We kissed and smiled at the same time, a difficult task I assure you, and when I pulled away I asked, “What about dumb?”
She laughed, “All boys are dumb.”
“Good to know.”
“Glad I could enlighten you.”
I stood and scooped her up in my arms and tossed her on the bed as she let out a small scream. I walked over to the door and closed it. “So we won’t be walked in on.”
“Wouldn’t want to scar Michelle,” she grinned sarcastically, “or anyone else for that matter.”
I slapped a hand over my heart and groaned mockingly, “Oh, she wounds.”
“That’s right, and I can do a lot more than just wound.”
“I wonder who taught you how?” I asked sarcastically.
“Yeah, I wonder who?”
“He must have been a pretty talented guy. Probably smart too.”
“No. Now that I think about it, he wasn’t that bright. Not very good either.”
I grinned and stood over her, “Not very good huh.”
“Nope.”
“Well, let’s see what he taught you,” I said before climbing on top of her. She tried to slip out from my grip, but I sat on her legs and held her arms down, effectively pinning her on top of the bed. After a few seconds of struggling, she gave up. “You’re right, I guess he wasn’t very good.”
She smiled up at me, “Well maybe you’re right. Is there anything else he can teach me?” I bent down and kissed her. We didn’t kiss for very long because when I let go of her left wrist to support her neck, she slipped her arm across my face, grabbed me behind my neck and pushed me off of her. She used a small amount of leverage to flip me on my back and change places with me. I looked up to see a wide grin on her face “He was pretty good, but I have a few techniques he couldn’t teach me.”
I chuckled, “I don’t know how effective that would be in a real fight.”
“Doesn’t matter, it worked here.”
I returned her grin, “That it did. But you know…” I used my greater strength to flip our positions again, “it does help to be stronger.”
“You locked the door right?” I nodded. “Good,” she said returning my grin.
The rest of the evening and night passed without incident, and thankfully we were not walked in on.
The next morning I woke up alone. I looked at my watch and saw that it read a little after five in the morning. I wondered where she could have gone and was considering getting up to look for her when she slipped quietly into the room. She was silent as she climbed back into bed and lay close to me. The first thing I noticed was that she was cold, her arms, legs, and feet were all freezing. I wrapped my arms around her and quickly scooted back as her feet came into contact with my leg, “Holy crap! Why are you so cold?”
She laughed as she tried to put her feet on me, “I had to run outside.”
“Gah. Keep those ice cubes away from me.”
“Oh come on, my feet are freezing.”
“Fine,” I let out a small gasp as she placed her freezing feet against my bare thighs.
“Thank you,” she said moving closer.
I was going to ask her why she had to go outside but the thought was driven from my mind instantly as she pressed up against me. I wrapped my arms around her and was content to be with her. Her breathing slowed, and we fell back to sleep. We woke a few hours later still in each other’s arms, and I breathed in the smell of mint and something else, something I couldn’t quite distinguish but was very familiar. She stirred in my arms. “Morning, beautiful.”
She smiled, “Morning.”
“Ready to get up?” She grinned and shook her head, her hair being messed by the action.
I couldn’t help but smile as I as stared at her silently, “What?” she asked as the seconds grew long.
“You are the most beautiful girl I have ever met,” I grinned.
“Whatever,” she said turning away.
“Hey, I'm serious. I’ve never met a girl like you before.”
She turned back, “Oh come on. You and I would hardly be together if it weren’t for,” she gestured around the room, “all of this.”
I smiled sadly at her, “You know, that’s probably true,” She gave me a sad smile, “but only because you’re too good for me.” I finished, changing my smile from sad to airy.
She returned my smile and turned away, “Whatever.”
“I can’t catch a break, can I?”
She let out a small laugh, “Nope. Never.”
“Great, just great,” I said letting her go and sitting up.
“Do we have to get up?”
“You already know the answer to that,” I said standing.
“I know, but I was hoping you’d lie to me.”
