The day of Ben’s fight.

The next day was finally the moment the boys and I had been waiting for. We gathered outside the sporting arena where Ben would be having his debut fight as a professional boxer. His was the first fight, starting at 5:00 pm, so Thomas, Kevin, Mark and I got together at 4:20 pm and we were sitting by a set of stairs waiting for them to start letting us in.

“I get it’s important to Ben, but I don’t know how I feel about coming to see him getting beat up,” Kevin said, grimacing.

“Strong vote of confidence there,” Thomas told him.

“Well, even if he wins, there’s no way he’ll come out unscathed, right?” I said. “I get where Kevin is coming from.”

“They guy is getting in the ring knowing he’ll punch and get punched back. Weird dream, but it IS his dream, right?”

“Right…” Kevin groaned. “Fine, I’ll cheer. Hope he’ll at least be in good enough condition for the party after.”

“Speaking of, are you sure you guys don’t want to stay the night?” I asked them. “We have the space.”

“Sorry, Lena has classes tomorrow, so we can’t stay,” Kevin said.

Mark nodded. “And I’m hitching a ride with them because I have work early, too.”

“Ben will probably want to rest,” Thomas said. “Maria, though… She’ll definitely want to drink, so we might take your offer.”

Let’s see… Thomas, Maria, Ben, Mark, Kevin, Lena, Alex and his wife. That’s eight guests this time for our… second inauguration of the house. We had to, since they’d never forgive me if I didn’t invite them to something like this. At the very least they were all pitching in, either with drinks, snacks or money to buy meat for another barbeque.

“Maria’s bringing Fernanda with her, right?” I asked Thomas for another confirmation.

He nodded. “Her and a super secret gift for you all that she refused to reveal to me.”

“How’s life together, by the way?” Mark asked him. “Are you getting used to living with her?”

Thomas let out a groan and rubbed his neck. “It’s cool, but we’re having bed issues.”

“Okay, he didn’t ask for THAT much information,” Kevin said.

“No, no, I mean issues while actually sleeping on the bed, on the actual piece of furniture,” Thomas clarified.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“She sometimes kicks in her sleep, and she drags the covers all the way to her side…” Thomas revealed.

“Oh, no…”

“Wait, but you didn’t know this already?” Mark asked him.

“Okay, now I might be revealing a bit too much, but… You guys will keep quiet, won’t you?”

“We’ll try,” Kevin said.

“Of course,” Mark said.

“No promises,” I said.

Thomas sighed. “See, after sex, she… kind of calms down? She sleeps super soundly, without moving or anything. If we don’t do it, though, she gets restless.”

“Sounds like an easy fix to me,” I said, checking my phone for the time. “Just have sex every night.”

Thomas winced. “Dude, that would kill me.”

“Sounds worth it to me,” Kevin said.

“You’re the only one who’d find that an easy solution,” Mark told me.

I stood up from my spot on the stairs, dusting myself off. “I don’t know, then get an extra blanket? I’m just saying, it’s what I’d do.”

“Fuck off,” the three guys said in unison.

“Come on, it’s starting,” I said, nodding towards the entrance to the arena.

We queued up, went in and found our seats, which wasn’t difficult. The place was fairly large, but not too many people were here. Definitely less than half the arena’s capacity. The event was likely a set of not-very-important matches. We were close to the ring, just three seat tiers away from it.

“So… Anyone know anything about boxing?” Mark asked as we sat down.

“I just know you’re not allowed to hit below the belt,” Kevin said.

“I know a bit, but only because my dad used to actively watch boxing,” Thomas said.

“I know most of the rules,” I said. “I had a phase where I wanted to become a boxer, so I watched instructional videos and old, classic matches.”

“Why didn’t you become a boxer?” Mark asked me.

“I got scared of getting hit.”

“Pussy,” the guys teased.

I swallowed my desire to answer back with ‘you are what you eat,’ because that would’ve just been in bad taste. Though I still had to hold myself back from laughing at my own joke that I didn’t even say.

I swear, being with the guys just rewires my brain.

Like I said, Ben’s fight was the first, and soon enough the announcer called his name and he was walking towards the ring. We shouted our cheers and encouragement, but Ben didn’t hear us, even though we were close.

“Holy shit, he’s stiff as a board,” Thomas said, grimacing.

“It’s his first match of his professional career,” I said. “And losses in boxing cost a lot. They don’t fight often and prepare for long periods of time. Imagine training for four months for a fight only to lose in the first two minutes. The pressure is immense.” I swallowed hard, feeling a lump in my throat. “Fucking hell, now I’m really nervous, too…”

“Four months for a single fight…” Kevin winced. “COME ON, BEN! LOOSEN UP!” he shouted.

“MOVE THOSE SHOULDERS, MAN!” Thomas joined him.

Again, he didn’t seem to hear us. The guy was in his own world, a boxing ring where only he and his opponent existed. I gripped my knee as my heart began to beat faster, and I almost threw it up when the bell rang.

Ben was still stiff as all hell and was caught off-guard by his opponent rushing at him while he was still in the corner. Like the announcer had said, Ben’s opponent wasn’t a newbie like Ben, but already had a couple of matches in him.

“Oh, fuck, come on!” Mark groaned as we saw Ben getting pummeled over and over. At least he managed to get his guard up in time, but a few body shots still got to him.

We watched with held breath for three minutes as Ben barely survived the first round without having landed a single hit.

I felt like I was about to pass out.

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