Because of Karson

Chapter 42

"Dakota, I swear to God," I heard Karson's loud voice as I ran away from him. My feet pounded against the concrete beneath me as my pulse pounded in my ears.

I could hear him running after me as an effortless smile crawled onto my face. I was breathing heavily as I almost made it to my house. All I could focus on was not tripping over my feet as they continued to slam against the hard ground under me.

I could see my house coming closer into view as I tried to pick up my pace. I felt my lungs clench inside of my chest, trying to take in as much oxygen as they could as I pushed them to its limits.

A small squeal immediately slipped off my tongue when I randomly felt broad arms circle around my waist. The breath was immediately knocked out of me as my body abruptly came to a stop. I was only a few feet away. I almost won.

"Gotcha," he whispered in my ear as it caused shivers to crawl down my spine. I huffed, stepping on his foot, causing him to release me as I turned on my heel.

"This is like the second time you've done this," I  grunted, my voice annoyed even though it was evident that I was messing around. "I almost beat you, asshole!"

"Key word: almost," he smirked as I watched his chest rapidly rise up and down. We were both out of breath. Well, I was out of breath, he was just breathing heavily.

It has been a few days after my mother's sentence hearing, and my siblings and I have been thriving. The same police officer that visited us a few days ago came back yesterday, to check on us and ask how the sentence hearing went.

It was Friday, meaning that tomorrow was the fight against Karson and his father. I think I was more nervous than Karson, but he never showed how he was feeling about it. He seemed oddly calm, but I knew that he was trying to mentally prepare for tomorrow.

The past week, Karson had been training for his upcoming fight. Whenever he had time, he would be at the local gym, training and making sure he was fully prepared to fight against his father. After we all left court, and thanked Dawson, Karson took me to the gym he was training at to show me that I didn't have anything to worry about.

I knew he was a good fighter, but when I saw him on Tuesday, goddamn. He was brilliant. The way his feet effortlessly moved against the mat as he pounded his fists into the punching bag, made me realize he was more than good. Now I knew how he was able to make so much money for his father in the underground.

Even after school, I would come to the gym with him to make sure that he knew I wasn't going to step down. I was right by his side the entire time, and I wasn't going to let him go through with this alone. He knew that no matter how many times he said how dangerous it was going to be, I wouldn't budge. I would be next to the ring while he was in the ring beating his father.

Over the past few days, as I spent more time with him at the gym, we've gotten closer in so many ways I never would've imagined. When he would take breaks throughout his two hour long training session, we would talk about anything and everything. It made me realize how much I truly had fallen for him.

If someone told me a few months ago that I would've fallen hard for a certain green-eyed boy, I'd laugh in their face and say impossible. Little did I know that he would be the only person in my life that I trusted to tell him everything. As much as my future self would hate to admit it, we make a good fucking team.

As of right now, we were both standing in front of my house, out of breath as we just tried racing each other. Since it was Friday, I invited him over and of course, he bet that I wouldn't be able to beat him in a race even if I got a five second start. Me being me, I disagreed and said that wasn't even a challenge.