Chapter 22: Round Ten

Rae's POV

I saw the right hand coming, and my left was down by my hip.

It caught me above the ear.

The canvas came up and hit my knee, and the roar of four thousand people went thin and far away.

The referee's hand swung in front of my face.

"One."

I was on one knee, exactly where Vince had wanted me to be.

I looked at the ropes and the lights.

Round seven was the plan, and this was only round four.

"Two."

Then I heard Cal over the crowd, hoarse and flat.

"Elbow!"

He had said it a hundred times in a hundred mornings, with his hand against my back.

"Three. Four."

I got my glove under me.

"Five."

I stood up at six and showed the referee my eyes.

"Can you go?"

"Yes."

"Then box."

I boxed.

I kept the left in and my chin down and went to the body, and I got to the bell.

Cal's hands were on my face before I sat.

"Look at me. Whose corner is this?"

"Yours."

"What's the day?"

"Saturday." I laughed, and it hurt. "It's Saturday and I'm fighting."

"Good." He pointed at Bea's case of water, not at his own hands.

"Elbow in," he said. "When you throw it hard, you bring it back the way you sent it."

"I know it."

"Show me in the fifth."

I broke the seal on a fresh bottle from Bea's case and rinsed.

Lou leaned in on my other side, with the towel at my neck and his mouth by my ear.

"He sent a bottle with blue tape," Lou said. "I put it in my jacket. The one you're drinking is clean."

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