Chapter 12
“James!” I tried to yell over the loud beeping noise but it wasn’t really working. “Shut that off!”
After a few seconds without a response, I stormed out of the guestroom and down the hall. The noise only got louder.
I looked toward the kitchen but he was nowhere to be seen. Where did he go? Apparently he didn’t know that you were supposed to watch food as it cooked.
I ran over to the kitchen and stopped in front of the stove, the beeping of the timer caused me to flinch a little.
It felt like my eardrums were about to explode.
I frantically looked through all the buttons and dials connected to the stove. How did you shut the timer off?
Out of nowhere, James appeared next to me, causing me to jump.
He reached out and pressed one of the buttons. The noise stopped. Then he turned a dial to shut off the burner beneath the pot of noodles that had been boiling.
“You know, you’re not supposed to abandon the stove when things are cooking,” I took a step back to get out of his way.
I watched as he grabbed the pot of noodles from the stovetop and headed to the sink to dump the contents in the strainer. He then placed the pot back on the stove burner.
“I’m sorry I had to pee!” He spoke sassily, glancing over his shoulder at me.
“You couldn’t hold it for one minute?” A smile spread across my lips as I raised an eyebrow. “Well thanks to your bladder, everyone’s eardrums ruptured from the noise.”
“You could’ve shut it off too,” He laughed as he pulled on a pair of oven mitts. He reached down to open the oven door and pulled out a pan full of chicken.
James placed that on the stove top as well.
“I was trying!” I took a few backwards steps out of the kitchen.
He just shook his head and smiled. “Try harder next time.”
I spun around on my heel and headed down the hall.
Not too long after, we were all sitting around the living room eating dinner with plates full of food. It was a late dinner, around 7:00pm.
“How was your walk earlier?” James asked, starting up a conversation in the slightly quiet room.
“Oh, it was lovely,” Mom spoke from her spot on the couch after take a bite of chicken. ”It’s a very nice neighborhood. I see why you like it here.”
“Yeah,” He replied between bites. “It’s not that big of a neighborhood but, there’s a lot going on.”
“It seems like you and Maddie are on better terms,” She said after a few seconds of silence, eyeing us happily.
I was in the middle of shoving a large chunk of noodles in my mouth when her words caused me to look over at her. She looked excited. I nodded, unable to speak because of the food I was eating.
“I knew that trip to the store would help!”
I choked on my noodles as I instantly began laughing. She thought we were friends again because of that terribly awkward car ride? That hadn’t helped at all!
“Yeah, sure Mom,” I slowly recovered from my choking attack. “We’ll just pretend that that wasn’t the worst car ride I’ve ever experienced.”
“Yeah that was bad,” James agreed, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “From what I remember, the radio stations had awful song choices.” He chuckled.
I nodded and smiled, stabbing a piece of chicken with my fork.
Eventually everyone finished eating their dinner. All the dirty dishes were put into the sink. Being the mom that she is, my mother insisted on washing the dishes.
“Who wants to go on an adventure?” James spoke loudly in order to get everyone’s attention, a sly smile was plastered on his face.
“And what would that be?” Mom had just finished off the last of the dishes.
I turned to look at him curiously from across the room. I had my suspicions about where this was headed. I could tell from his expression that I wouldn’t enjoy it.
“Oh just a… a little tour. I figured you guys would want to see what I’ve been doing with my life.” He took a quick glance at me.
I froze, suddenly aware of what he was referring to. The gym.
He hadn’t been serious, had he? Wasn’t he just joking around?
“Don’t look so scared, Maddie,” He acknowledged my response and laughed. Then he looked around the room. “Come on it’ll be cool! “
“Where are we going?” Drew seemed excited even though he had no idea what James was talking about.
James smiled and ran a hand through his short hair. “To the magical land of… rubber mats and sweaty people.” He paused to laugh at his own joke before putting on a fake serious expression. “We’re going to the gym.”
I groaned. I was not looking forward to this.
…
“Alright,” James put the car in park and turned it off. “We’re here!”
“This is so weird,” I said, looking out the window towards the building in front of us. “We’re going to look like ducklings, following you around.”
