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Chris realizes his mistake as soon as he hears the click.
“ACH, I am going to kill you! Get back here!” He yells at the door. He sees the man’s grinning face through the small window on the door.
“So long sucker!” ACH shouts as he starts backing further away. He salutes Chris and jogs away. It’s infuriating.
“Hey, get back here! You can’t leave me here! ACH!”
Chris throws up his hands and kicks the door, which is a bad idea it turns out as pain goes up his leg.
“Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck.”
“That was a dumb move,” he hear a voice come from inside the room somewhere behind him. Chris turns around quickly, eyes looking around the dark room frantically. All of the light is coming from the street lights outside so the long conference table casts a wide shadow on the floor.
He sees, sitting on a stack of chairs in the corner, Alex Shelley in his ring gear.
“That you Shelley?” he asks just to confirm that it isn’t a trick of the mind.
“Yep. It’s me.”
“What are you doing lurking in the corner?”
“I like this spot, and I got locked in here, same as you.”
Chris smiles smugly at that. “Ha! Idiot.”
“You’re one to talk. I saw ACH trick you like a Looney Toons cartoon.”
“Oh, and you got here how?”
Alex doesn’t answer him, just turns his head and squints.
“Whatever. You just stay over in your creepy corner. I’m sure Frankie and Daniels will find me soon enough.”
Chris pulls up the only chair at the conference table and moves it by the window. Unlike Batman over there he wants someone to see him immediately when they open the door
Chris sits back quietly and waits. That bug ACH has a world of pain coming for him. He can’t believe he fell for this. He hopes CD and Kaz wise up soon and look for him. It’s boring waiting around here with nothing to do and he doesn’t carry his phone in his ring gear so he can’t even play a game to pass the time.
“Okay,” Alex says and the chairs squeak and clatter as he jumps off of them, his footsteps heading toward Sabin. Chris closes his eyes and pretends he’s fallen asleep.
“You’re not my favorite person right now, but it’s boring just sitting here in silence,” Alex says, ignoring Chris’s efforts to feign sleep. He hears him settle on the table across from him. “So let’s chat.”
Alex doesn’t seem to be getting the hint.
“I don’t want anything to do with you Shelley,” he says, opening his eyes slowly and sure enough, there’s Alex Shelley sitting on the conference table directly across from him.
“You’ve made that clear,” Alex replies curtly and really, who gives him the right to be such a prick?
“You framed me and tried to turn my friends against me.”
“Oh, are you talking to me now? Thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”
Chris glares at him and turns his head so he won’t have to look at him.
“You and your friends are poison and you’re ruining Ring of Honor.”
“There is a conspiracy against The Addiction. We’re evening the playing field.”
“Is that what you call cheating and beating people up after matches.”
“You can stop with the self righteous talk. I know where you’ve been Alex Shelley.”
“That’s because you were there with me or are you ‘forgetting’ that.”
“I sure would like to forget it so I can be rid of you.”
“Oh, and being a lackey for Daniels and Kaz is so much better. You’re really living to your full potential,” Alex spits out. The vitriol makes Sabin look at him again and he sees Alex with his judgy little frown on his face.
“I hurt my neck,” Chris says plainly, “and I wasn’t cleared to wrestle, but I still helped my team in the ways I could.”
“That’s a funny way to say you help them cheat every chance you get.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Chris denies, because fuck Ring of Honor and their supposed fairness. They keep screwing over The Addiction and they’re tired of it.
“I just don’t get it. None of you have to cheat to win. I saw that match they had with ReDragon. Even if they hadn’t won, they fought like champions and nobody would’ve dared look down on them. If you hadn’t gotten involved-“
“Oh I see how it is. You got an issue with me Shelley?” Chris challenges, knowing the answer, but wanting to see if Alex has the balls to admit it.
“I have the biggest issue with you,” he says with no problem at all, the jerk.
“Of course you do. Not living up to your oh so important standards, what a shock,” Chris mocks. How like Alex to find him subpar.
“Frankly yes! You’re better than this. I’m only surprised that you don’t see it. You’re not a lackey.”
“You’re right, I’m not a lackey. I’m part of a team that needs my support. I don’t expect you to know anything about that.”
“Fuck you Sabin. Christ! How did we end up like this?”
