I’d learned to take a hit. Yeah, I was ‘that’ guy. I was the walking, talking cliché—dead mom, abusive alcoholic dad who’d laid into me any chance he got.
I was the kid the chicks thought they could change, heal, the kind people wrote about in books, getting their happily ever after and all that other bullshit.
Well, fuck them—all of them.
Nobody could heal me; I didn’t want to, and I wasn’t looking for any kind of HEA. Picket fences were not in my future.
The only thing for me to do was to make enough money for school, rent, and food. To get that, I had to draw blood, even if it were my own. It also helped that I could pound my fists into guys like the one I had tonight, and enjoy taking the mother fucker down.
“Quinn!” a girl’s voice screeched behind us. I tried to ignore it, but the annoyance just wouldn’t go away. “Quinn, wait!”
“Incoming,” Josh said. “It’s Jojo, one of Phoebe’s friends.”
“A little fucking, late, man,” I shot back, shaking my head, but he just shrugged with a pleased as fuck grin on his face.
A hand snaked thought my arm as my hands were clutching my T-shirt.
“Your fight was amazing,” Jojo gushed, batting her eyes and smiling with what I could only describe as a lousy attempt at seduction. “Your knockout was, oh my God, it was something else.”
“I’m busy.” I walked faster, hoping that if she had to run in those heels, she’d take the hint and fuck off. I wiped my face with my dirty T-shirt, finding blood on the white cotton when I pulled it away. The asshole had gotten in a few swipes. It was unfair if I didn’t let him at least think he had a chance, and he’d split my goddamn lip.
Jojo stumbled along, her arm slowly slipping from mine. “Wait, Quinn, you’re going too fast for me to keep up.”
I glared at Josh when he laughed. “I thought you’d take the hint,” I said to Jojo, my tone flat.
“What hint?” Jojo continued to fumble along, trying not to trip over as I increased my pace.
“Don’t you think that if I wanted you to keep up, then you’d be able to?” I paused, making her almost topple over. I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for her awkward movements because of her choice of clothing. Tight skirts looked about as practical as a straight jacket, and her short, black scrap was no exception. Not to mention the tiny red top she wore was barely containing her tits.
Her enlarged eyes bore into me, anger flaring. “You did that on purpose?” she screeched, her voice raising an octave at the end.
I smiled slyly. “Oh, she gets it now,” I mocked.
Jojo yanked her bare arm back. “I should’ve listened to them. You really are an asshole, Quinn.”
I chuckled, then continued getting the hell out of there. I had places to be and shit to deal with. “I’m fully aware of that, and it’s not going to change any time soon. So…” I looked back and lifted my chin in the direction she’d come from. “Tell your friends that if any of you want a piece of me,” I gestured down my naked torso. “Crowding my ass isn’t going to work.”
I could hear her mumbled whining, something about not knowing a good thing when I see it and some other self-entitled bullshit, but I gave no fucks whatsoever.
“God, people these days,” Josh said, imitating Jojo’s grating tone while easily keeping the quick pace with me.
I nodded. “They think they can have anything they want, and piss and moan if they don’t get it handed right to them.”
Josh held his hands out, his chin ducking slightly. “Dude, it’s been like that for… Well, always, and it’s not like it hurts to be wanted so bad.”
“You’d think they’d get a damn hobby,” I grumbled.
“You are their hobby,” Josh fired back, laughing his fucking ass off.
I stopped and turned to him, throwing my arms out to the sides. “Yeah? Well, they need to get a new one. They act all fucking offended when they get turned down like I have no right to refuse just because they showed up here.” I shook my head, then continued storming toward Josh’s car. “Like I fucking owe them something because they bought their way in.”
Josh’s shoulders slumped before he took off after me. “Come on, Quinn, what the fuck’s gotten into you? You need to chill the fuck out, man. You’ve kicked ass, gotten paid, and now you need to relax. These girls obviously want a good time—you both get something.”
“You know as well as I do that it’s not that simple.” My patience had been wearing thin for a while, and now it had reached its breaking point.
“Yeah, it kinda is.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the doors to his SUV. When we got in, he continued. “Give them a break, Quinn. They find this shit hot. Fuck, a lot of guys do, too.”
I turned my head to glare at him, and the asshole laughed in my face. “Just don’t, Josh.”
He held his hands up. “Okay, okay, I know that you don’t want the clingers and the headache that comes with trying to scrape them off, but you know how it is. Hotshot fighter”— he pointed at me—“a guy that’ll bring them more attention and bragging rights.”
I snorted. “Fucking shallow, that’s all it is. I’m sick of people wanting a piece of me for their own gains.” I quickly put on my T-shirt and jabbed a finger to my chest. “I’m a fucking person, not a damn popularity boost.”
Josh sat back, a smile tugging at his mouth. He cupped a hand to his ear. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you over the sound of your emotional breakdown.” He reached over and lightly touched my forearm, which I snatched away. “Are you okay? Do you need a shoulder to cry on? A tissue? A tampon?”
My eyes narrowed, my still raging temper soaring right back up. “What the fuck did you just say?” I seethed.
Josh raised his hands, waving them up and down to calm me. “All I’m saying is that you’ve just taught a scum bag a lesson he’ll never forget, and hormones are bound to be high. Aren’t you at least a little eager to get someone naked? Work off a little of that residual aggression?” When I said nothing, he spoke again. “Who gives a fuck, right? Girls, and I’m talking hot as fuck girls, are throwing themselves at you, and you don’t want to take them up on the offer? If you’re not careful, your virginity’s gonna grow back.”
I flipped him the bird. “Fuck you.” It wasn’t that I didn’t get the urge, I fucking did, but I hated the messy aftermath I’d seen the others deal with, and I’m not talking used condoms and bodily fluids on the sheets. It wasn’t something laundry day could fix. I didn’t need or want that shit in my life, especially when my sole focus was the circle.
Josh shook his head. “No thanks, I’m good.” He grinned.
“You’re a dick.”
“A dick that takes advantage of what is presented to me.”
“I have standards, Josh, and I think you should have, too.”
“Hey, my standards are just fucking fine,” he said, lifting his hands and waving them into a curvy figure of a woman. “M-m, damn fine. And if they try to cling on, I show them it’s not happening by moving on to the next. Like I’ve said before, Quinn… No numbers or addresses exchanged means no contact afterward. Just two horny people getting what they need.”