I gathered my things and ran down to the kitchen, meeting Marissa there.
"Oh, I was just about to come up and get you," she said with a smile.
"No need, I'm right here, aaaaaand I have some good news," I said. I checked the living room to make sure that no one was there, yet I still whispered anyways.
"I got Marcus to agree to teach me fighting lessons." Marissa gave me a huge hug.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you," she said.
"Hey, we aren't out of the woods yet. There's still a lot of work to do. You don't want to know how he told me, but I'm just going to look at the bright side and call this a win."
The rest of the time we spent making sandwiches Marissa was in the best mood I had ever seen her in. Her long hair bounced around as she hummed songs while putting together sandwiches, sides, and the drinks.
When I said I helped her, she normally only let me cut the tomatoes or get the plates out of the cabinet for her. She did most of the rest herself, and since I wasn't a mind reader and I didn't know what she was going to do next, I could only really do the small things.
After lunch, Marissa and I cleaned up a bit of the house, and we even convinced Robert and Lukas to join us for watching a movie. I was surprised to see that they picked a comedy. Marissa and Robert sat next to each other one one couch, and Lukas sat at the end of the same couch as me, probably because you couldn't see the tv as well from the other couch.
The entire movie I sat there wondering where Marcus was and what he was up to. Was he still trying to read the book? Was he sitting in his room throwing knives at a picture of me? Was he out fucking some random girl?
I brushed off the last thought and tried to focus on the movie, but it didn't work too well. Marissa was proof after when she and were cleaning up the mess of popcorns the boys had made.
"You seemed distracted during the move; is everything okay?" she asked, concerned.
"To be honest, yeah. I was just thinking about....life," I said, deciding to lie.
"Are you sure?" she asked. I knew she was seeing right through me, but I also didn't want to get into what I was thinking about, so I assured her that everything was okay and I went up to my room for the rest of the day.
I was excited to begin fighting tomorrow. I had been cooped up for almost a month now, and it was starting to wear on me. I knew I was in a mansion, and the basketball court did wonders, but I had nervous energy that I needed to get out.
I also knew that we needed to start planning exactly how we were going to stage the Newmans taking me. Thinking about how I was going to get beaten was not something that made me very happy, but I was glad that they were giving me the time in order to heal properly before it.
I didn't join everyone for dinner, and I felt bad at first, but I knew that I needed to be alone for a bit. I know, hypocritically to what I just said about being cooped up, but this was more I needed time to think rather than space to run.
The world officially thought I was dead. Though I couldn't go outside, I already knew that my mother was further in her state of not caring about anything or anyone. Hell, she was probably happy that the food bill had gone down since I had disappeared. She was probably angry at me for messing around with her car insurance. Either way, I doubted that she missed me.
I set my alarm for 4:25AM for the following morning and crawled into bed, even though it was only 7 in the evening. I didn't care, I just wanted this day to be over. If I was really honest with myself, I just wanted to go back to when my dad was around and I didn't know anything about gangs and assholish men.
Marcus was leaning against the kitchen counter in dark grey sweatpants and a black thick strapped tank top when I got there. He was eating something, and he threw one at me before walking past me and down the hall.
"Good morning to you, too," I said. He grunted and I looked down at the protein bar he had given me. I hated these. They always tasted like powdered, processed, disgusting chocolate. A kind of chocolate that should be made illegal in every country across the world.
I noticed that he was carrying a black duffel bag with him down the hall. We walked until we almost reached Luis's office before he turned right and opened a door. I saw stairs that lead downwards.
"You're taking me to the basement?" I asked.
"Do you want to learn how to fight or not?" he retorted. Even as I walked down the stairs, I threw a sarcastic comment his way.
"I never said I wanted to learn from your torture victims." I was presently surprised to see that the basement was actually one very large gym and firing range. There were other parts that I was sure I couldn't see from the sheer size of it all, but for the most part, it didn't look like I would be finding any dead bodies down here.
Marcus walked to the left, putting the bag down on the inside of a large circle that had been painted on a mat. I hesitantly followed him, no longer having to stifle yawns because of too many emotions like confusions and slight fear raging through me.
I decided to try and make conversation instead of letting it continue to be awkward, "Why did you decide to help me?" I asked.
I watched as he got two sets of boxing gloves out of the bag, along with tape before he answered me, "You said it was important to you. I don't want to have to be worrying about my friends and family along with you if anything should happen." Ouch. I wasn't in either of those categories it seemed.
"Come here," he said.
"Please?" I asked, and dropped it when I received an icy glare. He grabbed one of my hands, clearing his throat before starting to wrap the tape around my knuckles. He then slid the glove over my hand and tightened the wrist band. Soon, he had done the same to himself and was facing me.
"I don't know how long your stay here is going to be, so I figured we could start with the basics: hand to hand combat and body motion."
"What are the boxing gloves for then?"
"So you don't hurt your hands when you punch me. Don't worry, we won't be using them for long," he replied. Then he gave me a right hook, at least, he was going to before he stopped. "Good to know, you don't have any sort of reaction at all."
I let the anger in me fire up at his words as he continues with whatever he was trying to teach me. I will say, when he told me to punch him, I was pretty sure I was the happiest person in the entire world.
"Harder," he said. I tried again, and he blocked it again with his arm. "Harder," he said with a little more force behind him. I tried again, punching harder though he still deflected it. "Rosie HARDER!" he said. I didn't punch at all because of the eruption that happened in my stomach when he called me Rosie.
The next moment I knew, he had pinned me on the mat and was staring at me in the eyes, "If you aren't going to take this seriously then I am not going to be wasting my time with you," he said angrily.
"I AM taking this seriously," I yelled at him.
"You won't even try to punch me like you would punch Newman if you ever saw him again."
At the mention of Newman's name, and seeing his face again, I pushed against Marcus with all the might I had and actually threw him up and off of me. I swung at him, hard enough that he actually had to doge and not just block my punch. I kicked him in the side, momentarily putting him off balance but then he was right back on.
"Newman, huh? Good to know," he said. He started undoing his boxing gloves, "We're done for today."
"Right when I actually start to get somewhere you want to stop?" I said in disbelief.
"Roseilin, we've been at this for two hours," he said, coming over and undoing the boxing gloves and putting them back in his bag. "Go eat something, shower, and get a little more sleep before the days starts." Even though he was still ordering me around, he was doing it with a little less assholeishness. It was something.
I walked away without saying anything, passing the kitchen and going straight for my room and took a quick shower, jumping back into bed and laying there. I didn't notice how much I had used my muscles until I was lying there, thinking about how he had said the nickname that I had never let anyone but my father use.
N/A I don't know what I love so much about this chapter, but at the same time, I know how much I love this chapter. Leave any comment you would like I would love to know what you guys think. Love you :)