AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"What about my communicationstraining?"
"This will help you in that area too. We'll get into that later." His palm came back down over my head, rubbing lightly. "Right now, it's work time – stand here." He gestured for me to take up position directly to his front. I was glad I had left my bag in Marv's car. At least I didn't have to worry about where to putit.
"Here?" I stood my ground, shaking as I planted my feet, feeling like anidiot.
He nodded. "Alright," he began. "In a dangerous situation, what is your firstinstinct?"
"Run?" Iasked.
"Very good," he replied. "And I want you to do that if you can. If you have a choice between fight or flight, always choose flight but in the instance that youhaveto fight, I want to prepare you the best I can. I know that you don't know how topunch."
I flushed, my eyes sliding to the ground. Firm fingers tilted my head backup.
"No, it's nothing to be ashamed of," he said. "You just haven't been taught properly. That's what I'm going to dotoday."
"You're going to teach me how to punch someone?" That didn't sound so bad. I could get behindthat.
"Not just how, but where." He dropped his hand away. "Look at my body." I did as he asked, glancing over the t-shirt he wore, the way it outlined the dips and hollows of his abdomen, the way his jeans clung to his powerful thighs. I gulped. "Where would you hit me first?" Knixasked.
"Uh..." My eyes remained fixated on the bulging muscles of his body. He was immense, like a stone statue brought to life. "Your um...pelvis?" I peered up at his face, catching the way his eyes glinted inapproval.
"Yes, you're gonna want to go straight for the groin. Another good place to hit is my throat." He grabbed my hand and raised it so that my fingers grazed his neck, over the strong lines. I gulped. "–the throat controls a person's breathing. If you hit the groin or the throat, then your attacker is incapacitated – even if only momentarily, it will give you the opportunity you need to getaway."
"I thought that I was supposed to fight." I ran a hand over the side of my face, pulling my hair back and tucking it behind oneear.
"In this exercise, I don't want you to fight me if you see a way out." As I thought about it, looking up at Knix, I knew he wouldn't run if he didn't haveto.
"Why can't I just fight the attacker off?" Iasked.
"No," he barked. I blinked at his intensity. "The point is to get away. Not to fight. I don't want you fighting at all if I can helpit."
"Then what's the point of this exercise?" I huffed infrustration.
"There may be circumstances in which you cannot avoid a fight. I don't want to give you the skills to start a fight, only to end one." Knix took a deep breath and as he released, the tension ebbed out of his muscles."There may be occurrences where it happens." He took a deep, calming breath. "Now, what I'm going to have you do is ball up your fist for me." I stared at him for a moment, waiting; for what, I didn't know. When he didn't do or say anything more, I followed his instructions and balled up my fist and presented it tohim.
"That's right," he continued. "Now when you're making a fist, don't put your thumb inside. I'm sure you learned this the other day, but when you end up throwing the punch, the fingers on the outside will automatically be pushed inward with the force. If you hit hard enough, you could break your ownthumb."
That explained the soreness of my thumb following the fight at school. I nodded my way through his next instructions as he had me do a few punches into the air with both hands balled into fists. Knix maneuvered himself behind me, hands on my hips and I wavered as the heat of his palms reached me through myclothes.
I wouldn't admit it to him or anyone else, but his intensity was damn near impossible to resist. He was this giant god, an educator, friend, and protector. It was attractive. I shook my head at the outrageous thoughts spilling through my mind and focused on the task at hand as he rounded back to myfront.
"Alright, now hitme."
I paused. "What?" He couldn't beserious.
"Did you think I was just going to have you punch air all day?" He raised his eyebrow at me. "You need to move your body like I showed you. Follow through with your punch. It's difficult to understand just how important it is to master this unless you have practice hittingsomeone."
"Can't I just hit a punching bag or something?" The idea of hitting him was preposterous. I might actually be able to do some damage to an inanimate object, but Knix? No way. The very idea waslaughable.
"No." He huffed. "Now, hit me." My fist waved, unsure and I reached out, landing a light punch to his chest. He groaned, and I jerked back. Had I hurt him? I stared down at my fist. No, I couldn't have. Knix was monumental and I had thrown the wimpiest punch in the history of wimpypunches.
"What," he stared at me, "wasthat?"
Hesitation made my voice tremble. "Um...apunch?"
"Do it again," he commanded. "But this time, put some force into your punch instead of just touchingme."
I was shocked. Knix had never talked to me – or to anyone else that I knew of – like that before. I frowned in irritation. I didn’t like the idea of hitting someone, and I would have rather been doing, or learning, something else. There was a point to this, though, I knew. I pulled back, aiming for just the right place. His throat was too high for me to reach and no matter how angry I was at him, I couldn't stand to think of going after his balls. Tightening up my fist, thumb just under my knuckles like he taught me, I swung. I turned with the movement until my punch smacked him right in the stomach, I followed through all theway.