“You’re the one who wanted to chat! I was happy pretending you didn’t exist. How did you fucking expect this to go?”
“I dunno. I thought I’d just ask you if you’ve played the new Fallout, not whatever that just was.”
“Could have fooled me Mr. Judgey. Why would I want to talk to you about something like choosing between joining the Railroad or the Brotherhood? You’re not exactly my favorite person in the world right now either.”
“Sorry for trying to be civil. We only work for the same company. Not that that matters apparently.”
“I was here first. Go back to New Japan or wherever.”
“Oh, you do not get to claim Ring of Honor over me.”
“Why not? It’s not like you didn’t leave it behind like everything else for your dream life in Japan.”
“I’ve worked with them for a long time. They didn’t tell me to never come back or something assholeish like that. Ring of Honor was happy to have me back.”
“Ha! Sounds like a match made in heaven. You and this deceitful company.”
“That you chose to work for. Leave if you’re so unhappy.”
“I chose to help my friends, The Addiction. Besides being under contract, I don’t find it as easy to abandon my friends as you do.”
“I didn’t abandon you!” Alex yells at him, blatantly lying to his face, but since when did Alex Shelley actually give a shit about him?
“See, full of lies. Just like this company.”
“Oh no, you are not putting that on me. You told me to lose your number and I did! What do you want from me?”
“Nothing, Alex! I want you to stay as far away from my life as you’ve been glad to do for the past 4 years! You knew I was here! You knew I was here and the first thing you do when coming to this company is try and ruin the best thing I’ve got going for me!”
“The best thing? How lowly do you think of yourself?”
“Fuck you!” He manages to say past the anger he feels growing, but a familiar smile crosses Shelley’s face. That mean one he gets when he’s about to say something that’ll get his ass kicked.
“Are you so worried about being damaged goods that you’d sit and stay and play fetch for your masters?” he says cruelly and Chris rolls his eyes at the dog metaphor even as he still feels irritated, “Or maybe it’s the reason why you ‘left’ Impact? Surly it’s not about me supposedly abandoning you.”
Alex is so goddamn annoying and he hates that he has any kind of decent read on him. Yes, he’s not entirely the athlete he once was after his two ACL surgeries. Yes there’s some regret and bitterness that he planted his flag in a company that has fallen so far from grace that they don’t even pretend to pay their talent. And yes, Alex leaving him high and dry with no thought at all about him has never inspired self esteem. But Chris doesn’t think lowly of himself for his very minor, insignificant shortcomings. He’s awesome and he knows it.
Chris doesn’t say anything in response. He just crosses his arms and turns his head to the side so he’s looking out into the parking lot through the large window next to him. Let Alex stew with his own damn words.
It’s completely quiet for maybe 30 seconds before Alex speaks again.
“Hey, come on man. I feel like an asshole when you don’t fight back,” he hears Alex say. Well if the shoe fits. Actually, that’s good. He should say that out loud.
“Well if the shoe fits,” he mutters.
“What was that?”
“I said if the shoe fits, you asshole,” he says more clearly. Alex stays quiet.
“What nothing to say to that?” Chris is still looking out the window, but his focus is in the room.
“Nope. That seems to be the consensus. Nothing new there.”
“No kidding,” Chris scoffs, “you got us into so many fights and I’ve seen you shoot snot rockets on more people than any adult should.”
“It’s part of my charm.”
“It’s a pain in the ass. We got our asses kicked so many times because you couldn’t help running your mouth.”
“Yeah I did,” he says fondly like a weirdo, “I’ve grown a lot since then, you know?”
Chris scoffs at that, but Shelley says it so indignantly and with a look on his face like it’s a lead up to something he wants to talk about, but is testing the waters. It’s ridiculous since Chris is happy with him just shutting up completely.
“What, did Japan magically turn you into less of an asshole? Please.”
“Well not exactly, but I did grow a lot working in New Japan, yes,” he says with notably less anger in his voice, “I wish I could tell you about it, but I know it will piss you off.”
“You don’t care about pissing anyone off you dick. Stop pretending. Is it because of Kushida?”
“That I grew or that you’ll get pissed?”
“Does it matter? Answer’s the same, right?” Chris nearly rolls his eyes.
“Well not just him, but fair point,” Alex concedes and pauses, “are you actually okay with me talking about this?”
