4522 {The Number Series}

29

Kissing had been a strange experience. I could not imagine it the way it really was. I had pictured kissing him before but it did not compare to the truth of it. His lips had been soft and warm. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment for thinking about it even when I was alone. I wondered if he was playing it repetitively in his mind too.

Over the next several days we continued to work on my skills, though I did not really have any when it came to fighting, and it was not helping that every time he came at me during training I kept staring at his lips and not the fist coming down. I was bruised and swollen all over by the end of our training sessions and it was no where near the true end. He was pushing me to my break points and it seemed every hit was harder after our kiss, especially since he did not seem to remember it.

I held up my hands and laid on the ground. I was having trouble breathing.

"I can't," I gasped at him several times. "We have to stop."

"Remi, training is supposed to get more intense every time." He stared down at me with narrowed hazel eyes. His curly hair was finally grown back and it was stuck with sweat against his forhead. His hands were placed tightly on his hips. "Then again, you're actually supposed to get better too."

I sighed. "I am not good at this. I am good at words and thoughts. And usually the way I am feeling but I have not been so good at that lately."

"You need to be good at this. Your life may depend on it some day soon." His thick eyebrows came closely together as he processed everything I had said. "What do you mean you are usually good with feelings but not right now?"

I lifted myself off of the ground, avoiding his hand as it reached to help me. I could do it myself. And I would.

"You told me the first time that I needed to think of something that made me angry and something that made me happy, right?"

"Something like that."

"Okay." I tightened my fists up the way he had taught me. "I think I found it."

The kiss we had shared only a few days before. It made me calm and happy. But the rejection I felt after when it did not happen again made me want to rip the entire city apart with my bare hands. I would use it as my equilibrium for the good and the bad inside of me. Two feelings would cancel each other out until I could do nothing but focus and use what I needed.

I punched Archer in the face. He gripped at his nose and coughed roughly.

I smiled. I was proud of myself.

He spit blood onto the dark mat. His upper lip had busted open and bleed into his mouth and down his cheek.

"I don't know where that came from but I really am not going to take it easy on you anymore now that you did that." He collected himself. That was not a good thing. Part of me wished I could take the punch back and another part wanted to break his nose for breaking my heart. "Let's do this."

Something flashed in his eyes. He was really going to let me have it. I made a mistake. There was no way I was anywhere near ready to take him on. Especially when I made him angry by taking a suprise, and there for cheap, shot at his face.

His fist swung. Instead of blocking a backed up. He licked the new drop of blood that was forming from his lips as he shook his head at me. His expression had changed from the one I normally knew so well. This was Archer, the side the forest had created and Jericho had fallen in love with. This was not the same boy I knew. This was much darker and I could tell this side of him liked fighting. It terrified me.

He swung again. I ducked underneath before giving a quick jab to his side. My confidence got the best of me. I thought I had done well until his elbow connected hard with the back of my neck. I realized I let more anger than calm take control, making me reckless. Situations like this did not end well for those who acted recklessly. I fell to the mat, the wind knocked out of me. I rolled away as fast as I could manage before getting back on my feet. I could feel my weight swaying underneath me as black dots danced across my vision. He had got me.