Truth Be Told

Chapter 3, Apologies and Invitations

As the four entered the girl's dressing room, joking about Rae's grand spectacle, it was obvious the game had just ended. Everyone still in the room had just stood up and yelled and Sean was collecting money from those we were not screaming in joy. Rae noted that Scott was no where to be found.

"Alright, guys lets get, we gotta do that photo shoot in conference room 4 soon." Nash said.

"Is it that late already?" Curt said, checking his spendy watch, "Damn, alright nice to meet you ladies, see you in the ring." Curt said waving as he exited, all the others relayed similar parting messages as they left; Sean slipped her a $50 bill.

"There's your cut, only fair since it's your dressing room."

Rae smirked at him, noting the wad of cash he shoved in his pocket; obviously it was a very small cut. Nash brought up the rear, winking at Rae while Jocelyn wasn't looking. She signaled him as he left.

Rae collapsed on one couch while Jae did the same to the other.

"Mmmmmm, these are so comfy." Jae said rubbing the surface with her palms.

Rae barely heard her. She couldn't get that image of Scott's haunting face inches from her out of her mind, she didn't know if it had scared her or excited her. Her stomach was still in a knot and she felt a little like her blood sugar was low. She was absent-mindedly gnawing on her fingernails when Jae looked over.

"What's wrong?" She asked knowing full well what it was, "Did you expect him to be like prince charming? These guys are drinkin' swearin' wrestlers. They aren't exactly the most suave guys."

"Yeah? Then why where you almost ready to jump in the sack with Marcus 10 minutes after you met him?" Rae said still chewing her nail.

"Rae, I don't know, like you said, he does have a wife, so why even bother? You'll just be causing more trouble than you need."

"Yeah, but I wasn't even trying to do anything, I made an innocent remark. Ya know, I don't care how bad something in my personal life was going, I wouldn't take it out on someone I just met rookie or not." Rae said still scowling at the ceiling.

"I wouldn't either," Jae said staring up at the ceiling too, "Hell of a first day, huh?"

"Yep." Rae said, "Hey isn't there a list of dressing rooms down that other hall?"

"I think so, why?" Jae replied.

"Maybe I should go apologize to him." Rae said, appearing in deep thought.

"Alone, no, Rae, stop, don't even think about it. Did you even hear anything I've said?" Jae said bolting upright on the couch.

"What, God, I'm not going to do anything, I doubt he'll even talk to me, but I at least want to apologize. It might make it less tense tonight, for me anyway." Rae said sitting up, almost like she was trying to convince herself it was a good idea.

"Please, just wait until we are somewhere where other people are around, you can speak quietly if you really want to." Jae said exasperated.

"What do you think is going to happen Joce? Do you think that when I say, 'Sorry, Scott' he's gonna say "It's ok, now take off your clothes and lets get busy? Please. Trust me, I'll be fine, anything that you're thinking of will be the last thing on his mind." Rae said standing up.

With out another word of protest, Rae walked out of the room and down the other hall toward the dressing room list. She did a quick scan, her finger traveling with her eyes as they traveled down the paper. About halfway down was his name.

Scott Hall- Kevin Nash- Sean Waltman Room 34B

"Damn." She muttered to herself. She hadn't thought of the fact that possibly there would be more than him assigned to a room. Well maybe she could get him out of the room to talk.

She scanned various hallways, having a sincere doubt that she knew where she was going. Eventually she found herself getting closer and closer to a din of male voices. As she got closer, she began to recognize some of them. One she could point out was Diamond Dallas Page, another was Paul "The Giant" Wight, several others were familiar but she was at a loss to place them with faces or names.

The hallway just before the noise had an arrow pointing right with the words Dressing Rooms 33-36. She turned and followed the door markers until she came upon a slightly ajar door marked 34B. Also the three men's names were posted on the outside.

She took a shaky breath and raised her knuckles and swiftly rapped 3 times.

"Hold on…" A voice said, she was almost positive it was Scott, and it sure didn't sound like anyone else was in there. She silently prayed to herself that she would have enough time to say what she had to before the men came back.

