This story takes place in the same world as VZArmy's Broken Arrow series. May was a character I willingly lent to him, but she's an older character from an offline RPG. I felt she never got a fair shake in his word (understandable, she wasn't meant to be the star of that series, it was Ronda) but I thought I would write a story from May's point of view about the whole thing.
While this story does take place in VZArmy's world, future stories in this series will be considered to be spin offs from his world, meaning that what goes on in my stories may/may not have happened in his. The Broken Arrow world is his world and I am not going to try to stomp in his playground.
Time For Me To Fly
May Devany-Parker, or simply May Devany, as she was known in the ring, and looked at the sunlight streaming through the dirty hotel window and sat up with a feeling she couldn't quite explain. She had slept the night before, not long, but for a diva on the road all the time? Four hours was nothing to sneeze at. Unfortunately, it was a bad sleep, punctuated with moments of waking and she knew why.
It was over. Two years and it was over. Her first serious relationship, and it was over and done. As of last night, she was no longer Seth Rollins girlfriend. And she had no clue how she was supposed to feel about it. Sad? Yes, she was sad, Mad? Maybe even a bit of that. But mostly, relief? The last year or so, the relationship had gone from comfortable to tolerable. She and Seth knew each other well enough, they knew what each other liked in bed, how they took their coffee, all those little things that couples were supposed to know, but the spark of excitement had died down. She supposed if he hadn't ended it when he did, she might have wised up in a few weeks or months and ended it herself. They were already giving signs to each other that it was over, canceling plans with each other, almost avoiding spending time together. She had know it was headed for a break up, right?
She wasn't really upset, was she? Wasn't this inevitable?
She reached for her cell phone on the nightstand where she had plugged it in to charge the night before. She wondered briefly if she should leave the room and see if she should bunk up with one of the other Diva's, it wouldn't be a problem, and maybe Seth felt the room was his. Then she shook her head, her long black hair falling about her back and shoulders. Screw that, she thought, he can room with Roman or Dean or one of his own friends. He's the one that ended it, he figured out someplace to stay last night, he can figure out where he's going to stay tonight. It was Sunday morning, they had a house show tonight, and then tomorrow, they had to get going to RAW, which would be in the other major city in this state, whatever state it was. Sometimes they all blurred together.
She checked her phone for text messages, and found there were about fifty of them, mostly from her brothers and sisters. She ignored them for now, instead she brought up the phone and hit the two button, letting the phone itself dial the number of the one person she wanted to talk to, right now.
"Hi!" A loud, overly enthusiastic child's voice answered the phone.
"Stacy?"
"May!" Stacy's young voice crowed with delight that it was her older sister. "May! May! May! It's you! How are you? How's Seth? Did he like the picture I sent of you guys? I drew it when you guys left! How is wrestling going? I miss you!"
May laughed, unable to resist the enthusiasm in her little sister's voice. "I'm doing fine, Shortcake," she lied. "Seth is great too. He loved the picture." More lies. In truth, when she showed him the picture her sister had carefully drawn and then had their mother take a picture of so they could send it to May via cellphone, Seth had rolled his eyes only a faint grin on his face and made a remark to the effect that Stacy would never be an artist. May had dismissed it as Seth being tired, but now that she thought about it, maybe Seth was being a bit of a putz. Stacy was about the same age as Roman's daughter, and Seth adored that kid. She had the feeling if Roman's daughter had sent the picture instead of her sister, Seth would have gone on and on about the artistic abilities shown by the simple drawing.
"Oh good, I worked really hard on that!" Stacy enthused. "He really liked it?"
"He said it was great," May continued to lie. "Hey, Shortcake, why are you answering Mom's phone?" Listening, May thought she might be able to hear her mother in the background, or maybe it was Shelly, suggesting that Thia, who was three, might not want to chow down on something, vaguely described as "nasty."
"I don't know," Stacy said, a lie if there ever was one.
"Sure you don't," May snorted. "Look, Stacy, can I talk to Mom?"
