How Mattie met Carly

"Hey Billy. Ready to go?" Matt asked as his friend answered the door.

"Ready," Billy responded with a tired smile, hefting his gym bag onto his shoulder. He was still sore from the punches he took the night before from his mom's gloves, but was fortunate that Anna had left earlier that day with Kristen, giving him a few hours of peace to recover, save for a few teasing comments from his gorgeous mom "checking in" on him and flexing her arm to remind him of her latest victory.

Speaking of Mommy...

"Thank you so much for setting this up Matthew," Heather said sweetly from behind her son. She gave a wink at the young man, "You're a good friend."

The lovely milf gave a satisfied smile when she saw Matt blush. He was one of the few young men that Billy hung out with that was resistant to her charms, having been around her enough growing up that he wasn't a complete mess when she walked into the room, though she knew all too well that didn't stop him from looking when he thought he could get away with it. Because of this, she always took special pleasure in getting a reaction from the brawler, so the fact that a simple wink had done the job tonight helped fuel her already swollen ego.

"N-no problem, Ms. Heather..." Matt nodded, waving as he and Billy made their way to his car. Little did she know that this blush was less about how hot she looked (which was incredible in a clingy pair of blue yoga pants and white tank top that strained against her enormous bust), and more about the guilt Matthew felt at the true purpose of his mission.

Matt had thought a lot about his history with Billy today. He still considered Billy his best friend and knew that he was essentially stabbing him in the back right now. He hated to be in this situation, but the memories of Billy's arrogance over the past few years, the constant glory that the champion received, while Matthew had been overlooked completely because there was only one person who he had been unable to defeat, that soothed the sting.

Especially now that he knew that Billy had been interfering with his love life. Anna had explained that only a handful of people were aware that she was bisexual, and that her brother was definitely not one of them. In fact, there were times that he had been around when Heather encouraged her daughter to pursue her crush on Matt, but the girl had been far too shy to approach him.

Matthew had been furious! Billy was well aware of his interest in Anna. The entire time he had been separated with Carly, he could have been with an equally incredible young woman. And that wasn't even considering the fact that Billy had contributed to the breakup in the first place!

Knowing he was doing this for Carly also helped Mattie feel better about what was coming. He thought back to when he first met the spirited young woman.

It was right after high school. The guys were going out for their first real college party. As usual, Billy had girls all over him. Most of his teammates knew that the star athlete would be politely turning the hopeful groupies away, so stuck by him to enjoy the proximity popularity, as well as hoping for the chance to score a rejected hottie.

Matthew was not among them. He wasn't interested in being in the middle of the crowd. Instead, he wandered through the house until he noticed a young woman with frizzy hair tucked away in a corner, looking around like she had no idea what she was doing there. When Matt saw that most people were ignoring her, he wandered up and gave a friendly smile.

"You look as awkward as I feel right now," he chuckled as he approached. He was surprised when the young woman looked him up and down, her eyes lingering on his handsome face and Letterman jacket, then gave him a hard glare.

"I'm not interested in being part of your little game," she hissed with pure venom in her voice, certain she was being played. This time she was surprised by the hurt and confusion that crossed the young man's face.

"Sorry... what game...?" Matt responded sincerely. No fake smile. No calming or condescending laugh. Just general confusion mixed with a little bit of hurt.

The girl blinked. Either he was one hell of an actor, or she had made a big misread.

"S-sorry..." the frizzy-haired girl blushed, her attitude making a complete 180, "Normally guys don't talk to me unless it's a dare or a bet or something. Especially jocks. You caught me off-guard..."

Matt nodded in realization. He'd seen other guys pull stunts like that. This girl seemed nice enough, but he figured she seemed rather average to most people. It made sense that she would be the type targeted by jerks that got off on making others feel small. He was glad to know that he and Billy were not the type of jocks that got off on bullying others.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Matthew said with genuine sympathy before offering a testing grin. "But you'll be happy to know that while I am a proud, card carrying member of the jock community, I do not subscribe to the asshole stereotype."

