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My lips curl into a satisfied grin when my arms are locked around Sam's, a dark skinned girl who devoted (quite generously) a lot of time teaching me how to fight. Her kickboxing classes turned into a personal training center for me, and only for me. Her three year old son plays with toys and ignores the laughing, breathless women on the blue mats. I feel alive every time she taps out, because she is indeed, a remarkably skilled fighter.

November was supposed to be a very important for me. I have separated myself from thoughts of my family, every now and then keeping in touch with my grandmother. Paige refuses to talk to me for some reason. And although I miss the affectionate, lover's touch that Harry always delivers, I bite my cheek every time I start to miss him.

I don't know when I decided to just...not bother finding him. I wanted to let go of everything...literally everything. Distrust after distrust and lies. Liars, even my own family are liars. They can't tell me things, they avoid telling me things that could possibly put my life in danger. My mind is in refusal to think of anything related to the subject of Harry or my family.

Breathing in heavily, Sam tightens the elastic in her big, curly hair and huffs. "Okay, okay...that was the third time I tapped out. I'm pretty sure you can kick anyone's ass, if you can kick mine."

A laugh escapes my lips, and stroke a blonde hair behind my ear. "I mean...if I told you how bad I wanted to kick someone's ass all my life, then you'd be surprised."

"No...I kind of feel the same. I mean, how'd you think I escaped Tyler's abusive father?" She murmurs to me, eyes narrowed and she rolls her eyes as if her past abusive marriage wasn't anything colossal. "The only reason why I set up a class for women was because I hate to hear about how defenseless we are."

I don't answer her right away. I'm immediately flooded with flashbacks of my life. All those times my father wanted someone to fend for me because he didn't think I could survive. It made me feel restricted. I grew up where the woman had one role, and the man the other. The man had the more strength, dominance. I feel like now that I'm friends with Sam, I can relate to better, bigger things.

Or when Harry used to call me a fragile thing, and I believed it because that's how I was treated all the time. Harry actually believed I was fragile, and he felt like he needed to protect me. Even though it's clear I loved him, and I still do with all certainty, I know he didn't mean to take charge. He just felt that way. It's that way that I seemed to almost anyone. I was a laughing stock to Fray. Now, I wanted to laugh at them.

Sam's eyebrows furrow, hazel eyes looking at me carefully. She snaps her fingers in front of me. "You okay there?" She asks wondrously.

I blink rapidly and shake my head. "Yeah, just thinking."

"About what?" Her hand grabs a water bottle before she shakes it, mixing around the ice in the cool water. I press my lips together and she sighs. "You know you can tell me, Catalina. Not everyone's out to get you."

"Well, in my past life everyone was," I assure her, shrugging. I lean against a wall and exhale deeply. "If I told you...you'd freak out. Probably kick me out. I drag a very long line of danger everywhere I go to everyone I know."

Sam wipes underneath her eye, taking a seat on the mat and crossing her legs. She looks to me carefully and expectantly. "I've been through a lot. We both have. You can trust me, girl. I ain't got nothing to hide. Nothing against you or anyone."

I purse my lips and pause in thought. Trust issues were frequent now, but I found myself wondering why I didn't trust someone like Sam. Who is so blunt and obvious about everything, who talks to me about her problems like they aren't drastic issues. Who has helped me for weeks now to learn to defend myself. She's assisted me so much, and yet I hold back a little bit.

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