Page 60 of Rayzor: Tell Me It’s Mine II

I counted his first move before he made it. He went directly for my face. I stepped back. He regained quickly as we circled each other.

I saw the opening and knew he wasn’t guarding himself, but I decided against it. When he went in for another jab, I matched it with my own, sending it straight to his side. He got me in the bottom of the jaw.

He swung widely and hit me once in the shoulder.

“Please, y’all. No,” Ma begged.

It wasn’t enough to move anything, but I peeped the technique. I remember those same moves. They were too similar to my own.

Then when I backed up, he went in again for the face and when I blocked, he opened with a double side shot. He had slight precision.

He’d been studying me and used my own moves on me.

“I told you, bro. This ain’t practice,” he mimicked confidently.

I knew then that he wanted smoke.

I got him up off me and hit his ass once, face shot. I felt his bones crack and the blood dripped. I went in twice more, knocking him straight on his ass.

He held his nose, looking up at me, not believing I did that to him.

“You might’ve been studying me, but you gotta know the teacher never tells the student everything they know,” I told him with my chest heaving.

I saw that light flicker in his eyes. It was relentlessness and hunger. I knew it all too well.

He pushed up from the ground.

“I ate that shit,” he said, staggering as he stood up.

“Maleek,” Ma rushed over to him.

He pushed her off him.

“Nah, Ma. I got it. You called him, it’s cool. Come on, let’s hit it,” he wolfed.

He wanted blood. That wasn’t a loss he was willing to take. He wanted to use that pain against me.

“Maleek, enough. I’m not about to let this happen.”

“Why? Huh?”

“Because he’ll kill you. Courtland is a trained fighter.”

“So. I’m still standing.”

“Barely,” she retorted. “Maleek, just stop. Let all of this go, including the boxing.”

“That’s your problem now. Always thinking I can’t handle shit. I just went toe-to-toe with the heavyweight champ of the world, and you’re still doubting me.”

“You think that’s toe-to-toe, lil’ nigga. I barely put weight behind them hits. You better sit down, Leek, before I fold your young ass up.”

“Courtland, you should go. I thought you could fix this, but you might’ve made it worse.”

“Nah, you got what you wanted, Ma. You don’t want me following in his footsteps, that’s cool. Y’all got it.” He threw his hands up. “I’ll follow my own.”

He started backing up towards the house.

“This ain’t over, though,” I called out, wiping his blood off my knuckle.