“So...this Batman. He’s really good, huh?” I stared at him thoughtfully. “How come he’s not here right now?”

“He comes and goes as he likes. I think he trains somewhere else. He just comes here for the fights.”

“Oh.”

“Stay around and you’ll get to meet him. He’s a different guy. A bit older, but he seems cool.”

“I have class in ten minutes. I should really get going. Hopefully I can meet him when I come tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “He comes every day. Even when we don’t want to see him.”

“Sounds like you like him just as much as Channing does.”

“That obvious?” He shrugged and picked up some weights. “I don’t know. It’s just all fucked up. We all need this fight. We all want this opportunity. It’s just not right that we’ve been here busting our asses for months and he just shows up.” He looked me in the eye then and leaned forward. “I’ll tell you this, Riley. I’ve got a bad feeling. A really bad feeling.”

Hudson

Present Day

I felt slightly out of breath as I got to the gym. I’d run twenty miles today, but I knew that it still wasn’t enough. I had to be in the best shape of my life if I had a chance of winning the million dollars. I laughed as I walked into the gym. “You don’t even have the entry yet, buddy,” I chided myself and looked around.

A part of me felt bad that I was going to be taking the spot that some of these guys had been practicing for over the last couple of years. But when I thought of Clara’s mom and Jamilah, I knew that I had to take a shot at the title. Luke had been delighted when I’d called him and asked for more information. I think he’d known that as soon as he’d mentioned Clara’s name he’d had me. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for Clara.

“Well, look who we have here, it’s Batman.” Channing’s voice carried through the gym. He sounded bitter and angry, and I knew that he had hoped he’d never see me again.

I knew that he was my biggest competition to represent Nick’s club at the championships. He had considered the spot his until I had shown up. I felt bad that I was going to take it.  I really did.

A female laugh made me pause, and I looked back around the room, slowly this time. Time seemed to stand still as I saw her. Her head was held back and she was laughing. I saw the long lines of her slender neck and I froze. She seemed to notice me then because she suddenly looked in my direction. Her eyes met mine and I felt as if the world had stopped. Time has stopped and images flashed into mine as I looked at her, and I was transported back to one of the last times we’d been together.

Four Years Ago

“Hudson, we should get back to the house.” Riley giggled as I made chocolate faces on my pancakes. “Eden and Clara will be wondering where we are.”

“Let them sleep some more.” I stared at her. I couldn’t stop myself from just looking at her face and into her eyes. Being with Riley made me feel happy. “It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other.”

“Well now that you’re a college guy, you just don’t have time for me.” She smiled, but I could hear the sadness in her voice.

“I figured you didn’t want to be bothered by me anymore. Now that you’re so busy with all those guys.”

She frowned. “What guys?”

“You know.” I tried to keep my tone light. “All your high school boyfriends.”

“What boyfriends?” She tilted her head and started playing with her hair. I felt a stirring in my stomach as I stared at her innocent expression.

“Don’t you call them boyfriends now?” I faked a laugh. “Are they all friends with benefits?”

“Friends with benefits?” She laughed. “What benefits?”

“You know.” My heart thudded. I wasn’t sure why I was going into this line of questioning, but I had to know if she was seeing anyone.

“No, I don’t.” She shook her head and then took a sip of water. I watched as her eyes widened and she looked at me in shock. “Hudson, you’re not asking me if I’m having sex with a bunch of different guys, are you?”

“No, of course not,” I groaned, and both of our faces went red.

“I don’t have any friends with benefits, Hudson Blake.” She leaned forward and hit me in the arm. “I can’t believe you would ask me that.”

“Sorry, I just thought...” I sighed and shook my head. “Forget what I thought. Eden told me something about you and that guy and I just assumed.”

She looked confused. “What guy and assumed what?”

“Well, it was a night you were playing seven minutes in heaven.”

“What?” She looked at me and laughed. “I’ve only played that once and that was ages ago.”

“Oh.” I looked at her lips again and sighed. So I’d gone and made a mess of things. “I thought you were practicing all your newly acquired kissing skills on other guys.”

“Don’t remind me of that night,” she groaned and looked at the table. “Thank you for humoring me that day.”

“I wasn’t just humoring you. I enjoyed it as well,” I said softly, and her breath caught. She looked up at me again and her brown eyes seemed to glow as we sought answers to unspoken questions. “I enjoyed it very much.”

“You’re just saying that.” She looked down, and I stared at her for a few moments before answering.

If she only knew just how much I’d enjoyed it, she’d think I was some sort of pervert. I’d thought about that night many times and I’d had dreams that that kiss had led to so much more.

“When have I ever just said something?”

“All the time.” She rolled her eyes. “Like when you didn’t call me an annoying brat when we were growing up.”

“You weren’t an annoying brat.” I laughed.

She looked up at me with laughing eyes. “Yes, I was. I cried all the time.”

“Then make it up to me.” I suddenly leaned forward. “Let’s go swimming.”

“I can’t.” She shook her head slowly. “I don’t have my bathing suit.”

“So?” I grinned, ignoring the warning bells that were going off in my head. “Neither do I.”

“But you’re a boy.”

“I’m glad you noticed.” I flexed my biceps and she grinned.

“You’re silly.”

“What’s new?”

“You shouldn’t have kissed me.” She blushed as she looked at me.

“What?” I licked my lips slowly.

“You shouldn’t have kissed me,” she repeated. “You have a girlfriend.”

“It was just an innocent peck,” I lied.

“I know that, but if anyone had seen, they would have thought something different.”

“Who?”

“Who what?”

“Who would have seen and thought something different?”

“You’re trying to be difficult, aren’t you?” She jumped up. “Let’s go.”

“Yes, Ms. Bossy Pants.”

“Whatever.” She flung her hair and walked towards the door.

I watched her walk for a few seconds before I put some bills on the table and followed her. I knew she was right of course. It had been wrong of me to kiss her and hope for something more while I was dating Clara. I sighed as I thought of Clara.

I wasn’t really sure how a relationship had occurred. It had just seemed to have happened. After the party, we’d kind of just kept hanging out on the weekends, and then one night, she got so drunk she couldn’t go home, so she stayed over. The next thing I knew, we were having sex and she was introducing me to her friends as her boyfriend.

It wasn’t that I had tried to stop any of it. I hadn’t. Not really. I felt that dating Clara made me a normal guy and not some pervert who was lusting over his little sister’s best friend. I mean, I used to tease Riley, pull her hair. She’d cried to me over the smallest, stupidest things. I’d seen her through pimples, braces, and awkward hairstyles, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful she was when she smiled.

A part of me regretted coming to the house this summer. I had a bad feeling that someone was going to be heartbroken by the end of the summer. Maybe Riley was right. Maybe we should just go back home and I’d avoid her as much as possible.