Wow, that didn’t sound good, there used to be a no hitting in the balls rule, I winced slightly, trying not to think about it.

“Ok, will you call him for me and get me in?” Please say yes, please say yes.

He sighed and it was quiet for a while before he answered, “Yeah, ok. I’ll call you back.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, if I couldn’t get in for tonight then I’d have to borrow money from Ray, I hated to even think about it but I couldn’t lose my place. It was now almost four in the afternoon, so I decided to text Ellie and make sure she got home safely.

‘Hey, get your car ok?’ I sent. A minute later she replied.

‘Yep stud, all fine, you can stop stressing now x’

I couldn’t help but laugh at myself, wow I’m so whipped! I headed back to my place and flopped on the bed, waiting for the phone to ring and Ray to tell me good news.

A little while later he called and said it was all set up for tonight, he was going to come and pick me up and come with me. He used the excuse of wanting to see his cousin, but it was probably so he could drive me home in case I was too messed up to drive myself.

…………………

Ray picked me up at quarter to ten, trying the whole way there to convince me not to do this, but I just ignored him, trying desperately to change the subject. When we pulled up at the venue for tonight I laughed, an underground parking lot, nice. I followed behind Ray, I’d only met Jensen a couple of times, he wouldn’t remember me, I’d grown up a lot since I saw him.

Ray gave him a man hug while they exchanged pleasantries on how they were keeping.

“This your boy?” Jensen asked, nodding at me with a smile as he looked me over.

“Yeah this is the kid, Jamie Cole.” Ray waved at me, still looking like he was in pain for letting me do this.

Jensen smirked at me. “I remember you. I think you were the only thirteen year old I ever let enter one of these. You made me a fortune that night, every single person bet against you, so I raked it in when you kicked ass.” He held out a hand for me to shake. I smiled, yeah I needed money then too, different reasons but still no other option, just like now.

“Yeah, thanks for letting me in tonight, I appreciate it,” I said honestly. This was short notice, fighters usually had to put their names down and wait to be chosen, so I knew Ray had called in a favour for me.

“No probs. So, you know there’s no rules now, right? Anything goes, fight ends when you tap out or are unconscious. Eight guys, four fights, the winners from each fight then enter a semifinal. You get $100 if you get to the semi, the two winners from that go onto the final, if you lose the final it’s $200, if you win then $500. Feel free to bet on yourself too,” he explained, shrugging and smiling happily.

“So just for entering I get $50, but if I win the three fights, I get $500?” I asked. Shit if I won that would be awesome! I wouldn’t have to worry about rent again for a while, even if the scrap yard thing didn’t work.

“Yep. So, you interested?” he asked hopefully. Hell yeah I was interested! My plan was to enter and lose, take the fifty, but $500 sounded like a lifesaver right about now.

I nodded eagerly, “Yeah definitely. So, who am I up against?” I asked, looking around at the guys all standing around waiting for the fights to start. Most people were here to watch, you could tell the ones who were competing, they were standing off to the side quietly, trying to focus. They were wearing sweats or jeans instead of the shirts and trouser dress code of Jensen’s ’club’

Jensen pointed out a fairly well built guy with blonde hair. He was sitting on a chair, his eyes totally focused and hard, he wanted to win. Shit this was going to hurt! “That’s Kurt, he’s a regular, pretty tough. Think you can beat him?” he asked, he looked genuinely interested, maybe he was going to bet on me.

I looked at the guy again, from the way he was sitting I could tell he was arrogant, cocky and overconfident. He thought he would win no problems, he was probably well trained in some sort of martial arts by the look of the dragon tattoo on his upper arm. I assessed him quickly, weighing my options.

I could take him.

“Yeah,” I said confidently, watching a small smile spread across Jensen’s face.

~ Ellie ~

I climbed out of his truck and couldn’t help but laugh at the lustful expression on his face. Jeez, he was so damn hot! I could still taste him in my mouth and I could barely walk away without snogging his face off again.

I slammed the car door and made my way across the parking lot to the building. People immediately swarmed around me, worse than usual, today would be hard. It was the first school day since I broke up with Mark and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him at all. Girls and guys immediately started talking to me at once, wanting to know if it was true, had we broken up, were we getting back together, did I want to go out tonight, it was never ending. I plastered on a fake smile and wished I was back in the truck with Jamie, he was so damn easy to be around. I heard his truck roar to life so I turned to wave bye and watched him drive up the road.

“Who was that?” Kerry asked, wrapping her arm through mine, directing me through the crowd of people who were still after the gossip about Mark and I.

I smiled at her gratefully as we made our way to my locker, “That was a friend of mine,” I said shrugging. Hey we were friends I guess, friends of some sort anyway I thought smiling to myself happily.