The Other Side

Part 2

Dedicated to maidenn_azure and DemiSe_ROM

Ryn

That night I did not sleep at all. I kept on thinking how my life had turned out.

Back in military school there had been this guy whom we used to be friends. He was my only friend. He was a younger recruit slightly older than me. He wasn't part of the student program.

He is partly responsible for how I am today.  He taught me a lot of stuff. Some of which am still proud of to date.

He taught me how to race, said I had a flexible body good enough for racing. He was patient with me all through the training period. When I missed a step he would always repeat patiently until I understood everything clearly.

He was so proud of me when I finally grasped  all the arts of flipping and the rest of the racing techniques.
That was two years after my enrollment in the school.

That's when I had met him. He had just finished his training and had started off with a job at the school. They had been working at a research station which was within the school premises. It was a project they we're assigned. Special ops.

Sometimes we would sneak to go race in big competitions . I always looked up to him. Maybe even worship the ground he walked on . We had become great friends and he made my days brighter at the military school. A daisy among lilies, that's what I used to refer to his presence in my life.

He had seen my three tattoos already and I always thought he disliked them until one day he proved me wrong.

That day we sneaked to a tattoo parlor and he asked me what I wanted to get. Teenage me replied enthusiastically that I wanted a fiery fox overlooking a dark canyon.

" A roaring lion breaking a cage would be better." he had said.  He said I did not belong to any kind of cage and that I was stronger than anything. I could overcome anything, be it my fears or even an unsure future since no one knows tomorrow.

Everyone in school had thought we were dating and I did not bother to correct them. Few months later he asked for me saying he wanted to talk.

" You wanted to see me ?" I had asked innocently.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk if that's okay with you? he said coolly.
" Of course we're friends remember." I had said smiling.

We had been talking for quite sometime when he stared at me hard, his gaze never leaving mine then he suddenly stood up and walked towards me. His eyes turned darker as he approached and I took a step back my heart hammering in my chest until I came into direct contact with the wall behind me.

" Um Caleb, what are you doing?" I asked my voice coming out hoarse and shaky. I had heard stories about men taking advantage of young innocent girls and everything rushed back to my head.

' He is not going to harm you .' I chanted in my head over and over again. I hadn't even realized I was closing my eyes when I heard someone chuckling.

"You can open your eyes now." he said laughing out loud as though it had been the most hilarious thing in the entire planet.

" You should have seen your face, you looked like you just saw a ghost." he had said.

" What was that about?" I asked irritated and angry at the same time. Had I anticipated something? Did I want something to happen? I wasn't sure.

" I just wanted to see what you would have done had it been a real life situation." He'd said with a hint of amusement.

"Are you high or something? You could have just asked me what I would do not putting up that act ." I shouted angrily.

"Do you think someone trying to harm you would simply ask you?" he reasoned with me cooling my anger in the process.

" The racing grounds are not safe for you anymore Ryn, I want you to be safe. I would never forgive myself should anything happen to you." he said looking at me square in the eyes.

" I will teach you how to defend yourself. So you can always be ready . At least better ready than sorry." he said chuckling.

" You have a strange sense of humor!" I said smiling.

" I will appreciate so much if you could teach me Caleb." I told him with a serious face..

That was the beginning of my fighting which led to me becoming a champion fighter in one of the gyms back in Tennessee.

Since I came back almost a month ago I've been intending to look for a good gym for my practice. Maybe even join an underground fighting club.

Unfortunately that's not the only thing that happened between me and Caleb. I'd learnt to trust him with my all , he never gave me any reason not to.

I fell in love with him. And he broke my heart. I couldn't look him in the eye ever since. I didn't believe he was the same Caleb. My story is sad. I never wanted to share it with  anyone, as a result no one knew.
He'd taught me everything but never did he teach me how to nurse a heartbreak. I felt so used. So filthy. So undesirable. So dead inside.

I promised myself to never let that happen again. I had been wild and unruly but never a heartbreaker. But again there's always a first time for everything. I learnt to mask my feelings, to break hearts so people would feel exactly what I had felt. I thought  it was love but it had never been. Nobody knew what exactly happened to break us up, up until now nobody does.

Love became a bitter potion and poison for me. A topic that burned me to scales whenever it came up

Following my break up with Caleb, my visits to the tattoo parlor, the racing grounds and the fighting had become more frequent.

I started picking my pieces and I learnt to become the person I am now. Even people started noticing me. I became drool worthy and I played all of them. From bad boys to jocks to nerds. All of them.

They called me the heartbroken heartbreaker. But at least I had the 'heart' to tell them what they were getting into.

As bad as that sounds, I didn't feel an ounce of anything within me. At least I had the brain to think even if my heart was in pieces.

Those were some of my darkest memories and I wanted to make sure I forget before I stepped foot in school tomorrow.

With that in mind I managed to succumb to sleep letting the darkness overwhelm me.

Tomorrow is a new day.

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This chapter is edited. Enjoy.