Learning Curve

Scottie

My lips tingle as my fingertips glide over the sensitized skin left behind by Finn’s bewildering kiss.

After weeks of avoiding me and warning me away and acting like I couldn’t even begin to know what I’m getting myself involved in with him, Finn Hayes kissed me. Out of nowhere and without forewarning and with all the passion I dreamed could be between us.

Out of my head and heart, I’ve shoved him away, just as he suggested I should, and stood on my own two feet. I’ve socialized and studied and thrown myself into my life at Dickson University. It’s been almost amazingly difficult to move on from him—to coach myself into letting him go without ever having had him in the first place.

But with one kiss, all that progress is so done and gone, I’d swear it never even existed.

And now, he’s going to do the stupidest thing I can imagine—fight a guy who apparently fought in the UFC.

I watch Finn climb into the ring with the pounding sense of impending danger clogging my chest. My hands are clammy and shaking, and I can feel the rattle of my fear in the chatter of my teeth.

“This feels like a bad idea,” Blake comments, and Ace nods, agreeing.

“No shit. I’m nervous as fuck for him.”

“Me too,” Julia whispers as she grabs Ace’s hand and rests her face on his bicep.

Convenient how none of them mentioned this shit before Finn took off to fight a guy who literally fought for a living not long ago. I’d love to tell my friends that, but a knot has lodged itself in my throat and words feel impossible under these circumstances.

I know Finn fought Dane like he could fight the world all at once without being fazed. But fighting a second-string football player from upstate with pretty-boy tendencies is a completely different animal from fighting a professional like Donnie Marks.

“Place your bets!” Lexi announces loudly over the din of excited hysteria in the room. People rattle off numbers and toss cash to both her and the runners, and somehow, she seems to keep up with it all.

“Fuck this,” Ace says and presses a soft kiss to Julia’s forehead. “I’m going up there. Even if it’s just to give moral support. Stay here, Lia.”

As he breaks away from the group and pushes through the people in front of us, I follow.

Julia yells my name and reaches for me, but I’m swallowed by the choking crowd of people before she can make contact. I glance back to see Blake pull her into the safety of his side, and when I turn around, I run right into Ace, who’s stopped to face me. “Scottie, what are you doing?”

“The same as you. I can’t just stand back there and watch.” I stare at him as he studies me, his eyes narrowing. I know I’m just supposed to sit back and keep my mouth shut, but Finn Hayes just kissed me, for shit’s sake. I’m not going to watch him get killed from a distance.

“Fucking hell,” Ace mutters and grabs my hand, dragging me to the front so quickly I have to run to keep up. He shoves into the thick crowd, forcing our way into a spot right behind Finn where he sits in a chair in the corner of the ring, getting his wrists and knuckles taped by a guy I’ve never seen before. Finn’s shirt is off, and his feet are bare, leaving only his jeans covering his long legs.

“You sure about this, Finn?” Ace questions loudly, but Finn doesn’t respond. It’s like he can’t even hear us. His eyes are fixated on his opponent across the ring.

“Final bets!” Lexi announces. “Final bets!”

People hold out cash and shout toward several bet attendants in the crowd, one of whom I think might be my calculus TA, and my throat nearly closes on itself.

“Son of a bitch,” Ace mutters and runs a hand through his hair before shouting toward Lexi, “I’ve got five hundo on Finn!”

“Ace!” I hiss. I can’t believe he’s getting involved in this right now. Lexi quirks a brow, pointing in our direction, and Ace snags five one-hundred dollar bills out of his wallet and holds them out toward the ring.

“What?” he whispers in my ear. “It’s not like I’m betting against him!”

“You heard him, Connor,” Lex commands a guy with auburn hair. “Five hundred from Ace Kelly.” Connor grabs Ace’s cash, and Lex records something on her clipboard.

I shuffle from side to side as people shove us from behind, and Ace glances over to the spot where we left Julia and Blake. Blake jerks up his chin, and Julia waves. All is good back there.

I shake my head. I sure as hell wish I felt like all was good up here. Lexi gives a nod to the guy with auburn hair, tosses him the mic, and climbs out of the ring to come stand by Ace and me as a bell rings and Finn and Donnie both stand in their corners.

My heart jumps into my throat and pounds there, choking me on my own saliva.

“You sure have a lot of confidence in your buddy,” Lex remarks to Ace, and he nods.

“Fuck yeah, I do.”

She eyes him closely and then smiles. “Good. Because I’ve got my money on him too.”

“We want a safe, clean fight, boys,” Connor announces into the mic as Finn and Donnie step toward the center of the ring. “No illegal shit, yeah? I went over the rules with you. Now, touch fists if you want.”

Donnie and Finn nod before bumping fists.

“All right!” Connor exclaims. “It’s time!”

Connor climbs out of the ring. A bell dings again. And the fight begins.

As Finn and Donnie circle each other, their eyes locked and their bodies in a defensive stance, vomit climbs the back of my throat to join my heart.

I don’t know anything about UFC fights or fighting in general, but I do know that Donnie and Finn at least appear equal in height and weight. Also, now that I’m seeing him with his shirt off, Finn Hayes is way more muscular than my brain could even imagine.

