Memorial Day Party
by The Scribbler

The party seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, it was Memorial Day, the weather was going to be wonderful and it would be a chance to catch up with a bunch of people that we hadn’t seen in a while. We even decided to cast the net a little wider, and invite some people who had moved away but still kept in touch. It would be a kind of reunion from the old days. Back then, when our girls were growing up and playing soccer, we’d had weekend parties quite often.

Neither Gillian – my wife – nor I even considered that old arguments might have been festering for years. Only afterward did we remember that Saturday afternoon at Wireless Hill Park, when two women had almost come to blows at the conclusion of a soccer game. Even then, we couldn’t remember what it had been about. Obviously the two women involved had remembered though.

One was Lacey, a tall well-built redhead who’d lived in the newer part of our development years ago. Gillian is 5’11” so I guess Lacey was 5’7” or 5’8”, slender but curvy with a nice figure that she was fond of showing off in tight jeans and t-shirts. Her hair fell mid-way down her back and was that dark red color they call Titian. She was fond of playing with it when she was talking to me, a flirtatious smile on her face as though she knew I was trying hard not to stare at her breasts. Her younger daughter had been in our eldest daughter’s class at school and they had wound up on the same soccer team. Her husband was the assistant coach for a while, but then he took a job way over on the other side of town and they had eventually moved out of the area.

The other was Michelle, a striking blonde with a tangle of wild hair. A few years younger than Lacey, she was also about 5’7” and maybe a little heavier but if so, it was all in the right places. She also dressed to impress, favoring short skirts and tight tops. My favorite memory of her was at a pool party at her house some years ago, when she wore a white bikini that went almost completely transparent when wet. She spent a lot of time wet that day, and all the guys spent a lot of time finding excuses to be out by the pool. Our wives weren’t at all amused but Michelle didn’t seem to care. That was just the way she was.

Eventually we managed to reconstruct what the whole thing was about, with the help of the gossip grapevine over the ensuing days. Apparently Michelle’s eldest daughter had been all set to receive a pass and make a shot for goal right outside the penalty box, but Lacey’s youngest kid, on the same team, had cut the pass off, trapped the ball and took her own shot that wrong-footed the goal-keeper and sealed the match. They were both on the same side and it would have been no big deal if the scouts from the travel team hadn’t been there. As it turned out, the scouts had come up to Lacey’s daughter Kimber after the game and offered her a spot on the team, in earshot of Michelle and her kid.

The kids didn’t seem to care either way, but Michelle had made some nasty comment, and Lacey had gone ballistic, leaping to her daughter’s defense, so much so that their husbands and a couple of other guys had had to hold them back or they would have gone at it in front of the whole crowd. Their husbands eventually led them away but not before a lot of venomous things had been said in both directions. It had been the talk of the neighborhood for a few weeks but like all such things, it had eventually blown over and been forgotten. At least by the rest of us.

But I digress…back to the party…

There were at least 40 people there, and we were all spread between the rec room, the deck and the backyard around the pool. Things were all very friendly at the start. It took about an hour for the two of them to come face to face, and of course by then a row of empty wine bottles was already forming by the wet bar. I was at the grill, at the head of the stairs leading down from the deck to the pool, so I had an ideal view.

Michelle was dressed to kill in a wispy white strapless dress that hugged her generous rounded bust, gathered beneath her bosom, and then billowed out before ending not far below the tops of her thighs. It was just diaphanous enough to give a hint now and then of her body beneath, and it was quite obvious that she wore very little beneath it. She wore white sandals that showed her crimson toe-nails, on four-inch stiletto heels. Her hair was artfully tangled, tumbling onto her shoulders in a wild but carefully tousled look that took serious effort to achieve. A gold and sapphire pendant hung around her neck, with matching drop earrings. I drank her in with my eyes as she wandered down the steps to ground level, glass in hand.

