Sugar Punch

Chapter 3

I knew he had saw my jaw, his eyes made it obvious so I wanted to avoid whatever was coming as much as possible, I didn't want anyone to know what was going on at school, it would only make me feel even more pathetic than I already felt.

"H-Hey Rick." I said, coming up to the front desk, gripping my bag tightly in my hands as his eyes focus more harder on my jaw.

"Kid." He grunted out, looking at me like he wants to say something about my face.

"Mads just finished, you can head on down."

I swallow hard and nod my head, avoiding his eyes as I kept my head down and made my way towards the bottom stairs, leading to the basement, where I know Maddox will be.

Did it really look that bad? Eric did hit me hard, but usually it only took a few hours before a bruise started to show.

I guess today isn't my day... I should've just stayed home and waited for the bruise to go away before I came back here.

I didn't want anyone seeing me like this and feel sorry for me, especially not someone I admired, and wanted to be more like.

Opening the doors to the basement gym, I instantly saw Maddox shirtless and hitting a punching bag with his hands wrapped in white tape, with earphones over his ears and in his own world.

All I could think of when I looked at him was how amazing he looked, it was like nothing I had ever seen before, just from looking at him you would know he did this for a living, everything looked beautiful in the way he moved.

I had never thought a man was beautiful before until now, I wasn't sure how to think about it other than accept that some people are just that, and that it wasn't that weird for a guy to call another guy beautiful.

Coming further into the room, Maddox had noticed me and stopped hitting the punching bag, I smiled at him, and he nodded to me as he wiped his forehead coaxed in sweat before taking the earbuds from his ears.

"H-Hi." I said shyly, trying not to stare at his naked chest too long.

"Hey, you're early." He said, coming up to me, his eyes on mine before they shift to my jaw.

I swallowed hard and froze once he reached out and grabbed my jaw, making me wince as the pain was still very real, like Eric had just hit me all over again.

"How'd this happen?" He asked, a frown on his face as he looked it over. "It looks fresh."

"Just a s-simple misunderstanding." I laughed nervously, feeling the back of my neck grow warm at how close he was.

I knew from the look on his face that he didn't believe me, and I knew my excuse was so pathetic that nobody would believe me, not if they saw my nose wrapped up and bruises over my arms and legs.

"Come on, you need it ice it, it looks painful." He said, as I followed behind him with my head down as he walked to his office.

I sat down on a free chair and watched him go into a mini fridge and take out an ice pack, he then grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around the ice pack and then came over to me and then gently pressed it against my jaw.

Maddox sighs out as he kept his hand over the icepack on my jaw, looking at me as I avoided his intense gaze.

"So, what kind of misunderstanding gets you a fist to the jaw?"

I shifted in my seat as I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it, expecially not to Maddox, who I really didn't want to feel pathetic around, not when he was teaching me how to fight.