His muscles tense and flex as he jockeys from side to side in a way that would make girls turn a ten-second TikTok into a twenty-minute video, but my body is too hyped up on anxiety to think about anything but hoping Finn walks away from this fight okay.

Donnie throws out the first punch, and Finn dodges it with ease. But when he tosses out three more punches before I can even process the first, he manages to make contact on the last one. A dead shot to Finn’s nose. His head jerks back violently, and a shocked scream releases every vestige of air in my lungs.

Shit!

Ace wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me close, dwarfing me in the frame of his incredibly tall body. I shrink into the cover gratefully, leaving little more than my eyeballs exposed as Donnie flashes a dark smile.

Finn shakes off the punch with ease, his mouth set in a firm line.

“You still wanna keep playing, buddy?” Donnie teases, enjoying this little stroll through Dickson University’s underbelly like a kid in a candy store. Finn doesn’t respond, opting for stoicism instead, but when Donnie does some kind of jump kick toward Finn’s chest, making contact and pushing him back to the cage, I have to cover my eyes.

“C’mon, Finn!” Ace shouts from over top of me, rocking my body forward along with his own. “You got this!”

I hold my breath for a few seconds, but Ace’s muttered, “Shit,” pretty much solidifies that I’m watching the rest of the fight from behind my hands.

I peek through my fingers occasionally, especially when Ace jostles and screams enough to knock me off-balance, but each time I catch Finn taking another punch to the face or a kick to the ribs, I shut my eyes again.

“Kick his ass, Finn!” I hear Blake’s voice through the absolute crush of sound. I glance under Ace’s arm to see Julia yelling too, but I can’t hear her at all.

The rest of the crowd is starting to get louder by the second, the room appearing to be in favor of the UFC fighter. Money is on the line, and they want Finn’s blood, classmate or not.

Finn dances backward before jabbing Donnie with a punch to the teeth, but Donnie swings back, and I close my eyes yet again.

A reverberating crack reaches my ears, and my heart sinks to my shoes. I squeeze my eyes tighter, so hard I feel the strain in my hair, but when I hear Ace shout, “Yes, motherfucker!” I sneak a peek through my fingers.

Donnie is flat on the floor, with Finn on top of him, wailing one punch after another into his bloodied face. Donnie’s trying to block the assaults with his hands, but it’s no use. Finn’s punches are coming too fast and too hard for him to do anything about it.

I feel like I’m in the courtyard watching him beat the hell out of Dane all over again, only this time, it’s more violent. More aggressive. More…primal.

Blood spurts from Donnie’s nose and his face goes slack, and Lex calls over to Connor, “End it! Ring the bell!”

The bell rings, but Finn doesn’t stop, working Donnie with an aggression that overwhelms his handsome features with vibrant agony. Like the violence embodies him and sickens him all at once. It takes Connor and two other guys to pull him off the bloodied UFC fighter, and I’m convinced they only succeed then because of Ace’s sharp and cutting voice as he yells to get Finn’s attention.

“Winner! Finn Hayes!” Connor announces into the mic, grabbing Finn’s hand to raise it in the air while what appears to be a paramedic assists Donnie to his feet. The UFC fighter shoves him away, muttering something about being fine, and Ace fist-pumps the air in excitement, jostling me all over again as he drags me into the ring.

“Fuck yeah, Finnley! Fuck yeah!” Ace cheers, wrapping his arms around Finn and swinging him into a throat-choking hug. Finn’s eyes meet mine over Ace’s shoulder, blood coating his eyes, nose, and teeth as it runs down from a couple of cuts in his eyebrows.

Everything disappears between one moment and the next—the crowd, the boos from disappointed bettors, the commotion over on Donnie’s side of the ring, and Lexi taking over on the mic. All I see is Finn, who overwhelms my thoughts during the day and my dreams at night.

I shove Ace out of the way and pull Finn’s face toward mine by his chin. “You’re such an asshole,” I say to his face. “Do you have any idea what could’ve happened?” I shove at his chest, hard, both delusional enough to think I can actually move a guy who just beat up a UFC fighter and senseless enough to think it’s safe. “How fucking stupid! You’re damn right about us, you know that? We are different! We’re so different, I don’t even know—”

I’m prepared to say more, but he shuts me up entirely with another kiss. His mouth to mine, the metallic taste of blood from his busted lips reaches my tongue, and for some fucked-up reason, it makes me kiss him harder.

Clashing tongues, wrestling lips, and hearts on fire, we vie for supremacy in a fight of our own. Finn’s hand at the base of my skull, I give in willingly as he finally takes control, tasting and taunting me so much my equilibrium spins.

Just as I suspected, there’s something chemically catastrophic between us, and it’ll either make us stronger or kill us trying.

“Hang out with me tonight,” he whispers against my lips, his breathing shallow as I steal his air with gulps of my own.

I lean back to look into his eyes, searching for answers to all the questions I’ve had since I met him. Our game is a tug-of-war of hot and cold, but right now, his eyes look like glazed chocolate fresh out of the oven.

With the progression of the last few weeks—with how much I know I should protect myself from another temperature swing from Finn—my answer defies logic. “Yes.”

Trouble’s on the horizon, shining like the bold colors of the sunset, but my heart shoves sensibility out of the car and recklessly pushes the gas pedal to the floor. Ready or not, I’m headed right for it.