ODDI RP: Evolution Requires Adaption

[/color] Drink?

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Waters fine, I’ve got to drive back.

I’ve known Trace a long time. I knew him back when we were just teenagers, back when he was still using his real surname, when he was a hyperactive if not troubled kid. I helped him out when he was just a shell of the person I knew, when he was drugged up and spouting nonsense and god knows the number of times I’ve helped him get home because he was too drunk. But that’s what friends do, and he had his good days.

Now I know him as the tee-total soon to be family man. How times change.

Trace Demon:[/color] You know there’s no alcohol in the house anyway. Alexa can’t drink what with the pregnancy, and I don’t need the temptation.

It’s weird thinking that Trace is going to be a father in just three months, with Alexa as well. When she gave him that ultimatum I thought he’d sober up immediately. When he didn’t, well, I thought that was it for them.

Guess second chances really do pay off sometime.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: It’s gotta be hard though man.

Trace Demon:[/color] What, not drinking?

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Not just that, all of this, changing yourself completely. Don’t get me wrong, I like the new you a lot more than when you nearly got me arrested in Mexico...

Trace Demon:[/color] I’m not the one who told you to try and ride the donkey.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Yes you were.

Trace Demon:[/color] Good point, continue.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: But what I mean is, isn’t it difficult remembering who you used to be and knowing that you can’t be that guy again?

Trace Demon:[/color] It was at first, but then I realised I’m still the same guy, I still have all the same skills and stuff, I’m just sober and a whole lot saner. I’m who I want to be.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: You realised that all on your own?

Trace Demon:[/color] I had... a little help, but that’s unimportant right now.

I’ve learnt to let those kind of comments go. Trace never has been very good at telling people the full story, he likes to keep things close to his chest. But that’s fine if it helps him. I mean, it’s not like he talked it over with some imaginary versions of himself, so what’s the harm?

Liam Taylor:[/color]: So, why don’t you tell me what you’ve been dying to tell me?

Trace Demon:[/color] I have no idea what you mean.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Come on, you go for the big scan, then call me to [unleash the inverted commas] hang out [close the beastly commas].

Trace Demon:[/color] Alright, but don’t go shouting it out to everyone. Faith and Axel would kill me if they thought they weren’t the first to know.

Whoever let Trace’s parents name their kids needs to take a good hard look at that decision. Trace, Faith and Axel... sounds like they should be in a heavy metal band.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: You have my word.

Trace Demon:[/color] Alright...

He pauses, probably for dramatic effect. He’s always loved the dramatic pause.

Trace Demon:[/color] It’s a girl.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Congrats man, although god help the poor deluded teenage boy that tries to date your daughter.

Trace Demon:[/color] Hey, I’m going to be the cool parent, Alexa can be the bossy overprotective one.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Whatever you say man.

A daughter. Little miss Demon. Okay, so she’ll probably have his real surname, but there’s not as much fun in that. I really hope he lets Alexa name it though, I’ve heard ridiculous names are genetic. It’s why the hippies all have such hippy names.

When I was in college I once dated a girl called wildflower. Her parents actually called her wildflower! That is not a name you want to introduce your girlfriend by. And she didn’t like it any better when I came up with a fake name for my parents.

Jenny is a better name than Wildflower no matter when century your living in.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: So did I tell you I watched the pay per view?

Trace Demon:[/color] You did? Okay, serious question, how many times can I kick Calvin Lee’s ass before it gets boring?

Liam Taylor:[/color]: I think you’ve got one more in you.

Trace Demon:[/color] Rad.

I look down at the table. There’s a script, or rather a schedule, for this week’s show. ‘OJ Didn’t Do It’. Wow, I knew the owners of WFWF was crazy, but I guess they’re delusional as well. Let’s have a look at what we’ve got...

EBR vs. Adam Chartbuster. Chartbuster... I’m sure I know the name but... nah, nothing comes to mind. Well I guess we all know ratings are brought in by complete no namers. I guess Trace was right and EBR’s become a coward. Or maybe this is one of those classic double bluffs and something big is going to happen right at the end of the show that explains this whole match.

But they can’t be that predictable, right?

Sean vs. Malakai... wait...

Liam Taylor:[/color]: You’ve got to be kidding me?

Trace Demon:[/color] What?

Laim Taylor: Malakai actually won a title?

Trace Demon:[/color] Well it had to happen sometime, right?

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Yeah, but if he’d had waited six months I would have won the pool. But then again, at least I didn’t say never, right?

