April was sitting next to Celeste on the bus just like she usually did. They had been chatting to each other about the events of the show, which had been nice and relaxing, but the laid back after-show vibe was quickly whisked away by the ringing of April's phone. The caller ID read: Vince McMahon. April gulped heavily. She was hesitant to answer that particular call. Getting a phone call from the boss either meant something extremely good or bad.
April had not gotten a lot of phone calls from Vince McMahon in her run with WWE, so naturally her stomach plummeted in dread when she heard her boss's sonorous and deep voice in her ear.
The talk started out politely and rather superficial: an inquiry after her health followed by some small-talk over the last show. After that however they approached dangerous territory: the Diva's Championship title.
"April, we both know that this moment would have come sooner or later...," McMahon started.
"I'm going to lose my title soon, aren't I?" she interrupted him, feeling her throat go dry and her stomach clench. Next to her Celeste stiffened in her seat and clutched her friend's arm. April, however was hardly aware of what was happening around her. To her the title wasn't just business, it was something personal. Winning it had made her realize how much she had accomplished in the comparatively little time she had been with the company. It had made her proud, so proud in fact that she had had the date of her title win tattooed on the back of her neck. Things couldn't get more personal than that and now McMahon was meaning to tell her that she would soon lose her title...? And to whom?
"I'm afraid so," she heard McMahon say. "Natalya is going to win the next two matches against you, making her the new Diva's Champion."
Natalya. Alright, that seemed likely. At least Nattie knew how to wrestle. It was no shame losing the title to her. She nodded, completely forgetting that the boss wouldn't be able to see that. This was not a video call. Video calls were above her pay-grade and in John Cena territory.
"I see," she finally said in rather clipped tones. The fact that she acknowledged that news didn't mean that she was okay with it. In fact she was far, far, faaaar from being okay with it, but she was a professional and wouldn't make a scene. Especially not on the bus with all the other wrestlers.
"I can understand you're disappointed," she heard McMahon say in an attempt to comfort her, which he soon followed up with some inane and empty promises about her soon winning the title back.
"You can understand?! You don't understand squat! Of course I am disappointed!" she wanted to scream at him. But instead she kept quiet and concentrated on keeping it together through the rest of the call.
She had been aware her title reign would eventually end, just not that soon. The fact that it came so sudden was the real surprise and rocked her to the core.
"I'll be all right," she lied at some point of the conversation. It was what McMahon expected her to say and she wanted to keep her job, so she said it. In reality all she wanted was to end that phone call and retreat to the solitude of her hotel room where she could scream, kick at things and pull at her hair like she wanted to and not sit around and put on a brave face.
"Of course you will be, April. You are one of the greatest female talents the WWE has right now," McMahon ended the call with shameless and rather pointless flattery.
"Thank you," she said numbly and hung up. Celeste was staring at her with big round eyes, ready for her to explain what had just happened or just say anything really. April grimaced. She didn't feel like talking. She just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Maybe stuff her face with some candy or ice-cream and watch some TV. But right now crying was out of the question. The bus was a snake pit. True, there were people she liked and trusted, but also people who just would just love to see her dissolve in tears. Fortunately being her best friend, Celeste belonged to the former category, so April leaned her head against her shoulder and stayed silent. There was no big need to explain. Celeste had heard half of the phone call anyway.
"You okay?" her friend whispered to her discretely and stroked her head once for emphasis.
"No, but I will be," April said quietly, her voice sounding devoid of any emotions. "I just have to get off this bus." She felt Celeste nod next to her.
After twenty more torturous minutes they finally arrived at the hotel. Soon they would be filing out of the bus and grabbing their gear. April couldn't wait to finally get out of that stupid seat of hers.
Somehow Stephen ended up standing behind her in the aisle while they were waiting to get off the bus. When he stepped behind her and got a little too close to her because the bus was really crowded, she didn't turn, which was unusual. Not even after he had said 'sorry' at least twice displaying those manners his mother had drilled into very early on. Normally people were interested in quintessential things such as who was standing right behind them. Curiouser and curiouser.
