Fighting for her Life

Chapter 20 - Skye

As I pull up to my place, I remember what Randy said about being popular and I pull out my phone. Randy wasn't lying I discover that I have a number of voice messages and a few texts all from Jess so, I just delete them.  I cannot listen to his voice right now and I am not interested in what the texts convey.  I head toward my front door, ready for a hot soak which will hopefully lead to some sleep before I run back to the gym tonight. When I open the door what I see is not something I was expecting, there on my couch is Jess, head down and he looks like he fell asleep.  How did he get into my place? What is he doing here? I go through the anger all over again, so I slam my door and he jumps.

"Skye. Sweetheart!" He is staring at me like he cannot believe I'm here.

"How did you get in?" I whisper since there is now a ball of emotions closing my throat.

"Skye, come sit down.  I need to talk to you, please Sweetheart?" As he stands to make his way to me my body starts to shake, and I try to control it.

"Get out Jess!  There is nothing I need to say to you and nothing I want to listen from you." As he gets close, I lift my hands to stop him from getting closer

Jess

When she walks into her place where I have been waiting for the last two hours my heart seems like it is beating again and she stares at me with so many emotions in her eyes but the one showing loud and clear is hurt.

"Skye, Sweetheart!" My heart is beating so hard and loud I wonder if she can see and hear it.

"How did you get in?" Her walls are back up and they seem higher than before, but I will break them down I have to.

"Skye, come sit down I need to talk to you please Sweetheart." I stand up and make my way to her I need to hold her, but she stops me tracks with her words.

"Get out Jess! There is nothing I need to say and nothing I want to hear from you." I need her to listen, and I cannot contain everything I'm feeling so I just give into everything I'm holding. "This isn't about what you want Skye, it's about what I have to say, and you ARE going to listen!  Then if you still want me to go I will." I pause to make sure she is listening to me and continue.

"Yes, what I said to you that night was a d**k move.   I waited and waited for you to open up to me and you looked me in the eyes and lied right to my f*****g face.  You crushed me with that lie I thought we were in this together, I thought you were all in, you told me you were all in, but we weren't you were always waiting for us to fail an-"

"GET. OUT. And leave my f*****g key on your way out!" As she pushes her way by me, I grab her hand, she swings around and punches me in the face and I taste the blood in my mouth.

"f**k Skye, that hurt!" I say as I lick my lip. Instead of me leaving, she walks out her door and right onto her bike.  That did not go as planned, f**k she is stubborn.

Skye

I hit him, I f*****g hit him.  Why did I hit him? My mind is all over and full of chatter that I need to park my bike before I lose focus and hurt someone.  I pull into the parking lot of my favorite pub; I order a shot of Patron Silver and a steak. Trying to clear my head of all the noise is causing a tension headache instead of clearing my head.   I pull out my phone and notice that I have been riding around aimlessly for over four damn hours.  I will need to be back in the gym in a couple of hours, but before I head to the gym I need to swing by my place and grab my stuff.  My order comes out and I try to regain some sort of calm and eat in peace.  As I sit at the table thinking of everything that has happened, my phone dings and I wonder if the guy from the gym cancelling. I glance at the message just seeing who sent it makes me sad and against my better judgment I open the message;

Please do not hit delete, please just read my message and after you can delete.

I am so sorry that I hurt you, that was never my intention. At first, I had no idea about you and Jess, he never told me your name. He has been talking about you for quite some time now. When I tried to ask you where you worked or what your boss' name was you never told me. It didn't take long after the fight to put it all together.  Jess came and knocked me on my ass. At that point I should have mentioned something, but you are a hard nut to crack.  I thought in time you would open up to me and I was okay with that, which I see now was wrong, but you were so happy with Jess and my brother was so happy, you both seemed perfect together.  I never wanted to be like your brother a betray you,, that was never what I wanted.  I do love you like a sister, I treasure what we had.  I appreciate that this is a lot to take in and for that I'm truly sorry and hope one day you will be able to forgive me.

I miss you,

Johnny

I finish reading his message I feel the tears running down my face as I stare at the message.  I remind myself that he didn't trust me enough to be honest with me once he knew and that hurts. So instead of replying I hit delete, pay my bill and head home to grab my stuff.

