“Okay, so, you have to get on your side for this,” I start. “One leg can stay on the outside of my body, but for the other one, I want you to bring your shin directly across my chest.”
Slowly, focusing on my directions, she shifts onto her left side and slides her right knee up.
“Good. Now, I want you to trap my arm with your left hand and grab behind my neck with your right.”
“I feel like I’m being put through a Thai massage, not beating you in a fight,” she mutters.
Chuckling, I tell her, “Trust me, it won’t feel that way in a second. Now the last step: since your right shin is across my chest, you’re going to bring your left foot up and essentially kick my knee out from under me. Since you have my arm pinned, I have nothing to brace with, so if you kick my knee out while also knocking me over with the shin that’s across my chest, you’ll?—”
I let out a surprised yelp as she follows my instructions to a T, taking my leg out and driving her shin into my chest at the same time. I fall onto my face beside her, forced to roll out of the move.
“Does unladylike mean you’re a natural?” I groan from my back. “Because that was perfect.”
She seemsdelighted. Sitting up, she looks down at me with sparkling eyes. “That didn’t even take any muscle! I thought that would be hard.”
“You’re bruising my ego, Red.” But I’m smiling as I say it. “Let’s try it again, but this time, I want you to roll with the throw so you’re on top of me at the end.”
She hurriedly lies back down, and I go to my knees again, resuming the original position.
As I open my mouth to talk her through the steps again, she’s already moving through each step, her brow furrowed in concentration. She shifts onto her side, brings her shin across my chest, traps my right arm, and then?—
Once more, I go flying as she takes my knee out from under me and pushes me onto my back. But this time, she follows through on the sweep like I told her, which means she ends up straddling me.
I’m chuckling as my hands go to her hips. “Good girl. That was perfect.”
Bracing her hands on my chest, she beams down at me. “That’s so fun. Weird, but fun.”
“And also proved my point,” I add. “You said it yourself; you didn’t need strength to do it.”
“It probably helps, though,” she muses. “I’m assuming you could throw me off with all strength and no leverage.”
Wordlessly, I trap her hand and bump my hips up, flipping her over and reversing our positions. Her squeal turns into another laugh.
“Leverage makes it easier,” I tell her with a wink.
Before I can guess what she’s about to do, she goes for the sweep once more. But she’s a little overzealous and tries to do all the steps at one time.
She brings her shin up at the same time that she kicks my knee out, and I go face first into her knee.
The momentum automatically finishes the sweep, but by the time she’s sitting on top of me, I’m groaning around a fat lip.
“Oh my God,” she cries, cupping my face in her hands. “I’m so sorry! It was an accident! Are you okay?”
“I get hit in the face a hundred times a day,” I say, chuckling. “Of course, I’m okay.”
“But I kneed you in the face! Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
She seems so distraught, I start to rub a soothing path up and down her thighs. “Red, I promise I’m fine. This really is nothing.Andit was my idea to show you the move.”
“I’m sure you never intended for me tobeatyou.”
“That was exactly the point I was trying to prove.”
She lets out a heavy breath, seeming to finally accept that I’m truly alright. Then she leans over me and plants her hands next to my head. My hands freeze on her body as she looks down at me.
“Should I get anything?” she asks softly, her eyes scanning my face. “Do you need ice?”
I can’t breathe, can’t talk. I just shake my head in answer.
