LESSON LEARNED
SEPTEMBER 2003
Dwayne Johnson, known to the millions… and millions… as the Rock, stepped into his trailer after shooting a scene from his new movie, The Rundown. Once inside, he looked around, searching for one of the crew assistants. Finally spotting someone, Dwayne called over to them.
"Hey!" he yelled, getting the young man's attention. "Can you get me a bottle of water?" The assistant nodded, rushing off to find the location of the coolers.
Sighing tiredly, Dwayne plopped down on the couch, wiping away the sweat that had formed on his brow. The filming of this movie had been absolutely exhausting for him… even he, the Great One, was wiped out. As his gaze traveled around the interior of the trailer, he spotted his cell phone sitting on an end table that had been placed next to the couch. He reached over and grabbed it, heading to the section where he could check to see if he'd missed any calls. He was slightly shocked when he saw that, in the two hours of shooting, he'd missed fifteen calls. Very curiously, he began going through each one, frowning when he was done. One of the calls was from his agent, who he'd have to get back to later, but that wasn't what bugged him. What *did* bug him was the fact that the rest of the calls, all fourteen of them, were from his girlfriend, WWE diva Trish Stratus. He could only imagine what her reason was for calling him so much in such a little time. Sighing again, he went through his phone book, locating Trish's number and selecting it to call her back. He thought he had made it clear to her that he couldn't have her calling him all the time when he was at work, but she must not have gotten the message. She answered on the second ring.
"Hello?" she answered, and Dwayne thought that she sounded a little upset.
"Hey honey, what's wrong?" he asked, hoping it was nothing too major. He didn't have time to deal with a crisis.
"Dwayne, I've been trying to get a hold of you all afternoon! I must have called you twelve times," she replied.
"Try fourteen," Dwayne said plainly. "Now, what's going on?" He heard her sigh from the other end of the line, and he had to fight to hold back a groan. He knew exactly what Trish was going to do… she was going to start playing the guessing game, try and make him figure out what was wrong without actually telling him.
"Spit it out Trish. I don't have time to play Guess the Drama," he urged after her brief hesitation.
"My mom's in the hospital Dwayne… she's sick," Trish replied, cutting right to the chase. Dwayne's eyes widened in surprise, not so much at the news itself, but at the fact that she didn't beat around the bush.
"Wow… that sucks," he said.
"That sucks?" she repeated him. "Is that all you're going to say?" Dwayne raised an eyebrow.
"What more do you want me to say? It's a shame, and I hope she gets better soon," he offered. Trish sighed again, exhaling slowly.
"Look, I know you're busy Dwayne, but I really need you right now. Can you please just stay on the phone with me until they let me talk to a doctor?" she requested in a pleading tone. This time, Dwayne didn't hold back the groan.
"Trish, I'm busy," he stated flatly. The truth was, he was just beginning a half hour break, but he had wanted to spend the break doing just that… taking a break. He didn't want to spend that time listening to her gripe and bitch.
"I *know* you are baby, but please? I'm scared," she admitted. Dwayne rolled his eyes.
"Oh, for Christ's sake Trish, grow up! If you're really that upset, call your good buddy Adam, or someone else who doesn't have eight hours of work still ahead of him!" he cried. Trish frowned deeply, taking great offense to her boyfriend's comments.
"I don't like the way you sound," she replied quietly. Once again, Dwayne found his eyes rolling up in his head.
"And just how do I sound?" he questioned, eager to hear what kind of response she would have.
"Like you value your career more than you value me, which would be bullshit considering the fact that I've given you more than two years of my life," she responded, as plainly as he had told her he was busy. Dwayne sighed… he didn't' feel like arguing with her about this.
"Believe what you will," he said finally. He heard Trish gasp at his comment, and then he heard nothing. He pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the screen, which was displaying a message that said that the call had been disconnected. Dwayne scowled… that little bitch hung up on him! The Great One groaned angrily, tossing his phone to the couch. He knew he had work to do, but that call he'd just had with Trish put him in a foul mood.
"Somebody go and get me some goddamn water!" he screamed, banging his fists on the table before walking away.
TWO MONTHS LATERDwayne was back at work again, but this time no longer shooting a film, but wrestling for the WWE. Today would mark his first appearance and match since Backlash, where he'd lost to Goldberg, who was still the reigning champion after beating Triple H awhile back at Unforgiven. Now here he was, searching the halls to find his girlfriend. He had Trish had only spoken a few times since that fallout they'd had when her mother was in the hospital, and those conversations weren't exactly civil. In fact, a few weeks ago, Trish threatened to break up with him, but Dwayne wasn't worried in the least. A similar thing happened when he was off filming the Scorpion King. Trish had claimed she was going to end their relationship, which was at the time still fairly new. By the time he returned to WWE, she practically threw herself in his arms. All he had to do to fix any problems they came across was a little bit of sweet talk, a little bit of gifts, and a little bit of the world famous People's Strudel. As he was walking down the hall, he spotted Rob Van Dam stretching.
