Loyal At First Sight ✔️

✨ 5 ✨

ELIJAH

"Eli, glove up, you're next."My sister Jessica or Jess as she preferred it yelled from inside the ring.

I gave her a thumbs up and continued run on the treadmill. I slowed it down a little bit so I could come to a stop. When I finally stopped I got off and reached into my gym bag for my boxing gloves. I'd already taped my hands so all I needed to do was put them on.

Jessica was a professional boxer and during off season she liked coming to the gym to spar with anyone willing to take her on. I was a good boxer myself because my dad who had been a professional boxer back in the day had trained me well. I was just not as good as Jessica. I wanted to focus on one sport at a time so football was it for the moment but only because highschool didn't offer boxing as a sport.

Maybe later when I joined college I'd decide whether I wanted to continue playing football or take up boxing professionally like Jessica had. The girl didn't even go to college. She won her first match as soon as she graduated highschool and after that it was sponsorship after sponsorship with matches all over the country and sometimes abroad.

"Are you chickening out already Olsen? I promise to hit like a girl."Jessica teased and I tossed my mouth guard at her.

She easily dodged it so I picked up another and put it in my mouth. I didn't need my teeth getting knocked out.

Finally I secured my gloves and got in the ring with her. My dad was usually there to referee since my sister and I boxed dirty all the time leading to extreme injuries but he was busy with another boxer so it looked like one of us was going to get home in a gurney.

We knocked gloves, promising to play fair even if both of us knew that no one was going to heed to that. Jessica winked at me before pulling away. We danced around each other for a while refusing to be the first to throw the initial punch. Jessica eventually caved and threw the first punch that I easily dodged as I saw it coming. I didn't waste any more time and threw a heavy punch to her side, hitting her in the ribs hard enough to destabilize her but not enough to break them. It was a dirty move that I should not have done but it felt good. Jessica growled at me, then she got this evil look in her eye and I knew I was done for. I definitely should not have pissed her off.

"You're dead Olsen."She gritted out but her voice came out all muffled out because of her mouth guard.

After her threat I became more alert and ended up being more defensive than I was offensive. I was so busy protecting my face that I didn't see the heavy punch to the stomach coming. All 6'8 of me went down hard knocking all the breath out of me and the guard out of my mouth.

I was disoriented for a few seconds as I tried to gather my bearings. I heard my dad cuss out loud as he jumped into the ring kneeling beside my head.

"I told you two to never spar without me. Jessica how hard did you hit him?"My dad scolded.

Jessica didn't reply, just stood on the other side of me looking worried but I could see the winning gleam in her eyes. She saw me looking at her so she winked at me and stuck her tongue out at me before leaving the ring. I would have laughed too but it hurt too much.

"Are you okay son?"My dad asked as he helped me up.

"Yeah I'm fine."I replied shortly rubbing my stomach.

The pain was fading but it still hurt. Oh how sore I would be for the next few hours.

"Good because you two aren't sparring again until I say so."Dad declared.

"But dad come on, it's not my fault, he wasn't protecting his weak spots. It won't happen again."Jessica begged.

"That's what you said last time and he ended up with a concussion. I'm setting my foot down, you two are not sparring again until I say so."My dad affirmed and we knew by the tone of his voice that his decision was final.