Literally every one of us had come on this adventure that James was oh so excited about. Besides my mom and of course Devon, everyone else had changed into more athletic clothing. I had put on a pair of gym shorts and a tank top. We were also told to bring extra clothes, I had no idea why. Maybe he thought that we were actually going to be super active and stuff. Well he thought wrong. I did not plan on doing any physical activity while we were here.
“I already told you,” James replied and glanced at me in the rear view mirror. “It’s almost eight o’clock. The gym closes to the public at seven. There’s hardly going to be anyone here.”
“I still don’t get why you’re allowed to come here when it’s closed,” Drew spoke from next to me.
“Because, when you’re an athlete they give you a special membership card and there’s extended hours for you to come work out and train,” James explained, unbuckling his seatbelt.
“But you’re not even a pro athlete,” Drew looked questioningly at him.
“Well I’m still considered an athlete.” James defended his title. “You don’t have to be professional, you just have to show them the papers and stuff from when you sign up for competitions and tournaments, or have them contact your coach, if you have one. Then you can come train without the whole place being packed.”
“Oh, that’s kinda cool.” Drew replied.
“You bet it is,” James said excitedly as he opened the driver’s door and got out.
We all copied him by climbing out of the car. I slung my drawstring bag, containing my extra clothes, onto my back.
James locked the vehicle and led us towards the glass doors of the building. He pulled a card out of his wallet and swiped it in the slot next to the doorway. A green light flashed and the sound of the door unlocking was heard.
He pulled the door open and held it, to allow all of us to walk in.
I was instantly hit with the smell of rubber as I walked into the building. The floor was covered in a rubber material and there were a few rows of treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes, and other cardio machines lined up facing the direction of the door we had just come in through. There were large glass windows taking up the left wall where the street could be seen. The right wall was painted a plain white and had a large doorway that led to another room.
Just the sight of the large amount of treadmills was enough to intimidate me. What was I doing here? I didn’t belong here! I had never stepped into a gym in my entire life!
James stepped out from behind our group. He was carrying his gym bag, even though he had already came here today and said he wasn’t going to work out again.
“This is just the cardio room,” He motioned us with his hand to follow him as he headed in the direction of the doorway on the right side of the room. “I don’t spend a lot of time in here.”
We walked into the next room. It was filled with different weight lifting machines and different style benches. There was one person in the back that was using one of them. A few contraptions used for doing chin ups and pull ups were mixed in with the weight lifting things as well. There were racks of weight plates and dumbbells that took up one whole wall. Another wall was covered in mirrors.
“I’m guessing you spend more time in here,” I said, glancing at James’s arms muscles that were visible through his T shirt.
He laughed and looked back at me. “Is it obvious?”
“Hey, how many pull ups can you do?” Drew curiously glanced at the pull up bars across the room.
“On a good day?” James looked over at them, running a hand through his hair as he thought. “Around twenty. C’mon the next room’s the best.” He ushered us through another doorway.
As we entered the next room, the sound of quick punches could be heard.
A smile spread across James’s face as soon as he walked into the room. He seemed to really enjoy just being surrounded by boxing equipment.
I glanced around to see a room filled with different types of punching bags and an old, worn out boxing ring set up in the back corner. The sound was coming from the small, round punching bag that some guy was hitting rapidly.
James glanced to where the guy was throwing punches and he smirked.
“Hey! Kellan!” James called out, taking a few steps towards him.
He stopped punching the speed bag and looked up. He smiled when he saw James and ran an arm across his forehead, wiping off the sweat that was there.
“Hey, man!” Kellan undid the Velcro on his boxing gloves as he walked toward out group. He pulled them off and gripped them in one of his wrapped hands. He quickly bro hugged James.
“I haven’t seen you around in a while,” James took a step back as he spoke.
“Yeah,” Kellan pushed his sweaty, blondish hair off his forehead. “Lately I’ve been coming here later. There’s not as many people to practice and spar with but,” He shrugged. “What have you been up to?”
“I just got fourth down at Blazer’s Center a few days ago.”
“Well Congrats on that.”
“Yeah, thanks. And these guys,” James gestured towards us. “Decided to fly out here for a surprise visit.”
Kellan smiled at us and gave a small wave. “Hi, I’m Kellan. Me and James hang out sometimes.” He laughed at his short and simple introduction.