Lacey had been down by the pool already, and her remarkable Titian hair drew my eyes to her wherever she was. She may have been a few years older than Michelle and Gillian, but she was certainly turning more than her fair share of heads that day. She wore a sleeveless, bottle green sheath dress that clung to her lithe figure, emphasizing her high, pointed breasts, her narrow waist and the sensual swell of her hips. Her spike-heeled slip-on sandals matched her dress, as did the emerald pendant that hung at her throat and just touched the top of her cleavage.

Michelle reached the bottom of the stairs, head turned left toward the pool, just as Lacey approached from the right, looking over her shoulder and laughing as one of the other women called out to her. Neither of them even saw the other until Lacey walked into Michelle, bumping her right arm and spilling her glass of white wine.

Michelle let out a groan of annoyance, and swatted at the stain on her dress, which was swiftly turning even more transparent over her right breast. “Dammit!”

Lacey turned in sudden surprise. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed, “I didn’t see…” Her voice trailed off as she realized who she was talking to. “You!”

“You!” Michelle’s voice echoed hers. A look of intense disdain passed quickly over her face before she composed herself. “It’s been a long time…” the unspoken ‘bitch’ hung in the air.

Lacey glared back at her. “Doesn’t look like the years have been kind to you, either.”

There was an ominous pause before Michelle smiled and asked sweetly, “How’s that daughter of yours doing? Knocked up and living in a trailer yet?”

Lacey’s eyes narrowed. “Actually, you couldn’t be more wrong,” she replied, struggling to keep her voice even. “She just finished her junior year in college, and she’s thinking about going on the law school when she graduates next summer.” It was her turn to smile. “That soccer scholarship made all the difference.”

Michelle bristled. At the time of course, I didn’t remember why, but Lacey’s barb had obviously struck a raw nerve. “Scholarship?”

“Yes, a college scout picked her up when she was on the travel team, senior year in high school, not long after we moved out to Oakwood, and she got full tuition and money toward books and living expenses.” Lacey’s eyes bored into Michelle’s. “That travel team was the best thing that ever happened to her. Gave her talent a chance to grow, and she never looked back.”

I watched the muscles grow tense across Michelle’s bare and shapely shoulders, though I was trying not to stare at her chest, her right nipple now plainly visible through her soaked dress. “So how many talent scouts did you need to blow to get them to take her?” Michelle shot back. Somebody nearby chuckled. All other nearby conversations had stopped now, and everyone was listening to the verbal slugging match.

A blush was forming at Lacey’s throat. I noticed her hand tremble. “Oh you mustn’t confuse me and my family with you and yours…honey.” The ‘honey’ dripped with malice. “Besides, I hear your daughter got turned down by all the good schools and she’s at community college. What’s she studying? Pole dancing?”

Michelle’s stinging slap caught Lacey on the cheek and whipped her head around. She stumbled a step to her right before she caught herself. Her hand flew up to her cheek and she stared at Michelle in disbelief for a second. “You…bitch!”

“Oh you have NO idea,” hissed Michelle. “You REALLY don’t want to see how much of a bitch I can be!”

“Talk’s cheap!” sneered Lacey in return. “Watch out, this time there won’t be anybody to save your skanky ass from the beating I’m going to give you!”

“Bring it!”

Lacey’s arm lashed out but instead of hitting Michelle as we all expected, she hurled her half-full glass of wine in the blonde’s face. Michelle stiffened, her face an impassive mask, though her eyes blazed. Everybody held their breath.

Michelle let out her breath in a long sigh, and turned away. I started to breathe a cautious sigh of relief, but then she handed her glass to the nearest onlooker and suddenly spun back toward Lacey. Her backhanded slap would have knocked the redhead off her feet if Lacey had still been there, but she saw the blow coming and stepped back just far enough that Michelle’s hand whizzed past her nose.

The force of her blow knocked Michelle off balance a little, and she took a step toward the stairs. “Whoops! Don’t fall, honey!” laughed Lacey. “Here, let me help you!” She thrust her now empty glass at a spectator, stepped forward and thrust a hand into Michelle’s tumbling tresses, jerking hard.

Michelle cried out in pain as her head snapped back. She tried to twist to her left to face Lacey, but the redhead grabbed her by the arm, holding her firmly to keep her in place while she tore at the blonde’s hair. Screaming, Michelle thrashed her free right arm wildly, staggering backwards, teetering on her heels. She rammed a lucky elbow into Lacey’s right breast, crushing it against the redhead’s ribs.

