Fighting for Her

Tommy lifted the sledgehammer above his head and brought it down fast, breaking the concrete underneath him. He missed. The giant tire sat, untouched, mocking him.

"You're distracted." Paddy stated. Tommy ignored him and swung again, this time hitting the tire. He kept on, lifting, dropping and slamming the tire with the hammer. Picking up his pace after each hit. Finally the hammer hit the tire and with an uneven bounce it went flying out of his hands and across the junk yard.

"Enough!" Paddy got up and yelled. "Go run off whatever this is Tommy. You need to focus or you can forget the tournament!"

Tommy tightened his fists, feeling his rage building up. He let out a loud grunt and took off. It had been a week since he saw her with him. He hated thinking about it, yet couldn't escape it. He had opened up to her and felt such a quick and deep connection to Riley.

It truly broke his heart to know that he could never have her.

----

"Oh my god, your face." Riley stood in shock as her best friend walked into the shop, wearing a very large smile on her face.

"What?" Anna blushed.

"Are you blushing?" Riley's green eyes grew wide.

"What's wrong with my face?" A couple days ago, a man came in and bought one of Anna's pieces, then came back in the same night to ask her out to dinner. They had been inseparable ever since.

"Nothing! I just don't think I have ever seen you look so, so... happy."

"Like when you came home from hanging out with Tommy?" Anna wiggled her eyebrows at Riley.

A stern faced Riley narrowed her eyes and turned away.

"What happened anyway? I haven't seen him around in a while." Anna took a muffin out of the bag she had brought in and began to pick at it.

"I don't know." Riley washed her paint ridden hands and wiped them dry. She grabbed a muffin from Anna and walked into the office.

"Well, I think you should go to the gym and see him again." Riley roller her eyes.

"So I should stalk him? Great idea Anna."

"No, just visit. There is a difference."

Riley shoved a large piece of muffin in her mouth so she could avoid more conversation.

"All I'm saying is that you looked genuinely happy after your "non-date" with him so why not continue being happy? Life's short Ri." Anna had raised her hands and signaled the quotation when she said non-date, making Riley roll her eyes yet again.

"I have a boy-"

"A boyfriend. Yeah. Blah blah. Spare me." An exasperated Anna lifted her arms in the air. "There's nothing wrong with being friends with someone that makes you happy." And with that she walked to the back.

Riley sat chewing on the end of a pen while checking her email. She must have opened over four emails before realizing that she hadn't actually read a single one.

She was distracted.

She grabbed her coat and walked to the back. Anna was on the phone but she interrupted her anyway.

"I'm going out."

Anna smiled, knowingly.

----

The cold air whipped Tommy's face numb, but still he ran. He couldn't shake her from his mind and he hated to admit it, but his father was right. If he was going to win this tournament, he had to get rid of his distractions. He pushed himself harder and harder, seeing his face as he ran.

As he came up to the cross-section, he turned off of Main Street and onto Cedar Way. The street that ReLovely was on. The sidewalk was littered with snow piles.

He kept running, faster and faster until abruptly coming to a stop. Riley stood in front of him, eyes wide, surprised to see him. She tugged on her beanie, covering her ears. His blue eyes locked on hers, a small smile began to curl up on her lips. As she opened her mouth to say something, Tommy ran right past her. Without looking back, he kept running.

Son of a bitch...

Riley stood there, dumfounded at what just happened. A sudden bit of anger washed over her and she jumped in her truck and took off.

----

Fenroy, the guy working the front desk at Colt's, stood up from his chair as soon as Tommy walked through the door carrying two bags of ice in each hand.

"Dude. There's some chick back there asking for you."

Tommy walked by him without saying a word. Riley was sitting on the mat in his corner of the gym, playing with the laces on her boots. He sighed loudly getting her attention. She got on her feet and marched over to him.

"What the hell was that about!?" Her voice came out louder than she wanted. A couple guys sparring stopped and looked. She gazed up at Tommy's tired face and slumped her shoulders in a huff. "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell. Why did you run by me?"

Tommy shifted his weight, still silent. He laid the bags on the floor.

