Fighting For Life

by Kylie Alyssa Forte

  ***

  My day was going normally before lunch. Well, at least as normal of a day that a homeless and mangled seventeen-year-old girl could have.

  I hobbled into the cafeteria for lunch as my stomach moaned in hunger. Too bad I didn’t have any money. Lunch would have been splendid, even if it was just nasty school food. I was starving.

  I made my way to the corner of the cafeteria and sprawled my stuff out so that no one would sit with me. Not that anyone would anyways, but just in case I wanted to make it abundantly clear that I had no desire for company.

  I was about twenty minutes into probably the most peaceful sleep that I had in weeks until a shriek from across the room jolted me awake.

  I looked around frantically for what made the noise. Something had to be wrong if someone was making that ungodly noise, right? My eyes flitted over to the “popular” table when another high-pitched shriek came from that direction.

  I rolled my eyes when I realized who and what it was that woke me up.

  Bridget Walker was sitting on Aiden’s lap as he was tickling her sensually. They soon began to make out. I had nothing in my stomach to throw up, but if I did, I probably would have.

  Did they really have to do that in front of the whole cafeteria?

  Aiden was becoming a big thorn in my side, and he didn’t even know who I was! His name hardly ever even crossed my mind before last night and then all the sudden it was like he was out to get me!

  He and his friend caused me a panic attack that morning. He and his little fuckbuddy woke me up from what little sleep I could actually acquire and don’t even get me started on Crystal’s BS against me because of him! The man was making my already difficult life even more difficult!

  I rolled my eyes and thought about my own problems away from Aiden. If only I knew how to fight, then I could make at least close enough to make up my debt.

  I honestly didn’t know how much the people who fought made; Crystal was pretty vague in her answers. I knew it had to be quite a bit though, considering Jace’s answer the night before and the injuries that everyone was risking in order to get said money.

  Suddenly, a wild thought popped into my head. I needed help on how to fight, and Aiden could fight. Maybe he could teach me! It would be a good idea if he went for it. He was good, and I already had the taking hits part down. I just needed to learn to hit back. I just had to get him to listen to me.

  That was a problem though . . . I had never seen him even talk to a girl like me. Laugh at? Yeah sure, but never talk. There’s a first time for everything, right?

  In normal circumstances, I would have never even dreamed of doing what I decided to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We have already established that I was desperate.

  I picked up my backpack and with fake confidence marched directly up to Aiden. I stood in front of the dark-haired boy while scrutinizing all his friends. I deliberately avoided looking towards the boy with the light blond hair, just in case.

  Aiden pushed Bridget off his lap and looked me up and down. His face contorted into an amused look as if I were a joke to him. To be fair, I probably was a joke to all these people. That was besides the point at that moment, though. I had one mission, and that was to get Aiden to listen to me. Even if he was a giant jerk, he was a giant jerk who could help me.

  “Can I talk to you? Alone?” I breathed out quickly, looking into Aiden’s ocean blue eyes. His eyes only made him hotter, and it made me sick. How could one guy get all the good genes?

  He laughed an unamused laugh as he stared at me.

  “No,” he answered immediately and wrapped his arm around a different girl’s waist as if he was dismissing me.

  That only succeeded in making me think he was an even bigger jerk and it pissed me off. One thing to know about me is that I’m not very nice when I’m pissed off. Instead of walking away with my head down like I probably should have, I smiled sweetly at him and lowered myself into his lap, catching him completely off guard.

  I put my lips really close to his ear and said, “Meet me in computer lab two thirty-two in exactly ten minutes, or I will go around and tell everyone where you were last night. We both know that if all the girls around school know about your extracurricular fighting activities, then they’ll go and watch and probably get the place shut down. So, ten minutes, computer lab two thirty-two, got it?”

  Without waiting for an answer, I got up before grabbing an apple from the tray in front of him, and made my way quickly out of the room towards the computer lab. I walked away with my head held high without a single glance in his direction.

