Last Round Romance

They were laughing when they heard someone clear their throat. Neither of them had noticed the man walk in while Maria had been teaching. The man looked at the two of them but said nothing. Curtis got really nervous; he was afraid that they had broken a rule or law of some sort. He looked over at Maria and noticed that her face had gone a deep pink. She gave a small, gloved wave to the man, “Hey Andy.” The man smiled at her, “It’s nice to have you back here Little Greene.” She laughed but didn’t say anything; the color on her face was deepening still. The man paid it no mind though, he continued on as if nothing were going on, “I knew someone was coming in here before hours because water bottles were going missing even though they were accounted for the night before haha. And I had kept trying to figure it out, because it had to have been someone with a key, but you completely slipped my mind. I thought that you stepped out of the game.” She looked at the man and shrugged, “I was on a hiatus of sorts I suppose.” He nodded understandingly, “Why didn’t you just tell me that you were coming back?” She hesitated and Curtis suddenly felt as though he were intruding on something very private and personal. “I,” she paused, “I didn’t know if you’d let me come back.” The man must have picked something up in her hesitation that told him to withhold the reasoning behind her leaving, because his reply was rather obscure, “Awh, Maria, you know that you’re always welcome here, no matter how long you may step out for. You were going through a lot Hon, but never feel like you’re not welcome here, okay?” She smiled and gave a small nod, “Alright. Thanks Andy.” He nodded and winked, “Anytime.”
He changed his focus to Curtis, “And who is this young man?” he asked Maria. Curtis took his hand out of the glove and held it out to him, “My name’s Curtis.” Andy gave an approving nod, “Hello Curtis, I’m Mr. Schott. Call me Andy.” Curtis nodded, “Hi Andy.” The man gave Curtis a once-over, “So what brings you here at this ungodly hour in the morning?” Curtis chuckled and gestured towards Maria, “This young lady right here actually.” Andy laughed and nodded, “I figured as much. Never fear though, you’re learning from one of the best in the business.” He winked at Maria and she just shook her head with a laugh, “Oh please, you and my dad taught me everything I know. I’m not some prodigy or whatever.” Andy shook his head and pointed at her with his thumb as he looked at Curtis, “So modest this one.” Curtis chuckled but didn’t say anything.
Maria looked at the time on her iPod and her jaw dropped, “Shit,” she whispered under her breath. Andy laughed, “Running late?” She tore her gloves off and unraveled her wraps, “Andy, could you coil up our wraps? I didn’t realize how long we’ve been here. We gotta get home and get ready for school.” Andy put his hand up to stop her, “Calm down, I’ll drive you guys,” he paused and turned to Curtis, “That’s okay with you right? I know we just met and all haha.” Curtis laughed as he slid out of the ropes of the ring, “Hey, if she trusts you, I do too.” Andy nodded, “Smart man.”
Curtis and Maria both hung up their wraps and got into Andy’s car and he was driving to Maria’s house when she stopped him, “Go to Curtis’ house first. I can get ready in like, five minutes but he lives farther away and I don’t want him to be really late.” Andy chuckled, “Alright, that’s fine,” he looked at Curtis through the rearview mirror, “Where do you live?” Curtis nodded towards the road in front of them, “I’m just a few miles down the road from her. I’m the house on the left.” A look of recognition spread across Andy’s face, “You’re Groff’s boy?” Curtis nodded and bit his tongue to keep from making a snide comment about either of his parents. He wanted to leave a good impression on Andy, although he had a feeling his father had pulled him out of the race before he even started.
Andy stopped in front of his house, “Here we are.” Curtis opened the back door to get out, “Thank you so much Mr. Schott; you’re a lifesaver.” He smiled at Curtis, “Call me Andy, but it’s not a problem, never is.” Curtis smiled and waved goodbye to him and Maria. He shut the door and jogged up the walkway that led to his front door. He was hoping that his parents would still be asleep since it was only five forty-five, which was early for them.
He quietly opened the door that led into the kitchen and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the table was empty. He went upstairs to rinse off and change into a fresh set of clothes before heading back outside to catch the bus.
Meanwhile, Andy was still in the car with Maria and they were parked outside her house. He turned to her, “Be careful with him alright?” Maria cocked her head to the side, “Why?” Andy sighed and adjusted his baseball cap, “His family has some serious issues. I don’t want you to get wrapped up in trying to fix him and help him and then end up getting hurt.” Maria laughed, “Oh please, like I have room to talk or criticize when it comes to family issues.” Andy looked at her, seeing past her sarcasm, “I know Maria, but please, this is different. Just be careful okay?” She nodded, “Alright Andy, just for you. But right now, I have to go get ready for school. I’ll catch you later sometime.” She went to get out of the car when he called out after her, “Class times haven’t changed Little Greene. Just remember that.” Maria waved goodbye to him before disappearing into her house.
