Elizabeth's POV

When I step out of the shower someone knocks on my door. I wrap a towel around my body and run to the door, pulling it open, a little out of breath.

Who comes over this early?

'Good morning to you too.' Shawn says after looking at my face.

He smirks and raises one eyebrow while scanning my body.

I roll my eyes, watching as Aristo walks into my bedroom not even looking at Shawn. It has been two days and he's here again.

'What in god's name are you doing here again?' I ask, walking away from the door.

He follows me inside and puts something down on the kitchen island.

His black - tight - t-shirt is matching with his black jeans and the black bag. He is all black today. He also cut his hair not long ago which looks fucking sexy.

I need to stop thinking like this. We are just friends.

'As a matter of fact, I brought you some breakfast with a lot of protein in it because we are going to fight. I thought it might help you with your... how do I put this? Anger issues towards me.' He says.

Oh wow, he is really full of himself today. I feel his confidence radiating through me. What is he so confident about?

'Listen, Mendes. I agreed to be friends. I did not say best friends and you can't show up whenever you want.' I tell him, walking into my room.

I now hear what he said. We are going to fight? Why would he want to fight me?

'Why do you want to fight me?' I frown.

'No matter how much you annoy the shit out of me, I don't want you to end up like Bakker.' I say walking out of my bedroom.

'Who says I will end up like Bakker? Have some confidence. You're not the only one with some tricks up her sleeve.' He smirks, looking at the towel around my body.

Do I really have to do this with him? He knows I can't control myself and I have the feeling this is going to be a bad idea.

I might have forgiven him for everything he did, but that does not mean I don't have some build-up anger left towards him. I don't hate him like I claimed I did.

'I don't want to hurt you.' I say, opening the bag Shawn brought.

'You won't.' He smiles at me. 'Now, eat up because we got to go.'

An hour later we're both standing in front of a boxing gym. I look up at the sign that's almost falling off, blinking like crazy.

Shawn laughs and pushes my shoulder - a little hard - before telling me to follow him.

I stare at him with a frown as he walks inside, not even waiting for me. That push was weird, I'm not one of his "bro's".

Well, Elizabeth you wanted to be friends with the love of your life. Here you have it.

I follow him inside and look around the place. It's clean but very empty like no one has been here for years.

Shawn turns around spreading his arms as his footsteps echo through the big space.

'This is the gym I trained in when Three first took me to the Netherlands.'

Three again. I hate that guy. How can he still speak his name next to me? I have never met this man before, but I just know he has to be the biggest wanker on earth.

'Cool.' I say, a lot less enthusiastic than Shawn.

He grabs some boxing gloves out of a squeaking old locker. He throws a pair to me and I catch them before taking my jacket off and putting them on.

I look at the black gloves around my fists, terrified of the damage it might cause.

Shawn jumps in the ring while putting his gloves on too. I guess we're really doing this...

I climb into the ring and stand across from him, waiting for him to do something. He just looks at me, holding his hands up a little.

'Before we do this. Have you ever fought before?' I ask.

He chuckles.

'Have I ever fought before?' He taps his chin with the boxing glove as if he is trying to recall the last time he got into a fight.

He is so annoying. That attitude... Why do I like it so much?

'Hit me and find out.' He responds, smirking.

I can't help but laugh and shake my head before trying to hit Shawn. Not really putting much effort in it.

He steps to the side in one swift move, dodging my punch. I raise my eyebrows a little, not impressed at all. He did a lot better than Adriana, but let's be honest here I don't know him that well.

Maybe he is some sort of professional fighter, who knows?

I try to punch him again, this time aiming for his face, but just like I expected he blocks it with his arm.

The way he moves his feet and the way he uses his arms to block my punch shows he has trained before.

'Come on. I have seen the camera footage of that garage, you can do better than this.' He says with a smile.

I lower my hands.

'You what?' My voice shakes.

His eyes shoot away from mine, the smile disappearing from his face. He knows he let information slip which I shouldn't have known about.

'You saw what they did to me?' I step closer to him.

This is so fucking embarrassing. He rewatched what Bakker did to me and he didn't even tell me!?

'Look at me!' I quickly remove my glove, grabbing his face.