Trace Demon:[/color] Seemed like a safe bet. Who was I to know he’d team up with Yukio Blaze.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Well people always say no-hopers stick together.

Trace Demon:[/color] Who says that?

Liam Taylor:[/color]: I don’t know, people.

Trace nods sarcastically and goes back to cutting up a carrot. I guess he’s making lunch for when Alexa gets back from her parents. It’s weird seeing Trace cook, I’d never have guessed he’d ever be a house husband. In fact, I was sure he was more likely to become a pimp than a monogamist.

Well, I suppose there was that time in Vegas...

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Who in the world is AJ King?

Trace Demon:[/color] Some kid, apparently he’s quite impressive but I haven’t seen much from him.

He doesn’t interrupt his cutting when he speaks. Either he’s overly confident about this match, or he really doesn’t think much of this guy.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Isn’t that what you said about that Oscar kid two weeks back.

He stops cutting and suddenly the entire feeling of the room becomes a little bit tense. Trace has never been one to admit that he’s wrong about anything. The last time I contradicted him it cost him two weeks in wages to repair the bar and pay hospital bills. The knife is placed slowly onto the counter and I immediately look around for anything breakable as Trace turns and...

Trace Demon:[/color] Yeah, I guess that’s true. I did kind of underestimate the kid, and I didn’t really train properly what with the scan and stuff.

Does not do what I was expecting.

Trace Demon:[/color] But that was my fault, nobody else to blame other than me.

He leans against the counter, both hands placed against the edge of the table top to keep himself steady. He looks like he hasn’t got a care in the world, but I know him better than that. There’s something on his mind.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Worried you’ve lost your edge?

Trace Demon:[/color] Nah, evolution requires adaption. Guess which great man said that.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Who?

Trace Demon:[/color] Me, right now, in this very kitchen. Consider yourself lucky.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: So you’re really not worried, I mean you’ve got a kid coming, you’re not young anymore.

Trace Demon:[/color] Why does it feel like that’s becoming a recurring thing in my life. I’m still young, I’m only twenty four, got my whole life ahead of me.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Not unless you start training and stop getting yourself dropped on your head.

Trace Demon:[/color] Sounds like some good motivation to get back in the gym then. Alexa will be back in an hour or so, can I interest you in a proper training session to get that beer get removed.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Hey, this is a good wholesome living gut. But I’m afraid I can’t, taking the new girlfriend out for dinner tonight. Two month anniversary and all that.

Trace Demon:[/color] Dude, you’ve been seeing the girl for two months and we still haven’t met her. You ashamed of her or us?

Don’t tell him, nothing good can come of telling him. I’m sure we can have a perfectly happy life without him ever meeting her.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: I’m always ashamed of you, you know that.

Trace laughs and returns back to his slicing. There’s something else I need to tell him but now I’ve got my doubts whether it’s worth darkening his new way of life with reminders of the past. I could just leave him in perfectly goon ignorance, but I doubt that would last long.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: You remember Annabelle Dawson?

The knife isn’t placed down this time, it simply drops. The clang echoes around the room and I can tell immediately that all those memories that Trace has tried to put in the pass have bubbled to the surface, a torrent of self hatred and misery. He speaks without turning, his voice having gone slightly hollow.

Trace Demon:[/color] Of course.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Well... she’s out, and she’s back in town.

There’s several seconds of pure silence. That horrible silence that echoes throughout the entire room.

Trace Demon:[/color] How d’you know?

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Her sister told me...

Trace Demon:[/color] You saw Kathryn?

Ooh s**t. Backtrack Liam, backtrack like your life depends on it because it probably does.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Yeah, just in passing, but she brought it up.

And there’s the silence again.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Are you okay with that?

More silence for a moment, but when he speaks it’s like the old depressed Trace has disappeared again and this new, weirdly normal one has risen back to the surface. Can’t say I’m complaining.

Trace Demon:[/color] Of course, I’m glad she’s okay but the past is the past, y’know.

Liam Taylor:[/color]: Yeah, sure. I should probably get off.

Trace Demon:[/color] This new girlfriend has got you on a short leash.

We both laugh and say our goodbyes for another day. Sooner or later I’m going to have to tell him, but right now I like the sound of the past being in the past a little too much.

But then it isn’t the past that you need to worry about, it’s always the present. I guess I just need to adapt to this crazy messed up situation that we’re about to find ourselves in. After all...

Evolution requires adaption.[/center]