Stupor
1047 Words
The following morning, Leo woke up feeling empty. He took a glance at his phone. He had uncountable notifications, but none was from Marilyn.
‘For f***s sake’ Leo muttered, rolling his eyes. The reason he had not contacted her yet after they split up the previous day, was because he had a fight soon. When he told Coach Ruger that he could not remember his scheduled fight, of course, he was lying. But that did not mean that Marilyn should not have called him, anyway.
‘Okay, today has to pass by quickly so I can f*****g call her’ Leo said. Beside him, he had his drug bag, where he stored all sorts of pain relief for when he needed it. Fiddling inside, he grabbed his favorite and swallowed two pills without drinking water, and then he got up to have a shower. It was a Sunday.
Coach Ruger was surprised to see Leo out for a short training before he had to beg him to do it.
‘Honestly, I thought you had forgotten the reason you came to Lion’ Ruger said when he saw Leo show up in his room, sweating profusely, obviously active in preparation for his fight. Leo rolled his eyes.
‘Did the endorsement guys agree to our terms?’ Leo asked.
‘I’m yet to hear from them, can’t wait’ Ruger replied in an excited tone. He had not been happy with Leo as he currently was, for a long time since Marilyn showed up in their reality.
In a couple of hours, it was time for Leo’s first fight. He looked at his phone, and there was still not a word from Marilyn. How heart-wrenching.
The energy in the arena when Leo stepped in to fight was out of this world.
‘Here comes the defending champion’ the compere started to announce while Leo showed up at the entrance. He basked in the energy of the room, jogging at a spot and tilting his neck from left to right, he waited until the compere finished introducing him, and then he started to make his way towards the boxing ring.
‘LEO, NO ONE COMPARE OOO’ the compere announced Leo’s name with so much gusto, the arena tore into two. The energy was just too much. Leo roared like a lion, just to feed into the energy that the arena was raging with.
‘ANIMAL! Easy tiger, easy!’ Coach Ruger hailed and cajoled his fighter, and Leo was calm soon after and walked ahead with swagger and style. Stepping into the ring, he met with his opponent. A young, hungry lad, eyeing his championship belt while he removed it from around his waist.
The bell went off to start the fight, and before Leo knew it, he had taken a combo jab to his face. He staggered in surprise, trying to find his balance. All he could see was Marilyn. She was the cause of this. He started off soft, because of the state of mind he was in.
‘Leo! Leo open your damn eyes’ Leo could hear Coach Ruger's faint voice yell at him, while another unsuspected blow descended on his face. He landed on the floor of the ring.
‘One...two...’ the referee started to count down to ten, waiting for Leo to get up. He fell into a trance. He was seeing Marilyn, and the time they spent together at the lake, feeding the pigeons.
‘LEO FOR f***s SAKE’ He eventually heard his coach yell desperately at him at the referee's count of seven. Leo jumped up suddenly. As if he had not just been nearly lifeless on the floor. The crowd cheered for him. With devious eyes, he gave his opponent a combo that ended with an uppercut. The novice fighter landed on his back and remained there until the referee counted to ten. Leo had won his fight with a knockout. Coach Ruger went Beserk.
‘I’m seeing monkeys Coach’ Leo said while he stepped out of the ring, to the cheering of his fans.
‘You decided to take all those blows, that’s on you’ Ruger said, chuckling and holding Leo across his shoulder. It was not a new sight for the coach, so he was not all that moved by Leo’s beat-up look.
‘Leo, you did great today. We cannot wait to commence working with you’ the brand agency that had contacted Leo for a deal, came by to wish him congratulations on winning his first round. And after they left, even more, brands came running towards Leo for an endorsement. Everybody wanted him.
‘Look at all the money you want us to look away from, Leo. This is selfish’ Coach Ruger told his fighter passionately.
‘I know coach, there will be more. It’s not the end of my career. You know the saying goes that you have to lose something to gain the other, right?’ Leo asked. ‘You know the saying, right?’ He added.
‘I understand that you have made up your mind about that lady to the core. When you start to make unreasonable quotes and remarks, that’s how I know that you are serious about something. You become stupid’ Ruger said piercingly. Leo glared at him blankly, weighing in on Ruger and what he just said. The way Ruger came at him, it had to be because he was ready for war, going down to war with Ruger will only mean Leo offering himself to him for the man to tell him a piece of his mind, so Leo didn’t say anything else.
‘Your face would have been everywhere in Lion. You would have won this easily’ Ruger said while he went to answer the door.
‘We have to secretly drive you to the hospital if we are to treat the wound so that it doesn’t leave a scar. The surgery will be a bit more intense, and we can’t transport our apparatus here’ the doctor announced. While the man was making the announcement, Leo already started to get dressed so that he would go to the car.
‘Secretly indeed’ Coach Ruger murmured. If only they knew how their so-called high-end celeb had been roaming the city, chasing a local female.
- Writer