"Yo Rob," he called, and Rob's head snapped up. "You seen Trish around?" he asked, and Rob nodded.
"Yeah, she was in the catering room with Adam last I saw her," he replied, pointing down the hall. Dwayne glanced in the direction that Rob was pointing, nodding slowly.
"Alright," he said. "Thanks man."
"No problem dude," Rob replied, frowning when he just then realized that Dwayne was most likely not going to like what he saw. Oh well, he shrugged, focusing back on his routine.
Once Dwayne stepped into the catering room and spotted Trish, his jaw dropped in shock. Trish was in the back of the room, and she was with Adam alright… the two of them were joined at the tongue. The look of shock quickly turned to one of anger as he stormed over to the two of them.
"Not to interrupt," he said stiffly, yanking Adam away from Trish by his long blonde hair. "But would one of you care to explain to me what the *hell* is going on here?"
"There's nothing to explain Dwayne," Trish answered pointedly, while Adam simply stared at him. "We're done… I'm with Adam now." Adam nodded, entwining his fingers with hers and resting their hands in his lap.
"Oh really?" Dwayne challenged. "Why? What does he have that I don't?" Trish sighed, raking her hand through her blonde hair.
"Try everything Dwayne. He treats me better than you ever did. He respects me, and I also have the comfort of knowing that if I'm upset, he'll listen to me and be my shoulder to lean on, which was unfortunately too much to ask of Mr. I'm Too Busy," she shot back. Adam couldn't help but smirk at her comment. Dwayne didn't find the situation as humorous.
"I don't know what's up your ass," he said, pointing a finger at her. "But leaving me for him will be the biggest mistake you ever make."
With that, he turned and exited in a huff. Adam turned back to Trish, a grin playing on his handsome face as she kissed him again. Poor, delusional Dwayne… if only he could see that it was *him* who made the big mistake. After all, he was the one who was stupid enough to let such a wonderful woman like Trish go.
LATER THAT NIGHTDwayne sat alone at a bar, sipping a beer as he contemplated what happened earlier. He couldn't believe how dumb he was. Trish hadn't made any mistakes… it was him who was going to end up regretting his decision. He knew now that he had screwed up… he had taken advantage of Trish, and now she had moved on to someone who *wouldn't* do that. He didn't know what in hell possessed him to let such an amazing woman like Trish slip away.
"Hey man," a deep voice called and a hand was placed on his shoulder. Dwayne turned from his barstool to meet the green eyes of Adam Copeland.
"Adam, look, if you came here just to gloat, please, just spare me it. I just don't need it right now," he requested, hoping that the Canadian would have the heart to leave him alone.
"I'm not here to gloat Dwayne," Adam said seriously. "I came here for two reasons. One, to make sure that you learned your lesson… you need to start valuing your girlfriend over your career. Think about what's going to be around when that movie career of yours is over. Also, I wanted to clear the air. While I don't respect or understand what you did to Trish, I'm not going to despise you or even consider you a bad person for it… just one who screwed up. I just want to ensure that there's no hostility between us." Dwayne looked over at him, a curious look on his face.
"Do you love her?" he asked.
"Of course I do," Adam said. "More than anything in the world. What do you say to that?" Dwayne kept his gaze locked on Adam, but now there was a tiny smile forming on his face. It became increasingly obvious throughout the day that Trish really loved Adam, and if the Canadian felt the same he could do nothing but wish the two the best.
"I'd have to say… good luck, and congratulations," Dwayne said, finally breaking into a full grin. Adam smiled as well.
"Thanks Dwayne. That means a lot to me… Trish too, even though she'd never admit it," he responded, laughing quietly.
"You're a good guy Adam," Dwayne said, patting him on the back. "Take care of her."
Adam nodded, smiling once more as he stood and walked away, leaving Dwayne sitting at the bar. Dwayne sat back in his seat, thinking about the conversation he'd just had. As much as he was still upset about losing Trish, he felt so much better than he had earlier in the day. As much as he wanted to hate Adam for taking his girlfriend from him, he just couldn't. After all, just as the Canadian said, he had taught him a very valuable lesson…
Never value your career over somebody you love, because that person is what will still be around when the career is over.
A/N: Hey!! What did you guys think of this short little story?