"Sure!" Still holding the phone close to her mouth, Stacy began yelling for her mom's attention. May pulled the phone away from her ear, least she go deaf and waited. "Mom! Mom! It's May, she's on the phone, she wants to talk to you, Mom! Mom! It's May, it's May!"
Well, May thought, as she listened to the shouting, At least someone is glad to hear from me. She realized that was a bit sulky of her, but hey, when your boyfriend of two plus years breaks up with you, it gave you the right to be a little bit sulky, didn't it?
"May?" Her mother, Michelle's voice was warm and enthusiastic over the phone. "How are you, baby? Is everything all right?"
The warm southern drawl almost made May want to cry. Her mother had spent most of her life in New York, where the family had lived now, but she had run away when she was sixteen, with dreams of becoming, of all things, a country western star. She ended up in Nashville where she had picked up the Southern accent, got pregnant by an up and coming star, whose name her mother would never say, and returning home where she met May's father. Even though Ferris Parker was older than she was by five years, he had fallen in love with the tiny blonde woman, and they were married in the hospital the day after May's oldest brother Calvin was born, which also happened to be Michelle Devany's eighteenth birthday. As far as Ferris was concerned, Calvin was his son too. May was born a year later and her mother resigned her singing career to community theater instead. But she clung to that Southern drawl as if it were a lifeline to a dream she never claimed to regret giving up. "I'm, fine, Mom," May said, hoping that hitch she felt wasn't evident in her voice.
"What's wrong, baby?" A soft thwump noise was heard, the sound of Michelle Devany-Parker settling in her favorite recliner. Before May could answer, she called out, "Grace, Ben, Brian, keep an eye on the little ones for a bit, I have to talk to May."
There was an enthusiastic chorus of noise in the background, suggestions that her brothers and sisters might also like to talk to May, inquiries as to why she hadn't answered their latest messages, but her mother dismissed them all efficiently. "She'll talk to y'all when and if she has a chance, she wants to talk to her Mama right now. So let me talk to her and maybe if she has a moment, she'll talk to y'all!"
A few protesting noises, then more scuffling and her mom turned her attention back to the phone. "You still with me, baby?"
"Yes," May suppressed a grin. Only her mother could quiet chaos so quickly. Stephanie McMahone might think she was a mistress of calming chaos, but Stephanie could learn a few things from Michelle.
"All right, what's wrong?" Michelle asked, getting down to business.
May knew there was no point in lying. "Seth…" she began, then took a deep breath. "Seth and I broke up."
"Oh, baby," The accent got slightly thicker. "I'm so sorry, are y'all all right? You need someone? Should I get your grandparents to come over and babysit and come visit? Or should I see if your grandfather wants to come visit you instead?"
At this, May laughed, picturing her Grandfather, Logan Devany, all five foot, five inches of him, flying down to spend time with his granddaughter, to help her nurse a broken heart. The first thing he'd do is find Seth Rollins, no, to her grandfather, he'd have become Seth Motherfucking Rollins, and tell him in no uncertain terms that he was the worlds biggest dick, likely to compensate for being the owner of the worlds smallest dick, and that he'd made the biggest mistake of his life. He could search the world ten times over and he'd never find anyone as wonderful as May Devany-Parker. Then he'd take May out and attempt to get her rip roaring drunk, thinking that the best way to get her over that tiny dick weasel, was to get her so blind drunk she'd forget about him.
May adored her grandfather, the man who had encouraged her dreams of wrestling when the rest of the world had her pegged for the next Olympic gymnast. It was her grandfather who had convinced her parents to let her give up gymnastics when she was fifteen, when she should have been training for the 2008 Olympics, her grandfather who had marched with her, down to Empire State Wrestling, a tiny promotion that worked out of an old, dilapidated warehouse, and convinced them to give her wrestling lessons in return for her working around the place.
