Your End in Mine

《 chapter seven 》

For the next month, I trained, physically, mentally and emotionally.

The last two were surprisingly harder considering how much I'd been through mentally, and how extremely bad I was at physical activities.

I supposed at least people can see your physical inabilities, which mans they could unfortunately see me when I whine and sob on the mat, holding onto my bruised arm, or heaving in and out after one lap around the room.

No one saw your brain. Only you saw your brain, all the time. You hear your thoughts, your little conscience telling you to stop being so weird, Ellie.

The first day of training almost killed me. I swear. For some reason, there was a rule that the person who scouted you became your trainers.

Which meant... me... with Zachary...

Which was completely unfair because:

a)       He was unfairly attractive and thus too easily distracted me

b)      He had insane flexibility and strength and endurance. He was like a leaner, more possible version of Captain America.  With some telepathic abilities.

c)       He was the coldest person ever. Ever.

I had to soak in an ice bath that night and couldn't sit because my butt was bruised from falling down so much. And it had been on a mat.

He didn't even feel sorry. He just smirked at me, smug and unapologetic—"enemies ain't going to say sorry will they"—eyes mischievous, dimple appearing on his cheek.

It drove me up the wall. 

But screw me if I said it hadn't been attractive, those the dark, sly smiles and playful eyes.

Zachary was a handful to unravel. He was mysterious, I already knew that much, and he was so complex too.  He was cold, but never too unkind, and he was strict but still had an edge of compassion. He was a good teacher, but after lessons, you could tell he could be goofy too, especially with old friends. There was a gap in his personality. He was funny and suave at times but when he switched his "agent" or whatever mode on, he was ruthless. Just like when he had first approached me then at the library when he had tried to kill me.

And he loved what he did. I didn't have to be an emotion-reader to know that. One time, I arrived at a lesson early and he was play-fighting with some children. It was way too much for my heart to handle I had to go sit down in a corner and close my eyes.

You know what else is too hard for me to handle? This obnoxious crush.

God, and Zachary knew it. He had known since school days, didn't he? He was all sexy and wry with his 'do you have a crush one me' and 'you're so cute' thing. Okay, so it turned out that the latter had all been a ruse to get closer to me. He still said it and didn't, like, throw up afterward.

Your bar is set way, way too low, Ellie...

Zachary wasn't my only problem at HOME, though. The majority of people were nice, and it was so cool to finally talk to people without watching our friendship's demise flash before my eyes, but there were definitely some unsavory characters.

The fifth night I was there, a girl had approached me outside the bathroom stalls. She had wispy brown hair and looked like what I imagined a fairy or mermaid would look.

"Elizabeth, right?" Even her voice was silky smooth.

"Yes!" I answered, straightening my back, all-too aware of how my freshly washed and limp hair was sticking to my face.  Gorgeous. Just two supermodels right here, nothing to look at... "I'm sorry, you are?"