"Mom, Dad. I'm here" I said as I walked through the door of my parents' house.
I grew up in this house. When I was 19 I moved to LA to train at Don's gym, my coach.
"Josh honey. I'm so glad to see you" my mother said as she gave me a hug.
"How are you, son? You took some good punches last night" my father told me worried.
"I'm fine dad, don't worry. My arms and hands hurt a little, but nothing that time can't cure" I said reassuring him.
While we were eating I told them about this morning's session and that I had been invited to a party this week.
"I'm glad you're finally making friends" my mother said with a smile "In LA you're always training and you don't talk to anyone but Don or Mike."
"Mom, I'm not in high school anymore. You don't have to worry about these things."
The next morning I got a message when I was coming back from running. I looked at the cell phone and it was an unknown number.
-Hi, I'm Cara. This is the address for tomorrow's party.
-Thanks Cara
-By the way, you have to pick me up
-Why?
-Because you're a gentleman and because I want to
**Address**
-Pick me up at seven.
-Okay.
I left my phone and made myself breakfast. I spent the rest of the day in the gym.
"Josh, you must rest," Don told me when I had already been hitting the sack for 30 minutes "You fought two days ago. And you won. Take a couple of days off."
"But Don, the title fight is in two months. I can't rest."
"If you overexert yourself, you'll get hurt. Let your body recover from the fight. Come back here on Monday. This discussion is over" and after that Don turned around and went to help another guy.
I sighed as I sat in the locker room. It's true I was a little tired. But I couldn't afford to rest. Being the champion was my dream, I couldn't let it slip away.
The next day passed very slowly. Since I couldn't go to train, I didn't know what to do while I waited for the time to go pick up Cara.
At six o'clock I began to prepare. I put on some gray jeans and a white t-shirt. I put on my Yeezy and tried to comb my hair a little.
As there was traffic, I left my apartment a little earlier.
I was right. When I arrived at Cara's house it was seven o'clock but I couldn't see her anywhere so I sent her a message.
-Where are you?
-Down in a minute
I immediately saw Cara leave the building and head for my car.
"Just in time," she said as she sat in the seat on my side.
"There won't be many people, will there?" I asked, starting the car.
"Don't worry, buddy. Are you nervous about a party but not about getting in a ring and hitting someone else?" she told me punching me in the arm.
"In the ring I control what happens. Parties have never been my thing."
"Don't worry about it. There won't be many of us. It's at a friend's house so only close friends go"she said, looking at her cell phone.
"And they don't care if I go?"
"Nah. Some even want to meet you."
"Who wants to meet me?" I asked in surprise.
"Mmm Zayn, Gigi and I think Justin too" she said without giving it much importance.
I never thought people like that would want to meet me. A year ago I was nobody and now I was going to a party with Cara freaking Delevingne because singers and models wanted to meet me. Who would have guessed.
We didn't take long to get to the party. I was surprised to see a huge mansion. We got out of the car and I could hear some music coming from inside.
I was glad to see that there weren't many cars parked in the driveway. Which meant there wouldn't be many people inside. I've never been very good at meeting new people so parties with a lot of people stressed me out a lot.
Cara knocked on the door and a few seconds later did not open a tall blonde girl.
"Hey Cara!" she shouted as she gave her a hug.
"What's up, Hailey? This is Josh," she said pointing to me.
"Nice to meet you," I said.
"The pleasure is mine,"; Hailey smiled at me. "Come in. They're all here now."
When we came in, Hailey took us to the living room. Where there was a group of people sitting on the couches and talking to each other. When we entered the room everyone was quiet and looked at us.
I could recognize all of them, after all they were known all over the world. There were Justin Bieber, Gigi and Bella Hadid, Zayn Malik, Kendall and Kylie Jenner and Hailey, who had sat next to Justin.
"Hey guys" said Cara grabbing my arm "This is Josh. The friend I told you about."
"Hi, everybody," I said a little uncomfortable.
They all greeted me and introduced themselves, although it wasn't really necessary.
