Roxanne

Chapter 9

Roxanne

Once I closed the door after hanging out with Liam, I decided to grab a shower. I quickly grab a pair of running shorts and an oversized t-shirt and went into the bathroom.

My body is sore so the hot water felt amazing. I stayed in there for what felt like forever, mainly thinking about Liam.

It's crazy to think he's only a year older than me, he looks much older. He also seems to be sweet and trustworthy.

The hell am I thinking, he's just going to be temporary like everyone else in my life. I'll just have to be nice to him and have him as a temporary friend until I have to get away from here too.

I finally got out of the shower and put my hair in a low braid. Once I put my clothes on and brushed my teeth I went straight to bed, time for round two tomorrow.

***

My alarm clock went off the next morning. Me of course, not being a morning person groaned and turned it off. I slowly got up and got dressed, brush my teeth and redid the braid from last night.

I walked downstairs and went into the cafeteria, I had about 25 minutes until training started so I grabbed an apple.

I was still half asleep, while eating my apple and a pair of masculine hands were placed over my eyes.

"Guess who?" I giggled and removed his hands from my eyes. Of course, it was Liam. He smiled at me then decided to go grab an apple off the counter himself and sat across from me.

"How'd you sleep love?" He took a bite of his apple waiting for a response.

"I slept pretty good, I'm just not a morning person." I heard him chuckle, I looked up at him after taking a bite from my apple finishing it off. I was silent for about a minute, I'm not really use to people trying to talk to me, so I'm obviously uneasy about the situation.

"Uhm- how about you?" I hesitated when asking. I didn't look at him while I got up to throw my apple away. I waited until I sat back down.

"Pretty good, you ready for training today? I'm going to be your partner." He winked at me. I laughed at him while he also flexed his biceps. I looked up at him and saw him smiling from ear to ear. Damn his smile is contagious.

"Okay love birds, we've got training to do." Josh was standing behind us with his arms crossed over his chest trying to look intimidating. I rolled my eyes and got up, Liam following not far behind. We all walked over to where the others were. Not long after we got over there, Ian walked in.

"Okay everyone, you know what to do. Get with your partners and get started, I'll be going around to check on everyone. Some of you all have fights coming up soon so focus on what's important." Ian demanded and everyone grabbed their partner and got to work.

"We should start with a warm up, going to join me at the treadmills?" Liam questioned jokingly. I smiled at him and followed behind him to the treadmills. We set the timers for 5 minutes and started warming up.

After warming up we headed straight over to the weights. I spotted for Liam when he was doing squats and bench press. Once he was done he helped me. I think I put too much weight on the bar because right when I tried standing up after the first squat I started losing balance. The next thing I knew weight from my arms and shoulders was released and an arm quickly wrapped around my waist. I finally let go of the breath I was holding in when I knew I wasn't going to fall.

I looked up and saw Liam. He picked up the bar that I started losing grip of and dropped it to the side with ease. I flinched really hard at the sound the bar made when hitting the ground. I heard Liam chuckle then let out a breath of relief. I got back my balance, stood up and turned around and faced Liam. His hand still resting on my waist.

"You okay Avery?" He asked with concern in his voice. I looked down at his hand on my waist and he removed it. I looked back up at him.

"Yea, I'm fine. Just a little shaken up." I let out a light laugh to let him know I truly was okay. He gave me a faint smile. When I looked around I noticed everyone had stopped what they were doing and were all standing on their feet. I guess they were ready to jump in if something happened. I heard a voice speak up.

"Avery what happened?" Ian came walking out from behind Liam, looking at me with concern in his eyes.

"I think I put too much weight on the bar, I fell back but Liam caught me, I promise I'm fine." He looked at me and I saw a bit of relief in his eyes. He turned to face towards Liam.

"Liam what the hell? Why didn't you watch how much weight she put on the bar?" He snapped at Liam. It wasn't his fault.

"I'm-." I decided to interrupt him

"It wasn't his fault. I told him it was my max, it was my fault. Don't be mad at him." I pleaded to Ian. He sighed and looked back at me.

"Just, be more careful from now on out Avery. I don't need you getting hurt." I nodded my head and he walked off.

"Should we continue?" I asked Liam, he raised a brow at me like he was going to question if I should continue but he didn't. He just nodded his head and we got back to training.

Once training was over I laid on my back on the cold floor and groaned. I heard Liam chuckle and then I see him standing next to me, looking down at me.

"You okay love?" He asked me with a faint sound of a laugh with it. I shook my head no.

"Everything hurts." I groaned out. Liam stuck his hand out for me to grab, I took his hand and he helped me up.

"Come on, let's go eat." I followed him behind him to the cafeteria. I noticed they had pizza on the menu tonight so I requested for two slices, Liam did as well.

We walked over to our table when we were stopped by someone's voice.

"Liam, Avery!" We both turned around. Chloe was having her hand for us to come over there. Josh, Eli and Rubin were all sitting at the same table.

We walked over there, Chloe patted the seat next to her for me to sit. Liam sat down on my right.

"So, we have the day off tomorrow, do you all want to go see a movie?" Josh suggested. I looked at everyone with a confused look.

"Wait but today is only my second day of training, how can I already have a day off?" I questioned them, they all looked at me and laughed.

"Trust me sweetie, you need a day off after what happened today." Chloe insisted.

"Yea, even Ian would agree. I'm surprised you didn't stop training after that, I know I would've." Eli joined in.

"Shut up, you know Ian wouldn't let you get a break if you wanted one anyways. Even if something like that happened." Josh jumped on Eli's case. Everyone kinda laughed.

"I'm down for the movies, Avery?" Liam looked at me. I decided to give in, they're probably not going to let me say no anyways.

"Yea, sure, but wait I don't have any money." Maybe I could a find a way out of it, I'm not big on movies and I don't know these people that well. It'd be best if I just stayed back.

"Don't worry about it, I got you buttercup." Eli said. Before I had a chance to say anything, he spoke again.

"And don't think you're going to get out of this, you're family now. Also I'm paying so don't fight me on it." I sighed and shook my head, but then preceded to laugh. We sat around at the table for awhile and just talked to get to know each other more. Rubin is actually really laid back and chill to talk to, Chloe is very spunky and full of energy. Josh is almost like a little kid spite him being 19. Eli is basically the dad of the group. Rubin being the mom. Liam... is sweet and full of energy and hope. I mostly remained quiet while listening to stories of their childhood, to my surprise they didn't question me, in which I'm glad.