Beautiful Disaster

“Jesus,” I muttered under my breath.

“What?” Parker asked, turning to see them sit in a booth across the room.

“There’s burger place down the street we can go to,” Parker said in a hushed voice. As nervous as he was before, it had been taken to a whole new level.

“I think it would be more awkward to leave at this point,” I grumbled.

His face fell, defeated. “You’re probably right.”

We tried to continue our conversation, but it was noticeably forced and uncomfortable. The waitress spent an extended period of time at Travis’ table, raking her fingers through her hair and shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She finally remembered to take our order when Travis answered his cell phone.

“I’ll have the tortellini,” Parker said, looking to me.

“And I’ll have….” I trailed off. I was distracted when Travis and Shepley stood up.

Travis followed Shepley to the door, but he hesitated, stopped, and turned around. When he saw me watching him, he walked straight across the room. The waitress had an expectant smile, as if she thought he had come to say goodbye. She was quickly disappointed when he stood beside me without so much as blinking in her direction.

“I’ve got a fight in fourty-five minutes, Pidge. I want you there,”

“Trav….”

His face was stoic, but I could see the tension around his eyes. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t want to leave my dinner with Parker to fate, or if he truly wanted me there with him, but I had made my decision the second he’d asked.

“I need you there. It’s a rematch with Brady Peterson, the guy from State. It’s a big crowd, lots of money floating around…and Adam says Brady’s been training.”

“You’ve fought him before, Travis, you know it’s an easy win.”

“Abby,” Parker said quietly.

“I need you there,” Travis said, his confidence fading.

I looked at Parker with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you serious?” he said, his eyebrows shooting up. “You’re just going to leave in the middle of dinner?”

“You can still call Brad, right?” I asked, standing up.

The corners of Travis’ mouth turned up infinitesimally as he tossed a twenty on the table. “That should cover it.”

“I don’t care about the money…Abby….”

I shrugged. “He’s my best friend, Parker. If he needs me there, I have to go.”

I felt Travis’ hand encapsulate mine as he led me away. Parker watched with a stunned look on his face. Shepley was already on the phone in the Charger, spreading the word. Travis sat in the back with me, keeping my hand firmly in his.

“I just got off the phone with Adam, Trav. He said the State guys all showed up drunk and padded with cash. They’re already riled up, so you might wanna keep Abby out of the way.”

Travis nodded. “You can keep an eye on her.”

“Where’s America?” I asked.

“Studying for her Physics test.”

“That’s a nice lab,” Travis said. I laughed once and then looked to Travis who had a small grin on his face.

“When did you see the lab? You haven’t had Physics,” Shepley said.

Travis chuckled and I elbowed him. He pressed his lips together until the urge to laugh subsided and then he winked at me, squeezing my hand once again. His fingers intertwined in mine, and I heard a small sigh escape his lips. I knew what he was thinking because I felt the same. In that sliver of time, it was as if nothing had changed.

We pulled into a dark patch of the parking lot, and Travis refused to let go of my hand until we crawled into the window of the basement of the Hellerton Science Building. It had just been built the year before, so it didn’t suffer from stagnate air and dust like the other basements we’d snuck into.

Just as we entered the hallway, the roar of the crowd reached our ears. I poked my head out to see an ocean of faces, many of them unfamiliar. Everyone had bottles of beer in their hands, but the State College students were easy to pick out of the crowd. They were the ones that swayed with their eyes half-closed.

“Stay close to Shepley, Pigeon. It’s going to get crazy in here,” he said from behind me. He scanned the crowd, shaking his head at the sheer numbers.

Hellerton’s basement was the most spacious on campus, so Adam liked to schedule fights there when he expected a larger crowd. Even with the addition of space, people were being rubbed against the walls and shoving one another to get a good spot.

Adam rounded the corner and didn’t try to hide his dissatisfaction of my presence. “I thought I told you that you couldn’t bring your girl to the fights, anymore, Travis.”

Travis shrugged. “She’s not my girl, anymore.”

I kept my features smooth, but he had said the words so matter-of-factly, it caused a stabbing sensation in my chest.

Adam looked down at our intertwined fingers and then up at Travis. “I’m never gonna figure you two out.” He shook his head and then glanced to the mob. People were still streaming in from the stairs, and those on the floor were already packed together. “We’ve got an insane pot tonight, Travis, so no fuckin’ off, okay?”

“I’ll make sure it’s entertaining, Adam.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. Brady’s been training.”

“So have I.”

“Bullshit,” Shepley laughed.

Travis shrugged. “I got in a fight with Trent last weekend. That little shit is fast.”

I chuckled and Adam glared at me. “You better take this seriously, Travis,” he said, staring into his eyes. “I have a lot of money riding on this fight.”

“And I don’t?” Travis said, irritated with Adam’s lecture.

Adam turned, holding the bull horn to his lips as he stood up on a chair above the multitude of drunken spectators. Travis pulled me against his side as Adam greeted the crowd and then went over the rules.

“Good luck,” I said, touching his chest. I hadn’t felt nervous to watch him fight since the one he’d had with Brady, but I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling I’d had since we stepped foot in Hellerton. Something was off, and Travis felt it, too.

Travis grabbed my shoulders and planted a kiss on my lips. He pulled away quickly, nodding once. “That’s all the luck I need.”

I was still stunned from the warmth of Travis’ lips when Shepley pulled my arm to the wall beside Adam. I was bumped and elbowed, reminding me of the first night I watched Travis fight, but the crowd was less focused, and some of the State students were getting hostile. Easterners cheered and whistled for Travis when he broke into The Circle, and State’s crowd alternated between booing Travis and cheering for Brady.

I was in prime position to see Brady tower over Travis, twitching impatiently for the bullhorn to sound. As usual, Travis had a slight grin on his face, unaffected by the madness around him. When Adam began the fight, Travis intentionally let Brady get in the first punch. I was surprised when his face jerked hard to the side with the blow. Brady had been training.

Travis smiled, his teeth a bright red, and then he focused matching every punch Brady dealt.

“Why is he letting him hit him so much?” I asked Shepley.

“I don’t think he’s letting him, anymore,” Shepley said, shaking his head. “Don’t worry, Abby. He’s getting ready to take it up a notch.

After ten minutes Brady was winded, but he was still landing solid blows into Travis’ sides and jaw. Travis caught Brady’s shoe when he tried to kick him, and held his leg high with one hand, punching him in the nose with incredible force and then lifting Brady’s leg higher, causing him to lose his balance. The crowd exploded when Brady fell, but he wasn’t on the floor long. He stood, but with the addition of two lines of dark red streaming from his nose. In the next moment, he landed two more punches to Travis’ face. Blood rose from a cut on Travis’ eyebrow