Lonely

“ What a minute! Jason Ryan! Desti-Knee! And now Echo with the cover! No no no you got to be kidding me! Not this way! Not this way! One, two, three! No damn it!”

I smiled as I listened to the commentary team’s outrage at my interference in the tag match that had just concluded. Echo, Mikey, and Julius were holding up their newly won Six-Man Tag Team Championships. Their new championships as black straps with a red and gold hexagon main plate that read Six-Man Tag Team Champions. The side plates were red and gold rectangles. My smile grew as Trey and I entered the ring, Trey holding his gold and silver World Heavyweight Championship with a diamond-shaped middle plate and I held up the Extreme Division championship title. I had taken off Ruki in the opener of tonight’s show, Christmas Warfare, named such to keep with the theme of the month of December.

My new championship had a white strap with an oval main plate. It had a screaming black skull with a crown of thorns on top of its head swallowing the world. The silver side plates' designs mimicked the main plate.

“ If I said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. This is the era of Killer Instinct! Merry Christmas dickwads!” Trey shouted into a microphone. We draped our championship titles over our shoulders and pointed finger guns at the crowd before exiting. Once we backstage we went to our locker room and started celebrating. Echo stood on a chair and started singing We are the champions as loud as he could. We popped some champagne and poured it on each other then popped more champagne and drank straight for the bottle.

It was Mikey that decided to take the party outside the locker room. Whooping like Indians we raced out of the locker room to catering. Those eating their food were shocked when they saw us run into catering.

“Oooooooolaaaaayy Oooooooolaaaaayy Oooooooolaaaaayy! Oooooooolaaaaayy! Oooooooolaaaaayy!”We sang while prancing around. Trey had the idea for us to do the Cha-Cha slide for our captive audience. And because we were on a diet of high we thought it was a great idea. So there we were, Killer Instinct doing the Cha-Cha slide in catering. Our audience seemed to have gotten over their initial shock as they were cheering loudly and recording us on their phones.

After we were done entertaining those in catering we decided to take the party to the streets. We got in Trey’s car and start bar hopping. Turns out, as long as you know the right people, no one in Vegas cares if you’re not quite twenty-one. We went from bar to bar to club to bar all night. The only thing I remember about that night was making a video of me and Killer Instinct walking the streets of Las Vegas while getting noticed by fans.

“ Look at them! Look at them!” I shouted phone pointing at a group of people who had recognized us and cheering. “ These are our people, these are our fans! We run the world! We are the greatest thing to ever happen to professional wrestling!” I turned the camera to see a clearly drunk Julius arguing with a bear statue. And if you’ve never seen a big Australian like Julius drunk it is a sight to behold.

“ What are you fuckin’ looking at, I’m the bloody champ!” Julius slurred. He squared up to the statue swaying on his feet. He threw a sloppy punch at the bear statue, overstepped, and fell to the ground.

“ Is this guy bothering you? Hey, leave him alone!” I shouted running up to the bear statue “ Leave my friend alone! I’m calling the cops! I’m calling the cops! Cops! Cooooooops!” In response to my yelling, Echo and Mikey came into frame wearing cop costumes and strap-ons.

“ Officers Sexy and Delicious here, what seems to be the issue?” Echo asked, both he and Mikey clearly intoxicated.

“ Oh thank god you’re here officers! This bear assaulted MY friend!” I shouted, aiming the phone at the bear then Julius who was on his back. Trey was currently kneeling over him pretending to cry and do CPR.

“ My baby boy! My baby boy!” He shouted into the night sky. I aimed my phone back to the stone bear that Echo and Mikey were currently attempting to place it under arrest. When they were obviously unsuccessful they started to beat it with plastic nightsticks.

“ Yeah beat him! Kick the crap out of him! No bears allowed! No bears allowed! Why is there a bear in Las Vegas? What’s he doing from Montana?! Are you coming to take me back?! Who sent you bear?! I’m not going back! You can’t make me!” I yelled. I turned the phone back to myself.

