Totaled (31 page)

You’re damn right it isn’t
.

Chapter Thirty-Three

BREE

As Flip Flops Bar and Grille erupted with cheers, I sat there in shock. Disbelief. Not that I didn’t think he could do it—I knew he could do it—but to actually watch him do it…it was like I couldn’t even blink my eyes, much less move. My boyfriend, Drew Dougherty, had just debuted in his first UFC heavyweight fight and he had won by knockout. He fought an opponent with much more experience and skill, and he beat him. He didn’t leave the decision up to anyone else to interpret or vote on. He did it. And he looked sexy as hell doing it.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of the jumbo television screen. I watched the medical personnel attend to Purifoy, waving smelling salts in his face and taking his vital signs with their purple latex gloves on. I listened to the commentators talk about Drew like he was a stranger. I guess to everyone else, he was a stranger. I saw my father and Liam inside the octagon next to him as the referee raised Drew’s arm in victory. It was all just so surreal.

“Can you believe that shit, Bree? He beat the piss out of him! He won!” someone yelled to me over the noise, squeezing my shoulders in congratulations.

I smiled an insincere smile and got up from my barstool. Turning my head to look for Sue, her eyes immediately found mine from across the room. She nodded and excused herself from the group she was talking to, following me outside to the oceanfront deck of the bar.

“You okay?” Sue asked as she approached me.

“Yeah, I think so. I just needed some air.” I didn’t know how to feel about all of it and needed a minute to myself to process everything. I was simply unable to fake being happy any longer.

“What’s wrong? Did you drink too much?” She swept my hair out of my face as the sea breeze blew it in front of me, concerned and doting.

“No, nothing like that. I guess I’m just still in shock. I can’t believe this is all happening.” I almost felt numb.

“But this is a good thing, right?” She smiled, trying to be encouraging, but I just couldn’t get out of my own head.

“Of course! I mean, I’m happy for him. I’m happy for the notoriety that this will bring to the gym, I’m just… Ugh, I guess I’m just being a girl.” In all honesty, a small part of me didn’t want him to win, which I felt an enormous amount of guilt over. I knew he could win, I just didn’t really expect him to against Purifoy. I was sick to my stomach when he was locked up in that guillotine hold. And now standing here trying to figure all of these fucked up emotions out, I felt resentment starting to bubble inside for Sue even introducing more doubtful thoughts into my head.

“I don’t understand,” she said, her voice and expression showing both her confusion and her concern. “I thought this was what you wanted.”

“It was. It is. I want Drew to be successful. I want him to be happy. I guess I’m just scared. Everything is going to change now.” My blissful bubble of happy land, the happy I
just
found, was surely going to be disturbed, understandably so, and I felt possessive and terrified.

Sue stood there next to me, leaning over the wooden railing of the deck and staring out into the dark ocean. The air calmed me more and more with every wave of wind that hit my face. Seconds went by, minutes. A few deep breaths later, I felt the stress leaving my body little by little.

Sue put her arm around my shoulders, giving me a side hug. “Everything is going to change, my friend. But I will be right here, by your side, when it does,” she said, trying to reassure me. “It will all be fine. You’ll see. No sweat. Like a walk in the dark.”

“You mean a walk in the park?”

“What? You want to go to the park?”

“No, dingbat. You said walk in the dark. It’s supposed to be walk in the park. Like, no big deal, just an easy walk in the park.”

“Yeah, whatever. That’s what I meant.”

I snickered and we turned to go back into the bar. The assault of noise and activity upon entering the main area of the restaurant was enough to knock me over, but I stood my ground, put on a brave face, and joined in on the joy. This truly was a monumentally exciting thing and I needed to put my fears aside and be ecstatic for Drew and my family. They earned this. They deserved my enthusiasm.

For over an hour, I endured the commotion and frenzy that followed his win. When I had just about reached my limit, the crowd started to dissipate and people filtered out, going home, back to their normal, uneventful lives. I helped Morey and the other bartenders clear dirty plates and pint glasses like I was part of the staff. I just needed to busy my hands so my brain would quiet down.

“You don’t have to do that, Bree. The busboys will get all that stuff. Go home and get some rest,” Morey ordered as he wiped the table next to me with a wet rag.

