Classic Endings

It was after midnight now, Toronto time and she was still sitting in front of the laptop, flinching any time a chime came from the speakers. Thirteen days. Almost two weeks and he hadn't called. He hadn't texted. He hadn't even sent her an impersonal email and she knew he'd read her blog because she'd checked the numbers religiously. Almost two weeks with nothing until she'd cracked and had to stoop to the daily Twitter attention whoring. When he'd replied, she'd actually been shocked. Now it had turned to dismay and the more minutes that ticked by, the more she knew she'd ruined everything. That Skype chime went off shortly after, and she'd notice it was set to audio only. There was a sound that might remind her of drumming fingers, a click of ice in a glass, likely, then Shawn's voice.

"So, let's hear it. You tell me why today was different from the rest that it needed a 'most of all' like this was the end of the Wizard of Oz."

Nessa froze, swallowing hard even as she tried to analyze every syllable. Robbed of being able to see him, to pick up any visual cues, she was essentially working blind - he knew he'd be putting her at a disadvantage. "You know what's funny? I've never actually seen that whole movie," she finally said, breaking the silence before it slipped from awkward into downright chilly. "And as for your question: I just woke up today and I couldn't stop thinking about you. I mean, I've been thinking about you for the past couple weeks and I'm not sure why today is special - it must be, after all, because here you are."

"It's a classic. You might want to hit that up before they take it off Hulu." Another pause with more sounds of clinking ice, if that's even what it was. "So how's home going for you then? Was it everything you wanted, Ness?"

"No." The single word came out small, her voice cracking and she was glad he hadn't opted for video because the tears were already filling her eyes. "I just needed to get away. I wasn't thinking, Shawn. I just wanted to put as much distance as I could between that place and…" she sighed. "You would have talked me out of it, I know. And I'd have listened so maybe you should just tell me what to do now… always. Like Matt said, running away is what I do best."

"Ness, if you're going to lie at me, I'm going to hang up now." His voice had gotten a cold, sharp edge to it. "You were thinking, you were thinking about what you had to do to run away from me, Ness. Period. So off you went, not a note, no word. I had to find out on fucking Twitter where you were at. You have no idea what you've even done, because while you were busy thinking about yourself and how Matt told you all about you? You didn't even push pause to consider how I might feel. That's an issue you're not going to get around, no matter how many tears you want to shed, real or crocodile. Life fucking sucks, Ness. It's not supposed to get made worse by the people you think you can trust. So you decide, right now if you're going to be honest with me, otherwise? Hang up and don't call me back."

She sat there in silence for a good ten seconds, trying to remember how to breathe, trying to remember all the reasons that leaving in the middle of the night had seemed like a good idea and none of them floated to the surface. "I…" she had to stop, had to press her hand over her mouth to hold in a sob and it was a good thing he couldn't see because she was shaking. "Shawn… I won't lie. Not… not to you."

"You'll pardon me if I'm not sold on that just yet. Or not, but come on. You made a choice, Ness. You made a bunch of seriously dumbass choices, and now you're stuck looking into the box and wondering how you got all this garbage, aren't you." There was a huff of breath, clearly audible. "For someone as smart as you are, seriously. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a neuro scan because goddamn, Ness. Since I'm demanding honesty out of you, let me give you a little in return. It's the least, and I mean the least I could do. Are you even remotely aware of what consequences even are? You got upset, and that's human, I'd be a fucking prick if I didn't think so. But it wasn't just the match, you had to have already been thinking of ducking out on me. Otherwise, why the hell was it just so easy for you to do it. Like reflex, right?"

"I didn't… I mean, I wasn't…" she was at a loss for words, shaking her head so hard back and forth that she started to get a headache. "I thought you'd come. I left breadcrumbs a-and I thought… I didn't know. Or I guess maybe I didn't want to see it because it all made perfect sense in my head at three in the morning and that discount coupon was there in my email and it just seemed like it was a sign. Like it was the perfect way to fix how I was feeling. I didn't want to hurt you. I thought you'd know - you know me, Shawn. You know things nobody knows."

