Becky: An Origin Story

[Tritch.]

P A R T    |    O N E

7/23/15

Atlanta, Georgia

Frederick Douglass High School

I hate summer school. But you know what I hate even more? Regular school. So I decided to suffer through one summer of classes so I wouldn’t have to suffer through next spring. I didn’t want to go to class on a hot Thursday in July, but it was a necessary evil. And at least there weren’t a ton of losers running around.

Summer school wasn’t that different from the regular, other than the fact that there were way fewer students and most of the teachers hated being there as much as we did. So it was fifth period, and I was sitting in the computer lab like I pretty much always was during that hour. The problem was I had forgotten my iPod in the backseat of my boyfriend’s convertible, so I didn’t have my earbuds in like I normally would. Annoying.

Even more annoying, because there was a group of four guys sitting a few computers behind me, crowded around watching some kind of sports videos. Normally I would just tune them out, pretend like they weren’t there, ignore them. But without the sweet, sweet sounds of Taylor Swift to drown out their voices, I had to listen to them. Well, I guess I didn’t have to, but I could definitely hear them. And it’s not like I had anything better to do.

“Did you see the way he totally murdered Decker with that spear? What a pussy!” I could’ve sworn they were talking about sports, but they seemed to somehow make a pretty quick leap to spear slaughtering and now I was even more intrigued than before.

“Man I wish we could wrestle like this at school instead of that stupid amateur shit. Play it again, Tony!” Now, I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure death by spear isn’t legal in any kind of wrestling, let alone high school. So I quietly spun my chair around and glanced over their shoulders. They were watching a fullscreen Youtube video of a big, muscular man. He rushed across the platform and threw his shoulders into this other guy’s ribs, and the guy went flying. Furthermore, the boys giggled like schoolgirls and acted like it was the coolest thing they’d ever seen.

That must be a spear. Hmm. My lip curled a little bit, it was kind of exciting. Tony scrubbed back again, playing the spear once more. By this time I had risen to my feet, crossing my arms as I moved slowly towards them, getting closer to the action on the tiny little screen. The boys cheered every time, even high fiving at one point. Tony scrubbed back another time, and this time he went back a little too far. The camera was zoomed in on the spear thrower’s face, and I -

“WAIT!” I blurted out, startling the boys. They all turned, a little red faced. Had they still not realized I was there? After giving them a second to adjust to the situation, I pointed at the screen, at the man’s face. “Him. What’s his name?”

The guy on the screen, the one throwing the spear… I couldn’t be positive, but he had an eery similarity to my next-door neighbor. He seemed a little angrier, but it had to be him. I’d watched him jog past my house shirtless enough times to recognize those tattoos, those muscles, the distinct way he shaved his beard.

“Uh, that’s the Avatar of Brutality,” one of the boys said, and I scrunched my brow, shaking my head.

“No, no I don’t care about that. His name. Is his name Joseph Evans?” The boys all looked around at each other, half laughing at me half confused as to why I cared. I put my hand on Tony’s shoulder, digging my nails in a little and expressing a very certain kind of demand on my face.

“No! Well, his name is Evans, but it’s not Joseph. His first name is Rex. Rex Evans,” I let go of his shoulder, my eyes narrowing once more at the face on the screen. I think he kept talking, perhaps it was to me perhaps it was to his friends. I didn’t care, I stopped listening. Why were these kids watching my neighbor beat somebody up on Youtube? No, why was my neighbor beating somebody up? Why was… urgh.

I spun around again, moving quickly back towards my computer and typing two very specific words into the Google search bar.

REX

EVANS

~|***|~

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Tritch.]

P A R T    |    T W O

8/7/15

Atlanta, Georgia

Shady Lane Cul de Sac

Things definitely took a turn in a direction I was not expecting. But let’s be honest, when I started digging into the history of my neighbor who gave us a fake name and was obviously trying to keep things hidden, how was I supposed to expect the next step would involve me being whisked into his house at gunpoint? Gdi Becky.