“ Alright, I’m going away now. Stop asking me for nudes social media!” I yelled into the camera as my farewell

I woke up in my apartment late the next afternoon. Christmas Eve, meaning Christmas was tomorrow. I let out a groan and rolled over on my side.

“ Kiiiiiillllll me!” I groaned. My head was pounding worse than on my birthday a couple of months ago. I would have loved nothing more to just stay in bed all day and pray for sweet blissful death but I had things to do. I forced myself to get up and dragged myself to the kitchen table. I flipped open a notebook and grabbed a pen. After staring at the blank paper for several long minutes I began to write, Dear Vala.

Once I had concluded my letter I wrote a check for one thousand dollars as I had done last month. I could only hope that Vala could sense my sincerity in doing this. That she could tell I was regretful about how things had ended. I put the check and the letter in an envelope and decided I had better hurry and get dressed if I wanted to complete everything I wanted with the few hours I had left before places started closing down. I showered, brushed my teeth, and got dressed. Before leaving the apartment I grabbed my black and gold New Orleans Saints hat and a pair of sunglasses despite the overcast day. I did not want to be recognized right now.

I scanned the rows of puppies wondering which one to get, although if I could I’d get every single one. I soon came across a female black Pitbull puppy with a splash of white on her chest. She was jumping up and down on her hind legs barking. I bent down and let her lick my fingers. She was just too adorable, my choice had been made. I notified the store employee of my choice and was set to look for dog food and accessories when loud whimpering got my attention. I turned my head to see a male Golden Retriever puppy on his hind legs whimpering, looking towards us.

“ Those two are good friends. He doesn’t want to say goodbye to his buddy,” the store employee said. The Pitbull puppy started to cry as well and my heart broke.

“ I’m allowed two pets in my lease so I’ll take that one as well,” I said. I bought food, toys dog dishes, and beds as well as dog bathing supplies. I put my new dogs in the back seat of my car before carefully driving home. I picked up the puppies and set them in my apartment. After grabbing the rest of the stuff I had bought I watched them sniff around their new home.

“ Now what to call you two?” I asked aloud. After taking a moment to think I decided to name the Golden Retriever Shadow after the dog of the same breed in Homeward Bound. As for the Pitbull, I decided to name her Bella. I decided to relax for the evening, watching movies and playing with my new dogs. However, not even a happy puppy’s barking could distract me from the fact I felt lonely.

I stayed up late, the glow from the TV being the only light in the apartment. It was on some game show I didn’t have an interest in. Staring at the night sky through the window, I decided the best thing to do was just go to bed. After making sure my puppies were sleeping in their bed soundly, I went to my bedroom. I sat on my bed then laid back, staring at the ceiling. For the first time in my life, I was to be alone on Christmas, hence why I had decided to get the dogs.

But as awful as I would consider my childhood, for the most part, Christmas had always been a day I had always forward to. It was one day me and my family put aside our grievances. My father had even said he was proud of me one year. Granted he was drunk that night but I’ll take it. I looked on my nightstand, my eyes kicked on a picture. It was from when Gunner, Vala, Brooklyn, and myself went on a hike on the Beartooth Mountains. We looked so happy, smiling at the camera as Brooklyn and Vala were on the backs of Gunner and me.

Staring at the picture I had a sudden longing for home. I thought about packing my stuff and heading back to Montana. I could probably work for TSW again or I could try to commute back and forth. Maybe I could even patch things up with Vala! I was about to start packing up until I looked at the Extreme Division Championship on my dresser. I set the picture down and picked up the championship title.

This said I am the champion of a division in a well-respected wrestling promotion. I am a part of a rapidly rising stable. In a few weeks, I am going to go to California for a cross-promotion event. I gave up everything for this to happen. I had to sleep on my best friend’s floor because of my refusing to stop chasing my dream. Staring at my championship title confirmed I made the right choice. And I would be an idiot to give it all up now.

I set my championship belt down and crawled into bed. I took one last look at the picture then slowly lowered it down. I stared at my ceiling and try fruitlessly to go to sleep. I am doing the right thing I am doing the right thing I am doing the right thing I told myself over and over again. But no matter how many times I repeated it, I couldn’t help but question if I believed it myself.