Taking our seats, I sit patiently, staring at the podium, with small tables on each side. There is a back drop that has advertiser’s logos on it, along with the name of the hotel they will be fighting at in Las Vegas. On the table to the right is Jasper’s belt, obviously making that his designated seat.
After patiently waiting for twenty minutes, I see Lucky enter through the side door, and make his way to the small table on the left. Judging by the response of the crowd he must not be liked, I would never be able to walk out on a stage and get booed like that. The moment Jasper walks out, the crowd goes crazy, chanting his name, and singing his walk out song. He waves at his fans, raising both his arms in the air, before finally taking his seat.
I must have missed the guy that is now standing at the podium come out. He is leaning over talking to Lucky, smiling and laughing. I recognize him as the president of the company, Trent, from my stalking session earlier on google. When he looks over at Jasper, all laughter leaves his face, replacing it instead with a scowl. There must be bad blood between those two.
“Let’s get started. On July second, Jasper Johnathan our current Middle Weight World Champion, will defend his title against Lucky Wildman, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. We will start taking your questions now.” Trent finishes, giving the crowd a forced smile.
“Jasper you haven’t lost a fight since you got signed by Trent and this company. What do you predict will happen on July second when you fight, most arguably, your toughest opponent yet?” The first question comes from a guy to my far right.
“He will enter my world, and I will tear him apart like everyone else before him.” Jasper’s response is said with no emotion. It’s almost like he is on autopilot.
“What in the hell do you mean your world? The only guys you have beat are old, washed up fighters. I haven’t lost a single fight since the first time I stepped into an octagon. I do believe this pussy had a break down during one of his fights, tapping out when he was winning.” Lucky starts taunting Jasper, laughing the whole time. I don’t recall reading about a break down in the ring on google, so I turn to Dalton.
“What is he talking about, what break down?” I ask Dalton, missing Jasper’s response to Lucky’s remarks.
He just leans over, “Don’t worry about it, that shit is in the past where it belongs.” I don’t like that he won’t look at me while saying this. Something is off, and I’m not dropping it until someone tells me. “It isn’t in the past if it just got brought up, now tell me what he is talking about Dalton.” I try to use a stern voice, but it comes out panicky, but ultimately it gets the job done. With a frown on his face, and worry in his eyes, Dalton looks over at me. “The night you left, he tapped the mat during his fight with Liam. He quit so he could go after you, but it was too late.”
The news that Jasper tapped out of that fight floors me. No wonder he hates me, I hate myself. He had already given me so much, and yet he was willing to give up his career for me too. My stomach drops, making me feel like I’m going to be sick.
The rest of the conference goes by in a blur. I hardly remember any of it. Jasper came by our seats on his way out, but never spoke a word to me. I didn’t have the nerve to say anything. Thankfully no one called me out on my crap. I’m not a big drinker, too afraid I’ll end up like Christopher, but tonight I see no harm in numbing down these feelings of dread.
Chapter 9
Jasper
The press conference went about as well as expected. Lucky is a mouthy fucker, always trying to get under his opponent’s skin. Too bad for him, I have no emotions other than hatred and disdain. He thought by throwing in that loss to Liam he would rile me up, but I’m not willing to step into his trap. All these press conferences we are forced to do are ignorant anyway. I wish we could cut out all the bullshit, and just fight. I have no desire to put on a show outside the ring. Looking out into the crowd I was happy to see Dalton sitting there. I wasn’t exactly surprised to see Candice with him. My friends really need to stop trying to play Cupid.
When Lucky made his statement about my only loss, I looked over to Candice wanting to see the humility on her face, instead I saw shock and concern. At first I thought I was seeing it wrong, but then her and Dalton started whispering to one another, and the look of devastation came across her face. Does this mean she had no idea about my tapping out, or is she just trying to play everyone once again?