"Why do you have ice bags?"

"So many questions." Tommy couldn't help but chuckle.

She's cute when she's pissed. Her green eyes were blazing even more after he had laughed at her. Pieces of her hair were sticking out from underneath her hat, she was clearly flustered. Then he remembered what his dad said.

A distraction.

"Does your boyfriend know you're here, Ri?" He picked up the bags, walked to the other side of the gym and through a pair of double doors.

She followed at his heels.

"How did you know about Ryan?" The backroom was full of large metal tubs and tile showers. Tommy ripped the bags of ice open and dumped them into the tub and filled the rest of it with cold water.

"Ah, he has a name." Tommy checked the thermometer sticking out of the tub and began to take off his clothes. Riley closed her eyes and spun around.

"Seriously?" Riley put her hands on her hips, head down.

"You're the one who came barging in the men's locker room." She heard him start to breath heavy, followed by two splashes. She turned around, eyes still closed.

"You're not about to get in there are you?" She tapped her foot anxiously.

"Fuck!" Riley's eyes flew open at his shout and saw him submerged into the ice bath.

"You're insane Tommy!"

"Hey," he said with his teeth chattering. "Check the time for me. I need to be in here for eight minutes." He grabbed his face with the palms of his hands. She reached for her phone in her back pocket and eyed the time.

"Is that safe? You're going to freeze to death."

"It-t-t's fi-n-n-e. J-j-ust c-c-cold." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, trying to will the sharp, stinging sensation away. Riley walked over to the tub and checked the thermometer.

"45 degrees?! Why didn't you just strip naked and jump into a snow bank outside?" She was amazed by his dedication to his training.

He laughed and grabbed at his stomach. Every move he made stung even more. He was handling this surprisingly well, she thought. If it were her, she probably would've passed out already.

"T-t-time?"

She fumbled with her phone, forgetting she was on time duty.

"2 more minutes."

He cursed again, trying to stay as still as possible. She stuck her hand into the side of the tub to feel how cold it was and instantly yanked it out.

"Jesus!" She wiped her hand on her jeans and clasped it with her other one. He let out a small laugh and splashed her with the ice water. Riley let out a girly scream and jumped back.

"So not funny Thomas." He stared at her, his eyes crinkling at the sides from his smile. He could listen to her say his name forever. He brought his gaze towards her phone and lifted his eyebrows in question.

"What's that? You want to know the time?" She wiggled her phone in front of him. "Hmm.. I'm not sure if my phone is working at the moment..." She fake inspected her phone. He shook his head at her and smiled. "So weird. It was working before..."

"R-R-Ril-l-ey." He pouted his bottom lip at her. She couldn't resist. She looked down at the time.

"You're free to go." Before she could finish her sentence, he grabbed onto the sides of the tub and lifted himself out. Ice cubes rolled down his abs. His body was red from the cold water. Riley was about to turn around again but saw that he had on his workout shorts.

His upper body was covered in dark black tattoos and his arms were probably bigger than both her legs combined. He stepped out of the tub shaking. He pointed at a towel that was hanging behind Riley. She stood there for a moment, stunned. She knew he was muscular but she didn't realize he was that big.

"R-R-ri. T-t-towel."

She shook her head out of its daze and grabbed the towel behind her.

"Sorry." Her face felt hot. She tried to focus on other things in the room. The white tile, the grey lockers, the really hot guy standing in front of her half naked.

Shit. She looked down at her feet instead.

Tommy drained the water out of the tub as the towel hung low on his hips. He reached inside one of the showers and turned it on. Steam began to fill the small stall.

"You called me Thomas." He looked down at her, inches from her face. His voice calm and steady.

"That I did." She didn't break his stare.

He smirked and climbed into the shower stall, pulling the curtain shut. She leaned against the wall, shaking her head and smiling to herself.

Suddenly a pair of wet work out shorts came flying over the shower curtain and landed on the floor right in front of her feet. She stared at the shorts, realizing that he was now naked in the room with her and there was only a white curtain separating them. So she did what any normal twenty four year old woman would do.

She grabbed his shorts and walked out the door, laughing as she went.