Lacey let out a loud UNNGHH! and let go of Michelle’s hair, allowing the blonde to wrestle her arm free and turn to face her assailant. “Oh bitch, you have done it now!” she snarled, her hair even more tangled than usual, her face flushed with anger beneath her tan. She leapt at Lacey, slamming her hands against Lacey’s shoulders, sending her reeling backwards. The crowd parted around Lacey as she tried to keep her balance, but her heel caught on the edge of the flagstones and she went down on her butt on a narrow strip of grass that separated the patio from the poolside. Her long slender legs flew up in the air, wide apart, and we all discovered in no uncertain terms that Lacey wasn’t wearing panties under her dress. There were chuckles and murmurs of approval from the onlookers.

Michelle laughed, staring at Lacey’s exposed crotch as the redhead struggled to pull her dress down. “Nice show! I guess that scholarship can’t be that great…seems like you can’t afford underwear!”

Lacey shrieked in anger and embarrassment. She rolled over and got up on her knees, facing the pool, her back to Michelle and the rest of us, intent on fixing her dress. She wriggled it down to cover the pale triangle of flesh on here briefly bare buttocks. Tan lines, I thought. I’ve always been fond of tan lines.

Michelle wasn’t done with her yet. She strode forward onto the grass and now it was her turn to claw her fingers into Lacey’s hair, wrenching her head back viciously. Lacey squealed and glared up at the blonde, her face contorted in pain as Michelle loomed over her. “I’ll teach you to diss me, you whore!” Michelle drew her arm all the way back, and I noticed her fist was clenched tight. This was no slap coming at Lacey. This was a full-on knuckle-ball sandwich, as my wife liked to say.

The punch was partway to its target when Lacey’s elbow hammered into Michelle’s firm belly. Michelle doubled up as her breath rushed out in a loud OOOPH! She grabbed her belly with both hands as she folded over Lacey’s shoulder.

“Not like that, you won’t!” sneered Lacey. She reached up and snagged the clawed fingers of both hands into Michelle’s hair, dragging the blonde’s head further down, her shoulder pressed into Michelle’s belly. Whipping herself forward from her waist, Lacey sent Michelle flying forward, her head crashing into the neatly mown grass. She tumbled head over heels, her feet slamming into the poolside pavement with twin staccato clicks of her stilettos. Her short dress rode up around her waist as she landed, revealing a tiny white thong that left little to the imagination.

Michelle rolled onto her side, obviously a little dazed, and pushed herself up on one elbow. She shook her hair out of her eyes and a few wisps of grass fluttered downward. Lacey reached her feet. She took a stride toward Michelle and her heel sank deep into the grass, making her wobble dangerously. She lifted her foot, bent and tore off her sandal, hurling it at Michelle’s face. The blonde ducked, the missile passed over her head and landed in the pool behind her, but the sudden movement made her lose her balance and she fell onto her side again.

The redhead kicked off her other shoe. “You got some nerve complaining about me showing my ass!” she hissed, gazing down at Michelle’s large, dark nipples thrusting through her soaked and almost transparent dress. “You look like the loser in a low rent wet t-shirt contest!” She took another stride toward Michelle, and her foot caught the blonde in the ribs just under her left breast, sending her sprawling backwards with a loud groan of pain. She rolled over on the flagstones, coming to rest on her side once more, right at the edge of the pool, facing Lacey and clutching her injured ribs with one hand.

“You’re so fond of being wet, why don’t you take a swim?” the redhead taunted, advancing on the gasping Michelle. She launched another kick, aiming lower this time, for the blonde’s belly, a powerful blow that would knock whatever breath remained from her foe and send her over the edge into the pool.

Michelle threw an arm out to fend off the kick, without success. Her eyed bugged wide as Lacey’s foot rammed into her midriff, and she let out a strangled cry. Instinctively she wrapped her arms around Lacey’s lower legs, and a sudden wicked smile shone through her grimace of pain. “You…first…bitch!” she gasped, as she let herself fall backwards. Lacey teetered, trying to kick free of Michelle’s grasp and keep her balance, but she lost that battle and both women went into the water with a titanic splash.

