𝙀𝙮𝙚𝙨 𝙊𝙣 𝙈𝙚 - 𝘽𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙮 𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙓 𝙊𝘾

𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝙍𝙪𝙡𝙚𝙨

A/N: It's been a bit since I posted this... But this girl's headspace is something else. It's difficult to dive into her thoughts because her personality is very different from mine, but READ ON AND PLEASE COMMENT AND VOTE! This book is still new so I need you all to engage with it <3

Thanks loves! No content warnings in this chapter.

~

After I had time to cool down for a few hours, I found myself walking back into the gym, hating myself for it. My sneakers squeaked against the concrete floor, and the gym was pitch black.

Where is he?

"Barnes!" I called, looking around me as the LEDs of the room lit up the ring in the center of the space. I continued to scan my surroundings, examining the walls and the photos of him and Murdock.

Sam had dropped me off just a minute ago, so I was all by myself in here, all by myself, to deal with this asshole. This pretentious and toxic masculinity asshole.

Around the corner, he walked in and bound the boxing wraps around his hand with his metal one. His bottom lip was tucked between his top teeth as he focused on his task. He made eye contact with me briefly before he sighed, pointing over to the mat and gesturing for me to go in that direction.

"What about gloves?" I asked, looking at him expectantly.

"Mat!" he pointed again, with no expression.

How dare he. My hands are already fucked from yesterday's fight, and now he wants me to fight him without any protection?

"You want me to split my knuckles?!" I snapped back.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" He groaned. "Listen, get on the mat now, Whip. I'm not going to ask again! You want me to train you? Do what I say when I say it, that's lesson one!"

I bit my tongue and shrugged off my leather jacket, throwing it onto one of the fold-up metal chairs, still in my sweatshirt and leggings from earlier. He pulled the rope up and ducked under it, standing in the center. I noticed him pop his regular knuckles with his metal hand.

I ducked under the rope and met his piercing eyes again. Him and his glare. My converse walked across the ring, and I stood before him.

"Now what, Barnes," I glared over at him. "You want me to get on my knees?" My lips curled into a smirk. If he was going to be ordering me around like this, I might as well fuck with him for the fun of it.

But his expression didn't change like I wanted it to.

Damn.

He stepped back, looking into my eyes again. I stood there, watching him, and he moved.

"Alright, second thing," he cleared his throat. "Ground rules."

"Lemme guess," I tilted my head in challenge, knowing where he was going with this. "No fucking?"

"Yeah, and also, no swearing in this space, or I'll give you a receipt."

I leaned back, repulsed by him mentioning the restriction of my vocabulary.

"Are you kidding? What else, no fighting?" I guessed, knowing that couldn't be true.

He shook his head. "No fighting yet either. Not for the first week. I need your psychological shit sorted out first."

What the hell?

My expression dropped, and my arms folded over my chest. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean-"