Post by Zack Fantana on Apr 25, 2021 22:42:38 GMT -5
“I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today."
Zack Fantana places his boot on the cushioned booth. Sitting under the glow of Applebee’s ambient lighting are the members of his closest inner circle - his mentor Bobby Franchise, his mother Gloris Fantana, and American Tommy.
“I've been saving this to read as a group."
As per usual, Bobby had fallen asleep before the Appeteasers had even been served, so Zack loudly clears his throat before withdrawing an unopened envelope from his pocket. That seems to stir Bobby awake.
“Our luck’s about to change, boys.”
Zack tears into the envelope open with reckless abandon and then begins reading the letter inside, intermittently mumbling the words to himself as Bobby struggles to maintain consciousness.
“Zachary, we regret to inform you that… your claim has been… denied?”
This was supposed to be a day of celebration but instead Zack had just revealed to the entire table in dramatic fashion that he was insurance broke.
With his entire financial security collapsing in front of him, Zack turns away from the booth, immediately dialing the company’s customer support number, as Tommy bellows out a hearty laugh in the distance. Zack’s attention could not be further removed from the luncheon now, his eyes instead wandering the celebrity wall of the restaurant as royalty free music buzzed in his ear.
Gloris, as any mother would, tries to console her son by saying that it is all part of God’s plan, but Zack finds little comfort in her half-hearted platitudes. God wasn’t in this Applebee’s tonight, nor did it appear that he had ever been. Paula Deen, however, occupies three frames on the wall for some inexplicable reason.
Finally the music comes to a halt and a customer service rep interrupts Zack’s creeping existential dread.
“Yes? Hello, I just want to speak about my policy.”
Zack discreetly recites his policy number to the service representative and pauses to listen to his response on the other end of the line.
“Okay but if you knew who I was talking about, you’d agree that it was an act of Go-.... Look, you seem very knowledgeable but is there any way that I can just speak to the General directly?”
The call drops almost immediately, and with a beleaguered sigh, Fantana tucks his phone back away into his pocket and begins to monologue, perhaps only as a means to avoid an awkward conversation back at the booth.
“You’d think at some point I’d take the hint that this wasn’t meant to be. You could say that the sane thing to do would’ve been to walk away after Tommy’s swan dive into my windshield, for his well being and my own, and you’d be making a valid argument. It’s not as if the signs have been particularly subtle. For instance…”
Zack grasps a pair of comped Lights Out #43 tickets in his hands as he crosses back toward the booth.
“Lo and behold, in my first match back in Union Battleground, I find myself back at Norfolk Scope, the exact venue in which my old pal Benny Stevens’s career came to an abrupt and unceremonious end. Any God-fearing man would read that as a sign of impending doom, but we’re well past the point of believing in fatalism here. No, if I allowed Union Battleground to dictate the course of my career, they’d be scattering my ashes at sea. All you have to do is look at my previous two bookings to understand - a tag team scaffold match clusterfuck and, well, QT Reese.”
Believing his explanation to be sufficient on both counts, Zack continues after a brief pause.
“This company clearly values neither my life nor my sanity, but if there’s anything I’ve learned in the past year in Skull Kids Wrestling, it’s that not only can I endure in the chaos, I can thrive in it.”
American Tommy interrupts Zack by yelling from the booth.
“You know they have a title that if you win it, it sends you to WAR!?”
Zack spins on his heel to avoid engaging in that conversation as Gloris attempts to get Tommy to take his elbows off the table.
“There’s no reason for this dynamic to ever work. Every sign in the world is telling me we’re headed to disaster, but fortunately, I’m not a spiritual person like Indi Rhyder nor do I buy into superstitions. I don’t believe in bad omens and star signs. Regardless of whatever horoscope Moxie’s read that is telling her that she’s not going to self-sabotage today, it’s not going to change my approach. Maybe one day you’ll stop defining yourself by wasted potential in Valor and GIW, but until that day, until the day you stop living and dying in the past, you’ll only ever be ‘the future’. That’s a fun space to occupy for a moment, but sooner or later you need to move on with your life. Do you really want to attach your legacy to two companies that liquidated their assets over a year ago?”
