A private ambush is sprung

“Where is everyone…?” Billy asked, clutching his bag to his chest as him and Matt walked into the gym. The lights were already on, but it was completely empty.

“They’re probably just running late,” Matt suggested dismissively, though something in his smiling tone betrayed that he knew that wasn’t true. Luckily for him, Billy was too distracted and out of sorts to notice or question it.

Something didn’t feel right. Who had turned on the gym’s lights? Who had unlocked the door? Matt had gotten Coach Henry’s permission to be here, but Matt didn’t use the keys to get in. So who did? And where were they now?

“Want to warm up?” Matt asked as if nothing was wrong at all, pulling on his boxing gloves.

Billy was nervous. There was something dangerous in the air. Something in Matt’s eyes that set him on edge. But this was what he came here to do, after all. So…

Body full of tension, Billy dropped his bag, and took out his boxing gloves. He pulled them on after taking on his shirt, feeling unusually vulnerable and exposed. For all his muscle and height, he looked small in that moment.

“Alright. Just light sparring, yeah?” Billy said. His mouth was dry. Matt agreed like it was no big deal. Business as usual.

Some of Billy’s tension was soothed as the two of them began. They got into a rhythm, just as they had done thousands of times before. Not really fighting each other, just loosening up, throwing light and telegraphed punches back and forth. Tapping each others’ guards and getting used to moving.

But this time Matt was going to break from the rhythm. Right when Billy got comfortable. Right when he started to relax. Because this WASN’T like the thousands of times they had done this before. This time, Billy was weaker, and Matt knew it. The dynamic had flipped. Billy was timid, cowed. Billy had a sweet spot. And after so long in his shadow… Matt couldn’t help himself. He needed a little taste.

He wanted to soften Billy up a bit for what was to come. He wanted a little piece for himself, before he handed him over to Carly. And Anna had so helpfully reported exactly where to hit him.

Unable to hide his smirk, Matt did something unusual. He broke from the pitter-pattering back-and-forth, and suddenly swung a LITTLE too hard, a LITTLE too fast. Not a full punch, just something quicker than Billy was ready for. And Matt couldn’t help himself but test Anna’s report, as he caught Billy right on the chin.

“Ghnn-!” Billy’s head was knocked back, and instantly the muscle-bound boxer dropped heavily to his knees. The padded mats beneath them gave way for his sudden drop as Billy hit the floor.

“Hah!” Matt laughed, despite himself. “Oh shit!”

Matt was genuinely amused to see Billy hit the floor like that. He had really stunned him good. Billy had NEVER reacted like that to one of Matt’s punches before. To ANYONE’s punch, as far as Matt had seen. But now, thanks to Heather’s psychological lay-up, Matt had brought the arrogant champ to his KNEES…

Seeing Billy kneel for him felt incredible. It felt like years in the making. After all this time, he had finally caught him just right… One pretty light hit to exactly the right place… And his cocky rival had been dumped down to the floor, chest heaving. The gap between them had finally closed. No… It had grown wider. Only now Matt was on the other side of it, sailing away and leaving his overconfident friend in the dust.

“F-Fuck, Matt…” Billy’s voice came out weakly. Down on his knees, arms dangling by his sides, staring down at the mats. “That was my chin…”

Matt laughed. “Sorry, bro, might’ve went a bit too hard there,” he said. “Can you stand?”

Billy would have rather stayed on his knees recovering for a while, but after a question like “can you stand?”, his pride wouldn’t allow it. He grunted and got himself up to his feet, arms hanging by his side, the warm-up clearly over. Matt looked him up and down, smiling.

“Damn, dude, you look super fucking woozy. Are you good?” Matt asked, enjoying this all too much. “I didn’t even hit you that hard. I barely grazed your chin, man.”

“I’m fine,” Billy said angrily, with a wobble that said he was absolutely not fine. “I just- need a second.”

Fuck. Inside, Billy cursed himself for going through with this. Just yesterday, Heather had knocked him out so bad that he had slept ALL NIGHT, and now here he was in a pair of boxing gloves, risking his chin again. What was he thinking? He wasn’t ready.

“Sure, take as long as you need,” Matt smiled, feeling powerful as he pulled off one glove and squirted some water from his sports bottle into his mouth. “Nobody’s counting to ten over here.”

Billy burned with shame and anger. Matt was walking that fine line, saying things just mocking enough for Billy to feel them, but not quite enough to be called out for it.

Matt felt on top of the world. He was smug. Content. Reinvigorated in his purpose. Finally seeing the impact of Billy’s weakening chin for himself, finally letting himself take advantage of it.

“Tell your fat-assed ex to stay the hell out of my gym”. That was what Billy had said to Matt on the drive over here. Matt had extended a hand, and that was how Billy had replied. And just a few minutes later, Matt had made Billy kneel in “his gym”. He’d grazed that chin, and made him KNEEL.

His rival was weakening, and you know what? That was BILLY’s problem. It wasn’t Matt’s job to fix it for him. If Billy’s chin was starting to fail him, and he couldn’t handle it, then maybe boxing just wasn’t for him after all. Nothing else to it.

Everyone else in the club’s been knocked out. It’s finally your turn, Billy.

“Dammmnn, Matt got you KNEELING?” Carly walked through the doors right on cue, standing tall and grinning wide. Her thick-legged strut had her dominating the space the moment she walked in.

Billy’s heart froze. Suddenly, he looked even smaller. Matt could swear he saw the champ wobble just a little more, as if seeing Carly got him weak in the knees. Carly LOVED the fearful look on Billy’s face as his head snapped towards her.

