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‘Get up.’ Ollie directed.

Ollie was my coach, he’d trained me before I upped and between posts after I’d upped. Paul had called him and got him to open up the gym for me that day he barged into my apartment eight days ago now. From then on, I’d been training all day every day and I’d gained a lot back- I was almost back to my original weight having gained back some more muscle but it didn’t come without a price. Trying to get back to what I was before the accident was clearly not going to happen overnight especially seeing as I couldn’t remember all of the experience and training I’d got since I’d re-upped.

It was nearly one am, we’d been going for about three hours. I’d started with an hour of running followed by core for another forty minutes and then cycling for eighty minutes and now we were in the boxing ring. I was dying- no actually I was dead. A dead girl walking and trust me when I say being dead doesn’t make it hurt any less.

‘No, I don’t feel good.’ I coughed into the mat trying to breathe through the pain in my stomach.

‘You’re just tired.’ He stated, his Scottish accent made his voice sound even harsher. ‘You need to push through it! Every hit you take, make your hits better… stronger. Now, get up.’

I raised my head off the mat and used the pillar to pull myself up to a standing position. I saw Paul nod appreciatively from his chair outside the ring. Ollie jumped up and down a bit smacking his fists together that were clothed in boxing gloves. I hacked and then spat a wad of blood and spit from my mouth before shaking out my arms and legs. I cracked my neck and back before turning to him.

Ollie was a good fighter; he wasn’t the strongest but he knew a lot about technique and knew how to read people. Like now I knew he was pin-pointing my weaknesses, where I was hurting the most, and he would exploit them without any kind of hesitation.

So how was I going to play this? If I was Ollie, I’d know that my stomach, back and right shoulder were the weak spots. So in his head, he’s going for a belly shot to which I’d double over and try to counter with a left undercut which I’d miss because he’d already have hit my elbow across causing me to hit my own right shoulder. He’d follow up with a round house to the hip then take out the legs…

‘Ready?’

I looked up to meet his determined cold eyes and saw him twitch slightly seeing my change in attitude before he changed to smirk at me as I moved my feet apart to get a solid stance- finally I was some competition.

‘Ready.’ I stated.

He charged immediately and went for the body shot I predicted. I twisted to the side dancing out of his way before swinging my leg upwards to make contact with his face that was craned forwards leering at me agressively. He stumbled back, wiping blood from his nose onto his t-shirt.

‘Alright, I’ll give you that one.’ He smirked, ‘But I’m calling it a fluke…’

He charged again feigning another undercut and going for a shot to my jaw. I blocked it and used his momentum against him to force him away from me following up with a punch to his temple.

‘Now that’s the Jamie I remember.’ He muttered, touching his head with a wince.

I grinned and smacked my fists together. ‘You alright to go again, old man?’

‘I’m not that old.’ Ollie smirked. ‘Just ask your face in a few minutes.’

I felt a smile grow on my face as my feet found a comfortable stance and my hands raised to a block in front of my face. As Ollie launched himself at me, I felt my body move without thinking. My knees bent kicking off the mat to throw a leg around his neck before twisting my body around which pulled Ollie’s sharply to the floor. I landed on the ball of one of my feet with my other foot on his throat; he stared at me in shock. I let go of his neck immediately and staggered back away from him.

‘What the hell was that?’ I muttered collapsing against the corner of the boxing ring.

‘One of your moves.’ Paul replied hurrying into the ring to check on Ollie.

‘What?’ I asked still shell-shocked, ‘I’ve never done that before in my life!’

‘Yes, you have.’ He said finally turning to me.

I looked between the two of them bewildered and quickly twisted my body out of the ring,
grabbing my bag without stopping as I hurried exhaustedly out of the gym. I was surprised that neither of them stopped me but I guess they were just as shocked as I was. I walked as fast as I could through the pain in my muscles and the tightness in my chest. I eventually couldn’t walk any faster and slowed to a stop throwing my bag onto the pavement angrily.

This was all Paul’s fault! If he hadn’t have tried to ‘help’ me, this would have never happened! I rubbed my temple as I leant against the wall and pulled out a cigarette. I lit it shakily before holding it to my lips. I took a long drag and swallowed the smoke into my lungs before letting it spill out through my nose.

I felt the anger melt off me like waves and sighed irritated at myself.

Great job, Jamieson.

Notes

Little filler, sorry its been so long!! will post more regularly from now on ;)

T xx