The blonde surfaced first, catching hold of the edge of the pool and wiping the water out of her eyes. She swayed unsteadily as she tried to balance on the bottom of the pool in high heels, something I’ve never tried but which I can’t imagine would be easy. Her dress was plastered against her curvaceous body, rendered so sheer by the water that she might as well not have worn it. Everybody was getting an eyeful as she turned to hunt for her enemy.

Lacey surfaced a few feet away, coming out of the water like that scene from Little Mermaid. Her long red hair hung over her face like a curtain, and she whipped her head back, her hair describing a perfect arc in the air, spraying a dozen onlookers with droplets of water. She blinked the water out of her eyes, just in time to meet Michelle’s fist plunging in toward her face. That brief instant of warning saved her nose as she turned her head a fraction to the right, but the blonde’s punch caught her just under her left eye and sent her flying off her feet, backwards into the water again.

“C’mere, skank!” yelled Michelle, lunging forward. She reached beneath the surface, grabbed Lacey by the shoulder straps of her dress and hauled her up. She threw a wild punch at Lacey’s face again, but her heels slipped on the smooth bottom of the pool. She wobbled sideways and the blow went wide. Lacey, barefoot, was more surefooted and her fist connected with the side of Michelle’s head right behind her ear, knocking her off her feet. She hit the surface face first and went under.

Lacey lunged after her, plunging her hands beneath the water and getting her fingers into Michelle’s hair. Jerking the blonde violently round toward her, she aimed a knee up into Michelle’s belly. The water impeded her movements though, and the blow had little force behind it.

Michelle reached up, clutching at Lacey’s shoulders, grasping at the straps of her dress. She dragged herself up on her foe, but her hands slipped on Lacey’s wet skin. She slipped back, dragging Lacey’s dress down, pinning the redhead’s arms and baring her chest. There were several delighted whoops from the watching crowd. I mentally noted that Lacey had tan lines up top, too.

“Enjoying the show?” I glanced sideways. Gillian stood there smiling, sipping a glass of wine. She handed me a fresh beer.

“Damn right,” I replied. I didn’t see any sense in lying. Gillian was too smart to fall for it anyway.

Lacey screamed as she struggled to free her arms before Michelle could clamber back to her feet and attack her again. She wriggled her shoulders, slipping her arms out of the confining dress, ignoring her bare breasts, which were surprisingly high and firm for a woman her age. Her nipples were pink and swollen from the cold water.

She threw a punch at Michelle’s face as the blonde came to her feet. Michelle staggered again as she tried to dodge, this time to her own advantage as Lacey’s fist skimmed past her ear. She reached out and grabbed hold of Lacey’s arm at the elbow, jerking the redhead toward her, spinning her round and getting her other arm around Lacey’s neck in a chokehold. “Gotcha now, bitch!”

Lacey’s back arched, her pert breasts thrust into the air as Michelle pulled viciously on her neck. She reached up to grab Michelle’s encircling arm, her nails digging deep into the blonde’s flesh. Michelle shrieked in pain but only tightened her grip. Lacey’s face was going crimson, her eyes wide. She twisted her body to the left, opening up Michelle’s torso for the elbow she drove back hard into the blonde’s ribs. Michelle grunted, clenching her teeth against the pain. Lacey slammed her elbow back again, screaming out with the effort, and Michelle’s louder scream of pain echoed hers.

The blonde twisted Lacey to her right, throwing her off balance and gaining herself a momentary respite. She leapt upward, getting her other hand onto Lacey’s shoulder, leaning forward, bearing the redhead with her, forcing Lacey’s head beneath the surface of the water.

Lacey squirmed frantically to free herself, throwing her elbows back with all her might, hitting Michelle in the belly and sides. The blonde groaned and held on grimly, until Lacey’s struggles began to weaken. Only then did Michelle straighten up and haul the gasping redhead upright. Lacey’s hair hung in dripping trails around her face, and her chest heaved as she gulped air into her lungs. “Ready to give up yet, skank!!??” hissed Michelle.

