Unavoidable

by Yara Greathouse

  “Well, bro, I propose that you step outside and smell clean air for a couple of minutes. Then step back inside this funk, and you tell me if you can tell the difference. I’m going to be in my room studying and when I come out y’all better have all this shit cleaned up. And showers, y’all better hit the fucking showers.”

  “Can I ask you something, Colton?” Says Traxx.

  “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “Did you get lucky, and if so why are you so bitchy?”

  “Because if I would have decided to bring Brianna with me, I would have been so embarrassed by the two of you. You have not done this shit in years! What is going on?”

  “Well, we both realized that we both like the same girl, so we decided that whoever gets the highest score in this game will move on to pursue said girl.”

  “Seriously guys?! What are you? Fourteen? And who is this girl? Do I know her?”

  They look at each other and then Traxx looks at me while Notso says “You need to promise that you are not gonna shit a brick, okay?”

  Then, realization hits me all at once. “Oh, no, you didn’t!” All my muscles tense at the same time, and my hands are curling fists at my sides. Yes, they were right: I am ready to shit a brick. “Ciara is off limits! OFF LIMITS!!!”

  Notso looks at Traxx and says “I told you he was gonna flip.” Traxx then looks at me and asks “Why? Why is she off limits? She is a sweet thang, and we like her. She is not attached and you have no right to set limits around her, she ain’t your property!”

  “Yes, she is my property - by extension! She is the only family Brianna has and you two assholes will most definitely fuck it up one way or another and then BY EXTENSION, Brianna is not going to want to be with me because I live with you two dickwads and it will be too close for her to be comfortable! The answer is no a thousand times over. Plus, what is this about you two after the same girl. That is nothing but bad news and bad blood. Drop it. And I mean right fucking now!”

  I can’t take any more of this nonsense. I head on over to my room to see if I can calm down enough so that I can study, when I hear two phones ping at the same time, then I hear Traxx and Notso talking about me getting my ass kicked at the gym later and how they would pay to see that. I roll my eyes, because this day has definitely turned around for me. I need to loosen up and sparring with my girl is not going to be a good way to release steam.

  Colton

  The guys and I get to the warehouse/gym and I ask yet again, “Are you sure you have the right directions? This does not look like a gym.”

  “Yes this is the right place although it looks a little shady. But there is Ciara’s car, so I guess this is it.” Says Traxx not looking very certain at all.

  We walk through the door, the entire area is filled with sectioned mats, where mostly guys are practicing a variety of things from boxing to martial arts. We immediately see Brianna pinned down by a huge guy, Ciara is cheering for Brianna “Come on, Brianna, you know what to do, beat his ass!”

  Notso holds me back, because I am ready to go in there and get her loose. Brianna is on the floor facing up, the guy is straddling her, and now he puts his hands on her neck. “Is he choking her?!” Ciara looks our way and motions for us to go sit with her. I cannot move, I am worried about my girl. What kind of fucked up training is this? Ciara yells at us, “She is fine, come watch her in action! Don’t panic!”

  We move fast to where Ciara sits and she whispers “I’ve seen this too many times. She is waiting for her chance, watch her carefully, she is fast as hell.”

  No sooner than she finishes saying that, Brianna grabs the guy’s wrist with one hand, then with the opposite hand, she grabs his elbow from behind. I see her leg moving briefly when her hips lift up pushing the guy off balance and she rolls over the guy landing on her knees and using his face – which has protective gear – like a punching bag. Dayum! And just like that, she gets up and helps him get up. I am so impressed and all I can think of is to have her practice some of these moves on my bed, minus the face punching, of course.

  “Oh, look Bubba, my new punching bag has just arrived.” She says after taking out the mouth guard, her hair is up in a messy bun, and she is only wearing a training bra, a pair of tight ass training shorts, and sneakers. She has some kind of gloves that look thick, but her fingertips are showing. Her skin is wet with perspiration, which makes me think that she may be a bit tired – or that may be just wishful thinking on my part. I’m in deep trouble.

  “Dude!” Says Notso, “You are really going to get your ass whipped. She is giving you ‘the eye of the tiger’ and she is ready to pounce.” Then Traxx pushes me towards the mats.

  “Colton, come here!” Says Brianna. “Bubba, please go get some protective gear for my boyfriend. I need to make sure he will leave this place in one piece.”

  “Baby, is that really necessary? How come you don’t have protective gear on?”

  “Because I know what I’m doing and it’s really hard for any opponent to get a punch on me. I like to feel the pain when I do get hit, it keeps me on my toes and teaches me to remain attentive. So you promise me that you are not going to hold back, I need to make sure you are going to fight. So, if you come onto these mats, you are going to give me one hundred percent. Otherwise turn around and leave.”

