Two weeks had passed since that night at the Warehouse, two weeks of no school and complete boredom as I lounged around Cole's house.

If I took having two hands for granted before, I definitely will appreciate having that back. As doing things with only one hand had become a pain, especially when it's with my least dominant one.

I never knew I used both hands for so many things. Want a sandwich, can't make one. Want some soda, can't open the stupid bottle. Want a pickle, can't open the freaking jar. Want to make breakfast, can't crack a fucking egg.

An egg people, a fucking egg. Beaten by unhatched poultry, can you believe it?

Thank God, I had decided to steal some of Cole's clothes, otherwise I would have had a problem putting on my damn jeans. Not forgetting the inability to tie my shoes. Tying my hair however, was pretty easy; I didn't.

All in all, these two weeks have been hell and I still had a few more to go. With my rematch against King in between of course.

"Mercer, get your head out your arse and focus!" a deep baritone voice snapped, breaking through my thoughts.

My head snapped in the direction of the voice to find Dominick glaring at me. Dominick Reagan was Cole's dad and my trainer. Unlike his son, he was a burly man with cropped black hair, inky black eyes, broad shoulders and a heavily muscular body.

At first glance he would appear scary, giving off that no-nonsense kind of energy. Yet once you got to know him, you sort of notice that he isn't all that scary and is more like a cuddly teddy bear.

"I'm working on it!" I snapped back with a smirk, watching as he bristled.

Dominick was the owner of WMG, West Mount Gym. A gym that wasn't meant for fitness but for fighters. There were no treadmills or special equipment and no classes to help you lose weight. This was a place of raw strength and how to use your body to take the next person down, no matter how big or small.

I snapped out of my thoughts again, as my back slammed against the matted floor under me. The air knocked out of me. Looking up, I stared at Cole in shock as he stood bent over me, his fist poised and ready to strike.

"That's what happens when you don't focus!" Dominick snapped; his inky gaze focused on me.

"Come on, Nick. I'm tired, my arm is throbbing and..."

"Excuses Leah, excuses!" Dominick shouted, "Again!" he said with a hard look at me before clapping his hands.

Glaring at him for a second, I got up and took my position. My right arm tucked close to my body as I held my left arm up with my hand open. Ready for Cole's attack.

Dominick was training me for my upcoming fight with King. Pushing me to the limit so that I wouldn't get hurt any further or damage my arm anymore when my fight came around.

Upon learning about my upcoming rematch and on seeing the damage I had endured. Dominick had berated both Cole and I until our ears bled. Having let slip that he knew we were still fighting at the Warehouse. He berated us on not being more careful and on taking too many fights that we clearly couldn't handle.

Ultimately, Dominick agreed to train me for my rematch and thus I found myself in the position I was in now.

I dodged left as Cole attacked, making sure to keep my right arm tucked close to me so that he couldn't get a hold of it. Dodging right, I jabbed Cole in the ribs before backing away quickly.

Dominick shouted out praise as I shot back into Cole's defences and got in another two shots. Both of them aimed at his ribs. Cole grimaced at me before he attacked, striking at me faster than before.

I blocked his first few strikes before dodging out of the way, by leaning forward and dropping into a roll. Landing on my left shoulder first and protectively using my left arm to cradle my right. Coming to a stop, I looked up from my crouched position to find both Dominick and Cole smiling at me.

"What?"

"You're getting better," Dominick said.

"Good," I said with a nod, "Now come on."

Motioning at Cole to come at me, I took a second to glance around the gym. Noticing that not many people were still milling around it. Shay was busy in one of the rings training a guy named Matthew, while the other one was being used by two regulars.

Other than that, the place was fairly empty as Cole and I were the only two rolling around on the mats, with Dominick watching us.

"Leah," Dominick called in warning.

Nodding at him, I focused on Cole as he struck at my head, forcing me to duck down just as he brought his knee up. Twisting my body slightly in an effort to dodge this sudden attack, his knee grazed my right shoulder, sending a shot of pain through it.