His disbelief is noted, but Chris can’t imagine why he’s pretending to give two shits about what Chris thinks.
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, but you’re going to talk anyway. It’s no worse than anything else you’ll blabber about.”
“Right,” he hears, a bitter edge to Alex’s voice. He doesn’t follow it up with anything to the point that Chris is certain he’s done speaking, but is unsurprised to hear his voice moments later.
“There are matches every day there and so much training. It’s maybe the most exhausted I’ve ever been, but I learned a lot,” he says out of the blue, talking rapidly like the words are spilling out of him, “That’s how I got close with Kushida and we had a connection since we both trained with Scott. It wasn’t just him though. My trainers at the dojo and the pack of foreigners trying to find a place with the language barrier and the fans and just being somewhere I was able to work for an opportunity and get it. It’s the most fulfilled I’ve felt wrestling in years.”
Chris tenses and hates that he reacted to that.
“Being in the Tokyo Dome again was incredible. Do you remember what it was like?” He actually pauses for Chris to answer, but that’s not happening. Though having a match in the Tokyo Dome for Wrestle Kingdom is not something you forget. It had been amazing, the thing of dreams. He’s not going to say that though, but his lack of response doesn’t stop Alex.
“So many people. The entrances got more elaborate. We came out in a DeLorean once since Kushi has a whole Back to the Future thing going on,” he explains like Chris doesn’t know, “and since we were the Time Splitters it worked for our team too. You would have- ”
He stops himself from whatever he was about to say. Well that’s curious.
“I would have what?” Chris asks with a sigh, turning his head back toward Alex. He looks strangely ashamed of himself, which Chris is not expecting at all. He’s still not saying anything.
“Go on Shelley. Tell me about what I would have done in this hypothetical situation,” he insists rather meanly but fuck Alex and his perfect little life.
“Never mind. It was nothing.” Alex waves off.
“Coward.”
Chris knows it’s the wrong thing to say as soon as it leaves his mouth and braces himself for a fight.
“Fuck you, okay! You stopped giving a shit about me a long time ago. I know that, okay? You don’t have to keep rubbing it in. It was harder for me to just forget about our almost decade of friendship than it was for you, and sometimes I found myself thinking ‘Chris would think this is so cool’ even when I knew, I fucking knew you would rather eat glass than want anything to do with me. Sue me!”
Alex looks pissed again, ready for a fight, but Chris is too stunned.
“What?”
Alex’s jaw is clenched, but now he’s squinting at him suspiciously.
“You had a hard time forgetting?” Chris says with the disbelief that deserves, “You got on a plane and moved an ocean away on a dime! Sounds pretty decisive to me. I’m surprised you thought of me at all except to be glad to be rid of me.”
“That’s not fair, Chris,” Alex says, clearly irritated.
“Is that not what happened? Did I imagine my tag partner suddenly gone with almost no warning and then radio silence.”
Chris glares at him and Alex crosses his arms, holding his ground.
“My contract was up and I had the offer from New Japan and no time in between. It was a lot to take in all of a sudden, okay. It’s not easy moving to a new country with a different culture and a different language and a new company with a new locker room. Look, I know I left you out to dry and I didn’t know how to make it up to you because the fact was I didn’t regret leaving. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made and I still don’t regret it.”
“Obviously.” Chris does roll his eyes this time. Alex gives him an annoyed little glare which makes Chris smirk. Got 'em.
“Then you tore your second ACL and I thought, well I thought that you wouldn’t fault me for leaving when we couldn’t team together in the first place, as terrible as that is to say. It’s not pretty but it’s true.”
Alex takes a deep breath
“I was immature and naive and I could have handled that better. For what it’s worth now, I’m sorry it went down like that.”
Alex’s expression is open and honest and it’s hard for Chris to know what to do with the astonished feeling trying to break through his cynicism. He’s never held his breath for an apology for something Alex clearly never regretted, and now to get one? It feels like holes are ruining his long held resentment and he’s at a loss on what to do about it.
“I...wasn’t expecting you to say that,” Chris says, arms dropping and shoulders losing their tension. For better or for worse his guard is down. Alex looks at him with clear surprise on his face that turns into annoyance.
“You would have heard it sooner if you hadn’t-“ but Alex is biting his tongue on this, which is not at all like him.
