“Fight one! Joshua versus Ricky! First to tap out loses!” The two guys shook their wrapped hands, then the whistle guy blew his whistle, and they began to circle each other.
Lena kept up a running commentary the entire time. “The guy with the whistle is Mack—he organises most of the events. Joshua is really powerful, but he’s quite slow. Ricky, he’s small but deadly.”
I flinched as Joshua swung at Ricky with a brutal jab to the ribs. “Ouch. That looked painful.”
“That was nothing. Keep watching.” The anticipation in her voice was clear.
Nothing? The next second, I saw what she meant. Ricky lunged forwards, lightning fast, striking at Joshua with a series of jabs that had him staggering backwards. He followed it up by sweeping Joshua’s legs out from underneath him, sending him crashing to the floor. Lena let out a cheer, and then her attention went to a guy standing across from us, watching the fight intently. She stiffened, ducking behind me.
I followed her gaze, frowning as I tried to make out his features from under his hood. His face was shadowed, but his sleeves were rolled up, revealing tattoos that snaked up both arms.
“Who’s that, and why are you hiding?” I turned to her.
“Shh. Keep your voice down.” Her own voice was low. “That’s Zayde Lowry. Remember him from school? He was in my brother’s year. One of his best mates, in fact.”
I stared at Zayde with new interest. As he turned his head slightly and the floodlights hit his face, I could see the dark, almost feral look in his icy eyes. “Ah. I remember now. There’s something scary about him,” I mused.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to get on his bad side,” she agreed. As Zayde melted away into the crowd, she breathed a sigh of relief. “I didn’t want him to see me, in case he told my brother I was here. Cass is alright, as far as brothers go, but he can be kind of overbearing sometimes.”
“That makes sense. So if Zayde’s one of your brother’s best friends, you must know him quite well, then?”
“Kind of, I guess. They all hang out in the same group. Like they did at school, if you remember. My brother, Zayde, and Caiden and Weston Cavendish.” The last name fell from her lips on a sigh, and I narrowed my eyes at her.
“Anything you want to share about any of those names you just mentioned to me?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm.” Unconvinced, I raised a brow at her, and she stuck her tongue out at me. Laughing, I returned my attention to the fight. I’d somehow managed to miss the end, but the whistle guy had slid down into the bowl and was holding Ricky’s hand up in the air, to the sound of cheers.
“Okay, we have a break for a couple of minutes before the next fight.” Lena leaned back on her arms, completely at ease in this place. Me, I still felt way, way out of my comfort zone, but as I looked around, I realised that no one was looking at me like I didn’t belong. People were milling around, talking and laughing, and despite the fact that we were all here to watch people fight, the whole atmosphere was friendly.
“I like this,” I decided.
Lena stared at me with a smile. “I’m glad to hear it. Any reason in particular?”
“It seems like there’s no hierarchy here. Everyone seems like they’re on an equal footing, you know?”
“Yeah. I mean, don’t kid yourself, there’s a lot of rivalry, and things can get nasty, but you’re right in the respect that everyone’s on the same level. Money and status don’t matter here, for the most part. It’s all about the fight.”
“If only it could be like that at school,” I mused.
“Yeah. But there’s always gonna be a hierarchy in school, you know? That’s just the way it is. And the ones on top can be the worst. Some people just like to make themselves feel better by putting others down.” She rolled her eyes, and it was clear she was referring to Carter and his friends.
“Yeah, I—”
“Speak of the devil, and he will appear. Look.” She leaned forwards, gripping my arm as she stared into the bowl intently. I followed her gaze to see him.
Carter. In the bowl with Kian.
“Oh, no,” I groaned. “Why can’t I escape him?”
Lena laughed. “Guess I forgot to mention that this is one of his favourite hangouts.”
“You forgot. Really.” I stared straight ahead as I spoke, unable to tear my eyes away from Carter. A tight black T-shirt stretched across his chest, and he was grinning at Kian as they shook hands before stepping apart. Kian lifted his hand, doing something to his mouth.
“What’s he doing?”
“Taking out his lip ring I think.”