twenty eight
"wrong light"

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—

"AND ONCE AGAIN, EVAN BUCKLEY'S late."

Lynn let out an annoyed sigh as she started to adjust the punching gloves she had fitted to her hands. Buck would always help out Lynn with her training and with practicing her boxing ever since the whole ordeal with Hazel Allen, but somehow he would always take forever in the locker rooms. Lynn would chalk it up to him talking mirror selfies, but right now she figured it was probably because of their fight last night.

By the time Lynn finally arrived home, she found the apartment to be quiet as could be. Where Maddie was curled up comfortably on the couch and she only assumed Buck was sound asleep in his room. Lynn didn't dare want to disturb anyone, so went directly to her room without making a sound.

The two roommates drove in separately as well, since by the time Buck left his room he already saw all of Lynn's items for the shift gone along with her car keys.

"Maybe I could help."

Lynn turned over her shoulder to find Eddie standing a few feet away, wearing a pair of shorts with a black tank top. Just like her, he had bandages wrapped around his hands like he was ready to train.

"Oh, you don't have to," Lynn shook her head, suddenly feeling like she would be bothering the man.

"No, no, I insist," Eddie smiled politely towards the brunette, and Lynn casually returned it. "Show me what you got."

Lynn let out a soft chuckle, deciding she was going to cave and let the man help her. She liked Eddie, he was strong willed, passionate about his job, and overall a nice person to have a conversation with. But why was it the second Lynn noticed how comfortable she was with the man, she would get a guilt feeling in her stomach?

Both Eddie and Lynn shifted their bodies around so that Eddie would be holding the punching bag, and Lynn had her arms raised up, ready to land a punch any second.

Lynn let out a few grunts as she swung her fists a few times, and each time Eddie seemed to be even more impressed with the woman; she had a fierce attitude.

"That's good, really, but I think your elbows are too high," Eddie suggested, pointing his index finger towards Lynn's arched elbows.

"Really? I was told I needed them higher," Lynn replied, and her blue eyes switched between her boxing partner and down towards her palms.

And there was that same guilt feeling.

"Well, sure, if you're fighting someone who's way taller than you," Eddie explained, and Lynn mouth formed the smallest of o's. "But just practicing, you'll get less tired if you have them in a good middle."

"Thanks," Lynn smiled softly towards the boy holding the punching bag, but then that smile immediately faded as her eyes went past Eddie; and landed on Buck, who was just staring towards the two with a clenched jaw. "Great..."

"What?" Eddie questioned, and then he glanced over his shoulder to see what Lynn was looking at, and when he saw Buck he almost let out a small groan. "Why does he hate me so much?"

"Don't worry about it, hopefully he'll be over it soon," Lynn responded in an equally soft voice, making sure Buck wouldn't hear the two gossiping about him.

The two went quiet as Lynn started to hit the bag again, landing punch after punch while Eddie held the bag for her. Slowly, Buck finally pulled himself from the background and towards the two practicing.

"I thought I was working out with you, Eve," Buck spoke up, and Lynn let out a small sigh as she turned to face his body.

"Sure, Evan, Eddie was just helping me while you—"

"—Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Buck interrupted, and Lynn had to almost clench her jaw back close so she wouldn't suddenly snap on the boy.

"Okay, and you were already fifteen minutes late to the time we said we were gonna practice," Lynn retorted, raising an eyebrow towards Buck with annoyance. "So, I think I'm just gonna stick with Eddie today. Thanks, though."

You could hear the obvious annoyance and sarcasm in Lynn's voice, but she frankly didn't care if she hurt Buck's feelings and went back to slamming her fists into the punching bag. More forcibly this time though, because her patience was running out.

Buck peeled open his mouth, as if he was about to say something, but then slammed it back closed and instead walked towards a weightlifting area. Lynn the continued practicing with Eddie, and she had to stifle a scoff as her eyes landed on the boy picking up addition weights; perhaps just to try to show off more than Eddie. She then rolled her blue eyes, because Buck had tugged out an actual selfie stick and started modeling off his muscled arms and smirk riddled face.

"You're in the wrong light, man."

Lynn finally tore her annoyed eyes from Buck, and gazed over to Eddie about a foot or so in front of her. She then switched back to Buck, who only sent a weird glance towards Eddie.

"Some of us don't need lighting to look good," Buck retorted, not even looking over to the two brunettes by the punching bag. Lynn's eyes then shifted to Chimney, who she hadn't even noticed made his way over here, and was working out a yard or so away.

"Hey, Eddie, what'd you mean by 'the wrong light'?" Chimney spoke up, and Lynn also raised an interested eyebrow.

