Not the headlines!
Joey let me settle in last night. And he is a very clean guy.
Anyways I walk into the training centre today. I told Joey to meet me here. We need to talk with Lamar.
When Joey arrives we walk up.
"Don't be intimidated, Lamar is a teddy bear. Just let me do all the talking," I tell him.
He nods.
I push open the door, "hey Lamar I- you've got to be kidding me."
"Hey! Watch your tone." Lamar says.
Amarion is sitting right beside him.
"Lamar, can I talk to you... privately?"
"Who's he?" Amarion asks.
I glance at Joey just as he is going to reply and I put my hand over his mouth. "Lamar please." I give him my sad eyes.
"Ugh, fine Mar get out."
Amarion gets up and walks past us. I push the back of his leg in, making him trip. Then I close the door.
"Play nice," Lamar warns me.
"Okay, so this is Joey Easterbrook. Please let me train him."
"Izzy you are booked for like the next three years."
"I think it's obvious that he should fill Amarion's slot."
Joey looks at me like I'm insane, "Isabella how dare you to suggest dropping our biggest success?"
"Uncle Lamar! I am the biggest success. I went to the Olympics twice. I was the one who got Amarion through qualifiers. I was the one who trained him for gold! I am not training him after what he did to me." I rage.
Lamar sighs, "You are right. I'm sorry. You are the biggest success. But the boy seems sorry."
"You did not just go there! He slept with my sister! He hasn't even told me that he's sorry! He can't take responsibility and say he did it. He wants to put all the blame on Stella! I am not training Amarion and that's that." I heave. I am such an idiot, I said all of that in front of Joey.
Mental facepalm.
"How do you know he can make it?"
"He's got the face. He's got the will. He gave me a new home..."
"Can he deal with... you know?"
He's talking about the fans.
"Well, Joey how did you feel yesterday after running away from a group of children?" I turn to him.
Joey begins to laugh. "It was exhilarating, like a new type of training."
Lamar's face drops, "Wait. You were running with him? I saw that on the cameras. Izzy, it's in the papers."
"What do you mean it's in the papers?" I pull out my phone and put my name in the google search bar.
Isabella Jackson runs away from a group of fans with a new man.
Isabella Jackson... is she cheating on Amarion Jacobs?
Isabella Jackson runs with new arm candy.
Oh, God.
Oh, God.
Oh, God.
Not the headlines!
"I'll fix this later. But Lamar, give him a chance." I say desperately.
"The question is... can he pay?"
"You said you need more employees, you said I could use an assistant with my overflowing clients. How about him?"
Lamar curses under his breath, I am good at making deals.
"Fine, you start today. And start with Mar," he grumbles.
"I said I'm not-"
"Just for today. Now get out." He says.
"Thank you, Thank you. Thank you!" I hug Lamar. Joey thanks him too, shaking his hand.
"Okay, so Joey I want you to observe so you know how I run things," I tell him walking up to the track.
"Are you sure you are like okay emotionally to be working." He asks.
"Of course I am. You are my new good luck charm. Let's get to work Easterbrook." I skip the last couple of steps.
"Jacobs if you aren't here in 10 seconds you know what will happen!" I yell into the open space.
Amarion appears.
"Did you stretch today?" I don't want to be talking to him but I am a professional.
He shakes his head.
We go through a full-body stretch. I like to focus on the quads, arms and ankles. And most importantly the core.
I explain everything out loud so Joey can take mental notes.
If you are more grown I'm harder on you.
When we get to the core exercise I chose wall sits. I know Amarion hates them.
"For all core workouts, we don't start counting until it hurts. I can easily tell if you are lying."
Amarion's longest wall sit before it hurts is 4 minutes. At four minutes and thirty seconds his face scrunches up and I start counting.
"Hold it. Keep your head up. Keep your arms up. Keep your eyes on mine. Breathe...Stop holding your breath. With your diaphragm. Just a couple more seconds..."
"Iz I can't."
"What was that one more minute? Okay." I smirk.
He groans.
"And release."
Amarion drops to the floor.
"Get a drink, put on your runners we are training outside. Melissa has the club booked in here."
I grab Joey's hand and walk down to the outdoor track.
"Is he okay?"
"Joey he is fine. If you don't push yourself every day you won't get any better. But if you can't wall sit for five minutes we are going to have issues like how I did inside."
I take training seriously.
"My top is seven minutes. Look at these bad boys."