Zack takes another pass by the booth to swipe his glass off the table, taking a swig.
“Alas, it is refreshing to see exercise a modicum of humility. After all, I can’t say the same for everyone in this match. I don’t need to listen to another Tapp wrestling 101 symposium to know that he’ll expect his team to be the odds on favorites despite being diametric opposites. But I’m happy that Tapp at least has a second career to fall back on when he falters, because if I know anything about the Tapp Wrestling brand, it’s that his business will survive by virtue of him peddling the same surface level content in mass quantity as he does on his socials. It’s a tried and true business model. If all else fails, the company that buys Wristlock Academy in a few years time can release a training module on failing upwards with Cartier twerking in the background to spike its subscriber numbers.”
Noticing that he’s been pacing, Fantana stops and leans against the back of the booth.
“I’ve been part of this Battalion Championship scene long enough to know that logic and reason don’t exist within it. Momentum and pedigree don’t exactly matter in a division that’s been built on the foundation of senseless violence. In that respect, I know Tommy and I both are just stupid enough to walk into that minefield. Are either of these teams on the same page?”
Zack walks back over to the booth, ready to take his seat.
“This isn’t the type of fight that you can predict by following the Vegas odds or attaching your emotions to. I don’t need to hear about your favorites or that the universe is going to guide Indi to another championship.”
Zack glances behind him to find that American Tommy, charm school dropout, is using the salad fork to scratch his groin.
“Because any gods you think you once knew are long since dead now.”
Tommy sniffs the salad fork and a disgusting look comes across his face as he throws the fork over his shoulder. He looks at Zack and shrugs.
“What the fuck I need a salad fork for?”
He grabs a tiny spoon and looks at it in disbelief.
“Do they think I’m a child?”
Tommy proceeds to throw that spoon over his shoulder without a care in the world.
With Gloris Fantana’s attention to possibly giving Bobby Franchise a handy other the table for all we know, Tommy grabs a biscuit and throws it at Zack Fantana’s head with a smile on his face. Zack scowls and turns toward Tommy who puts his hands under his tits and pretends to push them up while mouthing to Zack, “You’re Ma got some nice tits!”
“This is a family establishment.”
Tommy stands up just as a waitress with a tray of food walks buy and Tommy grabs the tray and nods his head in agreement.
“Thanks!”
He takes a wing from the tray and takes a bite before talking to the camera with his mouth full. Gloris Fantana just shakes her head in approval as Bobby Franchise is taking a swig out of a flask even though you can just order a drink.
“I could sit here and preach how I’m better than all you and that you know it, but honestly even though I am, we are all standing in the same depth of water at the moment all trying to grab at the same brass ring. There isn’t a single person here in this match that has been on stable footing in Union in a bit, not even me.”
Tommy eyes a Busch Light at the neighboring table. He walks over with his empty and exchanges it for the full one as he poses for a quick snap with the man. He takes a drink and laughs at Zack, who looks amused.
“The last time I was in a Union wrestling ring was months ago when I got pinned in the War Horse Championship match. It wasn’t my best showing as you all saw, maybe even a bit of rust was involved. As you all saw from my training video, I wasn’t ready to go to war. Honestly, I probably would have dodged the draft and moved to Canada if I won. Who the fuck thinks it’s a good idea to give a horse for winning a title? What the fuck do I know about horses? I know that we are competing against some horse-faced-looking mother fuckers, but that’s it!”
He holds up a carrot and waves it mockingly towards the camera as Zack’s mom’s mouth is agape. Bobby cheers his flask as Zack does whatever that weird man does.
“Zack and I will bring you all some carrots and apples to eat after the match and let you roam free in the pasture before we send you guys off to be made into glue.”
Tommy munches into the carrot and makes a horse sound as it seems most of the attention in this Applebees is on him because of course, he is. He’s a very handsome man with great eyelashes and well, he stole Zack’s light-up jacket from his mother’s car earlier and has it on.