Gritting my teeth, I glared at him as he backed away from me, his gaze hard. His expression serious as it always was when fighting.

I charged at Cole with a rush of attacks which he blocked and finally countered with an attack of his own, causing me to stumble back. Shaking my head, I moved in again keeping my strikes fast and outside of the usual combinations. My unpredictable assault forcing him to go on the defence, my right arm still tucked safely in its spot while I attacked with my left.

"Keep it up Leah!" Dominick called.

Giving a slight nod, I kept up my attack. Making sure that Cole didn't get a chance to counter any of them, even though I could feel myself tiring. Going in for a double kick to the side, Cole's eyes sparked as he stepped back and grabbed hold of my foot. Bringing his own foot up and kicking me twice in the side before slamming his foot through my face.

His counter attack sent me to the floor.

"Nice one, Cole!" Dominick called out.

"Yeah, nice," I growled bitterly from the floor as I slowly began getting to my feet.

With a cheeky smile at me, Cole and I clashed together again in a flurry of attacks as we continued to spar with each other. One on the attack while the other blocked and dodged, before switching it up. Our bodies moving fluidly as we attacked or blocked with surety, never doubting our abilities for a second. Our movements portrayed a sort of dance as we moved across the mats.

Minutes passed before Dominick walked away as Cole and I joked around. Our focus broke as we tried out ridiculous moves and stances. Our techniques sloppy and just downright awful.

Cole dodged out of the way of one of my sloppy attacks, a chuckle leaving his lips. Coming at me with an attack of his own, his fist aimed at my stomach. I knocked his arm away with my forearm, before I moved to punch him in the face.

Stopping my attack short of hitting him as my phone started blaring out it's ringtone from my duffel bag, against the wall.

Cole and I froze, turning to look at my duffel bag before turning our attention back on each other. My fist still poised to strike his cheek as we stood in close proximity, our gazes locked. Our breaths mixing, as we breathed heavily from our work out.

My phone fell silent but before either Cole or I could move, it started again.

The sound of my phone broke through to us, as I once again glanced at my duffel bag. "One second," I said in a low voice, chuckling sheepishly before running over to it.

Digging around for a second, I pulled it out just as it stopped. "Seriously?" I hissed at the device, glaring down at it; moving to put it away, it started again.

"Talk to me," I answered.

"What?" a voice filled with confusion asked.

"Speak to me, as in what do you want Grace?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Oh," she said before shrieking, "Where the hell have you been?" Her confusion suddenly forgotten just as it had suddenly appeared.

"Whoa woman, take it down a notch," I said cringing at the sound of her shrieking. "I've been busy."

"You think," Grace answered snarkily, "You missed two weeks of school, Leah. Two weeks. School just started and you're already skipping, are you nuts?"

"No, to that question. And I know how long I've been away, Grace. No need to yell at me," I answered, rolling my eyes again.

"How can you already be skipping school?" she asked, her voice filled with worry. "I get that you're still mad at me for the blog thing..."

"Well of course, you went behind my back!" I snapped, cutting her off.

"Yeah, like I said, but things have calmed down now."

"Oh sure, but that's not my reason for skipping Grace. Don't worry, I'm not that pathetic."

"Oh, then what is? Because when Devon hears about this, he is going to flip," Grace said nonchalantly, as if my brother finding out wasn't a big deal.

"Devon won't find out," I said in a hard tone.

"Yeah sure, after what I found out. He definitely will," Grace scoffed, and I could literally picture her rolling her eyes.

"What do you mean? How will he find out, Grace?" I asked, panicked.

"Oh, don't worry," she said, dismissing my question before running with her own. "So, why have you been missing for two weeks, hmmm? Last we spoke, we fought about my blog and then you asked me to collect your work, without a reason. So why?"

The tone with which Grace asked this question told me that she wasn't going to drop the subject until I answered. So, with a heavy sigh, I explained myself without giving too much away. "Let's just say that I got beat up pretty good."

