Bastard’s Baby(123)

So I hit the gym. Three hours of hard work was exactly what I needed. I craved the sweet exhaustion of a solid workout, wanted my muscles to be sore and tired. Hard work could clear my mind, get me in the zone to really get my shit done.

I was just finishing up when my phone started ringing. Normally I wouldn’t answer in the middle of a workout, but it was Ronnie. I hadn’t heard from him since my fight.

“Ronnie,” I said, answering.

“Hey, man. How’s things?”

“Things are good. Just doing a workout.”

“Damn, sorry I interrupted.”

“No worries, brother. What’s going on?”

“Got a little question for you,” he said, sounding a little tense.

“What’s the matter?”

I leaned up against the mirrored wall, breathing deeply, getting my heartrate under control. I could tell something was bothering him already, but I had no clue what it could be. Did he know something about the blackmail?

No way. That just wasn’t Ronnie’s style. Plus, he was probably my closest friend, though I didn’t have too many of those left.

“It’s about Trent.”

I let out a breath. “That fucker.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“What is it? Just fucking spit it out already.”

“Yeah, well, he heard about your fight the other night.”

“Good.”

“He wants a match, man.”

I laughed, a thrill running through me. “That’s fucking awesome!”

Ronnie let out a noncommittal grunt. I had no clue what his problem was, but I couldn’t have been happier. Trent had been having some success lately, which meant he would be a great match for me. He didn’t need to fight me since I was technically below his level still, but I knew that I had the skills to take him on.

“I think it’s a bad idea, man,” Ronnie said.

“And why the fuck would you think that?”

“Fucking think about it, man.”

“What’s there to think about? Trent is a piece of shit cocksucker, and I want to beat his ass in front of everyone.”

“Yeah, that’s all well and good, but that’s the problem. You’re too emotional when it comes to him.”

“I’m not emotional. I just don’t like the guy.”

“Didn’t used to be like that.”

“Yeah, well, it is now.”

Back in the day, I used to spar with Trent regularly. We were friends, maybe not best friends, but I liked the guy. We trained in the same gym and worked with the same coach, and so we were around each other all day every day.

But Trent was a hothead, even more than I was, if that could even be believed. He went off all the time, like a fucking psycho, when things didn’t go his way. Actually, he was like a little baby throwing a temper tantrum.

But that wasn’t what bothered me, not really. True, he was annoying, and it pissed me off that he could get away with acting like a spoiled little bitch sometimes. That alone wasn’t enough to make me despise the guy, though.

What happened was, one day we were sparring. The usual shit, the usual rules. We weren’t supposed to try to fucking kill each other since it was just a friendly little match to hone our skills.

That said, I may have landed a blow I shouldn’t have. It was definitely a little too stiff, a little too tough, and it caught him right on the chin. It was a mistake, the kind of mistake that I’d made a hundred times before, the kind of mistake he made just the day before. We hit each other too hard sometimes, and normally we’d just laugh it off. We weren’t fucking pussies, after all. We didn’t need to have a crying session every time someone accidentally got hurt.

But for whatever reason, that time Trent couldn’t handle it. He went off, screaming and yelling, but instead of getting his shit together, he got violent. When I tried to walk away, he punched me in the back of the head, knocking me to the ground. He kicked me in the face, twice, and ended up knocking out some teeth.

The other guys pulled him away and had to hold me back when I finally got to my feet, mouth bloody, head spinning. Trent was thrown out of the gym for that, but he didn’t stop fighting. Ever since that day, though, I had hated the motherfucker, and I had been praying for the day when I could pay him back for his cowardly fucking bullshit.

“Do you blame me for being close to this?” I said. “You remember what happened. You were there.”

“Yeah, fuck, I was. It was brutal and fucked up, man.”

“And now I want to do that exact same to him, but in the fucking ring.”

Ronnie sighed, and I felt my anger rushing through me. I breathed deeply, just like Skad had taught me out in the jungle, and calmed myself.