After the press conference I do some training at the gym, working on my striking and doing some movement exercises. This seems to be the only time I can let loose and just be myself lately. K.J. and Dalton are constantly up my ass about my activities while I’m not working, and it’s starting to ware on my last nerve. They are trying like hell to put me and Candice in the same room together. I don’t see how they can so easily forgive Candice for what she did, but they hate my mother Janice with a passion. She was never a good mother, sometimes plain evil, but she is the only blood relative I have. It’s been over three years since I last talked to her, but I do send some money occasionally. I couldn’t completely turn my back on my mother. As far as I know, she still lives in that run down house, with the revolving boyfriends that come in and out, beating the shit out of her. I tried to get her the help she needed many times, but there is only so much you can do for someone that doesn’t want to help themselves.
I’m pounding on the dummy that Liam put out for me. It has a picture of Lucky’s face on it. He says he wants me to be familiar with his structure, so when I get in the ring I know exactly where his chin is. A lot of people don’t realize just how close me and Liam have come over the last year. The first time he came back from college for summer break, he stopped in the gym asking Roy if he had any available work after his gym turned their back on him for not perusing fighting as a career. I would love to say it surprised me, but it didn’t. I always knew those assholes were after nothing but money. When Roy hired him I was more than pissed, even accused him of betraying me. Then he told me Liam was going to be one of my main sparring partners. I remember smiling at Roy and telling him to have Liam in the octagon in fifteen minutes. In those fifteen minutes Liam gave me the best workout I had in a long time. He took every one of my punches, and tried to knock my head off as well. It took about a month of us trying to kill each other before we actually talked. That’s when I realized my hatred for him was always misplaced, and decided to make him a part of my team. Dalton and K.J. had their concerns but ultimately it was my decision.
“Dude you sounded like an asshole out there today, glad to see the fame hasn’t changed you.” Liam says, walking up behind me laughing.
“Thanks dickhead. Here I thought you were coming over here to compliment me on my great fighting skills.” I say, trying to catch my breath.
“Nah. My mom had this thing against lying, so I would never be able to say that to you without feeling guilty.” He says, smacking me on the back.
“Can I ask you a question without you asking me one back?”
“That’s a little strange but sure.” He answers me.
“You were at the conference today. Did you see the look on Candice’s face when Lucky mentioned my tapping out in our fight?” I look at him, wanting to gauge his reaction to me asking about Candice. I now know the connection he felt with Candice was just a high school crush, but it’s been an unspoken rule to never bring her up.
“You mean the look of devastation. Yeah I noticed that. Maybe she doesn’t know what happened that night. Are you thinking about talking to her about it?”
“No questions remember, but I’m pretty sure Dalton told her at the conference. If her reaction to their whispering is anything to go on.” I say to him.
Maybe I should talk to her about it. There seems to be a good chance she had no idea I tapped. Maybe I should let her explain her side of things, if not for my sanity, but our mutual friends’.
“I was thinking about going out later tonight, Josie is leaving town with her sister for a few days, we could have a g
uy’s night. Maybe call Dalton and K.J.”
“Alright, I have nothing else going on. I’ll text Dalton after I shower. Where were you thinking about going?” I ask him, on our way to the locker room.
“How about that new club, Red Room.” He suggests.
I don’t really like to go to clubs, but on the occasions that I do, I always get my manager to call in a head of time, and set me up a VIP section. It keeps the unwanted people away.
“Alright, I’ll get everything set up, meet you there around nine.” I say to him. He nods his head in understanding then changes course to the entrance of the gym. He usually doesn’t work out on weekdays, so there was no need for him to shower. Most likely the only reason he came down here was boredom from being home alone.
The VIP section my manager set up for us is on the second floor, overlooking the entire club. Standing at the tip of the balcony I can see all the gyrating bodies, and drunken idiots stumbling around. I am the first one here, so I take this time to drink and people watch, getting lost in old memories. I see the exact moment my boys arrive, they stride through the club, making their way to the stairway that will lead them to our section.
