Chapter 24

I don’t want to glorify violence. I am not fighter. I am not proud of what I did. I do not believe it was a good thing, even if it was the necessary or right thing.

I slugged Reggie in the chest. I did one thing right. I had tussled around, a little, very little, with Pat over the last few days. I knew how to hold my wrist as I punched. Straight, no bending, hit with force from my elbow right to the knuckles. I did many things wrong. I should’ve hit him in the face, or the kidney. I hit him just inside his left armpit. I should punched twice. I should’ve punched thirty times. I should’ve tackled him and driven his spine straight back into the corner of the cabinets.

He turned on me. I grabbed him. He got another hit off. My ear was ringing. My feet stopped being straight below me but were on the floor. I clamped the clinch tighter as we staggered into the door of the left shower.

I would’ve lost this fight without my girls. I would’ve been sent to the ground and beaten into a reddened pulp. I wasn’t ready to take on Reggie the way he was ready to take on me. He was way hung up on Zoë. I shouldn’t have smiled. My nose was leaking blood after his third punch. My eye was forced shut after his fourth. I couldn’t tickle him with my hands. I kneed him, hard in the thigh and then harder in the dick. He wheezed but I only made him angry. He hadn’t been angry until now.

This was a calculated move. Zoë’s mine, get rid of the brother, take the bitch. What a piece of shit! I could get it, tied up in feelings, in lust for a girl you did something stupid, aggressive, betraying. Is that really the best adjective for betrayal. My thoughts took a turn as my jaw waggled.

I twisted. I slammed his skull into the shower door. He pushed forward, kicked my ankle, and we went down with him on top.

It wasn’t like school. My girls weren’t a bunch of spectators out by the flagpole cheering on or worrying about their pick in the fight. My girls were not putting up with this invader’s shit. This had become our home.

Connie crushed Reggie’s heel with a 10 pound barbell. Zoë swung a big hardcover D&D book into his ribs. She got him right with the corner. Andrea, barefoot, stabbed her heel in as hard a kick as she could directly under the rib cage.

“What about this skipping rope? We could choke him!” Suzi panicked from the games locker where she was playing role of quartermaster.

“Hell yeah, we can!” Pat said with a lilt that scared me. Her tongue was too big or her brain was too rattled.

I was in the fight. I was doing my job as a constrictor boa without the success. He was more effective. Reggie bit my temple and elbowed me in the collarbone. I had been punched in each one of my left ribs. I couldn’t swing a fist. I couldn’t raise a knee. I wouldn’t get my teeth in. I was dead weight, but my girls were vicious.

Hannah had another barbell and she was screeching like a banshee as she brought it down inside Reggie’s knee and into my calf. I screamed. I might’ve screamed again. I was in seven kinds of pain and each new sharp sensation only seemed to reinforce the last. Some girls were screaming too. Battle cries and warsongs. I was desperate to be saved.

The fight turned. I don’t think it was going in Reggie’s favor, but I was certain to be more injured without it. Pat snaked onto Reggie’s back and constricted his throat as tight as she could.

“Hold his head forward!” She shouted for somebody. Reggie thrashed as Renée sat on the back of his skull and thrust his throat into the tight vee of Pat’s chokehold. I spat blood and shut my other eye to keep my forehead wound from running into it.

“Are we going to kill him?” She sounded so sweet through the ringing in my ear. I wanted to guess it was Marin. It was a straight question, an honest question. I tried to say “No,” but spat blood. Connie was breaking his left hand’s fingers while Andrea and Elizabeth wrangled his arm out from our side. I had my first full breath in what could’ve been seconds but had felt like minutes. I raised my hand, one gesture to end it all. I gave him too much room. He managed to offset Pat and Renée but not enough for his trachea to open. Pat had shrieked and I wasn’t about to let him have or hurt my girls. My girls! He elbowed me below the ribs again. I gestured thumbs down, which was thumb to the kitchen cabinets.

I don’t know if I knew what I was doing through the fear and the rage. I wanted this to end. I wanted to sit up. I wanted to hold my girls. I wanted everything to be OK. I wanted Reggie done and out of our lives. I shook that thumbs down. Kill the gladiator, signed the emperor.

It wasn’t good. Blood, stink, retch. There was no broken glass. Two muscled men slamming the front wall of a shower didn’t break it. It didn’t feel like plastic. There was nosebleed spattered over it. Our battleground was a mess. They had rolled him off of me. I pushed away Zoë and Andrea.

“Pat, give me Pat! Is her head OK?” I was dragged up into a sitting position by six hands. Tits pressed in against my neck. Someone shoved a towel in my face and tits thrust my head forward to keep my bloody nose from filling up my throat. I spat but the towel failed to cover my mouth. I muttered an apology as I stained Connie’s left leg.

