Theo's POV
Come Monday, I had managed to avoid the football team and the football captain, Eric, until the last bell rung out and I bumped into him in the hallway.
"Hey shrimp, where do you think you're going?" Eric smirked at me, sending cold chills down my body as he grabbed hold of me and pushed me roughly into the lockers.
I had put so much effort into avoiding him and his group of friends and all for what?
At this rate I was going to be late for the gym, and I knew from Maddox saying so, he didn't like people to show up late.
"C-Come on Eric..." I tried to reason with him, but he was getting into my face.
Suddenly he spat on my face and then let go of me and started laughing with all the other guys that were with him, then he shot me one last look, his eyes filled with hate before I felt his fist connect with my jaw.
Eric had punched me in a spot I was used to, but it didn't mean it didn't hurt any less than the other times, it felt like he broke my jaw as I cradled my face in my hands, sinking down the lockers as I look up to him, my hands shaking.
"Fucking creep, stay the fuck out of my way next time, fag!" He spat before he walked off with his friends.
I ignored the looks of other students as I shakingly rose to my feet, wanting to just go home and cry like I usually did and try and forget how much I hated my life, but I promised myself I wouldn't do that anymore.
A big part of me didn't want to let Maddox down either, not when he was willing to help me.
Grabbing my back from the floor, I started walking to where my bike was and then ride home, my jaw aching as where Eric hit me had made my ear start to ring as I got halfway towards my house.
Once I made it home, I knew I wouldn't see my parents until late tonight as they always worked late, even on weekends, so I quickly ran up the stairs and grabbed the gym bag Maddox had given me.
I was excited he gave me stuff, I wouldn't know what to get if I went shopping by myself, luckily, he gave me free clothes and a brand-new gym bag, which looked expensive, so I'll try to cherish it and only use it for the gym.
Not bothering to leave a note, I lock the front door and go to the bus stop, it was only a twenty-minute trip into town and a five-minute walk from the bus to the gym, so I knew I wasn't going to be late.
I had saw my reflection in the window once I sat down and winced once I saw just how obvious it was that someone hit me, as a bruise was forming around the red mark Eric's fist caused on my jaw.
Eric wasn't always like that, when we were 12, we were friends, we used to hang out all the time and play games but now that he's popular, and captain of the football team, his attitude got worse, to the point where he started bullying me with his new football friends.
He turned into a dick, plain and simple, for what reason I don't care, there was no way I would consider being friends with him, not when he's made my life a living hell, making it impossible to relax and make friends in school.
Once I get off the bus, it takes no time to reach the gym, and once inside I notice that there are more people than last time working out and every single machine, and all I could think of was how serious these people are, for it to be completely full like this.
I notice Rick up ahead and smile politely once he sees me, making him grin before his eyes go to my jaw, then his face dropped, and his eyes grew hard as he waved me over to him.
I knew he had saw my jaw, his eyes made it obvious so I wanted to avoid whatever was coming as much as possible, I didn't want anyone to know what was going on at school, it would only make me feel even more pathetic than I already felt.
"H-Hey Rick." I said, coming up to the front desk, gripping my bag tightly in my hands as his eyes focus more harder on my jaw.
"Kid." He grunted out, looking at me like he wants to say something about my face.
"Mads just finished, you can head on down."
I swallow hard and nod my head, avoiding his eyes as I kept my head down and made my way towards the bottom stairs, leading to the basement, where I know Maddox will be.
Did it really look that bad? Eric did hit me hard, but usually it only took a few hours before a bruise started to show.
I guess today isn't my day... I should've just stayed home and waited for the bruise to go away before I came back here.
I didn't want anyone seeing me like this and feel sorry for me, especially not someone I admired, and wanted to be more like.
Opening the doors to the basement gym, I instantly saw Maddox shirtless and hitting a punching bag with his hands wrapped in white tape, with earphones over his ears and in his own world.
All I could think of when I looked at him was how amazing he looked, it was like nothing I had ever seen before, just from looking at him you would know he did this for a living, everything looked beautiful in the way he moved.
I had never thought a man was beautiful before until now, I wasn't sure how to think about it other than accept that some people are just that, and that it wasn't that weird for a guy to call another guy beautiful.
Coming further into the room, Maddox had noticed me and stopped hitting the punching bag, I smiled at him, and he nodded to me as he wiped his forehead coaxed in sweat before taking the earbuds from his ears.
"H-Hi." I said shyly, trying not to stare at his naked chest too long.
"Hey, you're early." He said, coming up to me, his eyes on mine before they shift to my jaw.
I swallowed hard and froze once he reached out and grabbed my jaw, making me wince as the pain was still very real, like Eric had just hit me all over again.
"How'd this happen?" He asked, a frown on his face as he looked it over. "It looks fresh."
"Just a s-simple misunderstanding." I laughed nervously, feeling the back of my neck grow warm at how close he was.
I knew from the look on his face that he didn't believe me, and I knew my excuse was so pathetic that nobody would believe me, not if they saw my nose wrapped up and bruises over my arms and legs.
"Come on, you need it ice it, it looks painful." He said, as I followed behind him with my head down as he walked to his office.
I sat down on a free chair and watched him go into a mini fridge and take out an ice pack, he then grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around the ice pack and then came over to me and then gently pressed it against my jaw.
Maddox sighs out as he kept his hand over the icepack on my jaw, looking at me as I avoided his intense gaze.
"So, what kind of misunderstanding gets you a fist to the jaw?"
I shifted in my seat as I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it, expecially not to Maddox, who I really didn't want to feel pathetic around, not when he was teaching me how to fight.
"It was my fault." I said, biting the inside of my cheek. "Really, it doesn't hurt." I said, taking over for him by holding the icepack to my jaw.
