Enders

Enders (11)

Usually, working out in the exercise room always made me feel better. But now, it was making me feel even worse.

There I was, going at a punching bag, and the rest of my teammates were there with me, doing their own thing. But this included Dex, who hadn't spoken to me since our argument. That had been two days before.

I was annoyed. I tried everything I could to try to not care, but nothing was working. Having to see him and work with him made it even worse. Especially because he was acting like it didn't even bother him at all.

I whacked the punching bag as hard as I could. It didn't relieve any of my anger.

He was there, in the same room, avoiding me like he didn't even know who I was. Like everything that we'd been through didn't even matter to him just because I made him angry.

None of my teammates paid any attention to me, too preoccupied with their own work outs to notice me. But as I began to punch harder and faster, Anthony finally stopped jump roping and made his way over to me.

"Violet, maybe you should take a break," he suggested, and I scoffed.

"I'm fine," I said, but that obviously wasn't the truth.

Anthony didn't look convinced. "I don't know, Violet, you're—"

But I wouldn't let him finish.

"I'm fine!" I shouted, smashing my fist against the punching bag with all the power I had. Just like one before, the punching bag broke from the ceiling and went flying across the room, coming so close to hitting Aiden that he dropped the weights he had been lifting nearly onto his feet.

"You sure you're fine?" Anthony asked, and it was more to be a smartass than to actually ask if I was okay.

The punching bag hit the wall and fell to the floor, and the room went silent around me. Everyone had stopped what they had been doing and were not just staring at me. Except for Aiden. He was glaring.

"That could've killed me!" he shouted, making a beeline right toward me so he could get right up in my face. He always tried so hard to be intimidating, but it never worked.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure you would've been fine."

"Being as overdramatic as always, I see," Anthony sighed, picking his jump rope up off the ground and hanging it around his neck.

"Don't make me wrap that around your neck and tighten it, nerd," Aiden scowled at him.

Even Anthony wasn't afraid, and I wondered if he'd have this same reaction if he was the same size he'd been a year before. Aiden was bigger than him then, but that wasn't the case any longer.

I glanced at Dex, who was watching, but he didn't look like he was going to jump in and help me any time soon. I wasn't used to that, because usually he was the first to come to my defense, not Anthony. But I didn't need any help when it came to Aiden. He tried too hard to be tough.

"This is the second time you've blasted a punching bag into the wall!" Aiden continued, and his voice was starting to give me a headache. "What the hell is your problem, freak?"

"Did you seriously just call me that?" I asked, stopping myself from laughing. I couldn't help but be reminded of Vanessa, who called me the same thing. "You know what my problem is, you ass. I'm a superhuman. Just like you are."

"No, you're not," he disagreed, poking me in the shoulder. "You're a freak superhuman."

Anthony rolled hi eyes. "Aiden, just because you're jealous that you don't have the extra Ender powers like Violet does doesn't mean that you can just—"