Authors: Casey McMillin
Lindsay helped Nadine get ready for the fights. It took her over an hour to put herself together, which was something she never did. Lindsay added some perfect, curling iron curls to Nadine's mass of wavy hair, creating hair much
bigger
than Nadine usually wore, but she found that she really liked it. It fell at about her shoulders in an unruly, dark mane. Lindsay had honey blonde hair and was wearing a light pink shirt. They complemented each other nicely, and Nadine was so glad her friend was able to come with her.
The fights were scheduled to start at 7PM,
and Baton Rouge was an hour away. The Christmas program ended at 4PM, but Nadine was anxious to get on the road, so she opted not to stick around for the reception. The girls left a couple hours early so they could pick up a bite to eat when they got to Baton Rouge.
They ended up getting to the venue just before the show started, which meant they had to settle for whatever seats were left
over. Nadine had never been to a fight before. She'd seen one on TV, but it was a whole different experience walking into the room where the fights were about to take place. The room was well lit, which surprised her for some reason. People were sitting around tables and in rows of chairs, talking and waiting for the fights to start. They were all facing a caged octagon in the middle of the room. It was surreal for Nadine to imagine that two guys were about to get in there and duke it out.
Rap music was blaring out of the speakers, and Nadine was pumped by her surroundings even though she was relatively sure they were going to have a hard time finding a place to sit.
"Hey!" A girls voice said from behind them. Nadine turned to find Summer, a girl she recognized from the gym.
"Hey," Nadine said.
"Where are y'all sitting?" Summer asked.
"Nowhere," Nadine said. "We just got here."
"Follow me. A ton of us are sitting together." The girls walked behind Summer to the other side of the octagon where Nadine started seeing some T-shirts and faces she recognized from the gym. She knew their faces, but didn't really know any of their names since she mostly just left after her classes were finished.
"What's your friend's name?"
Summer asked.
"Lindsay."
"Hey guys, this is Nadine and her friend Lindsay," Summer announced as they arrived at the end of the isle. She stood on her tiptoes. "We need a little more room down here if any of y'all can scoot down."
A girl who was sitting in the midst of all the gym people stood up and waved for them to come down to where she was.
"Coach Christina's got room down there," Summer said.
"Thanks," Nadine said. It was exactly what she been hoping for. Someone from the gym came to her rescue and found her and Lindsay a spot to sit. Nadine gave
Summer a quick hug before taking off in the direction of the coach she was supposed to find.
"Hey girls," the coach said to them as they made their way down the aisle to where she was.
She was smiling warmly at them.
"Hello," Nadine said. "Thanks for the seats. We were worried we'd have to stand all night."
"You'd never have to stand with all this gym family here," Christina said. "I'm sure half of these guys would want you girls on their lap, anyway. Am I wrong, John David?" Christina reached back and punched John David, who was sitting on the other side of her, in the arm.
Nadine hadn't even
seen him sitting there. He shook his head with a smile confirming that he wouldn't mind having them sit on his lap. Christina scooted down, freeing up two seats between her and John David. Lindsay settled in next to the handsome gym manager, and Nadine sat by Christina.
"I'm Nadine, she said once she sat down in her seat."
"I know." Christina said. She smiled briefly then turned and looked at the woman sitting next to her as if something was unbelievable. They both looked at Nadine, waiting for her to say something. The whole exchange made Nadine sort of feel weird, but she tried not to think too much of it since they'd been kind enough to make room for her and Lindsay.
"Hi,"
Nadine said, leaning over to offer a smile to both of them. "I'm Nadine." The woman on the other side of Christina held out her hand and Nadine couldn't help but notice that it was shaking. Nadine smiled at the woman and, if she didn't know better, she would say it looked like she had tears welling up in her eyes.
"This is Shea Miller." Christina said. "She's one of our lady Gladiators, aren't you, Shea?"
"Yep I am." Shea said. She seemed really nervous and Nadine thought perhaps it was just anticipation for the fights. She was nervous too, and she barely knew any of the guys fighting. She wondered if any of the girls in her class would ever do anything like that. A few of them looked like they took it pretty seriously, and she thought she could imagine them in the cage. Nadine smiled envisioning herself in there. She wouldn't go so far as to say she'd
never
do it, but she felt pretty close to
never
about it, and thought she'd leave the cage fighting to the boys.
The first two fights were first round
Jiu Jitsu submissions. That was an ideal outcome for Nadine since the
hitting in the face
was the part she dreaded the most. The third fight of the night was someone from the gym. The guy's name was Carlos. Nadine didn't recognize him, but she didn't really get a good look at him since she couldn't take her eyes off the guy who was walking in behind him. Actually, there were about three guys walking in behind the fighter, but Nadine only had eyes for one of them. Julien Breaux had a long stride and a half-smile as he followed the fighter to the cage.
Once they arrived at cage
side, he stood directly in front of the fighter and began strategically rubbing Vaseline on his cheeks and eyebrows. Nadine couldn't hear what Julien was saying, but she could see him giving instructions as he deftly applied the slippery salve. Every once in a while, the fighter would nod as if he was agreeing with whatever Julien was saying. When he was done, Julien stepped aside to let another guy check the fighter to see if he was up to standards.