"Not even when it comes to dealing with a "raging feminist bitch" that thinks girls are just as tough as boys...?" the young woman said with a sigh, certain he was about to run for the hills.

Instead, he laughed.

"Lady, I have two sisters and four cousins. All women, all older than me," Matthew smirked as he came down from his amused high. "They have all kicked my ass on multiple occasions growing up. I also have three nieces on top of that. My only male relatives are my dad, grandfather, and an uncle. And to top it off, my mom is the sheriff. If I thought women were inferior to men in any way, they would never find my body..."

The girl let out a very uncharacteristic giggle at his reaction. "Wow! That's a lot, even by my standards," she chuckled before extending her hand. "I'm Carly."

"Matthew," he responded, taking her hand gently and surprising her yet again by giving a slight inclination of his head, almost like he was bowing to a princess.

Carly blushed, pulling her hand back in embarrassment at the chivalrous gesture. She tried to play it off with an arrogant scoff, "A real fucking gentleman, huh...?"

Matt shrugged. "My family's old school. And if I don't treat every woman I meet like a lady, I have to scrub toilets in lockup..." he responded with a bemused roll of his eyes when Carly laughed.

They talked for the rest of the night. While Matthew didn't find her feminist ideals too captivating, he listened to her opinions with general respect and gave arguments where he felt it necessary, which both were happy to debate. They talked about shared interests, mostly sports. Both were competitive spirits, though Carly was always determined to win, even if she wasn't naturally athletic. Still, Matt respected the fire and passion he could feel from the girl who apparently was older by two years.

More than once Carly expected Matthew to abandon her. A teammate or friend would come over and interrupt, or a girl that Carly knew was much prettier and more popular than her would wander over and flirt with him. Matt would always welcome them to join in, but the second one of them would mock Carly or try to push her out of the conversation, he would simply take her by the arm and lead her away, saying, "We should get back to our date..."

It was a surprisingly nice night for them both. Carly was sad to see it end, expecting to never see the genuinely sweet boy again, so she was thrilled when he asked for her number. A week later, they were on a real date, and a month after that, they were official.

Most people that knew about their relationship thought they made a strange couple. The plain, outspoken feminist and the handsome, humble athlete seemed an unlikely pair, but they made it work. Being two years apart, they were always on different schedules, so they often found it difficult to make time to see one another, to the point that they were rarely seen together. Even Billy, Matthew's best friend, couldn't remember seeing them in the same place in the entire year that they dated. Those who believed they were mismatched would have thought they were ashamed of their relationship, but the truth was that it was just easier and more satisfying to make time alone.

That was until the boxing club. It had started as something Carly wanted to do to express her ideals of female empowerment. While she had most asked Matt to join her so that she could get some much needed support, they both agreed it was also a great way to hang out together.

When Matthew to join the club, he hadn't expected much. Carly had never shown much improvement, and was always criticizing the other club members and Coach David, but he wanted to spend time with and support her. Matt had an easier time because he was a boy, and as such was actually receiving solid instruction from the chauvinistic teacher, as well as approval from the other club members. He tried to pass what he learned to Carly, but she seemed too jealous of his acceptance to ever absorb his advice. He had been about to convince her to leave with him, until Lucy arrived.

Matthew was one of the few students at the club that was willing to listen to Coach Lucy from the start, and not just because she was hot. He could tell she knew what she was talking about, and was a much more effective teacher than David had ever been. He had hoped that having her around would help Carly more. Unfortunately, his increasingly agitated girlfriend was only slipping into deeper anxiety, while Matthew was showing great promise, winning his first two amateur matches handily.

But Matthew's successes only led to Carly becoming more distant. It didn't help that most of the guys in the club had started keeping their distance from him to avoid his "toxic girlfriend." This was extremely disappointing for Matt, because he was actually starting to enjoy boxing, but now he was almost as alone as Carly had been. So he did the only thing that made sense.

He invited Billy.