As he looked closer, he noticed that her posture was very stiff, as if she had swallowed a stick. He touched her shoulder to get her attention. Underneath the palm of his hand her shoulder tensed. It was strange to think that he had managed to startle her by doing something as trivial as touching her shoulder on an overcrowded bus. And yet he had. Either she was deeply in thought or something was wrong. He quickly pulled back his hand.
When she turned around to finally look at him, her face was completely expressionless which was rather preoccupying, because April's face was usually anything but expressionless. She was like a walking, talking emoticon really. Seeing that completely void expression on her face now was quite unsettling.
"Are you okay?" he asked, sounding and feeling genuinely concerned.
"Yes, thank you," she answered in an almost mechanical voice.
There was no time to ask further questions, because people started moving and everyone was getting off the bus. And she was gone so quickly that he didn't get another chance to talk to her.
As he made his way up to his own hotel room, ready for dinner and a movie, he just couldn't shake the thought of her and her strange behavior. The message tone of his cell phone brought him back to the present and his fingers ghosted over the touchscreen to see what it was all about. Headquarters had emailed him the new scripts for next week. He briefly scrolled through them, his eyes wandering over the screen of his smart-phone. His thumb was hovering over it motionlessly for several seconds when his eyes randomly fell on the title of one particular scene: "Sheamus comforts AJ after her title loss".
What? What? What the bleeding hells?! He blinked several times, but the words were still there. Aaaah, crap! No wonder she was in a bad mood. Being the champion, you usually were the first to know when you would lose your title. McMahon had probably made sure to inform her before the new scripts were out.
Without giving it much thought, he quickly started composing a text to April. The only thing he was clear about was the need to let her know just how genuinely sorry he was for her title loss and her situation in general. After all he had been through this himself, so he could sympathize.
"Hey, I just got the scripts for next week. I'm really sorry about your title. If I can help in any way, let me know. Whether it is: playing video games or just lending a sympathetic ear, I'm here." He signed the message with his name, unsure whether she had his phone number in her address book or not.
When April made her way down to breakfast the next morning she had her hoodie pulled over her head, her glasses on and her long black hair down. She didn't want anybody to see her face. It hadn't looked too nice in the mirror this morning. Dark circles under eyes that looked tired and sad. Definitely not fit for the public.
Before she had decided on coming down she had spent at least twenty minutes internally debating whether that was a smart move. She could have ordered room service after all, but she had come to the conclusion that she wouldn't give everybody else the satisfaction of not seeing her down at breakfast.
She had already run into Nick on the way down, which wasn't such a bad thing. He had just given her a hug and asked her whether she had gotten his text last night. April had shaken her head. She hadn't even had a look at her cell phone yesterday. She had been too busy feeling sorry for herself and ranting to Celeste about the injustice of losing her title.
Now that she had a bowl of muesli and yoghurt standing in front of her and a cup of coffee, she started scrolling through her messages. There was indeed a message from Nick. It even made her chuckle despite her bad mood. And there was one from Phil too which, lo and behold, was surprisingly sympathetic and 100% sarcasm free. He must have strained a muscle or something writing this. She quickly composed an answer.
Somebody plonked down in the chair opposite of her. Apparently it was someone with a death wish, rather large hands and a body whose proportions went with those large hands. She held up her index finger in order to admonish the stranger to be patient and wait. She wasn't done reading her messages, so whatever the guy opposite of her wanted, who probably was one of her colleagues she didn't want to see right now anyway, it could wait.
There was a message from Stephen. Wow, that was nice! Had she read it sooner, maybe she would have taken him up on that offer of playing a video game together last night. She quickly composed a reply and sent it. The cell phone of the guy sitting opposite of her chirped just as soon as she had hit that send button.
Oh, no! She looked up to confirm her suspicion. Her eyes wandered up the hands that came attached to muscular arms which were covered in a dark blue fleece sweater, which came in rather handy since it was cold outside. Finally their eyes met. His blue ones sparkled at her with a fair share of humor from underneath the rim of a cap that read, big surprise there, Liverpool.