"What?" she shrieked, "What happened? When did this happen? Are you okay?" she asked, worry pushing her voice up a few octaves too high, causing me to wince.

"I'm fine, just a little banged up," I reassured her, hoping that it would calm her down so that her voice wouldn't reach octaves that only dogs could hear.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I stressed, "Now back to the whole Devon finding out about me skipping school, thing. Why is that a possibility? What the hell did you find out?" I asked, worry starting to creep into my veins at the thought of him finding out.

"So, about that..." Grace said with a nervous chuckle, "You see..."

"Yes, what about it? What must I see? What do you know?" I pushed, tapping my fingers on the mat impatiently.

"Well... I didn't get your work per say..." Grace explained, trailing off again.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I didn't get your work," Grace mumbled.

"Uh huh... wait what?" I asked wide eyed, "What do you mean, you didn't get my work?"

"Like someone else got it for you," Grace explained sheepishly.

"Someone else?" I asked with a frown," Someone else," I repeated as if the words were foreign to me.

"Yeah, someone else," Grace said, her voice sounding a little too sweet for my liking.

"Someone else as in who, Grace? Who collected my work?" I asked, panicked as her words finally sunk in.

"Uh... I don't actually know. Ms. Madden just said she gave it to someone already," she answered sheepishly.

"Yeah, and I can only guess who would volunteer to do that," I ground out.

"Oh, you can?" Grace asked curiously, "Who do you think it is?"

My mind raced with the possibility of who it could be that had requested my work for me. My mind landed on one person I shared most of my classes with, one person who was looking for any way to get information on me.

Sean freaking Evans.

"Grace, I gotta go," I said in a hard voice, "Talk to you later." And before she could even get a word in, I cut the call.

Shoving my phone into my duffel bag, I grabbed my sling and worked to put it on as Cole made his way over to me with a frown on his face. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" he asked with a joking smile.

Glancing up at him, I opened my mouth to answer when my phone once again started ringing. Both Cole and I looked down at it as it blared out my ringtone. "You gonna get that?" he asked after a minute of staring at it.

The moment I picked it up, it stopped. Shrugging I moved to put it back into my duffel bag when it went off again. Cole raised a brow at me as I hesitated to answer. With a sigh and a small smile at him, I did.

"Where the hell are you?" Devon's voice came through to me with a hard note to it.

Wincing at his words, I composed myself, "Hello to you too, Big Brother," I greeted sarcastically.

Cole stared at me for a minute before stepping closer to help me put my arm back in the sling. With a grateful smile, I focused on my conversation with Devon. Knowing that the shit was going to hit the fan, plus I had to get out of here and find Sean before he ended up at my house.

"Whatever," he said dismissively, "Where the hell are you?"

"I sent both you and mom a message of where I would be," I said in exasperation, "I'm at Cole's."

"Cole's?"

"Yeah, Cole's. With Dominick, big burly guy... ring any bells?" I asked, sarcasm lacing my words. Hoping to irritate him to some degree since I hadn't had the chance to do so in weeks.

"Real charming Leah, real charming," Devon said in irritation.

"I try Dev, I try," I answered with a smirk.

"Look, mom doesn't want you staying away from home too long. So, you better get home soon," Devon said in a stern voice.

"Oh sure," I rolled my eyes, "I'm at Dominick's, Dev. It's not like I'm catching on nonsense."

A small sense of hope blossomed in me at him not berating me on skipping school. This meant that I still had time to catch up to Sean and get my stuff before he outed me.

"I know, but she doesn't like it, so just get your ass home," he said tiredly.

"What? No!" I growled, "How can she not like it? She and Dominick sent me away last time, so what's her problem now?"

"I don't know. Just get your ass home, okay," Devon said with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Hey, don't shoot the mess..." Devon trailed off for a second as the doorbell rang in the background. At the sound my heart stopped for a second before it started racing, Devon's words falling on deaf ears as I spaced out.