“Becky, I need you to focus, and listen to my words very carefully,” words? Who could listen to words at a time like this!? Perhaps blowing up the man’s spot on Twitter for everybody to see wasn’t the brightest idea. Ooo! Or maybe it was! Now there’s a paper trail. Or, rather, a cyber trail? Gah, I don’t know, I just don’t wan- “BECKY!”

“Please don’t kill me,” I muttered, my face buried in my hands. After I had called him out I headed right over here. Before I could even knock on the door, he swung it open and pulled me in by the wrist. That’s when I noticed the gun, he had a finger on the trigger and was hiding it kind of against his hip. He kept looking out the windows after he shut and locked the door, so I moved over onto the couch. Now he’s probably going to kill me! “Please don’t kill me!”

“Becky, jesus, I’m not- ugh,” he opened the drawer by the door, dropped the handgun in and pushed it shut. Was that supposed to make me feel better? Well, actually it kind of did. “I’m sorry for startling you, but when you said you knew my secret, and I read all that shit about blackmail, I wasn’t sure… what secret you knew.”

“I-I-I-” now I was stuttering. But I couldn’t tell if I was actually stuttering because I was still scared, or if it was just happening kind of naturally because I wanted to make him think I was still scared. Either way, there was definitely a stutter, and it was coming from me. “I just f-f-figured out who you are: Rex Evans, professional wrestler.”

A look of relief washed over him. That’s… not quite what I was going for. Wait, what other secrets did he have? If he wasn’t shocked and upset because I found out he was a wrestler, why did he hide his identity?

“Well I guess I kind of assumed this day would come. You kids and your internet. You didn’t tell anybody, did you?” I shook my head vigorously, turning myself on the couch to look at him closer, my eyebrow a little cocked.

“No, I didn’t tell anybody. I was going to use it as leverage,” now his eyebrow cocked and he made himself comfortable on the couch, staring at me.

“Leverage for what?”

“Why do you have a gun?”

”Leverage for what?”

“Ugh, fine. I want you to train me to be a wrestler. If you don’t, I’ll tell my mom and dad about your whole secret identity. And I’m definitely telling them that you were waving a gun around in front of me, thanks for the extra fuel,” his jaw tensed for a moment, but then he started to smirk. But then his smirk turned into laughter, real, heavy laughter. “What is so funny?”

“Becky, you’re a cheerleader. You don’t want to be a professional wrestler,” he stood up, moving around the coffee table as if he was going back towards the door. I quickly stood up in front of him and threw a punch at his gut. That was a mistake, his abs felt like steel. I think I might’ve sprained my wrist. “Alright, Becky. Why do you want to be a wrestler?”

“The why doesn’t matter, Rex. All that matters is that you start training me just like you did with all those kids at ICEBOX. I want you to work with me through my graduation, and then I’ll go to a real school,” I had planned it all out. I found this company that was only a few hours away, and they train people while also letting them wrestle every couple weeks. It was perfect, but the problem was I wouldn’t be able to go to training while I was finishing school. So I needed Rex. I needed his training, I needed his money and I need his transportation.

“You really did your homework, huh kid?” He put his hands on his hips, and I kept my straight-business face even though I was kind of dying inside. I was just introduced to wrestling a couple of weeks ago, but I was already in love with it. I wanted to eat, sleep and breathe it. I wanted to be just like Zoe Thorne and Aurora Jansen. I wanted to scratch and claw my way to the top, and shove it down my parents throats. “Alright, you get here at the usual time tomorrow. We’ll start with strength and conditioning.”

“YEEEEEEEE!” I leaped forward, giving him a tight, giddy hug around the neck, before turning and skipping towards the door. “Thanks Rex, I mean… Joseph!”

With a wink, I opened the door and skipped right back home.

~|***|~

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Tritch.]