“Anyways, I’m not ashamed to admit it. I haven’t been the same American Tommy in a bit. Ever since Perry Wallace broke my ankle back when 4CW was still a thing. I took things for granted earlier in my career. Things came naturally to me and I hardly even had to work for them. A Prodigy? Maybe, but my star sure has dimmed a bit. I wouldn’t be losing to Bryan Williams in any match if that wasn’t the case. I’ll let you guys in on a little secret though. On my worst day, I’m still better than you.”
He looks back at Zack Fantana who nods in agreement.
“And as teams? Look, I don’t pay attention to you fucks to know what you’ve all been doing, but I think it’s safe to say that none of us have ever worked as a tag team in Union or anywhere else before. You see, but that’s about the extent of what we have in common.”
The manager walks over and begins talking to Tommy who just shakes his head in disagreement before pointing at Zack Fantana. The manager goes back to talk to Zack and points to the tray of food Tommy grabbed from the waitress as Tommy turns around and rolls his eyes, continuing his never-ending monologue.
“You can look at Zack and me and think that we are just a thrown-together team like the rest of you put together to try and make a patchwork tag team division look bustling, but that’s anything from that fact. Zack and I have run in the same circles for years. More years than I would have liked it to be, unfortunately. It only took a “fall from grace” to put us in each other’s path, but I never expected to be hit by a fucking car in the process.”
Tommy raises his arm and rubs the back of his neck as he cranks it side to side. He continues doing it until he notices Zack Fantana sees him.
“Let’s be honest here, I’ve taken worse partners to heights they could only dream about and we had no experience as partners either.”
He takes a quick swig of his beer and wipes the spillage in his beard with the arm of Zack’s jacket before continuing.
“That’s custom made, you p.o.s.”
“Tapp, it’s cute that you’ve seemed to have bitten my gimmick a bit and promote one move as the best move in the world. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but at the end of the day it is still just imitation and I’m leagues above you. Your little wristlock is absolute trash and if you think it even compares to the YoYo Toss Salad you are even more delusional than I thought. What’s next, alcohol tweets?!”
Tommy puts the empty beer bottle down and shrugs nonchalantly.
“Oh, wait? That’s already happened? Well, shit. I’m sure you’ll find your next inspiration in something else I do so you should be good to go for the next change in your gimmick.”
He smiles and lifts his finger in the air as if he’s gotten an idea, which is probably nothing more than him celebrating his fart was not a shart, but the smell has been passed to the table as Zack and Co are struggling to breathe.
“It’s funny that Cartier would turn the team name into an ass joke because that’s all she’s ever going to be known for is being complete ass where it counts. Look, I know you’ve had success recently, but let’s not kid ourselves. Your big win is against Manny and all you have to do to beat him is put a pair of tits in his face and he’ll forget he’s in a match and race off to be the first like on Twitter. You talk a lot of shit for someone that hasn’t backed it up where it matters.”
Tommy grabs another wing and eats it, tossing the bone remains on the floor. Poor Zack’s Ma, all she wanted to do was teach Tommy some manners.
“Talking about being a tag team specialist when Jett and I tagged once and are a superior tag team than anything you’ve ever done. Just ask Manny’s mother, I had to change my number because she wouldn’t quit calling me!”
Tommy points to a random picture of the Eiffel Tower on the wall of this Applebees in Norfolk, Va. What an odd picture to have there. Almost like it was planned.
“Moxie and Indy. What the fuck happened to you two? Seriously, you two are some of the greatest wrestlers in the world, but you both can’t seem to get out of your fucking ways and the powers to be think that making you a team is going to be any different? Fuck man, you guys are a disaster waiting to happen. Lately, it’s just going to be an accomplishment to see one of you guys walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.”
He has a concerned look on his face as he likes these two as they had just as much potential as he does. He looks like a disappointed father.
