Jaden

My phone dinged loudly after hours and hours of training which was my cue to check the time.

Thankfully, we only had another 5 minutes left of training. With the high energy these guys performed with, I honestly thought they could go on for another 3 hours but I could tell they were exhausted though. If I was tired, they were too.

I blew my whistle hearing it echo in the distance, "Time!" I called.

Everyone finished up what they were doing then made their way over to me. All of them had signs of hard work written all over them. Sweat, heavy breathing, slight limping from sprains and soreness, but they managed to keep a proud smile on their faces.

I high-fived each of them, slipping in a compliment or two as I went around.

"Just so you guys know, the smoothie machine in the cafeteria is working again. Who wants to go grab some?"

"I do!"

"Yeah!" most of them cheered.

I grinned. I might as well go grab some for myself before we start our meeting too.

As I began to get my things packed up, I heard an extra set of voices coming from the distance. I looked up and noticed that Nicole's group was ready to use the training spot.

She won't be able to top our performance and time. There's no way.

I smirked, searching through the crowd to find her. I wanted to challenge her group to try and do better than mine. I just know she wouldn't back down from a challenge like this.

When I didn't see her I stood up, grabbed my bag, and walked towards the crowd to get a better look.

Not too long after, I saw her a few feet away, talking to Jerry and one other agent. She looked pretty deep in her conversation but I was still going to ask her.

"Yo, Jaden!"

I stopped and turned around when I heard my name being called.

Tyler, for some reason, walked up to me, giving me a bro hug, "You guys were like Spiderman out there! Damn, you really got the hang of this 'being in charge' thing!"

I chuckled, "Yeah! But uh... Why are you here? I told your dumb ass yesterday that you were in Group 1. We don't see you for a week."

He sneered, "You think I don't already know that? I just wanted to come check on you. I know you were feeling kinda bummed out about Nicole cheating on you."

I shook my head, "I told you already, she wasn't cheating and I'm fine, she came home. See? She's over there with..." I drifted off my sentence when I noticed Coach Jackson scanning the crowd with his arms crossed and his eyes squinted in concentration.

Tyler followed my gaze, "What? What's wrong with you, Jay?"

I rubbed my eyes to make sure it wasn't just another hallucination.

Nope... Still there.

That motherfucking pedophile is still there!

I clenched my jaw with a sudden, eager urge to kill. I could feel the menacing smirk grow on my face. That's definitely him... I heard Tyler say something but I wasn't listening to what it was. The only thing I could hear was the voice in my head begging for violence. Begging me to torture. Never was I gonna stand by and let another rapist get his way the same way I let Levi did all those years ago. I wasn't that same, afraid kid anymore.

My fist clenched as I began to walk over to him.

"Jaden? Where are you going?" Tyler asked but I ignored him.

I watched as Jackson's face showed an "aha" moment before he lightly jogged over towards Nicki.

Oh, hell no!

I walked faster and faster in his direction and as soon as he tapped Nicole's shoulder, the voice in my head screamed, UNLEASH THE BEAST!

I darted towards him, shoving Nicki out of the way then sprang up into the air with my fist crashing dead to his jaw as I came down.

The whole crowd around me moved back with a loud, "OOOHHH!"

As Coach stumbled back, grabbing his jaw, I tackled him to the ground then, without hesitation, I threw repeated punches at his bitch ass face left and right, yelling, "You disgusting piece of shit!"

Break his fucking nose! The voice in my head demanded.

I aimed for his nose but Coach shielded his face from me as I kept punching with harsh force. He then managed to shove me off and scoot away from me, wiping his bloody lip with the back of his hand.

He looked at me with piteous confusion. It only made me want to cause more damage to that perv.

I pounced at him then grabbed him by his shirt and jabbed at his face a few times, hitting his lips, chin, and eye. He then grabbed my arm and slammed me to the ground, making everyone spur on louder around us.

He hooked my face twice then yanked me up by my shirt to instantly uppercut me in the jaw.

I stumbled back but ignored the pain and swung my arm at him, that he dodged, then I threw a swift hook near his temple. He kept his strength and quickly kneed me in the gut, knocking some wind out of me. His huge veiny fist then came in harsh contact with my eye and made me see some wicked stars but instead of knocking me out, it only made me angrier.

Someone pulled me back, yelling for us to stop but I didn't give a shit. I yanked myself away and darted towards Coach again, this time with more fiery anger. He swung his fists quickly at me and I weaved around all of his swings until I got a good crack at his nose. He fell back almost unconscious, dripping blood from his nostrils as I grabbed his neck to suffocate him while I bashed on his face with my other fist.

His face bled on my knuckles as he tried to shove me off of him.

No mercy!

I let go of his neck and threw countless punches at him left and right again to make sure his face was truly fucked up.

This time, someone with stronger hands yanked my arms back and held them behind me tightly as he pulled me away from Coach.

"Calm your tits, cupcake!" Coach Miles roared in my ear.

I breathed heavily as I watched people crowd around Coach Rapist to help him.

He looked at me with a glare, flipping me off through the little space that wasn't covered by someone's kneeling body. I sneered back at him, "Fuck you, disgusting shithead!" I yelled.

"Shut it!" Coach Miles demanded as he pulled me further away from Jackson.

Nicole walked over to me with a concerned look on her face. Her eyes stared deeply into mine with something I didn't expect to see... Questions...