Stephen quickly broke eye contact with her, giving her much the same treatment she had given him previously. He held up his index finger, in much the same fashion as she had done previously and got out his own cell phone to read her text. The text, one might add, she had composed only seconds earlier consisting of the following words: "Thank you. Maybe I'll still take you up on that offer. Do you have some games where I can smash stuff?"
Quite predictably her own cell phone soon chirped again. "Yes. But I have one important question right now: Do you think it's okay to talk to you now or should I leave you alone?"
She looked up at him, but he only shrugged and gave her an innocent look before he took a sip of his own coffee. The situation was cute and somewhat cheesy. Well, make that extremely cheesy, after all they were sitting opposite of each other at the table, only a couple of inches apart and texting. She decided to raise her left eyebrow. "How about we just sit here and have breakfast together?" she suggested.
"Works for me," he said casually.
April picked up her spoon again and went back to eating her muesli. Stephen had brought a plate of omelet with him and started to dig in as well. They ate in silence. Astonishingly there was some sort of communication going on between them nevertheless. She raised the spoon to her mouth, he nudged his head towards the entrance of the room. The spoon remained hovering before her lips. The Bella twins had just entered, clad in two tight little color-coordinated dresses, a camera team following right on their high heels. Stephen rolled his eyes and stabbed rather energetically at his omelet with his fork.
She nodded her head in agreement and shoved the spoon into her mouth, smearing some of the yoghurt on her chin in the process. He noticed and pointed at her chin with a smirk. She just gave him a confused look. He pointed at her chin again. She gave him another confused look, which was more wide-eyed this time around. He let out an annoyed huff. "Oh for the luv of God! You've got yoghurt all over your chin!"
She quickly wiped at her chin with her napkin. "Gone?"
He narrowed his eyes and regarded her closely. "Yep!"
The Bellas glided past their table gracefully. She was thankful the yoghurt was gone now, but she also noticed how Stephen made quite an effort to hunch in his seat and appear inconspicuous. He even pulled his cap a bit lower into his face. So he wasn't up for a round of tacky reality television. Good to know! She could relate.
"Another fan of the Bellas, huh?" she grinned.
"The girls are all right. I just don't want to have a camera lens shoved in me face during breakfast, is all. Some people actually appreciate a little privacy now and then," he grumbled.
"Afraid the rest of the world will see you in your favorite sweater and with your hair hidden away under a cap?"
"How did you know that was my favorite sweater?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
She shrugged her shoulders casually. "Just a guess." She quickly changed topic, because he was still shooting her suspicious glances. Before he started pointing his finger at her and shouting "Witch! Witch!" it was best they started talking about something else. "So you're not into reality TV. What kind of shows are you into then?" she asked conversationally.
He hesitated, then shoveled another sporkful of omelet in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "Father Ted."
"What's Father Ted?" she inclined her head to the left and watched him with a curious expression on her face.
"It's a sitcom from the 90's about Father Ted who lives on a small Irish island with two other priests. One's an absolute gobshite and the other one's old, likes drinkin', girls and swearin'," he explained.
"There's that word again I like," she grinned, but also wrinkled her nose skeptically in an afterthought when she further contemplated the cast of the show and the possible scenarios they could be involved in. "And that's fun?"
"Yeah, it is," he nodded emphatically. "Wanna watch an episode after breakfast? Maybe it will cheer you right up."
"I don't know... I think I'll pass for now. I'd rather go with a good old-fashioned video game if you don't mind."
There was briefly a glimmer of disappointment on his face, but then he said "It's up te you," and it was gone again.
She was hovering sort of self-consciously in the door to his hotel suite. Her hands were stuffed in the pockets of her hoodie and she was rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. He was already inside the room and threw her a surprised look. Had she changed her mind now? Or was it just that she was experiencing a belated onslaught of cold feet? It wasn't like they were going to do something scandalous here. After all this wasn't a date, and he wasn't interested in her like that.