Maddox didn't ask anything else as he sighed out and left his office, I watched him walk down to the lockers and grab a black t-shirt from inside and then put it over his head, then he walked back to me, his eyes on mine before I looked away and stared at my feet nervously.
Why... do I get the feeling he wants to not train me now?
I'm too much trouble, nobody wants to have this kind of baggage in their life, which I would understand if he told me he didn't want to train me anymore, this wasn't exactly how I thought my day would go, so I wouldn't be surprised if he told me to leave.
"Hold out your hand." Maddox said, making me jump slightly and so as he said.
He drops two pills in my hand and then hands me a bottle of water. "Pain relief, take those before we start." He said, before heading back into the gym room, leaving me sat on the chair in his office in confusion.
He... wasn't kicking me out?
I stare at the pills in my hand before I put them in my mouth and swallowed them, taking a sip of the water he gave me, then I get up and go where Maddox was standing, near two mats laid out on the floor next to the large ring in the middle of the room.
"Let's start with some burpees, then we'll do some squats." He said, standing on the mat as I nodded my head and mirrored him, putting the icepack down on the bench next to the mats.
"Follow me the best you can, ask me any questions you have or else I'll go over it after our first set." He said, looking me in the eye as I nodded my head, starting to get nervous as I have never done this before.
"Let's start with stretches."
I copied Maddox the best I could, I knew the moment we finished doing squats with sidekicks that I was severely out of shape, so much that I was struggling to catch my breath just from kicking my leg in the air.
How did he do this every easy was so crazy to me, I could only do six at a time before I needed a drink of water just to stop myself from passing out.
Maddox slowed down and helped me with my form with each workout he taught me, eventually I got better at it despite my whole body aching from my body not being used to moving in such strange directions and ways.
"You did good." Maddox said as I sunk to the map, breathing heavily.
"I-I can't even move." I winced out, making Maddox grin and hand me a bottle of water, which I took greedily, then sat up and devoured the cool liquid.
My time was almost up, and I knew after today it was going to be hard to walk just from how much my legs felt like jelly, but as I looked over at Maddox, I saw that he looked the same as usual, and was unaffected by our workout.
It was impressive to see him not even break a sweat, while I was sweating through my eyeballs.
It made me want to push myself harder.
"You'll get used to it, we just need to work on your stamina." He said, sitting down on the bench near my mat as he looked at me.
"Ugh." Is all I could say before I drank the rest of my water, not wanting to think about anything else right now, not when everything hurt.
"We've all been there, trust me when I say it does get better." He said as I smiled sheepishly at him and nodding my head.
"W-Well I should probably go." I said, trying to get up, wincing as my feet hurt.
"Let me help you." Maddox laughed out as I felt his strong hand wrap around mine and pull me up, without so much as a blink I was on my feet, feeling dizzy as I looked at him standing in front of me, looking at me in the eyes.
"Sit down before you go, I'll get you another drink." He said as he helped me to the bench, and he went off to grab me another bottle of water from the water box near the ring.
Despite looking pathetic and feeling like I had just been crushed by a bus, I was proud of myself for not giving up.
Maddox was patient with me and didn't push me beyond my limits, which I was so happy for, because I was sure I'd want to give up if he made me do things, I wasn't ready for.
"Here." He handed me another bottle and sat next to me on the bench.
I was starting to get used to being around Maddox, where at first, I felt nervous being around someone so famous, but the more I trained with him, the more I saw how easy he was to talk to, and be around, unlike how some people describe famous athletes.
"Did you drive here?" He suddenly asks me, making look at him.
"I took the bus."
Maddox went into his short pockets and grabbed his smartphone out and looked at the time, I saw that our hour was up, and I should probably go catch my bus before I missed it.
"Um, speaking of I should hurry before I miss my bus." I said, standing up.
Maddox didn't say anything and watched me from the bench, until I bended down and grabbed my gym bag, I heard him stand up and close the locker behind him.
"Give me a minute and I'll drop you off." He said as I stopped and turned around to look at him, confused, and not sure I heard him.
He wanted to drive me... home? I watched as he went down to his office and then grabbed his own gym bag and then put on a black hoodie, I recognised from a match he wore on TV before a fight.
"Alright let's go, my car's out back so we'll take the back way." He said, as I followed behind him, as he left no room for argument.
I followed behind him quietly through another exit I hadn't realized before, it led straight to the underground car park, under where the gym was, as Maddox led the way, I looked around nervously and wondered if this was a good idea.
I knew he wouldn't hurt me or attack me, but because of Eric I had hated going to places like this, I always avoided them, especially places I know he likes to jump me at.
Maddox stopped at a red convertible I recognised as I looked at the front of the car, seeing it as an Audi Spyder, a car that was probably worth thousands of dollars, did he even trust someone he didn't know inside a car like this?
Getting inside, Maddox starts the car and sends me a look once he looks over at me just standing there.
"Do I need to show you how to open a door, Theo?" He joked as I felt my neck grow hot.
I fumbled with his door handle and got inside, feeling weird I'm sitting in an expensive car with the famous kickboxer Maddox Zane right now, and this wasn't a dream.
"Seatbelt." He said, as I closed the door and backed out of the parking spot.
I looked over to Maddox as I clicked the seatbelt around me and wondered why he was being so nice to me, I knew it might have something to do with the bruise on my jaw, and my busted nose, but that couldn't be all, right?
He didn't know me, he didn't have to give a damn about me, but I think he did... Or maybe he's just being nice.
I decided to just think he's being nice, not looking too much into it as I sit back and try and relax, as my heart beats fast in my chest, nervous just by sitting next to him again.
He's just being nice... that's all this is, nothing more.