This led to the nightmare that was Carly's retirement match and Matt's miserable showing against the future champion. The fight that had followed between the couple had been one of their biggest regrets. Matthew had already felt humiliated enough at having to confess to his girlfriend that he had had failed to "avenge her honor," but had also been knocked out by his rival, despite knowing it was a fight he could have, should have, won.

Carly hadn't taken it well...

"How could you lose?!" Carly shouted, trying not to cry. She wasn't even sure if the tears were from anger or sadness, but she was struggling against them regardless.

"Because I didn't want the stupid fight in the first place!" Matt shouted back. He was a patient man, but he had reached his limit. Carly had been hounding him for months to take Billy out, but he just couldn't feel the anger at her loss that she wanted him to feel. "I couldn't think of anything but how badly you wanted me to hurt him. And for what? He beat you fair and square. In a match you forced. It sucks, but he didn't do anything wrong..."

Carly seethed at that, the thought of her unconscious body thrusting her hips at her conqueror, her boyfriend's conqueror, flashing through her mind. "So what? You just let him win because you think I deserved to lose?"

Matthew glared back at her, annoyed that she would imply such a thing. "That is not what I said, and you know it. The whole reason I requested the match was because you asked me to. I felt guilty for doing it. Guilty for not being mad at him for you. Guilty for bringing him to the club, when it was his fight that made you feel this way. Guilty for feeling guilty, because despite how upset you are, I still like having Billy at the club with me! Which only makes me feel MORE guilty! I couldn't THINK...!"

There was a long pause before Matt finally spoke again, growling with suppressed anger as he tried to calm down again. "Even if I thought you deserved to lose, which I don't, why would I ruin my own record by throwing the match? That's just stupid..."

"Don't call me stupid. I'm not stupid..." Carly trailed off, thinking about her pitiful mooing after her own humiliating defeat. It was why she couldn't go back. Not after everyone had seen her like that. Her fury momentarily cooled, she tried switching tactics. "Well... if you can't focus on boxing anymore, maybe we should both just find something else to do. Together...?"

"Car..." Matthew sighed, unsure how to answer. Part of him really liked the sound of that, finding something else he and his girlfriend could enjoy equally. But another part, the part that had watched Billy take the lead...

"I can't. Despite how yesterday went, I actually like boxing. And I'm good," he explained, praying she would understand. "Besides, I can't let him think I gave up after just one match."

Carly flared up again. He was choosing Billy over her, and that got her blood boiling once more. Eyes flashing, she lashed out, "Why bother? Maybe he's just better than you. Everyone thinks so anyway."

She didn't, but it was too late to take that back.

It hurt the young man in a way he hadn't expected. He didn't care if Billy was, but he knew he could have won if he had gone in with a clear head. He couldn't stop himself from snapping back. "Maybe... but we know he's better than you..."

Carly wheeled, hurt in her eyes, but her defiance not yet extinguished. "Why? Because I'm a girl...?!"

"No! Because you don't listen to anyone Carly!" Matt snapped, almost pleading with her to understand. "Lucy and I tried so hard to help you, but you would tune us out. You know I believe that girls are just as capable as boys, but you can't just will yourself to be as good as someone who is bigger, stronger, or naturally gifted."

Carly turned away, trying not to break as that sank in, the thought of her drooling, snoring, mooing in front of every man she had fought, would ever fight, searing into her soul. "So... you think I'm just a talentless loser..."

Matt scoffed. He didn't think that at all, but he knew that she unfortunately had zero natural talent in boxing. He should have tried to say that in a way she might understand, but he was still riled up, and thought she needed a reality check. "It’s not my fault you can’t-"

Matt froze when she turned back around, the tears finally falling. He hadn't defended her in a moment she desperately needed it, and in that moment, something broke.

"Carly..." Matthew tried to rephrase, rewind... anything! "I didn't mean it like tha-"

"We're done," she said simply, not caring anymore. She was trembling with anger and rejection, and she didn't want to hear another word.

Matt took a step forward, reaching for her shaking figure, "Car-"

"We're DONE!" she shouted again, turning and storming out, not looking back.

"Always the fucking gentleman..." Matthew grumbled to himself as he watched her walk out of his life.