"Ya comin'?" he asked, waving her closer with his hand.
"Yeah, sure," she answered and propelled herself over the doorstep. After she had closed the door sort of circumstantially, it occurred to the both of them that they were alone for the first time without the pretext of something work related and it felt strange.
"So where are your games?" she blurted out and he could tell he was making her nervous, because April was usually more suave than this. What was even stranger about this situation was the fact that he felt kind of nervous too, but couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly the reason was.
As she stared expectantly at him with her hazel eyes, he came out of his reflective trance and walked over to the bag that held his console and a couple of games he had packed for the road. "Here, let's have a look and decide what we can play," he suggested, because he couldn't come up with something better to say off the top of his head.
She scrutinized his game collection with a critically raised eyebrow and then finally nodded approvingly which made him feel like he had just passed a test. "I don't know this one. Is it any good?" she held up a game in front of his face. The cover showed a warrior and a female archer in the throes of battle. His eyes fell on the title 'Hunted'. Right, he remembered buying that because it was on sale and the chick on the cover looked sort of hot.
He shrugged. "Frankly? No idea."
She turned the game and read the text on the back. "It's got a two-player mode," she told him. "We might as well try this one. The chick looks kind of hot... And are those pointy ears? I like pointy ears," she grinned for the first time this morning.
Somehow that grin made him relax considerably and warm up to her a bit more. Who knew? Maybe he'd even find it in him to forgive her for not wanting to watch Father Ted with him at some point.
Now that that was settled, the part came where he had to awkwardly crawl around on his hands and knees in front of the TV to set up the console. After that was done, he sat down on the sofa next to her with a huff and grabbed the controller. "Cheers!" he handed her hers.
"Thanks," she said quietly and scooted around in her seat uncomfortably. He noticed how she seemed tense, what with her posture being stiff like a stick. So he reckoned that all it took for her to relax somewhat was for him to relax as well. He got comfortable in his corner of the couch. They were sitting there as far apart from each other as possible, which was kind of ridiculous. It was almost as if they were consciously avoiding sitting too close to each other. He had no idea what that said about them on a subconscious level, but he was sure it was nothing good, so he subtly scooted a bit closer to her. He kicked off his shoes and laid his sock clad feet on the coffee table. April registered his actions with a quizzical expression on her face, but ultimately it seemed like she approved of them because he noticed how her posture relaxed as well.
"Mind if I...," she looked at her own Converse pointedly.
"You got smelly feet?" he gave her a narrow-eyed look of appraisal.
She wrinkled her little nose in indignation. "Does it matter? What if yours are?"
His mouth curled into a crooked smirk. He had to admit he liked it when she got like that. Whenever she let a bit of her temper show, it made him believe she was warming up to him a little. Or at least enough to not hide her emotions from him. Like when she had compared him to that Bane fella from the Batman comics... Not that he approved of being likened to drug-dependent super-villain. A highly intelligent druggie-super-villain, as his Internet research from last night had shown, but still a druggie-villain. No, what he liked about it her remark about Bane was that it showed she had some sense of humor and possibly even a cheeky side to her.
Her waiting gaze called him back to the present. "Well, I guess we'll both have to take that risk then, huh?" he told her. She nodded and kicked off her shoes before she sat down on the couch again, but this time cross-legged like she was getting comfortable in front of her own TV at home.
They started playing and the game. It turned out to be some solid hack-and-slay-action which was something they both enjoyed. Things got slightly more hectic though, when Stephen repeatedly got himself into trouble by stumbling from one skirmish into the next. Of course, ultimately he always was one paying for his mistakes, because the enemy dished out some major damage. And mostly it was him who took the brunt of that damage because as an archer April attacked from a distance.
Pretty soon they fell into a routine. Or maybe the term vicious circle would have been more befitting. It always started out with Stephen saying something semi-polite like "Now would be a great time to show your healing skills", which upon her not complying straight away quickly turned into a slightly more urgent "April, big fella getting his arse kicked right in front of you!" and culminated in a half-shouted "Get your bleedin' arse over here right now!"
