Play Pretend

17: Adrenaline

17: Adrenaline

Connor Rogers

The ring was lit with a blazing white light. The ring was made up of four red poles, with five elastics connecting from one pole to another. There was a huge red ‘X’ on the canvas, indicating that it was Xaviers’ property.

Erik was already in his corner, changed into his boxing shorts – black pants with red lines at the sides – and a pair of maroon leather gloves slung on his arm. He was draining water from his bottle as a middle-aged man, probably his coach, rattled away about strategies and other things that didn’t go to his brain, but he nodded anyway.

I pushed through the crowd to get to my corner, and as I stepped into the light, there was an undeniable hesitation before everyone started calling out my name. I didn’t care about them though. I slipped my black leather gloves on, my eyes skimming through the sea of heads.

I didn’t see a particular brunette.

“She’s not here now,” Erik seemed to know what I was thinking. I glared at him.

“Where is she?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Now wouldn’t you want to know?” He sneered.

“Get in your places!” Benjamin Lively was on stage, and Erik and I moved to stand on either side of him, our eyes never leaving each other’s.

“Ready!”

I have to finish this in two games, I thought to myself.

I knew my body well, and I knew if I didn’t finish the match within the first two games, it wouldn’t have enough strength or stamina for my third. This meant I had to take Erik down with two consecutive wins.

“GO!”

I had thought of the option of lunging for him the second the start was given, but now, I didn't. We circled the ring like two tigers about to battle each other, sizing each other up just by glaring. 

"First one to make the move leads the course of the game," I remembered Aaron telling me.

I took one step towards Erik, then another, then I threw myself at him.

Obviously he didn't expect me to start so quickly, so he was forced into a pole. I gave him two strong punches to his stomach – enough to knock the wind out of him – before he managed a counterattack.

Erik pushed me back with a flurry of quick fire punches, at my face, my abdomen, my arms. I blocked them all, though it was needless to say that they made my arms grow sore. As I felt them ache, Erik took the opportunity to swing a kick into my side.

I was flung to the side of the ring, my ears ringing, my eyes blurring at the speed. I doubled over just as Erik charged at me and sidestepped away from him, before dropping a kick on his back. I saw spit coming from his mouth, and he stumbled away, but I was hot on his heels. I launched my weight on him, causing him to tumble to the floor. Erik was obviously much lighter than I was, and he struggled vainly under my weight as Benjamin started the count.

“Pinned!” He signaled, and I moved off the gasping boy. He shot me a glare, followed by a spit, but I ignored him. We resumed our starting positions and went at each other again.

This time Erik charged at me like a bull, and I didn’t even have time to ground my legs. A series of blows came in contact with my abdomen, and I felt bile coming up from my stomach. I forced it down again and flung my leg up at his chest. Blood sprayed from his lips.

But to my surprise, Erik didn’t gasp for breath like all the opponents I had fought. He brought his arm up, which collided into my chin. I felt my jaw clamp into a wrong position.

He continued by flinging his other fist at me, which slammed so hard into my nose I heard a sickening crack. A collective gasp went around the room as blood started pouring from my broken nose.

Damn, he’s not half bad.

I huffed, gulping hard as I fought to breathe through a broken nose and a dislocated jaw. The blazing light was making my head spin, and I struggled to stand still. Erik took the chance to slam my head down against the canvas, sitting on my back and holding my skull down roughly.

I puffed for air, struggling against his binds, but my body was slowing down. The count was starting.

I flopped hard against him, raising my head a little, but Erik slammed my head down again. Hard. My head spun nauseously.

“Pinned!” I groaned, whilst Erik removed his weight off me, his snigger ringing in my ears.

I was forced into my third game.

I had never done a third game before.

And my limbs are too sore to take it on.

Come on, Rogers, I scolded myself, you have to win this. You have to. No excuses.

I pushed myself off the ground and moved back to the centre, glaring at Erik and his ridiculous sneer. I was more than ready to knock his teeth out.

“GO!”

I threw away all sorts of defense and went straight for his face. Obviously Erik wasn’t prepared for that reckless move, and I threw him across the ring as I rammed my side into him.

He groaned, struggling to get to his feet, but I was in front of him already. He hid his face behind his arms as I shot a quick fire of punches and kicks at him, his grunts of pain sounding extremely satisfying to my ears.

I figured if I abandoned my defense and just focused on offense, it would force Erik into defense only. And it was working. I had never thrown so many punches in a minute before, and Erik was backing away, blocking several of my blows but most of them still made contact with some part of his body.

It actually sickened me to see myself getting into a fight again, and it sickened me even more because I was enjoying it.

Right jaw.

Left cheek.

Stomach.

Crotch.

It was like high school all over again. I remembered my routine for my fights, and Erik was left no space for a counterattack. I was winning.

But I hated it.

I didn’t know if the crowd was cheering or shocked with my change of attitude anymore; my ears had shut down so I could focus on the opponent in front of me. My limbs were starting to go into autopilot, and everything blurred around my eyes, except for the image of Erik stumbling away from me.

“It’s time to end this, isn’t it, Connor?”

The line didn’t come from my mind, nor did it come from me. My mind seemed to snap awake from its fighting state to realize there was only one person close enough for me to hear his voice.

Erik.

He was smirking, much to my surprise, even through all the blood and cuts. It threw me into a state of confusion.

And it all happened during that state.

The gym went black.

Everyone screamed.

Someone scrambled out to check the fuse.

The lights came back on.

Erik was gone.