Fallout vs Chuck Matthews (Extreme Rules Throw in the Towel Match) - RP #2

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I hung up the phone and continued my drive down the road. I wasn’t really looking forward to going to meet up with Nick, but I also didn’t really have a choice. In my mind, I knew it was something that I had to do. Even if Nick hated me, and would never forgive me, I still needed that closure. Ever since he walked in on Ashley and I, I had wondered about what was going through his head. It would have been hard to see. Even though Ashley and Nick had been broken up for a while, it still would have hurt him. I can’t imagine what my reaction would be if Anna had left me for one of my best friends, like Nick or someone even. I would be crushed. So I can sort of understand what Nick is going through. But still, I can hope that he’ll move on from it. 

A few minutes later, I turned onto Nick’s street. I pulled into his driveway, hopped out of my car, and looked around. His front yard was a bit of a mess. It hadn’t been cut in what seemed like months. I walked up to Nick’s door and rang the doorbell. I could here scuffling inside, and then Nick yelled out from inside.

Nick: “Who is it?!”

I took a deep breath. Moment of truth

Brandon:  “It’s Brandon”

I waited for a response. There was silence for a few seconds, and I could tell Nick was deciding whether or not to let me in to his home. Eventually, I heard him move again.

Nick: “Just a second”

I could hear him walking around inside, and grabbing onto the door. It unlocked from the inside, and swung open. Nick Ridicule stood in front of me, with a somewhat blank expression on his face. But he definitely did not look like the Nick Ridicule who once dominated the wrestling world. He hadn’t shaved in a while, that much was obvious from looking at the length of his beard. He had definitely put on a lot of weight. Maybe it was muscle, but he looked even bigger than me, and I had put on a lot of muscle mass over the summer. His Mohawk was drooping to the right a little, and I could see a lot more black spots in it than there used to be. His hands were shaking a bit, which was probably due to the drugs that he had apparently been abusing. I looked at his arms, and could see clear needle marks where he must have been injecting. A few of the marks looked relatively fresh. Great, so I’m talking to a Nick Ridicule who’s not only angry with me, but also high. Oh well, that wasn’t my problem. I needed to talk to him, and I wasn’t going to leave until I did.

Brandon:  “Hey Nick. How’s it going?”

Nick looked away for a moment, sort of muttering to himself. Then he looked back up at me.

Nick: “It’s going okay. Why are you here?”

Straight to the point with him

Brandon:  “I wanted to talk to you. Can I come in?”

Nick: “Uhhh, yeah I guess. Come on inside”

Nick opened the door for me further, and I stepped into his house. I followed him into a large, basically empty room. All that was there was a wooden table, two plastic chairs, some free weights, and a large rope hanging from the ceiling. 

Brandon:  “You trying to keep in shape?”

Nick: “Yeah. I’m a little busy, but I’m doing what I can”

I watched as Nick grabbed onto the rope and began to climb up towards the ceiling, using only his upper body. He hopped down and kicked something away, but not before I saw it. A used needle. My suspicions were confirmed.

I sat down in one of his chairs, and he grabbed the other one across from me. 

Brandon:  “So, how’ve you been big guy?”

Nick: “I’ve been decent I guess. Trying to stay in shape, like I said. Trying to earn a bit of money here and there, keep up the payments for my house”

Brandon:  “Yeah. Where’d all your furniture go?”

Nick: “Repossessed. I couldn’t pay bills, so they started taking things away from me. If I don’t come up with some money soon, I’ll have to leave the house too”

Brandon:  “So that’s why you’re working at Burger Shack?”

Nick looked at me. I guess he didn’t expect me to know that. But he must have known that I would find out, especially if he saw Ashley there. Or maybe he just forgot, especially if he was high all the time. 

Nick: “How did you…oh right, Ashley”

Brandon:  “Yeah. Look, that’s what I came here to talk about”

Nick: “Forget it, I don’t want to talk about it”

Brandon:  “Nick come on. I know it upsets you. Come on, how could it not? You care about Ashley a lot, and I was your best friend at one point”

Nick: “I don’t care about Ashley”

I looked at him. I could just tell he was lying when he spoke. The way he said it, the way he didn’t quite look at me when he talked.