  There goes my whole not-drawing-attention-to-myself plan.

  Chapter Five

  Hurt

  I was slouching in the chair that was at a teacher’s desk. I devoured my—well, Aiden’s green apple—in just a few minutes. It didn’t satisfy me, but my hunger pains more or less went away. Now, I was just left with regular pains.

  I glanced up at the clock on the opposite side of the room; it had been exactly eight minutes since I came into this room. Aiden had one and a half minute to get in there with me before his repercussions.

  In actuality, I would never put the Underground at risk. There are some scary people who run that place, and they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt me. But Aiden didn’t know that I wouldn’t expose him, he just had to think that I would.

  I went through the desk as I was waiting, there wasn’t much to it. There were dry erase markers, paper clips, and paper towels sitting on top of the desk. A few papers sat around, cluttering the otherwise clean room. It was a mostly abandoned room unless there was a class moved to it, but most of the time it wasn’t used. A lot of people just used the room to skip or whatever.

  I heard footsteps outside the door and stood up quickly, making me jump in pain. I pushed the pain away and smoothed out my sweater nervously. I walked around to the front of the desk and waited for the door to open. I just hoped he would hear me out.

  There he was. Aiden walked in quickly closing the door fast and looked at me for a few seconds. I stood there under his scrutinizing gaze for a few seconds before opening my mouth to speak, but before I even had a chance for words to come out, he lunged at me. My eyes widened in surprise, and I had no time to make a single move.

  Suddenly, his lips were on mine, and his nose brushed against my injured one. He backed me into the teacher’s desk, making my lower back dig into the metal.

  Ow. I made a slight squeaky sound and pushed him with all my might, but he must have thought that was part of the foreplay because he tightened his hold on me. Without thinking of anything else to do, I brought my fist up and punched him in the right cheek.

  Shit, that hurt! He instantly stopped and turned around away from me with what sounded like a growl leaving his lips.

  “What the hell?!” I screamed.

  My nose was hurting so bad, and my lips felt like someone dragged razor blades across them. Who the hell just kisses someone like that?! I mean, it would have been a pretty decent kiss if I didn’t feel like I was dying.

  That wasn’t the point though . . . What the hell?

  “What? I mean, most of the time when girls ask me into an abandoned room, they want a quickie,” he stated, still not looking at me.

  He turned around with an angry expression, but it was quickly replaced by shock. I had no time to dwell on his facial expressions because he start walking to me.

  I was smart enough to know that when you piss a guy that you don’t know off, you don’t let him get you, but you also don’t turn your back on him. So, I was kind of stuck backing up as he walked forward. Obviously, he had the advantage in moving forward instead of backwards and made it to me before I could run away.

  When he finally made it to me, he grabbed my arm, not roughly like I expected and pulled me closer to him. Instead of hitting me or yelling at me like I was prepared for, he tore off some paper towels from the roll that was sitting on the desk.


  I looked at him with a confused look, not understanding what he was doing, but he didn’t say a word. He brought the napkins up to my nose and held them there for a few seconds. At that point, I finally realized I tasted blood in my mouth.

  “Hold these here and don’t move them,” he stated in a commanding voice. I obeyed and placed my fingers on both sides of my nose.

  I heard him tear more paper towels free, and he gently put those on my lips wiping the blood away. After a few minutes, he threw those paper towels away and gestured for the ones I was holding on to. I pulled them away from my nose and put them in the trash can that he put on top of the desk.

  “It’s broken,” he said.

  “I don’t know about—” I answered, but he cut me off.

  “That wasn’t a question. It’s broken.” He took more paper towels and handed them to me. “Blow as hard as you can into these. It’s gonna hurt . . . a lot.”

  I did as I was told, and he was right. It hurt like hell, but I kept a straight face. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of being right. He was a grade A dick, and I wasn’t sure why he was helping me. It unnerved me, to say the least.