“He’s not breathing!” Laurie announced. I heard the chest compressions.

“Pat!”

“Shut up!” She scowled, and slapped her hands as she rapidly crawled across the floor and shouldered a pale leg away as she snagged me around the chest. I grabbed her head, ran my hand over her. No sticky warmth of blood. I guess that was just me. The ringing was subsiding.

“Hug the bitch.” Hannah demanded of me and I reached down and squeezed Pat.

“Good.” Pat sobbed.

“Is anyone else hurt?” Zoë worried.

“Reggie kicked me in the shin, but I think I’m OK.” Connie said. “If you got hurt at all, say it now.”

No one else spoke up. My head hurt, my nose bled, my scalp ran. My thigh, my ribs, my belly, my shoulder, my leg, my everything throbbed.

“Pat hit her head.” I had to spit again but the towel had moved to cover my mouth this time. “Someone make sure she’s not seeing double or nauseous. Does anyone know anything about concussions?”

“She has to let go,” Connie pointed out, “And so will you.”

“I know first aid,” Laurie said. The sound of chest compressions ended. “Give me someone I can help.”

“Me too,” Renée agreed. “I’ll take Pat.”

“Yeah,” Connie agreed. “We’ll do the basics for concussion protocol. Hey at least our cheerleader camps taught us something we can use.”

“Spreading your legs?” Zoë suggested as if it was a fantastic thing.

“Yeah, do you want lessons?” Renée sounded warm to my sister in a way I didn’t expect. All the bodies around me, all the relief. I was more than a little hard. I let them take Pat with reluctance. Renée had been behind me holding the towel. She was replaced by someone less busty. I still rolled my head against her chest.

“Head forward,” Elizabeth whispered in my ear.

“Jesus!” Laurie was scared as she knelt down by my leg.

“Is he dead?” I asked as she touched the tender inside of my calf.

“Stay still.” She hissed and didn’t answer.

“He seems to be.” Zoë answers for me. I started crying, deep brutal sobs hit me like a speeding car. He was Reggie! He was supposed to be my best friend! Why couldn’t he have died when we were playing with wd40 and matches at age eleven. Why did I have to give up on my best friend! Why did he have to be my bad guy! My hands shook and I think my fear and loss were infectious. I didn’t hear any other crying. Marin got told by Andrea to stiffen up.

“Stretch your leg.” Laurie demanded. I did so. “Take his shirt off.”

Elizabeth removed the towel long enough for them to take my shirt off my head. Someone else wiped away my eyes and opened them up. My right was hard to open. I looked into Marin’s face. She had band-aids. I didn’t know there were band-aids. I hadn’t looked past the shampoo since Pat had panicked there was no makeup. I pictured her dyed black hair and raccoon eyes. I liked this one better. Marin slapped the first and another over the bite marks on my face.

As quick as I had lost it, I was able to suppress the spasmodic sobs. My eyes were still running with tears. I breathed deep breaths. None of the pain was sharp anymore. None of the pain was gone. I could handle it. Laurie ran her hands over my ribs and I was tickled more than exacerbated. My nose was still trickling and Elizabeth covered up my face once more.

“His leg’s really tender. He could have a hairline fracture in his leg, but it’s not shattered or anything. I’d get him to a hospital but there’s no hope of that.” Laurie announced. “He can breathe fine.”

“Pat seems OK, but we’re all going to keep an eye on her for the next few days.” Connie promised me. There was a bunch of yeses and of course we wills. I smiled. I think Marin and Suzi could tell from my eyes. The message spread.

“Is Laurie one of your girls now?” Andrea asked. “Right of conquest or something?”

“Oh, that’d be hot!” Zoë scared me. I disavowed.

“God no!” I answered after Laurie whimpered. “She hasn’t earned her place through you girls; she’s free to leave or stay.”

“Stay tonight. Wanda’s coming tomorrow, and I don’t think you want to ride out with the corpse.” Zoë told her. “Let’s start cleaning, girls.”

“We’re ditching Reggie in the cabinets? What if he comes back the day after? Our note did.” Marin worried. “We could--”

“We’ll worry about it then.” I declared.

“It’s OK,” She defended, “A couple of us could ride out and really ditch it so we don’t have to--”

“He said we’ll worry about it then!” Renée said with force. “Now I don’t know about you girls, but I’m going to help Dean shower up, clean this mess up, and spend the day playing pink and blue Courage until I can get through three black cards.”

“Oh, God yes!” Zoë squealed.

“I want to be on team Dean this time,” Elizabeth announced.

“We all do, sweetheart.” Marin leaned in and kissed my hair. “Though there does seem to be a lot of partner trading in the black cards. I almost want to be a leader, if only to push some pretty face like Pat’s down to my pussy.”