He smiled widely, looking pretty happy with himself as he folded his arms. “And you aren’t even denying it.”
I roughly pulled off my gloves. “Alright, fine. She’s a pretty girl. But I wouldn’t— I fucked up anyway.”
Seb frowned this time as he asked slowly, “What do you mean you fucked up?”
“I overstepped. I wanted to...test the waters.” I pulled a hand through my hair. Saying it out loud was harder than I thought. “I wanted to kiss her but scared her instead and she bolted— Don’t fuckin’ laugh about it.”
This only made him laugh more as he wiped his eyes. “I’m sorry, but you getting rejected is the funniest shit I’ve ever heard,” he chuckled before laughing louder again. “Holy shit, man.”
“Glad it amuses you.” I turned and ducked under the ropes of the ring.
“Awe, come on. It’s funny. Most girls would throw themselves at you if they had the chance. Meanwhile Lily is setting boundaries.” He jogged to catch up, falling into step beside me. “My respect for her has gone way up.”
I stopped abruptly in front of him. “You think I don’t respect her boundaries?”
Seb raised his hands. “Okay, cool your jets. That’s not what I meant.”
“Sorry,” I grumbled and moved on.
Seb clapped me over the shoulder as we approached the lockers. “Are you going to talk to her?”
“I plan to.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“What are you going to say?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You’ve gotta try harder than that.”
“I know,” I breathed, pulling open my locker.
Seb collected his backpack from his locker. “Just make sure you reign in those Italian urges, yeah?”
I raised a brow. “Italian urges?”
“That Italiano passion,” he said, butchering the accent and pairing it with stereotypical hand gestures.
I scoffed. “You’re a dickhead.”
“A loveable one,” he shrugged, backing away in the direction of the back staircase. “I’ll see you later tonight, yeah? I’ve got dinner with the family… Good luck.”
I huffed a laugh, waving him off as he left, and turned my attention to my locker, adding a new supply of gauze to the shelf along with Lily’s phone. She would come downstairs to look for it when she arrived for her shift, and I planned on being down here when she did. I didn’t mind waiting a couple of hours for her.
“Hello, Deano,” sneered a rough voice from behind me.
I didn’t have time to turn around as something passed down in front of my face and tightened around my throat. Quickly cutting off my air supply. I grabbed at what felt like rope and gasped when it restricted further. My lungs began to burn.
I jabbed an elbow into the guy’s ribcage hard enough for him to wheeze but not enough for him to let up as he spun me away from the locker, pulling tighter on the jump rope while black spots danced across my vision.
There was a second person nearby, wearing a balaclava and clutching a tire iron.
“Shit,” I choked.
He swung at my side and pain shot through my chest on impact, knocking the rest of the wind from my lungs before my legs buckled. My knees hit the concrete floor, but I was forced to keep my body straight when the rope tugged under my jaw.
