Antihero (Indefinite Hiatus D: )

Chapter Thirty-Four

"You're doing it all wrong," I complained, moving forward and pushing his knees out roughly. "Lower."

"What do you mean 'lower'?! I'm as low as I can get!" Christopher argued back, lowering his body the tiniest bit.

"No, you're not," I countered, pointing at his horrible form. "There's no way you can call this a squat. You're practically standing!"

Christopher rolled his eyes at me but squatted lower. I eyed his movements carefully and nodded my head in approval before he stood back up with a huff.

"What?" I asked impatiently. "Go on, you've got another nine to go before we add weight."

As expected, Christopher looked unimpressed but squatted again, his eyes gazing past me as he focussed on his movements. It had taken a while, but Christopher was finally beginning to gain muscle mass through our training. In an odd way, I hoped he would slow down, drag his training out longer. Drag his life out longer. He finished his squats and stood up, folding his arms in front of him and looking at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked him, grabbing a twenty-five-kilogram bar for him to begin with. I handed it to him and he grabbed it, turning it on one end and stomping it down like a staff.

"So, are we just not going to talk about it?"

"Fine," I said with a sigh, sitting back on the bench to watch him. "But for each question you do five squats."

"Fine," he snapped back, lifting the bar and jerking it to his back, preparing to do his back squats with the light weight. "So, what the fuck?"

It was unusual to hear Christopher swear, but I kind of liked it. It made me feel like he was relaxed more, as though he felt he could be more himself around me.

"That's a question," I said, pointing at him to start squatting. He rolled his eyes and squatted down slowly, still looking at me.

"You still need to answer," he said as he moved into the second squat.

"I don't know what you want me to say, you saw my mother, good for you. She could have at least come to see Mira, seeing as it was a special occasion." I picked up the straps next to me and began rolling them up to keep myself entertained. Christopher said nothing as he huffed out his last few squats before moving forward and racking the bar, turning to look at me as he leaned on it.

"Alright. You just didn't seem that... surprised, I guess. I thought your mother was, like, missing or something?" he continued, looking at me curiously.

"She's more like slightly misplaced," I replied smoothly, nodding my head at the bar. "Five more."

Christopher sighed and picked the bar up again, moving quickly to complete his squats even though I could hear him mumbling under his breath that I wasn't even answering his questions.

It's true, I wasn't answering them that well, and it's also true I hadn't been that surprised. I knew that gold and diamond necklace was familiar when I first saw it, I just didn't realise how familiar it had been. It wasn't the first time Mother had miraculously shown up and disappeared again without saying hello or goodbye. It's just who she was now – the elusive member of the DeMarlo household.

In all honesty, it hadn't actually been that long since I had seen her. I was lucky enough – or unlucky, depending on the way you look at it – to see her in the City, outside of the club I went to before I had my fabulous three-day-escapade. Not only did I have to try and hide where I went for three-days, and with who, but I also had to hide the fact that I saw Mother right before I left. Talk about unlucky. If DeMarlo knew I had seen her then, or that Christopher had seen her last night, then I knew shit would be hitting the fan. Dad cares too much about her to accept the fact that she wouldn't see him even though she was so close.