Page 47 of Scarlett and the Kiss Thief

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just…” my voice trailed off when I saw Liam hop up into the ring.

No.

The bell dinged and some boy I didn’t know climbed up on the ring next to Liam. He looked like a freaking linebacker. Who was setting up these matches? This didn’t look like a fair fight at all.

They both pulled on their gloves.

“Liam can’t do this,” I said.

“He’ll be fine,” Jacob said. “If you haven’t noticed, he’s grown a foot over the summer.”

“But that guy looks like a Russian power lifter.”

Sophie leaned forward. “He really does. Is he a freshman? I haven’t seen him around. He looks too old to be a teenager.”

Jacob laughed. “Yeah, he’s new.”

“Huh.”

I could tell that she was trying to weigh whether or not hooking up with the huge new kid would make Mr. Halifax jealous. But this wasn’t the time for that! And I really doubted that her hooking up with a younger guy would make our teacher jealous.

“You guys!” I said. “He’s going to slaughter Liam.”

O’Reilly jumped back up onto the ring like he hadn’t just been knocked out a minute ago. “Next up in the ring with have Liam Hunter versus Pavel Semenov.”

“Oh,” Sophie said, her eyes lighting up. “He literally has semen in his last name. I bet boy explodes.”

“What are you talking about?!” I yelled. “This is literally insane! We can’t let Liam fight Pavel the exploder.”

Jacob laughed. “Pavel’s big,” he said. “But he’s also really slow. There’s a reason he’s not a wide receiver or a running back. Liam’s got this.”

I didn’t care if Liam was faster than that student that looked like he was 30. I knew Liam had grown over the summer. But I’d never forget when he was born. Months too early. I’d visited him in the hospital every day. He’d been so small. I knew he was healthy now. I knew that…and yet…

No.He could not fight that huge kid. This was absolutely ridiculous.

It was true, my brother and I bickered. Hell, sometimes I hated the twerp. But mostly I just loved him and I always had his back. And I couldn’t let him do this. If he got hurt, my parents would never forgive me. I’d never forgive myself.

“Jacob, you have to stop the fight.”

“What?”

Gigi walked across the stage signaling round one and then the bell dinged.

“Jacob, please! My parents will kill me!” It didn’t matter if they thought I wasn’t here. If Liam got hurt… I shook my head. I didn’t want to think about that.

“Scarlett, I promise he’ll be fine.”

“You can’t promise that!” I cringed as Liam took the first swing. His glove landed perfectly against Pavel’s stomach. But it didn’t matter. The next punch could be his face. I wasn’t going to sit here and let him get irreparable brain damage. Stupid little twerp. I stood up.

“Wait, I kind of want to see what Pavel’s got going on,” Sophie said.

“Soph!” She didn’t seem at all concerned about the fact that her cousin’s face might not be recognizable tomorrow. I tried to walk past Jacob to go down to the ring, but he caught my hand.

“Okay,” Jacob said and stood up too. “I’ll stop it, but Liam’s going to be really pissed.”

“I don’t care if he’s pissed! He could get hurt like you!” I stared up at the blood on Jacob’s face.

“I’ll take care of it. I’ll be right back.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and gave him a quick hug. “Thank you, Jacob.”

He nodded and I let my arms drop from around him. I watched him push past the other spectators in our row.

Sophie gasped as she stared down at the ring.

I cringed. I didn’t want to look.

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