I appreciated that.
She just rolled her eyes before saying, “Talon is not going to get hurt, Kenzlee. That man of yours has mad knuckle skills.”
“How do you even know he’d want me there?” I mean, I’d been fighting him all week long. Why would he want me there?
“Doesn’t matter,” she replied. “Everyonegoes. Even people from neighboring towns make the trip to show up to the fights.” She shrugged a shoulder. “It’d actually be weird if youweren’tthere.”
The second warning bell rang, and we resumed walking to class. “I don’t know, Alex,” I muttered. “It’s not my scene.”
“Come on, Kenz,” she begged. “The fights always rock. It’s like a party with arranged fighting. It’s always a good time.”
I snorted. “Yeah, a good time for everyone but the poor bastard who gets his ass kicked,” I pointed out.
She grimaced. “Yeah, okay. Maybe not a good time for him,” she conceded. “But everyone else has a blast.”
“And everyone goes, huh?”
“Well, everyone, except for Edie,” she clarified. “Rumor is she doesn’t approve of Talon’s fighting, so she doesn’t go.”
That made me pause my steps. “If he adores her, why would he keep fighting if it upsets her?”
Alex shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Like I said, I don’t know them that well. Other than what’s going on with you and Talon, I’ve never gotten personal with him or Edie up until now.”
We started walking again. “I don’t know, Alex,” I said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Look, just…promise you’ll go, and if you truly hate it, I won’t ask you to go to another one ever again,” she bargained.
We reached sixth period, and as I opened the door, I knew I was going to regret my next words. “Okay, but…if I want to go, we leave, got it?”
Alex grabbed my forearm and did a little hop. “Promise,” she said gleefully. “I’ll even give you my keys so there’s no way you can’t leave.”
I cocked my head. “And how would you get home?”
She batted her hand at me. “Please,” she huffed. “I can always catch a right with someone or Uber it if you want to leave but I don’t.”
Holding the door open, Alex passed and as I followed her to our seats, the knot in my stomach grew, and grew. “Fine,” I said, surrendering all my common sense.
This was a bad idea.
This was a bad idea, but I was going to go, anyway.
Just like Talon Draven was a bad idea, but I was going to give in, eventually.
I could feel it.
Chapter 11
The realizations we fear.
Kenzlee~
Icouldn’t believe I was here.
When Alex pulled up to a woodedclearing, I had images of axe murderers running through my head. These secluded wooded areas are the exact same places where a group of teens are murder with the entrails pulled out through the hold in their necks because they were up to no good.
But, it wasn’t until we walked a country mile, that I saw the abandoned barn that was lit up like Christmas, and the crowd of people everywhere.
It was crazy.