  “Are you kidding me? I don’t hit girls.”

  “No I am not kidding you, and for the record, you are not hitting a girl. You are training with one and helping her to become better at self-defense. If you hold back, you are not helping.”

  Bubba comes with a bunch of foam products. The guy is as big as Notso and if Brianna can tumble with him like nothing, then I better say my prayers. I put on a body armor, headgear, shin guards and gloves like Brianna has, which Bubba says are grappling gloves.

  “Did you wear the protective cup under your shorts like I asked you to?”

  “Yeah…” I said, sounding very insecure, “But you are not going to go for that area a lot, right? After all, that’s your favorite body part, right?” Then I follow with a nervous laugh.

  “I will try to remember. Sometimes little details like that escape me.” She winks and moves to drink some water. I look over at my so-called friends and they are laughing it out with Ciara.

  The big guy named Bubba is checking all of my gear and making sure everything is properly secured. I take this opportunity to ask him a few questions.

  “How long has she been training?” He looks at me suspiciously, then smiles.

  “She has been with me since she came to town, but was highly recommended by her previous trainer because I only train the best. I don’t waste my time with newbies. Man, it’s okay to be nervous, but I promise, you will not hurt her. This girl is fast as hell. If you are lucky to land a punch, it’s because she does not want you to feel bad.” Then he had the audacity to snicker and laugh. I swallowed hard. I see her coming back.

  “Do you want to stretch a little before we start? Or if you want to warm up in any way…”

  “Nah, there’s no point on prolonging the consequence of my bad choices. Let’s do this!” She comes my way and gives me a swift kiss on my lips before shoving a mouth guard in my mouth. I’m toast, but I am going to try to save face and fake it like a champ.

  “Colton, keep your hands up as much as possible.” She tells me right before Bubba says ‘GO!’ and blows the whistle. Brianna comes towards me and looks like she is assessing my fighting position. She comes at me and punches my hand. I think she did that to make sure I was paying attention, because two seconds later she was on me, jabbing me on the ribs and when I moved my hand to try to get a punch in, she moved back so I missed her but then she came back in and hit me smack in the face – between my eyes - making me lose my balance, and five seconds after the first punch I was down on the mat thanks to a well landed straight kick to my chest. It felt like someone threw a cannon ball straight into me. And of course, the cheering section is alive with whistling and yelling for Briann
a.

  Brianna holds her hand down to help me get up.

  “More?” She asks me. I nod.

  Bubba rolls his eyes and shaking his head, he repeats the previous motions. I am a little better prepared at what to expect, and when Brianna rushes me this time, I effectively block the first, then second punch. I little smile crept up on my face, and that’s when I realized Brianna was throwing me a bone, because she frowned, and I swear I am not sure what happened. She was delivering a triple punch to my ribs, then she stepped on my foot, which surprised me enough to let my guard down, and next thing I know she is giving me a round house kick to my temple, I fell down and she was on top of me. I think I took a few punches in the head before I felt her move.

  “Come on Colton, you are not even trying!”

  “Bullshit! You are fast as fucking lightening! You barely recoil when you are back with more heat! How in the hell you have so much power on your punch? You are barely what? A little over one hundred pounds?”

  “Like a tried to tell you, but you don’t listen too well, it’s not about size, it’s about the skills and endless hours of training. I need you to come hit me. I’ve got to practice my blocking, otherwise sit down and let Bubba and I go at it.”

  I get up, and go after her. She effectively, blocks my punches – all of them. So I figure if I can get her down on the mat, then I can control her better. I tried to put her in a bear hug, but before I could lock my grip, I had a knee in my crotch and a fist on my chin, then everything went black.

  Brianna

  We were all surrounding Colton trying to bring him back to consciousness, when Bubba came into the circle with smelling salts. A few waves back and forth under his nose brought him back to life.

  “I’m so sorry Colton, this was a bad idea…”

  “It’s okay. I’m fine.” He tries to get up and falls back down on the mat. Crap!

  “Maybe you need to stay there for a little longer.” Ciara said quietly rubbing his forehead with a damp rag. Traxx looks at me and motions his head to the side for me to join him for a side conversation. I get up to see what he has to say.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Shit. He is angry.

  “Look, I am sorry. I warned him that I can’t hold back, and he insisted he wanted to do this. I didn’t mean to hit him so hard… It was a reaction. Let’s just take him to your place. I’ll watch over him tonight, okay?”

  “Fine, but you need to start acting like a girlfriend, not a killer CIA operative.” He gives me a small crooked smile.

  “Hey! I don’t know how to do ‘regular girlfriend’ bullshit. I am who I am, take it or leave it.”

  “What are you two whispering about over there?” Colton starts to get up.