She crept upstairs into her room, trying not to wake up her baby brother as she went. She quickly rinsed off in the shower and then went into her room to pick out an outfit for the day. She grabbed a pair of camouflage shorts and a yellow tank top. It was the first tank top that she had worn to the new school. She didn’t want to show up on the first day and have the huge scar on her upper left arm to be the first thing that people saw. She looked at it for a minute in the mirror before tucking the boxing glove charm into her shirt and picking up a set of silver dog tags that had belonged to her grandfather when he was in WWII. She pulled her hair up into a quick ponytail and put some mascara and eyeliner on quickly before heading back out to catch her bus after grabbing her tote bag and breakfast bar off of the kitchen table.
When she stepped onto the bus, she saw that Curtis was leaning against the window again, dozing off like he had been the first day. She smiled as she quietly slid into the seat so she was sitting beside him. She put her earphones in and pulled out her sketchpad. She flipped to a different page than the one Curtis had been looking at in study hall and kept working on the series of sketches that she had going on it. She was drawing in silence for a few minutes, but when she felt Curtis move, she quickly flipped the page and started to pack away her notebook.
Curtis ran his hand over his face and looked at her with a tired smile, “Hey, long time no see haha.” She smiled at him, “I know, I feel like it’s been forever.” They made small-talk for the rest of the ride in but Curtis had to fight the urge to ask her a million questions. He wanted to know so much. He wanted to know why she had stopped boxing, what had happened to her dad, what made her start again, and, most importantly, what had happened to her arm. The scar was one of the first things that he had noticed when he looked at her when he woke from his bus ride doze. He didn’t want to seem insensitive or blunt, but he was just so curious. He made a point to not stare at it, and he hoped that Maria hadn’t caught him looking at it when he first turned to her.
She was full of questions as well. She wanted to know about him, about his family. She was wondering what had happened in his family that made them so infamous in the town. She wanted to know how Andy knew Curtis’ dad, and why it seemed like such a bad thing. She knew that Curtis’ home life wasn’t conventional, she could gather that from the way he acted around people and the way he talked, but she didn’t know the details of it. But more than anything, Maria really just wanted to know what had hurt him so much. It was written all over his face, but it was like it was written in another language. She knew there was something there, but she just couldn’t understand it. That’s why she always wanted him to look her in the eyes; she hoped that maybe she could crack a little bit of the code.
When the bus opened the doors once they got to the school, the two of them were the last ones off. They walked down the aisle and they were talking and joking around. Curtis let her get off the bus first and he couldn’t help but to notice the look that the bus driver gave him as he got off behind her. The woman looked at Curtis like she had just seen him beat up an innocent person. He shrugged it off and followed Maria into the school.
When he was up at his locker, Elliot walked over and leaned on the locker next to his, “So,” he asked with a joking nudge of his elbow, “how’d it go with Kaylie yesterday?” Curtis laughed as he finished packing up his things for his first few classes. He faced Elliot and shrugged, “Oh, you know, the usual I guess.” A grin spread across Elliot’s face that was reminiscent of a small child’s, “You didn’t!” Curtis laughed, more so at Elliot’s expression than what he was implying, “Dude, calm down. Nothing happened. Jeeze, give me a little credit.” Elliot sighed, “Whatever man, you got my hopes up for a second there.” They stood there and joked around for a few minutes before the warning bell rang and everyone dispersed to their separate homerooms.
Curtis slid in and said good morning to his homeroom teacher before sitting down on the table next to Maria. He waited for her to look up from her sketchbook before saying anything to her. She smiled at him and waved but didn’t say anything; she could tell that he wanted to say something to her. “So,” he asked tentatively, “how’d you get the name?” A confused expression crossed her face and her brow furrowed as she tried to understand, “Wait…what?” Curtis chuckled, “What Andy called you…how did that start?” She laughed at her own oblivion to what he was trying to ask, “Oh, you mean Little Greene?” He nodded but didn’t say anything; he was waiting for her to answer and he didn’t want to distract her. “Well,” she started as she crossed her legs and rested her hands on her lap, “it all started when my dad brought me to the gym for the first time. They had always called him Greene since that was his last name and you know how guys and sports just dig the whole last name thing. So, when I came, at first they didn’t really call me anything. I was just “Greene’s Kid” or something like that. But then, my dad helped me put on a set of wraps and gloves and he had Andy teach me the punches. And when Andy felt how hard I could hit, well, I got upgraded to Little Greene. And, even though it’s been years, he still calls me that.” Curtis was smiling as she told the story because he could see the way that her face lit up as she told it. It was like she was reliving a good memory that she never really wanted to let go of.
