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I kept rereading the words on the paper over and over again:
She sure is pretty, Tom. You should take better care of her. We'd hate to see someone take advantage of such a sexy girl.
Eventually, my hands started shaking and my eyes got blurry with tears. "Fuck," I muttered, placing my hand on my forehead. "Fuck. Fuck!" I looked up at Tom, wiping away a tear that had fallen. "This is bullshit! What the fuck does this even mean?" Tom put his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.
"I'm so sorry," he mumbled. Everyone turned their heads to look at him, and I wondered if Tom apologizing was a rare occurrence. From what I knew of him, that didn't surprise me.
"I don't understand," April said. "Why are Mackie's guys after you all anyway?"
"It's my fault," Tom admitted, still not looking up at us.
"It's not," Harrison argued with a shake of his head. "And you've gotta stop telling yourself it is."
"Why would it be your fault?" April asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"I'm the one who moved us from London to Mackie's neighborhood," he explained. "He's been after us for five years. I took his territory, and he wants it back. If I had kept us in London-"
"-we would've had a different set of problems in a different country," Harrison said. "Trouble's gonna be wherever we are. We just have to deal with it."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, then Harry sighed. "Okay," he said, "we've established how they know who April and (Y/N) are , but how did they know (Y/N) was out?"
"And why are they going after (Y/N) and not April?" Sam repeated.
"Well," Harrison said slowly, like he was hesitant, "April is associated with me, right? She's my girlfriend. (Y/N) is, in turn, associated with Tom."
"How am I associated with Tom?" I asked. "By default?"
"I mean, you guys were dancing together at the club that you said Mackie's guys were at," April answered. "I guess it kind of makes sense." Tom and I made eye contact for a slight second before we both looked away.
"All that aside," Harry said, "I still don't get how they knew (Y/N) was out. And how they knew that's where she would be."
"Is someone watching us?" I asked.
"No way," Tom said. "No one could be watching the house. There's no way."
"Okay," I said. "Then I don't get it."
"Let's forget about how this happened for a second," Harrison said. "The thing we should be focusing on is making sure that you guys know what to do if this happens again."
"What does that mean?" April asked.
"I think we should teach you about the job," he said, "and how to protect yourselves if something happens to you."
"Like self defense?" April said.
"Like self defense," Harrison repeated with a nod. April and I looked at each other before we both nodded.
"Okay," April said. "If that's what you think is the best idea."
"I do," Harrison said a smirk resting on his lips. "Tom?"
Tom shrugged. "I guess it couldn't hurt."
"Great," Harrison said. "So I'll help April, you can help (Y/N)?" I rolled my eyes, and Tom sighed but nodded. "Why don't we get started right away, then," Harrison said. "You girls go put on some gym stuff and come right back. We'll take you down to the gym."
Even though this was not how I wanted to spend my morning, I knew Harrison was right. We needed to know how to defend ourselves if something worse were to happen than what happened last night. So, I went into my room and sifted through my clothes before pulling out a pair of cropped leggings and a grey v-neck t-shirt. While I was putting my hair in a ponytail, there was a knock at my door. "Yeah?" I called. Instead of April like I assumed it would be, it was Tom. "Oh," I trailed, dropping my arms to my sides. "What are you doing here?"
"Can I come in?" he asked. I realized that he actually hadn't stepped into the room, which surprised me. It was way more like him to just walk right in.
"Uh, sure," I said now really confused by his actions. Tom nodded and walked in, closing the door behind him and placing his hands inside his pockets. "You're being weird," I said crossing my arms over my chest.
"Sorry," Tom apologised, shaking his hair through his hand. "I just think that we should fix this-" He motioned between the two of us.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped. "Fix what?"
"Jesus," Tom mumbled. "Do you have to be so dramatic about everything?"
"I'm being dramatic?" I shouted. "Let's talk about how you stalked me and followed me!"
"And saved your life!" Tom shouted back. "God, you're so, so-"
"So?"
"So infuriating!" Tom said. "Wow infuriating, what a big boy word, trying to act smart Holland!" I teased bringing my hands over to my hips. "Look, if you expect me to help you defend yourself, we need to stop being at each other's throats all the time!"
