The Phoenix Returns

Chapter 11 - You Know You Want This

Mrs. Nelson and I relationship got less complicated when she seen how I stood up for Lyle when he was in the hospital, and how what happened to him really worried me. It was after he got beaten up really badly and left on my doorstep. Ever since then she has been really nice to me, extra nice, like she is trying to make up for the all the times that she was rude.

"Hey, Mrs. Nelson." I greeted her with the same enthusiasm as she gave me. I was honestly happy to see her, I missed her. I didn't know that I did until now. "How are you?" I hugged her tight before she pulled back to look at me.

"I'm good." She smiled, pulling me inside and closing the door after us. "How's the fighting world going?"

I beamed. "Well, you know..." I trailed off, looking around for Lyle. "You win some, you lose."

"Hopefully, winning more than you are losing." She chuckled.

I laughed with her. "Only way to make you proud."

She beamed at me. "That's my boy."

"Speaking of boy, where is ours?" I smirked, sending her a wink.

Amused, Mrs. Nelson rolled her eyes at my silliness. "Lyle is upstairs if you wanna go up."

"Thanks." I told her before jetting up the stairs and going straight for his bedroom. Surprisingly, his door was open. "Ly?" I called to him, but he was in his bathroom.

"Car? Is that you?" He yelled from the other side of the door.

I took at seat at the edge of his bed.

"Yeah, dick." I called back. "It's me." A minute went by before he opened the door, he walked out with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Come on, man." I chuckled, looking away.

Lyle laughed, wagging his eyebrows at me. "You know you want this."

"Whatever, man." I shook my head, laughing. "Get dressed, we have to get down to the gym. I have a few guys coming up there for interviews."

He nodded at me, thinking about it. "We do need a new manager, huh?"

"Yes." I responded, standing up from his bed. "Get dressed, meet me downstairs."

I headed back down the stairs and chilled with Mrs. Nelson. We just talked a bit, conversed on how the other one was doing. She even told me how guilty Lyle has been felling since I hung up on him a few nights ago. It was after he had learned that I knew about the boys, she told me that he has really been beating himself up over it.

"I'll talk to him." I told her after she pretty much pleaded with me to do so. She begged me to forgive him, but that not her choice, it mine.

It's gonna take some time.

I love Lyle like a brother, but he betrayed me, and he knows that he did otherwise he would have nothing to feel guilty about.

Lyle came down not too long after that, and we headed out. The gym has been closed down for at least a week since we found what we found downstairs. I changed the locks to all the doors so no one could get back inside even if they had a key.

"The guys should be here in about an hour." I told Lyle as I unlocked the gym doors. Because of the neighborhood that the gym was located in, there were bars covering the door and the windows. We definitely had to keep unwanted guest out when the place was closed. Plus, the same bars on the doors and windows now have been here since Coach opened, they were just new and improved. "I just want to make sure that we clean up at little, make sure that everything is in its place and nothing is here that doesn't belong."