*Hands over an Oreo*

*Three years ago*

"She's not here." Dylan huffs once he reached us.

"Yeah she's not in school. We've looked everywhere." Cole said, breathing heavily from running around the school.

I knew that already. I knew that she wasn't here, because I've looked and asked around about her all day.

It was our first day of school after the holidays and it's been about two weeks since I last saw Miles.

This is the first time that we haven't talked for so long.

We do fight a lot but we go back to normal in no time but this time was different, and I couldn't subside the panic I felt in my whole body.

"This isn't like her." Mia said nibbling her nails. "She has never been MIA like this before."

The panic in my body was unsettling as I hated myself a little more every passing second.

"She hasn't responded to anyone?" Cole frowned, obviously worried. "Not even you?" He added, pointing at me.

I sighed shaking my head.

I leaned my head on the locker behind me, fidgeting with my fingers and my anxiety grew.

"Nothing." Perri said exasperated, once she reached us, throwing her hands up in the air. "Absolutely nothing about Emily. It's almost like she never existed."

"So, the school wasn't informed about anything?" Mia asked her.

"Of course they were. When I say they're pretending like she never existed, I mean it." Perri said shaking her head, looking at us cautiously.

We frowned at that.

"What do you mean?" I asked, pushing myself off the locker.

"She's not a student here, anymore. She has left the school." Perri said, a troubled look on her face. "The people in the office are pretending to not know anyone by her name and trying to avoid conversation about her."

I couldn't look at what everyone's reaction was but I'm pretty sure it was similar to mine as I stood there with my eyes wide and my heart in my throat.

"How's that fucking possible?!" Dylan exclaimed, frantically. "I think we very much deserve to know the reason for our friend's disappearance. I'll go talk to them."

Cole pulled him back before he could storm in the school office. "Don't be stupid Dy. If they want to keep any kind of information from us, creating a scene won't be of much help."

"So we do nothing?!" Dylan yelled, gaining some attention from students around us. "The school has no right to keep such information from us."

"Actually they do." Mia said, softly. "It depends on who it is about. If the person concerned wants to keep certain information confidential, the school doesn't have the right to disclose it to anyone."

Silence settled in the air as we took in the information.

"You mean... Em...?" Cole trailed off, looking at me, while I suddenly found it hard to breathe.

What have I done?

"And it's not just the school, even people in her neighborhood know nothing about what happened." Perri continued, making us look at her in confusion.

"What? I have cousins who live there." She shrugged. "So, the last time there was a sign to someone living there, was on Christmas. The house has been quiet ever since."

"She's been gone since Christmas?" Dylan said softly, almost as if he didn't want to say it out loud.

"I didn't say that." Perri said. "The last time there was a commotion in Em's house was Christmas Eve. My cousin ran into Alec leaving the house, a few days after Christmas."

"What kind of commotion?" Mia asked.

"I have no idea. It seems like Em's family made sure everything was taken care of very quietly." Perri said, pursing her lips.

"Wait. Christmas Eve." Dylan snapped his fingers, turning to look at me. "Wasn't that when you last met Em? Didn't she tell you anything?"

I was no longer looking at anyone of them.

I leaned back on the locker and slowly slid down to sit on the ground, as I felt my body grow heavier along with my heart.

Everyone rushed to squat beside me, exchanging worried glances.

"I didn't let her." I choked out, as tears blurred my vision. "She came to me, crying, and I walked away. Go away..." I took in a shaky breath.

"I asked her to go away." A lone tear escaped my eye. "And now she's really gone."

She's gone.

*****

*Present*

Meet me at 3. Don't be late.

I continued staring at the message and the address of some kind of a gym that she sent me.

"You won't magically teleport there, if you keep staring at the address, you know that, right?" Dylan said, absentmindedly, while drilling his fingers in the keyboard, to win whatever game he was playing.

"Shut up, man." I deadpanned, running a hand through my hair again.

"You sure you don't want to tag along?" I asked, looking up from a worksheet we got from school.

"Nah. I think it'd be better if you went alone." Cole shook my head, while Dylan nodded in agreement. "You guys have a lot to discuss anyway."

"As far as the answers are concerned, I'm pretty sure we can all hang out as a group one day, for those." Dylan said, his eyes still fixed on the computer screen, muttering angrily at it. "Come on diieeeee!"