“Let’s be serious, y’all could have had the world by balls. Hell, you did here Indy and you could have built something great with it. You could have built an empire as Miles did, but you let it slip out of your grasp before you even took more than a few steps and you plummeted straight to the fucking bottom of the pecking order in the blink of an eye.”
Tommy snaps his finger after that last word for emphasis, because emphasis, who fucking knows why he does anything honestly. He’s a chaotic mess of a person that only cares about his girlfriend Ronni and Harry Styles.
“Speaking of a blink of an eye, Moxie, it’s like you are there one moment and then you are gone the next. You can’t even just go with the motions anymore like you just were. You just up and vanish only to be heard every once in a while. Why are you still even here? Not only here as in Union, but why are you even wrestling anymore? It’s quite clear to even Stevie Wonder that you are just going through the motions and that’s not going to cut it anymore. Be better!”
Tommy slams his fist down on the table and it knocks the tray of food he stole onto the floor, which upsets Tommy even more because he’s very hungry. The manager looks over at Tommy very angrily in which Tommy in return just points at Zack saying he did it.
“He’s got it. He owes me for hitting me with his car!”
Zack collects the check from the manager, who is eager to send this entire crew on their way.
“You drank… a lot of alcohol. Tommy, I don’t have this much on me.”
Tommy looks at Zack and throws his hands in the air in disbelief.
“That wasn’t me. That was your mother! She’s a lush, Zack!”
He points at Zack’s mom who is beside herself that Tommy would even say that when all she’s been trying to do is help him this fine afternoon become the best man he could be in this Norfolk Applebees.
“I wouldn’t lie to you!”
The manager finally has had enough and puts his hands underneath Tommy’s armpits and lifts him up off the chair. He proceeds to drag him out of the establishment as Tommy is kicking and screaming, telling anybody that would listen that Gloris Fantana was a closet drinker.
As Gloris follows Tommy out the door in a heated exchange, Zack desperately turns to Bobby who’s in the process of making his own getaway.
“Okay so are we or are we not going Dutch on this?”
With the old man ignoring him, Zack removes every bill from his wallet, leaving the comped tickets for his mother and mentor as a tip for the wait staff.
Zack Fantana places his boot on the cushioned booth. Sitting under the glow of Applebee’s ambient lighting are the members of his closest inner circle - his mentor Bobby Franchise, his mother Gloris Fantana, and American Tommy.
“I've been saving this to read as a group."
As per usual, Bobby had fallen asleep before the Appeteasers had even been served, so Zack loudly clears his throat before withdrawing an unopened envelope from his pocket. That seems to stir Bobby awake.
“Our luck’s about to change, boys.”
Zack tears into the envelope open with reckless abandon and then begins reading the letter inside, intermittently mumbling the words to himself as Bobby struggles to maintain consciousness.
“Zachary, we regret to inform you that… your claim has been… denied?”
This was supposed to be a day of celebration but instead Zack had just revealed to the entire table in dramatic fashion that he was insurance broke.
With his entire financial security collapsing in front of him, Zack turns away from the booth, immediately dialing the company’s customer support number, as Tommy bellows out a hearty laugh in the distance. Zack’s attention could not be further removed from the luncheon now, his eyes instead wandering the celebrity wall of the restaurant as royalty free music buzzed in his ear.
Gloris, as any mother would, tries to console her son by saying that it is all part of God’s plan, but Zack finds little comfort in her half-hearted platitudes. God wasn’t in this Applebee’s tonight, nor did it appear that he had ever been. Paula Deen, however, occupies three frames on the wall for some inexplicable reason.
Finally the music comes to a halt and a customer service rep interrupts Zack’s creeping existential dread.
“Yes? Hello, I just want to speak about my policy.”
Zack discreetly recites his policy number to the service representative and pauses to listen to his response on the other end of the line.
“Okay but if you knew who I was talking about, you’d agree that it was an act of Go-.... Look, you seem very knowledgeable but is there any way that I can just speak to the General directly?”
The call drops almost immediately, and with a beleaguered sigh, Fantana tucks his phone back away into his pocket and begins to monologue, perhaps only as a means to avoid an awkward conversation back at the booth.
