2

♦𝕭𝖑𝖆𝖐𝖊♦

"Aren't you supposed to be working on your mom's house?" I ask Isaiah as he sits across from me in my living room sipping on a bottled lemonade.

"I'll do it tomorrow." He mumbles and waves his hand at me in dismissal. The boy has been promising to clean the gutters at his moms house for weeks and has yet to follow through.

"You really should just get it done." Ace adds in as he walks back into the living room from the kitchen.

"I will, just not today. I've dedicated this day to hanging out with my bros." Isaiah raises his bottle of lemonade up in a cheers, even though he's the only one with a drink.

"You hang out with us everyday, actually I'm getting sick of seeing your face. Go home to your mom, Isaiah." I shew him with one hand as I use the other to flip through Netflix shows trying to find something interesting to watch.

I'm not a huge movie or TV show person, I watch documentaries mostly, but the two other guys that are always over at my place won't stop complaining if I try to watch one. So we usually end up giving up, and not watching anything.

"Oh come on, you know you love my company." Isaiah scoffs as he finishes off the last of his lemonade and chucks it in the trash.

"Fuck off." I mumble. But he's right, I wouldn't say "love" but I couldn't see my life without my two friends constantly butting their way into my life.

"Are you ready for the fight tonight?" Ace asks, changing the topic.

"Yeah, the dude I'm fighting tonight doesn't stand a chance. What about you?" I question right back. Ace and I have been fighting in underground matches for years now. I've been thinking about trying something new, but the adrenaline rush I get every time I step into the ring pulls me back in. I'm dang good at it too, only lost a few matches since I've started.

Ace wants to go pro, he's one of the best fighters I know, but he has an old injury that keeps him from getting sponsored. So we fight underground, and make good money doing it. I'm 5'11 weighing just under two hundred pounds, and have a lot of muscle on me. But Ace is 6'2 and two hundred and fifty pounds of pure intimidating muscle.

We've never had a real match against each other before, but we have sparred a few times, both of us can hold our own against each other and if we weren't just two friends messing around, it would be a brutal fight. We promised to never accept a paid fight, no matter how much we were offered, if it meant fighting a friend that meant it wasn't going to happen.

Isaiah on the other hand is a little wimp, bet he's never fought a day in his life. The three of us became friends in second grade, a group of boys a few years older were picking on Isaiah on the playground after school. I was just about to step in when I saw Ace start marching over to the group of boys.

Even back then he was rather large, and I thought he was heading over to pick on Isaiah too. So I stepped in front of Isaiah, ready for a fight, but to my surprise Ace stepped past me, sending a hard punch to the face of the biggest kid that was picking on Isaiah. We've been friends ever since.

"Same, kinda wish I was fighting someone who could challenge me though. Getting tired of beating everyone's ass right off the bat." Ace jokes, I nod in agreement.

His last two matches he fought guys who looked like they played chess for a living. Nothing wrong with chess, but if you got noodle arms maybe don't sign up for an underground fight against a form of the hulk.

"Are you guys gonna put me on the list this time?" Isaiah glares at us as I try to stop a smirk from appearing on my face. Every once and a while Ace and I "forget" to put him on our guest list.

There is a back entrance that the fighters and their guests use to avoid crowds and get to the locker room. Also those are the only people allowed in the VIP area to view the fight. It's great fun to see a sulking Isaiah in the stands with everyone else, he usually tries to sneak his way into VIP and ends up kicked out at some point.

I then get to add a screenshot of the colorful texts he sends me to my collection. I plan on showing his girlfriend, once he gets one that is. Or maybe I'll show it to his mom, that would be fun.

"Yeah, we put you on the list this time." I tell him. And I will this time, he hasn't figured it out yet, but the only times we don't are the times he doesn't ask if we will.

"Ok, good. Because the last time I tried to sneak into VIP the guy literally kicked me out. Dragged me to the door and used his foot to kick me into the parking lot! Who does that!" He exclaims with his arms thrown up in the air.

This is one of the reasons we keep Isaiah around. Ace and I can get a little too serious, a little dark, and Isaiah is like a bubbly little kid who just can't shut up.

Isaiah comes from a good home, good parents and good siblings. They've always had enough money and he never had to go through the things that Ace and I have. We didn't get to be carefree little kids who ran home to mom and dad for a hug when they had a bad day.

Ace's dad was abusive and his mom left when he was still a toddler.

It's the other way around for me, my dad left before I was born and my mom was gone all the time trying to make enough money for her and baby me. But it got to be too much for her, when I was a young teen she turned to drugs, forgetting I even existed. She would lay around all day so high she wasn't even here.