“And you know I’d never do that.”
“Oh, whatever.”
“You know, that’s starting to become an annoying habit,” I grinned.
She smiled back, “I do it to bug you.”
“Yeah I know,” I said pulling on a clean t-shirt, “and you’re getting pretty good at it.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” I laced up my boots and walked towards the door. “You might want to get up and get dressed,” I nodded at her state of undress. She glanced down at the sheet held to her chest and raised a single finger in salute. “Very nice,” I smiled and walked out the door, closing it behind me.
Out in the living room, I was greeted by a large amount of commotion. Michael and Justin were standing a little too close and were lightly shoving each other. “What is going on?” I asked loudly.
Everyone but Matt seemed to ignore me as he leaned in close, “I guess Justin was giving Michael a little too much crap about, you know, asking Liz out. They started shoving each other, and everyone else seemed to feel like trying to stop them.”
I looked on in amusement until a quick shove from Justin caused a glass jar to fall off the counter and shatter on the ground as the argument seemed to become more heated. “Alright,” I called out, “That’s enough.” The two ignored me just as they had the breaking glass. I raised and hardened my voice, “I said. That’s enough”. They paused mid-shove, and I walked into the kitchen. “Alright then, you two have something to settle?” I looked at the both of them as they nodded. “Good. Then you’ll settle it like men,” I grinned, “You two will kick the shit out of each other until you’re friends again.”
They gaped at me like a fish out of water “What?” asked Justin.
“You heard me. We now live in a world where if you two can’t be friends you must be enemies. You both have fifteen minutes before I expect to see you two on the front lawn.”
“Ok,” shrugged my brother.
“Wait. Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. Now you have,” I glanced at my watch, “fourteen minutes.”
My brother walked out of the kitchen calmly and towards his old room. His confidence seemed to shake Justin’s confidence, and he started to glance around, “You can’t be serious. You’re not just going to let me beat up your brother.”
I smiled coolly at him, “Does it look like I’m worried? How about my brother, does he look worried?”
“No.”
“Then maybe you should be.”
He frowned and glanced at his own watch, he had twelve minutes left. “Fuck,” he mumbled and walked away.
Sarah came up behind me and spoke softly in my ear, “You sure this is such a good idea?”
“Maybe, maybe not, but Michael has to be seen as something more than just my little brother. I make fun of him, but I never go too far. He can handle himself.”
“You sure?”
I raised an eyebrow at her, “Come on, he is my brother.”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get too cocky.”
I smiled “Hey, I’m not the one fighting.” I glanced down at my watch, “Come on, they have nine minutes. We should probably head outside.”
In eight minutes everyone
but the fighters were gathered outside in a semi-circle on the lawn. We waited the last minute for the two to join us and face off. They had both changed into different clothes more suited for fighting. Gone were the jackets, hoodies, jeans, and hats. They were both in basketball shorts, Michael was wearing a cut-off and Justin a t-shirt. Michael had taken the time to wrap his own hands in a light layer of gauze and sports tape. Justin glanced down at his own bare knuckles and looked like he wished he had done the same. I walked up and stood between the two. “These two,” I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, “have had a little argument and for the sake of house harmony they will be resolving it today. Now, you two will fight until you’re you’ve both had enough.” I looked at Justin, “Ready?” he nodded hesitantly. I looked at Michael, “Ready?” He smiled confidently and nodded. “Good.” I gave both of them one last quick glance, “Fight,” I said before backing away quickly.
