Talk To Me
AJ didn't speak to Punk the rest of the bus ride and avoided him during Smackdown and flew home to New York without saying a word. She was officially cutting him out of her life no matter how badly she wanted to keep him there. If she had learned one thing from her relationship with Jay it was that Punk may not have been perfect but he was perfect for her. Sure he was short tempered and cruel sometimes but never towards her intentionally.
She walked into her new apartment which was really just her old apartment that she had never sold and was relieved to be home. This apartment reminded her of happier times like when her parents and brother helped her move in, all the hope she had when she moved to New York to begin with. She was so innocent and naive but so hopeful at the same time.
She wasn't happy with how she left things off with Punk but the last thing she wanted to discuss with him was her ex-fiance. She was so lost when her father died she would have clung to anyone who gave her attention, unfortunately for her it was Jay. After meeting him at Punk's show the two exchanged numbers and met up a few times. He lived in New Jersey at the time so he wasn't far from AJ at all. He convinced her to drop out of school when she was still not sure she was going to but he convinced her.
They began to date before she even enrolled into his school and the two became very popular on the independent circuit. She was genuinely happy with him the first two years but after that they argued and broke up constantly. They even dated other people during that time when they weren't together. It wasn't the healthiest relationship from the start but she had learned after it was over that she was just afraid of being alone.
AJ placed a microwave dinner in the microwave and turned on the TV. This was going to be her life from here on out and she was making peace with it. She narrowed her eyes to the door when she heard someone knocking. She wasn't sure who even knew she had moved back in. She walked over to the door and peered out and saw it was Punk.
"I know you're in there." Punk said to her annoyed.
"What are you doing here?" She asked through the door.
"I told you I'd be in town." Punk reminded her.
"Saturday is your event and it's only Wednesday." She pointed out.
"I obviously came early to talk to you." he said growing more and more annoyed.
"I think it's best if you just go." She said not opening the door.
"AJ I flew on a plane for hours with some little kid sitting behind me kicking my seat the entire time and then I got hounded at the airport." He warned her. "I didn't go through that to be sent away."
"Are you going to talk or yell?" She asked.
"I plan on talking in a nice low quiet voice." He forced out with a fake smile. "I hope you have the same plans."
"Fine." She said opening the door and he walked in.
It wasn't a huge apartment but for New York it was big and decorated with dark walls and furniture, very AJ Punk thought to himself as he removed his jacket.
"What do you want to talk about?" She asked sitting on the couch and turning off the TV.
"I think you know." He said sitting in the armchair next to it. "I'm sorry I snapped like that."
"Ok." She said to him and he let out a laugh.
"You don't want to apologize for yelling at me?" he asked her.
"No." She said simply and he rubbed the back of his neck.
"You are still very frustrating." he had to admit scratching the back of his head.
"Fine I'm sorry." she said to him and he smirked.
"You don't mean that." He teased and she shrugged.
"It's what you wanted to hear, isn't it?" She asked.
"I came in peace." He said to her in an exhausted voice. "And to say you were right."
"I like hearing that." She grinned happily. "Say it again."
"You were right." He played along. "It's not my business what happened between you and the love of your life." he said and she rolled her eyes.
"Why do you want to know so badly?" she asked him. "If you can give me one good reason why I should tell you I promise I will."
"Ok." Punk said to her. "You need to tell someone."
"What?" She asked quietly.
"I thought it was your parents that were bothering you but it's not." He said to her. "It's him. I see it written all over your face whenever he's mentioned. It's not only making you hard to like backstage but it's affecting you while you work and you'll lose everything."
"I really don't want to tell you." She said admitted.
"Why? Besides blowing off New York- which by the way, here I am seven years late- have I ever betrayed you? Have I ever told anyone anything you have told me?" He asked her.
"I barely know you." She pointed out. "We slept together one summer seven years ago."
"Yet we know each other better than anyone else." He added. "And I think I know why you won't tell me."
"Don't keep me in suspense." She said to him.
"He used to hit you." Punk said to her. "It's nothing to be ashamed of and no one will think you're weak-"
"When Kip hit me you told me no one should and I've never forget it." She said to him. "He didn't hit me."
"So what could he have possibly done so horrible to you?" He asked her. "It's driving me crazy. So crazy that the next time I get on a plane I'm taking it to Tampa to talk to him myself. He was my friend during that time you know." he said to her. "Did you know that?"
"No." She said quietly.
"You didn't know we were travel buddies and worked hundreds of matches together?" He asked her.
"I know you two worked together." She said to him.
"Did he know about us?" he asked her.
"Yea he did." She said to him.
"Funny thing is he never mentioned you to me." He said to her. "I wonder why that is?" He asked sarcastically.
"He mentioned he worked with you but never said you were friends." She told him. "He didn't really like you."
"Most people don't." Punk stated rather proudly.
"We broke up a lot." AJ admitted to him and he remained in silence hoping she'd continue to tell the story. "I mean the first year or so we were solid but I was still grieving for my dad. He pushed me to leave Juilliard which was fine but once I stopped talking to my mother he was really all I had. My brother and sister moved on and started their own families and he was it for me." she shrugged.
"It's understandable." Punk forced out.
"Anyway after a year and a half we were just spending way too much time together. Training in his school, living with him, working together-" she trailed off.
"Where did you two live?" He asked and she just looked around the apartment and he laughed. "You let him live here with you? Did he pay rent?"
"Why would I need him to pay rent?" She asked him.
"So he meets you, dates you, gets to sleep with you then gets to live in this awesome apartment in New York City for free?" he asked with a laugh but she just glared at him.
"I told you I was grieving." She hissed. "I didn't realize I was being used."
"At least tell me he didn't make you pay for training." He said to her but she remained quiet. "He made a lot of money off of you." he noted.
