A deep breath, at least an attempt Drawing air into my lungs; painful to say the least Short shallow breaths relieving the horrible pain
That last kick, missing the block, threw myself off balance My own **** fault
Deserving of the next kick, left side of my open rib cage Stupidity is always punished
A sickening crack, an intense pain Constant reminder to keep my guard up
Fight the urge to ***** Left arm numb from pain If I stopped, stayed down too long; he would end it
“Told you to watch that kick Johnny Johnny”
Shook myself hard, working up the urge to keep going Hell, I’d done this many times before
Eyes swollen shut and ringed with dried blood His nose, broken; the unnatural angle it tilted, granted mine was too.
My left arm hung limp by my side I swung again, hard right, for the widening cut above his eye But so did he Same hard right, sent me back into the dirt He fell too.
Blur in my left eye, mere pooling blood One person among the crowd A girl My age, dark hair It was brown or black? A tank top and jean shorts Stood watching the fight shaking her head Her coy smile “Boys will be boys”
Only to muster a smile back A toothy stupid grin My mouth and teeth rather ****** and red
I wanted to just look at her But time would not allow Staggering forward again
Wanted this to end Wanted to wash my face Fix the pain that was tearing my ribs, Most importantly I wanted to know who she was.
Both fists back up Swung slow, left hook Left my ribs wide open Brought his leg around again Harder than the first Grunting in pain and barring my teeth Anger kept me on my feet
Left arm down fast a Trapping his leg against my side My right fist onto his knee A satisfying crack A blood curdling yell
He sobbed Gasping for breath Through tears he put his fists back up
My shoulder then planted hard into his stomach Slammed into hard concrete below He grasped my back until his met concrete Only good fist ready to finish the fight Last punch down I stopped. Anything more would have been cruel
“**** John you look like hell!”
“Hey man,” I stopped him grabbing his arm, “who was that girl in the tank top, behind you earlier?”
He started to laugh. “Don’t concern yourself with that my friend, she’s too high class company for a guy like you.”