Hey guys! I'm so happy y'all loved the last chapter (even though it took me forever to finally get it done). I am so thankful and appreciate to every single one of you. Thank you guys so much for reading my story.
I hope you like and enjoy this chapter!
MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING!
Lucas hasn't talked to Maya in a few days. Of course it's inevitable for this to happen when you have a full on make-out session with a girl whom you've been in love with since forever, but she just happens to be in a relationship with one of your greatest boxing rivals. I mean that happens to everyone, right? Lucas wanted to make sure Maya was okay, so he decided to talk to Maya when he drops Sadie off at the dance studio.
"Daddy?" The young girl speaks, "Do you think you'll be able to come to my ballet recital?"
Lucas suddenly remembers his conversation with Maya about Sadie being one of the leads in the recital. He just can't remember what time and day it was.
"Of course, sweetie. When is it?" Lucas asks.
"It's in two weeks. We are doing The Nutcracker, and I get to be Clara," Sadie says proudly. Lucas looks at her toothless grin in the rear view mirror.
"Wow! Sadie, I am so proud of you. You really love ballet, huh?" Lucas says.
Sadie giggles, "Yes, daddy. I love ballet this much!" She holds her arms as far apart as she can. Lucas sees her do this in the rear view mirror, "I love ballet as much as I love ice cream!"
"Wow! That's a lot!" Lucas responds.
"I love ballet as much as I love ducks!" Sadie continues to explain how great her love for ballet is, making Lucas laugh, "I love ballet as much as I love the beach!"
"I love ballet as much as you love Maya!" Sadie says.
The look on Lucas's face immediately changes to shock. How did Sadie know that? He's never said anything to anyone about his feelings for Maya. He can't even admit it to himself. He always says that these feelings he 'thinks' he has for Maya is a different kind of love. A kind of love that he can't describe.
As he's pulling into the parking lot of Maya's dance studio, there is a big black truck that speeds out of the parking lot.
"You stupid asshole!" Lucas yells at the driver of the truck. He pulls into a parking space and turns the car off, "Are you okay?"
Sadie nods, "You said a bad word."
Even in times when his short temper gets the best of him, Lucas can always rely on Sadie to put a smile on his face and forget about what made him mad in the first place.
"I'm sorry. I just don't want a dummy-head to endanger you while I'm driving," Lucas apologizes. He takes a deep breath and turns around to look at his little girl.
"Sadie? Why do you think daddy loves Maya?" Lucas changes the subject back to what Sadie had just said.
"Because, you two are always together, and you trust her enough to let her take me to daycare and bring me home. And you talk about her a lot," Sadie explains.
Lucas's eyebrow furrows as he reaches to unbuckle Sadie's car seat, "You've been watching too many soap operas with grandma again, haven't you?" He asks as they get out of the car.
Sadie giggles, "How did you know, daddy?"
Lucas grabs Sadie's hand, "Daddies know these kinds of things. And daddy is going to have a little talk with grandma about watching that stuff with you."
The two walk into the building of Maya's dance studio. Lucas feels uneasy when he walks in. He doesn't see Maya anywhere. The other children in her class are sitting in the floor watching a movie with ballet in it. He starts to worry a little bit but tries to remain calm for Sadie and the other students. He bends down to where he's at the same height as Sadie.
"Why don't you join the others. I'm going to go find Madame Hart and talk to her. Okay?" Lucas asks. Sadie nods and sits with her group of friends in the floor. Lucas stands back up and walks back to Maya's office.
"Maya? You in here?" Lucas calls, but he doesn't get an answer. He sees a bathroom and walks over to the door.
He knocks, "Maya? Are you in there?" He tries to open the door, but it's locked.
No answer again, but the light is on. Lucas presses his ear against the door and hears sniffles. The faucet of the sink is turned on. The door is now unlocked, so Lucas takes this as an invitation. He's afraid to turn around and look, and he was right to feel that way.
The way she looked right now, wasn't good.
"Before you get angry and turn into the Hulk, let me explain," Maya begins before Lucas can even take a breath. Lucas doesn't say anything. He's too shocked at her physical appearance.
"It was Tony, wasn't it?" Lucas asks. Maya doesn't answer.
"He found out that I didn't stay the night at my mother's house," Maya explains, "My mother tried to tell him that I was there with her the whole weekend, but he didn't believe her, and he didn't believe me when I told him. He got so upset and said that I didn't love him anymore."