P A R T    |    T H R E E

8/8/15

Atlanta, Georgia

Shady Lane Cul de Sac

“Don’t give up. Come on, one more good push, get it!” Rex’s voice was annoying. Encouraging, but annoying. I let out a primal scream as I pushed the bar up one final time, just like he asked, and dropped it into the handles before my arms fell like jelly. “Good job, kid.”

“Whyyy?” I couldn’t even sit up, just laid there a moment, until I felt hands on my back and thigh.

“I gotcha,” Mason winked at me as he helped me up to a seated position. Rex tossed me a towel and a water bottle, which I eagerly opened and dumped mostly on my head, but a bit in my mouth as well. “You’re stronger than you look.”

“But seriously, why are we doing this? I thought you were going to train me to wrestle, not kill me through weightlifting,” Rex chuckled, setting up another machine in the room he transformed into a home gym.

“I’ve got to see what you’re made of, kid. Cheerleading babysitter blackmails me into making her a wrestler, I’m not just going to take the raw talent and dedication she promises me at face value,” he explains, pushing a weight that looks too heavy onto the machine I think is designed for squats.

“Eeuuugghhh,” I groan myself to my feet as the cute boy from Twitter takes his turn on the bench, attempting to show off. “So if I pass all your fancy tests, then we’ll get into the ring.”

“I talked to a guy I know at the old boxing gym a couple of blocks from here, he’s going to work out a schedule with me for us to use the gym,” he shoves the same weight onto the other side and then nods at me with a smirk. “So yes, you pass my tests, we’ll get in the ring. Now show me some squats.”

That went on for a while. Presses and squats and curls and pulls and blah blah blah. I guess I could admit that it was a little fun, surprising both of them with my hidden strength. But I just wanted to get into a ring. I wanted to feel what it was like, to know what it meant, to experience the whole of it.

Turns out it just hurt. A lot. Every single inch of it was out to get me. I ran the ropes for a while, but after a minute I could feel my back welting up as the skin tore apart on impact. He had me bump in the ring, a thing that I guess is supposed to help you prepare for getting slammed on your back. That hurt a little, but it sure as hell didn’t prepare me for the pain I felt when he had Mason bodyslam me.

After an hour I felt pain in muscles I’d never known I had. I was sweating in places I didn’t know could sweat. But it felt amazing. I was finally doing something, something I actually enjoyed, something I could see myself continuing to do, something that I knew they would hate. I could get over the pain, get used to it. Just… not today.

I had laid down across some chairs near the ring, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to bring myself to move. I shut my eyes for a second, maybe I would just take a little nap. Only a few seconds passed before I felt somebody scoop me up into their arms, it made me a smile a little. Mason, he was trying way too hard for something he would never get. But when I opened my eyes, it was Rex. He had a little smirk on his face, and he glanced down at me.

“I’m impressed, kid. Keep that up you might have a future. Get some rest,” which, in turn, made me smile right back at him. I closed my eyes again, nestling my head right into his arm as he carried me to his car.

~|***|~

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Tritch.]

P A R T    |    F O U R

8/21/15

Atlanta, GA

Golden Gloves Gym & Ring

Things weren’t easy. Not that I expected them to be. I knew full well that I was walking into training for a combat sport. And, thanks to Google, I knew very well that the man who was going to be training me was a convicted felon who took pleasure in breaking people physically and mentally and loved putting people through walls. That last thing, like, super unhealthy obsession imo. He did it to this one guy like every week for a while there. I don’t get it.

“Just focus and breathe, think about what it is you want to do, what you have to do, and then find a way to do it. Never take your eyes off him, you’ll be fine,” I was a little nervous, but Rex always seemed to make me feel better. For what it’s worth, I almost feel bad for blackmailing him. I probably could’ve just asked for him to train me.

Mason winked at me from his corner. I knew he was going to go easy on me, because he was still trying to get in my pants, but for some reason the nerves were still there. And that wink made them even worse. Rex muttered ding a couple times and Mase exploded out of the turnbuckle. I hesitated and cowered, and he gave me a knee lift that almost took the breath right out of me. So much for going easy on me. Maybe he’s finally realizing he’s not going to get in and is taking out his frustration.

