Chapter Eight: I Miss You

2nd of June, 2019.

"Dude, you look sad, are you alright?"

"Yeah…I'm fine, I just can't wait until I see 'Zombie Dinner Party' with you."

"Okay then…"

Mordecai was on the roof of the house, cleaning the gutters and the rest of the roof with his friend; Rigby. Mordecai was too busy contemplating about things that he didn't notice his friend trying to talk to him.

"Dude, please listen to me." Rigby pleaded.

"Ugh…yes?" Mordecai asked, returning back to earth.

"Why do you always zone out when I'm around? Is it that I'm too boring for you?" Rigby asked.

"No, it's not that." Mordecai sighed.

"And why are you suddenly uninterested with both me and Margaret. It's freaking us both out." Rigby said, cleaning the gutters with his hands.

"Where's the hose?" Mordecai asked, changing the subject.

"Muscleman and Hi-Five ghost are using it for their waterslide." Rigby answered, glancing over at Muscleman's trailer, where Muscleman and Hi-Five Ghost were having fun on a small waterslide they built.

"You didn't answer my question." Rigby said, throwing some leaves and some dirt onto the ground below.

"I'm exhausted, any chance you could help me?" Rigby asked.

"Sure, man." Mordecai answered, crawling over to the gutter, pulling out some leaves and dirt and threw it off the gutter.

"You still have that scar, eh?" Mordecai laughed, looking at Rigby's tail.

"I guess I do." Rigby sighed.

"I'm sorry." Mordecai apologized.

"There's no need to apologize." Rigby sighed, reaching down further into the gutter.

"Why are you wearing a jacket outside, in this heat?" Mordecai asked.

"I dunno, can we just get back to work?" Rigby growled.

"Fine, Christ." Mordecai rolled his eyes and continued to clean the gutter. Suddenly, Rigby's left jacket sleeve moved up a little as Rigby reached down further into the gutter to clean it, revealing several scars on his left arm.

"Dude, what happened to your arm?" Mordecai asked, glancing at his friend.

"I fell down the stairs." Rigby answered, pulling his sleeve up.

"Dude, seriously what happened?" Mordecai questioned.

"Dude, get off my case." Rigby scolded.

"Oh no you haven't been doing what Micheal said you were doing." Mordecai narrowed his eyes.

"What?" Rigby questioned.

"He said you were cutting yourself with a glass shard." Mordecai folded his arms.

"Well he's full of crap." Rigby lied.

"Dude, you're lying." Mordecai caught him out.

"And why do you think that I'm lying?" Rigby asked.

"Because your eyes always veer to the left each time you lie." Mordecai explained.

"Not true!" Rigby shouted, his eyes suddenly veering to the left.

"Whatever." Mordecai sighed.

A short time later…

"You wait downstairs, I'm gonna go grab L.A. Noire from our room and come back so we can play!" Mordecai exclaimed excitedly.

"Okay." Rigby nodded, in a tone of voice that seemed like he was sad. Mordecai ignored it and walked upstairs.

"Now, where did I put this bitch…?" Mordecai commented as he looked around the room.

"Maybe it's under his trampoline." Mordecai said, picking up Rigby's trampoline and moving it out of the way.

"Not there. Damn." Mordecai sighed. Mordecai picked up his friends trampoline and sat it back down, but suddenly he felt something slit his finger.

"Ow!" Mordecai groaned in pain. Mordecai picked up the trampoline and looked under it, there was a piece of glass sticky-taped to the bottom of the trampoline.

"What the…?" Mordecai gasped.

Meanwhile…

"Rigby! I'm going to assume that you and Mordecai cleaned the roof and gutters." Benson said.

"Yes, we did." Rigby answered.

"Let me inspect it then, come along." Benson ordered. Rigby groaned and jumped down from the couch and followed his boss upstairs.

A few seconds later, Benson and Rigby were on the roof.

"The gutter is not up to code! It must be completely clean!" Benson scolded.

"Cut us some slack Benson, Muscleman and Hi-Five Ghost took the hose for their stupid waterslide." Rigby pointed to Muscleman's waterslide.

"Oh, I didn't know that. Sorry Rigby." Benson apologized.

"It's fine." Rigby said.

"Just try harder to get the dirt off." Benson said. Rigby nodded and Benson climbed back through the window, passing Mordecai.

"Mordecai." Benson stopped him.