"The light in this room is flat and blue; makes you look soft," Eddie explained, and even though Buck was trying his best to sound uninterested, he had slowly creeped his way over. "If you want to look lean and muscles to pop, you need warm side light. I'll show you. These are the ones I sent in for the calendar."

Eddie pulled out his phone from his front pocket, and swiped over on the photos app. Lynn wanted to let out an actual gasp, because the first picture he brought up was a black and white photo of him holding an adorable kitten; quickly followed by a shirtless photo of him in his firefighter pants.

"Whoa," both Chimney and Lynn breathed out at the same time, quickly making eye contact while letting out a laugh.

"It's, uh, kinda cheating, submitting pictures by a professional photographer."

   Lynn raised an unamused eyebrow towards Buck who only scoffed loudly before going back to his weightlifting.

   "The photographers twelve, she's my niece," Eddie countered, and Lynn had to clasp her lips together to not let out the loudest of laughs. "She's a master at the iPhone filters."

   "Your niece did this?" Chimney asked, sounding completely impressed, pointing down towards the phone in Eddie's hand.

   "She most definitely is a master, gosh," Lynn agreed, leaning her body slightly against Eddie's while she tried to peer over his shoulder, examining the rest of the photos he had.

   "You think she'd be willing to take my submission pics for me?" Chimney questioned, and then he threw his arms dramatically on his hips. "I'm told I photograph like an Asian Fabio."

   "I'm sure she would, yeah."

   Chimney seemed genuinely happy to hear that someone would be taking such professional looking pictures for him, but it seemed like it was short lasted.

   "Ah, you know, you really shouldn't get his hopes up like that," Buck stated, and each of the firefighters looked utterly confused as to what Buck was going on about. "No offense, Chim."

   "No offense taken, Evan," Chimney responded, sounding exactly as sarcastic as Buck was merely seconds ago. Lynn had to awkwardly clear her throat while throwing her eyebrows up at Eddie, making sure Buck couldn't she her expression, and then rolled her eyes playfully.

   Eddie then shut for his phone, padding it against his palm for a second, as if he was thinking deeply about something. And then after a moment, he started to walk over to where Buck was sitting and lifting weights.

   "What's your problem, man?"

   Both Chimney and Lynn met eye contact as Lynn nearer the punching bag and Chimney went on a workout machine. They almost had wide eyes, expecting the outcome of this confrontation to only go downhill.

   "Okay. You. You're my problem," Buck suddenly stood up from his seat, and it looked as if his eyes were written with complete seriousness. "Your comfort level. Y-You're not supposed to just walk in here like you've been here for years, like you've known people for years."

   Lynn popped her jaw out, and she couldn't help that Buck was trying to signal something towards the fact Eddie and her have been hanging out, especially since as he finished his little tantrum his eyes landed on Lynn. But she simply ignored it and continued to punch the black bag in front of her.

"Look, I in no way meant to, uh, be too familiar or step on anybody's toes," Eddie replied, and you could easily tell that he himself was trying to hold back his laughter.

"So, quit trying to sweep Eve away."

Lynn stopped in her movements, just as she was about to land a punch, and she turned so fast on her heels that she could've done a twirl.

"Evan, are you actually joking?" Lynn suddenly snapped, and she was getting quite tired of this jealousy act.

Lynn was the one who made out with Buck that drunken night, she was the one who was waiting, almost begging, for the boy to bring it up. It wasn't like she forgot the words he said as he cut off their makeout session; 'I want this, you have no idea how much I want this...' If he wanted it, then why didn't he ever talk about it again?

   "What? He's acting like he's your best friend," Buck protested, pointing towards Eddie who was standing there suddenly awkward, and he seemed almost surprised by Bucks statement.

   "Buck, we're not in the third fucking grade," Lynn growled, raising her arms aimlessly with clear anger covering on her face. The firefighters almost seemed shocked by Lynn actually swearing, but quickly recovered. Everyone except Buck, who had a hurt expression cover his face for merely a second, perhaps it was because Lynn had called him his name, and not the nickname she gave him.

   "I'm sorry you thought I was, uh, trying to steal Lynn, but I'm not. You don't need to be threatened by me, okay? We're on the same time.

"Why would I be threatened by you?"

   Buck took a threatening step forward towards Eddie, and Lynn rolled her blue eyes because she was suffocating from the damn masculinity surrounding the room.

   "Exactly, there's no need to be," Eddie explained, and Lynn was surprised he didn't seem to be frightened away from the tall Buck. "We do the same thing, I've just done it while people are shooting at me is all."

   Eddie then walked away from Buck, probably as tired as everyone else was of his attitude. Lynn shot Chimney a glance, and he immediately took that as it was his time to leave the area.

   "Are you serious?"