Rigby's Descent
It smelled bad and all he could see were the misshapen forms of monsters and nightmares come true. In the distance he could hear Mordecai shouting. He wished for someone to save him. The raccoon did not have the inner strength to save himself. The smell had so overcome him that he choked on his tongue. He heard Mordecai more clearly but could not defeat his fear and go towards his voice. His head exploded and suddenly the monsters were glass. A great fist sped towards him in seconds. The new sunlight scared him and in terror Rigby bit at the fist; chomping at its blue appendages. Blinded, he tried to run but found that the ground was too springy to give good traction and in his desperation flipped onto his back on the ground. Something covered his face. "Ouch, dude!" The voice sounded familiar. Something ticklish and familiar struck his side and in the motion of the hit was carried into the air. Everything was clear; the laundry pile he woke up in, the trampoline, the dirt carried on the sunlight, and Mordecai's annoyed face. The floor flew up to greet him and they indeed shared a heartfelt moment.
Mordecai's voice was a like a sledge to the confused Rigby. "Ah man what the H! Get up already!" Rigby's voice was much more bedraggled and in confusion it faltered. "Uhhhh isn't it Sunday? What are we doing? Auuuuggghh." "No man its time to go to the airport grab your bags and lets go!" As a firework takes time to shine Rigby startles and jumps up. Being naked lends towards having a light luggage load and he would go for any excuse not to carry a heavy load to the street. "Ah yeeah! New York here we come!" Mordecai rubbed his hand. "Yeah just let me get a band-aid freakazoid." The bathroom seemed to take a long time coming. Rigby heard the sounds of water running and thought to get up from the floor to check. "Why do you need a band-aid anyway? Did you hurt yourself too badly from thinking about Margaret last night?" "No you idiot you bit me when I woke you up! What was that about anyway?" Rigby's emotions had been brought back from the void of his mind and he started walking out of the bathroom. His thoughts were not new and the feeling of helplessness that he lived every day was monolithic. He felt it best not to mention it. His words stumbled and it was in essence a terrible apology wrapped up into a cold bullshit sandwich. Mordecai frowned. "Look just forget about it alright? I'm fine now just grab our stuff and I'll meet you outside." Now it was Rigby's frown. "Aw, man I have to carry all our stuff by myself?" His whiney voice drove Mordecai up the wall. "Well if you hadn't been a rabid baby last night maybe I wouldn't have been so pissed off! You were saying some pretty crazy stuff last night man. You need to stop being such a baby." Rigby jumped onto Mordecai and hit the band-aid box out of his arm. "Stop talking!" The band-aid box lay on the ground and Mordecai just sighed with Rigby still on his back. He slammed Rigby into the wall as hard as he could and he came flying off. Rigby felt something go weird in his arm. "Ahhhh! What was that for?" He started moaning. Mordecai looked at him with disgust. "Grow up Rigby you can't act like a child forever. If Margaret wasn't going I..." Rigby's pain was forgotten and he looked up at him with such sadness that Mordecai wasn't able to say anything else. "I'll get the bags just meet me downstairs." Their relationship was always like this: Rigby feeding off of Mordecai's personality and Mordecai needing Rigby to fawn over him.
He sat on the bathroom floor for what seemed like a long while. He wondered about himself. He did not hate Margaret really just that she made him think about the stressful things. He knew Mordecai would leave him soon enough. He punched the cabinet door in frustration and shouted in pain. He hated his life. Eileen was pretty cool. Rigby thought she was pretty. In a funny way he wanted Mordecai to be the one to leave him first. He wanted every last second of their friendship to last before it had to end. Fighting with him made him angry that he messed up since it was just that much less time he got to spend with Mordecai. The sink was still running and he splashed his face with the hot water. It was so cold that the trip downstairs made his whiskers freeze and made him wish he had dried more thoroughly. He tried not to make it obvious he was favoring his right arm. Mordecai was talking to someone around the back of the house. "God I can't stand him. Why does he have to be such a baby?" A much deeper voice spoke. "Rigby's a good kid he's just a little misguided. You'll go back to being friends soon enough." Mordecai groaned. "Its just that he's so clingy you know? I feel like I need this trip to just be Margaret and me. I didn't even want Rigby to come." Skips noticed a shadow behind Mordecai. "Uh-oh" Mordecai looked back and saw it as well. "Hey is someone there?" His shouting caused the shadow to jump back and away. Mordecai chased after it around the house and inside. No one was there. There was only one person who would be fast enough to get out of sight that quickly. Mordecai scanned the room and found nothing. Rigby heard his footsteps go upstairs and snuck on three legs out of the house. Skips found him waiting by the bags. "Rigby do you want to talk about it? You need to get this off your chest. Tell him." His back was turned to Skips. "I'm a kid, huh? A little misguided? You know as well as everyone else that I'll never get any respect." He sank to his knees. "I just don't care anymore you know? I just try to be a friend and he blows up on me. See if I need him anyway." Skips draped his arms on Rigby's shoulders. "Look, you know that you'll grow up too just keep being yourself and you'll be fine." Rigby felt the heat from Skips' groin. "I don't want to be myself anymore." Skips sighed. A car pulled up around the side. "Come on, lets go see if its your ride."
