Adrenaline was pumping as I sat on the sidelines of the boxing ring. Joel came bouncing over looking the part with silky knee length blue shorts and a couple of blue boxing gloves. Abbey held a plastic cup to his lips and he chugged down the beer then he nodded his head and she grabbed another, holding it to his lips again. I laughed.

"Shouldn't you be sober to fight?" I asked.

"Nah, too easy! The whole point is to be drunk princess! Get drinking!" Abbey handed me a cup and I placed it to my lips. She put her hand on the bottom and gently tilted it up to make me drink it faster. It was disgusting, warm and bitter. I was used to drinking fancy chilled champagnes from glass flutes at parties but I didn't complain. I was slowly getting used to the adjustment of princess to peasant.

I could see a hustle of money getting passed around the crowds and the whole thing felt extremely sketchy. Both Joel and I drank two more cups before he entered the ring. He was fighting someone much bigger than him in size, muscle and by my guess strength as well.

"Oh shit, I'm gonna need another one to watch this." I joked to Abbey. I tipped more beer down my throat and kept my eyes glued to the ring.

The two guys threw some punches around to one another and Joel blocked or dodged a few killer ones but eventually he got knocked on his ass and the referee called the match crowning the bigger guy the winner.

"Let's face it, he had no chance." I laughed to Abbey, knocking back another beer. Everything just seemed so much happier with the alcohol swirling around my stomach.

"Come on!" Abbey grabbed my arm and helped me into the ring, the whole underground place started emptying out and Joel lay on his back in the middle, groaning in pain. Abbey and I lay next to him.

"That was brutal." He complained. Abbey passed him a beer and with slow movements he sat up and took a swig.

"You had no chance, that dude was three times your size!" I laughed. Staring up at the brown ceiling that was covered in so many different pipes all leading off in different directions. It made my mind fuzzy, or maybe that was the beer.

"I could have taken him." Joel scoffed. I laughed out loud.

"Then why didn't you?" I asked cockily.

"Because, princess." He fumbled with his pockets and pulled out a wad of cash and threw it onto my lap. "One thousand." He said and reached into his other pocket. "Two thousand." He threw another clump of notes at me. "Three thousand." He dropped the last clump onto my lap. My jaw fell open.

"You threw the fight?" I asked

"Three thousand to take a punch, too right I threw the fight. We don't all have rich daddies." He handed me the bottle of beer and I sat up to take a drink, finishing the contents of the bottle to make his words disappear along with my sobriety and then I lay back down.

"What's going on between you and Noah?" Abbey asked.

I shrugged against the hard floor. "Why don't we call him and ask him, you got his number?" Joel laughed at my suggestion and I could feel his whole body vibrate against me.

"You're crazy girl" he said. "Call Noah," he muttered and then laughed even harder.

"No Joel, why don't we call him?" Abbey asked with a certain cunning tone to her voice. "Here, use my phone and put it on speaker." She pulled her phone out and started calling his number, handing it to me. We all gathered around the screen listening in silence as it rang. There was a picture that flashed up of Noah and Abbey kissing. I hated it. When it went to answer phone we all let out a disappointed sigh.

I pulled out my phone and added his number to my contact list and abbey watched me carefully.

"Wow, nothing really is going on between you if you don't already have his number." She mused.

"He's weird." I told her. "But it's okay if I kiss him, right?" I added. Abbey and Joel looked at each other strangely before looking at me.

"I mean if you're asking me because we were together then I'm completely fine with it. But he's messed up Mia, he murdered his parents." I laughed to myself, the look of horror on their faces made it even funnier. They really believed Noah was some huge villain.

"How long were you together?" I asked, desperate to know more about Noah's life before me.

"A year on and off." Abbey informed me "but he was very different then." She added and Joel nodded in agreement.

"How?" I inquired.

"He studies now, hangs out at the library. He never shows at the parties, doesn't box anymore, it's like he's just a shell of his old personality. We didn't have the healthiest relationship. We argued a lot and broke up a lot, our relationship was toxic. But I did care about him and when the accident happened I tried to help him. He just wouldn't accept my help."

We drunk so much more, going way over our bodies limit. We danced and sang and told hilarious stories that probably were not even all that funny. But when I got a minute alone I pulled out my phone and constructed a text message.

I sent his stubborn ass a selfie, cross eyed, tongue out, the whole silly, drunken shebang.

I rolled my eyes but did as he requested.

He didn't reply for the longest time and I rolled my eyes at my empty phone screen. I don't know what he expected me to do to the kid just because I was drunk. My heavy thumbs got to typing a message in his absence.

His reply was instant just like I knew it would be. One point to me for playing on his paranoia.

Again there was a huge pause between messages. I drank more beer and sighed dramatically as if Noah could hear me and would rush to reply instead of keeping me waiting.

Charming.

Shit.

His last message made me smile from ear to ear and I had no idea why.

"What has got you so happy." Abbey asked.

"My mom wants me home, I gotta go." I lied practically jumping up from my chair and throwing my jacket on. Church street was literally around the corner from the boxing ring and I couldn't help but walk so fast it was more like a rapid jog.

Noah I'm coming baby.