“Damn Jasper, they went all out for you.” Dalton states, “Being your friend is starting to pay off.”
I look at his goofy smile and laugh, “Thanks man.” I say, patting him on the back.
“I don’t know who to watch over tonight, you or K.J. You both seem to love getting into fights.” Dalton states, trying to bait K.J. into telling us what last weekend was all about.
“I think as long as Izzy isn’t around K.J. will be able to keep his cool.” I can’t resist throwing her name out. He must know we all have eyes, and see the way he watches her. After seeing the glare, he gives me, I start laughing.
“Is that Candice with Adriano down there?” K.J. questions, pointing at the dance floor. All laughter stops as I start scanning in the direction he was pointing. I thought he was only there the other night to make me jealous, but that can’t be true if she is with him again tonight. My search comes up empty, so I place my attention back toward the guys. Dalton and Liam start laughing like hyenas, while K.J. gives one of his rare smiles, “My bad, I must have been seeing things.” Now it is my turn to glare at him. That bastard did that on purpose.
“You should have seen your face Jasper. You went from laid back to hulk in a matter of seconds. Maybe Candice is getting under your skin after all.” Dalton laughs out, before taking a drink of his beer the waitress just dropped off.
“Oh she has. He was just asking about her at the gym. He thinks Candice may not know he nearly sacrificed his career for her.” Liam tells Dalton. Just as I am about to lay into him, K.J. beats me to it. “You gossip like a fucking girl.” He spits out, with annoyance lacing his voice.
“She knows now. At the conference she asked me what Lucky meant when he mentioned you having a break down, so I told her. She turned pale, and looked about ready to bolt. Thankfully she didn’t blow chunks, just informed Bethany they would need a cab for tonight. Sounds like she is finally doing what everyone else does, drinking her feelings away.” Dalton says, turning his attention to me. I know they are waiting for a reaction that will never come.
“That’s enough deep talk, let’s talk manly shit.” Liam suggests, throwing back a shot. I take the other one he has in his hand, and drink it down. I’m already getting a buzz from the whiskey I drank on the way over. Right about this time I would normally start looking for my next one-night stand, but looking around, I don’t see anyone I’m willing to fake it with tonight.
Dalton waves for a waitress to come over. After whispering something in her ear, she walks off, soon returning with a tray full of shots. Dalton takes the drinks, and hands each one of us two. “I would like to make an announcement.” He shouts out, holding up one of the shots, “I have done the world a service and implanted Bethany with my seed.” No one says anything, not entirely sure this isn’t another one of his many pranks. “Didn’t you hear me fuckers? I’m going to be a dad!” He says with such excitement that we all realize he is serious. Raising our glasses to his, we down the shots, one after the other.
Holy shit, there is going to be a little Dalton running around soon. All we can do now is pray it’s a boy, I don’t want to think about the physical damage this group would do to keep a girl safe and boy free. We all say our congrats and Dalton tells us about Bethany’s freak out when she took the test. She hadn’t thought about the possibility of being pregnant when she was drinking last weekend, but they went to a baby doctor yesterday to confirm everything was alright.
I guess they are having a girl’s night tonight, and Bethany plans on telling Candice and Izzy. This leads me to realize I’m going to have to get used to the fact that Candice is in our group of misfits for as long as she chooses to stay. With that knowledge I order a bottle of whiskey, ready to start the process of getting shit faced.
Chapter 10
Candice
Bethany just announced she and Dalton are going to have a baby, and I couldn’t be happier for the two of them. Who would have guessed there was a woman out there, patient enough to put up with Dalton and all his antics? Izzy jumps up on the stage of the karaoke bar we are currently at, “I just found out I’m going to be an aunt. Which means I’m going to need to save my money to buy the little brat’s love and affection. How many single guys out there want to buy me a drink?”
