So I know it's been a while since I've written/posted anything, and I hope to change that with this story I've cooked up. It centers around the Bella Twins...I won't spoil too much about what I've got planned, but it's a bit out of my comfort zone, and that's all I'll say for now. The first part here is told in Nikki's POV. I hope y'all haven't forgotten about me and I hope y'all like the story I'm going to tell here. See you all later and enjoy!
It all came to a head when I walked through the curtain backstage after making my big return. Brooklyn had shown me a whole lot of love, but all I cared about was seeing how proud John was of me for coming back from my neck injury. All I wanted was to feel his arms around my waist, hugging me to his body, and telling me how much he loved me. I was on top of the world. I'll never forget the high I was feeling.
And then he blindsided me.
"I have to go."
"But...but I just got back. You can't go!"
"Don't make this any harder than it already is for me, Nicole. Please."
"Then take me with you."
"You know I can't do that."
"Please...just...don't leave me. I can't do this without you."
I remember he looked me right in the eye as I pleaded with him, giving me that piercing look when he was serious about something. He took my hand and rubbed it with his thumb, as if he was trying to ease my tension, calm me down, whatever. It wasn't working. None of it was working. None of what happened that night made sense to me. None of what he said made any kind of sense. How could this happen to me? What had I done?
"This isn't goodbye, Nicole. It's...it's see you later. I just think it's best we take some time to ourselves, and..."
I stopped listening. His words hit me like a freight train, or one of Paige's headbutts. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it.
It was then that he stopped rubbing my hand and let it fall to my side. He leaned in and went to kiss me, and even though I wanted it at the time, I'm still mad at myself for letting him. I thought I needed that one last taste of his lips, that if I just lost myself in it this one last time, it would hold me over until he came back.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
She heard a frantic knock on her door, then immediately looked to her clock. It was pushing four thirty...who in the hell was at her door this damn early in the morning? Mumbling under her breath, she rolled out of bed, slid into her slippers and threw a robe over her body, not caring one bit how messy her hair was or how naked her face was for once. All she wanted, all she craved was sleep. And whoever was keeping her from that was about to get an earful, if she could even be bothered raising her voice that high right now.
The knocking became more and more animated as she made her way down the steps to her living room, and it was then she could no longer bite back her irritation as she put her hand on the doorknob. "Hold on! Jesus Christ, I'll be right there! Calm the fu-"
"Brie. Thank god you're home."
Her eyes widened considerably at the sight of her twin sister falling into her arms, sobbing hysterically. For a solid five minutes, neither of them said a word, instead opting to remain in the doorway, holding each other, while she rubbed her sister's back as soothingly as she could. Eventually she wrapped her sister's arm around her shoulder and helped guide her into the living room, gently placing her down on the couch before dashing off to the kitchen to start brewing coffee...so much for sleep tonight.
"What happened?", she asked, concern laced throughout her voice. "Shouldn't you be in Brooklyn right now? Did they send you home? Is your neck okay? Is it something else?", she quickly followed up with, her voice raising with each question asked before she was shushed by her sister, who feebly shook her head as her form of an answer.
"No, it's none of that...it's John", she answered, not noticing the way her sister's eyes narrowed and darkened at the mere mention of his name. "He told me that...", she stopped herself short as she bit down on her lip, still unaware of the anger that had flashed across Brie's face. Eventually, she let a heavy, depressed sigh slide through her lips as she sank deeper and deeper into the couch. "He told me that we needed a break, and for that to happen, he had to leave. He didn't tell me why he was leaving...just that he was, and that no amount of me begging him to stay could change his mind."
A tear began to form in her eye, and before she knew it, they were damp again and she sank even further into the couch, to the point where it looked like it was attempting to eat her alive. Brie looked over at her twin and let a sigh of her own escape her lips; how many times was Nikki going to realize that Mr. Hustle, Loyalty and Respsect wasn't who he made himself out to be? How many times were they going to have this very same conversation? It was getting to be tiresome at this point, but what could she do? No matter how many times she would tell Nikki to reevaluate her 'relationship' (if you could even call it that) with him, she'd always pay it lip service and basically disregard her advice at the first sign of him wanting her back, no matter how disingenous he sounded every time.
"Why would he leave if you just got back?", Brie questioned, brushing away a strand of stray hair. "That doesn't make any kind of sense to me."
