33 – Jealousy

At the end of class the instructor gathered them together.

"Ok, that'll be all for today. Tomorrow will be pretty similar, with some more in depth material. If you have time read up on the course material," he said.

Dave wasn't worried since he had already read almost everything over the past week. Some rushing up on it wouldn't hurt though, but wasn't absolutely necessary.

All three of them, even Jake looked a bit excited after a long day.

"Sure coach!" Vanessa responded excitedly.

Their instructor left immediately, already having other plans which left just the three of them. It was little awkward, they didn't really know each other much yet, but the class was so small that ignoring each other wasn't really an option.

"So why are you guys in the class?" Vanessa asked curiously.

"It's the best fit for me to do while I complete college," Jake said.

Dave was surprised to hear Jake was still going to college. He thought he was at least around his mid twenties. Either he went to college late or he was doing something beyond a regular 4 year degree. That or he looked much older than he was.

"Oh you're still in college?" Vanessa said. It seemed unlike Dave she didn't have much of a filter.

Jake nodded, but didn't say anything. It didn't seem like he was in the mood to share much. Vanessa turned her eyes to Dave instead.

"Uhm... well I'm in my last year of high school so I needed something that could work around that and I like working out," Dave said. He didn't really want to air the full reasons given it was filled with his family's dirty laundry.

"Oh. No way! Me too." she responded with a smile.

"Great... what about you?" Dave answered unsurely.

"Ah..yeah. I've always enjoyed working out and I just got out of college, but haven't really managed to find a job in my field yet. Then Donna saw the sign. Oh Donna is from yoga class. Well she said I should try it, so I thought why not? You know?" she said. She still seemed to be bouncing around with energy despite the long day they'd all had.

'Wait, who's Donna?' Dave wondered getting a little overwhelmed.

"Uh... yeah. Sure." he said with an unsure nod. He wasn't quite used to dealing with someone with so much energy.

"Well I need to get going," Jake said and quickly headed to the changing rooms after excusing himself.

"I should probably get going too. My parents will probably be waiting on me for dinner," Dave said to excuse himself. His father definitely wasn't waiting, but Jackie might be.

"See you tomorrow!" Vanessa said and gave him a quick hug. It really seemed she was a touchy person.

"Yeah, you too," he responded with a smile.

Dave got home a quite a bit later than usual running late for their usual dinner time, but Jackie had actually delayed dinner to make sure it would be ready for him. It seemed his father appreciated it far less going off his grumpy expression.

His father was actually not too drunk for once and joined them for dinner at the dinner table this time. He seemed to be a bit more present so the worst of his injuries seemed to be over, even if the rest of his body was degenerating. He wouldn't be surprised if his father would soon start to take notice regarding this once he started working out again after the doctor cleared him. He was already preparing for the worst, because anytime his father experienced frustration he would take it out on them. Dave wouldn't be putting up with that anymore though.

Sadly this meant Dave and Jackie couldn't have any fun together and had to sit through a strained "family dinner" instead. Jackie was sending him frequent glances across the dinner table clearly as frustrated as Dave. If his father actually cared about them he might have noticed the tension between them, but as always he was far too self absorbed to notice. He was instead waffling on about his last match and how he would be crushing his next opponent to show he was still the best one in the league.

Dave could only shake his head and smirk inwardly. He knew his father's future was on an unchangeable downward trend and there was nothing his father would be able to do about it. Best of all he had first row seats to the show and he would enjoy every last bit of it making sure to push him while he was down.

Since nothing would be getting better tonight he ended up heading to his bedroom shortly after dinner ended. He noticed a message from Kate on his phone after crashing on the bed.

[Kate: So how did it go?]

[Dave: Pretty good actually]

[Dave: Class in a mix of theoretic and practical stuff. I think I did pretty well, but it's hard to say after one day.]

[Kate: Cool, what about the other students?]

[Dave: There's three of us in class. An Asian guy named Jake and a woman Vanessa]

[Kate: Oh? A woman?]

[Dave: Yeah?]

[Kate: Is she cute?]

[Dave: Yeah?]

Her contact showed she was responding, but he didn't get anything for quite a while. She was either typing a novel or she was typing and deleting a lot trying to make up her mind. Eventually Dave decided to say something to break to ice or whatever was going on.

[Dave: We didn't even talk that much]

[Kate: So you admit you talked?]

'That seems to have backfired,' he thought.

[Dave: Uh? Yeah? Was I supposed to ignore her?]

Dave could only sigh to himself.

Another long silence without a message from Kate happened.

[Kate: What time will your lunch break be tomorrow?]

[Dave: Right at 12]

[Kate: Great, I'll bring lunch]

Dave scratched the back of his head in confusion.

'What just happened?' he wondered.

It seemed Kate had made up her mind. After doing another short workout at home he showered and went to bed. He'd just see what happened tomorrow.