You've heard of Mafias before haven't you Mia?"

"You mean the mafia that you're in with your grandson?"

His eyes widen so fast I was scared he would have to start crawling on the floor to catch them.

"You have men coming at you almost daily, you think I don't notice when they suddenly disappear while we're walking down alleyways?" He blinks, then blinks some more "plus you train me like the end of the world is about to arrive at any moment, it doesn't take a scientist to figure it out"

"How- but when- I don't-" he's more puzzled than a fucking puzzle itself right now.

"I'm not an idiot Donte, I pay attention, you taught me that from the very start"

"You know you could never tell anyone about this not even if-" he stops not knowing how to finish that sentence. He also doesn't have to, I already know.

"I haven't told anyone in two years, I'm not about to start now" I knew around the first year when I would catch him sneaking out for private phone calls. At some points I thought it was Rayan trying to find me so I would always be alert about everything and that's when it all slowly clicked perfectly into place. I didn't say anything because I for one trusted him with my life. I didn't care what he got up to and at the end of the day it was Donte who would take care of me like I was his own, as far as I knew and cared he was just some old dude running a gym.

"And you're not angry?"

"Why would I be angry at you?"

"I lied about something that could get you killed at any given day" his eyes soften, he does that a lot with me. What he said did make sense though, but I've also been through hell and back and still made it out alive.

"We all have our own secrets Donte. Even ones we ourselves forbid to talk about so trust me when I say there's nothing you could do that would scare me off."

He once again stares at me with those warm eyes of his smiling his face away.

"Stop I'm gonna be sick."

He laughs looking away "yeah yeah too much emotions I got it" he stands up tucking in his chair in "Let's lock up we have a long day tomorrow"

"Yeah because Nikita is such a match for me" I roll my eyes as I follow him out. Annoying him has become routine, but he very quickly corrected me when he told me I've been annoying him ever since I was four so I guess it's just a passion. Him and my mom were business partners for a while but that very quickly turned into family, I don't know if my mind took me to him by chance or because it knew he was the only man I could ever trust again, I'm thankful either way.