Nadine didn't even watch the fight. She saw a tiny bit of it, but had the hardest time peeling her eyes away from Julien. She was so taken by the way he l
ooked when he coached. He was at least six feet tall, and his big form combined with the dark hair and natural red tattoo gave his whole appearance an element of mystery that Nadine found irresistible. He gave instruction to the fighter throughout the whole match. She could hear his deep voice carrying through the room. He had to speak up simply because of the crowd noise, but he was a calm coach, and delivered the instructions strategically and without much emotion. Nadine simply couldn't take her eyes off him. He was so good at what he did, and she loved seeing him in action. The fighter won, and she watched the whole celebration and picture taking that happened afterward. The emcee announced the winner and the team rushed in to congratulate him.
"You coming or not?" Lindsay said.
"Where?"
"To the restroom."
The crowd was abuzz with activity, and Nadine looked around, surprised.
"I
t's intermission," Lindsay said, "and I need to pee. Wanna come?"
"Sure," Nadine said. She looked back into the cage, but the team was already making their way to the o
ther side of the curtain. "I'd like to get a drink anyway."
The two girls stood in line for the restroom before they went and stood in
line at the bar. The place was packed with people, but everyone seemed to be having a good time and the atmosphere was great. Nadine loved the loud music and the general feel of excitement. She and Lindsay made their way back to the seats with drinks in hand.
"You girls look like Valentine's Day." Coach Christina said as they approached.
Nadine looked down at her dark red shirt, then at Lindsay's, which was light pink. She smiled up at the coach. "Valentine's Day is my birthday," she said.
The coach's expression went from happy to confused to something Nadine couldn't quite identify within the matter of a few second
s, and she looked over at the girl named Shea as if she'd seen a ghost. It made Nadine feel like she was missing something, and she started to ask what the problem was.
"One of our guys is coming up," John David said.
He was constantly running damage control, and
Nadine felt like he might be trying to distract her, but she was glad for it.
"Who's our guy?" she asked. "It's not Christian, is it?"
"No, he should be coming up, though. This guy's name is Mike."
Lindsay took the seat next to John David, and Nadine settled in next to Christina. The coach turned to face Nadine. "Sorry about that," she said. "I was just having this weird déjà vu about a crazy dream I had about Valentine's Day, and I was tripping there for a second. I'm good now.
It's cool that your birthday's Valentine's Day. That's coming up."
"Yep," Nadine said. "Sorry about you're weird dream."
The coach laughed a little awkwardly.
At that exact moment, Nadine
overheard a conversation that was taking place between John David and a guy who just approached from the other side. She tuned into the conversation because she heard Julien's name mentioned.
"
That's the exact same ring girl Julien was with in New Orleans," the other guy said.
John David's eyes cut over to Nadine, and he saw that she was listening to what they were saying. "I think I hea
rd about that," John David said. He was trying to put a quick end to the conversation, but the guy didn't pick up the cue.
"He's so lucky, dude, did you see how hot she is?"
"Smoking hot," John David said. It was apparent that he was trying to stop talking about it, but the guy just couldn't get it.
"Raven," he s
aid. "It's the one named Raven."
"Yep, I remember that." He pointed to the cage. "I think they're getting started."
Just then, the emcee's voice came over the speakers announcing the next fight. The guy stopped talking but the damage was already done. Nadine felt her gut sink with disappointment. She'd been telling herself not to get her hopes up about anything happening with her and Julien, but it still stung when she heard about him being with other girls. Her mind went to the most extreme scenarios, and within a few seconds she imagined Julien and "Raven" falling in love and getting tattoos of each other's names after the fights tonight. After all, Julien said he'd probably get a hotel room. Nadine had to remind herself to keep her expression neutral because the short conversation she'd overheard left her in a bad mood.
Obviously, the very first thing she
did was check out the ring girls. One of them was walking around in the ring holding up a big sign that said, "round 1". It took a few seconds for Nadine to tune into what the emcee was saying, but when she did, she heard him say, "Let's hear it for our beautiful ring girl Carmen." She felt a little better knowing the one receiving the applause wasn't Raven, but that didn't take Raven out of existence.
Nadine searched along the ringside for any sign of another ring girl.
It only took her a few seconds to find them. There were two others that were dressed just like Carmen (in next to nothing) and she looked them over, wondering which one was Raven. She wanted to puke, and that was alarming for her because it wasn't like her at all to be jealous. She'd never been jealous of her other boyfriend, and they were together for two years. Everyone, including Lindsay, started cheering for Mike as he made his way to the ring. Nadine followed suit. She pretended not to be affected by the sight of Julien or the thought of him and ring girl and what tattoos they may or may not be getting, or sex they might or might not be having later that night.
Nadine watched the fight instead of the guys in the corner. After one or two glances right at first, she didn't even look at Julien at all. She told herself that she didn't want to be with the type of guy who slept
with every ring girl in every town. That was the truth. No matter how attracted she was to him, she knew it wouldn't work out with someone like that. It was probably better that she find this out now instead of down the road.
Christian's fight was the most exciting one of the evening, and not just because Nadine liked the guy. It went well into the second round, and she could really appreciate the level of
athleticism it took to get in the cage. He won in the second round due to too many unanswered strikes. That was something Nadine never thought she'd pay to watch—guys fighting until one of them could no longer answer the strikes. It wasn't what she thought, though, these guys were real athletes and loved what they were doing.
There were a few more fights after Christian's, but none of them were guys
Nadine knew. She would have left and headed back home when Christian's fight was over, but she was wary of parking garages at night, and wanted to wait till the fights were over so she could walk out with the crowd.