"Are you scared that you're going to hurt the bag?"

For the past forty minutes I've been hitting the leather bag pressed into the corner of the room. I can feel my arms burning as patience from Rhys' taunts wears thinner as they progressively become meaner. I'm waiting for the grandma comments next.

I wasn't expecting to be standing here hitting it repeatedly while he watches, occasionally using the chin up bar. Overall this has seemed utterly pointless and just worn me out.

"You're weak,"

I stop, leaning back on the bag to face him. He's sitting on the seat of some machine with his hands buried in the pockets of his hoodie. I blink a few times as the words feel like a blade slicing through my skin.

"I didn't tell you to stop."

Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip I spin back around while curling my fists harder. I hit the bag out of annoyance hearing a scoff come from behind me. My head drops and I spin around while throwing my arms up.

"What is your problem?" I snap watching as he walks closer with a shrug.

"If you think that you're going to do any damage with how your punching don't get your hopes up," He leans on the wall beside the punching bag, head flicking to it. "Hit it again as if you were fighting off an attacker."

I stare at him for a few seconds before inhaling slowly. Raising my left fist I punch the bag watching it sway slightly from the impact. Once again I hear a scoff and when I look to Rhys he's shaking his head.

"What's the point of this?" I question, this time kicking the bag as I have a mini tantrum. "All you're doing is standing there criticizing me rather than helping me."

He raises an eyebrow and pushes off the wall. "Or you're just too stupid to realize what I'm actually doing."

"Excuse me?" I screech not caring that my voice just raised several octaves. "You're being an asshole right now and I'm quickly loosing my patience with you."

"Enough to hit me?" He taunts and I feel my fists curl over. "You don't have the guts to do it. You're too weak and fragile to hit me, even if you wanted to you wouldn't because you can't hurt another person. Can you?"

My jaw clenches and before I can process it I've thrown a punch, although it's not at Rhys. The pent up anger and frustration from the hit makes the bag swing back, hitting the corner of the wall which makes my eyes widen in shock.

The bag swings back but Rhys' hand stops its momentum from hitting me. I feel a throb in my hand and straighten it out with a frown. He stands in front of me but I refuse to look up at him. My hearts pounding and his words are starting to engrave their way into my brain.

"Do you really think I'm stupid?" I whisper which contrasts to the tension in the room.

"I was baiting you," Rhys states and I furrow my eyebrows. "I wanted to push you to the absolute boiling point to see whether you would break or fire up."

Shaking my head I pull the thin gloves from my hands. "You wanted me angry."

"Anger and adrenaline are the two most useful things in a fight," My knuckles are red from the relentless hitting and I almost groan that I have another class left. "You fired up and it gave more strength - when defending yourself you'll need that anger to be able to do damage to the attacker or they could easily overpower you."

"How am I supposed to be that angry when I'm most likely going to feel petrified?" I scoff, finally looking to Rhys in disbelief.

"Think of anyone who's ever done you wrong or pissed you off. If you have to, think about what I said to piss you off, " His eyes flicker down to my hands. "Are you still angry at me?"

"More annoyed-"

"I meant about yesterday," His eyes flicker for a reaction and I purse my lips. "You looked angry."

I close my eyes momentarily and move to create some distance only for him to grab onto my hands. "What are you doing? Let me go."

"Answer me and I will."

"Yeah I am," Like promised his grip loosens and I move over to the machine he was sitting on. "I'm still mad mainly because I'm scared of what could happen. If they figure out where I live they could hurt my dad and he's innocent in this."

"You're both innocent."

Rhys clarifies, leaning against another machine as I sit down. I give a one shouldered shrug and a fake smile although it's far from convincing. Dad could be dragged into this drama all because I pissed off the wrong person and got involved with another who has  a bad past.

Daughter of the year award here I come.

"I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to him because I'm not completely innocent in this," His face scrunches up and I continue before he objects. "I ratted Derek out. I also let someone who I knew has a bad reputation cling to me after I assured my father it was all lies, releastically the lies weren't as bad as the truth."

Rhys face goes neutral and I know why. I basically stereotyped him which is something I never thought I would do. But that's the sad truth. I ignored the warnings of it and look where it got me. God knows who - probably someone with a criminal record - has photos of Rhys and I together, rather close and personal.