A loud cheer erupts from a table next to ours, making me feel nervous. Izzy basically just invited strange men to our lady’s night. By the time Izzy makes her way back to the table, we have three new visitors all sporting huge grins on their faces. The waitress comes over to take our order, not feeling hardly anything from the first drink I had, I order a shot of vodka. Izzy orders two flaming blow jobs, and winks at the sleaze ball wearing too much cologne. He places a hundred in the waitress’s hand, “Keep the change sweetie.” When she returns with our drinks, I down the shot quickly, then order another.
“I’m Brad and these two assholes beside me are Mark and Ben. So which one of you is knocked up?” Brad says, pulling out a seat next to Izzy.
“Well Brad, that would be me. I’m Bethany and this is Candice. That brave soul your sitting next to is Izzy.” Bethany replies to his rude question.
Mark pulls up a chair by Bethany, putting his arm around her, “You still with the baby daddy? You know you can’t get pregnant twice.” He asks her. She takes the sleeve of his shirt between two fingers, and removes his arm from the back of her chair, “Not that it is any of your business, but yes.” If she is trying to hide her look of disgust, she fails miserably. Mark scoffs at her, right before mumbling something under his breath.
“What did you say?” Izzy asks.
When he doesn’t reply she leans over the table raising her voice, “I asked you a question. What did you call the mother of my future niece?”
“Don’t sweat it, babe. Mark is just playing around.” Brad says, trying to reign her back in.
“Actually, I don’t think he was.” I say. Wow! The alcohol from that shot must be kicking in, otherwise I would never put my two sense in. “He called her a fucking bitch…OOPPS. Excuse my language.” I say, pointing at Mark, “It’s his fault, he said it first.”
“Candice, don’t apologize for being an adult. Now look at Mark and tell him to buzz off, before we call Dalton to come whoop his ass.” Izzy says to me.
“Umm.. I think he heard you, but okay.” I look over at mark just as the waitress brings me another shot. I take it from her and down it like the first one, “Mark, you need to bee off before we call Alton, he will bring Jasper and hoop your ass.”
I feel a presence next to me, looking up I see the third guy taking the seat next to mine, I think they said his name was Ken. “Why are you sitting by me?” I ask him, trying to maintain eye contact but failing completely.
“I just wanted to make sure you didn’t fall over, how about you lean on me for support.
” Ken says.
“Ken is it?” He shakes his head no, “Ben. My name is Ben.” He explains to me.
“Alright Benny boy, I don’t want to lean on you, and I don’t really want you sitting by me.”
Before Benny boy can reply, Izzy stands up and throws a drink in Brad’s face. I hear him start cussing under his breath while standing up, wiping of his shirt. Then he picks up his beer from the table, and tips it over Izzy’s head, smiling the whole time.
“Oh that’s not good.” I say out loud. “That is not good at all.” Bethany follows shortly after.
“You son of a bitch. First you try to grab my vag underneath the table, now you’re pouring beer all over me.” Izzy takes her knee, and slams it up into his junk. He falls to the floor, moaning out in pain. I can’t stop the laugh that escapes my lips followed by a hiccup. I cover my mouth with my hand, trying to hold it in, but it’s useless.
Ben storms over to Izzy, reaching out to grab her by the shoulders, “I wouldn’t do that Benny boy.” I say. He looks over at me, his eyes telling me to mind my business. “I warned you.” Is the only thing I can say right before K.J. hits him over the head with a beer bottle, making him drop to the floor unconscious. Followed closely behind him is Jasper, Dalton and, Liam. I rub my eyes determined I’m seeing that aren’t there. There is no way Liam is with Jasper without fists being thrown.
Dalton walks up behind Mark, grabbing him by the shirt and hauling him out of his seat, “Why are you sitting next to my girl?” He shouts in his face.
I must be an antagonist drunk, because the words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. “He asked if she was still with the daddy baby...Wait that’s not right... Baby daddy. Thought it was cool that she couldn’t get pregnant twice.” I tell Dalton.
Torn Apart (Fatally Flawed #2) Page 5
