AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right. So you’re a figment of my imagination and you’re actually on your honeymoon?”
“You trying to goad me, Sam?”
“Put it behind your punch, Layton. Use it.”
I raise my fists and start to bounce.
“Bring it,” Sam says. He rubs his forearm over his shaved head and across his brow, mopping up beads of sweat from his previous session. I won’t let that fool me into thinking he’s tired. The man’s a machine.
We dance around each other, occasionally throwing a punch and ducking from one another, neither of us landing a blow.
“Come on, Layton, you’ve got more than this. Give it to me.”
I throw a left and follow with a quick right, neither landing.
“So you ditched her right before the altar. Lose your nerve?”
I bust out a right upper-cut that lands on his chin and rocks his head back. “It wasn’t like that,” I snarl.
“Then what was it fucking like?”
Movement in my peripheral vision draws my attention. I stop bouncing and turn to face the door to the gym, where Jay Hamilton stands, gloved and ready to spar. I drop my hands to my sides and stare at my best friend.
“Been avoiding my calls, knobhead?” he asks as he stalks towards the ring, his six-two frame tense and looking for a fight.
The few women in the gym look up from their mats and machines to give him a second glance. He doesn’t notice, not because he’s used to female attention, which he certainly is, but because his usually brown irises are black and glaring at me.
“You boys gonna do this safely?” Sam asks.
“We’re not fighting,” I say.
Jay dips and slips through the ropes, flicking his dark hair out of his eyes as he stands. “The hell we’re not.”
“Keep it safe, lads, or you’re out.”
“Jay, man, come on. This is not what I want to do.” I raise my hands in surrender.
He lunges towards me and smacks my cheek with a wicked right hook that hurts even through a glove.
I fire back, left-right-left, landing each blow. “Don’t make me put you down, Jay. Let’s talk.”
He throws a hard left that swings over my head when I dip. I thrust my fist into his ribs. He dives towards me, rugby-tackling my waist and driving me back against the ropes. I power my right glove into his ribs tirelessly, until he steps back and lands a left on my chin that rocks my head. He’s as strong and as tall as me, and he’s going for it, but I kick his arse every time we spar, and this time won’t be any different.
I can feel people staring, halting their own workouts. This isn’t a training session and they know it.
I push Jay back and strike him with a left-right. “Jay, I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Yeah, well I want to fucking hurt you, Layton.”
He comes at me again and I smash a hook into his jaw. He’s dazed for a second then drops to his knees, rubbing his glove across his face.
“She’s my fucking little sister, Layton.”
I step back against the ropes and watch him panting in the middle of the ring. “I know and I’m sorry. More sorry than you’ll believe.”
“You’re right. I don’t fucking believe you.”
“Trust me, I ended it to do what’s right by her. I’m not the man for her, Jay, and it’s better that she finds out now rather than five years from now when she’s got a kid and a divorce to her name. She’s twenty-four. She can find someone she deserves, someone better than me.”
