Broken (7 page)

Just as I was getting ready to
hit him, he came at me with a one, two,
three
. All at
once, and the combination caused the sounds of bone cracking against
flesh―something that always turned my mom's stomach. I wasn't entirely
sure where my game was headed today, but I needed to start focusing now. The
blows had all landed on my face, but thankfully, they hadn't been hard ones.
The Destroyer went for another swing, but I blocked him. We exchanged jabs for
a few minutes before the bell rang, and we returned to our corners.

Round One was over, and I sat
down on the stool. My teammates applied an ice pack to my shoulder and gave me
a sip of water to rinse my mouth out with. I had a split lip, and my coach
applied something to clot the blood. While they were doing all that, they were
yelling at me about what I should have been doing, and asking why the hell my
hands weren't up blocking those punches. They were also informing me about the
weaknesses they found in The Destroyer, and how to zero in on them in the
fight. It was an incredible feeling, being in a fight. Despite the massive
amount of noise in the arena that night, when I was fighting, my mind instantly
zoned into my own corner. I could only hear them when they were shouting. It
was never possible to mix signals from another corner.

An example of this would be
penguins. When they are out in a flock together, they all look the same, but by
instinct,
a mother is still able to find her baby,
just by the sound of the baby's call. It works the same for me in a
fight―I am trained only to hear my corner yelling, and that is what I
focus on.

I nodded my head as they told me
what they expected from me this round. I stood up, and as the bell went off, we
went at each other with kicks flying, and punches slamming. I caught him with a
spinning back kick that left him unsteady, and followed that with a straight
right. He fell to the ground, but quickly got up before I could pin him.

I slipped to the side, and the
guy punched into the space where my head should have been. It was the perfect
opportunity for me to come in with an uppercut to the face that connected so
hard that The Destroyer staggered backwards. It took him a moment to recover
his footing. While he was doing that, he swung out his arm. I ducked, and came
back with a punch to the ribs, gut and face, landing them all perfectly.

The Destroyer threw another jab,
aiming for my face, but I blocked the punch, and returned with a right of my
own. I slammed my fist right into his face, and brought him to his knees.

I could feel that I was bleeding,
though I wasn't entirely sure where. I knew that I was doing well, maybe even
winning at that point. I allowed The Destroyer to get a couple of body shots in
as I set him up. What I didn't expect, however, was for The Destroyer to stand
up and hit me in the face. My head swung back, even though my body stayed
firmly planted on the cage floor. I came back swinging harder. I got close, and
grabbed around his head in a clinch, getting one knee into him before he shoved
me off him. I moved forward quickly, blood pouring down my face as I hit The
Destroyer with a
pow, pow, pow
of punches.

The Destroyer started to back
off, as my hits pushed him up against the cage. I was hitting him hard, but he
just wouldn't go down. The bell rang, ending the second round.

I returned to my corner, feeling
good about the round I just put in. My coach was icing my shoulders as I took a
swig of water, spitting it into a bucket.

“I want you to finish him this
round, Jet. Don't let it go to a decision. End it.”

I nodded, and stood up as the
bell for the third round went off. I moved in toward The Destroyer slowly. We
exchanged a couple of jabs that didn’t really make their mark. As I came in, he
landed a front kick to my stomach that took the wind out of me. I needed to end
this quickly; he was a powerful fighter, and I didn’t want to risk having him
get the drop on me, and have the fight go to a decision.

I made a quick assessment of how
close I was to The Destroyer, and I moved in quickly. I
feinted
a low kick, and quickly swung my body around in one smooth motion, catching him
completely off guard with a spinning back fist. As my gloves made contact with
his face, I heard a crack and I was fairly confident that I broke his
cheekbone.

He dropped immediately, and the
ref called for the bell and the fight was over.

The medical team came in to check
to see if The Destroyer was conscious, which he was―just a little
disoriented, and in some pain. He lucked out by only having a fracture in his
cheekbone, not a broken bone. He was still yelling out in agony though.

I grinned as I looked around the
room at the audience, made eye contact with my mother, and winked at her. I
imagined her heart had raced the entire time, and it could finally rest easy.

When the medical team was
finished with The Destroyer, he surprisingly met me in the middle of the cage
where the winner was to be announced.

“By way of K.O., the winner of
tonight's event is Jet!”

My hands flung in the air as I
took my victory lap. I was then given a medal for my match, and I left the
octagon to meet with my team.

“Why didn't you take him to the
ground man?” my coach asked me.

“He was strong, really strong. I
didn't want to go down unless I had to. You know, for me, going to the ground
is a last resort. I like fighting. I like feeling a solid knockdown.”

“That was a pretty sick
back-fist, I have to admit.”

“I had everything under control
man, no worries.”

“Yeah you did. It was a solid
win, but it’s time to get your mind set for the next one.”

My mindset was already ready for
the next one.

I received my congratulations,
and went out to meet with my family. We were all planning to celebrate tonight
with some decent food and a couple of drinks.

Chapter Nine

Natalie

I slowly opened my eyes to a
sound. I couldn't place where the noise was coming from, or what it was. God, I
was tired. No, not tired, utterly exhausted. I rubbed my eyes and settled back
on my pillow, trying to focus on the sound. I couldn't figure out what it could
be. It was a great indication that I may need to get regular sleep. I had a
long day, and retired to bed early, probably too early. I looked around, trying
to place where the sound was coming from again. My thoughts were still fuzzy,
and it felt like it had to be the middle of the night.

I had just gotten to sleep,
hadn't I?

