Chapter 2
THE PAST
Aged 20
Phoenix’s big blue eyes glinted and locked on mine as she pleaded. “Please don’t do this, Jacob. What if you get hurt?” I could hear the fear in her voice and her eyes saddened with a frown.It was my first fight. I’d waited a long time for this day to come.
“Babe,” I soothed softly and ran my hands over her beautiful face. As I held her cheeks, I pressed my forehead to hers. “I’ll be fine, please don’t worry.” She pressed against me and let her body mould to mine, we fitted together so perfectly, like jigsaw pieces. “I won”t get hurt. I promise.”
“Jay,” her body sagged as her breath warmed my face with an exhale, flattening her palms on my chest. “You can’t make that kind of promise.” As her lips tightened with a flat grin, I pressed a soft kiss to them, moving my hands to wrap her up in my arms and holding her tight in my embrace. She wriggled against my hold and leant back to break our kiss. I held her tighter still, knowing she wouldn’t be able to move, and made her look at me. Her heavy sigh told me I’d won, and I gave her an accomplished smile while we stared at one another for a long minute.
A heavy sigh left her body. I knew she wanted me to let her go but I didn’t want to. Instead, I hooked my arm around her back and gripped her side, while my other hand threaded into her hair and held her against me. It wasn’t just the fighting, I wanted prestige. I wanted the respect that came along with it. “What if someone spots me, Nix?” I stated. “What if a big trainer is there and sees how good I am? This is all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
“Then go to a proper boxing gym. How good can a trainer be at a place like that anyway?”
“You’d be surprised, baby.” She’s never understood how the fighting world worked; sometimes, you had to delve into the dark pits of society just to get noticed. Even the best fighters start somewhere unknown and maybe a little seedy. “I need to do this, Nix.” God, I loved her so much, but I needed her to understand why I had to do this.
Phoenix had been my girlfriend since college. We shared mutual friends but had absolutely nothing in common with each other. We didn’t even share classes; I was studying sports and she studied health and social care because she wanted to go to uni to be a nurse. We were total opposites. But that didn’t matter, because as soon as I held her in my arms I melted. The moment her lips met mine I knew I’d found my future. Her eyes were the darkest shade of brown I’d ever seen and were complimented by the prettiest, shy smile and her dark hair hung down her back in waves. I fell for her right away. Phoenix Clarke was all I thought about, well, her and fighting. I had to have her in my life. She totally floored me. I tried my best chat-up lines, even gave her my best smile. You know, the one that’s full of cockiness and could usually charm the birds from the trees, but she didn’t fall for any of it. Her big eyes rolled as she told me to stop trying so hard. So, I took her lead and acted cool and before I knew it, she was putty in my hands.
Being a fighter was my dream. I never wanted anything else. I grew up watching boxing. My uncle was a boxer, and had competed in the Olympics, where he won gold medals before turning professional. He was my hero.
As I got older, I added UFC to the mix. I wanted to be the fighter who held titles, that stood in the middle of the ring, and held a belt above my head. Be the best there was…that was my dream. Only it wasn”t going that way. Every week I was getting further and further away from making it. Everyone knew that when you hit thirty in this game, you were ready to retire. Your body decided when you retired, so I strived to be as fit as I could. My uncle always said if your body is physically fit, your mind will stay alert. Ironic really that he died from cancer, he was riddled with it. He became a shadow of his former self. It hit me hard when he died.
I might only be twenty now, but the longer it took for someone to find me, the less chance I had to be somebody.
I didn’t want to be a nobody.
I was just fourteen when I first hit a bag, and straight away I was hooked. I’d never been the most well-behaved kid. I got into fights all the time, spent so much time in detention after school the teachers had got sick of seeing me. The first time I was brought home by the police my uncle pulled me aside and ripped shreds off me; it was then he took me to a gym. I was told I needed focus. To focus on what made me angry, what frustrated me and to just hit. So that’s what I did. My arm swung at the bag, and punch after punch, my body felt lighter as the tension and the anger spilled out of me. It was then I knew; I knew this was my destiny.
My hands closed around Phoenix’s face again and I caressed her silky, soft skin with my thumbs as I smoothed across her cheekbones. I held her head in place and made her look at me. Finally, her gaze softened. “Fine,” She sighed and settled her mouth softly on mine. I pressed a little firmer as I kissed her, enjoying the softness of her lips until she pulled away, she threaded her arms around my middle and squeezed. “I just worry, that’s all.” Her head dipped and she settled her cheek on my chest. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I know, babe, but they scoped me out. They must think I’m good enough.”
“Hmm…” She lifted her head again, the worry still deep set in her eyes.“I’m scared, Jacob.”
