I Will Fight For You

Chapter 49 - "But you do care."

[Cass's POV]

I groaned as I was knocked on my back again.

"Get up, Winters. Let's go. One more round and I'll let you get in the shower. Up and at 'em." Monty kicked at my foot making me groan again.

"Dude, we've been here since four thirty. Give me a break."

"You're on the floor. That's your break. No one's going to let you off because you were tired in the middle of your match. Pay attention or get knocked down."

"Fine." I huffed once before getting back on my feet. "Let's do this."

We sparred for a few minutes until I noticed he left an opening for me to attack. I landed a quick punch on his side before getting in a couple more hits. While he was occupied, Monty shifted his foot slightly making him lose his balance for a split second. Before he could stabilize himself, I kicked at his knee and had him dropping to the floor on his stomach.

"You fight dirty," He commented, taking shallow breaths as he turned to lie on his back. I shrugged, grabbing my water bottle and taking a long drink from it.

"It's illegal. Who's not going to fight dirty?"

"True. Go take a shower and head to school. I'll see you tomorrow?"

I nodded, wiping off the sweat on my face and shoulders with a towel before heading to the locker rooms.

I had about five more days until spring break started and I needed to be in top condition, not distracted by thoughts of the boy I loved flirting with some other girl. Fucking Dean. I was going to get myself injured if I didn't figure out how to get him out of my head, and fast.

Monty was Karl's uncle and after talking to him a bit, I realized he was an old name in the fighting circles. He was on the streets for a while before quitting and going professional. He retired a few years later and decided to start his own gym. He was obviously a fantastic sparring partner and offered to be mine seeing as how he started his work day the same time I needed to practice. For the past few weeks, I've been coming here every morning except on Fridays to spar with Monty and every evening, I'd work out in my room with loud music to deter Chase from entering my room to check on me.

I haven't been talking much lately - only a few words to Luke and Riah and a couple minutes worth of conversation with Chase a day. I hadn't spoken to Dean, Jay or Al. Once this was over, I could have my life back.

At least, I hoped I could.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I tossed some of my books into my locker before last period began so I could head straight home instead of wasting time here. Spring break started the day after tomorrow and I needed to get as much practice in as I possibly could. I'd already put on a little bit more muscle and Monty said I was now in better condition than I was in the beginning, not that I was bad. Just out of practice.

The good part about using exercise as a release after nightmares was that I'd built up stamina thanks to their recurrence. Nowadays though, I was so exhausted from all the working out that I fell asleep minutes after my head touched the pillow and woke up only when my alarm rang.

A hand entered the edge of my vision and I slammed it into the lockers as reflex. Seeing that it was Luke, I let go of his hand and removed my earphones, letting them sit on my shoulders.

"What?"

"I was trying to get your attention so I went to pull your earphones. That hurt," He complained, rubbing the pink skin that had made contact with the metal.