"But apparently you don't know me at all, Ness. Breadcrumbs? What, you thought I'd come running after you like this was Hansel and Gretel or some bullshit fairy tale? Oh no this is rich, it never occurred to me until right now. How many fucking times did you do this to someone else, and just assume I'd do it? It's got to have worked at least once. But no, instead of just talking to me like I mattered to you at all in your little fix of your feel-bad, you went off and figured that you'd do it and ask forgiveness once it was too late to talk you out of it. So, try and step back Ness and look at what you did. Really, really look at what you did. Because what I see is someone that I bent over backwards to make happy tucking her tail and running out on me when maybe I needed her." His tone was even chillier than before, if that was possible and the sound through the phone was liquid, a definite pour of something and knowing him it was likely whiskey.

"I know what I did." She sniffled, chuckling bitterly at her own idiocy, "I didn't fix anything. I broke it worse and honestly… all I can tell you is how sorry I am when I know that's the absolute last thing you want to hear from me right now."

"Well. You finally told the truth. You're right, I don't want sorry, because it's meaningless and it always has been. No one that says sorry actually means they feel bad for what they did, Ness. They feel bad that they got caught, or they felt obligated. Just like a career criminal, he's sorry all right. You know the rest." There was a pause as he took a drink, and set his glass down with a thump she could clearly hear. "You seriously wanted me to tell you what to do? You're grown, Ness. You… how do you not get this." A hint of frustration crept into his voice. "You either know what's right or you don't. Any bad choice, any bad action you know goddamn well what you did was wrong, and you either do it anyway and feel it was worth the price or you do it and feel guilty. What you've got is a good case of the guilts and I don't want your guilt."

"Then what do you want?" She snapped the words before she could stop herself.

"For you to not have betrayed me, for one." More of that liquid sound. "You know what, Ness? We're done here. The next time you want to talk to me, it'll be face to face. Lose my number."

Before she could beg or plead or further humiliate herself, the Skype call ended, leaving her staring at the screen before she slowly reached out and closed the laptop's lid.

---

Staying true to his word on Twitter, Matt was sitting alone at the bar in a little place called Jankara. It wasn't the fanciest bar around, seating for thirty or so people, nothing but bar food served and less than fancy cocktails, but the one thing that set it apart from other place was the Karaoke aspect to it. Matt had always enjoyed Karaoke, whichever country he was in and Australia was no different. For once he wasn't wearing a shirt with his own face on it, settling for just a plain black Tee and black shorts, a splash of green on them for colour. He didn't want to stand out, wasn't even sure if he would participate in the singing himself. It's been a lousy day to further the lousy week he's been having, and right now, knocking back a beer is the best medicine for that, occasionally eating a cashew out of a nearby bowl. There was a couple up at the machine right now, doing their best to ruin the good name of Sonny and Cher.

"Is this a private pity party, or can anyone join in?" A familiar voice asked from behind him before a gentle hand rested on his shoulder.

Matt looked over, being eye to eye with his ex-girlfriend, Nessa Wall. "Oh please, pull up a chair, have a drink, it's all the rage these days. I'd offer you a peanut but knowing you, it'd make your face swell up." He forces a smile before ordering her something to proverbially wet her whistle.

Nessa slid onto the stool next to him, letting out a soft sigh. "He didn't tell me. I just wanted to make that clear, okay? I had no idea he was going to and half of me wonders if he just did it out of spite because he knows how much I hate her-" she looked up at the bartender, "better make it a double."

It didn't take Matt long to figure out what Nessa was alluding to. "I sort of figured that. Though a small part of me wondered if you were going to be the last member of their little team. I know it wouldn't make sense given your history with the illustrious captain, but the way my week is going, that would be the perfect cherry on top of the cake of crap."

"Never." She hissed that with so much vehemence that the bartender flinched while setting down her drink. "I'd rather gargle with broken glass and lemon juice than associate myself with that harpy - I mean any more than I already have by working for the same company." She reached for the glass, taking the skewered fruit out first and nibbling it off the little plastic sword. "I have no desire to get involved in this mess. I thought I made that clear to you backstage at Ruckus?"