We all replied with “hellos” and other greetings.
He looked like he could be a little older than James. They were about the same height but he seemed a lot bigger and muscular. Maybe it was because he had been boxing longer than my brother had.
James had gestured to us and we were introduced.
“This is my brother, Drew, sister, Maddie, her almost boyfriend, Alex,” James let out a chuckle and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, uh, they’re pretty much dating,” he let out another short laugh before continuing. “Umm… my mom, Debbie, and baby Devon.”
Never had I experienced a more awkward introduction. I instantly felt my face heat up as I looked away from Kellan’s amused expression. I stole a quick glance at Alex to find that he had also looked away from James and Kellan. He seemed just as embarrassed as I was. Who introduces people like that? That was a great first impression.
“Well,” I looked back up at Kellan as he spoke. “It’s nice to meet you all.”
I just smiled in response.
“Hey,” James looked at him hopefully. “You wanna spar real quick?”
“Yeah, sure,” Kellan nodded excitedly. “We haven’t done that in a while.”
“It should be… interesting,” James replied as he began to dig through his bag.
I looked over at Drew, who was standing next to me. “What’s sparring?” I whispered.
He pulled his eyebrows together in thought. “I don’t remember.” He whispered back, shrugging.
Kellan started walking over to the old boxing ring as he pulled his gloves back over his hand wraps.
James dropped his bag on the floor and threw his gloves on top of it. He then started to quickly wrap his hands with the two coiled strips of orange material he had also pulled out of his bag.
I looked at him questioningly, trying to figure out what was happening.
He met my gaze and smiled. “Sparring is just like a… practice match. You don’t really go all out cuz it’s just practice but, you still try out different moves and techniques and… just observe your opponent. You try to focus on thinking more instead of beating the crap out of someone.”
I nodded to confirm that I understood.
James had finished wrapping his hands. He pulled his gloves on, which were different ones from the ones he wore in the tournament, and he walked over to the ring.
“Shouldn’t you be wearing… helmets or head protection or something?” Mom spoke up worriedly. There was definite concern in her eyes.
James laughed and shook his head. “Mom, it’s fine. It’s just for fun.”
He then swung himself through the ropes and walked to one corner of the ring.
“So,” Kellan hit the front part of his left glove with his right hand, making sure his gloves were comfortable. He walked to the corner opposite of James with a smirk on his face. “If you want me to ease up on you, you just let me know.”
James rolled his eyes and scoffed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
The rest of our group slowly wandered over to the sports bench that was placed by the wall, not really sure what else to do. It was the kind of bench you would expect to find in a locker room or on the sidelines of the football field. Mom sat holding Devon. She looked really nervous as she eyed the ring. Probably because of Kellan’s brawny arms.
I took a seat on the rubber floor in front of the bench, trying to ignore how many sweaty people had probably been in the exact same spot.
It had been cool seeing James box at the tournament, even if I had been a little sidetracked by the fact that I was going to see him. It would be fun to watch him again.
There wasn’t a bell to signal the start of the match so James and Kellan just started going at it.
Kellan lunged towards James first, letting a glove fly. James blocked it one handedly and swung his other arm. Kellan ducked.
“It doesn’t seem like… you’ve gotten any better since I last fought you,” Kellan teased him and acted overly surprised.
James laughed and jabbed at him as he spoke. “I’m just warming up.”
They continued to swing their arms around and attempt to hit each other, letting out sassy remarks when their moves were successful. The other person would say a comeback and try to make a move on them.
It was actually pretty funny to hear. They weren’t just trying to see who had the best boxing skills, they were fighting to come up with the best remarks too.
The punches still seemed to hit pretty hard even though they were trying not to purposely injure each other.
They looked concentrated as they carefully planned their attacks. You could tell that they were constantly watching each other and trying to come up with different ways to react for the different types of hits that could be thrown.
James caught Kellan off guard and sent an uppercut to his jaw. “Ooh, how’d that feel?”
Kellan scoffed and sent a few quick fists in James’s direction. “Like I just got slapped by a leprechaun. You sure you’re trying Maslow?” His feet shuffled quickly as he moved around.
