Fighting for Love Ch. 01

"A promise is a promise, my darling!" Karen responded, looking at her friend with an obvious feeling of amusement.

Damn it, Jenna knew that she was trapped. She made a promise, and the only thing she could do was go along with it. But, on the other hand, ripped guys and all that...

"Fine, Friday. Woo-hoo." She started, going back to her sandwich.

The rest of the day passed with nothing to mention happening. For Jenna the next couple of days saw a few exams, some light homework, and an awful lot of nervousness and trepidation concerning where her crazy friend was taking her on Friday. She was still trying to visualize it.

Friday, at school, Jenna saw her friend running up to her after the final bell for dismissal. As usual, Karen was grinning ear to ear thinking about what was to come.

"Hey, Jenna!" She kept grinning, and the without subtlety, "Ready for tonight? Its gonna be a blast!"

"I suppose so." She sighed, admitting defeat to this situation, "What should I wear?"

"What you are wearing is fine, or something like it. This is nothing fancy, its just fun." She turn to walk along with her friend, grabbing herr arm and almost pulling her down the hallway.

Damn, Karen's energy and pep could occasionally get annoying. However, for the sake of their friendship, she struggled to keep pace with her, and let the words and the bubbling excitement washing over her. Finally, something hit her, and she had to ask her friend;

"Hey, Karen, don't they teach control and stuff at the kung-fu stuff you do?" she asked, nearly tripping over her own feet trying to keep up with her Karen.

Karen gave a sidelong glare at her friend, which brought a knowing smile to Jenna's face. The easiest way to derail Karen was to call what she studied any type of martial art than what it was.

"Say it with me, Jenna..."She continued to pull her friend out the door and towards her car, now that they were in the parking lot. "I study boxing and Tae Kwon Do. Not Kung Fu, not karate, not judo..."

Jenna smiled inwardly as her friend began naming off foreign words that she did not recognize, having successfully derailed her train of thought of the coming evening.

A while later, she found herself being dropped off at home, Karen stating she had to head home for a while, and she would pick her up at around 6:30. Jenna walked into her house, went to the kitchen and made a cheese sandwich. She plopped herself down in front of the TV, finding a rerun of NCIS on some cable station, and chowed down on her sandwich while watching Gibbs smack DiNozzo for unprofessional behavior.

A while later the doorbell rang. She went to answer the door, and there stood Karen, with her usual happy grin all over her face. She didn't say anything, just grabbed Jenna and pulled her out the door, leading her to her car.

Once they got into the car, Jenna tried again, "So, where is it that we are going, Karen? I mean, I am already in the damn car, there is no where for me to go now except for where you want me to go, so why don't you just tell me?"

"You are right, there isn't anywhere for you to go, but," She paused for effect, "You will just have to wait and see."

Exasperated, Jenna sighed, asked her friend to turn up the radio, and then tried to relax and get comfortable.

"Are you fucking serious, Karen? This is where you were taking me?" She stood and stared around her. They had arrived about half an hour after their light conversation in the car at Apex, a pretty good club that was well known for hosting various events. Tonight, to Jenna's shock, there was a cage set up in the middle of the club, and chairs had been placed up around it. Jenna knew enough from catching glimpses of her friend's interests on TV at times when she went over to her place what was going on.

"Damn, Karen! You brought me to a fight?" Her mind raced back to the events of the past week, suddenly remembering that this sport did carry ripped guys. No wonder she had not been overly forward about where she was going to be taking her.

Karen grinned at her.

"I brought you to Apex, she started, "I bought us front row seats, and I am going to buy us pizza, soda, ice cream, and anything else you want. Look, I promised you eye candy, didn't I? So, welcome to the wonderful world of mixed martial arts!"

Karen cringed, thinking back to the few matches she had seen on the TV with her friend. These people were animals, beating each other bloody, trying to break each others' limbs, cursing and disrespecting each other... This was not her thing.

However, when one man she guessed was a fighter walked past her, his arms shredded and about the size of her thighs, she suddenly realized that, from an aesthetic and visual standpoint, maybe this was not going to be so bad. She was still not happy that Karen had not been overly truthful about where they were going to do, and what it was that was going to be taken place.

They did grab some pizza, and sat down at their ringside seats. After some time went by, she heard a voice over the loudspeakers.

"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, fight fans of all ages, shapes and sizes! Let me her you!" The arena burst into applause, and the announcer started again, "C'mon, I thought you were all excited to be here to see this event! So, again, let me here you!" the crowd roared to the point that it was almost deafening. "Good, good, now that is better! I am Justin, from Electric Eel Entertainment, and we are proud to present you with the best local fighters with the Tri-State Combat Sport Association. Further, the TCSA would like to thank..."

Jenna began to ignore him at this point, leaning over to Karen, trying to ask her how long these introductions were going to take. Karen, enraptured, didn't even look at her friend, and shushed her so she could pay attention to everything that was going on. Karen got a little annoyed, but sat back and tried to simply take the show in. Finally, after what seemed like a year of introductions, thank you's, and other pleasantries, someone got up, sang the National Anthem, and then the feel of the room began to change.