A moment later the door opened and Rae looked up, it was sure enough Scott, but in much less attire than earlier. She gulped and suddenly felt her mouth dry as he stood there with the door open in a white towel that was wrapped and tucked around his waist

"Kev ain't here." He said with a great deal of indifference.

"I'm…um… I'm not looking for Kev…" She began shakily.

"Sean's gone too." He said heaving a great breath like her presence was becoming increasingly annoying. His arrogance was beginning to wear thin her tolerance.

"Listen," She said a little more forcefully, "I don't want to see either one of them, I came to see you." She finished her face marked with defiance.

"Came to see me?" He said with an incredulous look on his face.

"Yes, now can I come in?" Rae asked folding her arms across her chest.

"I guess, come on in," He said stepping aside for her.

She stepped inside their room as Scott shut the door behind her. When the door shut, it felt as if every hair on her body was standing up; the mounting tension was almost unbearable. She glanced around the room, all their gear was sort of scattered, but in an organized sort of way. She kept looking until her head came back around to Scott, who stood there, his hands on his hips, waiting for her to speak.

"I just wanted to say I was sorry. I was just trying to shoot the shit with you guys, fit in; I didn't realize I was crossing the line." She said in one breath, she became more nervous when the tension seemed to drain a little from his face. "I just, I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt or offend anyone. I don't want to start off on the wrong foot." She said, at this point she could barely look him in the eye, hoping he didn't see her flush. The silence between them at this point was smothering; Rae didn't think she'd be able to breathe if too much longer went by with nothing said.

"Well," He started, "to a point, I guess you could say I might have over-reacted a bit." He continued, chewing on a toothpick. She found it amusing that he actually did that outside of the ring. She was unaware of the small absent-minded smile she displayed.

"What? You think this is funny?" Scott said raising his eyebrows and folding his arms across his chest.

Now she was fully aware and quickly changed her expression, fearful that now, he'd go off on her for this too.

"No! No, I'm sorry, I just…um… I didn't mean," she began.

"Hold up!" Scott said putting his hand out, now smiling himself, "You need to calm down, take a chill pill. Alright, let's just forget about everything in the ring out there, alright?" He said, keeping the smile on his face, "Call it a truce?" He said extending hand towards her. She looked from his hand to his eyes and noted even if it was miniscule, the tiniest hint of sincerity. She slowly extended her own hand and met it with his. As they shook hands, Rae had a terrible lurching sensation in her belly, which if she wasn't mistaken, was making her quite faint or nauseous, or maybe both.

As they dropped hands, Rae felt a little weak.

"Well, now that that is settled, I think I am going to go grab a bite." She said laying her hand over her stomach, as if trying to calm it down. She was feeling so weird at that moment all she wanted to do was lay down in her room and he would not stop looking at her; that was just making it worse.

"Where ya going?" Scott asked walking around her, disappearing into his bathroom.

"Oh, I meant I was just going to find a vending machine or something." Rae answered, now placing a palm on her forehead, trying to keep her head from spinning. However, with out the heat of his gaze, she was beginning to feel a bit better. She turned around to face the general direction of the bathroom. The moment she turned, Scott's towel flew from the doorway to a pile of clothes that she surmised were his. Within a split second she went from faint to feeling like she could run a mile in 2 minutes.

"A vending machine? That ain't gonna cut it, you need real food before a show." Scott said from his bathroom. He peeked his head around the corner of the door. "Tell you what, go get Jocelyn, me and a couple of the guys were going to go down the road to a good Bar-B-Que place, you can come with. Meet me back here in…" He looked at his watch, "About 20 minutes."

"Ok, if you're sure it's alright." Rae said as Scott retreated back to the bathroom.

"Yeah, yeah…" Scott said, "Its fine, I'm paying so I get to decide who goes."

Scott reemerged in a pair of black jean shorts and headed toward where he had thrown his towel and grabbed another black t-shirt, the only difference being that this one was plain.

"Ok then, I'll be back in a minute, oh wait; we don't have a car..." Rae thought out loud, looking at Scott.

"Don't worry; there are a couple limos and trucks we can take. We'll get you there." Scott said fiddling around in his bag for socks. The whole time he was talking to her then, he didn't look at her. For some reason, unbeknownst to Rae, this angered her.