I’ve seen my brother fight before, we used to spar all the time, it was nothing like this. This time, there was something, predatory in his eyes. His calm smile and stone cold eyes were kind of unsettling, I couldn’t imagine what Justin was feeling. Once I had moved out of the way the two began circling each other. Well, Michael was quietly circling, Justin was just trying to keep him out in front. I’m not going to lie, the first thing that came to mind when looking at Michael was the image of a jungle cat. Before everything went down, he was heavier, not fat or overweight just heavier, but fighting each day for survival had slimmed him down. He had changed in another way as well, mostly in his eyes. They’d always been warm and quick to light up with a joke, never cold. I could tell he had had to fight on his way here, a lot and to ends that no one should have too. That’s the only way he could have earned eyes like that, eyes of a predator. Michael waited calmly until Justin’s nerves got the better of him and he attacked. Justin threw a quick right hook to Michael’s head, which he ducked and brought a knee up towards Justin’s stomach. For a second I thought this would be the end of it, a knee like that to the stomach was enough to drive the wind from your opponent and leave them gasping on the floor, but Justin was a little more prepared. Instead of allowing the attack to land he used his momentum to bring his own leg around to deflect the blow. They both jumped back to recover their guard and prepare for the next attack and block. It was Michaels turn to attack, and he did so quickly and efficiently. He wasn’t as strong as Justin, but he was faster, and he used that speed to land two quick blows to Justin’s head. He started with a quick backhand to his face and followed up with an elbow to the side of his head, whipping it to the right. Finishing off his attack, Michael snapped a kick off at the back of Justin’s exposed knee, dropping him to the ground.
Justin let out a small grunt of pain as he landed heavily on the ground. If this had been a fight for survival Michael would have pressed his advantage and finished Justin off as he lay on the ground. But since it wasn’t and neither wanted to kill the other Michael back off and allowed Justin to rise to his feet “Had enough?” asked Michael, confident that Justin would be willing to back down after being knocked down.
“Not even close,” he replied getting back in a fighting position. This was now a matter of his pride, he couldn’t be beaten by someone younger than himself.
“Good,” replied Michael as he headed for Justin.
The fight didn’t last very long, none really do. Justin got in a few punches that, at first, sent my brother reeling, but he recovered quickly from each one and continued his attack. Like I said, Justin was stronger, but Michael was faster, and he used that speed to landed a dozen blows to Justin’s body. Near the end of the fight, Michael was supporting a bloody nose and cut lip while Justin was clutching at his ribs and breathing heavily. I thought the two were ready to give up when Justin made a big mistake, he taunted my brother even further. “You think she’ll be impressed by this? Maybe after this is over you’ll have the guts to ask her out,” he mocked. You’d think he would have learned from trying to taunt me, it’s just not a good idea. I’ll let you in on a little truth when I was younger I had a bad temper. Little things could set me off, and I was ready to punch a hole in the wall. I grew out of that phase with the help of a few bruised knuckles and some discipline, courtesy of Tai Kwon Do. My brother and I share this trait, and I don’t think he had quite grown out of it. Granted, I could tell he had grown up a lot but the temper was still there, and since it had been Justin’s teasing that had started this fight he was going to make sure it was the teasing that ended it. I saw a small glint in Michael’s eye that told me he was ready to finish the fight with one last attack and I was scared that maybe he would take it too far. I’ve said it before, emotions can help during a fight, but they can also overwhelm you and push you further than you planned to go, I was afraid Michael was being pushed too far. Michael charged directly at Justin, and I wondered what he was going to do. When he was within a few feet, he pushed off the ground and launched himself into the air. As he cocked back his arm, I saw that he was aiming for Justin’s temple. “Michael!” I called out in warning. He heard and understood and instead of landing a blow to the head he pushed past Justin and landed on the ground behind him with a perfectly executed roll. He sprung to his feet and tackled Justin from behind. After some quick maneuvering, he had a leg across Justin’s throat and his right arm locked in an armbar. I waited to see if Justin would submit but once it became clear that he intended to nothing of the sort I spoke up again, “Enough.”
