I Know You

Ch.4 - Flint

How could he tell? He's gay and open about it. I'm not. I've never run into him before. How does he know I'm bi? He's cute, but damn he knows?! I'm going to have to pull out of things now. Find a new gym. New fights. I hit my head against my locker. "Damn it." I grumbled.

"You'll be saying worse than that when I get through with you." Martin's voice was familiar, even if I hadn't heard it more than a handful of times.

"What do you want, Martin?"

"Revenge. Gabe, cover the door." His coach nodded and flipped the lock to the locker room doors. "If anyone asks, the doors got stuck and we couldn't hear them over talking and the showers." He said to Gabe before turning to me. "You, on the other hand. How did you know that I was using something on my gloves? What proof did you have? Who told you?"

"I'm just that good." He raised his foot, connecting with my face in a solid kick.

"You're stupid if you think I'm going to let you get away with something like this. You really think I'm not going to do anything?"

"I think you're afraid of what I'll do to you in return, but here's the thing. As much as I want to let loose and beat the shit out of you, I'm not going to. I'm going to sit peacefully and wait. Wait for you to lose your mind wondering when or if I'll break what I've just said and really beat you to a pulp."

He threw a fist at my nose, but I caught it with one hand. "Thought you weren't going to fight me?"

"Just because I'm not going to fight you doesn't mean I'm going to let you beat the crap out of me instead. Protecting oneself doesn't always constitute fighting."

"In schools it most often does count as fighting."

"So you've decided to go back and get that GED after all these years, Martin? I heard you'd given up on that and were content with your job trying to get paid for sex. Though I heard that more women were paying you NOT to have sex with them."

His knee hit my stomach with enough force that I was worried my stomach was going to come out my back. He kept me that way, letting my head hang a little, but making sure I couldn't get much air. Hard enough to keep the pain present, but light enough to keep me just this side of passing out.

"Back off, Martin. You don't want to deal with me." The tall stranger came out from around the corner.

Oh great. Hello Mr. Cute Stalker Man. Am I going to have to worry about you doing something to me after Martin does? I looked up at him, starting to give up my fight for breathing, wondering if I could will myself to pass out.

"What are you gonna do about it? You don't even have the weight around here to get help. Not that it would do much good. Gabe and I could always say we found you here with him like this. Maybe I should add a few marks to his back and chest to make it look like you were trying to rape him. That certainly wouldn't do you any good and they'd probably ban you from even coming to the fights here after that."