California Friends
Season 3, Episode 10: The Shoulder To Lean On
Starring~ Melina Perez, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Eve Torres, and Nattie Neidhart.
Scene 12- Melina catches Brie crying, she gives her a shoulder and the two re-kindle a true friendship.
It was a sunny day- with the morning clouds setting in and the fog twirling around the ground. Everybody was wearing black and shedding tears, including Eve.
She was trying to hold it together, but the ending was too hard to bare. Randy walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder, the two watched as they lowered Cherry's coffin into the ground. It was a dark moment.
The two leaned on each other, Randy could feel her shaking. He tried making small talk to distract her, "So I heard you're returning to wrestling," he asked.
Eve nodded, "Yeah," she said, "I'm finally heading back, it's time I do." Randy held her tighter, "I'm proud of you," he told her.
"Cherry spoke to me and she made a point that I was afraid of even thinking... which is that life is too short and I need to close the chapter to my wrestling career the right way," Eve explained.
Randy and Eve stood in silence for a while, much like the rest of the people. "Don't waste a second," he whispered after the dead silent moment. Eve wiped her tears away, but they just came right back. They began burying her, Eve went to drop a rose and Randy followed.
Brie and Nikki were not on speaking terms, they've been avoiding each other for the past few weeks... well Nikki was the one who was avoiding and ignoring all of Brie's attempted ways of reconnecting and making up.
Brie tried calling Nikki, she tried calling her every morning and night. But Nikki got so tired of her calls, that she just blocked her after only a few days. Brie continued calling, but deep down she knew Nikki couldn't even hear her calling.
The wall Nikki built made it hard for either of them to hear each other, they were both in need and Brie wanted to help Nikki and she wanted Nikki's help in return too... but it was impossible.
On the other side of the empty line was Nikki. She sat by her living room window, watching as the waves crashed and stumbled all beautifully. Her husband walked in and he looked at her, but even he couldn't convince her to at least talk to Brie.
He watched for a second, but Nikki ignored his presence, so he left and that's how they've been living.
It was a morning that not many were in the mood for, including Nattie. She hadn't heard from Stephanie, not even a small message that gave her the rejection. Nattie felt invisible and alone, like she didn't matter.
Nattie's match was being praised, but she didn't feel the praise. Unfortunately, she ran into her ex-boyfriend and former fiance Tyson that morning.
Tyson and his girlfriend were walking around the beach, when they came across Nattie's lost face. "Hey, are you okay," Tyson asked.
Nattie rolled her eyes and turned to the two, "I'm fine, believe it or not, I'm not all depressed because I have nobody or nothing in my life," Nattie defensively responded. Tyson felt bad for her, even his girlfriend had sympathy for her.
The two didn't know how to respond, they felt uncomfortable. Nattie finally broke the awkward silence, "Just move away, gosh, there's a million places in this world! Go away, move far away from me and never bother me," Nattie told them off as she ran away to her car.
She just wanted to have a nice walk on the beach, but she drove off all upset.
Nattie finally got home after a long drive home, she drove a while just to clear her mind. Somehow, Nattie was tempted to go through her old box of 'Tyson memories'.
She shook up the box and grunted, dumping everything out afterwards. "Fuck him, fuck Stephanie, fuck everybody," Nattie yelled as she began shoving the memories into the trash. Some of the items included a teddy bear, a few pictures, an old t-shirt, a few albums, and other things that might have not meant anything to anybody else but her, maybe not even Tyson himself.
While going through the old things, she came across an old phone-book. She held the dusty book, which was filled with about 15 contacts.
Nattie threw the book in the trash, but her curiosity got the best of her and she decided to call the first number in the small little book. She waited for a voice, which was Melina's.
"Hello, who's calling," Melina asked from the other line. Nattie stayed quiet, she panicked and hung up as quickly as she could. The phone began ringing again, it was Melina, Nattie ignored it and learned her lesson. She threw everything else in that box and forgot it ever existed.
After a slow morning, Nikki finally started off the day with a breakfast with her husband. She sat down and he smiled, "It's good to see you up and ready," he told her with a newspaper in his hand.
"Well, I can't watch the ocean forever.. well technically I can, the big blue sea sticks around," she told him. He laughed and shook his head, "Oh, but you have! No job or any hobbies on your list, just drinking and shopping," he responded.
Nikki dropped her fork and turned to him, "I want to have kids, I really do," Nikki told him, "I can be a stay-at-home mom."
He laughed, "First, you should think of returning to wrestling," he shot her down. "Because you really should be doing something with your life."
Nikki got up, "Well, I don't plan on returning to the ring any time soon, so tough luck, it looks like I'm just gonna keep doing nothing," she replied. She looked at him for some type of empathy, but he kept his eyes on the newspaper.
"I can't even have a conversation with you, maybe that's why I stare at the ocean all the time," she said under her breath.
Brie was getting her own rejection too. She finally told Wade about her abortion a couple of days ago, he wasn't taking it easy. The two would meet up every now and then, but Wade was so over Brie.
He was contemplating how he would break up with her and he finally just did it. "I can't be with you anymore, I try to look past the abortion... because I know it had to happen and I wasn't ready to be a parent either, but it's not even just that anymore," he explained to her, "Well, it's that and I just don't believe in us, sorry, but we need to be done."
Brie was speechless, she already lost her sister and most of her family, now her boyfriend too.
He walked away before she could even say anything. She just helplessly watched, her mouth trembled, but nothing came out. The tears slowly started running down her cheeks. Everything and everybody around her were being torn away from her, 'torn' isn't even the right word, 'walking away' and 'abandoning' were better words to describe the people that were no longer by Brie's side.