He has the back of my neck and pulls me out to the center of the ring, hooking my arm over his neck and then heaving me up into the air. Vertical Suplex! That’s what it’s called! Wait, I do not want this to happen to me. Visualize what I want to do, what I have to do. Squirm! I start shaking my legs and moving as much as I can, and then as I drop down I hook his arm and whip him over with an arm drag. He’s back up to his feet in no time, so I whip him across the ring with another one. This is fun!!

“GAHHH!” He shouts, a little slower to his feet, and I wait until the last second as he’s charging me to side step just enough to catch him with a hip toss. As he lands I hang onto his arm dropping down and pulling it into an armbar. Rex starts clapping, and I think a couple other people in the gym do to. After a couple seconds, Mason starts to move. “Alright, alright. Nice work, hun”

So I squeeze a little harder, grinding out the armbar until he taps on my arm. I give him a wink and blow him a kiss before rolling out of the ring. “Great work out there guys, you both looked really good. Mason you’ve got to remember not to underestimate your opponent. Don’t get too cocky too early or stuff like that can happen. Becky, you did great in the end, but you started off scared. You can’t be scared out there, and you definitely can’t show fear. Whether you’re confident or not, you’ve got to go in there like you know exactly what’s going to happen.”

He patted me on the shoulder before walking away. How can I pretend to not be scared when a man is charging across the ring at me? Maybe it comes with experience. Either way, I feel good. I still have plenty of time before Frontier to the Future, and I’m already learning so much. Rex was a great teacher.

I took a quick shower and changed into jeans and a t-shirt before grabbing my bag and heading towards the door. Rex had planned on taking us out for some kind of treat or celebration or something, I was crossing my fingers for ice cream but that seemed kind of counterproductive. I opened the door to the outside where Rex and Mason were already standing, and- uh oh.

“-do you mean she’s tr- There she is. Becky, what’s going on? Never mind, just come on. I don’t know what you’re doing here with Rocky and Bullwinkle,” out of the corner of my eye I saw Rex’s fist tighten and he took a step forward, but Mason’s hand shot out and grabbed him by the wrist, stopping him. “But it ends now, let’s go.”

“Charlie this is my trainer, and my training partner. I can’t come with you yet, we’re not done for the day, so I-”

“The day? You’re done period, I don’t want you hanging out with these guys anymore. Get in the convertible,” I didn’t like the way he talked to me, or treated me. But he was pretty popular, and he had a lot of money, and that bitch Kat had a crush on him so here we are. I glanced toward Rex and Mason again, and saw the latter let go of Rex’s wrist with a smirk. Uh oh.

“Listen punk,” Rex took a couple of steps forward now. The look on Charlie’s face! I’ve never seen him like that before. “You don’t treat women like that. You don’t treat strangers like that. I just met you, I already hate you. You don’t want me to hate you. You will have to work very hard to correct that situation. Start by getting in your car, and fucking off. Becky has better shit to do.”

It felt kind of nice to have somebody stand up for me for once.

~|***|~

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Tritch.]

P A R T    |    F I V E

8/30/15

Las Vegas, NV

Luxor Hotel & Casino

People throw around the term “mind blowing” all the time. But like, I never understood it. Their minds aren’t really being blown. Because then they’d be like, dead. Or at least brain dead, and that’s totally worse I-M-O. So I just never understood why people said it. Until August 30th, 2015, that is. It was the day Rex Evans blew my mind.

“Come on, I’ve got a surprise for you guys,” Rex said as he opened the back-passenger door of his 2016 Honda HRV. I peered in with a bit of disgust, expecting the baby seat to still be in there. He had moved it, fully expecting us to actually get into the mom-mobile. Mason rolled his eyes, opening his own door on the other side and lowering himself into the vehicle.

