The blast of the speakers caused Nazareth to squint. The sound was sharp to his ears as he stood in line behind Brendan. Brendan turned and gave him a similar look which turned apologetic. Moments later their tickets were scanned and they walked in to the sound of loud applause.
"Do you want drinks?" Brendan asked the woman in front of him.
"Sure honey, just the usual." Talli grinned and gave him a kiss. "We'll meet you at the usual spot." She walked off with Riley and Cass in tow.
Brendan shrugged and smile. "Looks like we're on drinks duty." He motioned with his head towards the drink stall.
"About time you came to a bout." Jez fell into step next to Nazareth as they followed Brendan.
Nazareth shrugged. He'd heard enough about it from Brendan and Talli, but it had just never struck him to go. "Sure, I guess. Women in tiny amounts of clothing being brutal? Not sure what took me so long."
Jez raised an eyebrow. "Don't you know we go for the sport?"
Nazareth laughed. "And what, just like you read the girlie magazines for the articles?"
"But the articles are good!" Jez pretended to be all innocent, but he couldn't hide the amusement in his eyes.
"Jeez do you want to go out on a date?" Brendan handed them two cans each. "Come on, we're missing the action!"
They made their way to the side of the stands, where the track opened up before them. The place was jam-packed with people of all walks. Some dressed in what looked like team clothing, others with face-paint, and Nazareth even spotted someone with a fluorescent green mohawk.
He looked down to see Talli grinning. "What did I tell you."
Nazareth nodded. "It's interesting all right."
The pa system wasn't the best, and it was near impossible to really understand what was being said, but he watched as a team of women on skates were introduced, each one waving to the crowd as her name was called out. They skated around a few times, some of them backwards, then forwards and another jumped over one of the girls lying on the track. It looked impressive.
"They're the called the Deadly Darlings." Talli yelled through the noise.
Brendan turned to him. "Deadly alright. What do you think of their team uniform?"
Nazareth nodded his head. There wasn't much left to the imagination. In fact he'd never in his mind put skates, elbow and knee-pads and helmets together with fishnet stockings and tiny disco shorts that could pass for boyleg panties.
It wasn't long before the next team came out, the Blindside Betties, dressed in similar red and black attire.
Nazareth's eyes scanned over the crowd again. It certainly was a mixed bunch: families, couples, alternatively dressed people, dyed and shaved hair, dreadlocks, piercings, tattoos, rockabilly and goth. You name it and they looked to be there. They didn't account for the majority, but they certainly stood out.
The whistle sounded and everyone cheered again. The next thing he knew, Talli had rattled off the basics at a million miles an hour. He tried to keep up, but before he could wrap his head around what she was saying, she was onto the next thing. At least he got that the girls with the star helmet covers were jammers and point scorers and the striped ones were pivots. He tried to follow it as best he as could but he couldn't quite work out the point scoring. At the end of the fifth jam, he could see that the Deadly Darlings and the Blindside Betties were evenly matched, with only eight points separating them on the leaderboard. The lead had switched a few times, but it looked like the Darlings were pushing to increase the lead.
He looked at Brendan who seemed to be completely engrossed before throwing up one of his hands. "What the hell? How the hell did she get sin binned for that?"
Talli looked at Brendan sideways with a smirk on her lips.
Nazareth watched one of the girls skate around the outside of the rink and take a seat.
"She got sent off for an illegal block." Talli looked at Nazareth.
"Garbage it was illegal, that was a great hip check." Brendan took a swig of his can.
Talli shrugged. "Well her elbow got in the way."
When half-time approached, Nazareth could see that the crowd was as much there for the thrills and spills as they were for cheering their teams on. He had to admit he was impressed. The flat track was concrete, and when some of the girls came down, the came down hard. There wasn't any protection for their hips or arses, and much of the crowd cringed when a girl crashed, chorusing with an "ooo" that resounded through the venue.
As much as he thought the crowd was varied, the girls seemed even more so. They were all shapes and sizes, something he hadn't seen before, but regardless they were incredibly fit—especially the jammers. As the bout went on he could see that there was a method behind the madness, but he still couldn't quite get a grasp on the technical aspects that the refs could easily see, making the difference between an effective block or getting sin binned as well as scoring points or not. Taking his final sip, he squeezed the can in his hand.
"Do you want another one?" Cass looked up at him, her cute round face breaking into grin under her moussy brown wavy hair. It cascaded down her back as she turned and looked at both Brendan and Jez.
"Sure, why not."
Cass grabbed the can out of his hand. "That's okay, I'll chuck this on the way there. C'mon girls, it's our turn."
Nazareth put his hands in his pocket and looked around. People were moving about during half-time: toilet breaks, food and more drinks.
"What do you think?" Brendan grinned.
"It's different."
