Riley had always been a girly girl with a rough and tumble streak in her to match any boy. As the two women came together again, Alice flashed back for a moment to a time when Riley had been young. 11 or 12, and she had found her with the neighbor boy in the front yard wrestling their hearts out. She had watched for a while, smiling as the kids laughed and tumbled about the grass, and she had laughed as Riley finally came inside covered in dirt and grass stains.
“Did you see me pin him mom??” She had asked, full of pride in herself. Alice had nodded, beaming at her as the boy followed her inside.
“I made you tap out!” He said, laughing, equally roughed up and in need of clean clothes.
“Yeah, but I had you pinned for a while!”
Alice had laughed at the two of them as they exchanged words and ushered the two of them upstairs to wash up.
SMACK! In the present, Alice cracked her fist across the side of Riley’s head, and Riley caught her just below the ribs at the same time. They grunted, and continued to attack each other. Riley’s face would’ve shown nothing but grim determination and rage to anyone who didn’t know her, but Alice did know her. Better than anyone. She could see that just below that surface, there was the same joy and excitement she had felt all those years ago when wrestling with the neighbor. She could almost hear her bragging about this fight the same way she had bragged then. Alice couldn’t deny that she felt it too. A sense of joy in letting loose with her daughter, a pride in both Riley and herself for their performance, and a desire to hold nothing back.
They were going at each other more intensely than either of them had originally thought they would, but there was nothing wrong with that in their minds. The women slugged it out on their knees for a bit longer before Riley wrapped her arms around Alice’s chest and drove her to her back. Alice’s legs snaked their way around Riley’s midsection and locked in. Their hands came together and clasped, interlocking fingers as they stared into each other’s faces. They pushed and struggled, Alice holding her daughter’s hands tightly. If Riley let go, she would have a clear path to a ground and pound set up, and Alice wasn’t going to let that happen. From her back however, she also knew her own options were limited.
As Riley used her weight to bear down on her, Alice acted fast and twisted her opponent’s wrists forcefully backward. Riley gritted her teeth against the pain, but eventually shouted out and her elbows buckled, allowing Alice to roll the two of them over, and put herself on top of her daughter. She slipped her hands free and grabbed Riley’s wrists, pinning them firmly to the ground.
“You done yet?” Alice asked, looking down at her daughter as she held her down. Riley’s only answer was to buck her hips, trying to unseat Alice. Her mother wouldn’t budge however, and met Riley’s resistance by pressing her knee down on her stomach. Riley groaned, the sound growing more and more subdued as Alice’s knee squeezed down on her. “I said…are you done?” Alice said through her heavy breathing.
“AGHHH!” Riley cried out in frustration, redoubling her efforts until she slipped a hand free. It immediately latched onto Alice’s hair. Riley gave it a tremendous yank to the side and Alice toppled off of her. In a tangle now, the two pulled hair and kicked out at each other with their feet, growling and yelping at each other, rolling and tossing each other all over the plush clean grass that James so pridefully manicured on his weekends home. Finally, Alice managed to take Riley’s back. She smirked to herself as she pushed Riley’s face down into the grass and dirt and held it there. It felt wrong, something that a schoolyard bully might do, but right now, it felt good.
“Remember when you liked to eat dirt?” She said tauntingly. Riley made a muffled noise that sounded like it would’ve been very vulgar if it had been discernable. Alice popped her free fist into the side of her daughter’s head a few times as she held her there, and Riley whimpered with every blow. Alice was sure she had Riley now, but her daughter gave an almighty heave, and managed to slip over onto her back. She was still under her mother, and needed to do something. She reached up with her hands and grabbed Alice’s face, squeezing her nails in. Alice howled, and clutched her daughter’s wrists firmly. “God DAMN IT!” Alice howled, in frustration and pain. “You wanna go there you little slut?!” She wailed, grabbing her opponent’s face in return. They squeezed, distorting each other’s features, and still held on as they rolled over onto their sides, facing each other.