Lacey’s mouth worked as she struggled to find the breath to speak. Finally she gasped, “Fuck…you!”

Michelle groaned in mock disappointment. “Now that is gonna cost you!” She leaned in hard again, shoving Lacey’s face back under the water. Lacey fought even harder this time, panicking, her desperate struggles threshing the water into a maelstrom. She landed a few good blows on Michelle but the merciless blonde maintained her pressure on Lacey’s neck, holding her down until I began to wonder if she really intended to drown her. From the looks on the faces of several of the watchers, I wasn’t the only one. I was about ready to run down the steps, leap into the pool and drag Michelle off her before we had a murder on our hands, when Michelle finally let her up again. “How about now? She put her head close to Lacey’s and yelled, “Let’s hear you say it!!!”

Lacey sagged in her arms, clearly beaten. Her head lolled forward. Suddenly she straightened though, and her head snapped back with frightening force. Michelle managed to tuck her chin down and her quick reaction prevented the head butt from busting her nose, but the back of Lacey’s skull smacked her right between the eyes. She let out an explosive cry of shock and pain, and her hold on Lacey’s neck slackened. Lacey wrenched herself free and stumbled away, coughing.

Michelle stumbled backwards, hands to her face. She slipped, tripped and went under, narrowly avoiding smashing her head into the edge of the pool. She came up while Lacey was still coughing up water some distance away. She glared at the redhead for a second, obviously torn between attack and retreat, but she turned, grasped the pool ladder and heaved herself awkwardly upward, her shoes making it difficult for her to climb.

“What’s up…bitch?” panted Lacey from the far side of the pool. Her face had begun to recover some of its color. She began wading toward the ladder, coming after Michelle, half-naked, her dress down around her hips. “Leaving…so soon? It’s just…getting interesting!”

Michelle reached the top of the ladder, stumbling away from the edge of the pool. She glanced over her shoulder, saw Lacey striding toward her with new confidence, and retreated a few more steps before she steadied herself on a patio table while she bent over and unbuckled the ankle straps from her sandals. “Oh I’m nowhere near done with you yet, you no good bitch!” she called out, tossing them aside.

She stepped away from the table, dripping water, her dress clinging to every curve. Her face was red, her full bosom heaving with anger and exertion. She reached down and pulled her dress away from her legs, but it immediately fell back and clung again. “Ah, screw it!” she exclaimed disgustedly. She took hold of the hem of the dress and peeled it off over her head, leaving her in nothing but the miniscule thong. Several wolf whistles echoed around the yard.

Bundling the soaked dress up in a ball, she hurled it at Lacey who was half-way up the ladder. Heavy with water, it struck the redhead full in the face, sending her crashing back into the pool with a cry of mingled pain and fury.

Michelle stopped to shake the water out of her hair, before she strode purposefully toward the poolside, ready to intercept Lacey as she began to slowly mount the ladder again. “Time for round two, slut!”

She lunged for Lacey, but the redhead put on a sudden burst of speed, leaping off the ladder and crashing full tilt into Michelle. Their bare bodies came together with a wet slap that I could hear from the deck. Michelle was slightly heavier but Lacey had the force of her charge working for her, and she barreled the blonde backward onto the table. The edge caught Michelle across her bare buttocks, and she slammed down hard with Lacey on top of her. Glasses scattered in all directions, though they were plastic and therefore no danger. We’d had accidents by the poolside before, and knew better than to use real glasses. The almost full bottle of Rosemount Chardonnay that flew off the table and spilled its contents into the bushes was a major loss however. Gillian and I both groaned.

The women’s momentum carried them both over the table and off the other side, falling to the flagstones in a welter of arms and legs. Lacey gave us all another flash of spectacular snatch, and she seemed to get the worst of the fall. Michelle regained her feet first, and charged Lacey as the redhead rose, slamming her shoulder into Lacey’s belly, driving her backwards onto the table again.