I arrive at the gym half hour early and start my warmup.  Just before eight Randy walks in from the back of the gym where the offices are located, and Tito is right behind him shaking his head.

"Ready for round two?" I glance at Randy and he is smiling at me.

"Yup, my body is warm and ready to go." I head for the ring and Randy let me in first and Tito approaches me.

"I have been in the back watching you for the last half hour are you sure, you're up for this?" Again, with this concern.  f**k!

"Why wouldn't I be?" I reply bouncing on the balls of my feet. I need this right now there is too much going on in my head and I need the silence.

"Okay." He checks my hands, and the match starts.

At first, I feel good. I am aware of my surroundings and my body is moving quickly to avoid Randy's punches and then he hits me nicely with a hook.  My mind instantly goes to the way I hit Jess and what he was saying, then to the message from Johnny and everything is just playing out in my mind.  I feel another blow and I hear Tito yelling at me to get my head in the game and once again I think of Johnny and my last underground fight.  Johnny on the side, him yelling at me to get my head in the game and then I flash back to why my head wasn't in the game, Jess' kiss and then -

"Ow! f**k!" I am laying on my back Randy is on top of me glaring at me and Tito is yelling something, but my ears are ringing, I can't hear him, so I clear my head and stand up.

"What the f**k was that Skye? What just happened in here? Where the f**k was your head?" Tito is furious, and he has every right to be.

"Ease up man.  I would have never hurt her you know that." Randy is trying to calm Tito down. I remove my mouth guard and approach the two men feeling defeated.

"Sorry, that won't happen again."

"No, it won't, take tomorrow off and get your head on right.  Then come back Monday morning and we'll go from there." Tito is livid.

"Yeah okay." I don't change just grab my bag and head out, as I approach my bike I hear my name being called.

"Skye, hold on a second." Turning I see Randy.

"What happened in there?  You were lost and no matter how I came at you, you stood there and took it. I couldn't pull you out of your head it was like you wanted to get hurt, did you want to get hurt Skye?" Repeatedly, with this f*****g concern and everyone wanting to know about everything.  Well, no thank you.

"Like I said sorry, my head was not in the game it won't happen again." Without another word I pull my bike out and I realize my body is to wound up, so I ride for a bit and when that doesn't help with calming me and the adrenaline is nowhere close to leaving, I head home. I can't get my body to relax, and I feel so jumpy that I decide to go for a run hoping that will work.  Once I hit five miles, my legs are shaking and I know I have pushed my body to its limits, but I still feel restless, so I head home and try to relax.

Jess

Last night after Skye knocked me out and left, I came to my brothers, we drank and talked until we were both numb.  I told him about going to Skye's place, letting myself in, waiting for her to get home and how it did not go as planned.  When I reach the part of how I am now sporting a busted lip, he laughed and told me he was proud of her and that my lip looked good.  I told him how many text messages and voice messages I left her over the last couple of days and how she just deleted them without reading them. Every time she deleted a text message, I received a message announcing it has been deleted without being read. Last night Johnny decided he was going to try to get her to see reason and sent her a message, but his phone died before we found out if she seen or read his text.  After consuming an unhealthy amount of alcohol, we passed out sitting next to each other on the couch.  At some point the sun woke us up from our drunken night, I was making coffee, while Johnny went to grab his phone, when he made his way back in, I looked at him in question.

"She read it!" He states flipping his phone to me.

"And?"

"No response, I have no idea if it got through to her or if she just opened it and I guess decided she didn't care what I had to say."

"What if you went by her place?  Do you think she would talk to you?"

"Honestly, I don't know if she would.  What I do know is if we keep coming at her, she is just going to close down altogether and not let either of us in.  We need to hope she read my message and give her time to process it, hopefully she'll come to one of us on her own."

"I really hope you're right on this one, because if you're wrong, she'll be lost to us forever."

"I have to head over to the gym to open up.  You need a workout or you just chilling here for a bit?"

"Workout sounds good, give me two and I'll head in with you."