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.”