roll.
I followed.
He elbowed backward.
His glove clipped my brow.
I shifted.
“You knew,” I said.
“Go to hell.”
“Probably eventually.”
Then Derek did something strange.
He looked toward Claire.
Not for encouragement.
For instruction.
Claire’s face had gone pale.
There.
That was the moment.
The affair wasn’t the whole story.
I released Derek and stood.
The crowd booed.
Derek sprang up, furious.
“You scared?”
“No.”
He came at me swinging.
I didn’t hurt him.
That disappointed everyone.
I blocked.
Redirected.
Moved.
He grew sloppier with every second.
Thirty seconds.
Twenty.
Ten.
Derek threw one final desperate kick.
I stepped back.
His heel sliced through empty air.
The buzzer sounded.
Five minutes.
The gym went silent.
Then someone near the back started clapping.
Slowly.
One person.
Then another.
Derek ripped out his mouthguard.
“That doesn’t count!”
I looked at the clock.
“It appears to.”
“You ran!”
“I stood three
