sign me the FUCK up 👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌th 👌 ere👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my selｆ 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠＯOOＯOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit
//
Luke was nervous, to say the least.
His nervousness was stemming from quite a few things, mostly from what would happen if he didn't win this match. There was a lot on the line - including money, his overall physical health, and not to mention, the possibility of him embarrassing himself in front of Brielle again.
It was unusual for him to feel like this, considering how he usually was extremely confident whenever it came to his boxing matches. He was actually usually always self-assured when it came to most things, even when he probably shouldn't have been. But today, today his usual self-confidence was not showing and all he was left with was an anxious mindset and extremely sweaty hands.
He was stood in the farthest corner of the ring as the announcer announced for his opponent's entrance, the other man's intimidating look not helping his nerves whatsoever. He had to be at least twice Luke's size, (at least in width), and Luke had to wonder if this was even fair considering the difference.
As his opponent stepped up to the ring, the expression on his face was the look of a man who had definitely seen some shit - he probably hadn't cracked a smile in like 5 years. The blond did his best to avoid absolutely any eye contact as he began to place his mouth piece in and put his gloves on, looking anywhere but at the large man. Instead, his eyes diverted towards the crowd, and ended up landing on the ever so comforting face of Brielle.
She had her arms crossed over her chest with a blatant look of interest on her face as she analyzed the arena, her mouth slightly parted. Luke's lips curled upwards ever so slightly as he watched her, noticing how her attitude was a lot different than the first match she witnessed where she had absolutely no interest in it. It warmed his heart to know that she was coming around to the idea of boxing, considering how the night they first met, she claimed she didn't care for it. And now she had actually volunteered to come watch him fight, and he didn't want to disappoint her. The fact that she was there was a big factor as to why he absolutely had to win.
The girl finally noticed Luke staring at her, she shot him a warm smile and a thumbs-up in which Luke smiled in return. And though he would much rather look at her than have to look in the eyes of his opponent, unfortunately it was time for him to be a big boy.
He was shot of out of his glance when the ref called him to the middle of the ring where his opponent was already standing, and Luke cautiously, although still while trying to look as intimidating as possible, walked up.
His lips remained in a straight line as he dabbed gloves with the opponent, still avoiding eye contact. He looked up for a brief moment, and later realized that this was a mistake, as the glare this man was giving him almost made him feel as if he was looking right through him. Like he could sense fear. Smell it, maybe.
And then the bell rang.
Luke's eyes went wide as he hadn't realized the match was going to begin so quickly, but he still put himself into serious mode as quickly as possible.
The first move Luke made was to take a few steps back, and it proved to be a smart move as not even a complete second later, his opponent swung his fist so powerfully towards Luke that he could feel the gust of wind from it even when he was quite a bit away from him.
It was obvious that this man primarily used power and force, which was smart, considering his size. Although Luke didn't have that option considering his lanky body, so he depended on speed and hopefully tiring his opponent out. He of course still used force, although it was no match for his opponent, and he really only had a chance if the other man was tired.
It was critical that he be careful though, because with the swings his opponent was offering, it seemed as if one would knock out Luke on the spot. And he wasn't trying to end up unconscious in the middle of the ring again.
Luke's body began to lift itself off the ground - jumping not only raised his adrenaline but also made it easier to execute his block technique. It usually was difficult to depend on blocking and be able to sense what direction the punches were coming from and block them in such a short amount of time. It was something that required a lot of training, and somehow Luke had mastered it.
Every time he'd duck or dodge a swing, he could physically see the expression on his opponent's face become more irate, and instead of intimidating Luke, it only encouraged him. It was working. The praise from the crowd and the opponent's obvious frustration was quickly entailing Luke to gain confidence, probably too much confidence for his own good.
Luke's quick movements came to a halt for a brief moment, giving himself a chance to get a few hits in. It was already too late by the time the blond realized that by him no longer being in motion, it also gave his opponent free range as well.