Mordecai was his room when he saw Margaret's hatchback pull up. He figured that whomever it was that had overheard his conversation was long gone by now. The cologne he grabbed was "Le velo" since he heard it was supposed to make you more confident. Doused liberally in the smell of rubber he ran outside to greet Margaret. Rigby was standing in the pile of luggage attempting to balance a suitcase over his back with one arm. Mordecai thought it funny and laughed. "Do you need some help with that dude?" Rigby grunted. "No I'm fine. I have this under control." Mordecai smiled and struck a pose. "You have a problem with your arm? I didn't think you could be anymore useless." His attempt at lightheartedness made the raccoon growl angrily like a feral raccoon might. "No I'm not useless I've got this!" His outburst had caused him to get distracted and in that moment tripped over a bag of socks. The leather jacket and sports coat that were inside flew out and landed in a puddle. "Aww man what the H are you doing? Are you seriously that weak?" Skips frowned and walked forward to intervene. He stopped just before Eileen ran in front of him to Rigby's side. "Rigby are you alright? You didn't hurt yourself did you?" Truthfully Rigby couldn't be more glad to see her. His anger at himself melted away as he looked up at her eyes. Tears started to form and he wanted to have her hold him. To save him from the embarrassment that he thought he was. "Get away from me Eileen I'm fine just everyone get away! He tried running away on all fours but his hurt arm got trapped between a suitcase and the box of video games. "Aw, god!" His cry was very real and sounded serious. Mordecai forgot everything else and ran up to him. "Are you alright Rigby? Say something." Eileen rescued his arm and propped it up. It hung at a slight bend off of her arm. Rigby's face was contorted in pain and he could not speak. Mordecai ran his fingers through his hair in concentration. "Skips! go call 911! Margaret you get the car started and I'll go get an ice pack or something!" Mordecai's feathers had ruffled out and he sprinted three steps at a time up the stairs into the house. Rigby had teared up in pain and was holding Eileen tightly with his good arm. She decided it wasn't a good time to confess her love. All he could think of was how badly he'd screwed up. How everyone's trip was ruined because of him and how he wouldn't get to spend what was in his mind one of the last great hurrahs of his and Mordecai's friendship. His arm hurt only a fraction of what his heart felt. He knew he was being a baby but just didn't care. The emotions running through him just blew through his soul and killed him on the inside. The tears could not flow freely enough.
Mordecai's panic had allowed him the disgurement of thought needed in order to check every room before realizing that the ice pack was in the fridge/freezer compartment. He didn't know what to call the thing but all that mattered was that there was something important in there. The ice pack was stuck to the bottom of the freezer drawer. He calmed down at this. "Mordecai just calm down and figure this out." He was always good at puzzle games. He heard water running. "The sink! I knew I forgot to do something!" The water upstairs was scalding hot and perfect for the christmas mug that he grabbed. His walk down the stairs was tedious and stressful being that the mug was of such an awkward design. With this newfound power Mordecai quickly freed the ice pack by pouring the hot water over it. The run back out to Rigby was more uneventful than the other times he'd had to save his life. This time Mordecai only saw a pathetic creature, his friend, crying on account of his mistake. Eileen did not budge an inch as Mordecai came closer. Her eyes were glued to his face. The ice pack seemed inconsequential to her caress. He bent down to apply it. It seemed to calm him instantly. Mordecai didn't know what to do and just remained squatting there by Eileen.
Rigby choked out some words but Mordecai didn't understand them. "What? Say that again I didn't hear you." Rigby winced as he tried to sit upright. He spoke in an agonized voice. "I want you to do me a solid." Thinking it to be a request for picking up his slack around work he said yes. "Yeah no problem I bet even Benson won't harass you to work for the next couple weeks so we can chill out." Rigby shook his head. "No dude I want you to go have a fun time with Margaret in New York. Don't get... held back by me here. I think I just want to be alone for a little while." He was shocked. Rigby telling him to go have a good time with Margaret? "No way man I gotta make sure you're alright. I can't be having my best bud hurt like this without me around to beat him at Strong Johns." Rigby looked up at the sky. "Its a solid. You agreed to it and you know what'll happen if you don't do it. Just forget about me for a week. I think we should have a break from each other you know? Just a little alone time with you and Margaret." Rigby smirked and winked at Mordecai who just stared back blankly. "What? I don't care about that just shut up and come into the car." Rigby extended his arm in a punching motion that was too slow and weak to really effect a punch. His fist hit Mordecai's shoulder. He blinked in confusion. "looks like I lose at punchies. Go with Margaret or the power of the solids will get you. I'm serious for once man. Just go." He tightened his grip on Eileen and looked at her. "Hey why don't you stay with me and you know, help me with my injuries and whatever." Mordecai was about to interject when Eileen started shaking Rigby vigorously. "Oh my god yes I'd love to!" Rigby was silly with pain. "Haaah Eileen my arm!" The ambulance got there as Mordecai started laughing. "Oh god Rigby I'm so sorry!" Rigby's dramatic wails reached the ambulance men and everyone started laughing. Margaret got out of the car confused. She stared at Eileen reluctantly letting go of Rigby and of Mordecai laughing at him. She smiled and thought that they were all silly. Especially Mordecai. He was a good friend.