Shit.
Scanning the crowd, I hope for a miracle of finding a girl willing to partner up with me. Of course, everyone just shakes their heads at me. It doesn’t take long for everyone to find a partner, leaving Q and myself to be forced together again. I trot over to him with my head held high.
“I don’t know why you even try. No one’s gonna partner up with you.”
“You don’t know that. Someone might change their mind one day.”
“They won’t,” he says, sounding nothing but sure of himself. “I’m surprised you came.”
“I’m not scared of you,” I lie. I’m terrified, but I’ll do whatever it takes to pretend I’m not. “And you can’t control me,” I add, that one is less of a lie.
“The second one might be true. I can’t control your mind, but I’m going to try anyway.” He winks at me like he just made a joke or said something flirty. “Now, come at me.”
“Huh?”
“Attack me. You came to class, so are you going to stand around for the next two hours, or are you going to train with me?”
“I was hoping to train with someone more my size. Not with you…again.” I fold my arms over my chest.
“You need to be able to fight off anyone who’s a threat, not only people your size. You think some guy in a back alley won’t attack you because you weigh less than him?”
Damnit, he’s got a point.
“Fine, let’s do this. Preferably without the choking me out part.”
“I can’t make any promises. It seems you bring out the worst in me.” He smirks, which gives me the push of anger I need. Using that energy, I charge him and throw my shoulder into his stomach. Or at least I try to. He easily grabs me and pushes me away like an annoying bug before I can even make contact.
Wrapping his arms around me, he takes me into a bear hug from behind, and his scent invades my nose. He smells as good as he did last night when I fell asleep in his arms.
“Get out,” he says casually like it’s an easy thing to do.
I start to wiggle around, but his grip around my arms is iron, pinning my useless limbs to the side of my body. Finally, I give up struggling and take a moment to catch my breath.
“I can’t get loose,” I say, defeated.
“Yes, you can. You just have to know how. I’m stronger than you, so we both know you are never going to overpower me. The next best thing is to be smarter than me.”
“How does that help me get away? I can’t use brainpower. I’m not a Jedi.”
“You have to use my body’s mechanics against me. Besides flailing around, try this. Drop your hips into a squat like you’re gonna piss in the woods. At the same time, put your hands on your chest like you’re a vampire. Bring up your arms and shoulders simultaneously. Then turn into my body and elbow me as hard as you can in the ribs. Do this all at once, and you’ll be free.”
I look over my shoulder at him in disbelief. I’m sure this is a trick. Some game he is playing to get me to do what he wants. I’m about to tell him to fuck off, but what then?
Honestly, my best bet is to play along. This is better than him threatening and assaulting me.
“All right, whatever. I’ll try it.”
I do as he instructs. It takes me two attempts before I’m able to coordinate the whole move, but when I do, it works. I get free and swing my elbow into his ribs, drawing a groan out of him. Shocked beyond belief, I watch with my mouth hanging open as he doubles over, cradling his side.
I knocked the breath out of him.
“Fuck. I didn’t know you could actually hit that hard.”
“I didn’t know either.”
He recovers quickly, straightening back up. “All right, again.”
We run through this move two more times before he shows me three more. I can’t seem to shake away the thought of this being some kind of joke to him, but at this point, I have no idea why he would offer to help me defend myself, even more so when he knows I could use these same moves on him.