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing. I let him yell at me for a while. That's why I put the movie on for the girls to watch when I saw his truck pull up in the back. I knew he came here because he was mad. I just didn't know why he was mad. Are they okay?" Maya asks.
"They're fine. They don't know what's going on, and they don't know that something is wrong," Lucas responds. He walks over to Maya and examines her wounds.
"I tried to do those moves you showed me," Maya said, "That made him even more mad than he already was. He tried to slap my face, and I stopped his hand and slapped him instead. I even got a good punch on him."
Lucas felt a burning pain in his stomach. This was his fault.
"Maya. I am so sorry this happened to you. You don't deserve this at all," Lucas apologizes. Maya starts crying again, and Lucas is hesitant to touch her face.
"I'll be right back," Lucas says. He walks into Maya's office and opens a drawer at her desk, which has a first-aid kit inside. He walks back to the bathroom with the first-aid kit and shuts the door. He grabs a towel out of the small cabinet under the sink. He tells her to sit on the space beside the sink, and he starts to clean her up.
He starts with her left eye. The bruise around it is starting to turn a light blue and purple color. He puts some rubbing alcohol on the towel and gently presses it against her throbbing eye. She hisses and winces at the pain, but knows that it will help her.
"Sorry," Lucas utters. He doesn't like to see her in pain like this. Even though he has never seen her in this state, he still hates it for her.
"I'll get you some ice for that in a little bit. I just want to clean you up a little bit," Lucas says. Maya nods and lets him continue.
He grabs the towel from her eye and turns it over to clean a cut on her cheek and the blood off her face that came from her nose. Maya watches him carefully as he does this, wondering how many times he's had to do this to himself after a tough match in the ring, which helps her not focus on the stinging pain she has on her face at the moment. She shows him her knuckles on her right hand, which are bruised and bloodied. Lucas takes a moment to focus on her knuckles.
"How did that happen? If you don't mind me asking," Lucas asks.
"After he hit my face, I was able to punch him in the face, but it hurt my knuckles really badly," Maya explained.
Lucas takes the towel and puts some more rubbing alcohol and gently touches her knuckles with it.
"Ow!" Maya yells and grabs his hand that's on top of hers. He snaps his head up and looks at her pain expression.
"I'm sorry. I know it hurts, but it's important to clean," Lucas says, "You might want to go to a doctor to make sure that you didn't break any of your knuckles."
He gently lays the towel on her knuckles again. Maya jumps a little bit because of the pain, but toughs it out until Lucas is done. He wraps some gauze around her knuckles when he is done cleaning them.
"How are you going to explain..." Lucas pauses and motions towards her eye, "...That to the class?"
Maya sighs,"I guess I'll cover it up. I don't know if I have the stomach to tell them what really happened. Do you mind getting my make-up bag for me? It's in my bag on my desk."
Lucas nods and walks out of the bathroom. Before he walks into Maya's office, he checks on the girls to make sure they're okay. He, then, walks into Maya's office and grabs the make-up bag. He meets Maya back in the bathroom where she is staring at herself in the mirror. Lucas hands her the bag, and she starts the process of covering up her bruise. Lucas, although he may not be showing it right now, is furious. He wishes he could get his hands on Tony right now, but he is too concerned about Maya right now. He wonders how many times she has had to cover up bruises that have been caused by Tony because she seems to be covering her eye up quickly, like she's had lots of practice.
"Do you mind keeping the girls entertained for a little bit?" She winces as she taps a place on her eyes that hurts, "That movie I put in isn't that long, and I don't want them to worry."
Lucas nods as he walks to the bathroom door, "Yea. I'll be right out here if you need anything," He stops, "And I mean anything."
Lucas really needs to punch something right now. He is beyond pissed about what happened, but he tries to calm himself down before entering a room filled with sweet, little girls. He takes a deep breath as he enters the room. The movie credits are rolling, and the little girls don't know what to do. Sadie gets up from her group of friends and walks over to Lucas.
"Daddy? Is Madame Hart okay?" Sadie asks. The other girls walk over to the two of them.
"Yea. She's fine. She had some grown up business stuff to take care of, but she will be right out in a minute to see y'all," Lucas explains. He feels bad for lying to these little girls, but he knows that Maya doesn't want them to worry or tell their parents that their ballet teacher got beat up before class even started.
