Red Thorns 💯💯🔊🔊🗣️🗣️‼️‼️

number four

The next day, I do my usual routine. Shower, brush teeth, put uniform on, and eat breakfast. I get to work an hour or two before opening time and talk to Claire in the break room.

"Why'd you get off work early yesterday?" Claire asks me.

"I went out with someone," I respond.

She looks at me curiously and questions me again. "Who was it?"

"Prince Asmodeus. From high school," I reply.

She looks at me confusedly. "Him? I didn't know you guys were friends."

"It's complicated. I guess he just decided he wanted to start talking to me about two days ago at the gym. Like... couldn't he have started a friendship with me earlier? Preferably during high school? Because why are you only wanting to be friends with me now? Isn't it too late for that?"

Claire looks over at me, invested. "Did you tell him that?"

"No. I couldn't. He was super nice the entire time. I feel like it's all some kind of sick prank."

"You'll just have to find out," Claire says.

Sooner or later, we open shop and as always, I work the cash register and Claire sits at the assistance desk. The store is empty and we both just scroll on our phones. While I'm watching my phone, I get an email. It's an email from the Demon Wrestling Federation. In the email, there's a date and time for my tryout. It would be in front of an audience. If I win the match, I'd be the first official member of the wrestling league in years. My match is a month away, so I have tons of time to prepare.

A couple of hours pass, I check out customers' books, and I decide to end my shift early in order to go to the gym.

Eventually, I arrive at the gym and I can see Az coaching someone. He spots me and waves at me before going back to coaching. I check in at the front desk, and find out that he's already bought me a gym membership. I change into gym attire and and go to lift weights. I put my earbuds in and lift for a bit before Az leans above me.

"Sorry about that! I forgot to tell you I'm training someone today!" he says to me apologetically.

"It's no problem! I'm glad to be here," I reply.

He smiles at me and exclaims, "The gym just brought in this new smith machine! It's totally awesome! You should try it out."

I follow him to it and use the piece of equipment while he also exercises beside me.
We chat for a bit, y'know, small talk.

"I wish I talked to you more in high school," he says to me.

"Why didn't you?" I ask him.

He smiles and looks away. "It's because we both sorta had our own cliques that we were so used to. I just thought it be weird to suddenly want to be friends, but now that we're older, and we're finally our own people, I thought I'd be a good idea to start a friendly relationship with you."

"Uh, well, that obviously wasn't a good idea because it's still weird," ... is what I would've said if I wasn't trying to do the same thing.

"Oh! Okayyy," I respond, trying to sound casual.
For the rest of the time, we chat, and we get to know more about eachother. It turns out the guy he was coaching earlier was named BARNEY. yeah.

Throughout our conversation, he keeps looking at me in a sort of.. knowing way. I don't like it at all. But, then again, it's probably nothing.

For that entire month before my wrestling tryout, I continued to take more and more days off work in order to go to the gym. I studied up on wrestling, and got my own wrestling coach at another gym in town.
Am I trying too hard? I'm doing all of this, just to have something in common with Az so our friendship can go deeper than some 'gym buddy' thing... Yeah I'm totally trying way too hard. But it's too late now. I've already made it to this point.
There's only two weeks before my tryout and I've become pretty fit and good at wrestling. At least I think so.
Az and I have gotten super close. We've gotten to know a lot more about eachother's interests and have been getting along really well. I told him that I was trying out for the wrestling federation, and he totally supports me!! He said that he'll be there at my tryout, rooting for me!! How kind of him!! 🥰🥰

***

Finally, it's the day I've been waiting for and have been training sooooo sososooso hard for.
I get pulled backstage so I can get ready. I put my wrestling outfit on and got myself prepared. I didn't know who I was going to go up against. I did a few stretches before I heard my wrestler name (Icebreaker, totally tubular, right?) get called.

I walked out onto the ring and waved at everyone in the stands. I looked around to try and find Asmodeus. I was hoping to see him, but I didn't. I really expected him to be there.
However, the name of my opponent sounded familiar.

As they entered the ring, I couldn't do anything but stand there, shocked.