Basorexia - J.MAGUIRE

[3.62] fight

The crowd outside grew rapidly, far too quickly for a single fight in Derry. It seemed a lot of people wanted to witness a fight where the winner was already so clear, there was pretty much no point in even initiating it. It was painfully obvious to everyone that James wasn't going to win, despite the group of girls at the top of the staircase that egged him on with such ferocity that the only quiet person - Chip- was painfully obvious amongst them.

Chip instead leant against the railing, watching and flinching as the man screamed in James' face and egged him on to get in the first hit. James just attempted to stall, pleading for another option as he flat out refused to initiate anything. She had thought of a plan the second the sudden change into the light of outside had her squinting, only the time to enact such a plan never arose. So instead she switched to plan B. "Ah for fucks sake," Ciara mumbled as she snuffed out her cigarette with her boot. She handed her bag of records to Orla, who took them without question, then whispered to the girls. "Pass me your cash."

"What?" Erin blurted, eyes wide with confusion.

"Trust me," she whispered back, extending her palm for the money. With a confused yet intrigued look shared by all four of them, the girls each placed their twenty quid into her palm. Chip folded the papers over and placed them into her leather jacket pocket, the one which zipped up so there was no chance of it falling out. With a singular glance to Michelle, a glance of words unspoken that she understood instantly, Chip turned and headed down the stairs to where James was currently pitching to fight.

"Chip?" James muttered as she appeared at his side, hands stuffed into her jacket. She didn't need to turn her head to spot the bewilderment and fear plastered on his face, it was instantly easy to har in his voice and it was so potent that the feelings practically radiated off of him.

"I got it," Chip responded softly, staring at the man, as she rolled up the extra length of her leather jacket - so the extra fabric did not get in the way. James' did not know what to do. Stay, he'd likely get hit. Leave and Ciara would be on her own. But he knew from experience, having seen a small incident with one of Macca's henchmen many months back, that she could handle herself. He eventually settled on scooting backwards just a little, so he would not be in the way, but close enough that he could easily help if necessary. There was one thing that James would punch anyone for.

The man scoffed and relaxed his shoulders, visibly recoiling from the fight as she had expected him to do. Men did not expect women to be able to do anything significant, let alone hold themselves in a fight like this one. "I ain't going to fight a girl?"

Chip chuckled softly, setting her feet subtly so he would not notice her preparedness. Silently, she thanked the lord that she had not chosen to wear her boots that had the bigger platforms in them - that would have made the coming activity far more difficult. "Aye, too chicken are you?"

"No it's just.. it's just wrong," the man stammered, staring at her peculiarly.

"Chicken," Ciara shrugged before she clenched her fist and forced it into the man's nose, drawing blood from the puncture wounds that her extensive number of rings caused. The girls all hollered and yelled loudly as they watched the man bring his fingers up to his face, touching the small slices on his face. Ciara took another swing at him, this time landing the punch at his jaw, only now he had snapped out of whatever original surprise had overtaken him, and as a reflex backhanded her. Pain blossomed and spread across her cheek where his hand struck her face. She could feel the blood in her mouth, blood traipsing from a small cut on her lip caused by a singular sharp ring on his finger.

She paid it no attention and reached forward, grabbing his hoodie strings to pull them closed. Once blinded, she kneaded him in the crotch then ran for the woman holding the tickets. As the man fell to the ground, Ciara had already handed over the money and had grabbed the offered tickets. He started to clamber up and the girls, including James, all broke into a sprint away from the music shop - with Chip leading.

They stopped in an alleyway, chests heaving with stolen air from their sprint from danger. Clare immediately pressed a tissue to Chip's lip, catching the spilt blood as she winced in pain. The others inspected the bruising on her knuckles, eyes wide in shock. "Christ, where'd you learn that?" Michelle asked with bewilderment and shock written all over her face.

"Cal taught me. I figured I would need some way of protecting myself against dodgy dealers," she chuckled softly, opening and closing her hand to relieve some of the pain within it from keeping it too still. She then winced as Clare moved the tissue, now coated in crimson, off of her lip so she could check the wound underneath.

Chelle chuckled, "Thank fuck for Cal Byrne."

-

"Go upstairs, I'll be there in a minute," Chip whispered to James as she walked into her front door. He silently kissed her cheek then almost silently snuck up the stairs as she tugged off her boots, setting them in the usual spot by the door.

She proceeded to walk into the kitchen, smiling as her Mammy looked up from her newspaper. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked abruptly and rather shrilly as the newspaper flopped to the table. After noticing the cut on her lip and after the bruising along her knuckles, the concern for her daughter's whereabouts only grew.

"Some guy backhanded me," Chip shrugged, reaching up to grab a glass from the cupboard above her head.

"What?" Mammy exclaimed, fury flooding over the concern just a little.

"I threw the first punch, Mammy," Chip responded softly as she filled the glass with water. James usually asked for a drink about twenty minutes after he arrived at her house so she just wanted to preempt that.

Her Mammy's brow furrowed, perplexion overtaking that fury of before. "And why would you do that?"

"He was going to fight James, lord knows that boy doesn't know how to punch effectively," she chuckled softly, making any and all attempt to keep her voice low so James would not overhear from upstairs. She knew how words echoed in this house and she didn't want him to get the wrong idea of her comment then spiral silently while she was still downstairs and could not explain herself.

Mammy formed and shook her head, looking down to the table beneath her hands. She sighed deeply, "So you took on a grown man?"

"Aye."

Her brow cocked as she picked up the newspaper again, "And won, I'm assuming?"

"Aye."

After a second's hesitation, she nodded and smiled softly, "Atta girl...Is James staying for tea?"

Chip, who had to stop her mouth from falling open, stammered, "What?"

"Come on Chip, that staircase is creaky as anything," Mammy laughed as she began to read her newspaper again, not caring too much about the situation. She trusted Ciara to be safe enough and knew that he was something good for her, and how could she ever attempt to prevent that?

"No he's uh, only got an hour before he has to go again."

After her Ma nodded again, Chip turned with her glass of water for James and headed back up the stairs. James, who had only heard the end of the conversation, laughed as soon as she entered the room. The sound of their mingled laughter before Chip shut her door completely brought a smile to Saoirse Byrne.