'Tell me why, and don't you dare fucking lie to me.' I say, letting go of his face.

'I had to delete the footage so no one could blame you for what happened to them.' He says.

'Without telling me?' I inhale sharply.

He doesn't answer and I consider yelling at him, but I don't. Just let it go Elizabeth, it's not worth it.

I inhale and exhale a couple of times, trying to calm my nerves before landing a perfect punch in Shawn's stomach.

He groans, laughing the pain away. I know this, I have done this a million times. Laughing somehow eases the pain.

'That's better.' He groans, standing up straight again.

'Yeah. You deserved that.' I say.

He smiles at me, telling me to hit him again. I do as he says without thinking and hit him on his shoulder.

I don't want to hit his pretty face, what if I hurt him?

I hit him again, this time starting to doubt him. Why is he not defending himself? Why is he not fighting back?

'Again.' He says, seeing the doubt in my eyes. 'Beth!'

I punch his chest this time, not giving it my full strength. I stop again, staring at him. The adrenaline blurs my thoughts and I don't know what to do.

'Again!' He yells at the top of his lungs, his raspy voice rumbling through the space, making my heart jump.

I have never heard him yell like that before. His voice was full of pain.

I hit him again, harder this time. He groans but still doesn't do anything. I'm starting to feel guilty, this isn't right. What is he doing?

I push him with both my hands, punching his shoulder again, trying to get him to fight back.

'Fight back!' I scream, pushing him harder this time.

'No!' He yells. 'Punch me.'

'No!' I scream. 'Fight back!'

I push him again, hitting his chest with both my hands, hearing as I push the air out of his lungs.

'I am not going to fight you! I deserve this! You deserve to get back at me for everything I did. Punch me again!'

'I am not fighting you like this, Shawn! Why are you doing this?'

'I don't deserve your mercy!' I see tears welling up in his eyes.

He looks at the boxing gloves around his hands, and I hear a tik, the sound of a teardrop landing on the plastic of the glove.

All the anger I felt disappears just as fast as it came and seeing him cry makes me cry too. He lowers himself to his knees again, sitting on the mat as he looks at the ground.

'I hurt you, Beth. The least you can do is make me feel the physical pain of it.' He says, tears spilling down his cheeks.

I sit down too, taking my boxing gloves off. I put my hands on his face and in his neck while sitting very close to him.

'I don't want to hurt you, you silly man.' I smile through the tears.

'I love you, even after everything you did. And hurting you isn't going to reverse time and prevent everything from happening, so what's the point?' I rest my forehead against his.

'I didn't want to hurt you. And now I've lost you, stuck in this bullshit friendship I don't want. I want to be your boyfriend and your friend, not just your friend.' He says, pulling at his boxing gloves.

He throws them and they land somewhere far out of the ring. He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs.

I look at him, not knowing what to say. I love him and I know he's the one for me, no matter how bad he hurt me.

I just can't go back into a relationship like this.

We're both broken, and yes, I was broken long before I met him, but that doesn't mean we should jump back into a broken relationship only because we love each other.

Shawn wraps his arms around me and pulls me onto his lap, holding me tight against his body. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and inhale his scent as I close my eyes, realizing how much I've missed him.

'It happened way sooner than I expected, but I knew you would say this eventually.' I say, still holding him tightly.

'I will tell you honestly that I still love you and I will never stop loving you. It's just that I don't want to jump into something that might turn out to be a disaster if we rush things. We are just going to be friends - even if you don't like it - but maybe there will be a chance of something more in the future. Just don't rush me.' I say.

I feel him nod and he softly kisses my cheek before pulling away. We get up and I grab Shawn's arm as we leave the boxing gym.

'You never told me you loved me like that.' He says. 'You always just said "I love you" but that's it. This time you really said it... I felt it.'

'It's not like my feelings were untrue back then, but we've been through some shit that somehow made me love you even-- no, I'm not telling you this. Gosh, I sound so cheesy.' I chuckle, letting go of his arm as I climb into the car.

'But if you love me and I love you, why can't--' He tries, but I put my hand in the air to stop him from finishing that sentence.

'Sorry. I will not rush you.' He says, starting the car.

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