|15|

•Charlotte•

"You've been skipping work, haven't you?" Mary asked as she walked into my room.

"No." I shook my head as I pulled my shoes on and laced them up.

"I've noticed it, Charlotte." She sighed, sitting on my bed. "You've been struggling with school, work and being at home."

I sat down besides her, and picked up her hand and held it. She smiled at me, as I grinned at her. She was stunning, for her age. Being 50 usually made most people tired. Not Mary.

Mary had come in this morning, wearing a beautiful white jumpsuit and her hair was in braids. She had complained saying that looking after her afro was literal pain. I told her she looked stunning, even dad had complimented her.

"I'm okay." I said, without looking at her. "Yes it has been a struggle, but I think I'm working on it. I'm going to work now, they need me there."

Lying to Mary was one of the worst things I could do. She had been helping me for years, always assuming a council worker was helping me. I would tell her that just so she wouldn't question where I was getting so much money from. The house was stashed with bags of money in every corner.

I couldn't tell her what was happening with Logan and the others. She would want me to call the police but nothing would happen with that. Logan had connections everywhere.

She patted my hand with a smile on her face. "Don't be late to work. Will you be eating out or coming home for dinner?" She asked as she stood up.

"I think I'll be eating at work. I might be a little late, if that's okay with you?" I asked and she smiled and nodded.

"That's fine. I'm going to be facetiming Drew today." She said and I nodded as she walked out of the room.

Drew was Mary's son and was about to come home soon from the army. She never truly went out, either her neighbours visited her outside the door if I wasn't home or she would go to her house to talk to them. Dad wasn't comfortable around new people and Mary never tried to change that.

I picked up my gym bag and put my phone in my pocket, before heading downstairs. I waved goodbye at Mary and Dad as I walked out of the house.

Lizzie had dropped me off at home today, since it was raining all day. I pulled up the hood of my coat and walked down the streets, heading towards work.

The school part of my day had breezed by. Lizzie and I spent lunch inside since it was raining outside. I had felt Tiffany's constant glare in the back of my head but I ignored it. Ramon and the others hadn't come to school today. Calvin hadn't even texted Lizzie why he wasn't coming so instead we had worked on our home ecs work together. She helped me with my essay and I corrected hers.

I walked into the diner, the bell chiming above me. It was going to be freezing tonight. Fall was already here and the leaves were scattered all over the ground.

"Hey girl." Mandy waved at me as she served a few customers their food. "Didn't you bring an umbrella?" She asked, shaking her head at me as I followed her towards the front counter.

I shook my head, needing to invest in another coat since this wasn't warm enough. I headed towards the staff room and found the room warm and stuffy. Grinning, I took my coat off and placed it on the radiator to dry it off and I warmed my hands on it.

"Joe's been waiting for you." Mandy said as she popped her head in through the door.

"He's here?" I asked, confused and she nodded.

Joe never really came to the diner unless he wanted to collect the money from Mandy, which was once a month. This was more Mandy's place since she was the one who gave Tim and I our money.

Removing my hands from the radiator, I headed to his office. I knocked on the door and Joe called me inside. He was sitting in his small office, at his desk with his feet on top of it, a pen in his mouth.

"Come, sit." He pointed towards the desk as he removed his feet from it.

I walked towards the desk and sat down since there were no chairs. Pushing myself a little further back, I looked at him. "What's up?" I asked.

"I have a few fights coming up if you're interested. The rich folk will be there." He said, pulling out the fight book from his desk. He opened up the diary. "Only problem is, it's after midnight." He glanced up at me.

I frowned. I couldn't go after midnight. My limit was eleven and that was because Mary would leave to go to her house. I couldn't ask her to do more than what she was doing already. I was utterly grateful and didn't want to push my luck.

"I can't do it after midnight." I said to him and he nodded.

"Mark is willing to help. We don't want you to miss your opportunities. Rich folk are crazy about fighters like you. They'll want to bet on you winning." He sighed as he pushed the book open to me. "Gabriel has already booked himself for every fight after midnight." He pointed to the calendar.