May had spent from her sophomore year of High School, until she was nineteen working out of that warehouse. School and martial arts were the only other activities she had in her life, besides ESW. She had cleaned toilets, cleaned locker rooms, mopped floors, sold tickets, done whatever she could to help out, in return for lessons from the coaches and the other wrestlers. And if Empire State was a male only club, well, tough, little girl, you learn from us. By the time she was seventeen, they were putting her in opening matches with the smaller, thinner male wrestlers. It might have started out as a joke, something to make the audience laugh at, but May took it seriously, and when she proved she could handle it, they started letting he win sometimes against these same smaller, skinny guys. May didn't wrestle her first female wrestlers until she was nineteen and signed on with NXT, another thing she could lay at the feet of her Grandfather. Logan had worked as head of the security team for Madison Square garden and other places, and he'd gotten to know a lot of the talent, especially the talent for the WWE. He didn't try to get May a spot in NXT, just the chance to compete for one, but May handled the rest. She went down for a tryout, and was signed. May had no clue who had gotten her the tryout, what wrestler her Grandfather had called, but she suspected it might be Steve Austin. Still, she had run into Mr. Austin several times since then and he had never said a word. She had never asked him either. If indeed, Steve was the one, he had merely opened a door for her, it was May's hard work that allowed her to walk through.
And while it was fair to say May owed her wrestling career to her grandfather, he wasn't exactly the man she wanted to help her with getting over Seth, although the blind drunk part didn't sound that bad. "No, I'll be okay," she said, her voice soft.
"Things weren't going so great with the two of you anyway, were they?" Michelle asked, her voice neutral, allowing May to interpret what she was saying however she wished.
"No," May admitted with a sigh. "Things were not going well. They hadn't been going well for awhile, I admit it."
"So, who ended it?" Michelle asked.
"He did," May admitted, swallowing hard as she said the words. Maybe that's the stickler? She thought, not that we broke up, but that he instigated it.
"Did he give a reason?"
"Oh, the usual," May said, flopping on her back on the bed. "It isn't working out, you're always finding excuses not to spend time with me… blah blah blah. I mean, there's some truth to that, Mom. He was all psyched about going to this fancy little bistro in Houston a couple weeks ago, and I blew him off to take a sixteen year old Make-A-Wish kid to his Junior Prom."
"I saw that on the net!" Michelle exclaimed. "David Holland?"
"Yeah, that's him," May grinned, remembering the night fondly. "We had a wonderful time, too. I mean, he got tired easily, leukemia takes a lot out of you, but we danced and I met his friends and he was so happy, Mom. He may not live to see eighteen, how could I have denied him that? Was I just supposed to go eat at some stuffy little restaurant where we'd get dwarf sized portions and I'd have to listen to Seth go on and on about how the truffles came from under the right side of the tree, instead of under the left side of the tree, and how the beer was brewed by some little old beer maker in some podunk village in Germany, who only made six kegs a year and oh, happy days, we would be allowed to imbibe in a three ounce mug for about half a week's paycheck?"
"Well, when you put it that way," Michelle said, and both women laughed. May's mother was a fantastic cook, but she cooked solid comfort food, in large quantities, not only to feed their huge family, but to be sure to have enough so that if anyone decided to bring over a friend or five, that they would eat, too. The kitchen table at the Parker house was enormous, a hand built slab affair with benches instead of chairs and could seat twenty five people easily and often did. If Michelle had put her mind to it, May was certain she could have made fussy little dishes just as good as any in those silly "bistros" Seth loved so much, but Michelle believed that cooking was love and none of her children or guests should ever leave the table hungry. And if that was about as un PC as you could be in these days of worrying about childhood obesity, well, maybe Michelle was on to something, because none of the Parker kids were overweight. May suspected it was because her mother made everything from scratch, including things some of the most particular people refused to make, like butter. May grew up eating chocolate chip cookies, but she didn't realize until she was old enough for school that chocolate chip cookies could come from the store in a plastic sleeve covered with a blue film, as well as from the oven. Her mother didn't do this because of any desire to be a crunchy granola mom, she did it because raising thirteen children was expensive and things like making butter or making cookies was not only cheaper, but could also work as an afternoon craft to entertain younger kids. And some good things had come out of this artsy crafty, make it if you can background, such as her sister Shelly, age twenty-two was making a name for herself as a designer of childrens clothing, a skill she had started working on when she was old enough to operate a sewing machine.
