“Are you okay?” Mel asked, approaching me.

“I’m fine.” I tried to stand up quickly so no one would see me, but as soon as I got to my feet, I felt really dizzy and had trouble keeping balance.

“I want to go sit down for a minute,” I told her as I walked away from the mat. She was still that good, and my dizziness didn’t help me either. I sat down and chugged some water, turned back around, and saw her waiting.

“Ready when you are,” she said excitedly.

She seemed to really like class, a lot more than I did as of then. I hated how it made me jealous, but I tried to ignore it and walked back over.

“I’ll go easy on you,” she said.

We continued. I threw a kick, she moved her head back, and as I followed up and got closer, she threw a kick that landed right behind my knee. If she had used force, it would have taken me out and left me on the ground again. I readjusted myself and went for a lower leg kick, but she jumped right over it, and as I looked up she had her full leg coming down toward me. She threw another axe kick and I flinched, moving out of the way.

“We’re only going easy, don’t be so nervous,” she said.

“Yeah, easy,” I replied, knowing full well I was giving her all I had.

After class, Scarlett drove Mel and I home again. She dropped off Mel first and I got in the front after. Mel gave me a hug before leaving and Scarlett said, “Ewww. Keep it PG.”

Of course she was joking, but Mel stuck her tongue out at Scarlett. “Stop being a prude!”

I smirked at that.

“See you tomorrow,” Mel said as she walked to her door.

“Young love. I wish I had found someone in high school. All the guys I went to school with were dumb as a loaf of bread,” Scarlett began saying as she drove off. “And, hey, dude, you found a really awesome partner.”

“I mean, I guess.”

“You guess?” Scarlett lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, kickboxing was kind of my thing. Then Mel comes along and is suddenly the class badass,” I told her.

“Men always want the spotlight,” she scoffed.

“It’s not that.” I tried to defend myself. “I’ve been working at this for a few months. I’m supposed to be the one who is good. She took a break from martial arts for a few years, and suddenly —”

“Listen.” Scarlett cut me off. “Jealousy is still jealousy no matter the explanation. You should be building up the woman you love. You should try to be better for her. Don’t bring her down, dude. Like, how big is your ego? There’s not many women at King’s martial arts, haven’t you noticed? Like, the place is called King’s — it’s clearly catered to men. Secondly, she is a damn black belt. I know you think you’re being some badass because you’ve practised kickboxing for a few months, but she’s been doing martial arts for half of her life. You need to respect that. If you don’t, I’ll eat you alive. Got it?”