When Perfect Meets Crazy

For my sister, my editor and every girl who has ever thought, "He's so stupid. I'd never fall for him."

• • •

I gritted my teeth, total displeasure coating my face as I leaned in further than I liked so my words could be heard over the roaring of the crowd. Even then, I still had to shout.

"I think we should go!"

My sister barely spared me an irritated glance before returning her attention to the small ring containing one immature man and an idiotic boy who clearly did not know that overdoing steroids could be life threatening as well as unattractive.

Or was I the only one who wasn't into overly buff guys?

I knew my sister well enough to understand that she was already regretting her decision to let me tag along on her little jailbreak expedition. Our current surroundings had very little on a jail cell. We were packed tighter than sardines which I would've hated even without the worrisome thought that some of the people I was mushed in with had questionable hygiene.

It was a miracle Olly was able to enjoy herself at all. I could hardly breathe without fighting the urge to throw up thanks to the unique and entirely nauseating combination of musk, sweat, grease and cigar permeating the air.

Not to be overly dramatic but I was breathing as little as I could.

Never again was I stepping foot in this dump.

My gaze involuntarily went to the filthy, once white but now brown ceiling as I sent up a short fervent prayer that my sister and I make it back home before either of my parents did and all hell broke loose. They would gladly kill me for letting this expedition come to life, conveniently forgetting that it wasn't my idea nor did I even want to be here. It was part of the curse of being the older kid.

In my next life, if such things existed, I was definitely not going to be an older sister. I would be the last kid. The baby of the house. There was less stress involved.

Three weeks ago, when Olly suddenly -much to my consternation- became interested in boxing, I knew, in my heart of hearts, I knew it wasn't going to end well.

The last time she had picked up one such obsessions, it had been drag racing. It started out the same way; with her watching shows on TV, then unto constantly streaming them on YouTube until finally, she had to see it up close and personal in real life.

Needless to say, that ended less than spectacularly and she came out the other side with a mild concussion which I took the blame for when I covered for her.

I told our parents I almost got involved in a car accident, a near-miss. That I had slammed my foot on the brake at the last minute and the momentum caused her to hit her head on the dashboard. As punishment, I had my car privileges revoked for a month. There had even been talk about not letting me take the driver's test. I had only a learner's permit at the time. I was on cooking duty for two more months and even now, a full year later, my mom still carries out regular inspections of my car to be sure I’m not ‘driving recklessly.’

So when Olly got to the streaming stage of her current obsession, I knew it was only a matter of time before she went and did something similarly stupid. This time, however, I was determined to not let it get to the stage where I needed to take the blame.

A glance at my wristwatch informed me that I had only about thirty minutes to make that happen. My house was roughly twenty minutes away so my odds weren't great. Especially not since Olly was insistent on staying till the last punch was thrown. Clearly, she had rightfully assumed that I was never letting her set foot in this hellhole ever again and wrongfully assumed that we had already been found out by our parents so she might as well enjoy her last few minutes of freedom.

Our mom had basically ordered us to be home early today -disobedience was not an option- because for the first time in two weeks, she was getting off early from work and she wanted to have a family dinner. With most of the family anyway since my dad was not at all going to leave work any earlier than ten p.m. unless the house was on fire.

years, I'd never once known him

goes in on

of grilling about what held us up -we would obviously lie- followed by a lot of yelling about how irresponsible I was and would eventually end in some creative punishment specifically designed to make

to be the younger

only thing I knew would hurry my

wait in the car. If you're not there in five

all night if that's how long it took her

she didn't

my heel

might as well say good bye to car privileges for the rest of my life. I could already hear our mom saying I was the one

I rolled my eyes.

cheering fans and almost slapped one guy who just couldn't wait the three seconds it would've taken me to walk past before yelling out

and called on all the willpower I

decision to fall in love with this weird cross between boxing and street fighting. And as if the prospect of brainless oversized men beating the crap out of each other and shedding off unnecessary amounts of pheromones wasn't bad enough, it

parents would definitely kill me if they ever found out and that’s aside what the cops

lucky to

self was very much lost in the maze of hallways. The people I had been following had somehow disappeared when I wasn't paying

Per-freaking-fect.

out, walking on with the hope of catching

hard to believe that there was no one around to help me. The people I'd been

as I poked my head into all the open rooms I could find. Most were locked and

found one with a half dressed boy who had to have been fed growth hormones since

was in the process of slipping off a mask which said volumes about his IQ. No matter what anybody had to say on the matter, wearing a mask was definitely not cool unless you

talking about Marshmello and even then,

breathed a sigh

"Finally."

to be picky about who would help me. Olly was probably searching

way out of here," I said just as the mask

face me, eyes

at the corner of his mouth that didn't exactly surprise me and pale pink lips that did. His features were ruggedly handsome if one was into

I definitely wasn't.

a boy whose muscle mass was not only twice their weight but one who also happened to have

even more as he opened, closed and once again opened his mouth, confirming my belief that

asked, drawing the word out slowly as though I was speaking to a retarded child which wasn't so