The professor stood in front of 50 or so students. Her voice was surprisingly loud, louder than what her petite frame should have been able to project. She looked to be in her late 20s, her hair was straight and a fiery red and I found it hard to not imagine it as a curtain from how it swayed whenever she moved.
It was very distracting and sort of hypnotizing. I was completely out of it today which was not very Casey-like. I snapped out of it when my phone started ringing. My heart beat crazily in my chest and panic filled me as I quickly scrambled my bag to search for my phone to shut it off.
Thankfully, the professor pretended that nothing happened and let the disruption slip while she continued her lecture. I looked at the caller ID and saw Preston’s name.
I sighed quietly and opened my phone to text him quickly. “Can’t talk now, call u later.”
I put my phone on vibrate instead and turned it off to make sure there’s no repetition of that embarrassment. I tried to focus on what the professor was saying after I stored my phone away.
After that class, I had an hour break until the next lecture. I took that time to walk out of the building to call Preston.
“What took you so long?” Preston’s voice was snappy and irritable.
I sighed tiredly and rolled my eyes. “Well, hello to you too.” I could hear Preston’s huffed breath as if he was exhaling all the annoyance out of his system.
“Hi Case,” He muttered begrudgingly.
“Hi Pres. Now, what do you need?” I asked him, more satisfied than the previous minute.
“I never knew you were so poetic, Case.”
I could feel my ears turn red.
“You told me to try, so I tried.” I defended myself.
“Yeah and I’m very grateful for that, I just never pegged you as someone who’d write so poetically.” I blushed deeper at that.
“He just had to let you have a look at that letter didn’t he.” I groaned and covered my reddening face. Preston chuckled from the other end of the line.
“I didn’t get to look at the whole letter, just fragments of it, so don’t worry. However, I am curious as to what you wrote.”
I shrugged and plucked the sharp tip of a leaf from a plant next to me and twirled it between my thumb and pointer fingers. “I simply wrote about the time we first met. He wouldn’t quit annoying the shit out of me.”
Preston chuckled some more. A smile grew on my face when I remembered how annoyed I was when the pretty new boy was drawing attention to the low profile I had built for myself. He undid my efforts of staying under the radar in a matter of minutes when he started walking with me in the halls.
“Your brother was a true pain in my ass.” I laughed lightly, remembering all those efforts I made to shake him off my hind and failing miserably.
“But you love him,” Preston whispered and I smiled sadly at his statement. I took notice of the present tense he used and didn’t miss a beat in answering him.
“That, I do.”
When school was over, I drove back home to change my clothes and my choice of transportation. I felt my demeanor change as I got on my motorcycle with my fighting attire clinging onto my body.
Pixie’s back, bitches.
I rode my bike to where the competition base camp.
I led my bike to the nearest shade and hid it from view after turning off the engine. Not having Levy around to greet me or to lead me to where I should go was offsetting. But remembering why he wasn’t there to do all that anymore was even more offsetting.
The bastard really did good at fooling me; stupid Casey and her foolish tendency to trust people so easily.
I held my head high, my hair in a high ponytail swaying behind me. My hand was holding the strap of my duffel bag while the other was in the pocket of my jacket when I felt a hand land on my shoulder.
I quickly dropped my duffel bag and gripped the hand on my shoulder, twisting it and holding it behind the person’s back. When I realized who it was, I quickly kicked the back of his knee and moved away from the fallen body.
Think about the devil and he’ll appear.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped at Levy. He shook his arm that I twisted while standing to his feet. I quickly ran through this equation for disaster in my head. I have a fight coming up and I can’t afford to fight with Levy. I need to keep my emotions in check and the best way to do that was to run away from this scene. But even if I chose to run, he probably knew my fighting schedule and would show up before all of my fights like tonight.
“Well hello to you too, Case.” I scrunched up my nose at his greeting. Why the fuck did he think it was okay to start calling me Case all of a sudden. He was seriously rubbing it in my face that he knew who I was all along and that he succeeded in fooling me, wasn't he?
“I honestly thought that you were my friend, Bryant trusted you!” I snarled at him. I needed to cool off before I bit his head off. I can’t waste my energy over him. He was trying to get into my head to make me lose the fight. Yes, that’s probably it. Don’t cave in, Case. Don’t make another mistake and lose to this guy, again.
“I was his gang mate. He had to introduce me as a friend. He’s a hot-headed mess. He young but I gotta admit he had big balls. I remembered him threatening me not to mess with you. Golden big brother material there, pity he had to leave so soon.” It was feigned pity and if there was anything I hated more than genuine pity, it was a fake one.
“I don’t need to hear this.” I growled through clenched teeth.
