“It wasn’t about sex for one. Thanks, you dick.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way,” Evan sighed. “Look, Si, it just pisses me off. The phone worked both ways. He could have called you. I saw you both after that shit, he was wrecked too. You guys needed each other, but you both are fucking emotionally immature pains in my ass.”
I rolled my eyes at the dark treeline.
“He didn’t need to call me,” I whispered. “I did the damage. I wouldn’t have ever spoken to myself again either.”
PRESENT DAY - THE REED LAND, NORTH CAROLINA
Now playing: Karma Police - Live In Denver - Panic! At The Disco
TheTVwason.Man Overboard.
It was the main event. Thirty men. One shot at the main event ofWrestle Empire.
My dad and uncle were cheering for the old guys, veterans from their glory days who had come back for surprise spots. I tried not to look at the screen. I focused on my steak. I focused on my breathing.
But then the music hit. “Death March.”
Cal walked out.
He looked different. He wasn’t the boy I left in Charlotte. He was a man. His hair was cut short, wet and slicked back. His gear was black and white. He moved with a predator’s grace.
He entered the ring and he dominated everything. He threw guys over the top rope like they were children.
Ten guys left.
Five guys left.
Three guys left.
It came down to Cal andDemolition’snew top guy. They went back and forth for ten minutes. And then, with a clothesline that shook the ring, Cal eliminated him.
The bell rang.
Calfell to his knees in the center of the ring. He was crying. He looked up at theWrestle Empiresign hanging from the rafters and pointed.
I stood up, my chair scraping loudly against the floor. My eyes were locked on the TV. My heart was hammering so hard I thought it would crack my ribs.
He did it. Come April, he would be the Heavyweight Champion.
A wave of emotion so strong it nearly knocked me over crashed into me, pride, jealousy, love, grief.
“I have to go,” I muttered.
I left in a hurry. I didn’t go home. I ran straight to the garage.
I turned the lights on. The ring stood there, waiting. I hadn’t stepped inside the ropes in seven years.
I climbed the steel steps. I wiped my feet on the apron. I stepped through the ropes.
I started running.
Back and forth. Hitting the ropes. Feeling the tension. I climbed the turnbuckle. I jumped. I landed. My body remembered. My shoulder held.
Tears were streaming down my face the entire time.
I took a bump, a hard, flat back bump that rattled my teeth. I lay there on the canvas, staring at the corrugated ceiling.