Nikki halfheartedly shrugged her shoulders, wiping away a tear from the edge of her eye, trying to think of reasons why her boyfriend (were they even still together at this point?) would just up and leave like this, without any kind of warning...everything seemed to be okay when they spoke over the phone earlier in the week, when she told him she had a huge surprise for him on Sunday...her mind raced as she tried to find something, anything, that might've triggered something in him to act like this, but she was drawing blanks. "Honestly, I've got no clue...I just...I don't know..."
By now, a piping hot mug of coffee had been shoved into her hands by Brie and the two of them sat there, silently sipping, blankly staring at the wall, as if the one of them was waiting for the other to say something. Nikki pulled the cup away from her lips and made a repulsed face as she licked her lips. "Brie, what did you make this coffee with?"
"Kahlua and Bailey's", she deadpanned, never breaking her gaze on the wall as she took a big swig from her mug and closed her eyes, leaning back into the couch. "If I can't go back to sleep right now, I'm at least gonna get a nice enough buzz going in the meantime."
A small giggle escaped Nikki's lips, making Brie smile. "Just don't go all Brie Mode on me, okay? I don't think I could handle all that crazy right now."
Brie faked a hurt expression, finishing off her first (of many) cups of coffee, before sincerity graced her facial features. Turning to face her twin, she reached her hand out and took Nikki's in her own, holding it tight. "Hey. All jokes aside, if you need to stay here til you need to fly out for SmackDown, you're more than welcome to. I could use someone around here to keep me sane other than Josie", she said, completely serious about that last part.
"Are you sure?", Nikki asked, biting down on her lip as she too finished her coffee. "I don't want to impose or anything..."
Brie gave her an incredulous look, as if what she said was the dumbest thing she had ever said (and there were some dumb things said over the years...) "Imposing on what? Don't be ridiculous, Nicole, you're staying over, and that's final. I'll go make the guest room up for you, help yourself to more coffee. I'll be right back."
As Nikki let her twin go tend to the guest room, Josie came running down the steps, hopping into her auntie's lap and licking her all over her face. "Oh, god, Josie!", she exclaimed as her face kept getting attacked. "I missed you too, but you gotta let me breathe!", she let out a yelp as Josie's paws dug into her chest, the tiny French bulldog making herself at home on her breasts. "I think you missed doing this more than anything, didn't you Jo?"
The dog looked at her and yawned, licking her face once more before making herself comfortable on her chest, instantly falling asleep. Nikki couldn't help but let a laugh slip through her lips, before a much more powerful yawn followed it. Leaning back into the couch, she turned onto her side and laid across it, doing her best to not disturb the itty bitty Frenchie's slumber. She closed her eyes for a moment, figuring the momentary fatigue would come and pass, and she'd be wide awake again.
"Nicole, the room's done, so if you wanna-", Brie stopped herself short and quietly made her way back down the steps, shaking her head at the sight of her dog and her sister both knocked out on the couch. Of course she stepped away for five minutes and Nikki was sprawled out on her couch, and of course Josie saw her sister's chest as a great place to make herself comfortable. Snatching her phone from the coffee table, she snapped a picture and sent it to her sleeping twin, knowing she'd get a kick out of the sheer cute factor of it. "And we have a front runner for what picture will be on the holiday cards this year", she commented to herself as she sat down on the recliner and finished what was left in her sister's coffee mug, her eyes trailing over to where Nikki was sleeping.
A smile, half sad and half hopeful, graced her lips. She so badly wanted Nicole to realize the error of her ways and move on from the toxic aura that surrounded John, and she was hopeful that this was the kick in the ass that she needed to realize that she'd be better off without him. But she was also smart enough to know how her sister operated, and what upset her the most was that no matter what she said or did to help her get over him, Nicole would run back to John at a moment's notice if he came calling. But, she thought to herself as she fought a yawn, that was a conversation she'd have tomorrow, when she wasn't slightly buzzed and zombie-like.
Standing up and stretching her tired limbs, she padded over to Nicole and placed a blanket over her and Josie's sleeping forms, leaning down and placing a kiss on her sister's forehead. "Sleep well, my fearless twin", she whispered. "We'll talk in the morning."
The smell of french toast wafted through the air, tickling her senses and stirring her awake. Through narrowed eyes, Brie looked around her room and noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary. Turning over onto her side, she saw that it was pushing one in the afternoon, and she remembered the days where waking up that late would've surely pissed someone in the front office off. She was so thankful that she wasn't a part of that life right now, that she was able to stay at home and do other things with her life, even if that meant lying in bed and being a lazy bum all day, which, with the events of a few hours prior, it felt like today was going to be one of those days.
