BOXER

nineteen

Luke knew that Brielle would eventually get curious about him -- it's not that he had been necessarily mysterious, though he did manage to avoid talking about himself unless it involved boxing. He was definitely not one to open up much to others -- the only people he ever really confined to being Michael and his father, though after meeting Brielle, another person might've been added to that list. Not only did he feel like he owed her to open up after she trusted him with such important information, but he felt like she would understand how he felt and would actually listen, unlike other people he once trusted with his feelings.

"What made you want to start boxing?" Brielle asked, her head still on his shoulder as she looked forward onto the ocean. She knew boxing was close to his heart and that he would enjoy talking about it -- his face almost instantly lit up when she mentioned the topic. She had also been pretty curious on how he started and how the whole "underground" thing worked.

"I don't know, I kind of like how it challenges my sense of being," he answered as if he had been asked this question before. "And, like, it kind of feels good to hit people, yanno."

"I could never see myself just hitting people for fun," she remarked, and Luke had to hold back his smirk as he thought about the number of times she had hit him just that day.

"Yeah, well it helps me deal with all my pent my anger," he said in his defense, Brielle sitting up from his shoulder once he did.

"Why are you angry?"

He slightly chuckled, though it didn't seem funny. "That's another story."

"Tell me," she whined, lightly nudging his arm.

"I'm just an angry person I guess," he shrugged, and Brielle could tell that he was avoiding going too deep into this subject as he was giving her short answers -- and not to mention, wrong answers. She didn't think he was an angry person overall, it was just that small things ticked him off easily. "No you're not," she replied as she shook her head.

He raised his eyebrow dubiously."I don't think you've really known me long enough to make that statement," he commented, and it seemed to have offended Brielle from the slight frown on her face. It was true though -- they hadn't known each other for long and Luke was a completely different person when she was in his presence.

"You're not angry around me," she pointed out, resting her head back on his shoulder.

Luke looked down at her, and she looked back up at him with innocent eyes. "Because you don't make me angry," he remarked. Her expression turned radiant even thought part of his words were lies -- there had definitely been a few times where he was pretty frustrated with her.

"There has to be something that contributes to your anger, though. You're not just born being mad at the world."

He didn't reply for a while and Brielle began to become inpatient -- though she didn't want to push him to talk about anything he didn't feel comfortable with. At the same time, she didn't understand why he was hiding things from her, it's not like she would ever judge him for how he felt. "We don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine. I'm just not used to talking about this," Luke admitted. He turned back to look at Brielle, who was still resting her head on his shoulder. She looked up smiled softly, which almost immediately eased him.

"I don't know, a lot of it comes from my parents divorce I guess," he revealed, scratching the nape of his neck, and Brielle smiled sympathetically at him even though he was facing forward. She had expected this as she knew someone couldn't just be angry for no reason.

"It wasn't really the divorce, it was the fact that my mom decided to become a cougar and left me and my brothers for some stupid fucking younger rich guy," he continued, his head shaking as if he still couldn't believe it. "And I had to watch my father suffer to support himself and the 3 of us while she probably vacationed in the fucking Bahamas for something."