Chapter 157
Two days after the fight and I still felt as roughed up as I did an hour after the fight.
Rolling around and out of bed was not an option because every move I made forced a grunt out of my lips.
I still had to go to school today and with the way I was limping everywhere, I'd need a miracle for it to go unnoticed around school.
I didn't want to miss a day of school unless it was a life and death situation so calling in sick was definitely not an option.
When my alarm went off, I gingerly stepped out of bed and tried to make as little movements as I could.
I carefully made my way to my closet and took some clothes to change into before limping away into the toilet.
To say that every movement ached like a bitch was an understatement and I could only pray that it'd all dull away somehow before my last fight. I needed to win, badly.
I could only hope my opponent would be in a worse condition than I was. It's probably the only way I could win the fight.
After getting myself cleaned up, I tried to make myself as presentable as I could. I never liked the feeling of my face getting caked up with make-up and so I sent a quick thanks to God for not getting any hits to my face during that last fight.
I still had deep bags under my eyes and a small cut here and there on my face but nothing the bruises weren't as bad as the ones I got from the last fight.
I quickly took a hoodie with me, planning to make myself as comfortable as possible during the lectures.
Lucky me, my parents had been called for an emergency board meeting for another week. Right after my last fight.
When they come back, everything was going to be right. No more fighting, no more danger, no more vengeance.
I didn't know how long it's been since there was peace in my life. It had been years since I started fighting in the Underground Place. I'd forgotten what it felt like to live without being on edge every second of every day.
I couldn't remember why I chose to continue live that kind of life, but I guess it did help occupy my mind. It might sound horrible but worrying about getting ambushed by someone from the Underground Place on the streets kept my mind from thinking of Bryant's death 24/7.
I grabbed my things on my way out and drove off to school.
When I arrived and parked, I took a deep breath to steel myself. I sent a quick prayer for strength to get through the pain of moving around this huge ass campus and opened the car door before shifting sideways to get out of the car.
I took small steps to avoid sharp pains from shooting through my body while everyone else walked around me, some taking a double take at my pace.
At one point, I realized I had to climb the stairs to get to one of my classes and I internally groaned. The urge to cry out in frustration was so hard to suppress that I had to take a second to calm myself down and convince myself to not fret about it.
Burn that bridge when you get to it, Case.
I focused on not getting trampled by the ruthless University students that were shoving people around without a care. I almost punched someone in the face for elbowing the side of my head but I decided it wasn't worth the pain.
I better save it for the last fight. I'll certainly need everything I could muster if I was going to survive that fight.
10 minutes into the lecture after a long struggle of getting to the auditorium, I began questioning my reasons of going to school today.
What was I bloody thinking?
Since I was already there, I guess it was a pointless question to ask myself. I'll just keep fighting through the day and hope people in the corridor won't trample me to death.
I couldn't die yet, I still had to fight and win.
After the lecture, I had an hour break before I had a tutorial to attend. I looked to my left at the staircases I had to climb to get to class and to my right to where the food court was.
Decisions, decisions.
I decided that I deserved some reward for making it through the morning traffic in the hallways and started limping towards the restaurants.
It was pretty sad that I didn't have friends in University. The thought of making some was tempting as I trudged over the open field to where the food stalls were at.
Thinking about friends reminded me of Penelope and Monic.
And Jake, of course.
It hadn't been the same since Penelope and I moved away to different Universities. I didn't doubt that she was already being swarmed by a bunch of friends.
Monic, the last time I heard from her, sounded stressed and upset. I assumed it had something to do with Jake since she avoided talking about him when I brought up their relationship.
There was just too many things going on and I imagined the hassle of having to keep my secret from another soul. I was tired of the lying and sneaking away. I was lucky enough that my parents are away most of the time but I don't have it in me to build a friendship off of lies.
Maybe, when all of this is over, I can start living a normal teenager life. I can start making friends and worry over normal teenager problems.