She gently placed her hand on my chest as she moved Coach Miles' hands off of me, "Let's go, Jaden... Miles, take care of training until I get back and tell the others that I'll reschedule the meeting." her voice was low.

I glared at her for a moment before quickly moving my hands to my back pocket to find my gun.

But it wasn't there.

"Looking for this?" She showed me exactly what I was looking for. "Fell out."

"Give it to me," I demanded.

She gazed at me for a moment then gently shook her head and placed it in her own pocket, "No. You need to-"

"Give me the fucking gun!" I snapped.

She eyed me with an eyebrow raised, obviously not going to give me it.

"Dammit..." I pushed her aside and headed back towards Coach to finish this.

"Jaden... Jaden!" she rushed up to me and forcefully yanked me back to her by my shirt.

I huffed angrily, "Nicki! Why don't you want me to-"

"Jaden, enough..." she whispered, placing the palm of her hand on my face. "You're in really bad shape. We'll take care of him later... Come."

She grabbed my wrist and led me in the direction of our dorms...

The walk there was quiet. I glanced over at her a few times to see if I could tell what was on her mind but her expression was hard to read. I knew what I felt, though... I felt pissed. Pissed that I didn't get a chance to finish tearing Jackson apart. The heat boiling my blood with anger was still present and I wanted to satisfy that need for revenge.

I watched as Nicki opened the door to her dorm and led me inside. She quietly flipped the lights on and told me, "Go sit on the couch."

I sighed and did as she said, making my way to the couch while she headed to the kitchen. I listened to the sounds of her slamming a few cabinets and ruffling through some bags as I sat down.

I felt a little more relaxed and calm compared to how I felt earlier but that didn't change how angry I was. Coach better let this lesson sink in before touching anyone else. If I ever see him again today, I won't hesitate to beat his ass all over again.

Son-of-a-bitch...

I let out a deep sigh, rubbing my forehead but it stung when I touched it, causing me to wince. Coach hits pretty hard for a pussy.

I watched as Nicki walked over to me with a first aid bag in one hand and a clear medium-sized bowl with ice water with a cleaning rag floating inside in the other hand. She set the bowl and bag on the lamp table next to the couch then stood close in front of me and began wringing the rag out.

"He got you in the eye pretty good..." she whispered as she gently tilted my chin up to dab the rag over my eye.

I winced at the pain a little but let her continue what she was doing, "Why didn't you let me finish that pig?" I asked with a small hiss.

She sighed, dipping the rag back into the bowl and squeezing the blood out of it, making the water turn a light red color. "People are going to ask questions now." She answered. "They don't know about the inappropriate things Coach did to me and I don't want any of them to know about it..." she placed the freezing cold rag over my eye again with a small frown.

Her voice became quieter, "Now that you just whooped his ass in front of 100 of them, it's going to be pretty hard to avoid that."

"I'm sorry, Nicki..." was all I could say.

She shrugged and took my hand to clean my knuckles off. They were all bruised and scratched up from Coach's teeth.

"You know I had to do it," I told her a moment later. "Whether or not people would be nosey about it was the last thing on my mind."

She looked at me for a moment then pulled out a roll of bandages from the first aid bag to wrap my knuckles in, "I don't expect you to actually think things through, considering that you hardly ever do that..."

I scoffed, "Like you thought it through when you fought Rebecca at the beginning of the year..."

She bit her lip, holding back a smile as she wrapped my knuckles.

I chuckled, "Mhm... Look at you, thinking I forgot about that."

She rolled her eyes, grabbing the rag again to clean my lower lip, "Shut it, panda... I had my reasons for what I did."

I chuckled at her little joke, calling me panda because of my black eye. "I had my reasons for what I did, too. Only mine was deeper than just simply not liking someone... I did it because I love you."

She opened her mouth to say something but then just ended up pursing her lips as she wrung the blood out of the rag.

She raised the rag up to my face again but I stopped her and took her hands in mine, "Nicki, I've never fought for anyone in my life other than myself and my family. And I especially never thought I'd see myself fighting and getting so angry for a girl... I never really cared about 'em."

Nicki's eyes moved away from mine.

"But you're different, Nicki..." I continued to tell her, "I can't help but care about you. You mean the world to me. You don't know how hurt I was when you told me that the punk raped you... It hurt even more than all these bruises." I chuckled softly.

She gave me a small smile as I went on to say, "You're not like anyone else I've been with. In fact, I wouldn't even call any of those past relationships, real relationships... Now that I've met you, I finally know what true love feels like. You can tell too. I've changed so much because of you."

She smirked a little with her thumb lightly stroking my ear lobe as she listened.

I smiled, "I don't know if you've noticed but I've stopped flirting with other women, I've taken this job and myself more seriously, and I've been practicing proper speech for a long while now."

She smiled, making those adorable dimples peep out at me, "I never really thought about it but, yeah... I do see that."

I smiled back, "Proud?"

She chuckled and sat on my right lap, "Very..." she confirmed with a kiss on my cheek.

Even if she wasn't saying it yet, I knew she loved me back. We both make each other feel a way no one else could. No one in her life has cared for her the way I did. It was a totally new feeling for her and a new version of it for me.

With the strong feelings we have for each other, I could wait for those special three words to come out of those lips of hers when she feels the time is right... But it would be nice to hear her say it back every once in a while.