“Just say it Alex. Can’t be worse than anything else said in the last few minutes.”
Alex looks conflicted, but decides to speak.
“-if you hadn’t ended our friendship.”
“ I ended our friendship?” Chris says in disbelief.
“Yes you did! You very plainly and in no uncertain terms disowned me, and that fucking hurt man.”
“You’re really going to say that after just admitting that you did abandon me.”
“I didn’t abandon you! I left a company, not you. You were my best friend and my partner and we’d been through so much together outside of Impact fucking Wrestling. I didn’t think our relationship was so fragile that the separation would end it,” Alex says, frustration creeping into his voice, and Chris doesn’t know what to say.
“Look, I know I hurt you, okay. I just didn’t have the capacity to deal with it at the time with everything going on and I understood that you were rightfully angry with me. I get that. I really do. And maybe I was naive to think we were tight enough to weather any storm and assume that I would be forgiven, but believe that I was willing to do what I had to do to get there. I just needed time. I really did intend to make good when things got less crazy, but when that time came you had already decided I wasn’t worth the trouble. You said you never wanted to see me again. You took away any chance we had of reconciling. You did that, not me!”
He must have been holding that in for a long time.
Chris frowns. It’s true. He did tell him he didn’t want to see or hear from him again. Chris did cut off any chance of reconciling at the knees and on purpose. It was easy because he was sure Alex had made the decision for him.
“I never really thought about what you felt about that,” he admits to Alex, “I mean, you were obviously pissed at the time, but I figured you’d be mad for a bit and move on. You seemed happy without me. You didn’t need me.”
“What kind of lunatic is happy to lose their best friend because of something that makes them happy? And Need you? What are you, my doctor or something? I didn’t need you, but I didn’t want you out of my life. And I wasn’t happy without you. I was under the apparent delusion that I still had you. I was making a huge life change with the support of everybody important in my life. Even my old partner who I left in a bad way was being so nice and understanding.”
“Not so much, huh?”
“Man, it fucked me up for a long time when you burst that bubble.”
“Is that why Kushida had his panties in a twist when we had that match with O’Reilly?”
That makes Alex smile. Of course it does. He always looks ridiculously happy when Chris’ Japanese doppelgänger comes up.
“Ha! Probably. He’s not very subtle. I’m surprised you have to ask.”
“I’ve pissed off a lot of people. It could have been a number of things.”
“And you call me the asshole.”
“You definitely are. I guess I had to up my game with you gone.”
“Oh, you have. For sure.”
“Fuck you,” Chris says with a laugh. It’s the most amicable they’ve been in this whole conversation, maybe in 4 years. It feels weird.
“So you went and ditched another tag partner to go off to another company. How’s he taking it?” Chris intends to say conversationally, but it comes out more assholeish than intended. Oh well. Two steps back or whatever.
Alex, surprisingly, doesn’t seem to be mad.
“Better than fine. We talked about it a lot before I left and he’s in a good enough place in the company that he’ll be okay. Besides, with the New Japan deal with Ring of Honor, I’ll still be able to see him when he comes here.” His smile is unbearably self satisfied.
Resentfulness is the immediate emotion but before Chris can be mean about it Alex adds, “I can’t go through what I went through with you again. I was a little bit clingy about making sure he was okay. Pretty sure he was relieved when I finally got on that plane. I’d be lying if I said a paranoid part of me isn’t expecting a phone call telling me that I fucked up and we can’t be friends anymore.”
Alex scratches the back of his head, more exasperated than embarrassed at the admission. Chris feels guilt slip in unwelcomely. It hadn’t really processed when Alex said that he’d been affected by what Chris did all those years ago until this moment with proof right in front of his face, still there years after the damage was done. He feels like he should say something. He’s not the villain here.
“When I-“ his voice cracks a little, which gets Alex’s full attention and makes Chris a little frustrated, “when I tore my ACL for that second time, things were...bad.”
It’s a bit of an understatement.
“I thought that possibly my career was over or that I wasn’t good enough to perform without getting injured, or that it was a sign from some higher power that I shouldn’t be doing this. I’d never wanted to do anything other than wrestle. You know that,” he says absently, “but what else was I supposed to think when I spent a year on the shelf and immediately got injured again? It was hard for me and I went to a really dark place.”