Brandon:  “Don’t lie to me Nick, the least we can do is be honest with each other.”

Nick looked away again

Nick: “I just…I don’t know. I was upset when I saw the two of you together. But now I don’t really care. It’s her life, I don’t give a shit what she does with it”

Brandon:  “Look Nick, I didn’t want this to happen. I really didn’t. I never meant to hurt you in any way. But I fell in love with Ashley, and she fell in love with me. There was nothing else to it. Yeah, we lied about it. We could have been much more honest. But we didn’t. And now it’s just time to move on, right?”

Nick: “I’ve moved on a long time ago. I don’t care about what Ashley does anymore. It’s not my life”

Brandon:  “Nick, why the drugs again?”

Nick: “I’m not doing drugs”

Brandon:  “Bullshit you’re not. I can see your needle marks. I saw that needle you kicked away earlier. Plus, I’ve done heroin before Nick. I know what it does to you. I can see it. Don’t lie to me”

Nick looked away and then down at the floor. He was silent for a few moments.

Nick: “Whatever. I don’t have to explain myself to you”

Brandon:  “Look Nick. I just wanted to know if you were okay with Ashley and I being together. I know she’s your ex-wife, and you used to love her, so I know this can’t be easy for you. But we’re together, and that’s how it’s going to stay.”

Nick: “Brandon, I’m not mad at you about Ashley. Look, I get it. You fell in love with her. She has that effect on some people. You think you’re in love with her, them boom, she spins your heart back out and kicks it to the curb. If anything, I feel sorry for you, since you have to deal with that bitch”

I stood up out of my chair and looked down at Nick

Brandon:  “That bitch is my fiancée, and your ex-wife. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about her like that. Thank you”

Nick: “Whatever. I’m not mad about you and Ashley. I’m mad that you fucked her while we were together. I’m mad that you never told me about these feelings you apparently had for Ashley all of last year. I’m mad that I had to find out about the two of you by walking in on you about to fuck again. Picture you were in my shoes, then you’d know what I’m feeling right now”

I looked at Nick. It was the first time he really said something that made sense. And he was right. I should have told him all these things. He was my best friend, and had no right to suffer like this. But at the same time, I know that he would have freaked out just the same if I had told him about these feelings back then. And he was so emotionally unstable in those days, who knows what he might have done if he found out the one person he had in his life didn’t love him back.

Brandon:  “Look Nick. I’m sorry. I was stupid, I should have told you about this from the beginning. I made a mistake, and I regret it a ton. I just don’t want this to ruin our friendship. About a year ago, I said that you were my best friend. And I meant that. I don’t want to see that ruined over this. However, I would completely understand if you didn’t want to ever see me again”

Nick looked down at the floor, then back up at me. He looked like he was struggling to find the right words. I could also tell that he was zoning out from the entire conversation a bit. That’s what heroin does to you.

Nick: “Brandon, I’m not mad at you about this. No, I’ve moved on. I’d like to be friends again. Maybe not now, but sometime in the future, I’d appreciate the friendship”

I breathed a sigh of relief, and relaxed a little bit. Thank god for that.

Nick: “However. I will never, ever, forgive you, for what you did. I will never be able to forgive you for sleeping with Ashley behind my back. I just want you to know that.”

I looked back at him. He had a serious look on his face. I could tell he really meant that. And it didn’t surprise me really. It would have been hard for me to forgive myself if I was in his shoes. I could also tell that Nick had no intention of talking about this any more. I figured that I should go before anything else happened that would change Nick’s spirits.

Brandon:  “Hey man, I should get going. I need to get back home. It was really nice to see you and talk to you again. Maybe we can do this again sometime soon”

Nick: “Yeah maybe…”

Nick trailed off at the end of that, and wasn’t looking at me. I could tell that he had no intentions of doing this again soon, but that didn’t matter. What was important is that I did what I came here to do.