"Okay, baby," her mother said, when the laughter had stopped. "Is the real issue here, pride? Are you upset that he's the one to call it off?"
"Maybe," May softly admitted. "I don't know, Mama, that could be it. But I think it's more too. I-I- just feel-" She sat up in the bed, hoping it would give her the words she was reaching for. "-humiliated."
"Why?" Michelle asked, and even though they were on the phone, May could picture her mother, sitting in her chair, head tipped slightly to one side, as if trying to see all the way to where she was, seeing in that hotel room to study her eldest daughter's expression.
"Because-because-" May paused, trying to collect herself. Was she really going to cry? Really? Over this worn out relationship that had finally ended? Sure, a little moping was fine, but was Seth Rollins really worth crying over? "Because I know why he did it," she finally said, trying not to sob like one of her youngest sibling would do. "Yeah, the relationship was wearing itself out, yeah, that goes on me as much as him, but funny, we were okay, not great but okay, until-" she stopped, drawing in a huge gulp of air, hoping it would steady her, but she was shaking and despite herself, tears were coming to her eyes.
"The Royal Rumble?" her mom asked, voice still soft, not judging, not overly assuming, merely guessing.
"Yeah," May said, both relieved and embarrassed it was out. "And Seth can say whatever the hell-"
"-Language!" her mother interrupted in warning.
"heck," May corrected automatically, "he wants, but our relationship wasn't so worth ending until along came Ronda." The moment she said the name, May felt as if bile was rising in her throat. Ronda Rousey. All 5'11" of her, all blonde haired and blue eyed. Almost the opposite of barely five foot, black haired, brown eyed May. She had taken the wrestling world by storm when she had first joined the WWE, and it had gone right to her head. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, Ronda also had a natural gift for acting. She had started out in a couple of WWE movies, and actually made them work. The last one she did was good enough to be in a legitimate theater and to have a summer run. After that, the offers poured in and Ronda's ego inflated to match her salary. She made it clear that she would do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and would answer to no one. When she started refusing to lose matches, the Powers That Be lost their cool and she was finally fired. It hadn't bothered Ronda at all, at least not what anyone could see, she just went on to Hollywood and made herself a household word. Then, when she got bored with that, at least from May's point of view, she sashayed herself right back to the WWE and wanted everything to be just the way it was before she left. Including her former boyfriend Seth Rollins. And the fact that Seth had been dating May while she was gone, was nothing but a little oversight.
"He never did get over that gal, did he?"
"No," May admitted, letting the tears stream down her cheeks, hoping they didn't stream into her voice. "He never did. I pretended he did, but that was bull-" She caught herself, "-spit, on my part. Let's face it, Mama, all I was to him was a placeholder for Ronda Rousey. Someone to give him an excuse to break up with her, and give him practice eating p-"
"May!" Michelle's voice interrupted sharply. She understood her daughter was upset, but she wasn't going to let her daughter go down that trail. She raised May better than that.
"Sorry, Mama," May said softly. She had pushed it to far with her Mom and she knew it.
"It's okay, baby," Michelle said, her voice softening. "I know you're upset and you have a right to be, but that's no reason to slide down the gutter with the rest of the trash."
"I know," May said, feeling slightly chastised. "But, Mom, I have to wonder, if I'd died my hair blond and wore contacts, would it have been better between Seth and I?"
"Hmf," Her mother gave a derisive snort over the phone, and May could picture her sitting up straight in the chair, suddenly, looking slightly offended. "Your Mama is a blonde, and I can tell you, that black hair is just as pretty and just as exotic and if Seth Rollins doesn't realize that you are worth two of that trash talking woman, then he doesn't deserve you."
May smiled through the tears. While her grandfather was a dirt talking, beer drinking, man, and her mother, his daughter, a more gentle soul, let someone talk trash about one of her children, and you could see the father in the daughter. "It's just… I mean, does Ronda have to have everything?"
