33. Shins and Teeps
THIRTY-THREE
SHINS AND TEEPS
CONTIGO, Karol G you prefer them Benedict, right?” I say, knowing that I hit the nail on the head since she punched me on the arm. “When can it be my turn to ask the questions?” I ask, keeping my eyes trained on the road.
“Go ahead,” she adds.
I know I have to ask her about this, but knowing this girl can go from zero to one hundred and lock me out of her feelings, I’m worried. I have to because I can’t sleep or think straight when I remember that she’s out there acting like James Bond without any of the skills.
“I’ve been thinking about something, and it’s something that I enjoy doing, so I would love to show you.”
“Where is the question in that?” she asks.
There’s no easy way to ask about this so I just blurt out and say it. “How would you feel about learning self-defense?” I look over to see her eyebrows pinched together. “Hear me out. I know you have some knowledge and I won’t take that away. I want to show you how to use your whole body and some moves that most people don’t know. You won’t lock your doors. And as much as I want to be with you at all times, I can’t.” I turn toward her house and lower the music. I feel like she needs the silence to be able to focus.
“I can defend myself, Saint,” she snaps.
“I know you can. If I didn’t think you were capable, I wouldn’t offer to teach you other things.” I pull up in front of her house, shifting the truck into park and turning my body so I can look at her. “I want it to be my job to keep you safe, mu?eca but I realize that it won’t always be the case. So let me teach you. Best case scenario, you won’t need it and it just turns into a hot training session,” I add.
“Hot?” she asks, her eyebrows raised with curiosity.
“You’ll see. Come on, let’s take some of these clothes off,” I say, stepping out of the truck and giving her my hand. She won’t stop climbing through the driver’s seat to get out. Might as well just help her out this way. Cuando la monta?a no va donde Mahoma, Mahoma va a la monta?a . A saying my mom always says that basically means when something is not happening on its own, you make it happen.
“Kick me, as hard as you can,” I insist, standing at attention in front of her. I’m wearing shin guards from a bag in the truck and she’s currently wearing my extra pair, so even if she actually kicks me, I’m not worried about the impact. We’ve been training for the past hour; my muscles reminding me of how much work has gone into this session. We’re both tired and ready to be done with this. But you never know when you’re going to need to use self-defense, so we push through ten more minutes. A little past exhaustion is when you know what your body is truly capable of.
I’m dealing with the heat of the afternoon sun shining on us since she refused to do this inside her house. But I would deal with the heat anytime if my reward is the beads of sweat making Roe’s body glisten. Her body is the definition of a masterpiece. You can see both her strength and her grace in every inch of her body. You can see that she’s disciplined and works hard. Toned muscles on subtle curves. The perfect balance.
She kicks, showing me the move we’ve been working on. But I catch it, grabbing her leg and holding it against my hip, keeping her standing on one leg. I drop her leg, letting her stand on her own and say, “Again.”
Her kick is fast and strong. If I wasn’t prepared, it could do some damage. But it’s not strong enough to take someone down unless she leverages her body. Her long lean legs square up to me again, and when I think she’s going to kick with her right leg, she switches and kicks with her left, quickly and efficiently hitting me right in the rib cage.
“That’s it,” I grunt, grabbing my side and keeping my eyes on her legs as she goes back into a fighting stance. She’s a fast learner. “Again.” Controlling my breath, I bring my hands up. I wrapped both of our wrists before we started, in case she wanted to learn some punch combinations. And of course she did, so I’m ready to take a kick or a punch at any time.
She lifts her right leg in a fluid rapid motion, letting out a sound that could be both a battle cry and a scream of annoyance. Either way, it works when she tilts her hip and she lands her kick directly on my stomach. I hold her leg in place so I can show her what to do next.
“So now you have them right where you want them, what’s next?” I ask, allowing her a moment to decide her next move.
“I grab my knife from my necklace and stab them,” she says. So stabby.
“Using just your body, princesa, work with what you have at all times.”
She brings her arm forward and tries to throw a jab that I block with my other hand. “That’s risky, baby. I can get you off balance real quick.” I move her back gently and she has to jump to stay standing. “Try again,” I add, letting go of her fist.
“This is bullshit. Let go of my leg,” she demands, looking pissed. I use that to my advantage, to try to use that as her driving force.
“Are you mad that I won’t let go?” I ask, holding her leg higher and harder, making her balance stumble again. “Are you angry that I can control you like this and that you’re at my mercy?” And that does it. I see the switch flip.
She grabs the back of my neck and pulls down toward her Using my body weight as leverage to hold her own, she turns her hips until her shin is pressing across my hips, which makes me break my stance and my hips go back while I let out a painful sound. She doesn’t stop there; she pulls her leg back and teeps me right on my chest, pushing me back onto the ground.
She stands by my head, hovering over me before saying, “Nobody can control me, asshole.” She walks past me toward the house, walking in and slamming the glass doors behind her.
“Roe, wait up,” I shout, scrambling to my feet, struggling to catch my breath and catch up with her inside the house. The girl has a mean kick and an even better teep. When the session started and I taught her what a teep was, she folded over in laughter. That doesn ’ t sound like a real name, she said, and funny enough, I also thought the same. A push kick, my Muay Thai instructor taught us. A kick that nobody sees coming, and she used my own words and knowledge against me.
I grab her hand, pulling her toward me, and it’s the first time that I see how out of breath she is too. It must have taken a lot of strength to pull that move off and to successfully kick me to the ground after training and learning for over an hour in this heat.
A little past exhaustion and you’ll see what you have left. That’s something that I learned from Ana and I always keep it at the forefront of my mind. She fought hard, and even when she was exhausted, she kept fighting. In the end she may have died, but she never lost the fight. I strive to do that every day of my life.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I say gently, pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear and brushing other pieces away from her face. “I’m sorry if I pushed you too hard. I wasn’t trying to get you this upset.”
“Yes, you were, don’t back off now,” she snarls with fury in her eyes.
“Yes, I was, but just to get you to snap and show me what you could do. You never held out on me before; why now?”
She looks down and closes her eyes, and this might be the most vulnerable she’s ever been with me. I don’t want to push but I do want her to open up to me.
“Roe,” I whisper and she shakes her head. “Mirame, princesa. Why were you holding back?”
That does it. She looks up with teary eyes.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Saint,” she whimpers. And before I can do anything, she walks into the bathroom and locks the door, quickly starting the shower. As much as I would like to join, I think she needs her space. And I can respect that.