The redhead’s legs flew wide and Michelle stepped between them, against the edge of the table, leaning over and launching her fist at Lacey’s face. Lacey twisted her head and shoulders desperately to the side, and Michelle howled in pain as her knuckles smashed into the hard fiberglass table top. The onlookers grimaced as she clasped her injured hand to her chest. That had to hurt.

Though trapped on the table, Lacey was far from done. Her long legs came up around Michelle’s waist, pulling her in tight, ankles locked behind her back, trapping her in place. Lacey reared up off the table, back arched, supporting herself on one arm as she slammed the other fist up under the blonde’s chin. Michelle’s head flew back with a loud UNNGHH!!! of pain.

Lacey showed impressive strength as she used the leverage of her legs around Michelle’s waist and the strength of her firm abs to pull herself up against the blonde’s body, getting one hand behind Michelle’s neck as the other battered her face.

Michelle pulled her hands up to protect her face. The first punch got through and hit her in the corner of the mouth, but she blocked the second though the impact must still have hurt even through her hand. Lacey leaned back for a third blow, but this time she aimed not for Michelle’s face but for her bare left breast. Her fist slammed into the soft flesh right over the hard nipple, twisting the knuckles as she hit. Michelle screamed and hunched over. She dropped one hand from her face, holding her arm across her chest, her face twisted in pain. She tried to back away but Lacey’s legs held her fast, and the redhead’s next blow rammed in under her protective arm, slamming into her upper belly just under her ribs. “My turn, whore!” the redhead screamed triumphantly.

The blonde’s belly muscles were firm and taut but not used to that sort of punishment. Her eyes bugged out, her mouth open in a wide ‘O’ as the air rushed out of her. Her scream of pain came out as a breathless gasp. Lacey didn’t let up. I could see the muscles of her thighs ripple as she squeezed her legs tight around Michelle, trying to stop her recovering her breath. I wondered if Lacey had done this before. If she had, I regretted missing it.

Michelle groaned, fighting to draw breath. Her face grew red as Lacey poured on the pressure, still slamming blows into the blonde’s upper body, making her jerk and squirm in the grip of Lacey’s strong thighs, her bare breasts bouncing and jiggling with each impact. “Payback’s a bitch!” roared the redhead.

That seemed to galvanize Michelle. “Payback???” she croaked, her lips twisting into a snarl. “Oh, I’ll give you payback!” She snatched her hands away from her face and chest, abandoning her protective posture, grabbed Lacey by her sodden hair and whipped forward, slamming her foe down hard onto the table with Michelle’s full weight on top of her.

Lacey cried out with the impact, and everything that remained on the table jumped and either fell off or fell over. Lacey’s hand slipped from Michelle’s neck, and the blonde jerked herself upright, bringing both her fists up high. Lacey pushed up onto one elbow again, grasping for Michelle, but the blonde smashed both her fists down into Lacey’s chest, flattening her breasts, knocking her back onto the tabletop with a shriek of pain.

“Proud of those abs, aren’t you, bitch!” Michelle hissed. She pulled her right fist back and pounded it into Lacey’s belly, seemingly trying to drive her navel into her spine. Lacey screamed. “How do they handle that?” She hammered her left into Lacey with a ferocious grunt of effort.

The redhead jerked up off the table, her back arched, face set in a grimace of fierce determination, legs twitching as she tried desperately to squeeze ever harder on Michelle’s waist. She let out a long, drawn out cry of resolve, echoed by Michelle’s groan of pain as Lacey’s legs crushed her innards. “Let go, bitch!” gasped the blonde, pounding savagely at Lacey’s body with her fists. Lacey got her arms up to block but Michelle blasted through her guard in a frenzy of fists, battering her beleaguered belly with a barrage of blows. The redhead’s cries of pain became sharper and more urgent as her defenses gradually gave way.

The pace was beginning to tell on Michelle too however. The rain of punches grew steadily slower, weaker, as the exertion and the lack of air began to tell on the blonde. She drew back her fist again, and Lacey tensed, bracing herself for the next blow that would no doubt finish her. Michelle paused, readying herself, and Lacey saw her chance.

