A light breeze fans my exposed arms.
"Ella. Hey, wa... up."
Someone's trying to contact me, oh well. I sigh deeply and turn to my side, drifting rapidly back into the comfort of my dreams.
"Ella la.. warni..., ge... the fuck up."
Huh? A few moments pass while I contemplate between reality and fantasy, what's going on? Is that annoyingly steady and controlling voice one of my brothers? No, probably a conversation I'm missing in my dream...
WAIT. THAT'S NATHAN-
My brain catches up to my current surroundings but before I can avoid a punishment by not waking up when he asked, my left arm is tugged harshly until I'm nearly off the bed and I lose all sense of deception as my body endures the overwhelming slam of whiplash as I am forcefully stood upright.
"What the fu-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence." I am stood in front of Nathan's towering frame, his arms clutching my confused self by the shoulders. My eyes have barely adjusted to the hallway light and I manage to pull my left side free from his hold.
"Nathannn what are you doing?"
"Stop whining. Remember you are being punished, put some gym clothes on and be downstairs in ten."
"This is literally the equivalent to those abusive training camps."
"Get smart with that fucking mouth and I'll actually send you to one." He snaps and I go silent. Jesus. "Do you hear me?!" He questions.
"Yeah. Okay." I mutter, tugging at my t-shirt. I squint to see him nod slightly before leaving my room, being considerate enough to shut the door behind him.
What time is it?
I reach for the top shelf of my nightstand for my phone but realize it was confiscated last night. Sighing, I head to the bathroom and try not to think of why the hell he's going to make me do while I brush my teeth. This is going to be a long day.
After brushing my hair into a low side braid, I throw on some leggings and a long sleeve workout top with 4 minutes to spare. To piss him off I wait, sitting on the edge of my bed watching my clock like a five year old in time out. At 10 I hear him calling for me, but my patience from last night has worn thin and I decide to slowly walk down the stairs, taking my time.
"Ella I swear to god, don't push me today." He threatens, as I hold his eye contact all the way down the stairs.
"You're the only one who's this upset Nathan, calm down." I smirk, pulling the card they always pull on me before realizing I still have an entire day of torture planned exclusively by my fucking favorites, Justin and Nathan.
Did Evan and Brandon even talk to them? What happened to cutting me some slack?
"Get your ass down here right now." His tone firm, his finger pointing to the space in front of him.
I move a little faster so I don't anger him and when I'm in front of him he pats the kitchen barstool twice, "was that so hard? Sit down while I explain."
I do as he says and roll my eyes behind his back. He's cooking something on the stove while he talks, "you're going to do a little workout with me. I know you're in good shape so you shouldn't have much of an issue keeping up."
"What? Why am-"
"What did I tell you about interrupting?" He has the hypocrisy to say. My jaw ticks. I feel the anger boiling and it takes my palm clasping the chair edge until my knuckles go white for me to not lash out.
"I'm going to push you, I've coached you and your brothers before so I know your limits, you'll be fine. I don't want any complaining, and depending on your behavior today your punishment may be adjusted."
I stay silent, afraid to interrupt him again, and he pays no attention to my visible disaproval. Training with any of my brothers can easily become a nightmare but he's not wrong that I'm capable, at least for one session with him.
"You were up past your bedtime last night." He challenges, turning to face me with a starter plate of eggs, protein waffles I can recognize anywhere and a banana. Sliding it to me, he grabs a similar plate and sits next to me. His large frame making me sit straight up and still feel incredibly small.
I feel his gaze on me and I shrug, "last night was a lot."
"Evan talked to me this morning before leaving to practice and I understand that Justin scared you but that doesn't give you an excuse to continuously disobey.
Of course he doesn't acknowledge his own doing. "It's not just Justin though and you know that." I counter, stabbing my fork into a scrambled egg. "You were being unfair and I was obviously overwhelmed. Both of you get so unpredictable when you're mad and it scares the living shit out of me."
He raises an eyebrow at this and takes a bite out of his waffle, with an amused look of his face, "don't piss us off then."
I can't have a decent conversation with him without it all being my fault. I focusing on finishing my food quickly before rinsing my dish and filling my water bottle up. He cleans up behind me and before I know it we are headed upstairs to the home gym. I usually avoid it and instead work out with a membership where I won't be around my brothers, but today I can't.
