King of the Ring

4 | Party 'Till You Get Escorted Home

Chapter 4

The only way I could describe being back home was odd.

For three years I had lived a whole different life. I had a different routine and had spent my days walking around a whole different city.

Now, I was walking around a different city that was in a way not different. The only thing that had really changed was my routine and ultimately myself. Although I was enjoying the safety of being back at home and not having to worry about finding a job immediately I somehow felt... suffocated. I felt as though I had let myself down by moving back home. As though I had cheated myself of following my dreams.

The worst part however was that my car hadn't magically fixed itself overnight. Rey had assured me that it would be fixed in no time but until then I either had to catch rides with my family members or walk wherever I wanted to go.

Even Selena, who was two years younger than me, had a better car than I did.

It was all too humiliating.

My current car predicament was how I found myself walking down familiar streets towards the gym. It wasn't too far of a walk from my family's home to the gym, only about 20 minutes, 15 on a good walking day.

However, having to carry a box there as well as my own body weight had me breathing heavily extremely quickly.

When my father had left at the same ungodly hour that I had been forced to leave the previous day he had forgotten to grab the box of new equipment. As I was the only one at home when my father had called I drew the short straw on having to bring the box down.

So when I finally arrived at the gym my arms were aching, I was out of breath and sweat was beading on my forehead. I glanced around the gym, seeing Selena lounging behind the front desk reading a magazine. It was her day off from College so she was working at the gym, although describing what she was doing as 'working' was a stretch.

She didn't offer me a hand as I struggled past her with the box, just glanced at me and let out a loud laugh.

Siblings were so useless.

I made it to the storage room and struggled to push the box onto its rightful shelf. My arms were burning as I struggled to hold the weight and I had the thought that perhaps I should start working out.

I almost scoffed aloud at the thought.

As I tried pushing the box up onto the shelf I struggled with the weight and the height of the shelf. It was times like these where I wished that I had grown just a few more inches.

Before I could struggle any longer I felt the weight of the box alleviate as someone behind me pushed it up onto the shelf. I glanced sight of a large, tan hand, attached to a somewhat familiar muscled arm. 

I spun around to face Mateo's familiar unsmiling face.

My heart stopped as I looked up at the large, muscular man in front of me. I was standing in between him and the shelf and the room suddenly felt a hundred times smaller.

"Uh, thank you," I managed to stammer out. He just gave me that almost imperceptible chin nod. I didn't think that I had ever met anyone who spoke less than Mateo did.

"Where's your father?" he asked me. His deep voice sent shivers down my spine.

The fact that he called him my father, but had before called my father by his name didn't escape me. I had the fleeting thought that he was categorizing me as 'Sergio's daughter', not as 'Daniela'.

The thought seemed to make my stomach churn uncomfortably for some reason.

"He's in the office," I answered. I looked at his jaw, not able to quite meet his gaze. He was silent for a moment and if I didn't know better I'd say he was thinking of something to say. However all he did was give me an almost imperceptible nod in thanks and walk away.