With a scream she threw her arms up, nails hooked, clawing for Michelle’s face. The blonde instinctively jerked her head backward, arching her back, and Lacey’s nails instead drug into her flesh at the base of her neck, raking downward, leaving bloody furrows in her flesh, all the way down to her breasts.

Michelle bellowed in agony and hurled herself backwards, finally breaking free from the weakened grip of Lacey’s legs. She clutched her hands across her chest, face twisted in pain as she stumbled away from the table, staring down in horror at her badly scratched breasts. “You…fucking…dirty…” she struggled for words as well as for breath. “…CUNT!!!”

Lacey’s ruined abs didn’t give her the strength to sit up, but she rolled over onto her belly, groaning, and pushed herself weakly to her feet. She staggered, bent over, holding her battered belly, tears of pain running down her cheeks. “You…ought…to know,” she hissed, forcing the words out through clenched teeth.

The two women stood swaying unsteadily, glaring at each other with hatred, gathering their strength for another assault. There was an expectant silence throughout the yard. Nobody was willing to get between these two, and it was damn certain neither of them was going to give up. This fight would go until one or both of them were too beaten or exhausted to continue.

Michelle broke the impasse first. With a last venomous look at the deep scratches on her breasts, weeping blood and serum, she snarled and threw herself at Lacey. “I’ll kill you, you rotten skank!”

Her movements were clumsy from fatigue, and Lacey tried to dodge but she was in no better shape. Though she ducked out of the direct path of Michelle’s charge, the blonde got a hand into her swinging hair and yanked her around in a half circle with a jubilant “Gotcha!”

She jerked Lacey hard toward her and pulled her knee back to slam it up into her enemy’s face. Lacey screamed out as she stumbled forward, but she nevertheless threw a wild punch, probably on the presumption that the best defense is a good offense. I couldn’t say whether she was aiming where she did or whether it was just wild luck, but her fist nailed the blonde right in the middle of her little white thong. An couple inches further south and it would have been all over, but even so – I heard Gillian gasp.

A look of utter amazement flashed across Michelle’s face. She made a squeaking sound, the shock replaced by fear and then pain as her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She stumbled, trying to keep her feet even after that blow, and I marveled at her toughness. After a moment though, her legs buckled and she collapsed to her knees, her fingers still doggedly entwined in Lacey’s hair, dragging the redhead with her.

“Who’s got who now, whore??” hissed Lacey. She wrenched herself upright, crying out at the pain it cost her. The move pulled the pain-wracked Michelle up too and Lacey used the momentum to slam her knee up into Michelle’s chest. The force hurled the devastated blonde onto her back, tearing her hand free of Lacey’s hair, her despairing grasp sending Lacey stumbling forward several steps.

Michelle crashed backward over the low border that rimmed the flowerbed behind her, and slammed down hard in the earth, crushing a leafy plant under her. “Ah, shit,” I muttered to myself. “There goes one of the hydrangeas.”

Gillian sighed beside me. “Better call Joe the garden guy on Tuesday morning.”

I snorted. “What the hell am I going to tell him?”

She grinned. “Tell him a couple of wildcats had a fight in the backyard.”

I chuckled. “That’d be the exact truth.”

Michelle lay writhing in the dirt, clutching her crotch, wailing in agony. Dirt and mulch clung to her wet skin. This was it, I thought. She was finished.

Lacey staggered over to her, and stood staring down at her beaten foe. “That was for six years ago, you fucking sore loser bitch!” she panted. “This is for today! Let’s see how your abs hold up!” The muscles of her legs bunched as she bent her knees and, with a banshee shriek, she leapt in the air and came down on top of Michelle, both knees spearing into the blonde’s belly.

God knows how Michelle saw it coming – maybe it was just luck – but Lacey was in mid-flight when she rolled her legs to her left. Lacey’s knees barely missed Michelle’s side, and she screamed in frustration as they slammed into the soft earth of the flowerbed. She still had the advantage on Michelle and reached out to tear at the blonde’s hair, but the force of her leap pitched her forward and Michelle’s flailing elbow caught her in the side of the head at the same moment, knocking her sideways. She plunged face first into the tall rose bush at the rear of the bed, with a scream of anguish.

