Gingerbread Latte

Chapter 6 - Your wingwoman to the rescue

"I am not beautifully broken, I was ripped to shreds from the inside out."

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Max's POV

Lately, my sleeping schedule is getting all kinds of messed up.

My restless brain is depriving me of the main needs my body requires. I'd be tired, exhausted even, but I'd barely be able to rest my eyes for more than a couple of hours. Today is one of those days for example. I was able to sleep for only two hours, and it was four in the morning when I woke up.

I tossed and moved around, I tried for too long but couldn't get myself to go back to sleep. Feeling fed up and on the verge of exploding, I did what I usually do. I wore up my clothes, shrugged my sports bag over my shoulder, and headed for the gym nearby, a five minutes drive only from our house.

Much to my luck, it was closed for some maintenance.

Cursing under my breath, I pulled the car into the street, ready to head back home. Annoyance at this state I am in coursed through my veins, tightening my muscles and proving that there is no way I will be able to fall asleep now; I was fully energized for god's sake.

A thought clicked inside my head and I looked through the rearview mirror, observing how no car was in sight at the moment. I didn't waste another second as I turned my car around, pulled it in the opposite direction, and drove down the empty street, heading for the uni's campus. At least the gym in there stays open twenty-four-seven. I already have an extra outfit in the car, even my books and laptop are here as well. I can work out, take a shower there, change my clothes, and by then, my first class would've started anyway.

The drive there was short and quick, with only a few cars here and there. I reached the campus around six-ish, I pulled inside the parking lot and claimed one spot. I grabbed my sports bag and went down, locking the car behind me and heading toward the gym.

I spotted a few people around, some of them were the cleaning staff, and others were students, jogging and running around the campus, probably as restless as me, or just doing part of their morning routine. I pushed open the gym's door and turned on the lights, satisfied with the fact that I was alone. I opened my bag and pulled out my AirPods. Placing them in my ears, I turned on some music and started my mission to release this embedded stress.

I did some cardio, did some weight lifting after, and the more I worked out, the more energized I felt, unable to stop, in an immense need to let out whatever was piling up inside of me. The adrenaline pumped hard through my veins, almost burning me inside out, my heart beating a thousand miles a minute as it tried to make sense of everything I was experiencing at once.

I shook my head, dismissing it all away as I pulled my body inside the small fighting ring. I grabbed a pair of boxing gloves laying around and took my position, landing one punch after another at the punching bag.a

Sweat dripped down my bare chest, the one that heaved, up and down, with every punch I landed, letting the punching bag sway from its hanger, almost ripping it apart from its hook. My mind played its dirty game, transferring me back to that day. A low groan rumbled from my chest, from a wound engraved deep down, and invisible to the naked eye.

Frustrated and enraged, I took off my gloves, angrily tossing them away, and the next punch I threw, I imagined myself landing it over his face, the feel of the leather against my knuckles, I tried to envision it as his skin being torn apart. The blood that gathered over my tight fist from my raw attack, I took pleasure picturing it as his own.

I was in my own little world, desperately trying to change the past as if it could possibly alter the truth, trying to imagine how different it could've been if I had the power to fight them back. If I could've taken that knife and stabbed him right through his heart. One stab after another. A weird sense of satisfaction rushed into my chest at that image only, at him, a bloody mess in my hands and under my ambush. Dead; so he won't dare to hurt anyone else.