Jez laughed incredulously. "There are hot women skating around in tiny shorts and all you've got to say is that it's different? Either there's something you're not telling us or you've completely lost your mind."
Nazareth laughed. The three of them had been friends since elementary school when Jez pushed Brendan over in the playground and sat on him, and Nazareth had then pushed Jez back off Brendan. All three of them were reprimanded for fighting at school. Afterwards they were literally inseparable, always finding new ways to get themselves into the trouble, and that included admiring the ladies. Jez had always had a bit of love 'em and leave 'em streak. He loved the chase but once he had them, he didn't know what to do with them. So it was a shock when he fell for Cassandra. She didn't go weak at the knees for his dark-haired, blue-eyed, bad-boy looks. They had fun and afterwards, she never called, didn't run after him and was friendly but not overly familiar when they ran into each other at social engagements.
Nazareth grinned to himself, recalling his friends dilemma. Cassandra drove him out of his mind until the penny dropped and he realised he had to have her, which of course meant a lesson in humility.
Brendan on the other hand, despite the playground incident turned out to be a bit of a sports jock. Thick dirty blond hair and light-blue eyes, the girls nearly fell over themselves in the bleachers during a game trying to get his attention. The only difference was, he really was a nice guy, fully aware of the fact that he could sleep around but somehow always opted for the steady girlfriend route.
Nazareth's mind drifted to his own school days. He loved women and had, had his fair share of relationships but there was always something a little lacking. He couldn't quite put his finger on it and even sometimes his friends thought he was mad. It was always, "What happened to whatshername? She was nice.".
"Hey there, it must be good where you are." Cassandra snapped him out of his musings and handed him another can.
"Thanks Cass." She winked at him and went over to Jez who put his arms around her and muzzled her hair.
"Hey Naz, how are you?" Riley tipped her fedora back to look up at him.
Nazareth's reply was lost in the cheering as the second bout started.
Riley smiled and put her thumbs up. She'd heard him and obviously William was good.
There was a small lull where the crowd was somewhat subdued. In that moment a woman skated up, looking like a cigar girl on wheels.
"Hey guys, how are we tonight? I've got stubby holders, badges, key rings and raffle tickets." She looked at the group with small smile on her red lips.
Nazareth vaguely heard everyone around him say something and it took him moment to realise he was staring with his mouth hanging open. He quickly closed it and her eyes suddenly snapped to his, dark and intense.
"Hey." Her smile widened as she gave him a cheeky look and skated a little closer, standing almost eye to eye with him. "I can see you haven't picked a team." Her voice lowered. "Are you a derby virgin?"
Are you a derby virgin? The line echoed in his brain and all he could do was think about the way she'd said it. He'd never heard a line with the word virgin in it sound sexier than it did in that moment and suddenly he was thinking of the woman in ways that were not gentleman-like in least.
She raised her eyebrow slow and gave him a smirk as she held up two stubby holders, her black bangles jangling against a studded cuff. "Unfortunately it's only a single bout tonight so it's a choice between the Deadly Darlings or the Blindside Betties."
Nazareth snapped himself out of it and looked at the stubby holders. Both of them sported cheesecake style pin ups on the front, but the Blindside Betties character reminded him a bit more Bettie Page.
He gave her his most dazzling smile. "The Blindside Betties I guess. Thank you."
She beamed. "Good choice! That's ten dollars."
He handed her the money and she took his can from him and put it in the stubby holder and handed it back.
"You know," She drawled. "the Betties often come from behind." She winked and like that she was off, skating to the next group of people to peddle her wares.
Nazareth stopped his eyes from following her and tried to concentrate on the scoreboard, but all he could see was her standing in front of him. Her bangs weren't blunt. They looked like they'd been rolled up. One side of her head had been shorn, but not completely bald. Her face was pale and heart-shaped with dark smokey eyelids and eyes that looked almost black. She wore fishnets, tiny black shorts and what looked like a corset but he couldn't tell as she was wearing black cardigan over the top. Her legs looked like they went to heaven or hell and back. It took him a moment to realise that Jez was talking to him.
"Holy shit! She was absolutely smokin'!"
Brendan nodded in agreement and Nazareth pretended to be nonchalant about the whole exchange, but the truth was he was almost speechless at the reaction she'd provoked from him. All three of them turned and watched as she skated to yet another group of people, further and further away from them.
Nazareth felt a twinge in his gut. He wanted to speak to her, find out her name but that would be too obvious.
Jez shook his head. "Her legs..."
"Honey put your tongue back in your mouth." Cassandra rolled her eyes. "Do you want me to hook you up?"
Jez closed his mouth. "Aww why would you say that." He gave his best little boy's look. "Besides, all I want is here."
He whispered something in her ear and Cass laughed rolling her eyes. "Well if you're a good boy maybe I'll just put on some skates and nothing else."
Jez choked, his eyes widening. The both of them started kissing, forgetting about everything else.