"Ok then, be right back." She said almost too curtly, causing Scott to look up as she left the room.

Once Rae had turned back into her hallway, she immediately calmed down and felt a little foolish and confused.

'Ok' she thought to herself, '2 minutes ago, I could hardly stand for him to look at me, I felt like I was going to hurl. Now I'm acting like it's a crime he didn't look at me.' She kept pondering this as she entered her dressing room where Jocelyn was asleep on the couch. She walked over to her bags and dug around for something else to where to the restaurant. She laid out a pair of short light khaki shorts, and tried to decide over her black tank she chose earlier, a black ribbed tank, or a red baby doll tee.

"Maybe the black will make me fit it better," she said aloud to herself, "and it'll hide any food I get on my shirt." She put up the red shirt and then her original choice for the day and stuck with the Black ribbed tank. She looked at herself in the mirror and immediately knew Jocelyn would saw something very similar about her breasts again.

"Well I can't help it!" Rachael said aloud to herself, then looked down at her chest, "It's not like I can just say, 'Hey! Stop growing!'"

"No, but you could cut down on milk," Jae said hanging over the back of the couch she had been sleeping on. Rae jumped when she heard her, cursing out loud.

"Hey, you need to get up, we are going with the guys to lunch, Barbeque." Rae said continuing to look in the mirror, sucking in and blowing out her stomach, trying to decide the best look.

"What did you do?" Jae asked accusingly.

"What? Oh, that. Nothing happened. I apologized we shook hands then he said they were going to this place down the road and said we should come with." Rae said letting her hair down, trying to flatten it out a little. Jae always said she envied Rae for her curly hair. Sometimes Rae liked it, but there were other times she wanted to buzz it off.

"That's all?" Jae asked suspiciously.

"Yes, geez, I've gone all my life without having sex, I think I can handle at least one day in pro-wrestling." Rae said as she applied her anti-frizz serum.

"Okay, I'll take your word on it. God I wish I had your hair." Jae said taking her own hair down. It was gorgeous, Rae always told her, and it would hold a style, but as everyday hair it was strait as strait could be. She looked over at Rae as she was putting the front pieces of her hair back, to leave her face open. Her hair had waves and what she called, curl-q's that looked like it would take hours to get but, Rae rolled out of bed that way.

Jocelyn looked back in her own mirror, pushing back fly away strands of her own hair. Reaching down for her bag, she unzipped it and dumped its entire contents on her vanity, separating her makeup for the pile of clothes.

"What do you think I should wear?" Jocelyn asked Rachael, sorting through her shirts and shorts. Rae shrugged.

"I dunno," Rae said, obviously lost in thought as she smoothed the backside of her shorts. Jae looked over at her as she pulled a pair of shorts matching Rae's out of the pile.

She then picked a lime green baby Tee out and proceeded to change watching her friend, who was obviously vexed by something. As she slid her shorts off and kicked them to the side, Nash knocked once and walked in.

Jocelyn shrieked a little, trying as fast as she could to pull her pants up.

"Hey ladies…Oh, man, I'm sorry." He said trying to ignore the barely dressed girl in the room. Rae just laughed being brought out of her trance by the commotion.

"God, please knock and wait next time!" Jocelyn said a little visibly shaken.

"Chill out, it's not like I jump on every girl I see in their underwear." He joked, "Hey, Scott told me you were going with us?"

"Yeah, what'd he change his mind?" Rae said almost sneering. Nash, Jae, and Rae herself were almost shocked at the amount of animosity in her voice. Nash sort of chuckled noting Rae's own surprise at her tone.

"No, just wanted to make sure you were getting ready, if you ain't around when these guys want to eat, you're gonna be left out." Nash said.

"Yeah, we're about ready." Jae said as she finished up the last bit of make-up, pressing her lips together and checking her reflection. Rae looked at Nash and rolled her eyes. She wasn't much of a make-up kind of gal. A little bit of natural shaded lipstick, tiny, tiny bit of eyeliner and she was good, but for a barbeque place she thought she'd leave it off. The girls got their wallets and shoved a wad of cash in their back pockets.