Fighting for her Life

Chapter 19 - Jess

I need to get my s**t together.  I head to the office and once Skye comes in; we will be able to work this s**t out.   I am about to pull out of Johnny's driveway I receive an email notice and pull out my phone hoping it's Skye, when I open the email it's not what I was expecting.

Dear Mr. Royal,

Please note that effective immediately I will no longer be working for Royal Marketing.

Skye Anderson

Turning my key, I head over to the gym hopefully she went there for her training with Johnny.  As I enter the gym there is Johnny dripping in sweat, he is currently beating the s**t out of a guy, for a second, I'm glad this guy is in full protective equipment and suddenly I feel even worse because I did this.  I blow the whistle and they both stop to stare at me; the guy looks grateful for the damn whistle.

"Johnny that's enough! If you need to blow off that kind of steam, I will be back in a second and I'll come in that ring with you, so you can take out your frustration at the person that caused it."  I understand my brother is struggling, I need to fix this.  He comes out of the ring and heads straight to his office without a word, I follow him and close the door.

"She Quit!" I whisper and he stares at me like we might be getting in the ring after all.

"What the f**k did you expect Jess? Did you assume she would show up and just be your assistant?  Then you would just change her mind and she would welcome you with open arms?  You can’t be that f*****g stupid!" Johnny yelling and losing his cool is not something I can honestly say I have ever seen; he is the levelheaded one. Him blowing up sets me off, so I give it back to him without thought.

"I don’t f*****g know what I was expecting, you asshole!  My life just walked out on me and I don't know how to function without her.  You have no idea what this feels like, I LOVE HER!" My brother finally sits, his shoulder slouch in defeat when he looks at me, I feel his calm and I relax a little.

"She was here to clear her locker.  I tried to talk to her to explain things.  The sorrow I observed in her eyes was too much. She told me she loved me like a brother and that the joke was on her because I was exactly like her brother.  I was standing there dying from her words and before I could say anything, to tell her what she means to me/us she left."

"I'm so sorry Johnny."

"I know man, it's just really f****d up."

After a few minutes of silence, I decide to head to the office.  As I sit in my car, I pull out my phone and give her a call again and straight to voicemail.

"Skye, Please I need to talk to you. I understand you are hurting but we said we would work through things together, as a team and suddenly you just went and decided that was not part of the plan anymore. I need to explain things to you (sigh) call me back please Sweetheart."

Skye

I feel so exhausted, my mind just won't stop replaying thing that occurred over that last 24 hours.  My mind is now on new issues like; why do I still love Jess? Why do I seem so empty without him? My heart aches like I cannot get it to work properly, and it seems like I am suffocating.  I pull his pillow closer to me just to smell him and the tears are back. I push the pillow aside and get up, time to get ready and head-to-head my new gym and trainer. My heart hurts for another reason and person, I want to go and train with Johnny. Why would he betray me like that? He was my protector or at least that's how he made me feel and that couldn’t have been fake?  Grabbing my backpack, head out the door and head for my bike.

Walking into the gym I spot Tito my new trainer, from what turned up on him he used to be an MMA fighter and possesses some UFC lightweight titles, he is not here to work with people that are not serious on training.

"Morning Tito" I say as I make my way to the change room.

"Morning Skye, when you come out I need you to warm up your body and later I have someone I want you to work in the ring with and determine how you do together."

"Yeah sure, I'll be ready." God, I miss Johnny we always fought together.  After I'm warmed up Tito come over and lets me know the female, he had coming in had something come up and asked if I was good going in the ring with a male, I let him know that I'm used to working with a guy.

"Randy in the ring." He calls over his shoulder, the guy that approaches me is solid and I can't help but think "s**t he could hurt me." When Tito approaches me with headgear, I shake my head and put in my mouth guard.

"Skye this isn't a tapping match I need you to put this on, you can seriously get hurt!" Pulling out my mouth guard I look Tito in the eyes.

"No headgear, I have never worn one and I am not about to start now."

"Who trained you before? I can't believe they allowed no headgear." My back stiffens at the mention of Johnny.

"It doesn't matter where or who I have trained with, I don't use headgear." He raises his hands and lets me know that if he thinks I can't handle it he's calling it.

Randy is good, really good and I am getting beat but I throw it back to him blow for blow.  I can hear Tito yelling things to me, I try to focus on what he's saying but then Randy come at me with a sidekick to the chest, I bend over and try to catch my breath and Tito calls the match and approaches.

"That was incredible Skye, I have never witnessed anyone last that long with Randy ever, have you ever thought about training to go pro?"

"No, I'm not interested but thanks for asking."

"Well if you change your mind, let me know." I head back to the change room and just throw my pants and shirt over my workout clothes deciding to shower at home. That match made my body hurt and I need a soak.  I feel lighter, my mind was quiet, instead of thinking about everything I thought of not having my ass serve to me.

As I make my way out, I stop next to Tito as he is talking to Randy, "Can you fit me in anytime tonight?" He looks at me like I have lost my mind.

"Skye, you were here twice yesterday, you just had a serious session, take the night off and relax your body." I see the concern in his eyes, and I hate it, it's not real.

"My body is used to twice a day. I know I'm new here so I understand if your booked but if you -" Randy cuts me off and Tito turns to glance at him.

"I'll train with you if you don't care who you train with."

"Yeah sure that's great, what time works for you?"

"Eight work for you?" I nod and as I am about to leave, he says he'll walk out with me, my bike is right out the door so it's a quick walk.

"Do you have a cell?" He sees my confusion and laughs; I pull out my phone he takes it and looks at me this time I see confusion in his eyes. "No lock on your phone, not a good move.  You also seem to be a popular person; you have a number of missed calls and texts." He starts hitting numbers in my phone. "There now you have my number, if anything comes up and you can't make it, just let me know."

"Yeah of course, thank you."  Since we are standing out front and my bike is right in front of us, I decide that it's time to end this very uncomfortable conversation.  "Well, this is me, so I will catch up with you later." Securing my backpack, I get on my bike looking over to the gym doors I notice Randy standing there, ignoring him I pull out and head home