The Bad Boys and the Fighter

10

ARIEL

"...and you know, sometimes I wonder, God, what would it have been like if I were born a tiger?"

Cole's laugh turned into a fit of coughs. "Man, what?"

Carlos nodded enthusiastically as he leaned back on the couch. His hands were shoved in his hoodie pocket to combat a gust of cold wind that blew over our bodies. "You know, a tiger."

"Yeah, no, we understand that part," I interjected as I placed my hand on Coles forearm, "but why a tiger?"

His eyebrow quirked up. "You ever see a tiger?"

I retracted my grip, recoiling as the warmth of his body left mine. "Jesus Christ, dude," Cole groaned as he blew a puff of smoke into the cold air.

Silence fell upon us for several moments until Carlos blurted, "Have ya'll fucked yet?"

I immediately stood up and grabbed my pipe from Cole's hands. "Goodbye."

He coughed, again. "What the fuck?" Cole cried out as I headed for the door, "Ariel, are you serious?"

I tossed a glance at the boy over my shoulder. "I have to go get ready for the gym, thought we were gonna leave after we smoked."

Carlos perked up at the subject change. "You guys are going to the gym? High?"

"We heard you have a better workout when you're high," Cole responded, seemingly relaxed now that the topic of conversation had shifted. He stood up, brushing flower remnants off his pants. "I need to get ready too."

Once we were ready, we met downstairs where the rest of the boys were lounging on the couch. "Can we come, too?" Jeremiah wondered.

"Come where?" I asked.

"To the gym, Cole told us."

"Fine."

"At some point you've got to actually attend classes," Marco teased as the five of us walked into the gym, "you know, to graduate."

"I heard a GED was the new diploma," I quipped as I meandered into the locker room.

The farthest locker from the rest was mine. It held no significance, there was no story behind it. It was just mine.

I threw my gym bag on the hook in the dark blue locker & grabbed the tape from inside. Before walking back out, I took a moment to clear my mind and catch my breath.

"So, who do you want to fight?" Tanner asked.

"Whoever," I replied, wrapping the tape around my knuckles.

"Jeremiah?" Tanner called out.

"Coming!" Jer replied, jogging from the punching bags over to the ring.

"No, I want to do it!" Cole blurted, making some eyebrows raise.

"Take this how you want to, but you're too...untrained to fight her," Donny replied. "She's not stronger than you, but she can fight better. Strength is nothing compared to good form and quick reflexes."

"I want to fight," Cole insisted.

"Snake!" I cried out.

Snake pulled himself away from the weights and walked over to where we stood. "If someone was to come after you, what would you do? Would you shoot them? Stab them? Punch them?"

"I'm not really a big fan of hurting anybody," Cole responded. "But I'd probably punch them."

"Jesus Christ," Snaked chuckled before scratching his eyebrow. "Aren't you in a gang or something?"

"We mostly deal with arms deals," Cole responded.

"Oh, for fucks sakes!" Snake groaned. "The fact that you're in a gang and can't properly defend yourself bothers me a lot, so lets go. I need to teach you to punch."

Carlos and Tyler followed, leaving Jeremiah.

He entered the ring and we squared up. Jeremiah swung a punch and I ducked it, punching his ribs. Jeremiah got my stomach and I stumbled back, recovering quickly. I swept his feet out from under him and straddled his waist, keeping a strong grip on him. He tapped out and we stood up.

"Damn, Di. Where's all that anger coming from?" Snake asked with a whistle.

I shrugged. "Do you think Danny was bailed out of jail because I think raping a minor is very illegal and should serve the full sentence, don't you think?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, a habit of his when he's thinking. "I don't know. Maybe. I'll ask my brother and see what he thinks. For now, don't go out fighting. You may be friends with a few gang leaders, but you never know."

I nodded and walked over to where Cole was brutally punching a punching bag with Snake. I wrapped my arms around his torso.

"Please don't be mad," I said.

"There are three rules in street fighting," Tanner replied as he walked over with Diego, Donny, and Marco.

"First," Snake started, "Know who you're going against. Even the smallest and skinniest fighters can throw a good punch and knock you out. Jeremiah should know."

"Second, rarely hold back. This is how many people make their living. They are willing to fight to the death. People have died in the ring, Cole. It's not a safe place," Donny said.

"Then why do you go?" Cole asked me.

"Because I'm agile. I know how to duck, when to duck, and how to throw a punch. I also know many fighters there. They have daughters and know my story."

"They'll put up a decent fight and then tap out. Then they will fight their four fights," Tanner explained.

"Adding onto that comment," Marco started, "third. There are groups in street fighting. Get involved with the right group. We took Ariel in after her first fight because we knew there was going to be some trouble. Everyone knows everyone, good or bad."

"Take Elijah for example," Jeremiah started. "We're friends because he's given me advice on how to win fights. Ariel and I are the kids of the street fights. Most of those guys pity us, so they will help us out. Even though Elijah is friends with different people, he still helps us out. It's kind of like a better version of high school."

"How long have you been doing this?" Tyler asked.

"I've been fighting every other week for about eight months, but almost every day for the past four. I've been involved with the ring for a year, though," Jeremiah replied with a shrug.

"We didn't pay much attention to him until Ariel started freaking out at his name. We though he was twenty-five, but when we realized he was eighteen, we realized that we needed to help him. Kids under nineteen are subjected to peer pressure," Marco explained.

"Wait, you've been doing this for a year and didn't tell anybody?" Carlos asked.

Jeremiah furrowed his brows. "Yeah. Didn't think it was important."

"Its not that important?" Cole asked, throwing his hands in the air. "You could have died!"

"Well he didn't," Diego said with a thumbs up.

"Thanks, Diego," Jer said with a smile.

"Any day," Diego said with a dismissive hand wave.

"I'm doing it," Cole said.

"One fight," I told him.