Brandon:  “Alright, I’ll show myself out. Stay in touch”

Nick didn’t say a word as I walked out of the room. I took one look back at him, sitting in his chair, completely zoned out. I sighed and walked out the front of the house, and towards my car. I couldn’t stop thinking about what he said before I left. He’d never forgive me for what I did. But did that mean that he would be mad at me? He said he wasn’t mad at me, yet he also said that he’d never forgive me. I didn’t know what he meant by that. How could he be my friend if he was still holding that against me? I opened the car door, and immediately slammed it shut. Now I was really confused. I needed to talk to him. Figure out what he meant by what he said. Make sure he knew that I really was sorry, and that I just wanted to move on from it, and stay friends. I walked back up his driveway, opened his door, and walked into his house. 

Brandon:  “Nick, look, I said I was sorry, can’t we just move-”

I was cut off as soon as I turned around the corner into his room. I stopped dead in my tracks, and my mouth froze. I watched as Nick turned around towards me. He was standing on the chair in the middle of the room. The rope he had used to climb up was wrapped around his neck. He looked at me and smiled. I needed to help him, I needed to stop this, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen in my tracks, by some unknown force, as I watched Nick wave at me, before kicking the chair out from underneath him.

CRACK

I stared at Nick’s body; hanging by the rope, completely limp. Suddenly, I was broken from my trance. I sprinted over and grabbed a hold of Nick. I wrapped my arms around his body and lifted him up in the air. I pulled the chair closer to me as I stood up on it. I untied the rope as fast I could, which was incredibly hard. My hands were shaking badly. I slowly got Nick’s neck free of the rope. I lowered him down and placed him gently on the ground. I listened for any sign of life. He was breathing. Thank god. It was faint, but it was still there. I stared at him for a moment. He had just tried to kill himself. Nick had just tried to kill himself, right after talking to me. Nick might die, oh my god, what do I do? Suddenly, I realized exactly what I needed to do. I grabbed my phone and dialled 911. 

Dispatcher: “911 what’s your emergency?”

Brandon:  “I need an ambulance, I need an ambulance, my friend just tried to kill himself!”

Dispatcher: “Okay sir, I’m going to need you to calm down. Where are you?”

Calming down. That was easier said than done. My former best friend had just tried to hang himself. 

Brandon:  “I’m in Miami. Uhhh, I don’t actually know the address, it’s my friend’s house”

Dispatcher: “That’s okay, we’ve got your location. Can you tell me what happened?”

Brandon:  “I was talking to him about some stuff. I left, he seemed a bit out of it, but I didn’t think he was depressed or anything! I was leaving, but I, uh, I had forgotten something, so I walked back in, and he was just standing there. And then it happened”

Dispatcher: “Alright, can you tell me if he’s breathing?”

I leaned back down to Nick’s face. His eyes were still closed, and he hadn’t moved an inch. I could feel a tiny bit of air coming from his mouth. 

Brandon:  “He’s still breathing. But barely at all”

Dispatcher: “Alright sir, that’s a good sign. The paramedics are on their way, don’t worry”

Brandon:  “How long until they’re here?!”

Dispatcher: “Sir, they’re moving as fast as they can, you’re going to have to calm down. Can you tell me if your friend has had any history with drugs, alcohol abuse, anything?”

I looked down at Nick’s body. Where to begin? Nick had been hooked on heroin, more than once. He’d been addicted to alcohol, had personality disorders, a whole lot of shit. But none of that mattered right now, as I looked down at Nick’s body.

Brandon:  “He’s had some drug problems. I’m…I’m pretty sure he was on heroin when I came to visit him.”

Dispatcher: “So he has had a history of heroin abuse before?”

Brandon:  “Yes, yes! But that doesn’t matter right now, does it?! The heroin wasn’t what made him kill himself”

Dispatcher: “Sir, calm down. Just talk to me. What’s your name?”

What a stupid question. Why does she need to know my name right now?

