All I Wanted

Chapter 8

Breathe. Duck. Two quick jabs. Deflect low. Breathe. Deflect high. Duck. Elbow, jab. Repeat.

The words repeat like a mantra in my subconscious as Jeremy throws loose attacks at me. Every day since I got out of the hospital has been spent teaching me how to defend myself long enough to get rescued or to escape. This has been going on for, like, four days, so I've gotten pretty good at these basics.

I begin to pick up my pace, knowing that there are only five repetitions left before I'm allowed to relax. Breathe. Duck. Two quick jabs. Deflect low- a padded glove knocks into the side of my head. Not hard enough to knock me over, but hard enough to bring me back to reality.

"Ow!! What the hell, Jer?!" I exclaim as he stands with his hands on his hips and chuckles. "Seriously. What the hell was that? You were supposed to kick, not punch!"

He shakes his head and moves closer to me, unlatching the Velcro on my gloves. "Kai's not gonna care in what order you're ready for him to attack," he scolds.

"That's what free-sparring is for," I scoff, fire flooding through my veins at the name of the psychopath who stabbed me and left me to die. "I thought we were doing the warm-ups."

He removes my gloves and I rub the skin on my jaw gingerly. "We were," he smirks. "But, I could tell you were getting cocky. Cocky is what gets you stabbed..." he stares me down as he jabs a finger into the soft skin under my ribs. "Again."

"Oof," I smack his hand away. "Whatever you say, sensei," I concede sarcastically as I turn to grab a drink of water. After uncapping the bottle, I drink in small sips as not to make myself sick. Jeremy watches me carefully so I roll my eyes as I sip.

He sighs as he grabs the bottle from me. "You're so ornery," he insults and begins drinking from the bottle.

"Hey! Give that back," I step closer as I reach out to grab it back but he carefully places one palm on my cheek and pushes me out of arm's length. My arms stretch out for the bottle, but I can barely reach Jeremy's shoulder.

A chuckle falls from his lips. I roll my head out of his palm and chomp my teeth at his fingers playfully. "Did you just try to bite me?" He asks incredulously.

I shrug. "You gotta use what ya got, Gilbert," I giggle. As I sit on the bench, my smile dulls. I gently place my fingers over the skin where I was stabbed. The vampire blood healed me, so there's no scar. But, the image of lying on the floor in a pool of my own blood desperately crawling and screaming for help is seared into my memory.

"Hey-" Jer begins as he sits down next to me and touches my shoulder. A visceral reaction kicks in as my whole body jerks away from him briefly. My hands grip the bench on either side of my legs until my knuckles turn white.

I continue staring at my lap as I force myself to remember it's Jeremy. Not Kai. "Sorry," I whimper before sniffling. My eyes turn toward Jer and I can see the shadow of guilt cross over his eyes.

"No, I'm sorry. I should've...I didn't mean..." he's at a loss for words on how to comfort me. An ache ebbs in my heart because it's not his fault it's too soon for me to be touched.

"You know what I'm most mad about?" I ask seriously as I stare into Jeremy's reassuring eyes. He slightly shakes his head. "I'm most mad that I missed New Year's Eve because that bastard stabbed me," I chuckle incredulously.

It was true. I had almost died in December and woke up in the hospital in January of the new year. Completely healed, physically at least. "You always did love staying up past midnight," he grins nostalgically.

"New Year's Eve is about more than staying up late..." I dare to bite my lip subtly as I sigh forlornly. "You also get to kiss someone."

Jeremy clears his throat slightly. He looks down at his lap as his eyebrows furrow. "Well, what if you and I had our own New Year's Eve party?"