Summary: One Shot. Song Fic. That summer break she had lost her heart, innocence, virginity, and self respect several times over. He had wooed her hard and fast. She hadn't even lasted a week before she was in his bed. Not a high school fic.
Paper Roses
Stephanie McMahon had been young and foolish when she set her naive eyes on one of her father's wrestlers. She wasn't what one would call a girly girl. Actually she was a tomboy to the core but she couldn't help but have some girly girl tendencies after months of listening to her father's lectures on proper ladylike behavior.
She first laid her expressive innocent blue eyes on him while in grade school during spring break. Her parents were very strict whereas education was concerned; she nor Shane was allowed to attend an event whether it be near home or not on a school night. Luckily, or unfortunately now when she would look back, both she and Shane were allowed to attend every event that week because school was not in session.
She thought she was so cool and pretty that day. Her dark brown hair was styled curly and in a pony tail to the side, a common and very popular trend in the '80's. Her blue eyes were covered in a pair of designer sunglasses that she had received from her uncle Rod for her birthday. Ralph Lauren straight legged jeans were a second skin to her. The straps of her white trainer's bra were visible on her small shoulders for she had a long-sleeved dark-blue off-the-shoulder blouse on. Her shoes were black hi-tops.
She had looked like a '80's poster child.
I realized the way your eyes deceived me
with tender looks that I mistook for love
She had accidently ran into him and was knocked down from the impact. He groaned in annoyance as he stared down at the child on the ground. The first thought that popped in her head when she looked in his crystal blue eyes was "Woah, he's cute." The second was that he was young, definitely not as young as she or even her brother, who she thought was so cool because he was sixteen.
He was definitely younger than all the other men that worked for her father. Macho Man gave her the creeps. Hulk was annoying. Andre terrified her because of his height. And she swore if she heard another WOO she would kill herself or better yet she would kill Flair's son for thinking that he would ever have a chance with her.
She had offered an embarrassed apology to the extremely annoyed man whereas the polite energetic man that accompanied him introduced them both. She could have sworn that the irritated man's eyes sparked when she introduced herself. That day she hoped it had been in interest for her but now she knew that it had been in interest in solely her last name.
Six years would pass until she would physically see him again; against her mother's wishes she had watched every Saturday showing. Now at sixteen, she had a full out crush on the notorious player and heartbreaker. But like most women in love with a player, she believed that she would be able to change him.
She had been on summer break before her senior year of high school, bobbing her head to Jon Bon Jovi on her walkman, while touring the backstage area of Madison Square Garden when she once again ran into him. Or was it he who ran into her? Fore, they both landed on the hard unforgiving concrete floor. She had been about to tell the guy to watch where the hell he was going and who she was when she realized who had knocked her down.
Yes, she had begun to pull rank at an early age because she had loved how her father's employees fell over their feet to please her.
Her heart stopped, her brain slowed, and her emotions went through the roof as her expressive blue eyes locked with his guarded crystal ones. He grinned as he apologized profusely for knocking her down.
She had seen the same look that she had saw when she was ten yet this time instead of just interest, she saw lust. She smirked as she had wittily said that it was no problem and that she had become accustomed to being knocked down by wrestlers.
His grin widened as he had realized that she had not forgotten their encounter six years ago. He had not forgotten it either but unlike her he had not thought or fantasized about it often. Frankly, he never thought about it unless he was contemplating how to use her admiration for his gain. He wasn't stupid, the girl had a crush on him. Then again, he arrogantly believed that every girl and woman had one on him.
That summer break she had lost her heart, innocence, virginity, and self respect several times over. He had wooed her hard and fast. She hadn't even lasted a week before she was in his bed.
He would give her favorite flower, the red rose, to her at the beginning of every date and one after every time they would have sex. Coincidentally, she would have hundreds of roses by the time she would return to Greenwich for her last year of secondary schooling.
Eventually, he had asked her not in so many words to recommend to her father that he had the potential to be the perfect person to carry the company in Hulk Hogan's absence. Which was true, but she still felt understandably misused and taken advantage of.
He had used her. He had, without a second thought, abused her love, admiration, and trust to further his career. A week before her planned departure from the tour, she had heard him bragging to his buddy Kevin that he had "nailed McMahon's daughter and," that "he would be WWF Champion in no time."