"So," Lucas begins, "You ladies want to start dancing?"
The girls erupt into laughter at the thought of the older man attempting to do ballet.
"What? What's so funny?" Lucas asks, "A man can do ballet if he pleases. Lesson one, from Mr. Friar, is to never discriminate someone from anything based on their gender, the color of their skin, what they believe in, and how they look. Got it?"
A small red-headed girl in the back raised her hand. Lucas points at her to signal that she can ask her question, if she has a question.
"What does 'desmenin-crate' mean?" She asked.
Lucas mentally slaps himself for not thinking that these little girls wouldn't know what discriminate means, but he was willing to teach them a simpler definition.
"Discriminate means to exclude someone from a group for being different," He responds.
Another girl raises her hand. Lucas points at her as she asks,"What does exclude mean?"
"To exclude someone means to not let them be apart of something that they want to be apart of because they are different," Lucas explains. He walks over to the front of the class room and the girls take their places in front of him.
"Okay, so it's always important to stretch before doing any form of exercise. So lets sit down and touch our toes, shall we?" Lucas asks. The girls agree and sit down. Some of the girls have no problem reaching for their toes, some of the girls have problems reaching for their toes, and some of the girls are too energized to stay still long enough to touch their toes.
"Let's move into a butterfly stretch. Do y'all know what a butterfly stretch is?" Lucas asks. Most of the girls nod and they all move into the butterfly stretch. Lucas feels a tap on his shoulder. He looks up to see that it's Maya, looking like nothing has happened to her. Lucas stands up and begins to follow her.
Maya yells on the way over to a private corner of the studio, "Sorry I'm late ladies! You all are doing a wonderful job! Continue stretching, and we will start today's lesson after I talk to Mr. Friar, okay?"
"Yes, Madame Hart!" All the girls say in unison.
"Lucas, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me. I am very thankful to have you back in my life, and I don't want to mess that up. Our friendship is too valuable to me as well as my relationship with Sadie," Maya pauses to look at the little Friar stretching, "I don't want you to worry about me, okay? I know it's easier said than done, but I need you to butt out of my relationship, at least for right now. That doesn't sound too rude does it?"
"I understand Maya, but you can't get mad at me for caring and worrying about you. You are an important person in my and Sadie's life. I can't touch Tony before I get in the ring with him, but I promise you right now... I won't take it easy on him when we have our fight," Lucas says.
"Thank you for helping me," Maya responds hugging Lucas. The two stay in the embrace for a little bit before she pulls away.
"I'll keep checking up on you. I just don't want you to get hurt anymore than you already have," Lucas says. Maya nods and looks at her class.
"I'll take Sadie to Riley's, and I'll pick her up too. I love spending time with her," Maya says.
"Thank you. She loves spending time with you too. You're one of her favorite people," Lucas replies, "She told me about the ballet recital. I just forgot what day and time it is."
"It's two weeks from today at 6:30 p.m.," Maya informs him.
"I'll have to remember that," Lucas says, putting the date in the calendar on his phone.
Maya smiles at him, "Well. I better start the class. I'm already forty-five minutes late."
"I'll see you after awhile, and again, if you need me to protect you. Don't ever hesitate to call me, okay? I care about you, and I want you to be happy," Lucas says, "And remember: none of this is your fault."
"Thanks Huckleberry."
Lucas nods and walks out to his car in the parking lot. He can't help but think that what happened to her, was his fault.
Okay! Hope y'all were entertained. I just want to say though that I am not trying to romanticize physical and emotional abuse in a relationship, so if it comes off in that way, then I would like to apologize in advanced, and if one of y'all could tell me 'hey, you romanticized abuse, you can't do that,' then please tell me, because I don't want to make that mistake again.
I would also like to tell any of you out there in a physically or emotionally abusive relationship that anything that happens to you is not your fault. And you have tons of support, whether you realize it or not. If any of you ever need someone to talk to, then I am here to listen and y'all's secrets are safe with me.
I hope y'all liked it. We'll get some more cute Lucas and Sadie moments, cute Lucas and Maya moments, and some moments that will leave you like "OH MY GOODNESS!" (at least, I hope so.) So, keep a look out for that in the upcoming chapters! Love y'all!