One night shortly after my seventeenth birthday, I heard rustling out in the living room. When I went to go check I found my mom with bags of her belongings as she was trying to make it out the front door.

"Mom? What are you doing?" I asked. She ignored me and continued to try to drag her stuff outside.

"Mom? Where are you going?" I asked with a harder tone this time as I gripped her elbow and turned her towards me.

"Mom?" She scoffed. "Don't, I'm not your mother anymore. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be living this miserable life. Your dad would still be with me, and we would be happy. But you scared him off. I never wanted you, I should have gotten rid of you sooner." She says as she looks at me with eyes I'll never forget. Dark and hateful, no trace of love for me left in them .

I knew she resented me, but to hear her say it like that makes it sting a little more than it already did.

Letting go of her arm, I take a few steps back and watch her walk out the door.

I haven't seen her since then and I don't want to see her again. I never went looking for her, never wished she would come home. I don't see the point in wishing my mother loved me when she didn't, or that she would come back and apologize for what she did.

I closed that chapter in my life and I don't plan on reopening it.

"Cash does that, don't even try when he's working VIP. The man takes his job very seriously." Ace says.

"Yeah, he won't even let girls in without tickets like the other guys do." I add. Cash is all business and no fun, I admire him for that, but he can get really up tight if you mess with him for too long.

They don't usually throw someone out of fights unless they are causing a lot of trouble, Isaiah just doesn't know when to quit and ends up ticking the security guys off. Even if the stunts he pulls are harmless.

One time he tried to do a magic trick so he could get into the VIP section. Made something disappear in his hand then told the secretary guy that it was behind him on the wall and tried to slip under the chain while the guy took a quick glance behind him.

It didn't end well for Isaiah that night.

"Tell me about it, two really hot chicks were trying to get into the fight last week and Cash wouldn't let them in! One of the girls even offered her number in exchange for two tickets but he turned her down!" Isaiah said in disbelief.

"Good for him. He's not tempted by worldly desires like you are. He'll make it far in life." I mock.

"Just because I think a girl is hot doesn't mean I'd let her walk all over me, Blake." Isaiah shoots back. Ah so he caught on to what I was saying, good job.

"Yeah? Well tell that to Lucy and the two thousand dollar purse she convinced you to buy her before she broke up with you." Ace so graciously adds fuel to the fire I started.

"That was two years ago! When are you going to let that go!" Isaiah yells.

"Maybe when you quit drooling over every girl who looks at you. It's not good for your health or your bank account man." Ace speaks the truth, Isaiah falls for any girl who pays attention to him. It's quite disturbing, and a heart broken Isaiah is something none of us enjoy.

His mom's actually offered us money to scare off girls before, we didn't take it of course, but her offering made Ace and I realize just how bad it really is.

"Yeah, whatever." Isaiah brushes it off. "Anyway, I was thinking we could order pizza for our victory meal. There's a new pizza place that opened up down the street from my place, I heard it's really good." He says excitedly.

"Hold up. You aren't even fighting. Why do you think you get to pick the victory meal?" I question.

"Because I pick better food than you, and Ace never cares what we eat." He says in a duh tone.

"I pick great food." I say a little defensively.

"No, you don't. The last place you picked tasted off and got shut down by the health department a few days later. There was mold and bugs everywhere in that kitchen, Blake. Bugs! And you said it was good food." Isaiah says as he shivers in disgust.

"Yeah man. I'll eat almost anything, but that was crossing a line." Ace adds.

I scoff, It wasn't that bad, they're being dramatic. "Fine, pizza it is." I cave. I don't see them letting me pick where to eat anytime soon.

"Yes! I'll call it in after you guys kick ass tonight, and have it ready for pick up on our way home." Isaiah shouts with way too much excitement. "Can I crash here again tonight?" He asks switching topics faster than I can flip through movie suggestions.

He's the only one out of the three of us who doesn't have his own place. Most of the time he crashes here or at Ace's apartment, it's almost like we share custody of him. It's not like he doesn't have a place to stay so he has to stay with us, but he still lives with his parents while he finishes college.

He's currently on summer break and is not doing too well with his grades, it's looking like he'll have to retake a few classes and he doesn't want to disappoint his dad. So he's been hiding out at one of our places for the last month. He still goes home every once in a while, but dips before anyone starts to ask about school.

"Do you leave me any choice? You break in if I say no." I grumble.

"Hey! It's not breaking in if I have a key." He defends.

"Yeah, a key for emergencies. Not because your mom asked you about your grades, and you're too chicken to tell her you suck at math." I say throwing the controller on the coffee table after giving up finding something to watch.

