CHRYSALIS

15.

Harry didn't ask me any questions on Saturday other than if I was okay. He didn't push anything, didn't try to pry.

I don't think we're at the stage of friendship where I can burden him with actual problems or concerns. It's still a pretty superficial friendship really, so I didn't offer up any information either about the terrible night before.

We just sat on the couch and watched a movie, but when it was over I was feeling too antsy. I needed to move and get some anger and energy and anxiety out. I told Harry I was antsy and he grabbed his keys, told me knew the perfect place, and told me to get dressed in comfy clothes I could move in.

I spent just a few minutes in the bathroom shoving my legs into a pair of black leggings and tossing on an oversized long sleeve over my sports bra. I slipped my feet into my beloved checkered vans and started putting my hair into two dutch braids to get my bangs out of my face. The last thing I wanted was sweaty bangs stuck to my face if we were doing something.

I grabbed my purse and my biggest sunglasses and followed Harry down to his car.

We drove back towards Malibu and pulled into this strange warehouse building with an empty parking lot. I side-eyed Harry and raised an eyebrow at him, "Trust me." He said and hopped out of the Range Rover. I followed suit, figuring I didn't really have a choice at this point, and hooked my arm in his as we approached the abandoned-looking building. 

There was a good chill in the air since it was December but it didn't really require a coat since it was LA. It was a comfortable chill that you could snuggle up in or be productive in, depending on your mood.

Harry unlocked a rusty blue door and pushed it with his shoulder to open it,  he flipped the lights on and I was very surprised to see what was inside. "Woah. What the hell? This is so cool." I looked around while Harry locked up behind us.

Behind the old blue door was a gym. A strange gym, but a gym nonetheless. There was a wall of punching bags and speed bags to my right, a large area of machines and free weight stations like a standard gym in front of me, but in the back, there was a tire swing, and farther past that there were ropes for aerial performers. There were a few studios to the left of me and the place was flooding with light from the huge glass panels in the ceiling. Like 75% of the ceiling in here had to be glass, I'd never seen anything like it.

I started walking aimlessly, just checking out the incredible areas, I was immediately drawn to the tire swing area and when I got there I noticed that they had a couple of normal swings too. "What are these for?" I asked Harry while he followed me.

"They're for swinging of course." He sat on the bright red swing and gestured for me to join him. I sat on the swing next to him and instantly smiled as we silently started to swing side by side. I closed my eyes and leaned back as I used to when I was a child, It still felt the same, like I was flying. Like I was just soaring through the air, not a care in the world.

I don't know how long we stayed on the swings, I probably could have stayed there all day but eventually, we moved on and Harry told me I could do whatever I wanted, he was going to work the bags for a bit.

I smiled slyly and followed him to the bags. He didn't say anything but I noticed him glance my way a couple of times as I followed him to bins and proceeded to pull out wraps and properly weighted gloves. This made him pause for a moment before he offered to help me.

"Here, I'll help you wrap your hands so you don't hurt your wrist or fingers." He held his hand out to me and I smiled brightly when I agreed. I let him wrap my hands and then watched him wrap his own before he took his sweatshirt off and then clipped his hair back before putting his gloves on.