Donny EXP29

Old friends (offcam)

There was rarely a dull day in the life of Donny Mason ever since he was thrust into the limelight by his father. If he wasn’t going around with Shay, who attracted eyes by her sheer appearance, he was at the newly-christened “Tirri Training Camp” trying to keep up with his fathers regimen, knowing full well that he had to supercede all other trainees or he was looking at extra sessions in his backyard. And if he wasn’t in the dojo, he was doing public appearances or interviews at the behest of his agent Chris Page and the CCPE.

It left very few moments of solitude for the big englisman. Something he sought out by going to his old place of employment and working out in relative anonymity. If you discounted the acquaintances he made after entering the wrestling business, his circle of friends was scarce. It didn’t bother him though, as growing up he had always valued quality over quantity and now that he was well-recognized, he preferred the company of those who he knew liked him because of who he was, and not because of who he had become.

One of those people was Ryan, his oldest friend and the idiot who dropped everything and joined him when he decided to head off to the US to find his father. Ryan had become basically the manager of the gym since Donny left, the old man in charge of the place seeing him as trustworthy and reliable enough to run the place. So when Donny immersed himself in a workout, Ryan was quickly there. “Whoa, look at those weights. You must really be on edge. Had a fight with Sharon?”

“Shay.” Donny grunted at Ryan. That was one of his favorite jokes, pretending he didn’t remember Shay’s name. Donny finished his set and sat up. “And no. On the contrary. Things are great on that end.”

Ryan sat down next to Donny, putting his hand on the big mans shoulder. “So are you gonna tell me what’s bugging you or are you gonna force me to pull it out of you with a pair of tongs?”

Rolling his eyes at Ryan, Donny took a sip of his sports-drink and sighed. “I don’t know really. I’m just getting tired and frustrated. A friend I lost and I thought I could reconcile turns out wants to bash my face in to cover his own guilt. Another friend is gonna retire, and not exactly by her own choice. Pops is drifting away from me. And hell, Knox took it personally when I chose to join CCPE. Seems like I’m getting bad news every direction I go. It’s…. Fuck it. It’s getting to me.”

“Well I’m still here. Despite my best efforts. And I guess Shamina is too. Otherwise you’d be a lot more cross” Ryan tried to comfort Donny

“Shay” Donny corrected almost absentmindedly

Ryan blinked. “That’s what I said.” He paused and stood up. “What you need is a drink or four. Let’s go”

That caught Donny completely by surprise, and it was partly due to that he didn’t resist much when Ryan started dragging him out of the gym and towards a watering hole nearby. In just 10 minutes since he had been lifting weights, Donny found himself seated in a stool in a seedy, smoky bar that they had entered only after descending a set of stairs. A large pint sat on the table in front of him and to his left, Ryan sat with a satisfied smile. “That’s better. Bottoms up, mate.”

Donny clinked his pint with Ryan and downed it in one go. “You know, you might’ve been right. I needed this.” He then looked around and a small measure of recognition poked his mind. “I’ve been here before”

Ryan cocked his head. “You have? Not with me you haven’t”

“Yeah. It was early last year. I think we had one of our spats and I needed to cool off” Donny mused, memories flooding back to his mind.” I sat in that booth over there and a bunch of rednecks came to bother me because I hadn’t learned to conceal my accent yet.”

“You got your ass kicked then I take it? You’re good mate, but not good enough to win a bar brawl with a bunch of rednecks.” Ryan observed dryly.

Donny chuckled, shrugging. “I probably would have. But I found backup. Or rather, the backup found me. Co-incidence of the century, but Pops happened to be here as well. I don’t know why, but he stepped in and the fight turned in our favor.” Donny stared at his pint and raised his hand to order another. “I’d spoken to him for the first time just a few weeks earlier when I saw him in that diner I’ve told you about. Guess he recognized my face and… I don’t know. Maybe he felt the kinship.”