“You’d think at some point I’d take the hint that this wasn’t meant to be. You could say that the sane thing to do would’ve been to walk away after Tommy’s swan dive into my windshield, for his well being and my own, and you’d be making a valid argument. It’s not as if the signs have been particularly subtle. For instance…”
Zack grasps a pair of comped Lights Out #43 tickets in his hands as he crosses back toward the booth.
“Lo and behold, in my first match back in Union Battleground, I find myself back at Norfolk Scope, the exact venue in which my old pal Benny Stevens’s career came to an abrupt and unceremonious end. Any God-fearing man would read that as a sign of impending doom, but we’re well past the point of believing in fatalism here. No, if I allowed Union Battleground to dictate the course of my career, they’d be scattering my ashes at sea. All you have to do is look at my previous two bookings to understand - a tag team scaffold match clusterfuck and, well, QT Reese.”
Believing his explanation to be sufficient on both counts, Zack continues after a brief pause.
“This company clearly values neither my life nor my sanity, but if there’s anything I’ve learned in the past year in Skull Kids Wrestling, it’s that not only can I endure in the chaos, I can thrive in it.”
American Tommy interrupts Zack by yelling from the booth.
“You know they have a title that if you win it, it sends you to WAR!?”
Zack spins on his heel to avoid engaging in that conversation as Gloris attempts to get Tommy to take his elbows off the table.
“There’s no reason for this dynamic to ever work. Every sign in the world is telling me we’re headed to disaster, but fortunately, I’m not a spiritual person like Indi Rhyder nor do I buy into superstitions. I don’t believe in bad omens and star signs. Regardless of whatever horoscope Moxie’s read that is telling her that she’s not going to self-sabotage today, it’s not going to change my approach. Maybe one day you’ll stop defining yourself by wasted potential in Valor and GIW, but until that day, until the day you stop living and dying in the past, you’ll only ever be ‘the future’. That’s a fun space to occupy for a moment, but sooner or later you need to move on with your life. Do you really want to attach your legacy to two companies that liquidated their assets over a year ago?”
Zack takes another pass by the booth to swipe his glass off the table, taking a swig.
“Alas, it is refreshing to see exercise a modicum of humility. After all, I can’t say the same for everyone in this match. I don’t need to listen to another Tapp wrestling 101 symposium to know that he’ll expect his team to be the odds on favorites despite being diametric opposites. But I’m happy that Tapp at least has a second career to fall back on when he falters, because if I know anything about the Tapp Wrestling brand, it’s that his business will survive by virtue of him peddling the same surface level content in mass quantity as he does on his socials. It’s a tried and true business model. If all else fails, the company that buys Wristlock Academy in a few years time can release a training module on failing upwards with Cartier twerking in the background to spike its subscriber numbers.”
Noticing that he’s been pacing, Fantana stops and leans against the back of the booth.
“I’ve been part of this Battalion Championship scene long enough to know that logic and reason don’t exist within it. Momentum and pedigree don’t exactly matter in a division that’s been built on the foundation of senseless violence. In that respect, I know Tommy and I both are just stupid enough to walk into that minefield. Are either of these teams on the same page?”
Zack walks back over to the booth, ready to take his seat.
“This isn’t the type of fight that you can predict by following the Vegas odds or attaching your emotions to. I don’t need to hear about your favorites or that the universe is going to guide Indi to another championship.”
Zack glances behind him to find that American Tommy, charm school dropout, is using the salad fork to scratch his groin.
“Because any gods you think you once knew are long since dead now.”
Tommy sniffs the salad fork and a disgusting look comes across his face as he throws the fork over his shoulder. He looks at Zack and shrugs.
“What the fuck I need a salad fork for?”
He grabs a tiny spoon and looks at it in disbelief.
“Do they think I’m a child?”
Tommy proceeds to throw that spoon over his shoulder without a care in the world.