"Joey put your shirt down there are minors out here." I hit him playfully, to avoid the fact that his man's abs are so toned.
"Amarion 100 meters alright?" I yell through a megaphone.
He nods walking towards the starting line.
I turn my head and look at Joey, "go race him."
"I don't have my shoes. Or the right shirt."
I pull out a bag and give the man his cleats. "I'm always prepared. And just take off the shirt. No ones watching you. Except for the teenage girls in that building." I point in front of us at the dance studio.
Joey sets up in lane three. Amarion in lane two.
I set up my phone and record. I pick up the air gun and pull the trigger. They speed off.
Yes, Amarion won. I already knew that. I just wanted to compare both of their styles.
"Alright Joey you can watch again," I pick up the megaphone.
"Amarion single tag team. Start at the beginning."
When I'm training a team I do a drill call tag team but if it's one person I say a single tag team.
This drill teaches the athlete to listen and pace themselves. The athletes must sprint or jog until I say 'up' or 'down.'
Up means ten burpees.
Down means mountain climbers or holding a plank until I say go one again.
I usually make adults do 3200 metres while kids only do 1500.
An hour and a half later...
"Alright, Amarion you can hit the showers." I walk away with the megaphone and Joey follows.
"Iz wait!"
I don't have time for him off the track.
"Isabella please!" He stops right in front of me.
"Can we talk things over?"
I laugh. I genuinely laugh in his face. "I thought I made it clear that I was done with you... Joey let's head back to the apartment. We have things to go over before we hit the hay."
I walk past Amarion and he pulls me back, "you're living with him?"
"He has a name. And why does it matter to you!"
"So you moved on just like that?" His grip on my arm gets tighter.
"Amarion let go of me." He's attracting a crowd. The teens came out to the track and the club is leaving.
It's like he didn't hear me. I try pulling my arm back and it gets tighter, "Amarion let go of me! I met Joey yesterday! What the hell is wrong with you. I broke up with you!"
He's cutting off my circulation.
"What the heck bro! She said let go of her." Joey pushes him to the ground.
Both men are fit and built. Amarion has about two inches in height against Joey, plus it's clear that Joey works harder in toning his body.
Amarion gets up to attack Joey. A crowd now surrounds us. I stand in front of Joey, facing Amarion. "You won't touch him. Forgot to say that was our last training session... Joey let's go."
I drag him away. When we get back to 34C I go to my room and take a shower while Joey did the same in his room.
I finish first and set up the tv with the clips I took today.
Soon enough he walks into the living room, "sit we need to talk progress."
Joey takes a seat beside me on the couch. I play the video.
"Do you know what went wrong?" I ask him.
He shakes his head, "no but you'll tell me what."
"Joey your form is nearly perfect. You spring forward at the sound of the gun. This lets you leap into the air. You beat Amarion until you reached the point where your body is straight. You have the speed, you need to work on endurance and balance." I play the video in slow motion.
"Right here. Right when you straighten you are unbalanced. Completely off centre. Sir your core may be toned but it's not as strong as mine."
"Izzy put your shirt down there are gym geeks outside." He steals my joke. As we do live in an area where a lot of people workout.
I know we have to talk about the elephant in the room... I just don't want to bring it up.
"Joey I'm sorry for Amarion-"
"It's okay. But what's not okay is you giving him a reaction. Now I'm added to the mix. If there's no reaction there's no show." He says.
He's right. No reaction, no show. I give him a nod and trail back to my room.
I can feel his eyes on me. Before I reach the door Joey grabs my hand and I wince, pulling my arm back.
"Isabella?"
"Joey I am fine." I brush it off.
Joey stops me once more by holding onto my forearm. Then he pulls up my sleeve, revealing the dangerously dark purple bruises around my wrist.
Joey doesn't say a word but guides me towards the kitchen and gives me an ice pack.
"Sit." He says as he gets out a bunch of, I dont know herbs and creams. He mixes the together in a small bowl and passes it to me along with a roll of elastic bandages.
"I can tell you don't like receiving help, but please. Before you go to bed put the cream around the swelling and wrap it. We never have to talk about this again. Goodnight." I didn't even get to thank him before he had disappeared into his room.
I shake it off... It's time...I need to call Afi. She's my manager. I need to get my name clear.
WELL ITS THURSDAY!
And we are beginning to meet more of our main characters.
What did you guys think of this chapter?
Next update will be Tuesday!