Her heart broke into thousands of pieces more than the several hundred roses she had pressed and saved. Those roses had meant everything to her up until that point. At that point those flowers meant nothing. A burnt paper rose from a deranged stalker would mean more to her than the live red roses that he had given her.
So take away the flowers that you gave me
And send the kind that you remind me of
Paper Roses
The inevitable confrontation was not for the faint of heart. She had been waiting on him inside his hotel room; he had given her a key that morning. All of her pressed roses but one made a trail from the door to the king-sized bed. A large red puddle of pressed rose petals laid on the white bed covering like blood.
He had entered his room and cockily smiled as if he knew that he was about to get laid. However, she surprised him by throwing the bracelet he had given her at him, hitting him in the chest. She then proceeded to throw solid and hard things. She had thrown every pressed rose on the bed at him. She had yelled and screamed. She had kicked and punched him. However, he had retaliated with three comments before kissing her roughly and leaving her starry eyed in his hotel room. Those three comments had been that she was only a good lay to him, a means to an end, and that she needed to learn to keep her mouth and legs shut.
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation,
Like you imitation love for me
She was completely shattered. Her heart was broke. Her self respect and image were tarnished. She doubted everyone's intentions. Therefore, she had damaged her friendship with everyone of her friends but Marissa. She had even started to doubt her brother's intentions when she realized that doubting his intentions toward her were ridiculous and on the verge of paranoia.
I thought that you would be a perfect lover
You seemed so full of sweetness at the start
But like a big red rose that's made of paper
There isn't any sweetness in your heart
Everyone of her friends had boyfriends. Her parents had each other. Shane had Marissa. Even her Grandmother and Grandfather Edwards had one another. She had thought that she had found her special someone. She loved him with all her heart. She would have given him anything and everything he had desired. Hadn't she given him her heart and body willingly and happily? Hadn't she convinced her father that he deserved to be a champion?
Paper Roses
Paper Roses are so easy to damage. Like her heart and self-respect were. At the time, she felt that she would never recover from his betrayal.
She would not try to have another relationship until she was twenty-three. That relationship was doomed from the start because of her doubts and insecurities not to mention her brother and father's opinion on the man that she had chose to try a relationship with. Shane had gone to the lengths of having a 'love her or leave her' match with her Amor and losing.Even though her Amor had won the match, the relationship deteriorated. Honestly, it had been deteriorating before her brother's interference.
Fortunately, for her she found her special someone. A someone that had been in her life for a few years before she realized that he was her special someone. She did have a crush on him but had been afraid to approach him. That was until her relationship with Andrew had ended. She would forever be thankful to Andrew because he had given her, her self respect and self image back by simply loving and respecting her. Her heart, on the other hand, she took back by herself, several months after her confrontation with her first love.
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation like you imitation love for me
Shawn Michaels never loved her the way she had loved him and for that she would forever be grateful to him.
She would never have gotten together with her husband whom she was madly in love with and shared a beautiful baby girl. True, she still loved Shawn because the old adage that no one forgets their first love is true. However, she was not in love with him now nor was she in love with him all those years ago; she had been in love with his image and allure.
She had forgiven him long ago even before she had started seeing her husband. She willingly forgave him when he changed from a notorious player and heartbreaker to a dedicated husband and father. She was not bitter that she was not the woman to change him from his way. She was thankful that someone had.
She kept that singled pressed rose that she had left in her own hotel room, the day of their confrontation as a reminder of what transpired between her younger self and a younger Shawn but also a reminder that love is bittersweet and can end anytime.
She hoped and prayed every night and morning that her husband never found out the origin and meaning behind the pressed and now laminated rose that she always kept under her pillow.
Disclaimer
The basic plot is not mine for it is based on Marie Osmond's song Paper Roses. However, the mode that the song and plot were used it in fact mine. This fic and every fic that I write are purely fiction unless otherwise stated.
The WWE and TNA are not mine. The characters/wrestlers/anyone that you recognize as WWE or TNA employees or associates are not mine. Trademarks and/or copyrights that are owned by either the WWE or TNA or someone else that is not me are not mine. Trademark and/or copyright was not intended when creating or writing this story. The only payment I have or will ever receive off this story (or any other) is feedback via reviews, private messages, and/or emails.