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Chapter Text

"Hey, Sylvie, what happened?" You had just sat down in your math class and noticed that Sylvie had a black eye. 

"Fight club!" Sylvie responded excitedly. She noticed the somewhat confused expression on your face and wasted no time, immediately filling you in. "We teach each other how to punch and kick and dodge and shit so we don't get fucking killed by Huntington."

You had heard about the "all-girls fight club"; it was impossible to not hear about it, because virtually everyone had opinions on it. You knew it was run by Josie and PJ, two girls in your grade who had apparently been sent to juvie over the summer. But you didn't know the girls were fighting each other.

"You should totally join! It's in the gym after school, but do not be late or else PJ will probably kill you..." Sylvie's voice faded to white noise as you noticed Hazel coming in a little late with a bruise on her cheek. 

"Wait, is Hazel in it?" You cut Sylvie off.

"Yeah! She fought Stella-Rebecca yesterday and it was such a good fight-"

"Hey guys!" Hazel came over to her seat and Sylvie grabbed her arm. "Hazel, tell y/n about what happened in fight club yesterday!"

You could swear Hazel's cheeks turned a little pink. "Oh, um, I fought Stella-Rebecca yesterday."

Sylvie motioned her hands as if to say and then?

"I won, but it was only because I landed a lucky punch." Hazel finished sheepishly.

"Lucky punch? It was insane! Blood everywhere." Sylvie grinned.

You tried to ignore the butterflies swirling in your stomach at the thought of seeing Hazel in a fight. She looked so good with that bruise, and she would probably look even better mid punch, all sweaty...

"Y/n?" Hazel asked, and it looked like she and Sylvie were waiting for an answer for something. 

"Yeah?" You replied too fast, trying to pretend like you weren't just fantasizing about Hazel. 

"So, do you want to join? We've only had two meetings, so we're all still getting to know each other, and it's still a pretty small group, so it would be really cool if we could get another member." 

The look on Hazel's face was too hopeful to say no.  "Uh, sure, yeah!" 

"Awesome!" Sylvie shouted a little too loudly, and the teacher shushed her. 

Hazel leaned in close, so close, and you could feel your heart pounding in your chest. "See you later," she whispered with a friendly grin, and you just nodded, not trusting yourself to say anything since your brain was screaming she's so hot over and over.  

3:15 couldn't come fast enough.

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It was 3:10 and you were standing outside of the gym doors, anxiously fidgeting with your bracelet. You had texted your parents and told them you were staying after school for extra help in math, since you knew they would probably go ballistic if they knew where you really were.

"...and then she was on top of me, and it was sooo hot." 

"Yeah, we know, PJ. Me and Hazel were both there. Wasn't Brittany just on top of you since you were fighting..." 

"You know, I can't deal with this negativity all the time. She was on top of me because she wanted to be."

"Okay..."

The voices belonged to PJ and Josie, who were approaching you with Hazel in tow. 

"Hey! You came!" Hazel jogged over to greet you with a huge smile.

"Yeah, I did." You smiled back at her.

"Um, it's-it's really good to have you here." 

"Can you guys stop flirting and move out of the way? Club starts in 5." PJ pushed past the two of you and opened the gym doors. 

Hazel just smiled at you sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. Her cheeks were definitely pink. You followed her and Josie into the gym, and it quickly filled up with a bunch of other girls you recognized from your classes. There was an excited buzz in the air.

"Alright!" PJ yelled, and the room swiftly fell silent.

Josie stepped in next to her. "So, today, we have a new member. Y/n, could you just raise your hand?"

You raised your hand awkwardly, and the other girls waved at you. Hazel gave you a small smile as she waved. 

"Today, we're gonna be practicing punches!" PJ yelled, and Josie winced, covering her ear with her finger.  "Y/n, why don't you go first with..." PJ scanned the room, "Hazel." Hazel's eyes widened, and she moved towards the center, glancing at you in a way that made your heart flutter. 

Oh god. You stepped into the center as the other girls formed a circle around the two of you. Nervousness and excitement took over you. 

You started circling each other, neither of you making a move to punch the other. After about two minutes of this, PJ groaned loudly. "This is a fucking fight club, not some weird dance class! Fuckin' punch each other!"

Hazel suddenly moved to punch you, which you dodged. You tried to punch her, but you ended up just weakly hitting her in the shoulder.

"Y/n, what the fuck was that? Punch her!" PJ yelled.

"I don't want to punch you," you whispered to Hazel.

"No, it's fine, just do it." Hazel braced herself for a punch that didn't come. 

"Why can't you punch me?"

