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Alex swung back as Jay kicked out, catching him off-guard and rolling him over. They exchanged blows, lunging and rolling all over the office floor. They rolled over to one of the bookcases up against the wall and a missed kick by Jay nearly toppled the thing onto them. The bookcase didn’t fall, by some mercy, but a pile of binders and a stack of books came crashing down all around them.
They ignored the rain of papers and kept throwing blows. Jay landed one to Alex’s side that stole what little breath he had left. He delivered a swift uppercut straight to Jay’s nose as retaliation. There was a loud crunch and blood gushed down Jay’s face. He let out a scream of agony and rage and brought his knee up straight into Alex’s groin. His bellow of pain sliced through the office. Bile clawed up his throat and he rolled off to the side, dry heaving against the pain of his bruised nuts.
“You douchebag,” he panted a minute later, when he could actually talk again. “You kneed me in the nuts!”
Jay gripped at his face with both hands. “You broke my nose.” It came out garbled, more like, ew bloke by blows, but Alex got the message.
“You screwed up my entire life and you don’t even care. You’re so messed up that you think you actually did me a favor.”
“We both know I did. Relationships are just shit. We both know that.”
“Your bet was about trying to get me to see that they’re not! Muffy actually liked me for who I was. For the first time in forever, I didn’t feel used like some damn ATM. I was… I liked her! I liked her a lot and now she’ll never talk to me again!”
“You’re the asshole that took the bet and lied to her. It’s not my fault her roommate is crazy!”
“You could have had my back!”
“That’s exactly what I was trying to do! You think that it’s going to end well now that she knows you have money? Or if she found out? She’d turn out like all the rest. I hate seeing you like that, man. All screwed up from what someone else did. I was trying to keep it from happening again. I never thought you’d fall for some chick. She’s not…”
“She’s not what?” Alex breathed heavily, daring Jay to say another word.
“I don’t know.” Jay shook his head. “It wasn’t real. It was like, nine days, Alex. Nine. Days. How serious do you think she was? Most relationships don’t stand a chance in hell of working out. This wasn’t any different.”
“Just because you’re jaded as frick doesn’t mean I have to be as well.”
“But you were. You were before you met her and then suddenly everything was different. Do you know how stupid you sound? You can’t even see it yourself. She’s turned you dumb. What more evidence do you need that the whole thing was a shit idea and it was going to turn out like a steaming pile of shit?”
Alex got shakily to his feet. He stared down into Jay’s bloodied face and had to resist the urge to say something that he really didn’t mean. At the moment, he did, but he had a lifelong friendship with the bastard to contend with. Jay was always a little off. He marched to his own tune and Alex knew that the guy viewed him like a brother. He knew that he wasn’t trying to ruin him, but at the moment, it felt like it. At the moment, he wanted to hurl a whole lot of choice words that he’d one hundred percent regret later.
Instead, he shook his head, turned on his heel, and left.
The fight had drawn a crowd of onlookers who immediately dispersed to various directions when it was clear he was going to storm out of the office.
He muttered something under his breath and the rest of the onlookers vanished back to their desks. It was probably the most excitement the office had seen in ages.
He had to admit, he would have been there too, looking on, probably betting with Jay, standing right beside him, on who was going to be the winner of the fight. He was the President of the company. Jay right beside him. They were supposed to set an example.
God, what was he even doing with his life? He thought this was it. That this was what he wanted. That having all his hard work over the years pay off and getting rich meant that he’d made it.
He realized, with a shock, as he stormed back to his office to nurse his wounded pride, and his bruised balls, that he was so far from making anything that it was laughable. He was at the top. He’d proven everyone wrong when they said his idea wouldn’t work. What he’d created helped a lot of people. He could be proud of that, but there wasn’t much else he could take pride in. He was alone. He’d hardened himself to the point where he actually thought he wanted to live his life that way because he was so ruined by others that he couldn’t even trust another person.
