From the Backseat | ON INDEFINITE HOLD

v | Rhys

R H Y S 

I don't know what made me say that to her. What possessed me to bring her to the gym when just a few days before I was saying how she wouldn't belong in a place like this. But when I was looking at her pictures, they all have a time stamp in the bottom left hand corner. She took most of these pictures last night, and they range from midnight to six o'clock in the morning. Why was she wandering about Chicago in the middle of the night? Doesn't she know how dangerous that is? Especially for a young girl as pretty as she is.

I'm not sure why I care. Maybe it's the fact that this tiny girl, who can't be more than a buck when wet is putting herself in danger at night. Maybe it's because Jax already considers her a friend. He didn't at first, but after everything at the dinner and what she said about not hearing when we know she did. He saw something in her, something likeable, something he deems friend worthy.

And that, I guess is why I brought her to the gym. I knew Jax would already be there and I knew he would be glad to see her. And I wanted to teach her something, something that would at least help her defend herself.

Jax had shown her the proper way to tape up her hands and how to punch. I pound my fists into my own punching bag while Jax teaches her the basics. It takes a while until she actually starts punching the bag. I scan her body, noticing how she's using her entire upper body strength. I reach out with both of my hands to stop the bag from swinging back and hitting me. I take a few steps closer to her and place my hands on her waist. Jax stops talking and I can see a blush rise up on her cheeks. "You have to use your legs and your hips, this is where your power is going to come from. Now punch." She does so as I move her hips to show her what it should feel like. I do this a couple times before she gets the hang of it.

"Why am I learning this?" She asks us and lifts up her purse as if that does anything. "I have this."

"You're going to smack somebody with your purse? In Chicago that's not going to save your skinny ass." Jax said.

"No dumb ass, it's what's in the purse. I have pepper spray, a pocket knife, a rape whistle, and my phone is always on me." She shows us each of the items as she pulls them out of her purse. Her pepper spray is in a purple case and her pocket knife is a rather big one. Her rape whistle is just a black whistle with a white letter R painted onto it. And then she waves her smart phone around before placing everything back into her purse. The purse is about the size of her camera and fits just enough to slips the strap over her shoulder. "I have more than enough to stay safe, trust me I get enough of this from my older brother. Hayden and my mom make me carry this stuff around."

"What if you can't get to your pepper spray in time? What if they take you buy surprise?" I ask her.

"I've taken self-defense classes. They don't really teach you to throw a punch, instead they teach us how to get out of holds. Usually I just either elbow them in the throat or go for the balls."

"Usually?" Jax asks her, "How many times have you been taken advantage of?"

"That's not what I meant." She says. Holland sets her stuff down onto one of the benches and takes the bottle of water that I hold out for her. She sends me a smile, one that shows off her straight, white teeth. "My friend Shannon and I had to take a series of classes. Every Tuesday and Thursday we would go to self-defense. And I'm very good with the elbow, it hurts them just enough to let go of me so I can get the pepper spray. I spray them, I leave. I've never actually had to use it before."

"Good." I say.

Jax, Holland, and I spend the next two hours working on her punches and defensive skills, or lack of. Holland has noodle arms, to put it lightly. She's a twig, small and short. Holland's face is still slightly red and her brown hair is tied up into a bun on the top of her head. And even though she's covered in sweat, she still looks pretty.