"What?" Mordecai turned around to face his boss.

"Rigby is waiting for you on the roof, you guys didn't finish your job." Benson explained.

"Whatever." Mordecai interrupted his boss and climbed out the window and onto the roof.

"Hey man, what took you so long? Benson had us-…"

"How do you explain this!?" Mordecai exclaimed, showing the glass shard.

"It's a piece of glass." Rigby tilted his head in confusion.

"Alright, explain to me why this piece of glass was taped to the bottom of your trampoline!" Mordecai demanded.

"Why were you searching my trampoline?!" Rigby shouted.

"To find the game." Mordecai answered.

"Yeah right..." Rigby murmured.

"Why do you do this?" Mordecai asked.

"It's a personal matter. It's none of your business." Rigby crossed his arms.

"My best friend, telling lies to me and harming himself, now that is my business." Mordecai said. Rigby didn't answer that time.

"Rigby, why do you do this…? I don't want to see you hurting yourself…" Mordecai sighed.

Rigby sighed. "Look man, I'm sorry…I just-..."

"No, just get out of my way…" Mordecai interrupted his friend and stood up.

"But we need to do the roof-…" Rigby said, before Mordecai pushed passed him, knocking Rigby off the side of the roof and falling onto the ground below.

"Woah!" Mordecai shouted as Rigby plummeted. Mordecai leaned over the side of the roof in shock, as his best friend was lying on the ground, unconscious and not moving. Muscleman and Hi-Five saw Rigby and walked over to him.

"Dude, what happened to him?" Muscleman asked.

"Mordecai pushed him off the roof." Hi-Five looked up at the roof and saw Mordecai leaningover the side of the roof.

"Rigby! Why are you lying down, and not on the roof!?" Benson scolded, walking outside.

"Dude, Benson, he just fell off the roof." Muscleman scolded.

"What!?" Benson exclaimed, obviously shocked.

"Call some help, bro." Muscleman said. Benson pulled out his mobile and dialled the emergency number. Mordecai watched the event unfold from the roof, the constant glares he received from his co-workers and boss, the glances from the paramedics when they arrived at the scene and when he glanced at Rigby as they took him away.

The Next Day…

At the hospital, Mordecai sat beside Rigby's bed, alone.

"I'm so sorry Rigby…" Mordecai apologized.

"It wasn't your fault, it was an accident." Rigby answered.

"But I pushed you off that roof." Mordecai sighed.

"I fell, that's all it is to it." Rigby argued. Awkward silence filled the air, until Rigby spoke again.

"Hey Mordecai?" Rigby asked.

"Yeah?" Mordecai responded.

"Why are you so uninterested with me and Margaret?" Rigby asked.

"It's…it's complicated…" Mordecai rubbed the back of his head. Rigby sighed, knowing he wouldn't get it out of Mordecai, no matter how hard he tried.

"I'd rather get some rest…I've got lots of thinking to do and it's making my head hurt…" Rigby grasped his head.

"Heh, more than usual, huh?" Mordecai smiled warmly. Rigby chuckled, then suddenly stopped, as he felt his chest throb in pain.

"Alright, I'll be right outside, okay?" Mordecai stood up. Rigby nodded.

"Bye man." Mordecai walked over to the door, waved at his friend, then closed the door after he left.

"Why is it always me who always gets hurt, who ends up in the hospital?" Rigby began to talk to himself.

"It's always me, not Mordecai, Riley or anyone else." Rigby continued.

"This world is so cruel…sometimes I wish I'd never existed." Rigby closed his eyes, only for a second and opened them again. Suddenly, he noticed a large blue aura appearing in front of him. Rigby was about to scream, but something in him stopped him from screaming.

The aura began to dissipate and a familiar figure was floating in front of Rigby's bed.

"Well if you didn't, you'd be missed by lots of people." The figure said, as he appeared.

"D-don…?" Rigby felt like crying.

"Don't cry, how are you?" Don asked, smiling at his big brother.

"You haven't changed a bit." Don smiled.

"I miss you." Rigby commented. Don was taken aback by this comment, seeming as his brother didn't like him.

"I miss you too." Don reached his paw and floated beside Rigby's bed. He reached his paw and grabbed Rigby's paw.

"You're sweating." Don commented.

"How are you here…?" Rigby asked, obviously astonished.

"I got an appeal from the big man upstairs." Don pointed to the roof.