  “When did this happen?” he asked, quietly studying my face. I knew he was now realizing how messed up I looked.

  “Yesterday.”

  “Do you want me to fix it?”

  I nodded with no hesitation.

  “It’s going to hurt really bad, but it won’t be crooked anymore, and you’ll be able to breathe. Hopefully, it’ll help the swelling go down as well. There’s not much that can be done for the bruising, though. Time is the only thing that’ll heal those.”

  He made a triangle out of his fingers as he began repositioning my nose. I could tell he tried to do it gently, but either way, it didn’t feel good. It hurt. It hurt really, really badly. I was almost sure that it hurt more than when it got broken, but I couldn’t be completely positive about that, so we’ll just call it equal hurting.

  I stood there quietly until he said he was done. Afterwards, I went around and looked into one of the sleeping computer monitors, it was a lot straighter.

  I looked up at him. “Thank you so much.” I really was super appreciative. He didn’t have to do that and he did. Maybe he wasn’t too bad.

  He nodded at me stiffly. “Okay what do you want?” he asked gruffly. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t call me in here to fix your broken nose, and obviously, you don’t want to hook up,” he said impatiently. “By the way, I don’t appreciate blackmail.”

  I looked at him through my bangs, and he looked pissed. I was starting to second guess myself. I honestly couldn’t handle another beating in my condition; I’d probably die.

  “I know, and I’m sorry about that. I just didn’t know how else to get you in here . . .” I paused and took a breath. “I need you to train me.”

  His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. “Train you for what exactly?”

  I looked at him sheepishly. “I need you to train me to fight so I can do it at the Underground.”

  He laughed; it was a hysterical laugh. Like I had just told the world’s funniest joke. “You, fight? Ha ha ha. You weigh what? A hundred pounds? No, hell no. Besides, I . . . don’t . . . train . . . people,” he said, turning around to leave.

  “Wait! I’ll pay you! Let’s say, ten percent of my profits?” I called out to him.

  He paused and laughed again. “Wow! A whole ten percent!” he yelled sarcastically.

  “Half,” he countered.

  I scoffed at that. “Twenty-five.”

  “It doesn’t matter about your money, I don’t train.”

  “Please, just give me a chance! I can surprise you!” I said, walking up to him to get closer to him. “I’m not going to leave you alone until you at least entertain the idea. I’ll do anything. Please just let me try!”

  “Have you ever even fought before, little girl?” he asked smugly.

  The little girl part pissed me off, and I sneered at him. I walked forward and backed him into a corner.

  “What did you just call me?” I asked venomously. It’s what I’ve been called my whole life, and I thought I was done with that after the day before.

  He laughed at me. “What are you gonna do? Hit me again? You didn’t even leave a mark.”

  “I might.” I was so tempted to do it. I didn’t care if it hurt him or not. At least it made me feel better.

  He sighed; I knew he could tell that I wouldn’t leave him alone until he gave me chance. I truly wouldn’t as I was too desperate.

  “I’ll tell you what, I kind of like your spunk as annoying as it is . . . Come by Johnny’s gym after school at the fifteen hundred block of Third Street. You’ll see it. I’ll think of something that’ll impress me, and if you can do it, I’ll train you.”

  He turned to the door and paused before opening it.

  “Walk out at least five minutes after me.”

  And then he was gone.

  I got a chance! I just couldn’t mess it up.

  ***

  Aiden

  My eyes opened, and I immediately knew that I was late, way late. My alarm clock flashed seven-fifteen as I threw my clothes on sloppily.

  That’s over an hour and a half late for me!

  “Get your ass up dude! We slept through morning training, so I was hoping to get to school early to use their punching bag,” I yelled at the sleeping blond guy on our couch, but he didn’t move a muscle. “I’m leaving in five minutes. If you’re not in my car by that time, walk.”

  As I said that, he shot up from his sleeping position. “Fine, I’m up!” he yelled.