James ducked and rolled his eyes. “At least I actually hit you. What are you waiting for twinkle toes? I’m right here!”
Kellan swung again, looking a little frustrated.
“This must be the reason you weren’t at the tournament this week,” James said as he dodged the blow once more.
Kellan eventually got him back with a sneak attack that James was clearly not expecting.
“Boxing is a mental sport too, Jimmy boy. Weren’t you paying attention?” Kellan dodged another fist and bonked James lightly on the top of his head with his glove.
James launched a few punches at Kellan’s exposed stomach.
“Knock it off!” Kellan laughed returned to a defensive position. He tripped James with his foot.
James instantly fell over backwards and Kellan started to jab at him.
“Foul!” James yelled trying to push him away. “You can’t hit a man when he’s down!”
Kellan laughed and continued his attack. “Can’t hit below the belt either. Wanna see how much I care?”
“No!” James laughed and yelled more urgently, now trying to kick him off.
Kellan backed away and chuckled.
James stood back up and hit him jokingly in shoulder.
Kellan responded by flailing an arm in his direction. You could tell it wasn’t a serious attempt. The practice match had ended.
Kellan stretched his arm muscles and climbed through the ropes of the old boxing ring.
“Well that was fun. I have to get going. It was nice meeting you guys,” He smiled at us and took his gloves off. Then he turned back to James. “Maybe I’ll see you at the tournament next week.”
“Yeah, I’ll be there,” James leaned on the ropes and wiped his forehead sweat off with his forearm. “See ya around Kellan.”
“See ya,” Kellan replied. He gave a small wave and walked out the doorway of the room.
We said goodbyes to him as he left.
After a few seconds, James climbed out of the ring and wandered over to where his bag was on the floor, taking a glove off as he did so. His T shirt was sweaty and his face was a little red. He tucked the glove under his arm and dug around in the bag with his wrapped hand. James pulled a bottle of water out and took a few swigs from it before throwing it back inside and grabbing his free glove.
James exhaled loudly, placing his hands on his hips and looking back at the ring. Then he smiled. It looked like he had just come up with some sort of idea.
“Hey, Drew,” James undid the Velcro of his other glove and slipped it off. He pushed his sweaty hair off his forehead. “C’mere.”
Drew looked back at him in confusion.
“Just c’mere,” James waved him on as he began walking towards the ring.
Drew got up slowly from the bench, looking back us at cautiously before following his older brother.
“James…” Mom’s tone was filled with warning, like she knew something bad could result from this.
“He’s fine,” James climbed through the ropes. “I’m not gonna hurt him.”
Drew carefully grabbed the ropes and climbed through them. He looked over at us again, not sure about what was going to happen.
I was scared for him. I wouldn’t want to be standing in a boxing ring with James after watching what he was capable of.
“I’m not going to punch you. I promise,” James must’ve seen the concern in Drew’s eyes. He threw his gloves on the ring floor. “I just wanted to show you what it’s like.”
Drew laughed. “You had me scared for a minute. I was trying to remember if I had done something terrible to you before you moved out.”
Nah, you’re good,” James smiled and shook his head. “Unless you wanna have a go.”
Drew was still laughing as he jokingly brought his fists up in front of him. He hunched over a little, trying to copy the stance James had a few minutes earlier.
James chuckled and brought his fists up as well. He let out a few punches in the large space between them.
Drew began punching the air in front of James as well. Then he started making ninja noises. He kicked his foot out in James’s direction.
“Hey!” James laughed. “Kicking’s illegal!”
He lunged at Drew, causing him to retreat all the way back to the ropes.
“Hanging on the ropes is illegal too!” James let another fist fly through the air.
“I’m getting attacked!” Drew ran to avoid him. He looked over and met my gaze. “Maddie! Help!”
I just laughed. “You’re not dragging me into this!”
“Maddie!” Drew flailed his arms as James got closer to him.
I rolled my eyes and stood up. “Just warning you, I’m not going to be much help.”
“It’ll be two on one!” Drew threw a clenched fist at James. “We can take him!”
I laughed, walking over to the boxing ring. “I doubt it,” I said climbing up through the ropes.
The ring looked a little bigger when you were actually standing in it. It wasn’t as small as it looked when I had watched James and Kellan.
