Desolation

seventeen

Stephen's POV

Aaron and I had hung out for the entire day. After he came over, we went for a swim and stayed in the pool for hours. Finally when we got hungry, we ordered some room service and watched TV till late night. We had some drinks too but I tried to keep it minimum. I don't know why I just didn't feel like drinking. We had a pretty chilled out day.

Aaron finally decided to head off around midnight. I offered him to stay but he just wanted to go back to his hotel and sleep. I didn't mind.

It was around 1 am when I was coming back from the entrance of the hotel after saying goodbye to Aaron. I was about to go back to my suite and go to sleep but as I was walking towards the elevator, I happened to pass by the gym.

Now I wasn't surprised that the door was open or the lights were on but what had my interest peeked was the fact that I heard noises from inside. It was a bit weird. Who the fuck would decide to workout at 1 in the fucking morning?

I walked a little closer to the door and it sounded as if someone was practicing their boxing skills. I could hear the punches that were being thrown. I tried to see who it was in one of the mirrors that was on the walls.

I don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't her. I saw Noelle's reflection in the mirror. She was wearing leggings, like she usually did and a sports bra. There were so many things about this situation that had me completely perplexed.

First of all, she was wearing a sports bra. I wasn't trying to be perverted but because of the fact that she was wearing this item of clothing, I was able to see the ink that decorated her skin. Her back faced me and I could clearly see a tiger head covering her back right beneath her shoulder blades. I was surprised to say the least.

The next thing that I saw had me horrified and worried. Noelle was doing a number on the punching bag, throwing one hard punch after the other without having her gloves on. What the fuck was she thinking? Was she thinking at all?

I found myself walking into the gym and standing near one of the benches. I had no idea if Noelle had seen me or not but that didn't matter right now. From where I was standing, I could see her knuckles being all bruised up but that didn't seem to stop her. She kept going with her angry punches like it was no big deal.

"You might wanna stop," I found myself blurting out.

She didn't even stop to look my way but I knew she'd heard me. I walked closer to the boxing ring and tried to get her attention, "Noelle you're gonna hurt yourself, your knuckles are already bleeding. Don't be stupid," I spoke again.

She finally stopped her assault on the punching bag and turned around to face me, "What the fuck does it matter to you? It's none of your goddamn business," she spat angrily.

There was so much fury in her eyes and she looked as if she could beat me to death. I was slightly taken aback.

As soon as she saw my reaction, her stiff body seemed to relax and she ran her fingers through her hair, messing it up. She shook her head before getting out of the ring and standing in front of me. She raised her eyes to meet mine because she was just a little bit shorter than me.

"I'm sorry I snapped. I shouldn't have taken it out on you," she looked really tired.

"It's okay, you look tired. Why are you training right now?" I questioned.

"Couldn't sleep. I have a lot going on in my head," she tried to shrug it off.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to but," I paused before taking her hand in mine and examining her knuckles, "Let me fix this up for you."