"What do you mean, baby?" Michelle asked, then tried to answer her own question. "She's not as pretty as you. She's not as nice as you. I'll bet she doesn't have as many brothers and sisters as you, or a family that loves her like we love you, so what does she have that you don't? Seth Rollins? Baby, I've told you, if a man doesn't appreciate you, then he's not worth your time or effort. Let Seth Rollins have her!"
"She has the Diva's division by the throat," May said, trying not to let too much of the bitterness she felt seep into her voice. "Ever since she left, heck, even before she left, every single Diva's match that isn't all about her? All we hear is her name, over and over again, like the audience has some freaked out version of Tourettes and all they can say is her name. And that just doesn't wear on me, Mama, the other girls are tired of hearing it too. We go anywhere and it's 'do you keep in touch with Ronda Rousey? Are you sorry Ronda's gone? Wasn't everything so much more exciting when Ronda was there?' And I get the worst of it, because half the world has some twisted notion that if it wasn't for me, Vince would have signed Ronda on for another five years or something."
"How could people think that?" her mother asked, sounding shocked. "Mr. McMahone isn't going to make a decision like that based on who's dating who in the company!"
"I know that, and you know that," May said, "But the world needs someone to blame. And remember, it wasn't until that Podcast with Austin that she set the record straight on why she wasn't resigned, that it was all Vince McMahone's doing. And personally, Mama? I respected his choice to do it, and thing he got scre- hosed in the process."
"I do too," Michelle loyally agreed. "From what you told us, she could be a nightmare."
"She was," May said, not afraid to admit it to her mother, even if that was the only person she would admit it to. "Everything had to be her way, or she made it her way. She deliberately changed the outcome of a match because she felt that she was just too popular to lose. And the worst thing? She was right. Yeah, she got a talking to, but the rumor mill has it, it wasn't much. A fine and a quick little, 'don't do that again, Ronda! Unless of course, you feel it's right, because you're the one cracking the whip around here.'"
"Is it really that bad?" Michelle asked.
"I could be exaggerating a little bit," May admitted, flopping back on the bed, and rolling over so she was on her stomach. "But not as much as you might think I am." She reached up and wiped her hand across her eyes.
"Well, what about the other girls in the locker room?" Michelle asked. "Surely they must see."
"They did," May admitted. "No one was too eager to see her come back, except for Seth, Dean and Roman and the rest of the Ronda Rousey Fanclub. 'Rita was the only one vocal about it though. I wanted to join in with her, but I thought with my dating Seth, it would have looked bad, like I was just bitter about the ex." A sharp laugh tore from her throat, followed by a sob, which she barely covered up with a sniff instead. "Joke's on me with that one, right? Anyway, so she comes back and suddenly all is forgiven. Her and Rita are sitting in catering, drinking coffee like long lost BFF's. And once again, Ronda is top of the card and we're all supposed to just suck it up."
"I thought she was just supposed to come back for Wrestlemania," Michelle said, sounding confused. "Doesn't she have some big Movie career or something?"
"She does," May said. "But the rumor is that she's going to become Lesner with ti-"
"May!"
"-Breasts," May quickly corrected. "She'll get a special contract that will allow her to come and go to make movies and do everything else she wants to do."
"In other words, work the WWE to keep promoting herself, but the minute something looks more interesting around the horizon, go check it out, is that what you're saying?"
"Yeah," May said, impressed with her mother's way of seeing things, even though she wasn't in the business. "Meanwhile, the rest of us girls have to work our assets off, keeping the Diva's division alive so she can come strolling in and take over whenever it suits her. And that's sorta how I feel like it is with Seth. I kept him warm for her, until she could get back to him. And I'm sure half the locker room feels the same way."
"Oh honey, I can't imagine that!" her mother said, her voice trying to hug the girl, even if her arms couldn't.
"You'd be surprised, Mom," was May's reply. "Roman Reigns has never been friendly with me. Everyone knows he and Ronda are tighter than two peas in a pod. I have no clue, but they've always been tight. Ever since the Royal Rumble, he's been walking around with this smug look on his face like he's got this huge secret and giving me this look of sympathy, like he damned well knew what was coming. Ronda in, May out."