  “Nothing much.” Bubba’s checking Colton’s pupils and gives me a thumbs up signal. “Come on, let’s take you home. We can order pizza, drink beer and hang out.”

  “Only if you are going to give me a rubdown.” He smiles big at me. So naughty. “I want to make sure y’all know that I went easy on her. It was hard for me to throw a punch. The guys can attest that I know how to fight…”

  “Hey! Your ego is intact. I promise. I don’t think less of you because you let me punch you out. It’s kind of sweet, actually. I should have never let you do this. Next time you can help me practice, but that is as far as we are going to let it go.” I help him take off the protective gear and he places a hand over my shoulder and I hold him by the waist. I take the ice pack Bubba gives me and hold it against his left cheek.

  “You know how cool it is to have a kickass girlfriend? Shit, when I need you to beat up somebody, they won’t even see it coming. I bet these two are scared – aren’t you?” He nods towards Traxx and Notso.

  “Shitless.” Says Notso in a matter of fact way, looking at me with wide eyes.

  Ciara pipes in “I’m even scared of you sometimes. Luckily it takes a lot to get you pissed off!”

  “You guys are exaggerating… Let’s get out of here. I’m hungry!” We all head to the parking lot.

  “I will ride with Ciara and you guys ride in Colton’s truck.” Traxx said and I noticed Notso giving him a dirty look. He shakes his head and helps me get Colton situated in the back seat. I sit down with him and place his head on my lap. At least I get to run my fingers through his perfect hair on the way there.

  “I wasn’t kidding when I said that I deserve a rubdown when we get to my place.” Colton says with a sly smile.

  “Perhaps that could be arranged.” I bend down and kiss him on his lips upside down.

  “Mmm… don’t start anything you are not willing to finish, Tiny Fighter.”

  “The actual question should be would you be able to keep up with me in bed or will it be a match like the one we just had?”

  “Well… when we are in bed I can guarantee that you will win at least twice, if you catch my drift…” Oh, that smile alone causes me to start to lose control.

  “Dude, shut up! Turn it down a notch. I think I might be the one losing something, like the contents of my stomach, for example.” Notso chimes in. We laugh, and Colton holds one of my hands, and with the other I continue to comb his hair.

  Chapter 14

  Colton

  As we arrive at the house, we climb out of the vehicle and see a red Jeep pull in as we walk up the driveway.

  “That’s Keagan.” Explains Traxx. The girls look at him with questioning eyes. They obviously have not heard of Traxx’s cousin.

  With the girls’ eyes on the Jeep, Keagan slides out. She is a beautiful red head, who I once considered casually dating until Traxx offered to re-arrange my face if I dared to try.

  “Hi guys, I hope you don’t mind me dropping by without calling first. I was just bored at home and went out for a drive, next thing I know I’m here.” She gives Notso a once over and a shy smile.

  “Not at all,” I tell her, “we were getting ready to hang out for a while. This is Brianna, my girlfriend, and that’s Ciara. Ladies, this is Keagan, Traxx’s cousin.” They all smile saying their hellos to each other and we move inside. In the living room, she looks at me for the first time and her eyes grow large and she gasps while putting her hand over her mouth.

  “What the hell happened to you, Colton?”

  “I was an ignorant fool who wouldn’t believe a girl could pack a punch, and now I stand corrected.” There is plenty of snickering at first, then they all start laughing and re-enacting the story for Keagan’s benefit. I slowly turn around cussing under my breath and grab Brianna’s hand half-dragging her towards my bedroom. She is giggling. I roll my eyes and shake my head trying to hide my smile, but I can’t. I should have listened when she tried to tell me.

  “What about the body rub I was promised?” I go to the bathroom and see my lip and chin are swollen. Plus I have a major headache.

  “First things first. Take some ibuprofen to help the pain. You will need some more before going to bed.”

  Twisting around, I take the pills she is offering, and swallow them with water from the faucet. Meeting her eyes in the mirror, I turn around and wrap my arms around her waist. “I have it on good authority that you are the best medicine I can have. Just looking at you helps me forget about my aching body. Your touch makes me feel like I’m lying on the grass at night with a cool breeze, watching fireworks cascade across the sky and feeling their tremors all over my body.” Letting her know my intent, I kiss her deeply.

  “In that case, you and I need to take a quick hot shower, no hanky panky,” she wags her finger in front of my face, “so I can give you the massage you so desperately need. I have some great stuff for achy muscles in my gym bag…”

  “Right now the only achy muscle I can think of resides between my legs.” I take her bottom lip between my teeth and bite gently, releasing only to lick it slowly. I slide one of my hands to her breast and slowly pinch her nipple, then rub it with the pad of my thumb to appreciate its hardness.