He finished off his own drink, pointing at it so the bartender knew to bring him another. "Well yeah, though you also made it pretty clear that when asked to decide, you were backing the harpy's team rather than mine. I could act surprised at the decision, but who would I be fooling? Somehow there's a narrative going on online that she's the white knight and I'm the dastardly one living under the bridge. How that happened, I'm not sure, but it's not that flattering."

"Neither is having the man you're supposed to be with publicly saying he worships that nutbar in the bunny suit you have on your team… if we're airing grievances a few weeks late for Festivus, might as well get them all out, hm?" She glanced at him, trying to force that snarky smirk of hers.

He appreciated the reference, and had a sudden realization that no one on his team would have gotten that but him and that was just a little bit more depressing than he would have thought. "If that's the case, I've got a few. For starters, this week I'm teaming up with someone who's name isn't even grammatically correct!" He punctuated that thought with a nod to the bartender who brought him another drink.

"And I'm teaming with the green-haired rookie who lost a match to Kasey Summers in less than five minutes. It's… humiliating." Nessa lamented, taking a swallow of her drink, nodding contentedly at the taste. "It's almost degrading. At least you're facing an actual team with an actual tag wrestler on your side… not the random nobodies of the company. It's funny. I ran away because I felt useless - this isn't doing much to change that notion, you know?"

"On the plus side…" He started, not content to just let Nessa win this battle of one-downsmanship. "People know your name, I'm constantly referred to as the baby of Fred and Wilma. The ironic part in all of that is the one accusing me of such a title is almost a dead ringer for the kid, right down to the hairstyle and colour. I came here to showcase I can thrive in any environment, and right now the only thriving I feel I've accomplished is as a barfly."

"Which begs the question if you're vying to be Homer or Barney at this point." She quipped, polishing off the rest of her drink before pushing it towards the tender. "Another, please. Extra cherries?"

As she's ordering, Matt grabbed one of the cashews and tried to toss it in his mouth, missing wildly. "D'oh!" he proclaimed, though really just trying to get the woman to his left to smile.

"Too much hair," she replied, "and your singing voice is too good. I think you might actually be Barney." She did smile, fleetingly for a moment, "perhaps we can record something later in black and white and wow the world with how sad your life has become?"

"Well that would be something, but I think we all know some jerk with a wad of cash would throw some shit together and do their best to try and bury our little project before it took off. It's probably for the best though, as I'm not able to burp on command. Maybe I could just be one of those lesser known barflies, the ones that don't even get names in the script or credits. That would appease everyone, don't you think?"

"Probably," Nessa tilted her glass towards his, clinking the rims together, "I'll drink to that - to being a nobody."

"Cheers" he reciprocated, downing half his drink in one fell swoop. "So tell me." He started, looking over at her, pausing for a second almost to admire her. "What's brought you down here? Happy coincidence or is there still a tracking chip of yours somewhere on me?"

"You tweeted you were going to a bar, remember?" She turned her head, meeting his gaze levelly. "So I used my best guess to figure out which one might appeal to you. And here we are." She broke eye contact to glance at the karaoke stage, "going to sing?"

"Ha," he let out a chuckle, going back to staring at his drink. "Right now, the only thing I feel like singing is my swan song. Gotta admit, it's a tad touching that you were able to deduce where I would go based on such a vague clue. Though that still doesn't really answer as to why you came down here, not that I'm complaining mind you."

"I came to see you." Nessa's voice came out softer than usual, without that acidic edge it usually had where he was concerned.

"Oh," was a simple reply he gave her, thinking about all the reasons that she might want to see him. "Well had I known that, I might have done something with my hair." He followed up with, trying to add a bit of the charm he liked to think he was known for.

"This match…" Nessa closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, completely no-selling his attempt to be suave, "it's going to be messy. No two ways about it. Someone is going to get hurt, I'm sure. And that's why I'm here."

He nodded his head along to what she's saying, starting to see where this was going, mentally smacking himself for not deducing this sooner. "Yeah, you're right, people are going to get hurt. There's a lot at stake, that's for sure. You just want to make sure that Shawn isn't one of the casualties, right?"

"Not quite, no." She paused, taking another leisurely sip of her second drink, "I want you to hurt him as much as you can. Don't hold back, Matthew."