Page 39 of EverGreene
“Tonight. Jem has to work, but how about you and I go? We’ll get as close to the ring as possible, making sure he sees you. Maybe we’ll get lucky and his mask will come off, or someone there will know him by his real name.”
A part of me wanted V to be the one to tell me who he really was. To rip off the mask and let me see his face because he cared enough to show me. But maybe his knowing the jig was up would be enough to escalate that “soon” to a now.
“Let me check the video. If it’s him, then let’s go.”
“That’s the answer I was looking for.” I could almost see Katy jumping up and down in their living room. “I’m going to let you go then, so I can hop in the shower to shave, well, damn near everything with the hope this night is productive for the both of us.”
“See you soon. Tell Jem thanks.”
I ended the call, scrolling through my apps until I landed on the clock app and opened it, finding Jem’s tag in my notifications.
Well, it’s now or never.
A tap of the finger on the video, and I was watching in awe while a fighter, probably even larger than Cole, entered the ring. He wore a simple mask, not as elaborate as V’s, and it appeared as though he’d forgotten the assignment and had grabbed what he could find at the nearest gas station to turn into a mask. Not that anyone was really paying attention to that because the rest of him full-on aced the rest of the assignment.
That was it. I’d stumbled on FightTok, and there was no turning back. Rest in peace to the version of Ever that had existed five minutes ago. New Ever has leveled up.
I’d become so fixated on the man in the ring that at first, I didn’t notice the other masked man step inside. His back was to the person taking the video, but even from behind, I knew it was him. My body knew it was him, and the ache between my thighs was responding accordingly. V turned around, revealing the mask I’d come to recognize as the face of the stranger who’d brought about feelings from deep within me that were far more complicated than they should be. Commencing at his chest and curving down across his body was the forest of evergreens I’d found myself getting lost inside, never to emerge again.
V stood at the opposite side of the ring from his opponent,who must have been the long-lost lovechild of The Incredible Hulk and a sequoia tree. No slouch himself, V’s tall, muscular body was foreboding, but I still failed to see how this was going to be a fair fight.
A man dressed in a tight black t-shirt and camo pants stood in the middle of the ring, serving as an unofficial referee. Around the warehouse hosting the event, the noise level had become so loud that I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but with a raised hand, he’d apparently signaled the fight to begin because V and the titan began sparring with each other.
I closed my eyes when V’s opponent took the first swing, afraid to watch him get torn to shreds by the Jolly Green Giant, hiding my face every time the two of them began trading punches. After V landed a decent punch to the man’s face, I willed myself to watch the two of them continue their dance around the ring. The Goliath to V’s David was large, no doubt, but his coordination was nowhere near what V’s was, and V was able to make him stumble a couple of times around the ring. He may be at a disadvantage as far as size compared to his opponent, but when it came to skill, V was wiping the floor with this guy.
And then, it happened.
One wrong move from V’s opponent left his arms flailing and his head particularly vulnerable, giving V just enough time to deliver the uppercut heard around the world. When his fist met Tall Dark and Clumsy’s jaw, the man fell to the mat like a tree in the wind to thunderous applause from the audience and an explosion in my ovaries.
Okay, Rocky Balboa, I see you. You thought you could hide from me, but you didn’t count on me being able to match your freak. Watch out, V. The stalker is about to become the stalkee.
Chapter 12
Loche
“Word on the street is there’s a talent scout for the Marauders out there tonight,” Nix announced, strolling bare-assed through a hastily cobbled together locker room, minus the lockers, in the basement of L. Mayer, a condemned factory that used to manufacture fiber a generation ago. Located on the outskirts of town, it was inconspicuous enough not to draw attention to itself.
I turned around to an eyeful of Nix’s penis, seemingly waving at me while he dug through his duffel bag for his shorts. There’s a solid chance that I saw Nix’s penis more than I saw my own some days due to him walking around our apartment in various states of undress. The man was too comfortable with being comfortable.
“That rumor or some variation of it gets spread around before each fight. Why would some hotshot from the big leagues want to watch us nobodies kick the shit out of each other illegally in bumfuck Egypt when they have endless amounts of talent at their disposal?” I responded, pulling out my mask. A light dusting of Ever’s scent still adhered to thematerial, a mixture of lavender and vanilla that I remembered smelling in her hair as she sat on my lap, riding my cock.
Fuck, Loche. It’s not the time to get horny. Great. Now you have to try to suppress a burgeoning hard-on in the presence of your roommate, who—is he still nude? Yup, he’s still walking about with his wang out, while you may have just made breakfast tomorrow morning awkward with the bulge in your shorts.
“You never know, “ Nix replied. “Some of those guys who made it big had to have been plucked from an underground fight club or two at some point.”
“I’m sure there’s a handful of them. I’m also sure they aren’t paying them the industry standard per fight, considering they know we’ll fight for table scraps if that’s all there is.”
“Okay, I have the schedule,” Cole announced, walking into our designated area with Malachi following behind him, “and, oh my fuck, Nix. Put some clothes on.”
Nix pulled on his shorts before joining Cole to peer over his shoulder at the schedule.
“Looks like we’re going first, boys,” Malachi observed.
Thank the gods of illegal, underground fights. After last night with Ever, I was exhausted from trying to sleep next to her in her twin bed. Half my ass had hung over the side. Every time I had gotten comfortable and was about to drift off to sleep, my body would jolt awake from the sensation that I was falling. If Ever and I were going to continue our sleepovers, she’d need to get a larger bed.
Or, you know, you could just tell her who you are, hope she doesn’t freak out, and then hold sexy sleepovers in your own bed. Get so loud that you make Nix cover his ears from across the apartment instead of the other way around.
“All right, boys,” Malachi clapped his hands together, “let’s suit up and kick some ass.” His eyes met mine, and I felt the guilt return all over again from the ass chewing he’dgiven me the night Cole and I drove the car back to his house. He was having it repainted by some friends of his who knew not to ask questions. Parishioners of his who he’d helped in some way or another. We weren’t concerned that the car would be traced back to him, what with the bogus license plate, but there was the matter of Cole and me being recorded by the woman we encountered in the garage, and that video having made the evening news. Needless to say, I was relieved of my retribution duties for the foreseeable future.
