Fallen

Chapter 10

When we got to Reno we went straight to the tournament grounds. We got checked in and coach told us we needed to get ready for weigh ins. Sep and I went straight to the scales. He stripped down and weighed in. He was still a half pound heavy...

He could weigh in starting in about an hour. Weigh ins lasted 60 minutes. That gave us two hours to get him to weight. Casey was still a bit over. Andrew was under.

"Andrew, go sit down." I told him. Karly was standing there looking at Sep's nearly naked body... "Karly, go with him. Don't let him eat or drink anything. Not a thing, you understand?"

Her eyes tore away from Sep's body and I felt a pang of jealousy. Sep was ripped, in much better condition than I was. My body fat hovered at about 11% and I knew his was closer to 8%. I didn't look as good as he did, and I knew it...

Not much I can do about that though... I thought to myself.

I tried to remind myself she was only human. It didn't help much. "Not a thing to eat or drink. You hear me?" I asked her.

She nodded, she knew I had caught her ogling Sep. "Nothing to eat or drink. Got it."

I hit Joe on the chest. "Come on. We have to get Sep to weight. You and I are going to run him through his paces. Let's go down on the mats and kick his ass a little. Sep, get your clothes back on."

Joe smiled, Sep groaned. I pulled my warm up off. "Joe, give Sep your warm up. We need to wring him dry."

Sep put all four sweatshirts on. I knew he was dying.

We hit the mats and Joe and I started working his ass off. We started with Sep down and Joe and I working him from the top starting position. I knew this was the point that was hardest on Sep and I figured while his energy levels were highest it was the best place to start. Joe and I were merciless on him. Sep was the best technical level wrestler of the three of us and to start he did pretty well. I focused mainly on just using my weight to sap his energy. He got out of a lot of holds and the instant he got to his feet Joe would tap me out and Sep would go back down.

We beat him hard for about 45 minutes like this. Once I saw him start to go watery I knew it was time to move onto the next position. We went to standing takedowns. It forced Sep to be aggressive, but it was not nearly as taxing as wrestling from the bottom. I didn't worry about my technique and ordered Joe to do the same. We were both amazingly aggressive, simply shooting on Sep, hitting hard throws, crazy stuff that we'd never pull in matches. Sep caught more than he lost. He managed to do that for another 45 minutes...

When he started to lose each takedown, I tapped Joe, who I could see was starting to get winded. "Go weigh in." I told him. "Sep and I are going to jog it out. We'll wait till the last second and then weigh in."

Joe looked back and forth at us nervously. "Okay."

Sep was leaned over breathing heavily. "Shawn, you should go too."

I shook my head at him. "No way. Joe, go. Come on Sep."

With that I tapped Sep and forced him up to a trot. I still had a lot more energy than Sep did. I had been getting breaks for the last 90 minutes, he hadn't.

We got up to a jog that was barely more than a fast walk. "How you doing?" I asked him.

He panted. "Not good... really thirsty."

I was pretty tired too... "Look on the bright side, 20 minutes more and you get to drink all you want, one way or the other..."

We jogged for the next 23 minutes straight... it was hell. Finally, Karly and Joe caught up to us. Karly looked at me nervously, "You only have 7 minutes to weigh in. Come on!"

I stopped and looked at Sep. He was absolutely wrung out. I slapped him in the face lightly. "You did good. Whether you make it or not, I'm proud of you. Joe, you get him to the scales?"

He smiled at me weakly. I added, "Now bust your ass to the scales!"

Then I took off at a run, with Karly in tow. The scales were broken up by weight class, with so many wrestlers they needed to separate us. Karly and I sprinted for the scales for the heavyweight class. The rule was you had to be in line before time was up. I made it with a full two minutes to spare, so I knew Sep and Joe would make it too...

I stood there, leaned over my knees panting hard while Karly stood over me. She looked at me worriedly. "What can I do?" She asked me...

Stop checking out my friends... I thought bitterly.

"Water please...?" I finally said. She nodded and ran to a booth to get me water. She came back as I was first in line and handed me an absolutely huge bottle of Gatorade. It tasted like heaven. The guy watching the line looked at me skeptically. "You know you haven't weighed yet, right?" He finally asked me.

I nodded, "I'll make it..." laughing lightly.

The guy in front of me came out of the privacy booth and I stepped in with the judge. He looked at me questioningly. "Son, I think you'll make weight... why'd you wait so long to weigh in?"

I smiled at him, "I was helping a friend."

He smiled at me. I stripped for him. I just went down to my underwear, where a lot of the guys had to strip to their bare ass to make weight. You had to go down to at least your underwear so they could check for skin infections and such...

He checked my nails, and my beard to make sure I didn't have too much stubble. I weighed 213.7 pounds... I had lost three pounds today...

I was going to need to seriously hydrate.

I stepped out still in my underwear. Karly looked me up and down hungrily. I was still kind of pissed off at her. Normally, I would have stayed at least shirtless for a while to let her look, but this time I pulled my sweats on quickly. My Rick and Morty t-shirt even faster.

She looked down and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear nervously. She handed me another drink, she must have snuck off and grabbed another while I was getting weighed. "I'm sorry." She said shyly.

I felt a surge of annoyance and realized that I was just tired. And thirsty. I took the drink from her and hugged her. I sighed when I felt how good she felt against my body. "Don't sweat it, baby girl. I'm just tired. You're only human, you're going to look."

She pulled back from me and gave me a quick peck on the lips. I smiled at her. I started to let her go, "I love you baby girl, but I need a shower desperately... I stink..."

She hugged me tighter and whispered into my chest, "I like the way you smell when you sweat... it actually really turns me on..."

I laughed and kissed the top of her head. "Sure you do... now let's see if Sep made weight."

With that we ran to see.

He met us about halfway, a big water bottle in his hand. When I got there, he hugged me hard, "I made it... right on the nose... thank you."

I hugged him back. "That's what friends are for man..."