Nathan's punishments are usually geared in this way, where he knows it's something you would never want to do and when you least expect it. I hate him for it and over the years it's caused me to be perceptive and subtle about my decisions so it's harder for him to catch on. I've already figured out he's going to push my limits solely to humiliate and break down my ego today. Physical capability is very personal and this way I'll be fully exposed. Add in his natural skill to always be stronger and better than me no matter how hard I train and its pure torture.
I follow him past the glass into our gym, setting my water bottle down by one of the mirror paneled walls. It's a large and open space, more of an L shape than anything with three walls lined with mirrors to track movements and the other three holding gear and equipment.
He takes his sweatshirt off to reveal a dark blue shirt grasping his toned stomach and arms. I look away, two can play at this game. I specifically wore leggings and a cropped top to piss him off as well.
If he's noticed, he doesn't say anything before gesturing for me to follow him to the mats.
"20 pushups." He begins, and I can tell he's starting small to trick me by the fiery excitement in his eyes. He's a fucking sadist just like Justin. I decide to give him no satisfaction and complete the order with ease.
He gets up and leads me to the two bars for pull-ups, "10 pull-ups." We both complete them, him way faster than me. I feel my arms start to heat up by the end but I keep my facial expressions muted and my form consistent.
He's watching me and it makes me nervous to fuck up but I slowly drop down at the 10th, turning to face him. He moves to burpees and we do 15 of those, before we repeat the entire set. I fucking hate burpees and my breathing is harder to control by the end of the second set.
"We're going to do that one more time but now I'm going to have you go until you physically can't. Starting with the pushups."
Anddd here it is. The true motive behind this workout: forcing me to humiliate myself in front of him. And for what cost? Not to punish me for sneaking out to a god damn party but fill his ego and force me to do as he says.
"That's ridiculous!" I exclaim, my arms burning from the nonstop movements.
"I told you no complaining. We can do the same thing tomorrow if you want to be a baby about it." He threatens.
I quickly glance at him, my eyes panicked, before turning around. My body burns in frustration as I get in the position of a pushup.
"Go ahead and start." He says casually, no longer joining me for the workout.
I take a breath before beginning. At 20 my arms start shaking and I feel my posture threatening to betray me. I stay upright and twist my head to look up at him pleadingly. I don't know what I want him to do, because he's definitely not going to save me the embarrassment and tell me to stop like Kyle or Brandon would.
I shake my head, this shouldn't be affecting me as much as it is, but I continue. By 25 I feel like crying, what kind of mental torture is this? My arms are fucking sore but I can't feel them over my emotional body screaming at me to continue. I'm sweating, my breathing heavy and Nathan doesn't give a shit. I could stop this if I really wanted.
I'm at 31 when I hear the glass door slide open, completely breaking the chaos in my mind. I glance up at the mirrors in front of me to see Evan and Justin watching me in awe. Thinking about doing another pushup now makes my body tremble and my left arms gives in. I finally give up, rolling onto my side. I've never done 37 consecutive pushups before but in this moment I feel like a failure. As if I could have done more. Nathan and Justin and fucking Evan think I'm weak.
"Great. You still have your pullups, so get up so we can finish this workout." I hear Nathan's stupid fucking voice from above me.
I still have the pull-ups.
"Nathan please." I sob.
"What the hell did you do to her?" Evan's concerned voice approaches me.
"Evan, don't get involved. She did this to herself. Ella get up."
I shake my head slightly and don't move, one because I literally can't and two because of my disbelief on his lack of empathy.
"Hey don't force her too, she looks fucking exhausted Nathan." To my surprise this came out of Justin's mouth. At this point, Evan is crouched at my side. I turn to face him, sitting myself up on shaky arms before he grabs my shoulders, "hey, you okay?"
His voice is surprisingly concerned, his tone soft on me as though I'm about to break. I nod unsurely before standing to my feet, avoiding everyone's stares and run out of that god damn room. It's going to take a lot for me to forgive Nathan.
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Hey I'm back ;) I'm not kidding when I say your comments keep me updating this book, I LOVE getting them haha
Please feel free to give me chapter ideas or if you want to see more or less of certain characteristics. As you can see, I can make Nathan really fucking mean but let me know what you guys would enjoy most :)
As always, I'm here for you if you need to talk <3