Bruised Knuckles and Empty Lies

Chapter 9

Alex's POV

"Agent Morgan," he answered.

"Hey, Morgan, it's Alex," I answered.

"Hey, kid. How was school?"

"It was fine. Pretty boring, though. Anyways, I was wondering if you were free at all today?" I worried that he could hear the nervousness in my voice. Was I being too needy? What if he only offered to be nice?

"I'm free right now, sweetheart, I had today off. What's up?"

"Oh, um, I was wondering, I mean, only if you want to, um, do you want to maybe start the kickboxing lessons today? If you want to, if not, it's totally no big deal." He laughed on the other line.

"Of course, kid. How far are you from the gym?"

"About a half hour walk, I think."

"You okay walking by yourself?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I do it all the time. Don't worry so much." Derek laughed.

"Okay, sweetheart, see you in a bit." I heard him hang up, so I decided to call Maribeth to make up some excuse while I trekked to my locker. The phone rang, and eventually, it went to voicemail. Figures.

"Hey, Maribeth," I spoke as I unlocked my locker. "I'm gonna be late tonight because Mr. Morrison wants me to stay for extra test prep. I should be back for dinner, but I'm not sure because I also have to finish my English project, so I might end up at the library. Hope that's okay. See you later." I hung up, grabbed my bag of workout clothes from my locker, and closed and locked my locker before turning around and having someone run right into me.

"Watch it, freak," the kid sneered. His friends snickered, and they all kept walking. Wow. So original. Thankfully, I didn't encounter anyone else until I got to the gym.

I walked into the gym and immediately headed for the front desk, which wasn't actually in the front, but against one of the walls a little further from the entrance. Kenny was standing behind the desk with one hand propping his head up and the other flipping through a magazine. He didn't notice me until I came right up to the desk.

"Hey! You're Alex, right?" Kenny smiled widely.

"That's me," I smiled back.

"Great! You can sign in here." Kenny slid a clipboard with a sign in sheet across the desk. It only had two columns: one for signing in and the other for signing out. I grabbed the pen that was clipped to the top of the clipboard and scribbled down my first name before hesitating with my last name. For whatever reason, I worried about writing my last name, just in case anything happened, so I decided to write "Morgan" down.

"Thanks, kid. And you can throw your stuff in any free locker. Don't bother locking them, though, no one here cares. You remember where the locker rooms are?"

"Yup! Thanks, Kenny." I gave him one last smile before turning around to head toward the locker room. I froze before taking another step.

In one of the rings was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She had dark brown hair that was pulled up in a bun, but each side of her head was shaved down to stubble, leaving only the middle section. Tattoos were scattered across her arms and stomach. She wore leggings and a sports bra, so I had no idea if she had any tattoos on her legs. Her muscles were toned and well-defined, but not so much that she would be considered bulky.

"You like what you see?" I jumped at the sudden question from Kenny. Glancing over my shoulder at him, I saw him leaning forward so his head was as close to my shoulder as he could get it.