With Gloris Fantana’s attention to possibly giving Bobby Franchise a handy other the table for all we know, Tommy grabs a biscuit and throws it at Zack Fantana’s head with a smile on his face. Zack scowls and turns toward Tommy who puts his hands under his tits and pretends to push them up while mouthing to Zack, “You’re Ma got some nice tits!”
“This is a family establishment.”
Tommy stands up just as a waitress with a tray of food walks buy and Tommy grabs the tray and nods his head in agreement.
“Thanks!”
He takes a wing from the tray and takes a bite before talking to the camera with his mouth full. Gloris Fantana just shakes her head in approval as Bobby Franchise is taking a swig out of a flask even though you can just order a drink.
“I could sit here and preach how I’m better than all you and that you know it, but honestly even though I am, we are all standing in the same depth of water at the moment all trying to grab at the same brass ring. There isn’t a single person here in this match that has been on stable footing in Union in a bit, not even me.”
Tommy eyes a Busch Light at the neighboring table. He walks over with his empty and exchanges it for the full one as he poses for a quick snap with the man. He takes a drink and laughs at Zack, who looks amused.
“The last time I was in a Union wrestling ring was months ago when I got pinned in the War Horse Championship match. It wasn’t my best showing as you all saw, maybe even a bit of rust was involved. As you all saw from my training video, I wasn’t ready to go to war. Honestly, I probably would have dodged the draft and moved to Canada if I won. Who the fuck thinks it’s a good idea to give a horse for winning a title? What the fuck do I know about horses? I know that we are competing against some horse-faced-looking mother fuckers, but that’s it!”
He holds up a carrot and waves it mockingly towards the camera as Zack’s mom’s mouth is agape. Bobby cheers his flask as Zack does whatever that weird man does.
“Zack and I will bring you all some carrots and apples to eat after the match and let you roam free in the pasture before we send you guys off to be made into glue.”
Tommy munches into the carrot and makes a horse sound as it seems most of the attention in this Applebees is on him because of course, he is. He’s a very handsome man with great eyelashes and well, he stole Zack’s light-up jacket from his mother’s car earlier and has it on.
“Anyways, I’m not ashamed to admit it. I haven’t been the same American Tommy in a bit. Ever since Perry Wallace broke my ankle back when 4CW was still a thing. I took things for granted earlier in my career. Things came naturally to me and I hardly even had to work for them. A Prodigy? Maybe, but my star sure has dimmed a bit. I wouldn’t be losing to Bryan Williams in any match if that wasn’t the case. I’ll let you guys in on a little secret though. On my worst day, I’m still better than you.”
He looks back at Zack Fantana who nods in agreement.
“And as teams? Look, I don’t pay attention to you fucks to know what you’ve all been doing, but I think it’s safe to say that none of us have ever worked as a tag team in Union or anywhere else before. You see, but that’s about the extent of what we have in common.”
The manager walks over and begins talking to Tommy who just shakes his head in disagreement before pointing at Zack Fantana. The manager goes back to talk to Zack and points to the tray of food Tommy grabbed from the waitress as Tommy turns around and rolls his eyes, continuing his never-ending monologue.
“You can look at Zack and me and think that we are just a thrown-together team like the rest of you put together to try and make a patchwork tag team division look bustling, but that’s anything from that fact. Zack and I have run in the same circles for years. More years than I would have liked it to be, unfortunately. It only took a “fall from grace” to put us in each other’s path, but I never expected to be hit by a fucking car in the process.”
Tommy raises his arm and rubs the back of his neck as he cranks it side to side. He continues doing it until he notices Zack Fantana sees him.
“Let’s be honest here, I’ve taken worse partners to heights they could only dream about and we had no experience as partners either.”
He takes a quick swig of his beer and wipes the spillage in his beard with the arm of Zack’s jacket before continuing.
“That’s custom made, you p.o.s.”
“Tapp, it’s cute that you’ve seemed to have bitten my gimmick a bit and promote one move as the best move in the world. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but at the end of the day it is still just imitation and I’m leagues above you. Your little wristlock is absolute trash and if you think it even compares to the YoYo Toss Salad you are even more delusional than I thought. What’s next, alcohol tweets?!”
