Brawler Read Online Free PDF

not.
    She took me down quickly and efficiently, and when I tried to get up she refused to let me. Obviously I’m not going to get physical with her, but I’ll be damned if I like being handled by a chick.
    She knelt down to speak to where only I could hear while keeping one boney knee wedged into my spine.
    “If you ever treat her with disrespect like that again, I will have you replaced, like, you know … buried.” she says. “I’m not even going to ask if you understand me, Rafe. That’s strike one. She can hold her own, so quit thinking with your dick. Pay attention, yeah? She held back, remember that. I can’t wait to see your face when she proves you wrong. Well, what’s left of it.”
    She stands back up using my skull as a crutch and manages to kick me in the head before walking away.
    Getting up I look over to Macy, who seems to have forgotten all about me and is focused on Boner instead.
    “Macy,” says Venessa. “Answer your fucking phone already and tell Ben you’re busy.”
    Ben? Who the fuck is Ben? Oh, shit. The guy from school that follows her around.
    She opens her bag and takes out her phone and frowns.
    “What does he want?” asks Venessa. “Shit, he must have called ten times.”
    “Uh,” she says, looking nervous. “It wasn’t Ben.”
    “Who was it?” asks Rogue.
    Now she’s looking at everything in the room but the people occupying it.
    “Macy,” Venessa says. “Who was it?”
    I inch closer to her, hoping to see the number.
    “I don’t know,” she says. “It says unknown.”
    “How many times did this unknown call you?” I ask, getting riled up all over again.
    “Today?”
    “You’ve been getting unknown calls other than today and you don’t think to say anything?” I yell. “What the fuck’s the matter with you?” When she stays silent, I keep going. “How can someone be so smart and so stupid?”
    “Strike two,” says Venessa, looking pissed.
    “We’re calling it a day,” says Rogue. “Macy, you wanna ride with us?”
    “Fuck that,” I say “She’s riding with me.”
    “It’s her choice,” says Rogue.
    “What is she, twelve, Rogue?” I ask.
    “No, but you fucking treat her like she is,” he says.
    I look over to Macy and I can tell by the look on her face that she’s embarrassed. Fuck!
    “We need to talk,” I say. “You’re riding with me.”
    “Actually,” she says, “I’m not.”
    I call her name but she just keeps walking. Straight out the door, middle finger in the air, into my partner’s truck and away from me.
     
     
     
     
     
     

 

    T he ride back to my place is quiet.
    His words shouldn’t hurt, but they do. I shouldn’t care what he thinks, but I do.
    Even Rogan and Venessa are quiet, except for talking to the dog.
    Instead of defending myself, I just stare out the window.
    I’m embarrassed, but I’ll get over it; I always do.
    Will I ever be enough? I’m so sick of being the “smart one,” good for stats and Band-Aids but useless otherwise. There’s more to me than my brain. Why won’t he see that?
    Venessa is the first to break the silence just as we round the block to my house. Rogan, no doubt knowing what she’s thinking, nods in approval.
    “Macy,” she begins. “I’m not defending Rafe here, but why didn’t you tell us you were getting unknown calls?”
    “It just started happening,” I say. “There’s never a message, so I ignored it. I figured it was a telemarketer or something.”
    “We’re a team,” she says. “But I’m your best friend first; you should have told me.”
    “I tell you everything,” I say. “Both of you. I didn’t put a lot of thought into it, all right? Shit, I have enough going on with school that I don’t pay attention to my phone. I’ll just change the number.”
    “That’s smart,” she says. “But I want to know why you didn’t tell me, us.”
    “For the record, I’m eight months older than you,” I say. “And the last time I checked, I could wipe my