Apparently roused by the redhead’s scream, Michelle rolled back toward Lacey, releasing her grasp on her own tortured sex, gathering the last of her strength. Lacey was still trying to extricate her head from the sharp thorns when Michelle’s fingers twisted into her hair. “Looks like you got a problem there,” snarled the blonde with heavy irony. “Let me help you.” She hauled hard on Lacey’s hair.

Lacey shrieked in torment as Michelle dragged her head savagely out of the rosebush, the wicked thorns leaving deep gashes in her cheeks and forehead. She cursed and her hooked fingers reached down for Michelle’s face, but the blonde jerked her off balance and Lacey collapsed on her face beside Michelle.

With a roar of triumph, Michelle rolled onto the redhead, clutching Lacey’s hair in both hands, grinding her enemy’s face into the dirt. Lacey groaned and squirmed on her belly, trying to get her arms beneath her, but Michelle managed to scramble astride her waist, crying out as every movement of her legs sent bolts of pain coursing through her from her wounded loins.

She heaved upward, hauling Lacey’s head up out of the mulch. “Give it up, whore!” she screamed, then slammed the redhead down again. Lacey’s arms flopped weakly. She had nothing left. “Give!” Michelle jerked savagely at her neck, digging her face even deeper into the dirt.

Lacey managed to turn her head to the side, just enough to speak. “Stop! Stop!” she sobbed. “No more! Please!”

Michelle dragged her head up. “Louder! Let them hear you beg!”

Lacey spat dirt and leaves from her mouth. Her face was streaked with dirt and bloody scratches from the rose thorns. Her tears left pale tracks down her anguished face. “Please! No more! Stop! I’m…I’m sorry!”

“Damn right you are!” sneered Michelle. “Sorry ass, dirty fucking whore!” She pulled her arm back and smashed her fist into Lacey’s right ear, eliciting another scream of pain and a round of plaintive pleas from the ravaged redhead. Gripping Lacey by the head with both hands, Michelle leaned back and, with straightened arms, drove her face hard into the dirt one last time. Lacey went limp.

Michelle knelt there a moment, astride her defeated foe, gasping for breath, her whole body trembling. Somebody stepped forward to help her but, with a supreme effort of will, she raised a warning hand. “Not yet.”

It must have taken her a minute or more to climb painfully to her feet. We all watched in silence, awed that she could stand, amazed that she had survived that blow to her crotch that should have finished her. Sheer determination had kept her going, just as it did so now.

She bent, grasped the motionless Lacey by one shapely ankle and, with agonizing slowness, began to drag the redhead backward across the patio. Lacey’s arms twitched feebly and she moaned as her bare breasts scraped cruelly across the rough concrete flagstones, but she made no further attempt to fight back. Her dirt-smeared, tattered dress rode up around her waist and once more we all got a grandstand view of her bare ass and shaven nether lips. Nobody even made a comment at the point. We were all stunned.

Michelle stopped at the side of the pool, swinging the redhead around so that she lay along the edge. She dropped Lacey’s ankle and stood there a moment, her chest heaving, looking almost as bedraggled as her defeated enemy. “Look at me!” she ordered, in a voice that trembled with pain.

Slowly, Lacey rolled onto her side, staring up at Michelle through the matted tangle of her hair. She said nothing, but her lip trembled.

“You are a sorry ass bitch,” gasped Michelle, “and next time, you won’t get off so lightly.” She lifted a foot, planted it on the unresisting redhead’s shoulder, and shoved her roughly into the pool.

Only then did her eyes flutter and close, as her knees buckled and she sagged to her knees, her head hanging, as painful, exhausted sobs shook her shoulders.

“One thing’s for sure,” noted Gillian as Lacey’s husband Rick leapt into the pool to rescue her, and the rest of the crowd clustered around Michelle, “nobody’s ever going to forget this party!”

I took a long pull at my beer, and grinned. “No shit.”

And we were right.

THE END