"Yeah, Mia and Perri deserve to know, you know?" Cole said.

"Did you tell them anything yet?" I asked, frowning.

"Nope."

"Nah."

They shook their heads.

"It's not out place to tell them, anyway." Cole added.

I nodded, before gathering my worksheets and grabbing my phone, putting it in my pocket.

"So, you guys meeting at a gym?" Dylan said rotating his chair to face us, once his game was over. "Anything interesting planned for when you both will be hot and sweaty?"

He rubbed his hands with a smirk on his face, making me grimace and smack the back of his head, heading to grab my dog tags.

"Stop corrupting my damn brain you idiot. She thinks of me as a friend and nothing more." I said, putting on socks. "I don't wanna scare her away with my useless feelings."

"Hey you don't know that." Cole said patting my back.

"Trust me, we see the way you look at each other, and it's anything but friendly." Dylan chuckled.

"Yeah? Is it how you look at Mia?" I retorted making his smile drop.

"Just go. It's time." Dylan said, turning back to the computer screen, making Cole and I burst out laughing.

"You remember you have to pick Grace up from Andy's place right?" I said getting up from my bed.

"Yeah, don't worry." Cole said, while Dylan passed a thumbs up.

My parents weren't home and Grace was at her friend's place. The guys came over when I told them about my plans to meet Miles and offered to pick up Grace.

"Go get em, tiger!" Dylan yelled, before turning to look at us wide-eyed. "You see what I did there?"

Cole and I exchanged glances before shaking our head in disappointment.

"Anyways... I'll see you later then." I said, heading out of my room, that the twins were now, hogging.

After a 10 minutes drive I stood in front of a gym just outside the city and checked to make sure I'm at the right place.

There were no cars in the parking lot except for one black Mercedes which I recognised as Miles', making it seem like the gym was closed.

I secured my helmet in my bike compartment before making my way towards the entrance, quickly sending a text to Miles, telling her that I'm her.

The reception area was empty too, while I looked around for anyone who worked here, when a ping from my phone made me look down at it.

Great. Just come on up to the 5th floor.

I tucked the phone back in my pocket, before following the little signs that lead to the elevator.

The gym was a multistory one, with a total of 5 floors which was a lot. The gym I go to has like 3 floors.

I didn't even know about this gym, or I would've joined this one.

The elevator stopped at the 5th floor and the door opened only to make me meet with the most heavenly sight I could ever wish for.

The elevator door opened directly into the gym area and there stood Miles, with her hands on the railing, leaning on them.

The sun did its magic and made her skin and hair glow, almost making it look like she herself was emitting the light.

She was wearing a white cropped hoodie and grey tights... Those tights...

She definitely knew how to make my hormones go haywire.

The doors of the elevator started to close as I stood there for too long, just staring at her, without making a move to leave the confined space.

I quickly stuck my hand before the door closed, finally snapping out of trance and walking out.

Miles snapped her head in my direction once she heard my footsteps.

God, she's beautiful.

Her features were naturally highlighted by the sunlight entering from the glass walls and a content smile automatically found its way to my lips by just looking at her.

Her outfit was, in every way, complimenting her blessed body, while I had to force my eyes on her face as they kept drifting down.

"Took you long enough." Her voice brought me out of my trance, as she pushed herself off the railing and walked to the centre of the room.

I, then took notice of the room and saw that it's filled with equipments required for a fight training.

There were a number of punching bags lined up on the side, some treadmills on the other and some other equipments.

And in the centre was an open space covered in mats which looked like a sparring area.

"Should I be scared?" I asked motioning towards the centre.

"If a little sparring with a girl scares you, then yeah." She raised her eyebrows in challenge.

I chuckled, shaking my head. "I thought we were supposed to talk."

"Yup. That's why we're here." She stretched her arms out, motioning towards the whole room. "Because I've promised you answers that I don't know myself so I would like to not make a fool of myself in front of an audience."

I let out another throaty laugh. "How are we the only ones here though? The whole place is empty."

"Yeah I know. I kinda uh... know the owner and he agrees to let me have the gym all to myself, once in a while." She shrugged, walking towards a bench and picking up a hand wrap.

"Know the owner?" I frowned, following her and sitting on the bench, looking up at her in confusion. "But you just came into town."

She froze, while placing the hand wraps on her wrist and looked at me with her lips parted.

