Could I Be? (BxB)

Chapter 4

It's been about a week since Zane left me alone in the bathroom, and I haven't seen or even heard from him since then. He's probably avoiding me, and I think I may be avoiding him unconsciously as well. Seeing him would probably hurt too much right now. So this is what it's like to be turned down...

Josh has been helping me to try and get over this, and while I appreciate it, it isn't helping. I like Zane too much to get over him. I've never had any feelings toward anyone else before, so I don't know what to do.

October's here and the temperature's gone down a little, but it's still nice enough to wear shorts and t-shirts. I'm headed to the gym for a workout and maybe to clear my head a little. I walk in and see that there are a few dozen people already here. As I start to walk over to a treadmill, a sudden distant grunt grabs my attention.

I look over to a boxing ring and see that there are two guys standing in the ring, both of them wearing boxing gloves and head protective gear. One guy in bright red shorts comes at the other guy in dark blue shorts with a swift kick to the side. Blue shorts brings his knee up and his elbow down to deflect the blow, but a resonating smack tells me that must've hurt.

Blue shorts takes a sudden few steps back to collect himself, but red shorts isn't letting up. He throws punch after punch at blue shorts, who manages to deflect them all. With a swift elbow jab to the stomach, red shorts stumbles back a few feet from the blow. Blue shorts charges at red shorts and as soon as he's close, he jumps up and extends his knee.

The knee collides with red shorts' face and he goes flying back, landing on the floor with a loud thud. Blood pours out of his nose and a moan escapes his throat. A man suddenly jumps into the ring and kneels down by red shorts' side. "You okay, Connor?" he asks.

"Yeah," red shorts (Connor) groans. "I don't think it broke my nose..."

The man helps Connor to his feet and carefully removes his headgear. The man walks over to blue shorts and slaps his on the back. "Nice kao loi, Leo," he says.

"Thanks, Coach." Leo? Blue shorts takes off his headgear and I recognize the jet-black hair and perfect face. It really is Leo, and holy fuck. He just took someone who has an easy five inches and thirty pounds on him. He walks over to Connor and extends his hand. "Nice fight," he says.

Connor smiles through the blood and takes Leo's hand. "Hard to believe you just joined the club. I should've said no when you asked if knees to the face were allowed."

"You almost had me when you threw those punches. You should get your nose checked out." Connor nods and both he and Leo step out of the ring, the coach walking out with Connor. Leo walks over to a bench and grabs an awaiting towel and wipes the sweat off his face and chest. He glances over and sees me standing. "Hey, Eric."

"Hey..." I say, still in amazement.

"You saw that?"

"The last part. Josh wasn't kidding when he said you could kill someone." Leo laughs a bit. "Was that kickboxing?"

"Nah, Muay Thai. The two are easy to mix up, though. Connor, the guy I was just fighting, is a former graduate of Stanford and often stops in to check out the kickboxing and Muay Thai teams. He's going on to become a professional kickboxer and he might just do it."

"He's going pro and you just kicked his ass?"

Leo shrugs. "It was a tough fight. Had we both been doing kickboxing, I might've lost. But since he let me do my Muay Thai, I managed to win. Anyway, what's up?"

"Um...not much. Just came here to get a workout in."

Leo makes a face at me. "Come sit down with me for a few minutes." Leo walks me over to the bench where his workout bag sits. I take a seat and he slips on a black tank top and sits down next to me. "Josh told me about what happened between you and Zane."