"I'm surprised," Michelle said, "He seems like such a nice guy in all those interviews and things I've seen."
"He is," May admitted, "Except when it comes to me. Remember the last time we were in New York and you told me I could invite anyone I wanted for dinner?"
"Yeah," Michelle said, remembering the night well. "You said Dean and Roman had some publicity work to do."
"Mom, I lied," May admitted. "I asked them and Roman told me that for him to come over and meet my family would be a conflict of interest."
"Oh, Baby," her mother's voice was filled with sympathy.
"And of course, Dean just went along with Roman," May continued. "Which doesn't surprise me at all."
"Well, some of the other people came over," Michelle reminded her. "We had a good time."
"We did," May admitted, remembering the night fondly. Some of the divas and some of the wrestlers came over. Dolph had charmed her younger brothers and sisters, showing infinite patience with them. Her mom had made a wonderful meal, too, roast chicken with all the fixings, and everyone ate until they were full. "But trust me, Seth being there, and Roman and Dean not being there? That was making a statement, trust me."
"Oh baby."
May shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mom," she said, realizing she was carrying this too far. "I don't mean to be so whiny."
"It's okay, Baby," Michelle said, her voice warm. "You need to get this out of your system, it's poison."
"Yeah, but what do I do?" May asked. "I-I can't just whine about it. This is my life, this is all I've ever wanted to do with my life. Wrestling is everything to me!"
"I know," her mother agreed, "they were looking at you for the Olympic gymnastics team, honey. That's nothing to sneeze at."
"I know," May said softly. This wasn't something she talked about often with her mother, because she knew her mother had hoped that she would have been in the Olympics. What her mother didn't fully understand was that May had gotten involved in gymnastics as a young child, because her grandfather had told her that it would be a good way to start training to be a wrestler. Martial arts was the other way, too. Her parents had approved of martial arts, because living just outside of New York City, self defense was almost mandatory, all the Parker kids took martial arts lessons. But May had excelled in it, because she had seen it as wrestling training. May had loved gymnastic too, but again, because she thought it brought her closer to wrestling.
"But," her mother said thoughtfully, "I know this is your life dream, honey. I know this is the most important thing in the world to you. So let me ask you, is it more important than Seth Rollins?"
"Yes," May said, softly.
"Okay. Is it more important than Ronda Rousey?"
"Yes," May's voice was firm and loud on that one.
"How about Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose and their little Ronda Only club?" her mom asked, her voice getting a little stronger, a little less sympathetic. She was taking on that coach mom voice she used whenever one of her children needed extra motivation. It was a voice May had heard often on mornings when she had to wake up at 4:00 in the morning, in order to get to the gym. "Are they more important than your dream of being a wrestler in the WWE?"
"No!" May said, her voice getting louder.
"That's right!" Michelle agreed. "Nothing is more important than that. You're my daughter, and you're your father's daughter and your grandfather's granddaughter. You are the best Diva the WWE has ever seen!"
May couldn't help a snort of laughter. "I don't know if I'd go that far."
"I would," Michelle said firmly, "you are the best. You have wanted this all your life and you have worked as hard as anyone could have worked to get where you are. And Ronda Rousey can have all the glory she thinks she deserves, all the cheesy cheering, that's fine. Because while she's off making moving and doing TV shows and all that other crap she does? What will you be doing?"
"Wrestling," May said.
"I don't think I heard that. What did you say you'd be doing?"
"Wrestling!" May exclaimed, hoping the walls of this hotel were soundproof, or the occupants on either side of her were out of their rooms. Chances are they were teammates, the usual procedure was for the wrestlers to take over a floor of a hotel so they could be watched over easily by security. She didn't think her fellow superstars wanted to hear her yelling, 'Wrestling!'
"Darned straight you will!" Michelle said firmly. "Because we believe in you and more important, you believe in you."