He deliberately doesn’t dwell on it because he doesn’t want to go there again. That’s something he has to be conscious of now.
“Thank goodness my family and my actual friends were there for me. I don’t know what I would have done without them.”
“Come on, I-”
“I just want you to know,” he says, talking over Alex because he doesn’t want to hear it, “that when I called you that day, I may not have been in the best frame of mind and maybe I needed distance from you while my life was spiraling the same as you needed when you started working for New Japan.”
“4 years of it, apparently” Alex murmurs.
“No,” he admits, “There were times when I thought about reaching out to you and I never did. I figured you had moved on so there wasn’t really a point.”
Alex looks stunned and then an easy smile forms on his face.
“I did move on and I was happy, am happy, but it would have been better if I still had you in my corner. Man, I would have annoyed everybody in the dojo if you’d come to visit me in Japan. Even when you inevitably ditched me for Okada.”
“Kazu is my special boy,” Chris jokes.
“You need to stop calling him that.”
“You’re just jealous that you’re not my special boy.”
“Yeah, that’s what it is,” Alex answers sarcastically and there it is again, that amicability. Why is it so easy to slip into all of a sudden?
“Anyways, don’t worry about Kushida,” Chris says, crossing his arms a little on the defense, “even if he were to call it quits on you two, I’m sure if you give him some time and talk about it, you two will be fine.”
Alex is giving him a full on suspicious look now.
“What?” Chris asks, unsure of what to make of the look.
“Are you looking out for me?”
That makes Chris sit up straighter in his chair, indignant.
“No!” He denies, but it doesn’t sound believable even to his ears.
“You totally are. You softie,” he teases and Chris wants to beat his face in. Instead he settles on saying a very mature “says you!” Which only earns him a wider grin. Chris looks up at the ceiling.
How is this even happening to him? What is taking so long for Frankie and CD to save him from this?
“Hey, I’m sorry I called you damaged goods,” he hears Alex say and he looks back down only to see Alex not quite looking at him. Maybe looking at his ear. “That’s a terrible thing to say to another person.”
“and yet you said it.”
“I was trying to be shitty. You know me.” He shrugs with one shoulder,
“I do,” Chris acknowledges with a small nod.
“Now I’m trying to apologize.”
“What’s it to you? You’ve got no reason to take it back.”
Alex frowns and gives him an irritated little glare.
“How can I not take it back after you just told me how hard it was for you? I’m not that cruel.”
Chris rolls his eyes.
“Fine, I’ll accept your ap-“
“Wait!” Alex interrupts much to Chris’ annoyance.
“What now?”
“You're not damaged at all. You’re astounding,” Alex says laser focused on Chris with that unflinching sincerity that sometimes possesses him, “and it’s a testament to how incredible you are that you came back to the ring a little worse for wear, but just as good as you were before. There, that’s it. That’s my piece. I’ll take that apology acceptance now.”
Chris is trying not to let the compliment get to him, but he can’t help but let it sit warmly inside him. He didn’t know he needed to hear that and certainly not from Alex Shelley, but here it is making him happy.
“Thought I wasn’t living up to my potential,” he mocks to break some of the good feeling up and says more clearly, “Okay, apology accepted.”
Alex nods silently at his acceptance and immediately opens his big mouth again.
“Right now with your KRD shit, you are certainly not wrestling your best.”
“How would you know? You haven’t seen me in years.”
“You’ve been on TV for a decade and I have an internet connection, moron,” he says unamused. The implication legitimately surprises Chris.
“You were watching Impact? Of your own free will?” Chris asks, incredulous.
“Hey, I still had friends there, and I- uh,” he looks genuinely embarrassed now, “I wanted to see how you did when you came back from rehabbing and I’d heard you’d won the world title so, yeah.”
“You watched that match?”
“Amongst others, yeah.”
Chris glares at him with a lack of anything else to do as he figures out how to react. He genuinely never expected this.
“What did you think?” He asks automatically and immediately wishes he could take it back. Shit shit shit.
“Impressive stuff. Didn’t miss a step. I don’t know how you do it, but being champion suits you. Like always, you do well for yourself on your own.”
More than Alex’s words, his sincere and impressed expression speaks volumes on what he thinks and Chris preens.
“Thanks man,” he says genuinely and finds that he's smiling. Alex looks kind of quietly satisfied, which is bewildering.