Luke got an outstanding number of two swings in until he felt the ever so familiar sting in his face as his opponent's fist collided with it.
The boy stumbled back as he held his face in one hand, the punch entailed as much pain as he expected it to. The hit had drawn blood but the sight and taste of the fluid had become very familiar to him already, so it wasn't anything alarming.
Thankfully, he recovered quickly, grateful that it didn't do as much damage as it could have. And within seconds he was jumping around the ring again.
This match was truthfully unlike most of his matches, as usually he wouldn't go this long without attempting to swing much. Hell, usually the tactic was to attack like crazy. As long as he wasn't knocked out, the person with the most amount of punches would win. But he knew he couldn't do that this time. Not when his opponent's fists were the size of his head.
The sound of the bell ringing to indicate that the round had come to an end created some relief in Luke, and his body came to a halt as he returned to his corner of the ring.
As he took a sip of water, he noticed Brielle walking towards the ring from her seat. It was just her and a few other people who worked at the arena that were in the closed off area - considering how his friends didn't care enough to come see him fight anymore. It didn't bother him much though, as he would've rather had her there than anybody else.
She looked up at Luke with narrowed eyes as she reached him, and his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to figure out why she was looking at him like that.
"You have blood on your face." Her words were said in a neutral tone though were a bit loud in order for him to be able to hear her over the crowd as she pointed to the general area of her face.
"I literally just got punched, Brielle."
"Does it taste good?"
"Tastes like blood."
"Hm."
He shook his head lightly but couldn't help his lips from curling upwards as his mouth guard was being placed back in it's place. "Do I look cool?"
"Yeah. So cool." Her eyes rolled upwards as she emphasized the 'so.'
"Nice."
Though he couldn't hear it, he could tell that she had laughed from how her face scrunched up and it caused him to smile again. It wasn't the usual pep talk he was used to receiving between rounds, but it was something.
The bell sounded again for round two and he was back to business. He felt even better than he did when the match first started.
Eventually, it came to the point where his opponent wasn't throwing as many punches as he previously was, and Luke was interpreting this as him becoming tired. Though Luke wasn't even close to tired and he didn't want to risk anything again, so he continued his movements.
Luke had taught himself how to sense the direction of his opponent's punches, and was very confident in his abilities. When all else failed, it was something that as a boxer, he believed was something to always fall back on. And usually, on average, his blocking had a pretty good success rate, but apparently - not this time.
The blond shifted his head to the right in what he thought was going to be a blocked hit, although instead he was surprised when he felt that same huge fist colliding with his face.
And another hit.
Not only was it not just one punch, but it was a hell of a lot more powerful than the previous blow he received to his face - so powerful that the ref immediately called a time out as Luke stumbled back to the edge of the ring.
His vision went blurry for a mere moment as the audience became even louder than they were before. Suddenly the ref became very close to his face as he tried to check for any serious injuries and made sure Luke was stable.
Though the arena was loud from the audience, Luke managed to make out the ever so familiar voice despite the ruckus that was currently happening - and the moment he heard her voice, it was almost like everybody's else became mute to him except for hers.
"Luke!" Brielle was leaned in towards the ring, her face replete with passion. He turned his head slightly, making the ref who was in his face lean back.
"Stop being a bitch and kick his ass! Get back in there!" Luke's eyebrows raised, a little offended. Really, there was no need for name calling. He also was a bit surprised as he would've expected her to act more worried than she was, considering her personality.
"C'mon, don't let me down!"
Don't let me down.
Those were the words. It's not like he was gonna give up either way, even though it felt like a block of cement had just been dropped on his face, but he didn't want her to think he was weak.
"I'm fine." He stood up from the corner of the ring, cautiously and stumbling a bit, as he reassured the ref that everything was okay, and the ref signaled that it was good to resume as the bell rang once again.
After that was when Luke knew he needed to do something. He wasn't sure he'd be able to handle many more punches, and round two was almost over and he had gotten barely any swings in. At the moment, his opponent was technically winning and that didn't sit well with him.
