She had finally silenced her phone when she had pulled up to a field on the brink of the woods, cars lined up on the edge. She practically flew out of her car, not even taking the time to shut or lock her door. 

"Theodora!" She pushed past the crowd of adults, sipping on beers and laughing. She glared at the referee once he noticed her. She grabbed the referee's shirt and shook him. "Call the match off, dumbass! Now!" Her eyes widened as he frowned, gripping her wrists. 

"Get out of here, kid." He spat. 

She dropped her hold on him, snatching her phone. She flashed him her screen and his face dropped. "Call this match off now, or I'll call the cops and this whole place will be shut down." Her thumb hovered over the call button and her wild eyes were fixated on the older man. "All I want is this one match to end. I am taking the ginger home, away from this crap. Once we leave, I'll pretend this place never existed."

He sighed, letting his wrinkles disappear. "Alright. Just don't ever bring your ass back here." He grumbled, raising his arms as he walked into the field. "This match is coming to a premature end!" He smiled irritably as the crowd groaned, throwing emptied beer cans at him. "I know, I know! But the next match is going to be even better!" 

Georgia hopped over the waist-high wooden fence and stormed to the ginger that swayed confused in the middle of the field. 

Theo looked around through her swollen eye, clutching her arm. "Wait..." She breathed. "It's not..." She grit her teeth and hollered. "It's not over yet! It's not over-" 

"Stop it, Theodora." Georgia whispered, pulling her bloodied head into her chest. "Calm down. I'm taking you to my house and I'm going to take care of your wounds, and you're going to rest until you are okay." 

Georgia pulled the bloodied girl to her car, situating her comfortably and buckling her in. Georgia ran her thumb over the girl's forehead, wiping fresh blood off her skin.

They had only pulled out of the field when Theodora had begun crying, her knees pulled to her chest. "I'm such a loser." She sobbed, letting her swollen eye turn even more red. Blood flowed from her nose onto her shirt but she paid it no mind. "What the hell am I even doing anymore?" 

Georgia had took Theo's hand from her head, lacing her fingers between the ginger's calloused ones, squeezing as she turned a corner. "Stop wasting breath, Theo. Calm down. Stress makes blood flow. If you lose too much you might pass out." 

"Okay." She muttered quietly, squeezing Georgia's palm. "Okay." 

--------

"Lift your head a little." Georgia instructed, lifting Theo's chin. She smiled as Theo winced, squeezing her forearm. "It's okay, you're doing great. Your face is almost done." She peeled a bandaid and hovered it over a part of busted skin. 

It was like a puzzle, figuring out how to place bandages where they would cover the wounds completely. A really awkward, too close for Georgia's heart kind of puzzle. 

"One last bandaid..." She mumbled, her tongue barely protruding through her lips, signaling her concentration. 

"Are you done?" Theo asked, opening her eyes as well as she could. 

Georgia paused looking at the mess of a girl in front of her. Her heart pounded against her chest and the look on her face made her stomach knot. The battered girl looked up at her with shallow eyes, little to no thought behind them, pain echoed across her face.

"You should really stop all this fighting. You're only self destructing every time you go to a ring. And no matter how much you win, or how much money you get from it, you are losing so much Theo." Georgia frowned as her eyelids grew heavy. "You're losing the value of yourself. You are losing you, and it's not worth it." 

Theo smiled. "Since when did you become a poet? It's a funny look on you..." 

"I'm serious, Theo." Georgia clenched her fists, tears slipping from her brown jewels. She ran her arm across her face but it didn't help. Eventually, her heart poured out of her eyes and into her sleeves. 

"I think..." Theo began, picking at the skin around her thumb. "I think you should stop using me for experiences. I don't think it's working out well." Her voice shook as Georgia's eyes widened. 

"Why...?" Georgia whispered, her voice hardly air. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm running away. I can't stay in this town. I can't..." Theo confessed, her expression melting with too many emotions Georgia couldn't understand. "I hate it here!" She cried. 

Georgia furrowed her brows. "What the hell are you talking about?" She waltzed over to the broken ginger, pushing her into the mattress, pinning her under her. "Say it again! I want to hear those dumb words fall out of your mouth again! Say it again!" She screamed. 

"I don't want to be here anymore!" Theo hollered. "There! And I mean it, too!" 

Georgia shook her head. "Shut up with that crap." She pulled her collar lower to bare the red mark Theo had left only hours before. "You did this! You are responsible for it!" She pressed her palm into her own chest, never breaking her gaze from Theo's. "You are responsible for this!" 

She pressed her palms onto Theo's shoulders. "You're not going anywhere! You're going to rest up and I'm gonna feed you lunch and dinner, and you're going to spend the night, and then you gonna take your happy ass back to school. Then your wounds will heal, and then you're gonna be your normal, snarky, whiny self." She lowered down to where her forehead touched Theo's and her hair fell around their faces.

"And that's final, Theodora." She muttered.