“I did see it, by the way,” Chris says for reciprocity’s sake.
“See what?” Alex asks.
“Your entrance with Kushida in the DeLorean. Wrestle Kingdom, right?” He pauses and smiles, remembering what Alex said to him, “It was pretty cool.”
Now Alex is looking at him with his head tilted and his eyebrows scrunched together like he can’t comprehend what’s in front of him. Well turnabout is fair play.
“The match was good too. There’s a lot of, well, I guess us in that tag team of yours.”
Something in that snaps Alex out of whatever headspace he’s in and he crosses his arms, on the defensive again.
“What, you want me to stop being me. You want me to forget everything I know about tagging? Here let me try,” he pauses and tilts his head up like he’s working something out in his head. When he’s done miming he looks back at Chris and gestures to himself. “Nope, still me. Well, would you look at that?”
Chris just grins at him.
“You think I don’t know about the not Made in Detroit? Really, that one is just rude. What did you two rename it?” he teases to make Alex sweat and it works.
“It’s not like we were ever going to use it again. You can stop. I know how this looks-“
“The modified Dream Sequence with the cartwheel drop kick is pretty cool though. I like the extra flair,” he says because it’s true.
Alex’s mouth shuts with an audible click, much to Sabin’s delight.
“What? I’m not mad that you used a move that we stole so far back and indie enough that only like Colt Cabana knows that we stole it.”
Alex is still staring.
“And I saw your match against Devitt. Finals for the Best of the Super Juniors, I think. And your title match against Omega. Shame about that, but Bullet Club is at least a little your fault.”
Alex is still just staring at him. Chris is getting annoyed that this isn’t going as well as Alex talking about his matches.
“Earth to Shelley,” he says, snapping his fingers in front of his face, “anybody in there?”
Alex finally snaps out of it only to give him a very confused look.
“But you hate me,” Alex breathes out like he’s been holding that in, “why, how - you hate me ,”
And Alex is back to staring at him again. Chris shakes his head.
“When I left Impact I had a lot more time on my hands, and I got curious what exactly you left me for and how your little dream life was going,” Chris stops himself because the point of this is reciprocity not animosity, “turns out you were doing better than okay. You got to do a lot of cool things and have a lot of big, important matches, and like you said you- you really grew a lot and did really well for yourself.”
He says it as genuinely as he can and finds that he means it. Alex really did flourish in his time in New Japan in a way he wouldn’t have at Impact, and considering how badly Impact screwed the pooch, he made a wise decision by leaving when he did.
“I-“ Alex starts, still in a state of disbelief, “wow, thank you. That- it means a lot.”
“Well, you’re welcome,” he says with a smirk. They’re quiet for a bit and Chris is enjoying the silence when Alex’s voice suddenly speaks up.
“Holy shit, you’ve seen my matches!”
“Yes, I thought we were past this,” Chris is confused on where this is coming from.
“I am far from past this. What the hell, Chris? You can’t just drop that on a guy. Shit, dude. My match with Omega wasn’t even a year ago and you watched it, what? During your free time? And oh man, I can’t wait to tell Kushi that you complimented his dropkick. Wow! I can’t believe you just- wow!”
“Are you done?
Alex stares at him, a stunned smile in his face lingering for a little while longer. He does eventually stand up straight, looking pleased as punch. Chris smiles because this is more the reaction he was hoping for.
“Okay, done.” He says, a smile still on his face. They sit in silence again, this time with Chris full of satisfaction as he leans back against his seat. He’s so good at this.
“It’s the giant robot isn’t it,” Alex says out of the blue.
“What are you talking about now?”
“The reason you’re considering joining the Brotherhood of Steel is because of the giant robot.”
Chris doesn’t know how the conversation turned to Fallout 4, but he’s well prepared to answer.
“It totally is. Dude, they have a giant robot . How is a guy supposed to say no to that?”
“I understand, but you have to admit that the whole totalitarian thing makes it less appealing.”
There’s a knock at the door and it pulls both of their attention.
The door cracks open and a voice comes through.
“Alex, they’re coming,” the voice says and Chris is already standing. He knows that voice.
“ACH, I’m going to beat you so bad your grandkids are going to feel it,” he yells at the door, already moving toward it.