May laughed. "Okay, Mom, I get it. And I appreciate it." Her gaze wandered to the alarm clock and she saw the time. "I've got to get going soon, I have a Make-A-Wish date today."
"Oh?" Michelle's voice brightened, knowing how much her daughter liked granting wishes. "What do you know about this one?"
"Her name is Haley," May said, "She's fourteen and she has Hodgkin lymphoma. We're going on a balloon ride."
"That was her wish?" Michelle asked. "To go on a balloon ride with you?"
"Sure," May said, "Why not? I like balloon rides."
Michelle laughed. "Well, you have a good time, baby, and remember something, for me."
"What?" May asked.
"Remember, this is your dream. You've worked hard for it, but you've never lost who you were on the trip. You're a hard worker and a good person."
"Thanks," May said softly. A moment passed, then she hesitantly added, "Mom? What do I do when I see them together? I mean, they aren't together yet, but I know they will be soon enough. What-how do I handle it?"
"Well, first you ask yourself, are you really all that sorry to lose Seth Rollins? The man who is irritated by your family, who think that going to silly restaurants and eating elf food is better than having a good home cooked meal? A man that would lie to you and say that he had broken up with someone when he hadn't? A man who pretty much cheated on that woman he's going back to?"
"No," May grinned, admiring her mother's way of cutting to the heart of the matter. "I'm not sorry."
"All right," Michelle said. "So, look at it this way, Ronda's doing you a favor by taking that dead weight off your shoulders. You don't need that. You'll do just fine on your own. And someday, when you're ready, the right man will come along, a man that won't lie to you to start a relationship. Someone who won't use you as a placeholder, someone who will love you for you. Because you deserve that, May. So, the next time you see Ronda Rousey? You're going to greet her like nothing ever happened. You're not going to hang your head because you've got nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, look at it this way, Seth cheated on Ronda the first time. At least he had the good sense to break up with you before that happened."
May laughed. "I don't know if that's a selling point or not," she said. "I mean, you could look at it as he broke up before he cheated, but it also could be that he wants everything to be pure and innocent when he starts his new relationship with Ronda. By breaking up with me first, he can welcome Ronda in like some Goddess of pureness and light."
"Hah!" Michelle laughed, a loud, honest laugh. "Baby, I've seen that girl, and she is not a goddess of pureness and light."
"Mom, did it ever occur to you that you might be just a tad biased?" May asked.
"Just a tad," Michelle admitted. "But that's okay, you're my daughter and that gives me the right. Besides, if Seth wants to go back to a woman who could leave him so easily to make movies, and then comes back and expects him to come running? Pshaw, someday he'll see what he missed out leaving you."
"I doubt that," May said, feeling a slight sting at those words. She remembered how happy Seth had been with Ronda, or at least how happy everyone had told her they were, until Ronda had started becoming a big time TV and movie star, and suddenly wanted nothing to do with wrestling. Obviously, Seth had forgotten about all the bad and was just focused on the good.
"Hey, no negative talk," Michelle said, "You're May Devany-Parker and that means you're someone special. Now, dry your eyes and go take a shower and get ready for your day with Haley. You tell her that your Mama and your whole entire family wishes her the best day of her life, you hear me?"
"Yeah, Mama," May said. She knew that what she'd gotten was pretty much just a pep talk, but she also knew that her Mom, like the rest of her family, would always be there for her. All twelve of her brothers and sisters, her parents, her grandparents. No matter what happened, even if she was fired from the WWE tomorrow, which she couldn't see happening, she always had her family. "I love you."
"I love you too, baby," her mother said. "Now remember, chin up."
"Chin up," May repeated.
"Good. Because between you and me, this is the best thing that ever happened to you. Because you and Seth haven't been happy, so this is your chance."
"My chance for what?" May asked.
"Better things," her mother said. "You were crawling with Seth. Now that it's over, it's time to grow wings."
For a moment, May almost pictured that, sprouting wings and soaring. Like she would today on the balloon ride with Haley. Well, no, a balloon ride wasn't exactly like that, but it was close enough. "You're right, Mom," she said. "It's time for me to fly."
The End