"But that someone is going to make sure you're never affected by the truth of his reputation," Rhys moves closer to stand in front of me as I lean back wanting to avoid being in close proximity to him. "By teaching you to fight and making it clear to the people Derek sent that message to that nobody is to touch you or I'll be coming after them."

His tone darkens and I look up in shock. Wait a minute. If he's making that clear does that mean he's going to use the same tactics he did when he was working. That would mean risking going down the wrong path and I don't want that.

"What do you mean coming after them?" I ask timidly, although I can almost guarantee I know the answer. Rhys' eyes divert from mine and this time it's me reaching out as he tries to leave. "Rhys you're not going to-"

"I'll do what I have to in order to keep you safe from them," He squeezes my hand once as my heart skips a beat. "We'll continue this on Thursday, okay?"

He lets my hand go before moving back over to the chin up bar. With a swing of his arms he reaches up and lifts himself up. Even through his jacket I can make out the muscles in his arms as well as his back, meaning he isn't wearing a shirt underneath.

I wonder what it looks like-

"As much as I love you checking me out," Rhys returns back to the ground with a forming smirk. "I don't think you should be considering you're supposedly still mad at me."

A rush of heat floods through me and I notice the glimmer in his eyes. He's playing with me. I can feel my heart pounding as I think of something to say back. I can't say that. That's not me. But with Rhys I seem to be changing and becoming more daring, my next words show that.

"Maybe if I had something worth looking at it would soothe the rage I feel towards you." Okay I'm just going to go die in a- oh my god.

Rhys keeps that irritating smirk on his lips as he pulls down the zip of his jacket. My hormones are getting the better of me and I feel like my heart is going to burst from its confines. He pulls it off completely leaving me gaping in shock.

"I didn't ever expect something so suggestive to escape your lips," He folds it carefully so it's ready to go back on before tossing it to the ground. "But if you're going to go there I miles as well play along."

With that he turns around and hauls himself up while my eyes feel glued to the back muscles. They contract when he holds himself up to the bar but relax when he lowers down a bit, the same goes with his biceps. He's definitely well built and I know that my staring is obvious.

But I don't think Rhys minds me looking, in fact he loves it. If the look on his face is anything to go off then he's reveling in my expression. Although I don't know why. My cheeks are tinted red and I can almost guarantee my lips are parted in shock that he took the bait from my words.

I'm acting like a hormone crazed girl and I feel foolish for that. I don't check guys out or drool over someone's body structure because I feel guilty. I know that I wouldn't like that if I were them but this is Rhys and his words from the party float in the back of my mind to ease the guilt I feel.

Maybe I wanted you to look, did you think of that?

And I'm definitely looking now. I furrow my eyebrows as I notice something small on the lower part of his back. Moving closer I notice him slow down and I make sure to glance at his face while asking.

"You have a scar right here," Gently I trail my fingers over the almost non existent mark, actually marks and they're circular. Rhys returns himself to the ground and turns around so I can't see them. "What happened?"

"It's nothing."

"Which means it's something personal that you don't want to share," He swipes his tongue over his bottom lip and his eyebrows furrow. "You're forgetting that I used to see a counselor. I used multiple code phrases to avoid telling the truth."

"Do you really want to know about them?" I nod slowly and he bites his lip. "I'll tell you about them after we go out on our first date."

"Wait you still like me. . ." I trail off and he chuckles.

"I was more worried that I blew it after telling you the truth but I guess not considering you aren't cowering in fear of me."

"That's because I don't know what you're capable of doing," I lick my lips before confessing to the video. "I almost watched the fight video where you beat up Derek but I couldn't do it."

He gives a soft smile. "Hopefully you'll never have to witness it. I don't want you to be afraid of me because of what I can do and have done."

"So when is our first date then?" I hesitantly ask, trying to appear confident but releastically it came across awkward.

Rhys smiles with a chuckle. "How about tomorrow night?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Be ready by 7," He chuckles and his eyes flicker behind me. "You should probably go have a shower and eat something before your next class. I can tell you're exhausted - have fruit and water."

I tilt my head to the side and try not to laugh although I smile. That was sweet.