California Friends

Season 3, Episode 6: The Fears

Starring~ Melina Perez, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Eve Torres, and Nattie Neidhart.

It was Melina's first match, she was up against the NXT Women's Champion Bayley. Melina had heard a lot about Bayley, but she didn't think Bayley had heard of her.

The two faced each other in a small arena with about 200 people or so, all whom were on Bayley's side. They all cheered their own chants, all in favor of Bayley and every little move she had to give was impressive to them. Melina unfortunately did not feel the same love, or hate in general, she was just the new girl nobody remembered from her time in OCW.

Melina lost the match and that was the end of it, but she was proud of herself and for a first match it wasn't too bad.

"You were great out there, I think it's amazing that they're finally bringing some of the OCW older girls back," Bayley told Melina with a sincere smile.

"I know, only a few of us survived, most notably the Bella's," Melina said chuckling. "But you girls are unbelievable and this place really blew up, it used to be some little wrestling indie place in Orange County and now it's this big deal ever since WWE took over," Melina reminisced on.

Bayley patted her on the back, "It's like the OCW girls were sacrificed, they all disappeared and were wiped off the face of this earth... so it's refreshing to see some of them making a comeback," Bayley admitted. "Well, see you around Melina," she finally said as she walked away.

Melina watched Bayley walk away, she felt herself having a new friend, well, acquaintance.

Speaking of OCW girls, two originals were about to almost reunite. Nattie had gone to an open-house near the sunny suburbs of Orange County, while Eve was also there showing the home to a few of her clients.

Eve walked along with her clients across the spacious living room, "Isn't it beautiful," Eve said to them as they headed to the bedroom. About 0.5 seconds later, Nattie walked into the living room from the backyard, "Wow, look at this place," Nattie said to her realtor as she observed the living room.

Nat then walked off to the kitchen, right as Eve walked back into the living room. "There's another house around the corner and I want you guys to be the first to see it," Eve told her clients as they walked out the front door.

Nattie then walked back into the living room, "Huh, I recognize that voice from somewhere," Nattie said with a pause. "Hmm, funny, anyway, how much is this place," Nattie carried on with her realtor.

Timing worked perfectly for these two not to meet. Who knows what would have happened if they did even catch a glimpse of each other...

Another reunion was taking place, Nikki had decided to fly home, without an explanation to the WWE and California was definitely missing it's 'it-girl'.

"I'm home, oh California," Nikki exclaimed as she quickly threw her luggage on the doorstep of her Malibu beach-house. Nikki ran to her car and she quickly took off, "I need to just shop," Nikki cried out as she drove past the morning hours of Malibu.

Nikki felt the warm breeze hit her skin, as the tears fell down her sun-kissed cheeks. She wanted to forget about everything and she didn't want to get her hopes up, so she drove with a speediness that could allow her to escape... or at least make her feel like she was escaping.

Brie also flew in to California, but she flew in about 7 hours earlier and Nikki didn't know. Brie slept in her rented hotel room for a while, before finally coming clean with her mother about the predicament she was in.

"I'm pregnant and I found out about a day ago," Brie blurted out to her as she put her purse down on the couch. "I don't know what to do and I need you all to just help me... decide," Brie said with her anxious voice.

Brie's mother slowly walked to her, "Decide," she asked fearfully. "Oh Brie, you're making this hard for me... have you told you're sister or the father or WWE," she asked Brie.

Brie simply shook her head, "No, I can't, not yet," Brie whispered. "I've taken some time off WWE and I'm gonna tell Wade as soon as I know what it is I'm going to do," Brie explained. "I've told you about Wade before, right?"

Her mother nodded quickly and she smiled to reassure Brie."Yes, you have told me about him! Wade's a great guy, he can be a great father and you can take some time off WWE and care for the child... and then go back, it can all work out Brie," she tried reassuring Brie's doubts.

"I don't know, it's not that simple," Brie murmured.

Nothing was simple around here and Nattie could be the first to tell you. While quickly stopping for some gas, she ran into Tyson and his new girl. She looked at them and they waved, she waved back and she tried to casually rush herself to her car... but it was too late.

"Nat, hey, this is her," Tyson said as he pointed to her. "Rebecca, this is her," Tyson yelled back to the woman in the pretty innocent floral dress. The two women waved to each other.

Nattie tried not making it weird, "Well, isn't she lovely... I have to go now," Nattie said as she rushed inside her car. She gave them one last smile, but quite frankly, she wanted to puke.

Tyson didn't understand or maybe he did, but he forgot because he was so into his new love. He went back to her and he held her tightly as they waited for their tank to fill. Nattie watched them from her side mirror and she simply drove off, "I mean, get a room," she said as she played some music to take her mind off of it.

Melina realized she would have to start all over again, her championship reign did not exist and her name was not recognized by any of the fans unfortunately. Melina was signed to the roster already, but she technically was still in square one.

It was frustrating, but she had to have patience and it was harder to have it now that she was surrounded by talented fellow wrestlers that have already built a name for themselves in such little time. It was depressing for Melina, all she could do was fight her way and build herself from new foundation all over again.

Melina sat with an open notebook, writing ideas for a gimmick or for some new ring-attire, she even tried coming up with new move-sets. After about 15 minutes, Melina was empty and she tapped her pen to get more ideas out, but nothing.