For some reason she liked it when he got flustered in real life. Whenever something ruffled his feathers, it made him less guarded and tight-lipped. Besides huffy-Stephen was fun. He vastly resembled his in-ring persona and frankly she had to admit that she had always had a weak spot for Sheamus. But now not even her warming up to him could prevent the untimely death of his avatar in the game. There were simply too many enemies.
"April!" he shot her an unnerved gaze and lowered his controller.
"What?! Stop looking at me like that! It's not my fault," she told him. "Why do you have to keep trampling straight into the middle of those big-ass clearings anyway? They've got skirmish written all over them! Can't you see that?!"
"It's an action role-playing game, ya know," he actually picked up the game and held it up in front of her face. "'Action' being the key word here. It's not like I can sit behind a log for half an hour and wait till you've picked off all the enemies with yer arrows, can I?"
"And it's not like I'm your walking, talking, arrow shooting, first aid-kit either, okay?" She added the word 'okay' to the end of her sentence with a certain aggressiveness. As if she wanted to clock him over the head with it. The expression in her eyes surely said as much. "Here! Maybe you wanna try being E'lara now," she held the controller under his nose and unsuccessfully made a reach for his which he immediately sheltered from her attack with his body. He partially turned his back to her, so she wouldn't be able to wrestle it from his grasp. What he hadn't counted on though was her willingness to actually get physical right away and try to wrestle the controller from his grasp despite the fact that she practically had to sprawl herself all over him. Then again their job was a very hands-on occupation and surely encouraged that sort of behavior.
She tugged at the controller, which only budged a couple of inches because he held it tightly in his grasp. Seen from a logical point of view there was no way she could win this fight, still she didn't give up and he couldn't help but admire that about her. Her tongue poked out from the corner of her mouth as she pulled at the controller and as a consequence his arm, too. He wondered what would happen if he let go. And since there was nothing sharp, pointy or hard behind her she could fall on, only the soft surface of the couch, he decided to let go of the controller that very instant. With a surprised squeal April fell back and landed on the couch beside him rather ungracefully for a world-class athlete. He decided to just smile at her smugly for now. She whipped her hair back out from her face, took in his triumphant and complacent smile, regarded the controller and then him again. Slowly, ever so slowly a smile started forming on her face.
"You're an idiot," she mumbled and sat up straight again, trying to get her hair back under control that was hanging over her shoulders and into her face sort of messily. "I hate you," she added for good measure, trying to fight down her grin.
"That's what I get fer tryin' te cheer ya up?" he asked and raised his eyebrows. There were two things that were charming about this question and he was counting on them to work, even on a wild card like April. For starters there was that look of fake innocence on his face, which usually did the trick. Also, he was hoping his accent would have some sort of endearing effect on her. It usually had on a lot of people.
"You're trying to cheer me up?" she raised an eyebrow. "Try harder!" Her tone was difficult to interpret. Could be anything from joking to half-way serious. He couldn't tell. He didn't know her well enough.
"Ooookaaaaaay," he stretched out that little word in attempt to buy himself some time. "So I tried video games, being nice," at that she scoffed, but at least in a playful way, so he continued, "I guess it's too early in the day to fill you up with whiskey or beer, but judging by the size of you I'd only need a thimble."
"Hey, that was low...," she told him and raised her index finger to admonish him to behave himself.
"I'm sorry I...," he back-pedaled rather quickly, worried that he had taken things a little too far. After all they didn't know each other that well. Maybe he had misjudged the situation.
But before he got to finish his sentence she waved him off. "You need to stop apologizing all the time. There you had me starting to think we were having some sort of bonding moment over mildly offending each other and you go and ruin everything by saying you're sorry."
He fought back the urge to apologize again. He couldn't help it really. After all it was something that had been drilled into him as a child. Stand too close to some – apologize. Queue incorrectly – apologize. Be rude – apologize. Trample on somebody's foot – apologize. Now, since the words 'I'm sorry' were off the menu, he decided to just shrug his shoulders and grin. April was really a strange sort of person. She was a bit like one of his mates. The only difference between her and the guys, apart from the obvious biological ones, was that she came with a cute smile and a pretty face, which made dealing with her oddly complicated.