"Eh?" Rigby asked.

"Nevermind.." Don furrowed his brow.

"I…I don't understand." Rigby said.

"I've been watching you for years, big bro, and I have to say, I'm both proud and disappointed." Don commented.

"What…what do you mean?" Rigby questioned. Don reached his paw and placed it beside Rigby's left eye. Suddenly, Rigby's vision faded to black and he awoke in a place where he couldn't move.

"Welcome to the Theatre!" Don shouted, all the lights around the room switching on, startling him. "What the hell…?" Rigby asked, looking around.

"Look at the screen." Don ordered.

"Why're we here?" Rigby asked.

"Well, I know you Rigby, and I predicted that you'd prefer to be in a theatre for this." Don explained.

"For what?" Rigby asked, confused. "Just watch the damn screen." Don pointed at the screen.

Rigby's eyes focused on the screen, his memories being laid out in front of him in millions of tiny pictures that tricked his mind into thinking that it was a movie.

"And stop." Don said, stopping the memories being unfolded on the screen.

"Why am I here?" Rigby asked.

"I've come to show you a few things, if that's okay, brother." Don answered.

"It's fine, take your time." Rigby sat back in his seat.

The screen was stopped at a certain frame, the screen had a picture of the school gym, and a truck on the road.

"Remember this?" Don asked.

"That's the school gym…and-…" Rigby said, before the screen suddenly continued, it showed the truck colliding with the gym and it collapsing.

"NO! NOT THIS!" Rigby panicked.

"Calm down." Don calmed his brother down.

"That day, I passed on into the afterlife, but that wasn't all." Don began.

"I was greeted by him, himself. The Lord." Don said.

"The Lord? You know I don't believe in all that crap." Rigby said.

"It's fine." Don reassured him.

"Next?" Rigby asked.

"Well, after I passed on, I was with you until now." Don explained.

"Really?" Rigby asked astonished.

"Yes, I just wasn't visible and you couldn't hear me." Don continued to explain.

"I was there when you stood up for everyone at the school during that football match, I was there when you chose your mind over anger and decided not to kill the man who decided my fate." Don continued.

"Felix." Rigby growled.

"You hold a grudge against him?" Don asked.

"No…I just…I dunno…just keep going." Rigby said, uncomfortably.

"I was there when you were kidnapped." Don said.

"What!?" Rigby's eyes widened.

"Don't worry. And I was there when-…"

"Oh, no, no, no. You weren't there when Mordecai and I…?" Rigby interrupted.

"No. Your business is your business." Don explained.

"What're you trying to say?" Rigby asked.

Don let out a sigh. "Over a week ago, do you remember going to a movie with Mordecai?" Don asked.

"Yes I did, I really enjoyed it." Rigby answered. Don let out a short sigh and explained what happened with Mordecai.

"He…he killed me…?" Rigby asked, obviously saddened by this explanation.

"How do you know this?" Rigby asked.

"I saw it unfold, I'm sorry." Don sighed.

"What…what is all this supposed to mean?" Rigby asked.

"I just wanted to remind you of your place, and Mordecai's." Don answered.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Rigby began to get angry.

"I just wanted to..." He sighed, "Look Rigby, you and Mordecai are…not together, as I know." Don said.

"I know, how does that come into this? I don't like him and he doesn't like me." Rigby answered.

"Look man, I'm not cupid, or the god of love, but I have to say, Mordecai does still like you." Don said.

"No…we…we finished a long time ago…" Rigby trailed off.

"Just ask him, and he'll tell you. Now…I have to go…" Don said. Suddenly, Rigby's vision returned and he was back in the hospital room and Don was floating beside his bed.

"Don't go…I miss you…please come back…" Rigby was on the verge of tears.

"Someday you'll see me again, brother." Don said, disappearing.

"Hey Rigby, are you…alright?" Mordecai opened the door and walked in.

"Dude, are you crying?" Mordecai asked.

"N-No…men don't cry…" Rigby lied.

"It's alright, we all cry…" Mordecai wrapped his wing around Rigby's neck and held him still.

"I…had a bed dream…" Rigby lied.

"Oh…I'm sorry man…" Mordecai caressed his friend.

"Mordecai…I…I wanted to ask you something…something personal…" Rigby balled up his courage.

"Yes…Rigby?" Mordecai asked.

Rigby closed his eyes and asked the question.