I looked over to see that James had Drew cornered.
I grabbed one of the boxing gloves James had threw on the mat and slipped it on my right arm. I immediately felt the moisture on the inside that was James’s sweat.
“Oh my God.” I coughed as the smell hit me. “These are so gross!”
James turned around to see what was causing me to act that way. His eyes looked to the gloves I was trying to hold up and he laughed.
“It smells like something died inside here. My eyes are actually tearing up,” I lifted the glove up and held it as far away from me as I could. I did not want to get infected with its smell. I cringed. “It’s so sweaty!”
“That’s what you gotta deal with when you play a sport you love,” James took a few steps towards me and held his fists up. He took the boxing stance as he faced me and bounce around on feet, preparing himself to move quickly id he had to.
“Give him the ol’ One, Two,” Drew encouraged, swinging one fist after the other.
Both me and James laughed at our younger brother.
“Dude, that’s not what it’s called,” James lost all the seriousness and concentration on his face and he bent over in laughter. He quickly recovered and took another step towards me.
“I’m not fighting you,” I took a step back but James lunged at me. I jumped back and squealed from the unexpected movement. I somehow managed to trip myself and ended up falling on my butt.
James laughed as he got closer, throwing a punch through the air in front of me. Then he held a hand out to help me up.
“Oh God, your hands smell really bad too.” I forced myself to grab the cloth wrapped hand he was holding out. I could barely feel his fingers through all the material as I gripped his hand tightly.
James pulled me to my feet.
I let go as soon as I was up, not wanting to be in contact with the material any longer. I undid the Velcro of the glove I had on and threw it near the other one, instantly wiping my now infected hand off on my shorts.
“I need to marinate my hand in a tub full of sanitizer,” It didn’t feel like my hands would ever be clean again.
“It’s not that bad,” James teased, starting to unwrap the cloth from his hands. It looked like an ace bandage.
“No, it really is,” I stepped away from him and climbed down from the ring. “I’m not looking forward to the car ride with you. You’re gonna stink it up.”
James and Drew climbed out after me. James bunched up the hand wraps and stuffed them into his bag. He lifted up the bottom of his shirt and brought it up to wipe his face off.
“Jeez, how many muscles do you have?” I laughed as I glanced at his exposed stomach.
He removed the end of the shirt from his face and smiled. “Well I do spend hours here every day.”
I rolled my eyes “Congratulations, you have abs. Please put your clothes back on.”
James jokingly made a seductive face and then began laughed hysterically.
I quickly turned away from the sight and marched over to the other side of the room.
“I thought girls liked guys that worked out,” James said sarcastically. I could practically hear the smile in his voice.
“Yeah but you’re my brother, so it’s weird. Stop it.” I looked back towards him.
He had finally let go of his shirt so his torso was fully covered again.
“I’m surprised you don’t have a girlfriend yet,” Mom stood up from the bench and readjusted Devon in her arms. She looked at James curiously.
“Yeah,” He chuckled. “I don’t know, I started talking to a few girls but,” He shrugged
“It was probably cuz you’re too smelly,” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Maybe that’s it,” He laughed and pushed his hair back again.
A few seconds of silence passed.
“Well now what?” My mother watched him curiously.
“I don’t know,” He shrugged and looked around at all of us. “I kinda want to go swimming.”
“There’s a pool here too?” Alex looked at him in surprise. “They have everything here, don’t they?”
“Yeah it seems like it,” James agreed. “You guys wanna go?”
“Okay!” Drew nodded excitedly
Alex shrugged. “Sure.”
I crinkled my nose, not liking the thought of swimming in my clothes. I had always found it really weird, especially in a pool. Didn’t chlorine bleach things?
“You kids can go,” Mom smiled at the thought of us having time to bond and have fun. “I noticed there’s a coffee shop next door. Maybe me and Devon will go hang out there for a while.”
“You can take the car,” James dug his keys out of his bag and gave them to her. “You remember how to get out of here?”
“Yeah I should be fine,” She adjusted Devon on her hip. “You kids have fun!”
I felt an amused smile spread across my lips when she called us kids. James was 22, Drew was 16, and Alex and I were both 18. We were far from being kids.
AN: very appropriate gif on the side lol ->