She shook her head slightly. "I don't want to punch you..."

"FUCKING PUNCH EACH OTHER OR I WILL PUNCH YOU BOTH!" PJ yelled, making you both jump a little. 

"Punch her! Punch her!" Sylvie started, and soon enough all the girls were chanting with her. 

You shook yourself and cracked your knuckles. Your thoughts were running a mile a minute, screaming okay, okay, I can do this, I'll just punch the girl I really like, and then she'll hate me forever and never want to be with me, but if I don't punch her, everyone here will think I'm really lame and weak and stupid and oh my god everyone is so loud holy fuck, okay, i gotta do this here goes nothing-

You punched Hazel square in the face so hard she fell back.

"YESS!!" shrieked Sylvie. 

"Holy shit! Oh god, I'm so sorry!" You bent down next to her, and all the other girls crowded on the other side of her. "I didn't mean to hit you so hard, oh my god, I'm so sorry-"

"Stop, it's fine." Hazel's voice sounded distorted as she sat up. "How bad is it?"

Her nose was bleeding really heavily, blood dripping onto her white shirt. 

"Not gonna lie, it is really fucking bad." Brittany said, handing Hazel a tissue from her purse. 

"Come on, I'll get you cleaned up," you said to Hazel, helping her up. 

"Um, you guys keep going," Hazel called out to the rest of the group, who were staring at her wide-eyed. 

"We gotta clean up that blood or else they won't let us use the gym anymore..." Josie's voice faded as the two of you entered the girl's locker room.

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Hazel took a seat on one of the benches and you immediately wanted to cry.  She really was bleeding a lot, and it was all your fault. "Let me, um, get you some more tissues. I'll be right back." You ran into the bathroom and grabbed at least forty paper towels. You wet some of them and came back, handing her the dry ones, and she took them gratefully, blood still gushing out of her nose.

"Jesus. I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to hit you so hard," you said as you kneeled before her and started cleaning up her neck with the damp paper towels. 

"Y/n, stop apologizing. This is a fight club, so getting beaten up is like..." she trailed off when you looked up at her. She dropped your gaze and cleared her throat. "Um, it's like, a big part of it."

"Yeah, I guess." you continued to clean her up as best as you could, now gently wiping her jaw. You could swear that her breath hitched. Her arm brushed against yours as she moved her hand away from her nose, which gave you intense butterflies. The bleeding had stopped, but there was still a lot of blood on her face. She looks so good all covered in blood. You shook your head slightly at the absurdity of the thought, trying to focus on cleaning her up. 

"I like your bracelet," she said shyly, nodding to your wrist. "Can I see the charms?"

"Yeah, sure," you replied, a little breathless from how close the two of you were. You moved your hand from her jaw to in front of her. "That one is a cheerleader because I love the movie But I'm a Cheerleader, then there's a double venus symbol, next to it is a violet flower because I love Sappho's poetry, a tooth because I love boygenius, and a heart." You glanced at her, expecting to see her bored, but her expression was earnest and soft.

"That's really cool," she grinned at you, and it made your heart flutter. It was clear she had been listening to everything you said, and you tried hard to ignore the urge to kiss her. You stared at her for a little longer than necessary, and you could swear that she glanced down at your lips. Your eyes traveled back to her jaw, where you noticed a small cut.  

"Oh god," you whispered, gently bringing your hand to it. "I think that's from my charm bracelet." 

She reached her fingers up to the cut, where yours were too. The feeling of her fingers over yours sent a rush of dirty thoughts into your head, and you quickly forced your hand down under the guise of grabbing the last of the paper towels. 

"I think the tooth is the one that cut you," you said quickly, trying to hide your blush. 

"Um, yeah," she said, just as pink as you. 

Am I making Hazel blush?  The two of you were staring at each other, the butterflies in your stomach rampaging. You got up abruptly before you could look at her lips again. "Uh, I'm gonna go get more paper towels," you said, not even looking at her as you rushed into the bathroom. 

Does Hazel feel the same way? Could she really like me the way I like her?  The very thought made your heart flutter. You took a breath and grabbed a stack of paper towels. As you turned to go out the door, you yelped as you found yourself suddenly face to face with Hazel. 

"Shit, you scared me!" You exclaimed, not actually mad because she looked so cute. 

"Sorry! I just-" She cut herself off and looked at you. "Um, I feel like, maybe," She took a small step towards you. "I kind of feel like-" she started and stopped again, seemingly distracted as you stepped closer to her. "Um, actually, nevermind, it's nothing important."