“This is gross,” I muttered as I climbed in, flicking a half-eaten Goldfish onto the floor. Rex laughed, shutting the door and getting into the driver’s seat. “If you’re going to have a driver you could at least have a nice vehicle.”

He was letting his assistant drive. Letting? I-D-K if that’s the right verb. Making? Forcing? She was far too pretty to be driving a Honda without a child of her own. But Rex said he had a surprise, and I liked surprises. And boy was I glad I got into that little crossover when we pulled up to airfield, and spotted the shiny private jet with the #BRUTAL logo on the side.

“You bought a fucking jet?” Mason asked as he pulled his sunglasses off, shaking his head as he moved towards it. “You bought a fucking jet.”

Rex smirked, proud of his newest impulse buy. I didn’t say anything. Maybe it was because I couldn’t. My heart was beating like a thousand times a minute, and I thought I was going to faint. I knew he had money, but a private jet? And he was taking us somewhere on it. I finally mustered up the courage to use my words. “Where are we going?”

“The Luxor. Vegas Nights,” I resisted the urge to hurl myself at him and throw my arms around his waist. I wasn’t like most young wrestlers, growing up watching it and falling in love with all the big stars. But since I first discovered the sport a few weeks ago, I’d studied it harder than I ever studied a book in high school. And to be heading to the Luxor Casino to watch a Sin City Wrestling show? Well, it was…

Mind blowing. And it was only the first time my mind would be blown that day. I got to watch the whole show from a private box with The Crimson Baroness, somebody I could only hope to lock up with when I finally make it to Lion’s Den. I got to meet Zoe Thorne. Er, well- at least come a few steps from her. I got to see my mentor spear Sherry so hard that the cage broke. It was all just…

Mind blowing.

There really was no better way to put it.

~|***|~

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Tritch.]

P A R T    |    S I X

9/2/15

Thomasville, NC

National Guard Armory

It was the best weekend of my life. Knowing that the following Monday I would be forced to go back to school, I knew my schedule was only going to get worse. Training in the morning, school all day, cheerleading practice right after that, and then more training. I knew it would be relentless, that it would feel impossible, but that I would just keep pushing because I’ve never wanted anything as badly as I want this now. But I also knew, that I was going to take everything in while I could. That I was going to slow down, relax, and just be awe-struck as much as possible.

Vegas Nights was incredible, mind-blowing as I already said. But so was the whole weekend. Rex booked me my own luxury suite at the Luxor so I got to live like a queen. Katie- sorry, the Baroness- took me around town. Rex didn’t push me as hard because he knew I needed some rest, or maybe because of, well, Sherry. But either way, I just got to relax and take everything in. And it was all so incredible.

But now as I sit here in my less-luxurious hotel room in North Carolina, I can’t help but feel nervous. The Luxor felt different. I knew I wasn’t much different than a fan there, just watching the show and enjoying it for myself. But here, at Lion’s Den Fighting Championships for the first time… it was intimidating. Not to finally meet the trainers, or to finally see where I was going to be working. But the whole situation, all of it.

I didn’t know what to do. Vegas Nights was massive, thousands in attendance, hundreds of staff members, huge names that have been in the business for years walking around… but this. I was infatuated, I was drawn in. I couldn’t help it. And that’s why I got so angry when AKIRA was rude to me. I simply wanted to meet someone, maybe make a friend. And she was so rude. I knew why I was angry, but I don’t know why it made me so angry.

I would have a chance to come back next month. Maybe then I’d get a chance to try to talk to her again, or… well, whatever. I’m not going to let her get to me.

This is my week.

~|***|~

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Tritch.]

P A R T    |    S E V E N

9/25/15

Atlanta, GA

Shady Lane Cul de Sac

On Friday evenings we did technical training. Mat wrestling, submissions, chain wrestling, that sort of thing. Rex was teaching Mason and I how to read an opponent and react to what they were doing, how to counter out of what they did to you or, well, were trying to do to you. It was actually pretty impressive just how much Rex knew that he didn’t let on. I felt like over the past two months I’d watched all eighty matches Rex has ever wrestled, and he never showed himself as much of a technical wrestler.