Gabriel was another fighter that was earning a lot through Joe's Gym. He would always taunt me, but I never said a word and I would walk out after my fight was done, whereas he entertained men and women which made them love him. He started off with me, so he was one of the rare people that knew I was a girl, but he never said anything.

I never asked him for a fight. That was our deal. I wouldn't embarrass him in the ring, and he would never tell my identity to anyone.

"Mark's brother is willing to wait outside your house every night. He won't step inside and will call you the moment he hears anything. We can make it work and get you a better shot at earning money." He started explaining to me. "Gabriel made three thousand dollars two nights ago."

My eyes widened at that. If I did three nights in a row and made that much money, I would be close to my goal.

The thought of leaving my dad at home, alone didn't settle well with me. I turned to look at Joe who was letting me think. "I don't know." I told him honestly. "Sometimes he gets worse and sometimes he gets better. I can't leave him alone and I can't ask Mary to spend her nights here as well."

Joe nodded. "Think about it." He closed his book. "I've got a fight for you today if you can come to it. It's after work, ten?" He asked me and I nodded. "Good." He told me as he opened his book and wrote my name down at the ten pm slot.

"Think about what I said, alright?" He glanced up at me. "The rich folk will want to see the lightning devil in action." He chuckled as I climbed off the desk and nodded.

"I'll think about it but you can count me in for tonight." I said to him and he grinned, holding his fist out to me.

"That's my fighter." He said, as I fist bumped his hand and headed out of the office with a smile on my face.

I was going to work on it, try to find a way to get to the midnight fights so I could earn more.

"Table five." Mandy handed me the notebook and pen. I quickly wore my apron and got to work.

***

He was huge. His arms were the size of tree trunks and he was much taller than me. He could eat me in one bite as he smirked at me from the other side of the ring.

People around us cheered, for me, for him. I watched him, as I bounced on my toes and moved to the right. My fisted hands were in front of me, my guard up as he took a step closer. His hand came charging out, and I moved back, missing it as my right hand connected with his jaw.

Screams filled the gym as I stretched my left hand, and punched him on the other side of his face. He pulled his guard up, his left hand hand heading straight towards my stomach. I winced, a little too late to move back as he connected his right hand against my ear.

A deafening ringing started in my ears, the cheers and shouts of the people pushed away as I looked up at the man that snickered. He circled me, taunting me with every step he took closer as if he was closing down his prey.

I was not his prey.

Raising my hands in front of me to block out the punches he threw at me,one after the other, I let out a silent breath and shut out the world around me. I watched him as he raised his left hand up, and left his right side unguarded. His fisted hand came towards me, but I pounced before he could hurt me. My fist connected with his chin, a straight uppercut, with every ounce of strength I could muster. The man's body shook as he fell to the ground.

Sometimes in the gym, everyone fought differently. There were nights where I could do kickboxing, nights where people tried to wrestle me. I preferred boxing. I loved the feeling of my hand connecting with their jaw, knowing nobody knew who I was.

Boxing bought me peace.

"As always," Michael called out into his microphone, "the winner is Lightning Devil!" He shouted and the cheers filled my ears, bringing me back to reality.

I saw Mark waiting besides the ring and I walked towards him, as he lifted the ropes for me. I climbed out from under them, people trying to get to me, as I kept my head low, as they tried to snap pictures of my face.

"Back the fuck up." Mark growled at them as he walked me towards Joe who had the biggest grin on his face.

"I knew you were up for the challenge." He chuckled as he held out the cash bag to me. "I pulled some strings and got a few rich folk in here early. Made you two thousand dollars." He winked at me.

I held out my fist and he chuckled as he bumped it. That was our thing. I never talked too much in the gym, knowing there were eyes on me constantly, waiting to hear me speak. Did I have a woman's voice or a man's voice?

Mark pointed to the door as I put the bag in my hoodie pocket and followed him. My body was aching and I needed a hot shower.

"You did good, kid." Mark grinned at me as we walked up the stairs. "You think you'll be fine for the walk home?" He asked and I nodded.

"He put some good punches across today." I said to him and Mark chuckled as I pressed a hand to my chest which was close to nonexistent in the oversized hoodie. My body hurt a little but it was nothing a good night sleep couldn't fix.