“Don’t be. I love you, Nix.” I declared. “Everything I’m doing, I’m doing for us. For our future.”
She nodded and I pressed my lips to her forehead. “I love you, too.” she whispered. With my fingers cupping her jaw, I lifted her head back and captured her lips. Her softness had me craving for more, as it always did. I pressed firmer, parted her lips with my tongue and slid it into the warmth of her mouth. She fisted my t-shirt as we kissed, groaning as I devoured her, enjoying every push and stroke of my tongue against hers.
It was over all too quickly for my liking though as she pulled away slightly and sighed. “You better go then, you don’t want to be late.”
I nodded and cocked a soft smile. Reluctantly, I released her and stepped back to admire her head cocked to one side, her long dark hair framing her face.
God, she’s beautiful. I could’ve stood here all night and stared at her, but she was right, I had to leave.
“Promise to call me later?” She asked.
I nodded and closed the gap between us again. Just one more kiss, I thought to myself as I planted a hard kiss on her lips. “I promise.” As I broke away, I licked her taste from my lips, cupped the back of her head, and kissed her forehead, letting my lips linger a little longer before turning away from her. I didn’t look back at her as I left through the front door and closed it behind me. With the door shut, I pressed my back against it and closed my eyes. I needed to clear my head, because her big doe eyes and the sadness that flooded them was more than enough to distract me, and that couldn’t happen for my first fight.
I pushed forward towards my beat-up Astra that was parked at the curb, squeezing the keys in my palm. I understood Phoenix’s trepidation, she worried about me, and as much as I’d like to think she didn’t know what went on in those places, I knew she did. I had to do it though, I wanted enough money so I could make a better life for us. Get a new car, a house, somewhere me and Nix could live together. There was no one else for me but her.I was more than lucky to have her, and the fact she supported me in this is more than I could have ever hoped for.
PHOENIX
I sankinto the chair and wrapped my arms around myself as he left. The thought of him getting hurt crucified me. But when Jacob King made up his mind about something there was nothing anyone could say or do to change it. Even me.
With my mind fraught with worry, I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t sit here watching my phone or have my eyes fixed on the window, waiting for him to come back, if he even came back here after the fight. I flipped my phone over and left it screen down on the bed and turned on the TV. I laid back on my bed, rolled to my side and flicked through the channels. I settled on a favourite series and started from the beginning. As the first episode of Friends started to play, I immersed myself into their world and let the worry of Jacob fighting shift to the back of my mind. Before I got too comfortable, I skipped downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a Pepsi Max and some snacks.
I quickly got what I needed and made my way back to the stairs before my dad stopped me. “Hey, poppet. What you up to?”
“Just grabbing snacks to watch TV.” I said with a smile for my dad.
“Did I hear Jacob leave?” he asked, stroking my hair affectionately. My dad was tall and I only just about reached his armpit. I followed my mother for my height, she was small, too. Well, kind of small. I’m five foot five, not really small, but my dad is a giant. “Is everything okay with you two?”
“Yeah, he’s got something on at the gym.” My gaze dropped to the snacks in my hand as I easily lied to my father, something I didn’t make a habit of doing, but I didn’t want Dad to think badly of Jacob. Dad knew of Jacob’s aspirations, even though he didn’t agree with them.
“Phoenix, look at me.” Dad commanded softly, and I lifted my head.
“It’s fine, Dad.” I assured him and smiled again, I pretended to be okay. “He’s just sparring with a new boxer tonight, that”s all.”
He nodded but stared at me for a breath longer than he needed to. I knew he didn’t believe me, not really. “As long as that’s all it is.”
“Course, Dad.” His hand worked around to the back of my head and pulled me a little closer as he pressed a kiss to my head. I loved it when my dad did that. I rested my head on his chest for a moment before I pulled back, gave him a smile, and quickly made my way back to my room before he could ask any more questions. I dropped my snacks on the bed and then shut my door.
I grabbed my phone again to check if Jacob had messaged me, when there was nothing from him, I was so disappointed. I told myself he’d only left a little while ago. Pushing everything to the back of my mind, I climbed onto my bed, and sat down with my back pressed to the wall while Friends played out. I opened the tube of Pringles and began eating them, but still, I couldn’t focus on the TV. My mind focussed on Jacob in the ring in that back-alley fight club, scared to death that something would happen to him. That I’d lose him, either to the club or to someone who didn”t know how to lose. For all I knew, I may never see him again.
I quickly grabbed my phone, pulled up his name and opened my inbox. I had to send him something, let him know that he was on my mind. My fingers shook as I typed.
Please don’t get hurt xx
I pressed sendand dropped my phone to the mattress, then settled down and tried to focus on the programme.