Michael did as he was ordered and released Justin’s arm and rolled away from him, hopping to his feet. Justin still lay on the ground coughing and rubbing his throat. Michael did exactly what I had taught him to do after every sparring match we had, he walked over and offered his hand to his opponent. Justin glared at him, still rubbing his throat and refused to take it. “Justin. Don’t be a sore loser.” Justin switched his glare to me before giving in and reaching up to take my brother's hand. “You two all better now?” I asked mockingly. They nodded though you could tell it was only to appease me. “Good. Michael, I want to talk to you,” he nodded and walked over to where I stood. We broke off from the rest of the group as they surrounded Justin. We walked behind the Pole Barn and out of sight of the others. Pinning Michael to the wall with my forearm I asked, “What the fuck was that?”
He grinned, “What was what?”
“That flying punch bullshit.”
He laughed, “Oh that! Just something I picked up on the road.”
“From who?”
“Just this guy I paired up with for a while. He taught me some stuff about fighting, I watched his back.”
I nodded, “What the fuck were you thinking? I saw where you were aiming. You could have killed him.”
He smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, sorry about that. I don’t know what happened there for a second. I just lost control a bit.”
I frowned at him before letting him go, “Just make sure you keep your anger in check.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Speaking of anger. Did you really let Justin’s teasing get to you? It couldn’t have been that bad.”
He looked a little ashamed as he spoke up, “Yeah, sorry about that too.”
“Don’t be sorry, just tell me why it got to you.”
“It wasn’t really that bad, it just…” he paused, looking like he didn’t want to go further.
Michael never kept secrets from me before, so I decided to press the issue, “What is it, man? You can tell me.”
He frowned and shook his head, “There was someone else.”
“What?”
“There was a girl I met while I walked here. She’s…she’s gone now. That’s why I was so hesitant to ask Liz out. Not because I was scared, but because I can’t get her out of my head.”
I smiled and put an arm around his shoulder, “I know all about that, not being able to get a girl out of your head. It getting so bad that all you can think of is her name. But you said she was gone right?” He nodde
d sadly. “Well, you’re not, and if this girl was good enough for my little brother to fall for then, she would want you to be happy. Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting about her. It means remembering the love she had for you and living each day to its fullest for her. You can’t live in the past, you have to move on eventually.”
“I know, I just don’t think I can yet,” he smiled sadly.
I’d never seen my brother this, well this sad before. I’d seen him angry, I’d seen him cry, yes, but I’d never seen this kind of sadness. It was a form of longing and loss that I hoped I’d never see again. “Don’t worry,” I patted his shoulder, “You don’t have to. I’ll tell the others not to give you any more shit.”
“No, it's fine. That won’t help anything.”
“Alright, as long as you don’t let it get to you. They’re just messing with you, they don’t mean it.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll keep everything in check.”
“Good,” I said as I looked toward the sky. A fat raindrop had just fallen squarely on my head, and it was soon followed by hundreds of others, “Now, let’s get inside,” I said to him before turning to face the others. “Everyone inside,” I yelled. My yell was hardly needed as everyone had already started making their way inside to get out of what promised to be a substantial downpour.
Chapter 15
When I said downpour, I wasn’t kidding. It rains on the coast, a lot, but this was truly impressive. We spent the rest of the day inside watching the rain as it turned our driveway into a lake, complete with a stream. There was no work to be done inside, and everyone was embracing the downtime. Justin and Michael’s wounds had been taken care of, Michael’s nose had stopped bleeding, and so had his split lip. Justin’s damage to his body was a little less evident. He walked around the house slowly, grasping at his bound ribs and wincing when he took too deep a breath. Michael had really done a number on his torso, and it acted as a constant reminder that teasing Michael was not the best of ideas. It’s funny, though, the lesson that Justin was forced to learn the hard way was only partially learned by the others. They teased him but always playfully, teasing him about how he might beat them up. He took it well, smiling and returning with his own sarcasm. The day passed slowly, but it gave me a chance to read and relax. I was interrupted by a small blur whizzing by my chair. It was Michelle, and she was being chased by limping Thomas who was playing the part of what I assumed was Frankenstein’s monster, which was his only option as he was still in a cast. As he padded his way over to me, I asked, “How’s the ankle?”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 17