"Get some rest." He said to me as he opened the door to the top floor and held his fist out. I punched it with a smile on my face that he couldn't see and walked away from him and out the gym, into the night.

Mary would be waiting for me since there were a few minutes left till eleven. I walked up the street and climbed over the gate that blocked the entrance to the alley. I jumped down, gritting my teeth at the pain my body felt but this was the fastest way home.

Taking my mask off, I felt the eyes on me. I knew they were watching, every second of the day, they were constantly there.

"Leave me alone, Cameron." I said into the dark alley as I headed up. I heard the gate rattling as he climbed over.

"Try again, sweetheart."

Whipping around, I saw Logan standing in front of me while three other men climbed over and jumped down onto the ground. Cameron followed them, the youngest of them all.

"I'm not doing this." I said to him, turning around and walking away.

I felt a hand grab my arm and spin me around. Logan wrapped his hand around my neck tightly, while his other hand held both of my hands down. I glared up at him as he smirked down at me. "You don't have a choice. Join the gang or I will kill your dad." He hissed the words at me.

"That threat doesn't work." I choked out the words as I lifted my right knee up and hit him in his precious jewels. His eyes widened as I did it again, and he let go of me immediately.

I grabbed a hold of his hair, and tilted his head back as he held his dick, falling to the floor. "Do not threaten me again." I glared down at him as I pushed him away from me.

It was too late. Too fast. I couldn't duck down as I felt Cameron throw a bunch towards my face. I groaned as my jaw burned from the pain. Cole and Zach, members of the gang, attacked me along with Cameron.

Wild punches with no aim attacked me. I ignored the pain, as I grabbed Cameron by his head, and kneed him in the face. He cried out as I broke his nose but Cole and Zach were stronger. Their punches hurt me, stinging with every punch to the face and the body. They were like animals, attacking me without a second thought. One went for the face and one went for the body.

Zach's fisted hand came charging at me but I leaned back, dodging the punch as I lifted my leg up and kicked him in the neck. I couldn't reach his face but he started choking as my foot slammed against his neck.

Cole immediately took a step back as Zach fell to the ground, trying to breathe.

"Do not fuck with me." I hissed the words at Logan who stared at me in awe while the others feared me.

I turned my back to them, knowing they wouldn't come for me. Every single inch of my body hurt and I knew I would have bruises for tomorrow. The pain was agonizing with every step I took up the street.

"I'm going to be watching you!" Logan called out behind me. I flipped him the bird, without turning to face him.

I had enough of them all.

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Charlotte is badass and we love it.

Question- If you had to watch one show for the rest of your life, what would you watch?

Bonus question- do you like the new cover? I made it. My cover skills are getting better.

Just a quick clarification for this series:

Unfortunately this series is no longer going to be a five book series. (The Badboy Series) Trust me when I say, I have read those book over just to see what the basic plot of those were, and they were so repetitive to each other. The second book was a male version of the first book.

According to the old version-
Charlotte is a street fighter trying to make enough money to leave her dad behind (who disappears half way through the book and Farrah, the author, in 2015 forgot to bring him back.) She goes under the name Lighening.

Second book male character called Kayden is also being abused by his father and wants to run away. He goes by the name Ace when he street fights.

Get my point? Lmao.

The books are too similar to each other and very very cliche. After the second book, the rest of the books were getting a lot of hate, so I took the decision as the author of these books to take them all down.

Obviously The Badboy's Nerd has been rewritten into Little White Lie. (From a 29k words book to a 100k word book completely from scratch. Someone be proud of me for writing 100k words in 3 weeks.)

I'm planning a sequel for this book which will be the last book. Hence why this is going to be called The Lie Duet. I'm really proud of this book because I didn't think I would be able to write YA or teen fiction. (I lean more towards fantasy lately) but I have an idea for the second book as well. (Maybe a bit too dark since it's a Mafia story but I haven't wrote anything yet. I'm just taking a writing break and watching TVD lmao)

Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that for some of you in case there are any other questions you want to ask.

Hope you liked this chapter though!

Until Monday!