The Agents

Chapter Twenty-one

"Just work on whatever you want today, weight training, punching bags, shooting. As long as you are training, it's fine," I told the recruits.

They nodded, happy even though they sensed the thick tension in the air. I left them at that, turning and walking over to a bench press. I started my reps, trying to forget the fight from yesterday.

Jaxon and I had fought before. Most of it was joking around in an argument, but there were times we would get a little carried away and fight for real. After one of our actual fights, I would go off moping and Jaxon would leave me alone for a little. Then, he would come sit by me and stare at me until I gave in and talked to him. The fight was forgotten and we were fine. It hardly ever happened, but it did.

Jaxon and I hadn't talked about our break up yet though. We had been talking again for over two weeks, and we had hinted at our previous relationship, but we had never actually discussed it. I wish it had gone better, but I suppose an argument was inevitable.

The argument wasn't the worst part, though. The worst part was waiting for Jaxon to come and make everything better. I spent hours sitting there, waiting for someone who wasn't going to come because I had finally pushed him too far away. And for the first time since he came back, I regretted it. That scared me more than anything.

I pushed myself harder with the weights. I needed to forget this. It was dangerous to be thinking about that.

"Jaycee?"

I ignored the call. Still floating in dangerous territories in my mind, I needed to keep pushing harder to forget it.

"Jaycee."

"Not now, Wallace," I got out, still pushing the weights.

"I need to talk to you, Jaycee."

"Later, I'm busy." My arms were on fire. I had never pushed myself this far.

"Please don't make me do this, Jaycee. Just come talk to me really quick," Wallace said. She just couldn't take the hint to leave me alone!

Instead of answering, I just kept going. She sighed, before loudly saying, "The doctors called, Jaycee. They were worried you were falling into old habits of the destructive sort."

I shot up off the bench, breathing rapidly. It was quiet in the room, everyone stopping to stare at us after Wallace said that rather loudly. A look of betrayal clouded my face as I stared down at Wallace.

She looked at me, trying to hide her guilt behind a blank mask. "They were just worried about you."

"They were worried about me, or you were?" I asked, venom filling my voice.

"Jaycee, that's not-" she began.

"No. You're right. My family and ex-boyfriend suddenly come back to town and that automatically means I'm falling back into old habits caused by their disappearance."

"Jaycee, we are just worried about you!" she exclaimed.

I tried keeping calm. I knew she was just trying to look out for me. I didn't admire her methods, but that didn't give me probable cause to yell at her. "I will go see them today." With that, I turned away from all the prying eyes of my friends. I walked into the girls' dorm, slamming the door behind me.

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I punched the numbers into the keypad and the door beeped, signaling it was unlocked. I pushed open the door and stepped through.

Ignoring the guns pointed at me by Jaxon and Drake, I marched straight up to Wallace. I shoved the piece of paper into her hand and stood back, letting her read it.

She quickly looked it over before looking back at me. "Jaycee, I'm-"

"They cleared me. Can I get back to work now?" I asked stiffly, still upset about our talk being far less private than that particular conversation required.

She looked like she wanted to say more, but knew I would cut her off. Wallace settled on saying, "Of course."

With that, I turned on my heel and marched back into the dorm. Shedding my leather jacket and skinny jeans, I pulled on a pair of track pants, and sneakers, leaving my tank top on.

Once I was changed, I continued back out to the main room. I sat down at a machine, preparing to go back to working out. Pausing in my first rep, I looked over at Wallace, sitting sadly in her chair by the wall, watching over all of us. Sighing, I stood back up.

"Will you help me wrap my hand? The bandages are loose," I stated, not looking at Wallace, but holding my injured hand out to her.

"Of course," she said softly, taking my hand and gently undoing the wrappings to put on fresh ones. When she finished, I slid down the wall next to her, taking a seat. She was surprised, expecting me to go back to my work out. She didn't say anything, though. We just sat in silence, listening to the sounds of weights being lifted and skin hitting punching bags.

I saw Jaxon staring at me, worry lining his features, right before I closed my eyes, shutting out the rest of the world.