CHAPTER 43
“Are you sure you’re going to face Skip for the duel?” Stacy asked while she was simulating punching the bark of the tree. Chaz told us to have a warm-up for half an hour. I guess the duel’s pretty extreme every year. Maybe I’m going to die later.
I don’t about myself as well why I agreed to this. I can simply ignore or reject him. Backing out from a stronger opponent does not mean I’m afraid. It only means that I knew my capabilities. But I hate how he said those things. I hate how he challenged me. I thought we could be friends, but he’s making me feel that we’re rivals.
“I don’t know. Maybe this is my demise.”
Stacy chuckled. “To assure you, no one had died in duels before. Some got hurt pretty badly. I knew you can do well, but I’m still worried.” Though Stacy didn’t directly say that we were friends, I felt her worry for me. Girls could do that to other girls. Compassion for each other. “Break my best friend into pieces.”
Stacy was a fierce woman when I first saw her. She’s intimidating when she’s around. I don’t know why she’s siding on me over her best friend for the past year.
I didn’t say a word. I don’t say words that I could not fulfill. “Angelo says he’s just going to get us water. He’s taking too long.” I glanced on both of my sides but there were no footprints of my friend.
“Hope they’re not punching each other there. How are you and Angelo?”
Heat rose to my cheeks. I could imagine myself turning ivory in a second. “Me and Gelo? What do you mean? We’re good friends. Good friends. Just like him to Skip and you.”
“I don’t believe you.” I frowned at her. Why she was not believing me? “Ever since you came here, Gelo talks about you. He always talks about that neighbor of his who’s mysterious enough to keep herself locked inside her room and reads books. He talks about his every moment with you. He’s happier than ever. You made him intergalactically happy.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“You feel that. You can’t know that because it involves you.”
Gelo got back with three bottles of water. I almost gulped everything from that bottle the moment I held it. I’m not sure if I am that thirty or I'm just nervous. Am I going to break my back later? Who knows if I win?
We got back to the front of the training grounds where the fights are going to happen. Chaz drew a rectangle in front of his house using a stick he found on the ground. We sat in silence, letting our butts hit the dirt. I sneezed and crumples Gelo’s shoulder.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Nervous?”
“Yes, but it’s not the reason why I sneezed. We’re practically sitting on dirt.” I gazed to the other side of the rectangle. Skip’s eyes were excited bombs ready to launch at me. Did he want to challenge or just hurt me? I have seen his performance before, better than Gelo and Stacy. He could crush me into pieces. But I’ll fight. I always do.
“You can beat him, right?” he asked me as if it were an irrevocable fact. The truth is… there are no pieces of evidence that I can beat a trainer who’s been training for most of his life. A person who survived in this town for years. Unlike me, who’s already suffering in this town for just a few months.
I shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I can’t be sure about it.”
“I can’t beat him for yourself, beat him for me. I would be proud if you put blood on his face.”
“Blood? Isn’t it too violent to have blood in this duel?” The only way for you to win is either when your partner gave up or your partner couldn’t stand it anymore.
“I thought you learned your lesson. In this town, blood is the new normal.”
The fight has begun. Mostly in the fights between boys and girls, the boys will win. The girls were great too, but they lost in one kick or punch in the gut. Watching these fights felt like watching martial arts. In the fights between two guys, the big guy will always win. And then it was Gelo’s turn.
I cheered him up. Others looked at me as if I’m turning crazy.
Gelo’s opponent is Stacy’s partner’s boyfriend. I thought he could easily defeat him, but he’s also great. Gelo got hit by two kicks in the gut. I bit my lower lip when he groaned in pain. I couldn’t withstand seeing him going through this pain. I want to pull him away from the rectangle. I want to replace his pain.
Another kick and he dropped to the ground. I almost pushed those who were watching in front of me. His partner stomped toward him. In just a second, he glanced at me and smiled. His feet slipped to his opponent’s feet. The man dropped to the ground and he attacked him three consecutive times near his groin. Gelo’s partner growled out of pain. His girlfriend almost ravages the battlefield. Gelo’s partner couldn’t stop crying out of pain until the moment he gave up. Gelo won!
“You did great. I got scared,” I told him.
“There’s nothing to be scared of.” He assured me with his smile. I knew there was something with his smile. Assurance.
A few more duels happened before it was my turn. Was it a coincidence that me fighting Skip in the last fight? Because the more time it takes for me to face him, the more fear I have inside my heart. My lungs felt sick at the moment. My legs and arms were trembling.
Skip is positioned on the other end of the rectangle. I position myself on the opposite side. Everyone formed a crowd of watchers. I remembered when my dad usually watch wrestling and boxing on our television. It scared me to death. What if they die during their so-called fun game? What if… I die today?
“Are you ready?” Chaz asked Skip first.
Skip grinned like a devil. “I was born to be ready. I was born to be…” His mouth pursed. “Wild.”
Chaz turned to me. It’s my turn. I don’t know if I have anything to say. I don’t have the will to do so. Physical fights were never my thing. This wasn’t my thing. I noticed Chaz’s worried face. He didn’t want this to happen. But if he stopped it, there would be bias.
He cleared his throat before speaking. “Are you ready, Cath?”
I let out all of the air inside my lungs. Wind brushed my hair. “I am. I am going to win.”
Then Skip smirked as if this is the game he was wishing for ever since he was a kid.