"I'll stop if you'll stop!" I shouted back.
"That's what I'm saying!" Tom groaned. "I'm saying that I'll stop! I'm saying I'm sorry I've been a dick, and I want to stop! So let's fucking stop!"
My shoulders dropped a little bit. "Oh," I said. I poked my tongue against my cheek and looked around the room awkwardly. "Okay. Yeah. I guess you're right." I paused. "So this is like a truce?" Tom cracked a grin.
"Yeah," he said. "I guess it's a truce." I stuck out my hand for him to shake. "Truce," he said, gripping my hand and giving it a firm shake.
"Truce," I repeated. His hand gripped mine for a moment longer than expected, and when he pulled away he put his hands back in his pockets.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said with a nod. "Just let me grab my Nikes."
The truce felt weird and slightly unbelievable, but after what happened last night, I knew I needed to learn how to protect myself. I figured that would be easier if Tom and I weren't constantly fighting, even if our feelings of non-hatred were forced or pretend.
Tom lead me downstairs to the gym which I had no idea even existed. It wasn't as nice as the rest of the house. It wasn't like a five star gym. It was like a dull room with a boxing ring in the middle, some weight-lifting machines in one corner, two treadmills in another, and then a few punching bags along one of the walls.
April and Harrison were in the middle of the ring stretching. Tom and I went to join them. We did a few basic stretches before going over to the punching bags along the wall. Tom held mine while Harrison held April's.
"Okay," Tom started. "Let's wrap up your hands." April and I nodded, so Tom and Harrison each started wrapping our hands. "You start by putting your thumb in the loop," Tom explained as he did it for me. "Then you're gonna go three times around the wrist-" He did. "-then three times around the hand." I was completely mesmerized as Tom wrapped my hand so intricately. "Now, we'll make three x 's. We'll go back behind the thumb, and then bring it between the pinky and ring finger and then bring it across the back of your hand and back around your thumb. The second x , you'll do the same thing except between your ring and middle, then again but between your middle and pointer. Then we'll go once around the thumb, flip the hand over, and go three times around the knuckles." We had a little bit of the wrap left, so Tom explained that we'd use the rest of it just by rewrapping the wrists and knuckles a few more times before securing it at the end.
Tom looked up at me after wrapping my first hand and gave me a small nod and a smile. "Do you want to try this one on your own?" he asked, taking my other hand and lifting it. I considered it for a moment but shook my head no.
"You can do it," I said. "Don't wanna do it wrong." Tom just chuckled and nodded, repeating the process on my other hand. When he was done, I thought I noticed him brush his thumb across my wrapped knuckles. I convinced myself I imagined it. "Alright," he said, clearing his throat a bit. "Let's do this." He clapped his hands together walking to the centre of the boxing ring followed by Harrison.
They both first showed us how to plant our feet and told us to punch the bag in sets of three -right, left, right- using the proper form. They said we would do this in twelve sets of two minutes with thirty second rests in between. "Make sure you keep your thumb on the outside of your fist," Tom said, taking my hand and adjusting how I was making a fist. "If you keep it inside, you'll break your thumb." April and I both started hitting our bags, and Harrison started teaching us some lessons.
"If you are in a physical fight," Harrison said, "go for the vulnerable body parts- eyes, groin, and throat."
"And if you end up getting taken," Tom said, "do your best to not get taken to a secondary location."
"If a car starts to drive alongside you," Harrison added, "turn around and run in the opposite direction. It'll buy you some time. But if you do get grabbed and shoved in the trunk, knock out the taillights with your foot and stick your hand out so cars behind you can see you. Do anything so that someone can see you."
"Don't some cars have those handles that pop the trunk from the inside?" I asked, wiping some sweat from my forehead.
"Chances are if you're put in a trunk, they've already taken that out," Tom said. I nodded and continued hitting the bag. "Now," he said again, "let's go over the rules."
"The rules?" I repeated.
"This family runs by twelve rules," Tom said, holding my punching bag more firmly as it swayed a bit. "We call them the Holland Family Commandments."
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