"Hi, uhm... I don't know if I have the right address." A voice came through the phone that wasn't Devon's and I stiffened.

"I'm sure you don't buddy," Devon said in a hard voice, "Did someone lose their way home?" he asked condescendingly.

I frowned at the fact that I could hear the whole conversation, which could only mean that Devon had me on speaker phone.

"Uh... No, I'm in the right area. I'm looking for Leah Mercer, this is the Mercer residence, right?"

At his words, I stiffened as I sat there and waited for my doom to ascend upon me. Sean was at my door; he was at my house and he was about to tell Devon that I had skipped school. He was about to sign my death sentence.

"I'm Sean, Leah and I have most of our classes together," Sean explained, "So, I thought I'd collect the work she missed and bring it to her."

"Work she missed?" I heard Devon ask, his voice taking on a hard note.

Sitting there, I prayed that Sean would just give him the papers and not say a word about my absence, but again that was too much to ask from the freaking Golden Boy; wasn't it?

"Yeah, she missed two weeks of school," Sean explained, confused.

"Is that so?" I heard Devon say, picturing him nodding his head slowly.

Please Sean just shut your trap and hand him the papers.

"Yeah, no-one's seen her and I guess Grace's blog got to her too," Sean carried on explaining like the imbecile he was.

I groaned as the words left his mouth, wincing as Devon spoke, "Two weeks, she's been skipping school for two weeks?" Devon repeated his voice hard, "Care to explain, Leah?" he asked a second later and my eyes widened at the question.

Taking a deep breath, I forced my voice to be nonchalant, "Explain what Dev?"

"Why I have a pretty boy standing in front of me telling me that you've skipped two weeks of fucking school? Seriously, what did you think?" he seethed.

"That you wouldn't find out?" I answered.

"Leah," Devon said in a deathly cold voice.

"Devon," I answered, bored.

"I think I should leave," I heard Sean mumbled.

"Yes, maybe you should!" I shouted.

"No, why don't you stay a while and say hello to Leah, hmmm?" Devon said in a hard voice, that held no place for argument.

"Let him go," I ground out, "And what is your gripe with me skipping anyway, Dev?" I asked, "You act like you didn't do the same damn thing."

"And look where it got me!" he snapped, "Stuck working random jobs!"

"Well, sorry to hear about your shit okay!" I barked, "But my grades are steady A's or B's in every class except for Calculus because that woman is the devil."

A chuckle came through the phone as Sean butted in, "That's true, even I can't get an A in her class."

"Don't push me Leah, if mom finds out. You know what will happen," Devon said in a hard tone.

I laughed at his words, the threat clear. I shook my head as my body visibly shook with anger. "Well thanks for caring Big Brother," I said bitterly, "But I've got things handled and if you want to run to mom, then be my guest."

"Oh, and Sean, butt out of my damn affairs, you've done enough damage!" I shouted.

"Leah!" Devon said, his voice holding a note of warning, but before he could say anything further, I ended the call. With a huff, I threw my phone into my duffel bag before slamming my fist into the mat and standing.

With a quick glance behind me I found Cole and Matthew fighting in the ring with Shay outside it shouting out instructions and encouragement. With a fiery anger burning through my veins, I ran over to the ring and climbed in before Shay could protest.

The boys stopped their fight the moment they noticed me, watching me closely as I took a fighting stance. I motioned for them to come at me.

I was irritated, I was pissed and I had a whole lot of new energy to burn. And, what better way to do so than to train and maybe get my ass beat a few times over. So, with my brother's threat still lingering in the back of my mind and with my anger pulsing through my veins. I eyed the boys with a smirk and attacked.

* * *      * * *

Chapter 14 - what did you think... I know it was filled with alot of conversation but weren't those just interesting...

Also what did you think of Dominick? A new character hmmm? He was mentioned before but this time you get a glimpse at who he is and what he does...

Let me know your thoughts in the comments...

- Orlaith