Aubry's POV-

It was two weeks later and I was standing outside the big building in my winter jacket. The rain was soaking me to the bone making me shiver, but I couldn't bring myself to open the door. This was too much like before, before my father and Sunny decided to try and get me killed. Before my life was in limbo.

I remembered the first time that I ever walked into that building. I was too young to be going to a drug lord's domain. I was too young to be begging a drug lord for the drugs that my father was addicted to. I was only twelve when I first walked through those doors.

However, that wasn't the most significant time that I had walked through those doors. The most significant day of my life was when I was fifteen. I was fifteen and tired. Tired of hurting, tired of wanting to die, tired of life, just tired. I needed help.

It was almost a year after Kelsey left. I was missing her so much. She hadn't missed me though, obviously, since she didn't even bother contacting me. She didn't care what she left me behind in. She didn't care about me.

I subconsciously rubbed the scar on the side of my neck as I thought about the past, about my sister, about the BS that I had gone through.

I sighed and decided that it was time. It was time to quit stalling and to go inside to face those men again, head on.

I walked toward the door and reached my hand out to open it, but I stopped short. I was too nervous. The last time they had come to me, the unsaid threat of if I didn't have enough was hanging in the air. Plus, I had hurt Daniel once again... I felt like I was just delivering myself to evil at that point.

I quickly pushed away those thoughts and forced myself forward. I walked through the door quickly before I could change my mind.

The tall office building and business like air about the place was a great cover. It seemed like a legit business when you first walked in. No one who didn't know would ever find out if they were simply investigating the 'front' business. However, it was where Demetri ran most of his business out of.

The receptionist called to make sure it was okay for me to go up to his office. In just a few short minutes I was on my way to the demon's lair. Well demon might have been a little too harsh of a word for Demetri. For Daniel, however, demon didn't seem harsh enough.

I couldn't bring myself to knock on the door, but suddenly the door swung open revealing Daniel. He leaned on the door frame with a condescending look. It made me want to knock it off.

"We've been expecting you," he said smirking.

I was officially regretting my decision. It was a bad idea. I groaned inwardly, was there a window that I could simply jump out of? I didn't want to be there and deal with those people... least of all Daniel.

He showed me to the room that I was looking for and stepped aside, "ladies first."

I swiftly walked past him. Although that didn't stop him from groping me as I walked by. I almost punched him, but I figured that would be counterproductive. I was simply there to get in and get out, not to start a fight.

"Ah Aubry, I'm glad you came to me this time instead of me having to go find you, like last time," Demetri said menacingly.

I smiled back as sweetly as possible and put the big envelope on the table. "One thousand." I said.

His smile widened, "good... But Aubry, you do realize that you only have five months left, right? A thousand a month won't get you anywhere but six feet under." He smiled wickedly while picking up the envelope. "You are dismissed."

I nodded and turned to leave quickly. Happy that it was that quick. Demetri always was a decent guy, not messing with me unnecessarily.

"Oh and Aubry? The next time you decide to hit my brother... He has full permission to cut our deal short."

I glanced up at Daniel and the way he was smiling made a chill go down my spine.

"However, he knows not to provoke you." He added.

I was just wondering what their definition of 'provoking' was because I felt pretty damn provoked when I simply just see his stupid face. Without saying another word and avoiding Daniel, I got out of there as fast as I could. I practically had to ran out of the building before I had a panic attack.

Was it really already December? Mid December at that? The day were going by too fast... especially since mine were numbered.

The cold rain was a welcomed relief on my skin, even though it chilled me to the bone. It still brought me back down to earth.

However, bringing me back down to earth meant bringing me back down to reality. I needed to fight. I needed more money in order to live.

------

I got back to the gym, though, I was a little late. It was five past one-thirty in the afternoon. I was only five minutes late... but Aiden had been in a mood for the whole two weeks after my fight, so I was sure that I would be hearing about it. We were just supposed to have taken a break for lunch, but I had to make that drop to Demetri, and our lunchbreaks on Saturdays seemed to be the only time that I had to do it.

I slid in through the doors silently, and hoped no one would notice me.

"Oh HI AUBRY!" Sofia, the annoying girl who hated me because I was being trained by Aiden, said extremely loudly. Practically everyone in the gym turned to look at me and knew that I was late. I groaned aloud.

I put my head down instead of even dignifying the girl with a response. I then walked past everyone towards Aiden. I knew he was going to be mad, punctuality was one of his big things. I just hoped that his mood wasn't quite as bad as it had been that morning... I was hoping that he was just hangry or something. If that was the case, join the club dude!

He was sweaty and hitting a punching bag when I got to him. He looked mad. I was only five minutes late, so I didn't quite understand what his big issue was. He glanced at me briefly and then continued to punch the bag, albeit rougher. He looked beyond mad... Of course, he was always mad, so what was the big difference?

After a few minutes, I got annoyed at his dismissal of me. I shed my outer layers of clothes and began hitting the other side of the bag making it swing back to him. That was what we did for a little bit, tried to see who could make the bag swing harder to the other person. It was actually kind of funny, if you thought about it. I was sure we both looked stupid, however, we were both stubborn as hell and neither of us wanted to give into the other.

Finally, after a while, Aiden stopped to get a drink of water. I continued assaulting the bag though. I needed to let my frustrations out. My frustrations with Daniel, with Aiden, and especially myself. I had a lot of pent up aggressions to get out and the bag seemed like the best option; rather than someone's face.

"You need to put your thumb in the correct place, that's how its going to get broke. You already know that, I shouldn't have to tell you," Aiden said extremely roughly.