  My mom walked in, not quite meeting my eyes. “Keep it down, you two. Pawpaw is still sleeping, and since you’re still here, take Briana to school with you, so I only have to stop at one school today.”

  Briana came walking in, already dressed in jeans and a flowery blouse with makeup on. She looked just as unhappy about me taking her as I was.

  “Fine,” I stated. There was no point in arguing. My mom was the one person that I could never charm. I got the rest of my stuff together, and soon enough, we were all on the way to school.

  “I’ll drop you off around front Briana,” I said to my sister as we got closer to school. She rolled her eyes in response.

  My sister, Briana, was about a year younger than me. I was a senior and she was a junior. She and I didn’t communicate in school and effectively not much outside of it either. She stays to herself with her weird little friends, and I stay with my friends. It was better like that for both of us.

  We quickly arrived at the school, and I dropped Briana off. She slammed the truck door as she exited.

  “Why are you such a dick to her?” Brandon asked.

  “It’s better this way. Not very many people know we’re related, and they leave her alone,” I said defensively.

  “It sounds like you’re protecting your reputation more than her. I mean . . . I understand where you’re coming from after everything that has happened but . . .” Brandon spoke quietly but trailed off with a thoughtful look on his face while I parked.

  “Anyway, to avoid having this argument again, let me tell you about this hot chick last night!” he said, getting out of the truck. “She had long deep brown hair. Her bangs covered half of her face but when she tucked them behind her ear . . . wow.”

  I smirked at him. “So you fell in love with her hair?” I asked, ushering us into the empty gym.

  “No, I mean just her persona across the bar. Jace seemed extremely interested in her too, I wonder if Crystal knows that,” he stated, frowning a little.

  I laughed at that. Crystal was a psycho, she’d fuck anyone up who tried to mess with anyone who she claimed as “hers”, that included Jace.

  We both changed clothes and went to the end of the gym where the bag hung.

  “So, did you talk to her?” I asked as I began warming up.

  “No, I bought her a shot and I expected her to come an
d sit by me, because you know, who can resist this?” he said, gesturing to himself.

  I laughed out loud at his comment.

  “But she kind of barely acknowledged me, took the shot, then left.”

  We heard the gym door slam shut as he finished his sentence and both turned to see who was there watching us, but whoever it was was gone.

  “Anyways, I will probably never see her again, but damn, she was different than the other girls who are usually there.”

  “So, not a crackhead whore?” I jested.

  He laughed at my joke. “Not a crackhead whore,” he confirmed.

  I rolled my eyes at him as he continued talking about his little crush from the night before. This girl sounded too good to be true. Plus, he didn’t even know her. She was probably some druggie slut if she was hanging out at the Underground, but I wasn’t going to tell Brandon that and ruin his little fantasy.

  ***

  The day was going by smoothly for me as I made my way to the cafeteria for lunch. I was in a pretty decent mood, probably because of the extra sleep I had gotten.

  Still, because I was in a good mood, I actually didn’t mind all the attention that I was receiving that day. The attention was an everyday thing, but usually everyone just annoyed the hell out of me. That day, though, proved to be a decent distraction. There were girls following me around like they were lost puppies, and the jocks were trying to talk to me about sports that I didn’t give a shit about. It was a normal day.

  One of the girls who were following me named Bridget was practically glued to my hip as we got our lunches. I didn’t mind though; she was good enough and easy to tune out when she spoke. I had been with her before, so I knew that she knew the drill—no strings. I made that abundantly clear to any girl I decided to be with in any capacity. I had already dealt with too many psychos due to not defining the terms of our hookups.

  I didn’t need any of that again. Never again.

  I smiled a charming smile at Bridget when we made it to our regular lunch table and started tickling her on her side. She fell right into the flirting game with me, and it soon became a full on makeout session. I felt a lot of eyes on us as we kissed, but once again, that was normal, so I just continued what I was doing.