The problem was, he wasn't simply going to be able to get enough punches in to win without getting brutally beaten by his opponent's fists of steel. So really, there was only one option.
He needed to knock him out.
The idea almost made Luke want to laugh, not necessarily a "this is funny" laugh but more of a "this isn't going to work and I kinda wanna cry but I'm not going to because I'm a man so I'll just laugh instead" kind of laugh.
But if it didn't work, well, at least he tried.
There wasn't much to do to prepare for this except to wait for an opening and hope his opponent was tired enough, which to be fair, it was seeming like the man was a lot less active than when the match first started, so there was that.
His opponent swung, and Luke was able to duck to avoid it, and in the middle of coming back up was when he saw his opening.
Not giving his opponent any time to react, he brought his arm all the way back, building up as much force as physically possible for his body.
And it was almost like he was in one of those boxing movies where it goes into slow motion and there's shots of the crowd cheering in the background and when his fist collides with his opponent it makes this overdramatic punching sound and the frame is still in slow motion as his opponent falls down which takes a few good seconds. And then, like, the frame goes back into real time and the boxer just stands there as everyone goes crazy behind him and one of the commentators says something like "Oh my god, he's done it" or anything along those lines except this was underground boxing and the budget didn't allow for commentators.
At least, that's how Luke viewed it in his head. But the boy didn't even realize the damage he had done until he heard the announcer announce a K.O and realized his opponent was actually lying on the ground in front of him.
His eyes went wide as he held up his fist with furrowed eyebrows - he didn't even know he was that strong. He actually knocked him out. Why didn't he just do that from the beginning?
This earned him definite cheers from the crowd, and suddenly he felt the ref grab his arm and raise it to name him as the winner. It all happened so fast that it barely gave him time to process it.
And before he knew it, in the middle of processing what he had just done, he saw Brielle in the corner of his eye climbing into the ring. She had the biggest smile on her face as she ran up to him, hugging him with hesitation because he was extremely sweaty and there was blood all over his face, but she was just so happy for him and in the moment.
He stumbled back a bit from the impact, though it didn't take long for him to bring his arms around her back as he returned the hug.
"You did really good." From the close proximity of their faces, he was still able to hear her despite her small voice as she rested her hands on his shoulders. Her grin only grew larger as she looked up at him, and her smile just made Luke so happy to be alive at that moment.
When he was around her, everything else was blurry to him and it was just like that currently.
He forgot he was in front of hundreds of people who were currently screaming at the ring, or even the fact that he had just pulled off what he did. All that was on his mind was her and it seemed like the perfect moment.
His happiness and excitement and the gist of the moment took over, and using his hands to caress her face, he leaned down and collided his lips with hers as ardently as possible.
Luke felt like a teenage boy who was currently experiencing his first kiss, and he even felt that spark that everyone talks about when you kiss someone you care about - and the best part was that he could've swore she kissed him back.
But the kiss didn't last for long, and soon she was pulling away as she looked at him with wide eyes and a parted mouth as she weakly whispered, "Holy shit."
//
wow!!! okay
so my life has been p crazy for the past few months but it's finally settling down n i have hella free time so yay im back which means more frequent updates!!!!!!!!!! im hoping to do one once a week like before to make up for my absence but don't take my word for it ok
also that picture of luke boxing literally fucking RUINED me i can not put into words how it made me feel but uhhh yea i p much died bc of it and wasn't resurrected until recently which is also why i was gone for a bit
but YEA i have hella muse for this again bc shit's starting 2 get real n im excited to write so it shouldn't be too hard for me to get a chapter out every week!!nice!!!
also i apologize for this chapter idfk how boxing matches work i pulled this out of my ass & i also didn't proofread it as usual but hey they kissed that's pretty cool
okay yea this got too long thank u ily all especially if ur still reading this even tho im a piece of shit thank u 👌