"She already knows I suck at math. She has all my report cards from grade school in a photo book. It's just that they paid for my college, let me live at home, feed me and even give me some spending money. And I can't even pass a math class." He sighs and slumps back in the chair he's sitting in.

"Are they giving you a hard time about it?" Ace asks. Isaiah's parents never seemed like the overbearing type, but you never know.

"No, and that makes me feel worse. They never pressure me to do good or follow in their footsteps or anything. They just want me to be happy and find something that I love to do. But I know I keep letting them down, even if they never say anything to me about it." Isaiah runs a hand down his face and let's his head fall back smacking against the wall with a loud thud. "Ow" He slightly whimpers and Ace let's out a snort.

"Ok, change of topic. My fight is in three hours and I need to swing back by my place to grab my stuff. I'll meet you guys in the locker room? Or are you riding with me Isaiah?" Ace questions as he stands up and stretches his back out. He injured his back a while ago, and after he sits for long periods of time it starts to hurt him if he doesn't stretch it out.

"Actually, I promised my mom that I would stop by for dinner tonight. So I'll just meet you guys there, make sure to put me on the list though, or I'm gonna have the pizza guy spit on your slices." He glares between the both of us.

"You know we'd have to beat your ass if you did that right?" I throw a pillow across the room successfully hitting him in the face.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You wouldn't hurt me even if I pissed in your cereal." He laughed out.

Damn him, he's right.

"Get the fuck out of here before I punch you in the face." I grumble.

"Alright grumpy pants. See you tonight." Isaiah says, grabs his keys and walks to the door, Ace following behind him.

⇼♢⇼♢⇼♢⇼♢⇼

"Two big pizzas, spit free, for two champions." Isaiah sings as he plops the pizza on my coffee table. Ace and I both won our matches.

Unsurprisingly it went fast and we barely got touched by our opponents, I think at this point they are just trying to get a rise out of the both of us.

They keep giving us string bean legged, noodle arm boys and it's really starting to get on our last nerves. We go there to fight, really fight. Not sissy slap someone who ends up going home and crying to mommy.

"Like you can even call us champions when they give us little boys to fight." Ace grumbles shoving a piece of pizza in his mouth with a glare on his face. I nod in agreement.

"You guys need to get your eyes checked. Ace, the guy you fought was almost the same size as you. And Blake, the guy you had was taller than you and was packing some serious muscle. You guys keep talking like you fight 10 year old nerds." Might as well be, half the time I walk away feeling bad for my opponent, instead of feeling victorious like I used to.

"If they fight like a boy with noodle arms, I see them as a boy with noodle arms. Simple as that." Ace says. Lifting my soda up I give Ace a cheers.

"Amen." I agree.

"Well maybe if you guys didn't fight like wild animals, you wouldn't have this issue." Isaiah scoffs. We don't fight like wild animals, we fight like... OK, maybe we do. But it's necessary, Isaiah wouldn't understand. And I hope he never has to.

"Are you still staying the night, Isaiah?" I asked, it was getting late and I needed to be up early tomorrow for training.

"Yup. Hey, can I borrow some clothes? I forgot to pick some up when I was home today." I glare over at him getting ready to chuck a piece of pizza at his face, then decide against it. I don't want pizza stains all over my living room.

Please, the boy wouldn't even fit in my clothes, he's not super skinny or anything, just more on the.. smaller side. He works out with Ace and I almost everyday at the gym, but he's never been one to be able to accumulate much muscle, he's strong but his looks don't match.

"Why the fuck would you even ask that? You know the answer already." I bite out.

Isaiah throws his hands up in defense. "Fine I'll just sleep naked and wear these clothes again tomorrow." He grumbles out.

My head snaps in in direction so fast I might have given myself a neck injury. "No you fucking won't. House rule, you can't be naked anywhere but the bathroom." I say appalled.

His naked ass is not touching my couch anytime soon, or ever for that matter. I would have to burn it and get a new one.

"When did that become a house rule? Actually since when are there any house rules?" Isaiah asks with a stupid pout.

"Since now. Because you're disgusting." I grumble out.

Turning my attention to Ace I ask. "Are you staying the night too?" He nodded his head yes. "If that's alright, neighbors above me said they are planning on throwing a party, and I actually want to sleep tonight.

"Yeah it's fine, extra blankets are where they usually are. I'm going to bed. Keep your fucking clothes on Isaiah, or I swear I will throw your ass out on the street. Hopefully you'd get arrested for public indecency." I threaten only to receive a roll of the eyes in return.

I need to stop being so fucking nice to him.