Tommy puts the empty beer bottle down and shrugs nonchalantly.
“Oh, wait? That’s already happened? Well, shit. I’m sure you’ll find your next inspiration in something else I do so you should be good to go for the next change in your gimmick.”
He smiles and lifts his finger in the air as if he’s gotten an idea, which is probably nothing more than him celebrating his fart was not a shart, but the smell has been passed to the table as Zack and Co are struggling to breathe.
“It’s funny that Cartier would turn the team name into an ass joke because that’s all she’s ever going to be known for is being complete ass where it counts. Look, I know you’ve had success recently, but let’s not kid ourselves. Your big win is against Manny and all you have to do to beat him is put a pair of tits in his face and he’ll forget he’s in a match and race off to be the first like on Twitter. You talk a lot of shit for someone that hasn’t backed it up where it matters.”
Tommy grabs another wing and eats it, tossing the bone remains on the floor. Poor Zack’s Ma, all she wanted to do was teach Tommy some manners.
“Talking about being a tag team specialist when Jett and I tagged once and are a superior tag team than anything you’ve ever done. Just ask Manny’s mother, I had to change my number because she wouldn’t quit calling me!”
Tommy points to a random picture of the Eiffel Tower on the wall of this Applebees in Norfolk, Va. What an odd picture to have there. Almost like it was planned.
“Moxie and Indy. What the fuck happened to you two? Seriously, you two are some of the greatest wrestlers in the world, but you both can’t seem to get out of your fucking ways and the powers to be think that making you a team is going to be any different? Fuck man, you guys are a disaster waiting to happen. Lately, it’s just going to be an accomplishment to see one of you guys walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.”
He has a concerned look on his face as he likes these two as they had just as much potential as he does. He looks like a disappointed father.
“Let’s be serious, y’all could have had the world by balls. Hell, you did here Indy and you could have built something great with it. You could have built an empire as Miles did, but you let it slip out of your grasp before you even took more than a few steps and you plummeted straight to the fucking bottom of the pecking order in the blink of an eye.”
Tommy snaps his finger after that last word for emphasis, because emphasis, who fucking knows why he does anything honestly. He’s a chaotic mess of a person that only cares about his girlfriend Ronni and Harry Styles.
“Speaking of a blink of an eye, Moxie, it’s like you are there one moment and then you are gone the next. You can’t even just go with the motions anymore like you just were. You just up and vanish only to be heard every once in a while. Why are you still even here? Not only here as in Union, but why are you even wrestling anymore? It’s quite clear to even Stevie Wonder that you are just going through the motions and that’s not going to cut it anymore. Be better!”
Tommy slams his fist down on the table and it knocks the tray of food he stole onto the floor, which upsets Tommy even more because he’s very hungry. The manager looks over at Tommy very angrily in which Tommy in return just points at Zack saying he did it.
“He’s got it. He owes me for hitting me with his car!”
Zack collects the check from the manager, who is eager to send this entire crew on their way.
“You drank… a lot of alcohol. Tommy, I don’t have this much on me.”
Tommy looks at Zack and throws his hands in the air in disbelief.
“That wasn’t me. That was your mother! She’s a lush, Zack!”
He points at Zack’s mom who is beside herself that Tommy would even say that when all she’s been trying to do is help him this fine afternoon become the best man he could be in this Norfolk Applebees.
“I wouldn’t lie to you!”
The manager finally has had enough and puts his hands underneath Tommy’s armpits and lifts him up off the chair. He proceeds to drag him out of the establishment as Tommy is kicking and screaming, telling anybody that would listen that Gloris Fantana was a closet drinker.
As Gloris follows Tommy out the door in a heated exchange, Zack desperately turns to Bobby who’s in the process of making his own getaway.
“Okay so are we or are we not going Dutch on this?”
With the old man ignoring him, Zack removes every bill from his wallet, leaving the comped tickets for his mother and mentor as a tip for the wait staff.