She sat there in her chair for a minute, just looking down at her hands smiling at the thought of how it all started. Even she had to admit that those times were good. When she first started going to the gym with her dad it was like nothing could go wrong. They got along and joked around and he definitely taught her a lot about boxing. She loved it; it was her time away with her father when she didn’t have to worry about their mother hearing things they said or seeing things that they did. It was kind of like a secret of sorts. No one had to know what was said or done once they stepped out of that gym, and Maria loved that about it. She and her dad could talk about anything and everything while they were in there but as soon as the door closed behind them again on their way out, neither of them ever had to bring it up again if they didn’t want to. It was a beautiful thing. “It’s a shame that it had to end the way it did…” Maria thought to herself. The thought had always crossed her mind after everything happened at first, but now that she was sitting there talking to Curtis about some of what had led up to it, it was hitting her hard all over again. She shook her head to try and dispel the bad thoughts that were intruding on her few remaining happy memories of her and her father.
Curtis had seen her face go from happy to serious, so he gently reached down from the table and put his hand on her shoulder, “You okay?” She looked up at him with a forced smile and nodded, “Yea, I’m fine. Just zoned out there for a second is all.” Curtis looked at her dubiously, “I don’t believe you, but I’m not going to pry either,” he paused for a second, “I’m always here if you need me.” She smiled at him, “Thanks.”
He was about to say more when the bell rang and they both needed to go to study hall. Since they had it in the same place, Curtis figured that he would just walk with her to make sure that she got there okay and everything, but then he remembered that he had to go talk to Kaylie and give her back the headband that she had left at his house the night before.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs Curtis asked Maria if she could let their study hall teachers know that he was there but he was going to be a little late because he had to talk to a teacher. She agreed and watched him as he walked away down the hallway that led to the English wing and also, Kaylie’s locker.
Kaylie was still at her locker when Curtis turned down the hallway. He smiled as he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He didn’t say anything, but he waited for her to turn and look at him. She turned her head to him with a smile and kissed him quickly before moving his hands and turning completely around so she could face him. He reached into his backpack and pulled out the headband that she had forgotten, “You left this at my house,” he said as he jokingly plopped it onto her head. She gave a chuckle mixed with a sigh of relief, “Holy crap, thank God that I left this at your house. I noticed that I didn’t have it on when I got inside last night and I started freaking out.” Curtis laughed, he thought that she was joking, “Why were you so worked up? It’s just a headband.” She turned back to him after situating the headband properly so it was holding her bangs back, “Because I spent like, twenty bucks on this thing.” Curtis’ jaw dropped, “Why would you spend so much money on a freakin’ headband?” Kaylie laughed as she wrapped her arms around his neck, “Because, it’s a coach headband, top of the line.” Curtis shook his head in disbelief. The bell rang and Kaylie gave him a kiss, “I’ll see you later, okay?” He nodded as he watched her pick up her things and head off to her class.
He gathered up his own bag and started walking back to study hall. He was thinking about everything that had just happened. A few years ago, Kaylie didn’t even like using headbands, let alone paying twenty bucks for one. She had always said that they got in the way of her baseball caps and helmets for riding. “I can just tuck my bangs back into my hat or whatever,” she had told her mom one day when she suggested that Kaylie wear a headband. He was still trying to wrap his head around how much she had changed. He knew better than to overthink it all, but he couldn’t help but to wonder if he was really dating the same girl that he thought he was. As a matter of fact, he wondered if he was even dating her at all. He kind of just assumed that they were because of everything that had happened the day before, but it wasn’t really officially said or anything. He wasn’t all too worried about that. He could live with being just friends with her; that’s what he had done for all those years before anyway. It wouldn’t be any different really. But now he was wondering if she was even the kind of girl that he would normally be friends with if they hadn’t known each other before. He didn’t want their past to blur his perception of what she was or wasn’t now. He didn’t want to just hang around her because of everything that had happened before. If she was a totally different person now, and the kind that he didn’t want to be around, he didn’t want to end up forcing himself to be around her just because he felt like he “had” to.