He was more of the “that looks breakable, I’m going to hit that really hard now” type. But he knew far more than he let on, and perhaps mentally was able to do much more than his body would physically allow him. It’s got to be more difficult to make those quick, sharp movements with all of those muscles. What a meathead. Oh god, I didn’t mean that, Mason’s rubbing off on me.

“Thanks for letting me walk you home,” I cast a sideways glance at Mason, who was all smirks as he looked forward to the end of the cul de sac.

“Rex is like literally two feet behind us, I didn’t let you walk me home,” I couldn’t help but giggle. He was relentless.

“Well are you at least going to let me kiss you goodni-” out of nowhere Rex’s giant hand slaps Mason on the back of the neck, his face scrunches up in pain but he doesn’t let out a sound. Rex steps up next to him, his hand still on the bottom of his neck, smiling at me.

“We’re going to turn around here and take another lap, so you don’t get caught,” he winks at me with a smirk and I wave at them as he forces Mason to turn around, my co-trainee now mouthing ow-ow-ow as the turn. I can’t help but giggle again as I turn and walk backwards a few steps. I couldn’t shake this feeling. I know I’m only seventeen and we’re not supposed to know what love feels like, but I’m pretty sure I was falling in love.

Falling in love with wrestling. With training. There was a soreness throughout my abdomen and shoulders like I’d never felt before, but it stopped bothering me. I slowly turned back as the guys disappeared around the corner, and that’s when I spotted it. The Kawasaki Ninja parked out on the street in front of my home. The soreness disappeared and I mustered the strength to sprint the rest of the way home, bursting through the front door and right through the family room.

He turned the corner as I got to the kitchen and I almost took him to the ground as I threw my arms around him. I squeezed him as tight as I could, and while he laughed at first he started to struggle a bit. Guess I was getting stronger than I realized! He pried my arms off of him and put his arms under mine, lifting me up into the air to squeeze me himself. I squinted, biting down on my tongue to divert the pain. He always squeezed me like this, but I wasn’t usually already in pain. It felt like I might pass out, but he set me down and patted me on the head.

“My goodness Becky, let me look at you!” He lifted his hand up with mine and made me do a spin, which was a little embarrassing since I was in gym shorts and a sweatshirt. “Absolutely stunning!”

“What are you doing home, Ollie?” He pulled out a seat at the kitchen table and I sat down right next to him, my eyes tracing a new gash on his right cheekbone, covered in stitches.

“Figured it’d been awhile since I came to a family dinner, and I thought I should see my little sister as she embarks on her final year of public schooling,” he smirked at me, messing up my hair. I was seventeen years old, but my big brother always made me feel like I was seven again. And I didn’t mind. “I hear you took summer school so you could be done in December?”

I nodded and began to open my mouth, but my mom walked into the kitchen behind me and scoffed. “I thought I asked you to cover up that nasty thing before dinner? And where have you been young lady?”

I rolled my eyes and Ollie smirked. Dinner went as expected. Mom and Dad asking the dumb questions that they already know the answers to, all of us barely answering them. I had five siblings. two sisters and three brothers. Rose wasn’t here, no surprise. She was the second oldest, and I think she was off in Paris or something modelling. She was beautiful, but barely ever came around anymore. Quin was just a few years older than me and he was going to college at Georgia Tech, so he usually came home for dinner on Fridays.

Baz was my younger brother, who just started high school this month, and the youngest was my sister Tyler. She just turned nine. And then, of course, there was Ollie. He was the oldest, just turned 29 a couple of months ago. My parents had big plans for him to become a lawyer or doctor or something, but he dropped out of college to be an MMA fighter. They resented him for it, and I resented them for that. He barely ever came home anymore either, not because he didn’t want to but because he knew what would happen if he di-

“I just don’t understand why you would throw away a perfectly good education, and opportunity at a great, safe life, to go and fight people for a living,” my mom stated causing him to laugh as he shoveled another spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth quickly, knowing he probably didn’t have much more time to eat. I frowned, pushing my plate towards the middle of the table though I’d barely had anything to eat. Rex told me to make sure I had plenty of carbs and protein for dinner tonight, but I couldn’t, not while this was going on.