Rolling out of bed, a rather large yawn escaped her lips as she grabbed her robe and threw it on, doing her best to rub the exhaustion out of her eyes as she made her way downstairs and into the kitchen, where she was greeted with quite the sight; Nikki slaving over the stove, cooking breakfast...and not actually setting her entire home on fire. It was something to behold, and she wished she had her phone on her so she could document this and show everyone. 'Mom would get a kick out of this', Brie mused silently to herself as she took a seat at the table, thoroughly amused with what was playing out before her.
After a couple more minutes passed, Nikki eventually turned around and was startled to see her twin sitting there, grinning as she sipped her orange juice. "Brianna! You scared the hell out of me, damn!", she exclaimed, nearly dropping the skillet in her hands. "Have you been there the entire time?", she then questioned, recieving a nod in response. A blush quickly swept across her face while Brie chuckled, unable to hold back anymore. "You weren't supposed to see this till I woke you up", Nikki sheepishly explained, taking the apron off and slinging it over her shoulder.
"Why would you go through all this trouble of making something that's hopefully edible?", Brie teased as she poked at the eggs on her plate (she was surprised to see that Nicole remembered that she liked her eggs scrambled). "And when did you learn to cook?"
"John taught me", Nikki responded back quickly and quietly, not wanting to dwell on that particular situation at all today. No, today was supposed to be about recharging and relaxing in lieu of returning to SmackDown tomorrow night, she hoped. "I figured it was the least I could do, I did barge in on you at four in the morning after all."
Brie shook her head, waving off her sister's situation as if it were no big deal (for the moment), as she grabbed her fork and scooped up some of her eggs. "Are you sure this isn't going to kill me?", she asked, half jokingly, half cautiously as her sister gave her an angry look. "Hey, I have to be cautious! You've never cooked ever!", she teased as she slid them into her mouth and chewed, her eyes widening. She quickly ate more of them, unable to process the fact that her sister had made something that not only was edible, but was actually...good? "Wow, Nicole. This is great!"
She bowed, taking a seat at the table with her, biting into her toast, silently thanking her sister. "Like I said, it's the least I could do...but um...since we're both here enjoying this delicious breakfast that I made, I was wondering if-"
Rolling her eyes as hard as she could, Brie let out a huff and shook her head, a pained, annoyed expression on her face. She knew something was up, she knew Nicole wouldn't do this solely out of the kindness of her heart without wanting something in return. "Damn it Nicole, really? Are you serious? You're really going to hit me up for some ridiculous favor right now?"
Nikki bowed her head, biting down on her lip; she knew Brie would get heated like this, but she hadn't gotten this far to just turn around now and abandon ship. "Listen, it's not even that big of a favor...I just kinda...want to, well...I kinda want to break into John's house and take Winston with me...", she muttered, her voice nearly a whisper when mentioning her crazy idea. She closed her eyes, not daring to see how livid Brie would be with how silly and ridiculous she was sounding right now. However, when no outburst came immediately after, she opened one eye and saw her twin shaking her head, muttering under her breath.
"You seriously want to do this?", Brie questioned, doing her best to keep her irritation in check.
"I do, yes. Winston should be with his mommy."
She sighed and looked long and hard at her sister. She knew should say no and tell Nicole to deal with that issue on her own, she knew that this was a BAD IDEA in boldface and all caps, and she knew that the potential for this 'plan' to blow up in their faces was incredibly, almost unbelievably high. She had every reason ever to not agree to this...
"When's your next off day?"
Nkki's eyes widened, a smile spreading across her lips. "Thursday. They're easing me back into house shows, so I'm only doing-"
Brie put her hand up to silence her. "I'll meet you in Tampa, then. You obviously can't stay at John's place anymore if you're going to do this, not that I would expect you to stay there anymore anyways, with what's happened. So after that, you're coming back here with me and staying here. After we do this, I never want to speak of it again, it never happened. Understood, Nicole?"
Nodding her head, Nikki stood up and walked over to the other side of the table, wrapping her muscular arms around her sister's neck, hugging her as hard as she could. "I owe you huge, Brie, big time. You really have no idea how much this means to me", she said sincerly, placing a big kiss on Brie's cheek, before departing back up the steps to the guest room, no doubt to plan and map out this scheme of hers. She shook her head and sighed. Why the hell had she allowed herself to get talked into this? She knew it would make her sister happy, but...
That's all that mattered to her. She wanted Nicole to be as happy as possible, all the time.
And damn it if she wasn't going to be the one responsible for that.