“He didn’t know who you were yet???” Ryan seemed surprised. “I remember you stayed over at his place that night. I thought that was when you introduced yourself.”

Shaking his head, Donny took the pint that was brought to him and sipped it. “Nah. That came later. From what I gathered, Pops saw a bit of himself in me and took me under his wing. He didn’t put 2 and 2 together until I went out and told him.”

Ryan mused over Donny’s words. “Why didn’t you tell him? You came here for the sheer purpose of reconnecting with him.”

A small shrug was the response for a good few minutes as the big englishman stared at emptiness, sorting through his thoughts. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him. I wanted to see what kind of a man he was before I did.” He looked at Ryan, a melancholy smile on his lips. “You gotta understand… I’d barely had time to process the fact he was my father. I was trying to look past years of idolizing him as a wrestler. See him as the man who stole my Mum’s heart. See what Mum saw in him. It took me some time to see it. Years hadn’t been kind to Pops and he hid his redeeming qualities well.”

“It must’ve been killing you to keep that secret” Ryan, always observant mused, his eyes locked at Donny’s.

“Yes and no. I desperately wanted to tell him. Yet, at the same time, I knew that once I did there would be no going back. It was a step *I* wasn’t ready to take yet. Not before I was certain.”

“What made you change your mind then? What happened?” Ryan was genuinely interested. Despite their long friendship, he had never been able to pry details out when it came to Don Tirri and the relationship between father and son.

“I saw him at his lowest” Donny said curtly. Thinking back to that time when his father suddenly disappeared for a week after a loss to Luther Thunder at Uprising’s first Pay-Per-View, the urgency he felt when he kicked in the door to his house and the pain he felt when he saw the old man wallowing in misery. “Something clicked and I just blurted it out. Later I realized I had somehow understood it was then or never. I had already lost Mum. I wasn’t gonna lose Pops too.”

Ryan nodded. “That I can understand.” He then swirled his beer thoughtfully. “That friend you said you lost. It’s that McAlroy kid, right?”

Donny felt a twinge of pain as he glanced at Ryan. “So obvious? Yeah. It’s Bert. I can’t figure him out” Donny sighed. “We fought at Final Fantasy. Me and Pops beat him and Nao. He took what we did to Nao personally. It wasn’t. Later that night he won the top belt in Levelup and it changed him. He fell in with the wrong crowd. Johnny Shitmaker got into his ear. He grew distant there. Blamed me and Pops for Nao. Then Joey Crash broke his neck and he vanished off the face of the earth. He returned a few weeks ago. AGAINST me. And now he is trying to goad me into fighting him.”

Ryan listened closely, seeing the pain in Donny’s face as he recounted his chasm with Bert. “But you don’t want to fight him.” It was a statement more than a question.

“Yeah. I still remember him as the closest thing to a brother I had. Seeing him hate me hurts. It hurts like hell Ryan. He feels guilt for what happened to Nao. And I think he feels anger at how he was cut down on his prime. He’s deflecting it on me. I bet he thinks he’ll feel better if he punches my face in. But he won’t. I know it. I don’t want to hurt him. But he won’t back down. If I step into the ring with him, one of us won’t be leaving under our own power. He won’t stop until I’m done. I don’t want to be in that position.” The words came easily, as if a dam had been busted. Donny was hurting. Badly. This was something he hadn’t even told Shay. “So I’m just gonna take his insults and his taunts and turn the other cheek. Just like Mum taught me. Either Bert snaps out of his funk… or he’ll hate me for the rest of his life.”

“I get why you’re feeling down. Hell. If YOU suddenly got cross with me, I’d prolly pack my bags and head back home.” Ryan tried to lighten the mood with a small joke. “And considering how much I despise good old UK… that’s telling.” He sighed. “Anyway. Enough talking, mate. Time to get drunk. I hope Sharadan isn’t gonna be mad at me for getting you wasted”

“Shay.” Donny once again corrected and lifted his pint. “Sharadan isn’t even a damn name. Bottoms up!”

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