Brandon:  “Brandon…Brandon Macdonald”

Dispatcher: “Listen Brandon, the paramedics are on their way, it’s going to be okay. Your friend is going to be okay. Be thankful that you found him. Did you find him on the ground or how did he get there?”

Brandon:  “I picked him up and lay him down, after he had…”

I couldn’t say it.

Dispatcher: “That’s okay, that’s okay. You may well have saved your friends life Brandon. You’ve done a great job so far”

I could hear sirens in the distance. They were growing louder as I sat there, in the middle of the empty room. 

Dispatcher: “Hello? Can you hear me?”

Brandon:  “Yeah, I can hear sirens”

Dispatcher: “You can hear sirens? Good, good, they’re almost there. How long after you lay him on the ground did you call us?”

Brandon:  “Uhh, about a minute, maybe less”

Dispatcher: “So pretty much immediately”

Brandon:  “Yeah, basically”

The sirens were really loud now. I was pretty sure that they were right outside Nick’s house. 

Brandon:  “The sirens are really loud now. I think they’re here”

Dispatcher: “Are you on a cell phone? Can you go check?”

Brandon:  “Yeah, just a sec”

I stood up and walked over to the door. I opened it up and looked outside. An ambulance was parked in the driveway, sirens blaring full force. I watched as some paramedics hopped out and grabbed a stretcher, bringing it out of the back of the ambulance. I could hear the dispatcher talking on my phone still.

Dispatcher: “Sir, Brandon, are the paramedics there?”

Brandon:  “Yeah, they just got here.”

Dispatcher: “Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and let you go Brandon. Alright?”

Brandon:  “Yeah, alright”

Dispatcher: “Thanks Brandon”

Brandon:  “Yeah. Bye”

I hung up the phone as a paramedic ran up through the door and looked at me

Paramedic: “Where is he?”

I pointed towards the room that Nick was in, and walked with the paramedic into it. The men with the stretcher walked in behind him. Immediately they went over to Nick and began to get him onto the stretcher. I watched from far back as they began to lift his body onto a spinal board, and then onto the stretcher. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I wasn’t even in control of my body anymore. I could only watch these paramedics try to save Nick. Suddenly, they began wheeling him out of the room, and out the front door. My body followed behind them, as the one paramedic pushed me along. There was no way I was going to leave Nick’s side, so I climbed into the ambulance and sat down in a seat along the side. Someone slammed the door shut and I could feel us begin to pull out of the driveway and out onto the street.

Paramedic: “How long has he been unconscious?”

Brandon:  “Like, five, maybe ten minutes”

The paramedics began to hook up things to Nick’s body. I sat there and buried my face in my hands. Why was this happening? I still couldn’t grasp it. I remembered the first meeting I ever had with Nick. After my supposed last fight with Randy Couture, I had met a drunken young kid out back, who turned out to later become my best friend. In his drunken state, he told me about the NLWF, and how it changed his life. How it would change mine. 

------------------------------------------

Person: "Hey..you're Brandon Macdonald”

Brandon looked at him. It was a young man, who looked maybe twenty at the oldest. Not old enough to drink, but he was clearly drunk. He looked at the kid. He had a large scar on his neck, like he had been slashed there before. He didn't see this man as any trouble, just a drunk fan.

Brandon:  "Yeah, that's my name”

Person: "Wow...You're...you're like, my favourite fighter man. My name's Nick. Nick Ridicule”

He held out his hand. Brandon looked at it for a few seconds, then thought 'why not'. He shook his hand.

Brandon:  "Pleasure to meet you Nick Ridicule”

Nick: "So..like, you're retiring? Why man? You were my favourite of all time”

Brandon:  "Well, to be honest Nick, the fire's gone. I've beaten everyone.The fights are always the same, same rules, same results. It got boring, you know? I had nothing left to do, nothing left to prove. Why bother. Plus, my personal life is fucked to shit.”

Nick: "Dude, like, I was slashed in the throat by the girl I love. My life sucks pretty bad too.”

Brandon:  "Shit man. Thats terrible. I'm sorry”

Nick: "No, like, its all good man, you know what I'm saying?”

