***
“And we ended up doing it four times!” I was telling James, “And we lasted like, five minutes each time.”
“Two minutes the first time.” Alice corrected me.
“Yeah, two minutes the first time. But every other time, we went up a little bit. It sucks, though, man.”
“I know.” James said, and we all thanked the Pangaean barmaid when she served us our huge flagons of beer. “I’m proud of you two, though! You made it through the first day! I already got ten people to drop out, and Joe got twelve to drop. I haven’t heard from Augustus yet, but I’m sure he’s knocked a couple out, and I know at least five of Rael’s people dropped.”
“Damn!” Alice said as she took a drink of her beer, “We’re badass, baby.”
“Well, we made it to Day Two. What do we have tomorrow? Are we fighting you, old man? Huh? Huh? Are we?”
“I don’t know what you two have tomorrow, but if I call me ‘old man’ one more time, I’m going to make sure I lay you flat in front of your girlfriend.”
“That sounded vaguely dirty, James.” I told him, “I love you, man, but I’m not in love with you, and…”
James wrapped his arm around my neck and pulled me to him.
“Alright, smartass, just you wait!” He said, as I laughed at him.
“Quinn, you just don’t understand that every time you taunt him, you add just a little more power to his determination to whoop your ass.” Alice told me, “Are you going to actually swing on me, James? Like, with all of your strength?”
“You bet your ass I will.” He said, “When you’re out there fighting grown men hand-to-hand, do you think they’re going to throw you softball punches? No, ma’am.”
“I know. I was just wondering if you’ll actually be able to do it.”
“Believe me, it will break my heart if I connect, so you better not let me connect. You better block every hit I throw at you. But yeah, I will be coming at you as hard as I come at everyone else. I want you to be prepared out there, girl. And I want this one…” He tightened his grip around my neck and I pretended to be choking, “to be prepared, too, but I also want to kick his ass for calling me ‘old man’ all the time. I want to prove to him that he’s no match for me, despite the fact that I’m an old man.”
“See? He admits it. He’s an old man.”
“I am, but just wait. You’ve never seen me fight full-on, but you’re going to.”