“It’s okay, Morey. I’m just helping. I really appreciate you showing the fight tonight.”

“Are you kidding me?” he scoffed. “I more than tripled my sales tonight. I think I’ll show every fight from now on. Sue really put on a good pitch, and boy was she right! How exciting. I thought Drew would put a little bit of a hurtin’ on that fella, but I never imagined he would win.”

“Well, he is very talented.”

“I’m happy for Pat. Your daddy works so hard and really cares for them boys. It’s going to be nice to see his hard work at the gym hopefully pay off.”

“Yes, we shall see,” I said, lowering my head to the stack of plates and half-eaten baskets of fries in front of me. “I’m going to take these to the back and head out. Thanks again, for everything.”

“No problem, sugar. You drive home safe, okay?”

“Yes, sir, will do.”

I placed the dirty stack of dishes onto the counter of the big dishwashing station in the back kitchen and washed my hands. I walked out with Sue to my car, admiring the clear summer night sky filled with stars. Giving her a giant hug, I voiced my appreciation again.

“Thanks for sweet-talking Morey. And thanks for being with me tonight. It means a lot.”

“Oh, hush. You know I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. And Morey’s harmless. He was seeing the dollar signs the second I suggested it to him. Go home and get some sleep. You’ve had a long day. How did you do on your exam, anyway?”

“Really well, I think,” I replied. It felt like I’d taken the exam days ago. “Call me when you get home so I know you’re safe.”

“Okay, you too. Love you, girl!”

“I love you too.”

I drove home and pulled up to a dark driveway. No one was there to greet me. No one was there to request that I cook something or ask when their laundry was going to be done. There was no one to take care of but myself. I could do whatever I wanted. I could walk around naked. I could order up a chick flick and not hear one word of grief. I should’ve been over the moon. But I wasn’t. I felt almost lost. Purposeless. I decided to just crawl into bed and try to let the exhaustion take over.

Reaching into my purse to plug in my phone, I saw that I had a missed call. My mood instantly picked up, thinking that it might have been Drew. I typed in my voicemail password as fast as my thumbs would go and waited to hear.

“Hey, baby, it’s me. I hope you saw the fight. I did it, Bree. I won. I beat him.” I could hear the fervor in his voice creeping through all of the background noise, the pandemonium that was surely surrounding him. “We’re going out to celebrate. I don’t know if I’ll be able to call you again tonight or not. You’re probably already asleep. I love you, Bree. I love you so much! I can’t wait to see you. I’ll be home tomorrow afternoon. Bye.”

It was amazing to hear his voice. It was all I needed. I closed my eyes feeling peaceful and calm and quickly succumbed to the fatigue.

***

DREW

“Dad, I want to go! I’m not a child. I should be able to go with Drew if I want. I’ll stay with him the whole time,” Liam pleaded with Pat, wanting to go have a celebratory drink with me and the trainers to a bar a few blocks away from our hotel. Pat gave me a knowing look and I understood immediately.

“It’s fine, Pat. I got him. We won’t be gone long. We’re just going to walk down the street and grab a drink. He’ll be fine.”

“See? I’ll be fine,” Liam interjected.

“Okay. But be careful, all of you. And stay out of trouble. I’m going up to my room and crashing. We’ve got an early flight back home tomorrow.” Pat turned to walk away, only to about face and wrap his arms around Liam in a hug, saying something into his ear that I wasn’t meant to hear. He then turned to me, reaching his right arm out to pat my shoulder. “I’m proud of you, son. You were great out there tonight.” And he walked away.

Hearing those four words come out of his mouth were almost better than the win. Better than the fat check that came along with winning. Better than all of the strangers in the audience chanting and screaming my name. Someone was proud of me. Pat was proud of me, and it felt enormous. My heart swelled at the feeling of having someone that you looked up to and respected beyond belief actually finding worth and value in your achievements.

We walked down the street and over two blocks until we reached a little dive called Raunchy Rooster. We all chuckled at the name as the bouncer, whom Liam and I towered over, carded us. It was interesting being in another pub, having grown up in one. I couldn’t help but look around the place, observing just how different the setup was. Pool tables scattered in the right back corner, a few foosball tables to the left of us, and a wraparound bar in the center. It was a decent crowd for a Saturday night, but I easily used my size to wiggle in and claim a position on the bar ledge to order drinks for us all. Everyone shouted what they wanted and I waited until a squirrelly guy with dyed black hair and a lip piercing finally meandered towards me and looked up.

