Devoted by Alycia Taylor

in my ears, “Attack! Assault!” I was on fire, and Gizmo was in trouble.
    I could see in Gizmo’s eyes that he knew the game had changed. There
was a look of fear in them that hadn’t been there last round. I feinted right and sent a left out straight from my shoulder.
He was expecting a right and his fists up in front of his face were too. My fist shot right through them and I not only saw and felt
his head snap back, I heard it. I didn’t stop though;
I didn’t plan on it until he was on the ground. I attacked his body. His core was strong but I belted
away at it shooting out punch after punch to his ribs and landing a few good
kicks to the backs and sides of his thighs. He wasn’t throwing anything back. I was moving too fast and he was too busy trying to protect
himself and fend me off.
    I started pounding at his gut and that was when he dropped his hands, his core
wasn’t as strong as I thought. If I had been less
tired and intense at that moment I would have smiled, right before I landed a
perfect right upper cut underneath his chin. It was like watching a fight in
slow motion. His head went back, his arms went up and he lost all balance,
landing hard flat on his back. For a second I thought
he was out cold, but as the crowd roared, Gizmo tried to roll himself over so
he could push up off the floor. I didn’t have much
left in me and if the son of a bitch got up, I was toast. I dropped on top of him and we grappled for a few seconds, both of us knowing it
was over. When I finally got him flipped over and my
arm around his neck, he quit squirming…and tapped out.
    It took less than a
second for it to penetrate my brain…I won…it was over
and I had won! The crowd was going insane. I could see
the green of Emmi’s shirt but I couldn’t make out her
pretty face over all the bodies pushing and shoving around her. They better
watch themselves…she was about to be the champion’s fiancée. The ref grabbed my arm and dragged me to the center of the ring. He wasn’t
going to give up his part. The announcer was going crazy yelling my name. The whole place was chaos. I won, I really did it.

 
    CHAPTER
ELEVEN
    EMMI
    The warehouse was total
chaos. I could barely see my parents two seats down,
much less Braxton up in the cage. I could see his hand
and I knew the ref was holding up his arm. He won and I was happy for him. I was also happy that it was over,
that was the last time I would have to watch someone beat on his beautiful
face. Zoe was jumping up and down next to me screaming, my dad had his fingers in his mouth blowing a whistle and my demure
little mother looked incensed with the smell of blood. I guess it goes to show you that you never really know anyone, not even your own
mother.
    The crowd began parting
and people were shoving up against us to get out of the way. Girls were
screaming and swooning. I couldn’t see a thing, but I knew they must be taking Braxton back to the locker rooms. I felt Callie right up against my back and turned my head
slightly.
    “I’m sorry, am I
squishing you?”
    “No, it’s cool,” she said.
“Are you going back there to see him?”
    Before I could answer Zoe said, “Yes she is, let’s all go.” I gave her a weird look, wondering what the heck was going
on with her.
    “Yeah, Callie,” I told her. “I just want to wait until some of this crowd
dies down.”
    It took a good twenty
minutes for the place to start clearing out . It felt
like longer. I was dying to see Braxton, but I guessed
it at least gave him a little time to shower and get patched up before we all
bombarded him. When the path was clear, Zoe grabbed my arm and said, “Let’s go, come on.”
    “Wait, let me say good night
to my parents,” I told her.
    “They’re coming on back
too, right Emmi’s mom and dad?” Zoe said.
    “Sure, I’d love to
congratulate him,” my mother said.
    “Yep, lead on,” was my father’s reply.
    Okay, they were all
being weird. I guessed I would have to wait