“And the location for this year’s blood brawl is our verry own mall!” said the announcer for this year’s blood brawl.
“Who do you think it’s going to be this year?” I asked my best friend, Wil, who was standing next to me.
“I’m thinking a ton of adults again this year. You?” Wil asked. “Fae? Fae, are you listening to me?”
“No, no, no, no,” I muttered under my breath. “No, no anyone but him, please no,”
“Fae, what is it? Who did they call?” Wil looked up at the stage and saw my brother standing there. “Oh my god. No, not Alex. No.”
“What do we do, Wil?”
“We wait and see who else is picked. They always ask for volunteers at the end, right?”
“Okay, let’s go with that,” I replied, still shaky. “Let’s see who else is picked.”
Well, throughout the rest of the choosing there were 35 people chosen. There was a boy from my grade that I had never talked to, a friend of Wil’s, and, like predicted, the rest were older people still under the thirty year age cap.
“Now that the pickings are ever with, are there any volunteers?”
As soon as the announcer says that dreaded line, my hand shoots up. “Me. I’ll go in.”
“Well as you know for there to be a switch in places there must be two volunteers for the one they replace.”
I turn to look at Wil, “You don’t even have to ask,” he said as I hugged him.
“Please come up to the stage and replace the person of your choice,” the announcer said to us.
We walked hand in hand up to the stage, and when we got close enough, I ran up to hug my brother. “Thank God you’re okay. I’m so sorry Alex.”
“Why are you doing this? You know you didn’t have to," Alex said to me with tears in his eyes.
“Please go back to your seat now,” the announcer said to Alex.
“Go. We’ll talk to you later,” Wil told Alex.
“Love you Alex.”
“Love you too, Fae.”
“I never thought I would be standing up here,” Wil said to me after Alex had left.
“Wil, I can’t thank you more for doing this for me.”
“I know. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about the location this year, would you?”
“Surprisingly I do. I worked there for about a month.”
“Well then. Who would have thought. My ally knows the mall.”
“Yea. Yea. Make fun of me when we’re there.”