“Oh, I know you don’t, it’s just fun to get you wired.” His phone rang then and my hands balled up into fists, barely refraining from beating his dipshit ass.
“Well I guess it’s not really your lucky day today. I have somewhere to be but I promise I’ll catch you again sometime soon, Case.” Levy winked at me and it took everything in me to not slap the smirk off his face.
When he was gone from my view, I hurried through the backdoors and met with the woman that gave me the fighting schedule the last time I was here. She led me to the changing room and I stored my bag into one of the lockers after taking a swig of water from my bottle.
I was feeling pumped up from the conversation I had with Levy and I guess it wasn’t all that bad. I wasn’t feeling the fire to fight lately and this was a definite boost to my anger.
I let my insides boil, picturing Levy’s smug smirk and feigned pity when he talked about Bryant as if he wasn’t talking about someone that he knows mattered a lot to me.
Not more than a few minutes later, I was called to stand in front of the stairs that led up to the ring. I felt my insides brew with determination. I’m not going to lose this fight, I won’t let anything happen to the kids.
I felt that thought wipe away any sentiments from my mind and built an ice fort that kept the outside world separated from my heart.
When my name was called, all traces of emotions were gone from my face as I climbed the stairs to meet my opponent.
He wasn’t like most of the opponents I had fought against. His build wasn’t bulky and he wasn’t that much taller than I was. I wasn’t planning to let my guard down because of that, though. I noted how quick his eyes assessed me and I was willing to bet that this guy was quick on his feet. He probably made up for his strength with the speed of his blows.
I needed to be careful with this one.
When the bell rung, my theories were proven right when the guy leapt at me with his fist drawn back. It missed my face by mere inches. The missed blow threw him off and caused him to stumble into the ropes around the ring. I wasn’t going to let him recover from that only to try and hit me again.
I moved forward, grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back with my leg hooked behind his. He tripped on my foot and fell back. I felt my heart tug, urging me to soften his fall by holding onto his shoulder but I crushed that hesitation and let him fall on his back.
I felt an unwanted relief fill me when he didn’t hit his head.
Cut the emotions, cut the saint act. It’ll get you killed.
“I’ve heard of you,” he sneered. I stared at him emotionlessly, I won’t be wavered by his wordplay.
“You’re the girl everyone’s been talking about. The one that injured that guy’s brother and is on his number one hit list. You’re pretty famous, girlie.” He teased with a wicked smile.
I gave him a deadpan look, “I’m glad that you’ve seemed to have found some gossip to humor yourself with.”
“Cut the talking. Show her that this is no place for a little girl!” Someone from the crowd yelled.
I clenched my teeth at that. Sexist pigs.
The man smirked at me, “You heard that, little girl? This is no place for a pretty thing like you. You should be out with your girlies in the mall right now, buy yourself some sparkles.”
“You talk too much,” was all I managed to say before I struck him in the face with a side hook.
It threw him off. The whole conversation made him drop his guard down and it worked greatly in my favor.
He was quick like I predicted, but he wasn’t very good at blocking hits.
I took advantage of the flaws in his blocks and got a few hits in. I have to say, guys in this place have humongous egos. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy chipping that ego bit by bit with every punch.
His ego didn’t let him tap out until he was too beat up to move. Because of that, the fight continued until the strip of cloth wounded on both of my knuckles were tainted red with blood.
We kept going at it, blow after blow. He landed a few on me that made me see stars. Eventually, I started feeling lightheaded. That was when I knew I needed to end this fight quickly.
I couldn’t play dirty by kicking or kneeing him in the balls. That was some bitch level move that I won't consider doing. I'll win this fair and square. I knew I wouldn’t be able to land a kick to his head to knock him out because his reflexes were way too quick. He’ll have the upper hand if he got a hold of my foot.
When he dove to land a punch on me, I moved to the side, again missing that punch by inches. I tried my best to quicken my moves and snatched his hand. I held it in a vice grip and used my other hand to punch him hard on the temple.
I used the momentum to deliver a kick to his head in an attempt to knock him out.
I was way too dizzy and ended up stumbling after kicking him. His unconscious body crumbled to the ground and my heart thudded against my ribcage in a painful way.
'Please don’t be dead', I whispered in a devastated tone in my head.
I quickly made my exit as the crowd roared and went wild in what I presumed was outrage. I ducked my head and slipped through the ropes of the ring. I walked into the changing room and grabbed my things.
I didn’t spare anyone a glance as I slipped the white strips I peeled off my hands into my duffel bag. My knuckles were still bloodied and I didn’t bother cleaning them.
I rushed to my bike and didn’t look back. I didn’t want anything more other than to be home and in bed by now.
I didn’t want to do this anymore.
I didn’t want to hurt anyone anymore. I didn’t want to fight anymore.