I made the correction and threw another punch. He was pissing me off that day, even more than usual. The guy knew exactly how to press my buttons, and his mean attitude over the last couple of weeks had been driving me crazy. I had done nothing bad to him, yet he was treating me like crap.

I turned a heated look to him and glared.

"What?" He asked with a harsh glare.

I glared back just as harsh.

"Was that all you got?" He asked egging me on. "Your punches were weak, and barely even swinging the bag. I bet Cece could even do better."

I punched the bag harder at his words, but that wasn't satisfying me. He was being a giant jerk for absolutely no reason.

"Aw, did that hurt the little girl's feelings?" He mocked me making me hit even harder. He let out a humorless laugh at the violent shaking that the punching bag had taken on. "Now we're getting somewhere. Frankly, I'm surprised that you can even beat half the people that you have. I'd say that it's just beginner's luck. You-"

All of my resolve snapped at that point. He was goading me on and pissing me off. I was done.

With no words, I turned around and punched him right in the jaw. Though, I made sure that it wasn't full force because I didn't seriously want to hurt him. I did want him to shut up and knock some sense into him.

When I punched him he stumbled backwards with wide-eyes. The whole gym stopped what they were doing and stared at us in silence. We both stayed silent as Aiden stared at me in complete shock.

No one said a word until, finally, Brandon started laughing. He was laughing so hard that he was wheezing. In turn, that made Tommy start laughing hysterically too.

"God damn, its about time that someone did that!" Brandon said when he came up to us and put his arm around me.

"For real bro... Love you, but you deserved that. You've been a dick to everyone for the past two weeks." Tom added. He then looked to me and bowed, "all hail queen Aubry!"

Finally, the look of shock was wiped off Aiden's face. I couldn't read the look that had replaced it, but it did scare me slightly. He took a step forward towards me and I quickly took a few steps back. I was still surprised at myself for doing that. I was ever more surprised that I was still standing and not knocked out by him.

Aiden's face softened and he broke out into a small smile. "I'm not going to hurt you," he whispered.

I relaxed at his words and let him step forward to me. He grabbed my hand, and examined it. It had never been taped up after lunch, and I was hitting the bag bare handed so it was cut up and bruised. I finally realized that his jaw had blood over the forming bruise that was there.

"I'm sorry..." I finally whispered.

He shook his head. "I was trying to piss you off," he spoke softly as he led me into the training room.

Both of the other guys were following us too. I think they were a little afraid that Aiden was going crazy.

"What?"

"Yeah... you know you hit harder when mad," he shrugged. "I did that on purpose. I just never imagined that you'd turn around and hit me in the face because of it..."

"I-I... I am so sorry!" I exclaimed feeling even worse about the situation. I ripped my hand out of his grasp and grabbed his face making him show me the bloody bruise up close. "Aiden..." I sighed.

I honestly felt so bad for hitting him. He was only trying to train me and I let my anger take control. That wasn't me. I didn't ever do things like that.

I silently wiped my own blood off of his face and winced at the dark bruise that was already there. I almost whimpered at the sight. I couldn't believe that I had done that to him.

"Sorry, I am so sorry."

He grabbed my hand from his face and looked at me with soft eyes. He pushed me back gently into the chair and started cleaning my bloody hand. "Don't worry about it... like Tommy said, I've been a dick. I've been especially bad to you. So really, it was justified," he shrugged and then laughed to himself. "Hey, this is a whole lot better than the last time you punched me in the face... You remember? You didn't even leave a mark."

I giggled as I remembered that day. "True... see, and you thought that you couldn't train me."

"Wait-" I heard from beside us.

"You're not mad at her?"

"You've hit him in the face before?"

"Honestly, I'm proud of her. I know it sounds weird, but I don't know... it's just kind of funny to me.: Aiden said with a shrug and left the other for me to answer.

"He kissed me and it hurt," was my brilliant answer.

Aiden snorted at me and Brandon looked even more confused.

"The first day we met... when I went up to him at lunch, remember?" I continued when B nodded. "He thought that I wanted to hook up and kissed me before we discussed anything. Well... y'all remember how messed up I was. Let's just say that it didn't feel good."

"So you punched him in the face?" Tommy asked incredulously.

I shrugged.

All three of the guys started laughing at that.

"You are the best!" Brandon said with an amused smile.

After a few more minutes both B and Tom walked out of the room leaving Aiden and I in there alone.

"Aiden I..."

"If you say you're sorry one more time..." He rolled his eyes at me.

I bit my tongue and swallowed my apology.

"Okay... I think we're done for today." Aiden said when he put the last band-aid on my hand.

"Alright then... I'll see you tonight then." I said as I began to stalk off.

"Aubry wait..." He said making me pause. I turned to him expectantly and prompted him to talk. "I um- I wanted to invite you to my grandpa's birthday party, it's today. My family has been asking about you and wanting you to come back over... especially Pawpaw. He was happy that he finally found a worthy opponent to play..." Aiden said awkwardly.

I was taken aback, I was confused because we weren't supposed to be friends anymore. "I don't know... I thought we weren't friends anymore, so why would you want me to come?" I asked skeptically.

"My grandpa seems to really like you, and I just want to make him happy on his birthday... Come on Aubry, my mom is making all of my grandpa's favorite food and cake! Just come... and if you don't like it then you can leave."

"Is Brandon and Tommy going to be there?" I asked, I didn't want to be the odd one out not knowing anyone.

"Tommy, yes. Brandon, no. He had to do something with his family."

I sighed, I mean who turns down free food, right? Especially in my case. Finally I spoke, "okay, just let me shower."

He nodded with a smile and I returned it. I was so excited for all that food!