The day was waking up, the air seemed to become more fierce and the skies were beginning to pierce with color. Eve was on her knees, right next to Cherry's grave. She had her hand on the headstone and she ran her fingers lightly across the name, 'Kara Elizabeth Drew', but of course everybody knew her as Cherry.
She was a sweet and special girl, the name fit perfectly. The long-gone woman's precense never really felt 'gone', she touched so many lives, including Eve's.
As Eve finally got the strength to get up, she had flashbacks of the moments she shared with Cherry. Eve was scheduled for some private wrestling training that same day, but it didn't feel right just going there. Eve had to take the guilt off, so just like Cherry, Eve wanted one act of kindness.
She went through a list in her head, something that could stand out as kind and then it hit her. Eve grabbed her phone and she searched for a specific person she had in mind, "Kelly, this is Eve and I'm heading to my training, I was wondering if you could join me," Eve suggested.
Kelly declined, Eve argued back, and this went on and on until Kelly finally agreed to meet her. Eve was happy, she headed out and turned around one last time. Cherry's gravestone sat peacefully in the illuminating sunny field, the birds chirped and the world kept on spinning and so did Eve.
Nattie had nearly forgotten about earlier calling Melina and abruptly hanging up, until she went through her call log to call her uncle Brett. Nattie was feeling under the weather and she wanted somebody to talk, but her uncle Brett was a busy man and Nattie wanted to have more people in her life.
For a second her finger went over Melina's phone number, she shook her head and kept scrolling to find Brett's number. "You know what," Nattie finally said to herself, "I'm calling a friend."
She waited for a few seconds, but finally tapped on that phone number and waited impatiently for an old friend to pick up and accept her back into her life. Melina picked up, "Hello, who is this, you called me earlier I believe," Melina asked.
Nattie was seconds away from hanging up again, but she didn't. "An old friend of yours, who is a little scared right now," Nattie made her guess, "I'm sorry I hung up earlier and I'm sorry I avoided you at the parking lot when you waved at me," she apologized.
Melina stayed silent, she was hearing Nattie out. "It's Nattie by the way, and my life is just all over the place, so forgive me for being distant and standoffish," she explained. Melina chuckled, "How have you been Nattie," Melina asked.
Nattie laughed and the two got right to talking, like old times. They caught up and it was as if they had never lost contact.
After a long conversation with a returning friend, Melina went out for her match with her other returning friend. Brie and Melina were scheduled to face Carmella and Alexa Bliss, which was an interesting thing for Melina.
To finally have a storyline and to finally get the crowd fired up- it was all surreal for Melina. She finally felt like she was really back in the game.
Carmella hated it- she hated the attention and the recognition Melina was getting, and according to her it was only because Brie had joined her side. Melina didn't care, she was grateful regardless. Alexa, well the poor girl didn't know much, but she hated it all because Carmella hated it.. but then she really hated it when they beat Carmella and herself.
Melina pinned Alexa and she jumped up with the crowd. Everybody applauded Melina's honed and redefined craft, Brie also redefined herself under the new roster. Back at WWE, she was just Nikki's extra, but she finally felt equally important.
The two hugged and left victorious, with yet another match under their belt.
The afternoon was closing in, the sun was setting and the air seemed to coolly calm down. For Nikki, that meant loneliness. Her husband usually left for work in the afternoons whenever he was in the state, leaving Nikki with the red wine and blue ocean.
Nikki ditched the wine that afternoon and she instead picked up some whiskey, she went to the balcony and stood their lost in her own home. She stumbled to get their, but when she did she enjoyed the chilly winds and the sound of the beautiful, yet monstrous ocean.
The big, blue beast roared with serenity and Nikki enjoyed that. The lonely soul had nobody in her life- except for alcohol and the ocean. The sun soon faded away and the dark purple skies appeared. They took Nikki by surprise, but she liked the darkness of the nights.
She eventually fell asleep on the floor of her living room. Nikki couldn't afford walking all the way to her bed or even the couch, she closed the window-door behind her and took a few steps into the living room... only to fall right on the floor, where she slept like a baby.
Eve and Kelly met up at some small little wrestling promotion. They talked for a while, catching up, before getting in the ring to train.
Eve had anxiety, she hadn't stepped foot into a ring in years. But when she threw her first punch into the punching back, everything came rushing back to her. She broke down and cried, it was all too much for her to take in. "Sorry, I don't want to be dramatic... but wow, the ring brings out so many emotions," Eve admitted.
Kelly patted her in the back and the two got back to the punching bags.
The two were never really 'friends', but they built a friendship in the following weeks of training. Eve picked up on new wrestling moves and whenever she successfully performed an old trick of her's, she would jump up with a rush of fierce excitement.
Eve would also support Kelly's modeling career, she would even notify her about new modeling opportunities and Kelly began juggling both modeling and wrestling at the same time. Eve felt some type of way, a special feeling she hadn't felt in years.
There was a rush going through her body and mind, she felt alive and she felt bold- despite losing a friend recently. Eve began to wonder if Cherry purposely pushed her towards wrestling so that Eve could wake up and live her life, without feeling gloomy. Either way, Eve had Cherry to thank. And after much denial, Eve also had the ring to thank.
That night, Brie had Melina to thank. Brie had nowhere to go, she broke down and told everything to Melina. Melina was shocked, she wouldn't have guessed Brie was going through all of that.
Melina invited her to stay at her place. Jillian and Melina took her in their home and she felt safe.
Brie cried in front of them- but vulnerability is what forms friendships. Brie and Melina never had that closeness, but they did now, they rekindled and Brie couldn't be more thankful to have a shoulder to lean on that night.
Published On May 13, 2016.