Page 77 of If You Fight

But like when I was undefeated two years ago, I had a reason to fight that no one else did. I was literally fighting for my future, not just money or bragging rights here in small town USA.

The three otherfighters showed up around six-thirty, and I quickly figured out they all knew one another by how they joked around about whose turn it was to buy drinks that night after the matches. Each one checked me out for a second and then looked away like nothing about me concerned them in the least.

Smaller than most of the guys I’d fought, all three had a wiry look about them I knew could make them as dangerous as someone bulkier. I’d seen enough fighters get beat based on thinking they could handle someone because of how they looked to know better.

I sat silently as the crowd filled up the big room outside where we sat and the three local guys talked about what they were going to do with the money they won that night. Nate’s fights paid out well, so it wasn’t surprising they had money on the mind. If I didn’t have Serena and the baby to think of, I’d be doing the same thing as they were.

Nate’s voice boomed throughout the building announcing the fighters for the first fight, and two of the three guys headed out to their match. The third guy sat quietly on the other side of the room and looked like he might be uncomfortable without his friends around, so instead of making small talk I took the chance to really get a feel for him. Definitely wiry, his pale skin looked very white under the large tattoos of black dream catchers on his right arm and a steer head on the other bicep. He kept running his hands over his shaved head, and after a while, he closed his eyes and hummed some tune I’d never heard over and over.

Floyd came in as I studied my opponent for the night and pulled up a chair in front of me, blocking my view of the guy. “Hey, you ready?” he asked eagerly.

“Yeah. He’s smaller than I’ve fought before, but I’m not letting that trick me. I’m not exactly the biggest guy in the ring most nights, and I do pretty well for myself.”

Floyd turned around to look at the guy and then turned back to face me. “You’ll be fine. I put down the money you asked me to, so that’ll make the prize even better. I’m going to get back out there. Nate says those two are cousins or something like that and their fights are always brawls until there’s blood all over. I’ll see you after. We’ll go for a drink at that bar I saw about twenty miles down the road.”

“Okay. Your treat, right?” I joked as the sound of the crowd screaming filtered into the room.

He thought about it for a moment and finally nodded. “Okay,” he grudgingly agreed. “Now I’m glad I bet some good money on you tonight too.”

Cheap bastard.

I watched him walk out as the crowd exploded again, and the pale guy stood and walked across the room, stopping a few feet away. Looking up at him, I saw him glaring down at me.

“You sound pretty fucking sure of yourself. You shouldn’t be. I don’t care if you’re unbeaten or not. I’m winning that money tonight.”

The rage in his eyes made me wonder if he planned to begin fighting right there instead of saving it for the match. “Yeah, whatever. May the best man win.”

“That’s going to be me, motherfucker.”

He turned on his heels and stalked back to his chair without giving me a chance to answer him, but I didn’t have anything to say anyway. Not that I was against talking smack before a match, but I didn’t feel like getting into a pissing contest with this guy before the fight. Better to save my anger for when it counted.

The sound of the crowd screaming died down, telling me the fight between the cousins had ended, and right after they stumbled into the changing room covered in one another’s blood. I couldn’t tell which fighter had won until the one opened his mouth to show his two front teeth knocked out and laughed.

“I lost some teeth, but I won the money, fucker.”

The other guy waved him off and collapsed into a chair near the guy I’d be fighting in a few minutes. “Yeah, well, I got your teeth and I’m not giving them back.”

Sure I didn’t want to be around when they started fighting over the teeth, I walked out of the room and stood against the wall to wait for Nate to call us out. Pale guy followed me, and positioned himself nearby to glare at me before he started growling.

I turned to look at him and shook my head. “The last guy who thought this staring me down shit worked got pretty fucked up by me. Why don’t you save the act for the fight, dude?”

If he thought the whole glaring and growling routine was scaring me, he was sorely mistaken. I didn’t frighten that easily.

“I’m going to be the one doing the fucking up, dude,” he answered, mocking me.

Shit talking like this was nothing new before a fight, but this guy seemed a little too jacked about it. I considered giving him a shove just to be an asshole but decided against it. I’d take my own advice and save my anger for the match.

Nate announced our names, and I found out the pale guy’s was Justin Forte. Even his name sounded like it belonged on a jackass.

He trotted out to the crowd, and it erupted into cheers for him, with some people even chanting “Get it done!” like it was his catch phrase or something. Like his name, it fit him.

I walked out to a smattering of cheers at first but after the crowd got a good look at me, they began to scream and holler like I was one of their local boys they were used to watching. A few of the more rabid fans barked out, “Let’s get started!” like they were about to do something more than drink and cheer for us to beat the fuck out of each other.

Nate drew us together and wrapped his arms around us before he leaned in and said, “You two know how this goes. First one to surrender loses. There are no rules other than two fingers and you’re done.”

I expected Justin to talk more shit, but he just nodded and I did the same.

Lifting his head, Nate said loudly so the crowd could hear, “Let’s see a good fight, you two!” and I slammed my fists down on Justin’s before we stepped back and the fight began.

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