Dead by Tomorrow

Chapter 5 | Lose or Die

"You're a martyr for the cause,
But what that cause is I'm not sure
I'm sure it ends with no applause
Except for yours..."

Jack Savoretti was blasting through my headphones while I was preparing for my fight. The pit was already filled with random fighters, and the crowd was getting bigger by every passing second. It seemed like everybody wanted to fight tonight, and I was ready to kick some new opponents.

I had about half an hour before my fight started, and Damien approached me to give me a pep talk which I absolutely didn't need.

"Look, you go out there, say to whoever you fight that Damien will crush his balls if he doesn't let you win. Trust me, do that and you will be fine. I'm here for you little Pixie. Now that you stopped working with James, I have to make sure you're okay. Do you understand me and my best intentions? Just remember; Damien, balls, crushing, opponent, winning. It's simple. Oh no, actually, don't say Damien. Say, Don, they know me as Don. Yep, Don it is." His mouth twirled into a wide grin as he finished messing with me.

At the beginning of our friendship, I would get mad at Damien for doing things like this, but later on, I accepted it as a part of a rather quirky and crazy Damien, the one I'd pick over every other edition.

"Sure Papi. I'll say- that if I don't win, Don will make him his girlfriend." I laughed while touching his weird hair. I swear, Damien's hair was so curly and awesome, but it was also so strong, and there wasn't a proper comb for it. I'm pretty sure that at this point, he doesn't even own one.

"Oh Mia, I just love it when you call me papi." The whole papi thing started a few months ago as a joke, and it just lingered on until we accepted it as our own internal joke.

Soon, the place was crowded and fights were already in a full swing. I saw James talking with Ace and that Jaden guy, and I just passed next to him. I was hurrying to find Dean, and once I did, James suddenly started to pay attention to me. As Dean was leaving to make the final arrangements of my fight, James approached me.

"What are you doing with Dean?" He wasn't in the mood for foolish answers, and I wasn't in the mood for making him feel good about himself.

"I'm working with him, not like it's something you need to know." I tried to act all strong and mean, but James was somebody that knew me well.

"Look, Mia, he isn't somebody that you should be around. Please, come work with me again, before you mess yourself up with him." His tone didn't give me any signs of James being a jerk, but what he said actually hurt me. I was very much able to control my own life, and the things he said were totally not needed. James got me angry again, and this time I decided to show him just how wrong he was.

"If you doubt me and my capabilities so much, watch my next fight. I'll be paid $5000 for it." I felt so happy that I could tell him this, but I still needed to actually win the fight. With that in mind, I turned around and started walking towards the pit that I would fight in soon.

"Damn Pixie! What... No!" As I was leaving, James was saying different profanities and as distressed as he became, he yelled Dean's name so loud that it scared the crows away.

When I approached the place of my fight, I saw my opponent. It was a girl. After all this time, I finally stopped being the only girl in the pits. Sure, there were girls coming in occasionally, but none of them stayed for a long time. The girl was way bigger than me, and she had full hands of heavy jewelry, including massive rings on her fingers. I mean, it's kind of sad to see that. One needs to be really insecure with who they are and what they are capable of in order to put a heavy weight on themselves. I'm pretty sure that I leave the same marking with or without a ring on my finger, whenever I throw a punch. I already knew that I was going to win this fight, and being slightly irritated by my opponent in a skimpy red outfit, I was more than ready to enter the ring.