Circling The Drain

Charlie hopped sloppily up onto the apron and through the ropes. He hopped back and forth looking suddenly as he heard Abbey's voice. He hopped back out of the ring stumbling a bit and nearly falling over. "Abbey McAb-ab how ya been since ya kicked my ass around the ring?" Charlie said cheerfully to a goofy extreme. Abbey soundly defeated him in their match and Charlie used to feel bad about Abbey not seeing him at his best.

Now he didn't really care about that. It was nice to see her and Clyde was Clyde seemingly not catching on that Charlie referred to himself as Chuck E. Cheese since Clyde called him Chuck. "Clyde I dunno if I can take anyone right now but damn it I will try.... poorly." Charlie told Clyde with a laugh before turning his attention back to Abbey, his attention span shortening by the minute.

"So ya remember that girlfriend I had who you were looking at all googly eyed? She totally ditched me and went bye-bye." Charlie said, waving with both hands at this point.

"Hey, Clyde." Abbey said with a friendly smile. "Nice to meet ya." She'd seen some of the cowboy's stuff. He could fight well enough but some of the matches weren't exactly up Abbey's alley. She quickly turned her attention back to Charlie who seemed quite out of control.

"Well, now that's a new one..." She muttered at Charlie's nickname. She was about to make some small talk, but before she could, Charlie seemed to have a lot on his mind and seemed intent on sharing it with Abbey. "Wow, so there's that..." She said and turned her head. "I'm sorry to hear that, buddy. Do you need a hug?" She grinned and then slapped Clyde's shoulder. "I'm sure ol Dusty Trails here will bro it out with you!" She snickered.

"Ok, ok, reel it in, Chief." She said and waved him to come towards her. "This one's on the house. I'm sorry your girlfriend skeedaddled on you."

Charlie stumbled over and gave Abbey a hug. She was pretty, she was friendly, she was a great wrestler... but she sure wasn't Talia. No one was. Drunk Charlie had a much easier time forgetting about Talia. It was all sober Charlie could think about, no matter how hard he tried to forget about it.

Can you really just up and forget a year with the only person who ever really loved Charlie back?

"Thanks Abbey, just.... thanks." Charlie said with a resigned sigh. "How come you are nicer to me than other people like Dice.. Diceface and his sister?" Charlie asked.

After a moment he turned towards Clyde, with a questioning look. "Whatzzit ya see in me? Why waste time with a drunk stranger?"

Abbey squeezed Charlie tightly when they hugged and gave his back a healthy slap before he pulled away. She could smell the alcohol on his breath once he was close. She wrinkled her nose and turned her head. "I sure hope that's not where the "Gnarly" part of your name comes from..." She muttered.

"Uhhh, because they're jerks and I'm not? At least Ami is. I'm going to kick that brat's butt though, so don't worry, Chief. You should really be more worried about operating heavy machinery while intoxicated." She said and raised her eyebrows, nudging him with her elbow. "Ami I right?" She said and glanced downward, laughing at herself.

"But seriously, Chief... If you want to go drink away your broken heart at home or in a bar or something, you're a grown man but if you bring that around here, you might hurt someone else aside from yourself, you know?" She said, frowning as she gave his back a reassuring rub.

Charlie thought about what Abbey said and put as much thought into it as he possibly could. "You are right, I don't want to hurt anyone else." Charlie said. That was 100% true.

The problem is, Charlie didn't give a damn about what happened to him. "Abbey you have like a crazy amount of talent and don't waste it like I did. Bad people will bring ya down." He said as he wandered over to his gym bag. "I would probably do more good getting home to take care of stuff." Charlie said knowing that he had more booze at home.

"Nice ta' meetcha too, Ms. Abbey. You're pretty great in the ring." Clyde said to Abbey, noting that the relatively new wrestler had a streak of five submission wins. Very impressive. He looked forward to one day facing someone as talented as Abbey. A nice competitive match sounded very fun, he needed a break from all out war.

From afrar, Clyde watched Charlie spill his guts to his friend and the cowboy just sighed, he knew the guy was drunk and heartbroken but this was just sad. Poor bastard.

Though he did laugh at being called Dusty Trails and then pondered if that would be a good ring name? Maybe Dusty would be a good name for his son? He always did want to name his boy something cool and...

Charlie soon enough snapped him out of what he was thinking. "Huh?" Clyde looked up and gave Charlie a dumb, absent stare while he honestly thought of why he was helping Charlie and how non-sappy he could make his answer sound. The fact that he was once a drunk stranger who thought his life was over, then someone helped him, two people helped him, and he just drunkenly lashed out at them like an asshole. He didn't know if he would have managed to stay off the bottle without Mercy at his side.

"Don't make it weird, man." He said defensively. "Just... Didn't like the way you looked." He muttered while staring at his sneakers, letting Abbey speak the truth to Charlie, who was still down in the dumps, understandability but it was killing Clyde! He sounded just like he did! And it was pissing him off!

"What are ya gonna take care of?" He asked curiously.

"I just have stuff to do...." and liquor to drink but he left that part out. "Hell even at my best look around. I couldn't hang in the ring with you two on a good day, heh."

Charlie shrugged and nodded to Clyde and Abbey. "You guys are two of the nice ones. I wish AFW had more like you." Charlie said as a light bulb went off in his head. "Ya know what? I neeeeeed to do something for the two of you!" He said almost triumphantly. "Help training, dog walking, whatever! I owe you for actually giving a shit and a half about a washed up has-been!"

For the first time all day, Charlie smiled a genuine smile even though he was still down and defeated. Maybe trying to help or even better, succeeding in helping these two would get him out of his rut?

"i'm not going to wrestle injured like a dummy..." Abbey muttered as Charlie seemed to become a bit more self aware. That was pretty good, she supposed, but soon she was starting to think that this guy was probably pretty hopeless, at least for today.

"Everyone wishes everyone was nice, Chief. Unless they were already a jerk." She smiled softly and shrugged. "But, it's like you've never been around a human before. Are you sure you're not an alien?" She asked, smiling a bit wider. "No one's looking for anything. All I did was tell you your breath stinks and let you rub against my boobs. That's hardly going out of my way. Just keep on truckin' buddy. That's from the decade where you got your nickname from, right?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ahh, I'm just teasing you." She slapped Charlie's shoulder and gave him a shake. "If you want to do someone a favor, why don't you do it for yourself and maybe try and find a different way of coping with heartbreak? There's plenty of fish in the sea. i'm sure you'll find another catch."

Clyde pinched his forehead, he knew Charlie was drunk but the poor bastard's depressing demeanor was killing what little positivity He had these days! Hearing this guy talk about helping him and Abbey train, walk their dog and that he was washed up got Clyde frustrated quickly.

Drunk or not, this guy just got a hug from a busty hottie and was too hung up on his old lady to enjoy it!

"Abbey is right, Chuck..." Clyde said before eying Abbey out the corner of his eye. "'Course he might be too drunk fer good advice right now." Clyde added dryly, thinking all Charlie needed was someone to haul him home before he do something stupid.

"Clyde, there is a possible chance that you are probably correct." Charlie said as he began to pace a bit before heading off towards the exit. "Guys, I should bid thee farewell and head home I think." Charlie said much more quietly.

He was quite a strange drunk, almost bipolar in a way. Up and down from one minute to the next. Still he thought about what Abbey had said. There were plenty of fish in the sea, but only one ever paid him any mind. "All I am doing is trying to be happy." If booze helped him with that then was it really wrong? He pulled out his phone and was ready to call his favorite cabby.