She surprised him yet again by lapsing into seriousness for a moment. "It's not like I don't appreciate what you're trying to do here...," she admitted quietly and with a lowered gaze. "I really do. I mean after all you know what we're talking about here, being a former Champion and stuff. How...," here she faltered. "How did you get over losing your title anyway?"
He gave her question some thought. "Well...," he started. How to best put it? The words that were on the tip of his tongue weren't really too encouraging. After trying to make them sound better in his head for a couple of seconds, he eventually gave up trying to sugar coat the truth for her and decided to just come out with it. "Honestly? I didn't. Now I want it back even more."
She gave him an unreadable look, so he decided to elaborate. "Ask anyone who's ever held a title. Ask Phil or John or your friend Celeste...," at the mention of Celeste's name a weird expression passed over her face. Seconds later she shot up from the couch and started frenetically looking for her discarded shoes.
"Feck! I sure have a talent for puttin' me big ol', clumsy foot in it, huh?" he asked, trying to get some kind of explanation out of her.
She was already hopping around on one foot trying to get her second shoe on. As a consequence, seen from his perspective, it was high time she did some explaining.
"No, I sure have a talent of putting my foot in it. Not you. Guess who I have been complaining to about losing my title the whole time last night?!" she said bitterly as she forcefully pulled her second shoe over her foot. "I have to go and apologize. Like right now!"
"Hey, don't ya want to...," he started, but she was already out of the door. He let out a sigh. For some reason something about dealing with her frustrated him. Sometimes they would be completely on the same wave length and then, just seconds later, things would go awry. Was it supposed to be that difficult dealing with another person? And why the hell did he feel the need to go back on their conversations and try to figure out where things had gone wrong?
Celeste looked through the spyhole. There was a big pack full of M&Ms hovering in front of it. She liked M&Ms, also when she looked really closely through that spyhole she could see the tip of a Converse poke out from underneath the edge of those M&Ms. Not that the M&Ms were that gigantic, she supposed that was thanks the perspective. Anyway, it was rather those Converse than the candy that got her to unlock the door.
"I'm so incredibly sorry. I'm like the world's biggest ass-hole. No, scratch that! I AM the world's biggest ass-hole. Insensitive, thoughtless, stupid...," April continued berating herself.
"Huh? Sorry, I think I'm not following. Why are you the world's biggest douche again?" Celeste took the opportunity to snatch the proffered candy from April's hand. The package made an encouraging soft rattling noise.
"Because..." April looked at her with big round eyes as if she wanted to say 'Don't you see the obvious answer?', "I've been ranting about losing my title to you all of last night. To you of all people! I mean how could I be so dumb as to overlook the fact that the same thing happened to you just a couple of months ago and to make matter worse – because of me?!"
Celeste calmly ripped the package of candy open and poured some of it into the palm of her hand. "Want some?" she held it out to April who looked at her with a disbelieving expression on her face.
"Haven't you listened to anything I've been saying?"
Celeste popped a red M&M into her mouth. "I have. Your concern is cute, but really unfounded. I'm really fine with it."
"You're fine with losing the Diva's title. YOU?! You are fine with that?" April looked at her with her eyes wide open. "Seriously?"
Celeste shrugged her shoulders like one would shrug over forgetting an old umbrella on the bus that wouldn't open anymore. Same casualness. It slightly unnerved April, but only so long as her friend hadn't explained herself to her. "It wasn't that big of a deal, because I lost it to you, so I figured it kind of stayed in the family."
The next sound coming out of Celeste's mouth was something like an 'uff' because April was hugging her for what it was worth a second later. "I'm still sorry for being a total douche. You're the best friend I've ever had."
Celeste grinned and hugged her back. "It's all right, really. No big deal. I'm okay. Have an M&M, you'll feel better afterward, sweetie."