The kid was clearly depressed, and drinking to try and escape it, but he could see right through him.

Brandon:  "Yeah, I get it. Listen, I really have to get going”

Nick: "Wait! You said like, you'd want to fight again right? But what if like, you could do it with, different rules and shit. Different matches”

Brandon:  "What do you mean?”

Nick: "Pro wrestling! I'm a wrestler. I'm with the, ummm, No Limit Wrestling Federation. We could use a guy like you. I could talk to some people, get someone to call, and you should try and get a contract.”

Brandon thought about it

Brandon:  "Maybe. My personal life is broken, I'm going to need to fix that just a bit first I think”

Nick: "Brandon, dude, I guarantee you, there are people in the NLWF with an even more fucked up personal life than you. You'll fit right in”

Brandon:  "I'll think about it. But I really need to go. It was nice meeting you Nick”

Nick: "It...ya, nice meet you too Brandon”

Brandon walked over to the limo that was parked on the side of the road. He opened the door and hopped in. He looked out the window at Nick Ridicule, who was just sort of looking down. He was drunk enough that he didn't really know what he was doing. And he was way out of it. He rolled down his window

Brandon:  "Hey kid. Hop in. I'll drive you back to where you live or whatever”

Nick slowly walked over to the limo and climbed in. He sat down.

Brandon:  "Where to?”

Nick: "I'm staying in New York”

Brandon:  "Damn. Alright, I'm going to drive you to the airport. A private jet will fly you back to New York City, and I'll get a guy to bring you back to where you are staying, okay?”

Nothing. Brandon looked at him. He had passed out asleep. Brandon smiled. The kid had the right idea. Brandon lay his head back and dozed off. He awoke when they arrived at the airport, and helped load Nick onto the plane. He thanked Brandon, who watched from his limo as the plane took off. He thought about what Nick had said earlier. He grabbed his cell phone.

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I looked at the paramedics, still busy at work on Nick. I could hear the heart rate monitor attached to him beeping. It was slow, but there was still a beat. That meant that he was still alive. And that was good. I looked back at his face. No expression. No fear of dying. But he couldn’t die. Not yet. He had way too much to live for. I remembered last year, when together we took out Bad Company together. The fake wedding kidnapping, the betrayal at City of Evil. All these memories just came flooding back to me as I stared at Nick, lying unconscious, on the brink of death.

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Ashley: “So not only are you an incredible fighter, an apparently amazing football player, but you are also good a beer pong?”

Brandon: “Sure am. Watch”

He picked up a piece of oyster that was lying on his plate. He looked around the room, and tossed it at someones table about 30 feet away. It landed right in the mans glass and splashed his drink everywhere. 

Nick: “Holy shit”

Anna: “Brandon, why'd you do that, now they're going to kick us out or something”

Brandon: “Relax honey, they don't know who did it. Look, they think it came from over there.”

Anna: “Next time, just be smarter. And more mature. We're at a classy restaurant.”

Brandon: “Sorry babe. I was proving a point.”

Nick: “And prove it you did”

Ashley: “Wow, that's a pretty weird story though. Who would have thought that Tenacious D would be at a sketchy motel party?”

Anna: “Probably no one. I didn't believe it, until he showed my pictures”

Nick: “Thats just cool. And you knew them before they really good famous”

Brandon: “Ya, I had many good times with those guys. They are actually coming to my wedding. So you guys will see them there.”

Ashley: “Of course. We will be there together, right Nick?”

Nick: “Of course we will babe. Wouldn't miss it for the world”

Brandon: “That's awesome. Anna, looks like we have two more confirmed.”

Anna: “We sure do. We still have a lot to plan Brandon.”

Brandon: “Well, we can plan once we get back. We have a great time planned with our new friends, don't we?”

Anna: “Indeed we do”

Nick: “It's going to be a great time.”

They went back to eating their food. They continued to talk about all kinds of stuff, laughing, enjoying their dinner, and especially enjoying each others company. It was a perfect night. 