Carly was wearing casual clothes, and had a gym bag thrown over one shoulder. She looked good, honestly, even though her outfit was nothing special. A white t-shirt, a sleeveless black jacket, blue denim shorts that clung beautifully to her figure, and a pair of black boots.

“Holy shit, way to go Matt,” Carly said smugly. She was playing a role, but internally she was also legitimately proud of her boyfriend for finally getting a piece of Billy.

“Carly? What are you doing here?” Matt was acting surprised, as if they hadn’t planned all of this.

“I was just headed home after some late-night studying, and I saw the gym lights were on,” Carly said, as if she hadn’t turned them on herself twenty minutes earlier.

“Did you say Billy was KNEELING?” Anna giggled, walking in behind Carly, as if the two of them hadn’t been waiting outside and watching the whole time.

“A-Anna…” Billy’s mouth went dry. Seeing his mischievous little sister and Carly in the same room for the first time was a horrible colliding of worlds. Anna had said that they were friends, but actually SEEING it…

“Hey, girls, it was just a warm-up,” Matt said, seeming to come to Billy’s defense, riding that mockery line so perfectly once again. “Nobody lands those kind of hits on him in a real match.”

“I could!” Carly announced, proudly. “Isn’t that right, Billy? I’m SO much faster than you, right?”

Carly was quoting the text conversations they’d had, when Anna had secretly been playing the part of Billy. The deeper meaning of her words was lost on him, but Billy felt like the world was closing in on him all the same. Carly looked so smug, and Anna was looking like the cat that ate the canary.

“Hey, come on,” Matt said, coming to Billy’s defense once again. “I’ve seen Billy take on absolute monsters. I know some of the guys are SAYING you kicked his ass, but there’s no way it actually went down like that.”

“M-Matt…” Billy stammered quietly. His friend’s words were only provoking Carly. Couldn’t he see that? If they just let her go on her way, they could get back to training and wait for the other guys to show up…

“You think so?” Carly sneered, cocking a hip to the side, looking smug. “Billy, tell Matt how I RANSACKED your chin. Tell him how you were propped up in the corner of the ring, about to GO TO SLEEP, until your coach had to step in and save you.”

“Holy shit,” Anna breathed, loving every second of this. The look on her older brother’s face was everything. Everything that had happened to her since getting home from France had been amazing, but listening to Carly DOMINATE him was an unreal thrill…

“I… I don’t…” Billy was struggling to find the words.

“Come on, Carly, it can’t have been like that,” Matt said. Billy wished he would stop poking the bear. “Nobody can do that. Nobody can just walk into club one day and ‘ransack’ Billy’s chin.”

“Matt, stop…” Billy murmured. “I… I can’t, not now…”

Things were at a tipping point. They all could feel it. The three lovers had the clueless champ cornered, and they were closing in on him. With a smug little giggle, Anna pulled out her phone and started filming.

This was all part of her plan. All part of her little stage play, to set the scene for Carly’s big win. Filming him now was insurance to make sure Billy couldn’t back down, but Anna had been very specific when making the plan that SHE wanted to be the one to film it on HER phone.

“This is too funny!” Anna laughed. “Go on, Billy, admit you got knocked out!”

“I… I didn’t- Anna, I didn’t-“

“Oh, you BASICALLY did! From what I heard, you were as good as gone!” Anna scoffed.

“That’s right,” Carly purred.

“Come on guys, there’s no way,” Matt said, shaking his head. “Seriously. If you’re that confident, you would fight him again right now. Not sparring, an actual match, in the ring.”

“I’m in~!” Carly sang.

Billy’s face went white. No, no, no… What the fuck was Matt DOING? His eyes flashed over to Anna’s camera. His annoying little sister was doing this little wiggle-dance with her hips, her nerdy body overflowing with joy as she held her phone in both hands and filmed Billy’s pale expression.

Words failed him. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. The handsome, witty, popular athlete was gaping like a fish. Matt decided he needed little prompting. He clapped a hand to his old friend’s shoulder. It felt heavy.

“Come on Billy, this is perfect,” he said. “You can take her on and shut her up. That’ll help you get out of this slump, right?”

All of these words were recorded on Anna’s camera. The promoting, the mention of a “slump”… Billy would have told Matt to shut the fuck to, if he wasn’t so caught off balance and struggling to think his way out of this.

Carly put a hand on her cocked hip, smugly looking Billy dead in his eyes. “Well, Billy?”

“I- I- you don’t even have your boxing gear, how could we-“ Billy began, but Carly just slapped a hand against her gym bag.

“Got it right here,” she smiled. “So are you in, or are you out? You gonna ‘shut me up’ for saying I beat you, or are you gonna admit that chin got WHIPPED?”

Billy was trapped. Completely and utterly trapped. He wished some of the other guys would show up, to help him out. Then again, maybe having them here to watch would only make things worse for him. Not that it mattered either way - nobody was coming. The four people that Matt had invited, including himself, were already here.

“I… I… Look, just let me warm up first, and then- and then fine,” Billy said, in the desperate hope he could find a way out of this if he just bought himself a bit more time.

Carly shrugged. “Sounds good. I need to get changed and warm up anyway,” she began strutting to the locker room, that fat ass bulging her blue jean shorts out, glutes shifting with every step. “I’ll kick your ass in twenty minutes.”

Anna jeered, switching off the recording for now and looking smug as fuck. “I can’t WAIT to see this,” she said, staring her big brother down and buzzing with excitement. “The stories I heard were so good!”

“Hey, it’s not gonna go down like that. Right Billy?” Matt smiled at his confused, dismayed friend. There was something in his eye that Billy was too rattled to notice.

“R-Right…”

He had to think of a way out of this, and fast. But it felt like the three of them had unknowingly caught him in the perfect trap. What bad luck, for Carly and Anna to just happen by…