"Wow!" She breathed out, making me raise my eyebrows. "I led us right into this."

"Am I missing something?" I said looking up at her.

She sighed before taking a seat beside me and resumed wrapping her hand with the wrap. "The owner of the gym is my manager."

"A manager?" My frown deepened, turning to face her with one leg folded under me.

"Yeah, he manages... uh my fights." She said slowly.

"Oh." I said, nodding in understanding. "Is it that hard of a job to uh... manage fights? That you had to hire someone?"

She chuckled. "Not really. It's not. I just have him to run background checks on people, so I can fight a worthy opponent."

"Isn't streetfighting a community where people just challenge each other?" I asked tilting my head, while she turned her head to look at me, with her eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Yeah, it is. How do you know that?" She asked, a small smile on her face.

"I've seen my fair share of movies, you know?" I said, raising my head, feeling proud.

She chuckled and patted my head. "Good for you. But when you become one of the top fighters and several people start betting on you, more and more people start challenging you, in hopes of earning a fortune."

I nodded, taking in the information. "And you're obviously one of them and you had to hire him, so you don't have to fight people left and right."

"You got it!" She cheered, ruffling my hair, before getting up from the bench and grabbing her sipper from the ground, making me look away, till she's standing straight again.

'Wow'

Shut up. I may be a dick sometimes, but I'm respectful.

'You're belittling yourself, asshole. I'm you.'

"So, in return of earning a share of money from my fights, he lets me have his gym all to myself, once in a while." She said tightening her ponytail and walking towards one of the punching bags.

"What do you do with the rest?" I walked towards the opposite side of the punching bag she was going to use, and held it to avoid movement due to momentum.

"The rest of the money?" She asked, raising her eyebrows, and looked at me, while fixing her hand wraps one last time. "Well, I keep half of the rest as savings for college. And the rest... well, I donate it."

She mumbled the last part, so slow that I would've missed it if I wasn't paying close attention.

I was about to ask her more about it, when it happened.

She punched.

The bag.

But I still felt it.

I was sloppily holding the bag and stood too close to it and she hit with a force I didn't expect, making the bag slam into my stomach, making me groan.

"Ryder!" She gasped, grabbing the punching avoiding any further movement. "I thought you held the bag because you knew how to hold it." She whined.

"I do know how to hold it." I gritted out before standing straight.

"Then how di-" she stopped herself when a look of realisation took over her face, making her look at me, annoyed. "Ryder, I hate it when people underestimate me and I would really appreciate it, if you don't do it too."

I sighed before looking at her. "I know how much that sucks Miles." I said holding one of her wrapped hands in mine.

"But can you blame me?" I raised my eyebrows. "The Miles I knew was this beautiful and fragile little girl, who loved to eat a bite out of everything I had on my plate and loved to ramble to me about fictional characters that I didn't know or care about but I still listened to it because I loved how happy it made her.

Then I lost her."

I threw caution to the wind and raised my hand to tuck a strand behind her ear, my hand grazing the soft skin of her cheek in the process.

"And now she's back. Even more beautiful, if that's even possible and bold, beyond extent." I said, as I fiddled with her hand in mine. "I almost feel like I don't know her anymore. And I hate it."

She scoffed, looking away. "I never said I was very likeable."

I grabbed her chin with my free hand, making her look at me. "I hate that I don't know you. I hate not being a part of your life, like I was before."

I leaned a little closer, as her intoxicating scent filled my lungs. "Trust me, I can't hate you, no matter how hard I tried."

"So you have... " It came out as more of a question than a statement from her as she looked at me with her big blue eyes.

"What?" I frowned, dropping my hand from her chin and grabbing her hand, instead.

"You have tried hating me then?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

This time it sounded more like a statement than a question.

"I have." I sighed, dropping my head in shame. "And it made me lose the most important person in my life."

When she didn't respond for about a minute, I raised my eyes from our adjoined hands to her eyes. She was looking with an foreign look and a small smile on her face.

"I'll give you another chance." She suddenly said, pulling her hands away from my grip, taking a step behind the punching bag.

I frowned, confused. "What?"

"Hold it right, this time." She said motioning towards the punching bag, raising her eyebrows as a grin found its way to my lips.

"Let's see if you can put up with me." She said, taking her stance while I went back to holding the bag with a warm feeling in my chest.

*Author's note*