“Come on!” Riley yelled, a little distorted through the hold her mother had on her. They howled and wriggled on the ground until they finally let go at the same time. Both women quickly got to their feet, and again were slugging it out. The thud of each blow that landed on face, head, body, wherever they could reach was thick on the air, even over the sound of both women’s cries of pain and effort. Again, they edged their way toward the garage, and the two ceased their punches to grab each other’s shoulders. They wrestled and spun and tried to push each other against the wall again. They collided with it together, and back and forth they began to go. First Riley was smashed against the vinyl siding, then Alice, and back again. Each impact rattled both of their bodies as they smashed each other against the wall. Alice finally slipped her arms down around her daughter’s waist and rammed her head into her stomach as she drove her against the wall. Riley gagged, and Alice stepped back and into the same spot again.
“Karma little girl.” Alice smirked as she slammed Riley into the wall once more, then shoved her hard into the grass. Riley gagged just as her mother had earlier, and got to her hands and knees just as Alice came rushing down on her. Alice pounced on her daughter’s back, driving her back to the ground. In a second, she had her arm snaked around Riley’s neck and rolled both of them onto their sides, wrapping her legs around her daughter’s midsection in the process. She squeezed with arms and legs, and was rewarded with a strained groaning from Riley. She loosened the pressure, and breathed into Riley’s ear.
“Are…you…done?” She asked.
“Suck a cock old woman.” Riley gasped out. Alice squeezed again, cutting her daughter’s airway off a bit more this time, and Riley kicked and thrashed until her mother loosened again.
“Say you’re done.” Alice growled. Riley answered in a string of curses and a renewed bout of thrashing. Alice cranked on the chokehold again, her muscles straining as she pressed. Riley made little sound this time, but still struggled. Once more, Alice loosened her grip.
“Sweetie it’s over.” Alice said, a slight tinge of worry in her voice. “Say it.” Riley shook her head. Alice tightened again, and felt her daughter’s struggles slow down. She was going to choke her own daughter unconscious before she gave up. Somehow, that didn’t feel right. But she wasn’t sure if it was because she loved Riley, or because she wanted so badly to hear her daughter submit to her. Just as Riley was on the edge of a blackout, Alice let go. Riley gasped before being shoved to her back and straddled by her opponent.
“Say it.” Alice drove her fist into Riley’s cheek. Then another from the other direction. Riley had tears in her eyes from the blows. Alice struck her again.
“Submit Riley. Say it.” Another fist, and Riley was openly beginning to cry, even as she tried to buck her mother off. Alice wrapped Rile’s hair twice over one hand and pulled her head up, smashing a fist into Riley’s jaw, putting her back on the ground.
“I’m done. I give.” Riley said through the sobs fighting their way through. Alice almost didn’t register the words. When she realized that Riley had given up, she got off of her, and set her eyes to looking for anything serious. Nothing was seriously injured, both of them were bruised, scratched, scraped, and bleeding in a few places, not to mention filthy…but nothing that would warrant a trip to the hospital.
“Are you okay?” Alice asked, breathing hard. Riley nodded and controlled her breathing to stop her tears from flowing.
“Come on.” Alice said, offering her hand to her daughter as she stood. “Let’s go get cleaned up and we can talk. Go break out the tequila you’ve been hiding in your room for a month. Riley’s sobs turned calmer and then to sniffling laughter at her mother’s comment. She had no idea how she knew about that, but somehow, it didn’t bother her.
Later….
The two of them had downed three shots of tequila a piece by now. Both women were freshly showered, and had tended to the wounds they had taken. They had met in the living room and sat on the couch together to talk. They had been slow and a bit awkward at first, but as the talk went on, and the liquor flowed, the two began laughing and screeching together as they always had before, reenacting the fight in a back and forth play by play as if it were a long past memory.
“I know it’s kind of a weird situation…” Riley said. “But thanks mom. I actually had a lot of fun.
Alice laughed a little, and nodded. “Actually, I did too.” The two of them talked for a while more, drank a little more, and eventually shared a hug….a very sore hug…and went off to bed.
Around 2am, Riley, who couldn’t sleep now, opened her phone and went to her text messages. Finding the name she wanted in her recent contacts, she typed her message and hit send.
“Girl….GUESS WHAT???”
