She stops struggling, accepting the inevitable. Something tugs at my heartstrings when she starts crying. Shit, am I growing a conscience all of a sudden? Still, I can’t let her tears sway me. This thing between Josh and me should’ve been settled a long time ago. I take off my shirt, throwing it to the ground. The son of a bitch tackles me in the next second, and damn, this motherfucker hits hard enough for me to go airborne. My body hits the ground with a thud, causing the oxygen to leave my lungs. I shake it off, jumping to my feet. This time around, I’m prepared when he makes his next move, ducking to avoid a right hook. I deliver a jab to his kidney, followed by an elbow to his nose. Blood immediately oozes from the mangled cartilage.
“You broke my fucking nose!” He wipes the liquid pouring from his nostrils.
“Now you and Zeke can be twinsies.”
My lip splits the moment his fist connects with my mouth. After that, punches fly and blood flows as we beat each other to a pulp.
“Enough!” Cin says, sobbing.
We both collapse to the ground in exhaustion. I’m sure the fight only lasted less than ten minutes, but damn, it felt like hours. Josh is a fucking asshole, but I have to give him props because he’s a damn good fighter, unlike his friends. He almost whipped my ass.
“I won the fight,” I say between breaths.
“Like hell. I won fair and square,” Josh says.
I turn to Cin. “Who do you think won?”
“Fuck you both.” She stomps off in anger.
They nearly killed each other. I drive to Lilah’s house, infuriated. There’s no way I could look at either one of them today without wanting to scratch their eyeballs out, so I showered and left. Of course, Ricky will want to know what happened when he sees their puffy black and blue faces. I park my car then call Lilah several times before she answers.
“Hello,” she growls.
“Open the door.”
“You’re here?”
“Duh, now open the damn door.”
“All right, you don’t have to be a bitch about it,” she grumbles.
I impatiently wait for her on the porch while she takes her sweet time to come downstairs.
“About damn time,” I say when the front door finally opens.
“I need coffee.”
“You and me both.” I follow her through the house to the kitchen.
“Why are you here?” Lilah rummages through the cabinet in her quest to find caffeine.
“Art and Josh got into a really bad fight. They beat the holy shit out of each other. It was awful.”
“Damn. I wish I was there to see their fine asses fighting. I bet it was like watching porn.”
“Lilah, will you get your head out of the fucking clouds? There was nothing sexy about blood spilling everywhere.”
“I bet the blood made it hotter.” She bites her bottom lip.
“You’re sick.”
“You saw the fight of a lifetime, and all you can do is complain!” Lilah exclaims.
“Make the damn coffee,” I say, sitting at the small breakfast nook situated across from the refrigerator.
“So demanding.”
After a few minutes, she sits beside me, handing me a mug of the delicious smelling brew.
