Rosalie Knight [vs.] Ruby Winters

Rosalie frowned as she attacked the punching bag. The last few days had been really weird, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it. It had been two weeks, and she was starting to feel more certain about it. She had thought for sure that she was being followed two weeks ago, on her way home from the park, but every time she looked over her shoulder, there was nobody there. It had happened a few more times since then. On the way home from Walmart. On the way out to dinner with her brother. While she was sitting on the back porch chatting with Amber or Josh, the cute guy from the library, on the phone. Josh hadn’t seen anything more than she had, the last time she felt it while out to coffee with him.

She gritted her teeth and punched the bag harder, feeling the sweat rolling down her face and dripping off her chin. She hated feeling helpless, but if she had nothing substantial to take to the police, then she had no real reason to go to them. She’d mentioned her concerns to both Andrew and Josh, and they’d been keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, but she still felt uneasy.

Thud. Thud. ThudthudthudthudthudthudTHUD!

She slammed her fists into the bag so hard that she heard the rafter above creak, and she let her hands fall to her sides as she stood there breathing heavily, and staring at the bag as it swung back and forth. She was nervous, and she was starting to get angry. She really hated feeling helpless.

And maybe there was nobody following her. Maybe she’d just knocked her head a little harder than any of them had realized in the last show. It could be simply be paranoia, triggered by a concussion. If that was the case, she needed to go to the doctor. Not the police. Concussions were no laughing matter, and if she had had one…

“Hey, beautiful.”

Rosalie shrieked and jumped as she felt a pair of hands settle on her hips from behind, and she jerked away, whirling and spinning and just barely stopping her fist before it collided with Josh’s face. She let out her breath in a long, loud ‘whew’ and laughed nervously.

“Holy shit, Josh, don’t sneak up on me like that! Or have you not noticed that I’ve been jumpy lately?”

He laughed and it was only then that she realized that he had shifted into a martial arts stance, and had his own forearm against hers, ready to block if she hadn’t stopped fast enough. He was leaned back slightly, and if she hadn’t gotten to know his body well in the last week, she would think he was perfectly relaxed. But she could sense the tension in him as her hand fell back to her side.

“Andrew let me in. I didn’t think that I would scare you this much.”

“You just caught me thinking about it, that’s all.” She smiled up at him, a coy look coming to her features. “I really need a shower… care to join me?”

“Don’t have to ask me twice.”

He grinned and swept her off her feet, and carried her toward the stairs.

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