Page 50 of Between the Boards
My fist connects with his jaw before he can get the word out, the impact so strong it jolts up my arm as his head snaps to the side and he stumbles back, crashing into one of his teammates. Shouts break out around us, but I don’t care as I grab his shirt and drive another punch into his face before he can recover.
He swings back, catching me in the side of my face close to my eye, but it barely registers as I shove him hard, sending him down into the sand. I’m on him before he can get up and I manage to get one more hit in before someone's arms wrap around me and pull me away.
“Colton!” Gabriel shouts.
He hauls me back, arms locked tight around my chest as I try to surge forward again.
“Let me go?—”
“Knock it off!” he snaps, dragging me further back. “You’re done!”
My chest heaves as my vision goes red at the edges. I glare past him at Davis who’s on the ground, clutching his face with a smirk still in place as his teammates help him up and usher him out of our canopy.
Warm liquid runs down my cheek as I watch him go, and when I swipe at it my hand comes back bloody.
“Are you out of your mind?” Gabriel hisses, forcing my attention to him. “You might have just lost our team the gold.”
“You didn’t hear what he called Kairi,” I growl.
“There are other ways to handle inappropriate language here.” His grip tightens on my shoulders for a second. “But you just let them bait you into a physical altercation, which is against the rules of the competition.”
I scoff. “Bait me? That’s not wh?—”
“That’s exactly what they did, and you fell for it. Now get to the car,” Gabriel says, firmly. “And put something on that cut to stop the bleeding.”
“I’m not?—”
“Now, Colton.” He turns to Kairi. “And you, come with me.”
She stands a few feet away, arms wrapped around herself, visibly shaken. I drag a hand through my hair and step back, feeling like a complete ass.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She shakes her head before following after Gabriel without saying a word to me. They walk over to the judges table, while I grab my board and head for the parking lot, blood still trickling down my face, and my fist still throbbing.
Even if what I did loses our team the gold, I won’t regret it because Davis deserved it. Every second of it. And if I had the chance to do it again, I would.
The insideof the team SUV smells like stale sunscreen. It’s the only thing I can focus on as I sit in the back with my elbow braced against the window, jaw tight as I press a clean towel to my face to try and stop the bleeding. My eye is already swelling shut and I’m sure it’ll stay that way for at least a couple days.
Moments later, the side door opens and one by one the rest of the team piles in loudly, still riding the high of the competition.
“Holy shit, dude,” Josh says, climbing in and knocking his shoulder into mine as he passes to get into the row behind me. “You were insane out there.”
“Yeah,” one of the girls chimes in next to him. “You carried the whole team.”
I nod once, because it’s the best I’ve got, and they continue talking amongst themselves. Their excitement reminds me of my first competition, years ago when I first joined the team. It was a surreal experience, finally being able to do what I was good at without worrying what my parents would say.
“You good?” Zale asks, sliding into the seat next to me.
“Peachy,” I mutter, pulling the towel away from my face to check if the bleeding has slowed, pleased to see that it has.
He huffs out something between a laugh and a sigh. “Yeah, you look it.”
He opens his mouth to say more, but the doors open and Kairi squeezes in between us, her arm pressing against mine, just as Gabriel climbs into the driver's side holding the golden trophy. He shuts his door and lets out a long breath, shaking his head as he turns halfway toward me.
“You,” he says, pointing the base of the trophy at my face, “were this close—” he pinches his fingers together, barely an inch apart, ”—to losing us first place.”
I hold his gaze, ready to snatch the trophy out of his grip and toss it out the window to show him how little I care about it in the grand scheme of things.