I ordered drinks for the four of us and handed him my card, asking him to start a tab.

Minutes later, our drinks were ready and I distributed them to everyone, keeping the shot of whiskey for myself. I laughed at the sour face that Liam made at the first taste of his beer and in that moment wondered if I should be letting him drink. How was I supposed to not let him? He was an adult. He wanted a beer. I guessed there was no harm in that.

“Hey! Aren’t you…yeah, it is you! You’re Drew Dougherty!”

I turned around to see two scrawny young guys that barely looked old enough to be in a bar, both with cheesy grins painting their faces. One of them was even wearing a Tap Out brand t-shirt.

“Oh man, I can’t believe this. We just watched you beat the living shit out of Stefan Purifoy! I can’t believe it’s you, here, at the Rooster. Can I, uh, can we get your autograph or something?” He frantically looked around for something to write on.

Brett, my wrestling and grappling trainer, spoke up before I could even say anything. “Listen, guys, if you saw the fight, you know that Drew is tired. We just want to have a drink to wind down and we’ll be on our way. No fuss, cool?”

“It’s okay, Brett, they’re fine. I’ll be happy to sign whatever but I don’t have a pen.”

Tap-Out guy, still glancing left and right for something, anything, to write with and sign, was babbling on and on nervously. “I mean, when you got out of that guillotine hold, we were like, oh shit, who the fuck is this guy? But then when you busted him with that spin elbow move, I knew he was out!”

His goofy friend, who had yet to say a word, finally chimed in. “I know, can we take a picture with you? That’s even better than an autograph.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” What harm could it do?

“I can’t wait to tweet this shit. Our friends would have never believed us,” Tap-Out guy said.

I stood between the two guys, posing with my best hard ass expression, and Brett snapped the picture from one of their phones. They were in the middle of thanking all of us for “being so cool” when I heard someone pop off behind me.

“Taking fan pictures already, Dougherty? Don’t you think that’s a little premature?”

I cocked my head to the side only to find Purifoy himself with two men from his entourage standing there with a smug face. Albeit a swollen, bruised face, but still smug and cocky.

“I wouldn’t know anything about premature, Purifoy. Your old lady told me that was your specialty,” I replied.

“You son of a bitch!” he yelled as he shoved both of his hands into my chest.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! We don’t want any trouble, Purifoy,” Brett spoke up as he stepped in between us. “We were just leaving. Tony, cash out our tab and let’s get out of here.”

“Oh, you girls don’t have to leave on account of us. Let’s all have another round on me,” Purifoy taunted.

“We’re good. Let’s go. Liam, come on,” I called out.

“But I’m not done with this beer drink. Dad said I could have one drink and I’m not done with it yet. He said that more than one would make me think funny, but I’m not thinking funny at all. Can I please stay a little longer?” Liam asked the group, oblivious to how childish he sounded.

“Who the fuck is this? What are you, retarded or something?” Purifoy scoffed as his two meathead friends laughed.

I saw red. I took that opportunity to shove both of my hands into his chest and back him up to the wall. “Don’t fucking talk to him like that! I will end you right here in this bar if you say another fucking word to him or anyone I’m with, for that matter.”

Purifoy’s lips twisted and curled up in satisfaction as I held my forearm across his throat, pressing it against the wall. “Easy, easy, Dougherty. Relax,” Purifoy said, yielding with both of his hands raised.

I dropped my hands and continued to stare him down. Not two seconds after I turned to walk away, Purifoy spoke again, slightly under his breath.

“Go ahead and be on your way then. Take your retard back to his daddy before he starts thinking funny.”

It was then that I saw Liam come from behind me and rush into Purifoy, slamming his body onto the ground, wailing on his face with punch after punch. Absolute chaos broke out around me. Fists were flying. Everyone was fighting. Me and my three against Purifoy and his two soon turned into strangers, bouncers, and God knows who else. I heard bones breaking and glass shattering around me. It had to have been minutes before the bouncers and security got a handle on things.