You furrowed your eyebrows, confusion obvious on your face. "No, Hazel, you can talk to me."

"No, it's fine," she said, avoiding your gaze. "I'm gonna go get my gym clothes from my locker and get changed, cause, y'know," she gestured at her bloodied white shirt. 

"Okay-" you had barely gotten the word out before she was gone.

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You immediately started to worry if you had done something wrong. Did I say something that made her change her mind? Is there something I did that made her angry? Why didn't she-

"Y/n?" Hazel's voice cut through your thoughts. "Could you get me some paper towels? Some blood dripped down onto my chest."

"Yeah, of course," you called back, walking over to the side of the locker room she was in. You stopped short in front of her, the realization that she didn't have a shirt on making your brain short-circuit. Her back was turned as she dug through her locker, so she didn't notice you. She had on a simple black sports bra, and for the first time you noticed a beauty mark on her lower back. You had to swallow down the urge to kiss her and that beauty mark. You averted your eyes, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable. 

"Here," you said just as she found a shirt. She turned around and quickly tugged her shirt on, taking the paper towels from you. "Thanks."

You just nodded, not trusting yourself to say anything. 

"Thanks for cleaning me up, by the way. You really didn't have to do that."

"Um, I kind of did, since I was the one who fucked up your nose." The two of you shared a laugh, and your gaze flicked down to her mouth, where you noticed a bit of dried blood. 

"Here, let me just..." you took a paper towel and stepped close to her. You heard her inhale sharply, which made your cheeks warm. You gently wiped her lip until the blood was gone.  "There," you breathed, not making any move to leave this space, this space where you were so close together that you could feel her breath on your cheeks and the heat coming off her body. She glanced at your lips once, twice, and you finally, finally gave into the urge and pressed your mouth to hers.

She kissed you back eagerly, working her jaw and letting you taste her. She tasted a bit like blood but there was something else there, something sweet and warm and perfect. Her hand came to cup your face, and you put your arms around her neck, sighing contentedly into her mouth. The way she was kissing you enveloped you whole, the warm feeling spreading throughout your entire body. You buried your fingers in her hair as you sucked gently on her bottom lip, which made her shudder. You were ridiculously happy that you had this affect on Hazel, that you could make her feel the same way she made you feel. 

When the two of you finally broke apart, her cheeks were flushed, her hair mussed and her lips swollen. I did that, you thought in a daze. You both grinned at one another, high off of each other.

"Wait, you're into girls?!" Hazel exclaimed.

"Was that not made clear by our make out just now? Or my extremely lesbian charm bracelet?" You laughed.

She blushed. "Well-I didn't want to, um, get my hopes up." 

You so wanted to kiss her again. "Really?"

"Yeah. I've had a thing for you for like, a while."

You kissed her again, savoring the way Hazel touched you and moved her lips against yours. You had never felt so alive, hyper-aware of every little sound she made: the slight moan that escaped her lips as you tugged her hair, the way she shivered when you brought your hands down to her hips and pulled her closer to you, her shuddery breath when you pulled away to breathe. 

"We should probably go back," you whispered against her lips.

"Yeah," she agreed, but neither of you moved a muscle. You glanced down at her lips, and she gave you what you wanted, kissing you sweetly, slowly, like you had all the time in the world. You quickly found that you would never get tired of her tongue sliding over yours, the heat of her mouth making you warm all over. Kissing her was a sensation you'd been waiting for your entire life. Her hand cupping your face, the other resting on your hip, and you wanted nothing more than to kiss her in that dingy locker room forever. Unfortunately, life had other plans.

"Guys?" You heard a familiar voice approaching. The two of you broke apart quickly, trying to act like your tongues hadn't been inside each other's mouths two seconds ago, but the damage was done: Isabel had clearly seen and was grinning, her eyes alight with happiness. 

"They're not dead!" She called to the rest of the group, who were one by one coming in behind her. "They were just...um..."

"Fucking like the horndog gays they are," sighed PJ. 

"What-no-" Both you and Hazel sputtered, faces reddening.

"In the school locker rooms, guys?" Josie wrinkled her nose. "That's just nasty."

"We weren't-we just kissed!" You said, trying to control the grin on your face. 

"Sureeeee," Sylvie waggled her eyebrows obnoxiously. 

The rest of the group continued to tease you as you walked out of the locker room and back into the gym. You found that you really didn't mind it, though. Your lips were still tingling and you felt giddy and happy. Hazel held your hand, her warm fingers enveloping yours, and gave you a shy grin. You squeezed her hand and leaned your head on her shoulder as you walked, thankful that punching her in the face had led to all of this.