Chapter 2 #2
“You know what?” I say, taking a few steps backwards, towards the front. “I just remembered I have something else to do right now. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“No, wait!” Grant says, holding out a palm towards me with a look of worry on his face.
“You’re not the only one taking it.”
“I’m not?” I ask, glancing around again.
“No, Leo is too.” I look at the man skeptically. Leo is built, so there’s no way he doesn’t know how to defend himself. “And a couple of others, I’ll go grab them, then we can get started.”
I frown at his back as he quickly marches towards the man at the punching bag. I scan the gym. The only other people in here is the guy who greeted me, Matt, and another twenty-year-old guy who’s doing pull-ups.
“So,” Leo says, getting my attention. “A flyer brought you here?”
“Uh, yeah.” I lift the flyer I’m still holding and take a glance at it. “It surprised me, too.”
He glances at the flyer in confusion for a second before he says, “Yeah, I guess it’s not the best photo.”
“The photo?” I ask with a laugh. “The whole thing is poorly designed. There is no clear target audience, no call to action; there isn’t even a website or address.”
His eyebrows lift in surprise at my assessment, then he glances down at it again. “Huh, no wonder it doesn’t bring many people in.”
“How do you know?” I ask. Isn’t he a customer?
“Oh… I’ve been coming here for years,” he says, looking over my shoulder. “Here they come.”
I shrug off my jacket and backpack, placing them to the side as Grant moves to the front of the class.
“Alright, now everyone’s here, let’s get started.” The other three men come to stand in line with Leo and I. “Everyone spread out and we’ll do some stretching to warm up.”
Seriously? A self-defense class with all males and… me? Isn’t it normally women who take this type of class?
Grant runs through a series of stretches, touching our toes, stretching out to the sides, and lunges. Normally it would be pretty easy for me, but my side is still badly bruised from my last encounter with him, making some movements more painful.
“Now we’re all warmed up, we're going to start with some basics. Matt and Callum, you two partner up.” Grant turns towards me next. “Clara, you can partner with Leo and Asher.”
Oh great. The guy who was beating the living crap out of the punching bag is partnering with me?
Asher and Leo step closer so we’re in a sort of triangle.
I glance at the man nervously. He has a small scar above his right eyebrow, and his dark brown eyes watch me, as if he’s waiting to see what I’ll do next.
He’s shorter than Leo but stockier and has a slightly darker skin tone. His body is all coiled muscles. He’s wearing navy gym shorts and a blank tank top that lets his tattoos show along his arms and collarbone.
“Clara, this is Asher,” Leo says, breaking the strange stare-off between us.
“Hi.” I give an awkward wave, and he dips his head in response.
Leo laughs. “Don’t mind him, he’s shy.” Asher turns to glare at him and something about that look makes me laugh.
His eyes turn back to me, and I snap my mouth shut, covering it with my hand, quickly shaking my head in apology. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you,” I tell him through my fingers.
His deep brown eyes trail over my face for a few seconds. He steps towards me slowly, reaches out and grasps my hand covering my mouth, pulling it away as he tells me, “Never hide your laughter from me.”
I feel my jaw drop open in surprise, but I have no idea how to respond to something like that. Luckily, Grant comes over with perfect timing.
“Okay, I’ve given the other two something to work on while I work with you three.” I glance over and see Matt and Callum trying to wrestle each other to the ground. I hope we won't be doing that.
“The first thing we need to do is teach you how to get away if someone tries to grab you.” My mind does an abrupt change in direction as I remember being grabbed at the bus station, and how the ability to get out of his hold would have been vital.
“I’ll show you guys first. Leo, you can help me; give me your back,” he instructs as Leo does as asked. Grant moves in behind him, wrapping one arm around his middle and the other around his throat. My hand instinctively finds its way to my own throat as I remember what that felt like.
“Okay, so you have several options to get out of this. If you have the strength, you can flip them over your shoulder, but we’ll save that for another class.
Your other options are to try to drop down through his grip, or, and the more likely scenario if he’s much bigger than you, is to use whatever you have to cause as much damage as you can. ”
“What do you mean?” I ask, unable to picture what I have that could cause damage to men like them.
He releases Leo and beckons Asher over. “Take my place here.”
Asher moves behind Leo so they’re both facing me. Grant taps Asher’s forearm that’s around Leo’s throat. “You can use your teeth to bite him here.” Leo chomps his teeth together with a grin.
He grabs Leo’s wrist and holds up his hand, pointing to his fingertips. “You could use your nails to scratch across his arms.” Leo mimics doing that along Asher’s skin. “Or, even better, try to gouge out his eyes.” Leo reaches both hands back, trying to grasp Asher’s head.
“You could step on the inside of his foot. If you’re wearing heels, dig that stiletto in as hard as you can,” he says, pointing to their feet. I snort softly at the idea of me wearing heels. I used to wear them on a night out. But my days of clubbing are long behind me.
“And your most important tool is your mouth.” I look at him questioningly. “You scream. Scream your head off as loud as you can.”
I swallow nervously, remembering when I’d done just that. It hadn’t worked for me. “And,” I say nervously, licking my lips as his eyes meet mine, “if he moves that hand to my throat, cutting off my scream, what do I do then?”
In unison, all three sets of eyes drop to my neck, and I shrink back, fighting the instinct to pull my hood up. But the way they’re looking at me scares me. They see too much.
“I, uh… I have to go.” I say, motioning over my shoulder towards the front door.
“You can’t leave yet; we’ve only just started,” Grant says, looking worried.
“I know, it’s just…” I rack my brain trying to think of an excuse to get me out of here. “I forgot I need to go look for a job today.”
“Do you want to come back tomorrow? We’ll run the class again for you.”
I shake my head as I move slowly towards my bag and jacket. “Thanks, but I’ll probably be job hunting.”
“We could hire you,” Leo says, surprising us all, as Asher, Grant and I all look at him in confusion. He glances at the other two and shrugs, then looks back at me. “I’m guessing by the way you tore my flyer apart, you have some sort of marketing background?” he asks.
I nod tentatively. “Wait—your flyer?” I ask in confusion. “So you work here?”
“I’m one of the three owners.” My eyes widen in shock as I glance at the other two.
“You too?” I ask, looking at Asher, who nods in response. That means I was taking a free self-defense class with the owners of this gym. I glance at Matt and Callum, who seem to be taking turns holding the other in a headlock as realization hits me.
There was no class scheduled for today. They threw this together for me. But… why?