“Not if you can’t catch me,” the bastard replies.
Chris opens the door and steps into the hallway only to see Daniels and Frankie approaching.
“There you are! We looked everywhere for you,” Daniels says, looking him up and down. “What were you doing in that room?
Alex chooses that time to walk out of the room behind him.
“Gentlemen, hello,” he says with a mock bow. They both turn to look at Chris.
“What is he doing here Sabin?”
“We were stuck in that room. ACH locked us in there…” Something clicks for Chris. “ACH locked me inside there.”
He turns around to confront Alex, only to see him more than halfway down the hallway, shrugging his shoulders with his hands up.
Chris is furious. This was all a mind game, another plan to put a wedge between The Addiction. He can’t believe he fell for it. He moves to run after him, but Daniels stops him with a hand on his shoulder. Chris turns around to face him.
“What is going on?” Daniels asks.
He was tricked. ACH’s little stunt is nothing compared to what Alex just pulled. What the hell was that?
“ACH locked me in that room. Shelley was there too.”
“Why was Shelley in there? I thought he and ACH were pals.”
Chris grits his teeth.
“I don’t know.”
“Did he do something to you in there? You look okay, just pissed to high heaven,” Frankie says, looking him up and down.
“Nothing,” he says through his gritted teeth. Shelley humiliated him. “We just talked.”
“About what?” Kaz asks and Chris turns his furious look at him. “You know what, tell us later. It’s still clearly stewing in your head.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Chris says, calming down a little at Daniels’ placating look.
“Next time I see that guy, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
“That’s the spirit,” Kazarian encourages, “and hey, we got your back.
“Yeah?”
“Of course.”
Sabin breathes out slowly, relief making him relax.
“Thanks guys. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They walk him to the locker room so Sabin can finally change out of his ring gear.
He’s putting his phone in his pocket when he sees that he has a text message. The text reads “Did you get your phone back?” The number isn’t one of his contacts, but it’s a 313 number so maybe it’s someone with a new number.
He texts back “who is this” before putting it in his pocket. Not 5 seconds later, the phone buzzes.
It’s that same number.
“Hello?” He answers. It’s silent for a pause.
“Sabin don’t hang up,” the familiar voice says and he understands who it is immediately.
“You,” he seethes into the phone.
“Don’t hang up! Give me a second.”
“I’m not playing your games Shelley, goodbye.”
“There’s no game, no game. Please.” It’s the way he says please that gives Chris pause.
“Are you hurt? Is this an emergency? Why are you calling me ?”
“No, not an emergency. I just want to talk about what happened, please give me a minute, just a minute.”
“Fine, whatever. I’m going to kick your ass when I see you next. Get your last words in now.”
“You’re angry, of course, I get it. I would be too if I’d just been tricked.”
“Why the mind games asshole? What the hell was the point of all that?”
“The point was for you to go missing and for Daniels and Kazarian to see us both leaving a room so it looked suspicious,” he says plainly, “and I’m only telling you that because that was the only trick. That’s it, I swear.”
“Bullshit. What about the rest of it?”
“There is no rest of it. What we talked about, none of it was part of the plan.”
“...then why did you start it? We didn’t need to speak for your supposed plan to work,”
“I was bored and I thought you’d at least be interesting to talk to. I didn’t expect you to be so open with me and I don’t want you to think I took advantage of you like that. I’m not looking for ways to throw it back in your face, okay?”
Chris knows better than to trust this, but still he can hope that it’s true, or at least Alex is willing to pretend it’s true long enough for them to take him down.
“What do you care?”
“What do I- Chris, you’re such a bastard you know that? I can’t tell if it’s better or worse that you dropped all this on me so casually. I can’t stop thinking about what you said and I can barely believe that it happened. It just unfortunately happened in the middle of my trap.”
He sounds about as regretful as Alex Shelley gets, which isn’t a lot, but it makes doubt creep in to Chris’ surety that Alex is lying.
“I just want you to know that what you said meant a lot to me, and I was happy to see my friend again, even if it was only for a little while. That’s all.”
He sounds so genuine, Chris really doesn’t know how to respond to that.
“Is that it?” he asks gruffly.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Okay,” he says shortly and hangs up, wanting to regain some power. He doesn’t know what to make of Alex’s words. Maybe he’ll understand better when he sees him next time.