Page 82 of Dating After the End of the World
“Should I stop it?”
“Not yet. It’s kinda hot.” Tessa laughs.
Blake now has Nate in a headlock. I roll my eyes at his childish behavior.
“Blake’s really going in on him,” she adds, raising her brows.
“I think he’s trying to kill Nate so I’ll be with him.”
“What?”
I nod. “He said he wants to be with me.”
“When?”
“This morning during ...” I trail off. “And right after Nate showed up.”
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Nate screams, stealing our attention.
Blake twists Nate’s arm behind his back, pulling it up high enough that with a small bit of pressure, it looks like he could rip it clean off.
“Uncle! Uncle!” Nate yells.
Blake lets his arm go and shoves him away, sending Nate reeling into the grass. He turns and looks at me, a big shit-eating grin across his face as he gives a quick wink.
I shake my head and press my lips firmly together, not impressed by this macho behavior.
Nate uses Blake’s lapse in vigilance to his advantage, charging into him from the side and lifting him off his feet before spiking him into the ground.Oh, great.Nate’s picked up on the macho behavior too. What is it with men?
The fighting stops for a brief second with Nate on top of Blake, trying to keep him pinned to the ground. Blake’s face turns a deep shade of red, his anger surfacing like a crimson mask.
“Oh no,” is all I have time to say to myself before Nate’s world is turned upside down, quite literally.
Blake whips his legs up in an X over Nate’s chest, the same as he did to me when we first sparred, and sends him smashing backward into the ground, but unlike with me, he doesn’t stop there. He stands and grabs Nate’s legs, lifting them high into the air as he hooks Nate’s knees over his shoulders, grabbing him by the waist and curling his body back upright. It looks like Nate is sitting in a Blake-shaped chair. He drives Nate back to the cold hard earth, body-slamming him like a stunt from the WWE. When he hits the ground, a loud snap reverberates through all of us, sending a chill down my spine. It’s the only noise we hear before a rush of pain screams out of Nate’s mouth.
“Ack! My shoulder!” He writhes in agony, pounding the dirt with his good arm. His injured shoulder is rolled up off his collar, dislocated from the joint.
“Holy shit,” Tessa says.
I’m already fuming as I race to Nate’s side. “What the hell, Blake!?” I glare up at him, and his face briefly changes, his eyes flickering with the same venom that coursed through them all those years ago at the party, right before he stabbed me in the heart. Has the venom always been there? Maybe he hasn’t changed at all. Maybe he’s the same old jerk and his true self surfaces whenever he doesn’t get his way. My heart pounds against my rib cage. Has Blake fooled me again?
“What? We were just horse playing.”
“Tessa, hold Nate still on his side and put pressure into him with your knees so he can’t shift away from me.” She nods and races over to assist.
“Sorry, Nate,” she says, pushing up against him as he winces.
“It’s Dr. Warner.” His words come out breathy and shrieky.
Tessa shoves him even harder, annoyed by his response. A slight smirk appears on her face as he grimaces.
I snap my fingers in Nate’s face to get his attention. “You know what I have to do, and you know it’s gonna hurt.”
“I know! I know!” Nate yells. “Just do it.”
I nod to Tessa, signaling her to hold steady, and then I grab his shoulder and upper arm. “All right. On three. One. Two ...”
Nate’s shoulder pops into place. “Ack! Fuck.” His rapid breathing starts to even out at the relief of being put back together again.