They finished eating, and Biggie tried to pour one last glass of champagne, but all he could get was a few drops. 

Brandon: “Guess it's time for the check”

Ashley: “Do you want to split it, or just pay for what you ate?”

Brandon: “Nonsense, its on us. It's the least we could do for all of your hospitality.”

Biggie looks at the bill and smirks a bit. High, not as high as he's ever had a bill, but high enough. He pulls out his credit card and gives it to the waiter. 

Brandon: “We're staying at your mansion tonight, right?”

Nick: “That's the plan, I think.”

Brandon: “Awesome. And Patriots Dolphins game tomorrow? Anna and I have been looking forward to that all week. We're big Patriots fans”

Ashley: “Yup, and we're Dolphins fans!”

Anna: “It'll be fun. But the Patriots will win.”

They continued to engage in some good natured jawing about their teams as they walked outside and hopped into their cars. 

Nick: “You guys just follow us to our house”

Brandon: “Alright, sounds good”

------------------------------------------

I looked out at the front of the ambulance. I could see us pulling into the hospitals ER area. As soon as we stopped, the doors flung open. A paramedic told me to get out of the ambulance so that they could get Nick out. As soon as I hopped out, immediately after my feet hit the concrete, I heard a sound that stopped my heart.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Paramedic: “He’s flat-lining! Move move move!”

I watched in horror as one of the paramedics grabbed a defibrillator. He rubbed the pads together, and then jolted Nick’s chest. Nothing. 

Paramedic: “Clear!”

Please Nick. Please don’t die.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

A paramedic pushed me out of the way as he ran to grab the stretcher. The flat-line beep was still piercing my eardrums, as I found myself praying that Nick’s heart would start again. That he would survive. That this wasn’t the end.

The paramedics rushed Nick’s body out of the ambulance and began to move quickly through doors in the emergency room. I tried to follow, but was stopped by a paramedic.

Paramedic: “Sorry son, you can’t go in there. Family only”

With that, the man left me and ran inside. Suddenly, I was completely alone. In the middle of the emergency room ambulance parking lot. The piercing beep that had just seconds ago been driven through my ears and into my brain was gone, leaving a strange empty void. 

As I stood there, I felt a rush of emotions fly up into my brain. Nick was dead. He had killed himself. Because of me. Oh my god. My best friend, dead again. This was happening all over again. I fell to my knees, and collapsed onto the pavement.

And I cried. 

I cried for what seemed like hours. There was no one around, no one to hear me. No one to comfort me in this time of need. It was just me, and my thoughts. And that was not enough.

Suddenly, I remembered what had happened only a few hours earlier. Keagan. Ashley. They were shopping, and probably expected him home. He pulled out his phone. With shaking hands, he tried to dial Ashley. Three tries later, he successfully called her, and held the phone up to his ear.

Ashley: “Hello?”

Brandon:  “Ashley. I need y-you to come p-p-pick me up”

Ashley: “Brandon! Where have you been? You missed so much fun!”

I slowly got to one knee. My voice quivered, and I almost fell back down again

Brandon:  “A-Ashley. P-P-Pick me up. Please”

Ashley must have noticed my voice, because her tone changed from one of joy, to one of concern

Ashley: “Brandon what’s wrong? Where are you?”

I could barely put two words together anymore. I was in shock, and it was beginning to overwhelm me. My brain was hurting, and my body was shaking vigorously. 

Brandon:  “At…the…h-h-hospital”

Ashley: “What?! Why are you there?!”

Brandon:  “N-N-Nick”

Ashley: “What about Nick?”

Brandon:  “Ashley. He’s dead. Nick’s dead”

I felt my vision getting blurry. My brain was about to explode

Ashley: “What?!”

Brandon:  “Nick Ridicule is dead!”

With that, I fell to the ground, hitting the pavement hard. I could hear voices around me, but I couldn’t open my eyes. My brain was about to explode out of my head. My whole body was on fire. The emotions were flooding through my body, overwhelming it, taking it apart. I felt myself being picked up, before my entire world went black.