Page 61 of Undefeated

“Oh,” he paused and looked around the room.

“Sorry,” he said as he sat up in the chair.

“I must have fallen asleep,” he apologized as he pulled his hood from his face.

He face was covered in sweat.

“It’s hot in here, baby. You shouldn’t wear your hoodie,” I said as I leaned into the chair to kiss him.

“Where’s your mother?” he asked as he looked around the room.

I steadied his face with my hands and looked into his eyes, “She is making lunch for us,” I said as I pressed my lips against his.

As if the kiss woke him up totally, he held me in his arms and kissed me deeply. “Kace, you mean the world to me,” he said.

“You mean the world to me,” I responded.

“No, I mean. Well, fuck. I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I just. I don’t know. I want to spend the rest of my life being everything you want in a man. I want to make up for your lifetime of what you haven’t received. I want to always be here for you. I want so much for you to be happy,” he said.

“What got into you? I am happy,” I responded.

“An entirely different degree of happy,” he said as he stood up and pulled his hoodie off.

“Okay,” I said, “sounds good.”

He looked around the room as he tossed his hoodie on the back of the chair. He rubbed his eyes and turned to focus on my face. Slowly, he smiled.

“How long was I out?” he asked.

“I don’t know. We talked a while. I heard you snore after a bit. But we just decided to leave you. I thought you were worn out from all of the training for the fight. Is that okay?” I asked.

“No, babe. It’s fine,” he said as he stretched his arms behind his back.

“While she’s cooking, you wanna look at some stuff with me?” I asked excitedly.

“Sure, what do ya got?” he asked as he rubbed his hands together.

“Well, mom said she had all my stuff from when I was in high school in a room. She saved everything. I want to go look at it. I might want to take a few things home,” I giggled as I rubbed my hands together jokingly.

As we both stood and rubbed our hands together, I got excited. Excited to see things I hadn’t seen in ten years. Things I had long since forgotten. These old memories were going to be nice to sift and sort through. Not knowing what I would encounter was exciting. I tried to recall what she might have set aside, and the excitement almost overcame me.

“Well?” I asked.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“Mom, we’re going to go snoop,” I screamed into the kitchen.

“Okay, have fun. There’s a foot locker beside the bed,” a shallow voice responded.

I opened the door and Shane and I stepped inside. Immediately, I felt a wave of heat come over me. I began to shake lightly.

My Hello Kitty comforter on the bed. I snuggled under that comforter forever. Josh and I first…

Fucking Josh.

I turned and looked at the wall. All of my medals from running in track were on the wall in a shadow box. My throat felt full, and a lump rose as I walked to the box. Newspaper clippings were framed on each side of the display. I walked toward the framed pages and looked at the dates.

“Oh my God. This was my senior year - after I left. She kept them, Shane. She kept them,” I said as I pointed at the framed articles.