Eve finally came to admit her fears, the ones she kept hiding from. Cherry and Eve picked up some pizza and wine for some girl talk, Cherry asked Eve to just talk about her fears... something Cherry had never asked from Eve before.

"Not only am I afriad of being alone... but I'm afraid of wresling, everything about it, which is why I push it away as much as I possibly can," Eve admitted to Cherry.

Cherry tried understanding, "But you did so good, you had two championship reigns and you worked well on your craft," Cherry told her.

Eve shook her head and turned around, "It's not that simple and technically those two reigns have been erased from history, so has my name," Eve said. "Not only that, but, I've just screwed up so much with wrestling... that I don't even want to go back, I'm just hiding from that mess that I left behind in wrestling," Eve admitted.

"Well, closure is good and you need it, with wrestling," Cherry suggested to Eve.

Eve shrugged, "I guess so, but wrestling also just destroys a person... then again, I destroyed wrestling too! I was a total bitch," Eve said as she laughed at her cringe-worthy past. "It's too messy for me to even consider going back, that's why I've just built a wall to block it out and never have I allowed myself to look back on it... but I regret a lot of it," Eve said.

Brie also had something to admit, something that she wasn't even sure about herself. Wade wasn't expecting Brie's company, but she sounded serious on the phone and he sensed something was up.

"I'm pregnant," Brie revealed to Wade the second Wade opened up the door. "I've only slept with you in the past few months and I wasn't going to tell you, but I was feeling guilty for keeping it to myself," Brie told him.

Wade didn't know what to say, but he had to say something to calm her and himself down. "Well, that's fine, you're fine," he said. "Hey, don't worry about it! It's crazy, like damn, it's crazy," he said, almost speechless.

Brie had more to say, like how she was contemplating on whether or not to even have this baby."Yeah, it's insane," Brie said quietly. "I just wanted to tell you and now you know! But I want alone time, to process this," she said as she walked out.

Wade let her go, he didn't know what else to say and he wasn't even sure he wanted to say more to her.

Brie already had the many voices in her head, she didn't want more... little did she know, that he had nothing to say.

Nikki finally came home after 8 hours of some personal therapy, shopping of course. She returned to a surprise, her husband had finally returned home too. Nikki smelled the Thai food cooking and she recognized that, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions and get her hopes up.

"What the hell," Nikki said under her breath as she dropped her bags. "Your'e back, I'm so out of words," Nikki exclaimed as she rushed to him.

He cooked and he seemed to not be as excited as she was. "A coincidence I suppose, you're back and I'm back," he said with an almost dead emotionless voice.

"Yeah, we should do something... like a date, tonight," Nikki suggested as she watched him cook.

He turned to her and then looked at the food. "Maybe another night," he told her off. Nikki tried wrapping her arms from behind him, but he just kept to himself. He put his hand on her arm for a second, but then forgot she was still there.

"So what have you been up to," he asked his wife.

"I recently lost my title to some new chick," Nikki answered. "And so I came back, I missed home," she told him.

"You were Diva's Champion, woah I missed a lot," he said chuckling.

Nikki went to her corner and behind his back, she poured herself a giant glass of orange juice mixed with some vodka. "Yeah, it's like we don't even know each other.. I guess this place was never even home," she whispered to herself as she watched him cook.

Melina was stuck in her room that night focusing on her plan, when Jillian burst in. "Melina, did you cancel on John... again," Jillian asked. Melina nodded and then turned back around to the plan she had started working on in her notebook.

Jillian rushed to her and she closed the notebook. "It's time you give him a call, you can't just kick him to the curb now that you're some big NXT hotshot," Jillian reminded Melina.

"I'm not some hotshot Jillian and that's the problem... I mean I never was, but I also wasn't this low," Melina said to her.

"Melina, you went through your lowest time in 2015... now you're signed to this big company, why can't you be happy with that at least," Jillian told her as she took the notebook away.

Melina felt guilty and suddenly she was awoken from her petty problems. "You're right," Melina finally admitted as she put her hands over her face.

"Don't kick him to the curb, give him a chance," Jillian advised Melina. Jillian handed her the phone and Melina smiled, "Okay, I guess a date with him won't hurt me," Melina teased as she typed his number in.

The two went on a date later that night and it was worth it, Melina could just take her mind off of things when she was with him.

Cherry encouraged Eve to just talk about her fears, all of them and Eve didn't really understand, but she did it anyway. "Why are you doing this, I've been talking about my fears and regret for about 2 hours now... it's exhausting to be self centered," Eve said as she laughed.

Cherry's body shook and she just looked at her with empty eyes. "My cancer is getting worse and I only have one month to live," Cherry abruptly said as her body posture instantly dropped.

Eve's jaw dropped too and her whole world was shaken to the core, "You're kidding, please tell me that you are kidding," Eve cried out.

"No, I just found out and they were shocked too," Cherry said with a soft, yet so scared voice. "I have one month to live Eve, one month," Cherry cried as she fell to the floor.

Tears streamed down Eve's face as she held her with a strong grip, "I will not let you go," Eve cried as she held her.

Hearing about others fears helped Cherry take her mind off of her own, but Cherry had the last words that gloomy night.

"I'm gonna die! I feared life and now I'm fearing death too," Cherry whispered as she buried her face in Eve's arms. Eve stroked her hair and the two friends felt the night going by extremely fast, every second and every minute felt very short and they weren't ready for what they knew was destined to come.

Written & Created By Jonathan N.

Published On February 7, 2016.