JiminQueens2's blog

The two men charged each other, this time paying no attention to defense and brawling like a couple of Toughman boxers. Heavy, powerful punches flew between them to land on faces, ribs, stomachs. No mercy was asked for, and none offered, and neither man made any attempt to block the incoming shots. Something switches inside each of them had flipped, and this was a display of dominance rather than simply a boxing match.

And then, in a split-second flash, Johnny saw his opportunity. He nimbly evaded a cross from Ryan, then nailed the blonde man with a jab-cross combination that had Ryan seeing stars and, more importantly, caused him to drop his hands for a moment.

And that moment was all Johnny needed. A right uppercut to the jaw snapped Ryan’s head back and sent him tumbling down to the mat, lying flat on his back. Johnny immediately stepped back and called out, “Down!”

Alexa’s disembodied voice began to count. “One…two…three…”

Ryan sat up and shook his head to clear it. “Four…five…” He scrambled up to his feet, and as Alexa reached “Eight,” he held up his fists to signal that he was ready and able to continue fighting. “Up!” he called.

Alexa’s voice cut off in mid “Nine”, and Johnny came in to press his attack. Lightning-fast jabs snapped Ryan’s head back and drove him into a corner, where Johnny punished him with savage, vicious hooks, left and right, to the trapped man’s body. In Johnny’s mind, every slight, every insult, every time he had to walk away and look weak in front of the rest of the school was as fresh as if they had happened yesterday, and he was going to make Ryan pay for every last one of them.

Ryan wilted under the onslaught. He tried to block Johnny’s merciless blows, but his head was still spinning and Johnny seemed to have as many arms as an octopus. Then a solid hook to the gut, right above the breadbasket, drove the breath completely out of him, and he sank to his knees, gasping and holding his middle.

“DOWN!” Johnny cried.

“One…two…three…”

“Stay there, motherfucker,” Johnny said, the adrenaline surging through his veins. “It’ll only get worse!”

“Five…six…”

Ryan told himself that he was NOT going to be beaten by this piece of shit who wouldn’t fight him back in high school for some bullshit excuse. With the help of the wall, he pulled himself back up to his feet and got his fists up, shouting, “UP!”

Johnny, secretly glad that Ryan wanted more, moved in….but then the buzzer sounded. Ryan quickly rushed Johnny and shouldered him aside, then got to the middle of the mat, forcing Johnny to turn and follow him. Before Johnny could throw a single jab, however, the bell sounded, ending round three.

The two men high-gloved each other and returned to their corners, Johnny striding, Ryan staggering. They toweled themselves off and took long drinks from the squeeze bottles. The smell of male sweat hung over the air like a blanket, and Johnny remarked, “Smells like a gym in here.”

“It…IS…a gym….in here,” Ryan gasped. He was desperately trying to get his head together after the beating he’d suffered the previous round. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea…. He was hoping the buzzer would “forget” to sound.

But it didn’t. Ryan dragged himself upright and faced the ring with Johnny at the opposite end. Johnny gleefully waved at Ryan and smiled an evil smile. The bell sounded, and Round 4 was underway.

Box, Ryan told himself firmly. He needed at least another round and another rest before he could slug it out again. He bobbed, he weaved, he counterpunched when Johnny missed, he kept his hands up and close, he blocked most of what was coming in. Thinking back later, he was actually impressed with himself.

Johnny, on the other hand, was getting frustrated. Ryan wouldn’t let him get in close, and he couldn’t seem to get past Ryan’s defense. The few punches he landed were barely touches. He started swinging wildly, trying to land a shot that would put the other man on his ass…but every time he did, Ryan nailed him with a jab-cross counter that, if they’d had anything behind them, would have put him down and probably out.

The buzzer sounded. Ryan suddenly charged forward and hammered Johnny with hooks to the body, and Johnny, taken by surprise, couldn’t counter them. Ryan drove him into the wall and kept pounding at Johnny’s ribs—until the bell sounded and he immediately stepped back. He raised his glove for a tap, and Johnny met him as they passed.

It was all Johnny could do to raise his glove that high, and to walk back to his corner instead of dropping to his knees and crawling there. Ryan didn’t realize just how much damage those hooks to the body had done. His knees were feeling weak and he was having trouble getting a deep breath. This was not good.

He toweled the sweat off his body and got another drink. Across the ring, Ryan was doing the same. Ryan glanced over at Johnny and smiled at the bruises on Johnny’s muscular torso. I did that, he thought with malicious glee. He giggled like a kid. Even with those two knockdowns, he hadn’t had this much fun in a long time.

The buzzer sounded. The two men faced each other again, ready to continue their war. The bell sounded to begin Round 5.

Ryan sprang at Johnny and caught him by surprise with a hard left to the jaw. Johnny swung in response, but Ryan easily dodged the clumsy counter and peppered Johnny with jabs, smiling as a small trickle of blood began to flow from Johnny’s nose. Johnny lunged forward into a clinch, but Ryan easily threw him off and slammed a hard, solid right cross into the side of Johnny’s face.

Johnny’s knees buckled, and he crumpled in a heap to the mat. “DOWN!” Ryan called, and Alexa began to count. “One…two…”

Johnny had always laughed at the cliché of “the world spinning” whenever someone took a hit, but now it was, a mad whirligig of images both focused and blurred. He was NOT about to lose to this bastard, though! As Alexa reached “seven…eight…”, Johnny pulled himself up to his feet and screamed “UP!!!!!”

Ryan saw Johnny swaying on his feet, obviously hurt, and he almost felt bad. But Johnny had wanted this fight, and Ryan was going to give it to him. He waded in, his vicious hooks making Johnny gasp in pain every time one of them connected with the other man’s sides and ribcage. Johnny’s return punches were feeble, almost ephemeral, and the once Ryan didn’t block or evade felt like brushes more than blows.

A solid shot to the gut doubled Johnny over, gasping and wheezing. Ryan stood there for a moment, his fists still up, waiting for Johnny to go down. But Johnny didn’t. Ryan sighed, and delivered a cross right to the jaw that snapped Johnny’s head around, and Johnny hit the mat with a thud.

“DOWN!!!!!!” Ryan yelled. And in his mind, he was thinking at Johnny, Stay down….STAY down…..

But Johnny was struggling to his feet and he was determined to beat the count, no matter what it cost him. At “nine”, he manfully straightened his body, lifted his fists, and said, “UP!!!!”

The buzzer sounded. Ryan backed up, but Johnny, furious at the implied condescension, lunged forward and caught Ryan with a solid shot to the mouth that drove him back even further. Ryan, now just as furious, came at Johnny….but the bell rang before either man could throw another punch.

This time, neither man offered a high glove. “Don’t fucking go easy on me again, you asshole!” Johnny spat.

“Fine,” Ryan shot back, “I won’t!”

“This is a fight, not a sparring match!” Johnny went on.

“I said I wouldn’t go easy on you, you moron! If you want to get beat up this badly, fine!”