The clock beside my bed read
11:00 p.m., and I wondered what in the hell was going on. I had only been
sleeping for a few hours, and I did not want to be awake again.

I jumped when Julie started
banging on the wall from the adjacent room. She scared me half to death. I
tried to sit up in bed as my heart was beating in my chest furiously.

“Come on, Natalie, I have a 7:00
a.m. class tomorrow, for crying out loud! Either answer the damn phone, or turn
it off. I need to get some sleep here.”

My phone.
Ah, it was my phone, of course. Now the sound registered
in my brain. I slowly wiped at my eyes. Wow, did I ever feel tired. How did I
not recognize my own phone ringing? I wondered who on earth would be calling at
this hour. Not one of my friends would ever call me this late. I rolled over in
bed and grabbed my phone, looking at the screen. When my eyes had finally
cleared from sleep and exhaustion, I looked at the number, and I didn't
recognize it. I figured what the hell, and clicked the talk button.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Natalie, it's Jet.”

I groaned inwardly.
“Jet?
Why the hell are you calling me at this hour?”

“Why, were you asleep?” I heard
him chuckle on the other end.

“Well, yes, I was.” What a moron.

“You need to live a little. It's
only 11:00 p.m., why are you already in bed?”

“I live just fine, thank you. I
have classes in the morning, and I’m exhausted. So what do you want, Jet?”

“I want to see you.”

“Seriously?
Jet, it's kind of late for a get
together, don't you think?”

“But I'm already here. You don't
have to go anywhere.”

“Excuse me?” He better not be
here. He
so
better not be here.

“I'm standing outside your
apartment right now.”

“What? Are you joking? Actually,
you had better be joking.”

“Nope, I'm out here, come down.”

“Jet, I'm not going down there.
It's late, I'm tired. Just go home.” I rubbed at my eyes, wishing I could just
close them again instead of dealing with another selfish man.

“I'm not going anywhere until you
come down and say hi to me first.”

I groaned inwardly; what the hell
was with this punk? He had some nerve showing up at my apartment at this hour,
wanting to visit. He was becoming increasingly annoying by the day. I turned on
my bedside lamp and assessed the situation. My hair was a mess, and I was
wearing a tank top and pajama pants with elephants on them. Perfect.

“No shot, Jet. I will see you
another day.”

“Come on, Natalie. I just won my
conference battle tonight. At least come out and congratulate me.”

His battle?
Julie was right; he really was
on the MMA team.

Defeated, I laid my head back
down on the pillow. I was so not in the mood for Jet tonight. But he was
tugging on my heart strings with his win. I wanted to be nice. I supposed I
could at least go down and congratulate him before getting back under the
covers.

“Fine, I'm coming. But only for a
minute.” I hung up the phone and quickly got out of bed. I went to the bathroom
to make sure I didn't look like a complete disaster. I was wearing no makeup,
but it wasn't the end of the world. I quickly put a brush through my hair and
got out the knots. I grabbed my apartment keys, so I didn't end up locking
myself out of the building, and I shuffled out the door. I pitter-pattered down
five flights of stairs before I got to the main level. When I left the
building, Jet was standing there proudly, with a medal around his neck. He was
quite a sight I had to admit. He was pretty handsome besides sporting a split
lip. His tight shirt, which showed off his incredible body, made me forget
about that though. His medal was shining in the light, as if he were some kind
of super hero. I’m sure it was only there to impress me.

I could smell booze on him, but
he didn't appear to be intoxicated. He must have come back from celebrating.

“Wow, is that what you wear to
bed? Are those elephants?” He was staring at my pajamas in what could only be a
look of shock. It took him a few moments before his eyes finally left my pants.

I laughed, “Shut up.
And Congratulations on your fight.”

“Why, thank you,” he said,
practically beaming at me. He truly was quite proud of his accomplishments.

The night was cool, and I
instantly got a chill all over my body. I wrapped my arms around my body to
keep myself warm. I had goose bumps all over my body, and I was looking forward
to going back into the apartment. The weather was changing as fall progressed,
and I wasn't up to being out in my pajamas, freezing my ass off.

“Well you got me out here, Jet,
now what do you want?” I smiled softly, unsure of what he was really doing
there.

“I want you, of course.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. I
couldn’t tell whether or not he was joking, and it made me uncomfortable. He
laughed when he said it, but the laugh seemed awfully
forced
.

“Be serious.”

“I am serious.” He
was
serious, and it made tiny little
butterflies flutter around in my stomach.

The last thing I needed or wanted
at that point in my life was another guy. The last one had devastated me to the
point that I had a hard time staying out of the bars. I was just now after a
long time starting to get a grasp on life again. I didn't need someone else
coming in, breaking my heart, and making me spiral out of control again. I
could see Jet doing exactly that to me. He didn't care who he hurt, especially
a female. I would be just another girl he played with, and then be tossed
aside. That would hurt, maybe worse than the last one; how would I be able to
bear that?

I decided to not say a
word,
it wasn't worth getting into a debate over at 11:00
p.m. All I wanted was to return to my warm bed, and the slumber that kept me
snuggled in tight. However, the silence seemed to stretch on indefinitely,
until I felt desperate to break it. He just stood there with a small smile on
his face. I didn't know what to say or what to do.

So I asked, “You're really
serious?” I already knew by the look on his face that he was.

He inched closer to me. “You know
I'm serious.” Standing there in my pajamas, I didn’t even know what to say
back. I couldn’t believe he was hitting on me without a touch of makeup on my
face. He must really be hard up if he was coming to see me in the middle of the
night.