I sat between Cara and Zayn Malik.
"You put up a big fight the other night" Zayn told me when he saw me sitting next to him.
"Thank you. It got a little tricky in the end, but it all went well."
"Yeah, I saw the fight too. You gave that guy a good beating" Gigi said a little excited.
"Do you guys like boxing?"
"Some of us see some boxing from time to time" Bella said.
"Cool."
"You know, Gigi box too" Hailey suddenly said.
"Really?"
"But nothing serious, I'm not even amateur, but it would be nice if you taught me some moves" replied the model.
"Sure, anytime."
"Well Josh, we heard you're going to fight for the title against Canelo. Is it true?" Justin asked.
"Yeah, that's the idea. The fight will be in two months"
"So soon?" asked Kendall, who had so far been silent. "I thought that after one fight more time passed until the next."
"Normally yes. But one of the conditions of my fight for the title was that it would have to be two months after getting the first place in the ranking."
"All right. No more talking. Let's go to the pool!" Cara suddenly shouted.
"To the pool? I don't have a bathing suit." I said.
"Don't worry about it. I can leave you one of my own" replied Zayn.
I thanked him and went to one of the bathrooms on the second floor to change.
By the time I got down, everyone had gone out except Kendall. She was sitting on one of the sofas looking at her cell phone.
"Don't you go out with the others?" I asked her.
"I'll be right there in a minute" he said.
"Is everything okay?" I'd just met her and didn't know if I was getting too involved in her life.
"What do you do when the person you like doesn't listen to you?" he said suddenly.
"Excuse me?"
"It's my boyfriend, Ben. We've been dating for a couple of months. But sometimes he seems to ignore me. He doesn't show up for our dates or he doesn't answer my messages. But if I get angry he tells me that I exaggerate and that playing basketball takes up a lot of his time."
I was surprised at the sincerity with which she told me all that. If I remember correctly, her boyfriend was Ben Simmons, a 76ers player.
"Well, I guess in a way I understand you. Boxing often leaves me with no free time. But if he really wants to be with you, he should make an effort and order his priorities. You are a very beautiful and intelligent woman and many men would die to be with you."
"Do you really think so?"
"Of course. Now come on. Let's go with the others" I said, offering my hand.
She accepted it and we walked to the pool. That's when I let go of his hand and took off my shirt to enter the pool with the others.
"Wow, looks like someone's been working out" Bella said teasingly when I approached the pool.
"Shut up" I said blushing as I walked into the pool.
When it got dark, we went back into the house.
I went up to the bathroom to put on my clothes again.
"All right, now that we're all here. Let's play truth or dare" Cara said.
Everyone sat on the couches, and I did the same thing. The only empty place was next to Kendall so I sat next to her. She smiled at me so I smiled back.
"Josh, truth or dare?" Kylie asked me.
"Truth."
"How long has your longest relationship lasted?" Kylie asked me.
"A little less than a year" I replied after a thinking for a moment.
We kept playing and I didn't take long to realize that the worst dares came from Cara. He forced Zayn to do a striptease and Bella to drink a whole bottle of juice in one drink.
"Kendall, truth or dare?" Cara asked.
"Dare" she said.
"I dare you to do a lap dance for Josh" Cara said with a devilish grin.
"What?" I said surprised. Now I was really uncomfortable. Thanks Cara.
I looked at Kendall and saw that she was looking at me doubting. Then she got up and started dancing in front of me.
Everyone was screaming and cheering her on.
***
The next day I woke up fully rested.
I made myself breakfast when I got a message from another unknown number.
-Hey Josh. I'm Kendall. I just wanted to say I had a lot of fun last night and I'm glad you came. I also wanted to apologize for the dance, I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable
-Thank you for inviting me. Don't worry about the dance, it wasn't that bad :P
-I also wanted to know if you wanted to come to a fashion event tonight. Gigi, Zayn and Cara will be there too.
-Of course. What time?
-I'll pick you up at six.
-Perfect, here's my address