“Jesus Christ mom, it was almost a decade ago you think you’d give it up by now,” he responded, neglecting his fork and deciding instead to just pick up the hunk of chicken and start eating it off the bone.

“No! I’ll never give it up. Every time you decide it’s convenient for you to come home, you show up with some new cut or bruise or broken bone and expect us to feel pity for you,” he scoffed, laughing at the statement.

“Pity? I love my fucking life-”

“Watch your mouth!”

“I love bashing someone’s skull in, I love the adrenaline rush of fighting, and I make plenty of money. I might not have your coveted safety net of a 9 to 5 that you guys so desperately cling to, but I’m happy. I love what I do, and I’m happy. I have freedom, something you guys have never experienced,” he took one final bite of his green beans before wiping his mouth off with a napkin.

“No amount of words will change the fact that you threw your life away,” my dad finally piped in. “You’re a disgrace to yourself and a disgrace to this family.”

Ollie put his napkin down on the plate, his cheek muscles tensing as he stared across the table at our father. I couldn’t believe he said that. My insides hurt more than my outsides at this point. I’d been working two-a-days for months, but I couldn’t imagine the pain that my brother was in after hearing that comment. He stood up, pushing his chair back and not taking his eyes off of my father’s. My mom pleaded with him to sit back down, a tear streaming down her cheek. Ollie blinked hard, shaking his head before turning and grabbing his jacket and helmet and storming towards the door.

I slammed my fork down on the table hard and threw my napkin over my barely-touched plate, turning and rushing after him. “Ollie, wait!”

He was leaning against the garage door when I got outside, his riding jacket on and helmet beneath his foot. He was lighting a cigarette and staring up at the sky. “I keep coming back, just to see you guys. But I don’t know how many more times I can take being treated like that.”

I walked towards him slowly, sighing and putting out my hand for a cigarette. He looked at me through slanted eyes before finally pulling out one and handing it to me. I had never smoked before, so when I took that first drag I had a hard time hiding my coughing. “You don’t have to impress me, Bex. You know I’ll always love you.”

“I don’t want to impress you, I want to make you proud,” he smiles, turning towards me as he takes another drag.

“Smoking isn’t a good way to impress me, just surprise me,” he chuckles walking towards his bike and throwing a leg over it.

“I’m training,” he narrows his eyes at me, setting his helmet in his lap instead of on his head. I walk towards the bike, trying to hide the curl of the corner of my lips. “Our neighbor over there, nobody knows because he’s keeping it secret, but his name is Rex Evans.”

“The guy that runs Brutal?” I nod at him, and he offers a ‘hmph’ in return. I smile again, continuing.

“Mom and dad keep saying they’re happy none of their other kids are following in your footsteps, but I am. It might not be MMA, but I found Rex and he helped me fall in love with professional wrestling. And one day, I’m going to make you as proud as they will be pissed,” we both laugh, and he looks at the ground shaking his head.

“I just want you to be careful. I believe you can do anything you want, and I’ll support whatever decision you make,” he shouts over the roar of his bike as he kicks it on. “But don’t go risking your body and mind just to try and make me proud, or because you think you have to fight my battles with mom and dad.”

I nod in response and he pops up the kickstand, slowly rolling the bike backwards down the driveway. I follow him, biting the sleeve of my sweatshirt. He stops at the end lifting his helmet up and winking at me.

“October 21st! Greensboro College in North Carolina! That’s my first match,” he winks at me, pushing his helmet down and peeling off down the road and out of the cul de sac. “I’d love for you to be there…”

~|***|~

TO BE CONTINUED...