"Are you trying to make me feel bad?" She asked annoyed.
"No I'm sorry." he replied quickly. "Please continue." he insisted giving her his full attention.
"We ended up moving to Tampa and that's when things just got even worse." She told him. "He hated all the attention and offers I was getting and he was such a jealous man. It wasn't just professional jealousy, if a man even said hello to me he used it as an excuse to argue with me. We even lived apart in Tampa for a couple of months."
"But you always went back." he noted.
"He always came with flowers and nice words." She shrugged. "But one night we went out with a group of our friends and they were all drinking and one our friends pulled me out of my chair to dance. It was harmless but he flipped out. He beat him so bad that he was actually arrested. I had never seen someone so violent and angry like that before." She cringed.
"Was your friend hurt badly?" Punk asked her.
"He had a broken jaw." AJ said to him. "Among other smaller injuries. I didn't bail him out and I moved into a hotel that night."
"I can see why you called off the wedding." Punk said proudly.
"We weren't even engaged at that point." She said to him and he frowned. "Two weeks into living away I found out I was pregnant." Punk's face went completely pale and had no idea what to say. "So there's my big secret." She announced with a laugh but was beginning to cry. "Are you happy?"
"No AJ." He said shaking his head unsure of what to say. "I don't know what to say to that."
"I realized I had to go home because I didn't want to raise a baby alone." She told him. "I was terrified." She admitted and she felt Punk reach over and grab her hand as she told the story and she clung to it. "Jay was shocked. He didn't want me to have the baby and told me it would ruin my career and his."
"Classy." Punk remarked coldly.
"I didn't know what to do." She said looking up at him with tears. "My dad was gone, I couldn't talk to my mother and Jay walked out on me."
"I don't blame you for being scared." He sympathized.
"Jay came back the next morning and apologized and gave me a ring." She said with a shrug. "I wanted my baby to have a mother and father like I did so I said yes. A week later I had a miscarriage."
"I'm sorry." he said genuinely feeling her pain. "So sorry." he added picking her small hand up and kissing it.
"It was about one in the morning and I woke up in such pain and he wasn't there." AJ said to him. "I didn't even know he had gone out. He literally snuck out of the house. I was in so much pain I couldn't even get to my phone. I started to scream when I saw the blood and my neighbor heard me thankfully and ran over to check on me. The hospital called Jay and he came right over. I told him I lost the baby and he seemed relieved."
"Excuse me?" Punk asked her hoping he misheard.
"I told him and while I cried he closed his eyes and let out a relieved breath." she told him. "He didn't hold me or kiss me or tell me he was sorry he said 'I guess it wasn't meant to be'."
"Son of a bitch." Punk hissed.
"We got into a huge fight in the hospital room. I mean it was really bad I was so furious at him I just wanted to kill him." She admitted. "Nurses came in and Jay was thrown out. But when I got home it really came to ahead." She said to him. "He dumped me." She told him and his eyes shot open.
"This all can't be true." Punk said to her shaking his head. "He's a prick but he's not a fucking monster."
"I wish it wasn't true." She said to him. "He told me that we were toxic together and he wasn't wrong."
"Don't defend it." Punk warned her.
"The night I miscarried he was with another woman." She told him. "He had been seeing this woman for months. He's still with her to this very day. When I found out I didn't even cry." She told Punk. "I didn't even show emotion I was just so over him and everything."
"Wow." Punk said as she finished the story. "I'm sorry that happened to you."
"I deserved it." She said to him and he frowned. "I ran out of state with a man I knew wasn't right for me."
"No one deserves what you went through." He said to her shaking his head. "I'm sorry I pushed you so much I had no idea."
"Please don't tell anyone." She pleaded. "No one knows but me and Jay."
"I would never tell anyone." He promised her.
"You were right you know." She said to him.
"About what?" he questioned.
"About surviving in this world." She reminded him. "You told me at the country club that I didn't belong in the wrestling business."
"No what I said was that you were too good for it." Punk corrected. "Clearly you survived it. Because here you are working at NXT and getting a chance of a lifetime."
"I can't let it go." She admitted shaking her head and crying. "I want to go one night without thinking about it."
"Last week when you kind of freaked out during the show and I found you out back crying..." he trailed off.
"It was my due date." she confided. "I thought on that day I'd be a mom but I wasn't. I was standing in a ring pretending like the last nine months never happened. I didn't wrestle again until I auditioned for WWE. I decided I wasn't going to waste any more time and take more chances so I took one on this."
"You never told your mom?" he asked her.
"I told you that no one knew. Not any of my friends, not my mom, not my brother or sister- just me and Jay." she told him. "And now you."
"I'm glad you told me." he said to her.
"Why?" She asked seriously. "Is this what you wanted to hear?"
"No but I think talking about could help you." He said to her. "You shouldn't have gone through that alone no one should have. You said you can't let it go maybe getting it out will help."
"Maybe." She said hopefully. "I don't even know why I told you. I swore I would never talk about it."
"Maybe you realized that I have your back and you can trust me." He said to her simply. "Because I do."
"I hated you." AJ said to him and he was taken by surprise. "It's stupid when I look back at it now but I thought that if you never walked out of my showcase in New York I never would have met Jay or if I didn't find you having sex with Amy I still would have avoided him."
"I can understand that." Punk agreed but didn't want to.
"It was wrong to blame you." She said looking at him. "I made those decisions on my own so for that I'm sorry."
"I didn't know you hated me." Punk said to her. "Do you still?"
"No." She said to him. "I was just looking to hate everyone."
"If I could go back in time and fix things for you I would have." Punk told her honestly. "If I had known you were working with him I would have come to see you. I would have gotten you in somewhere else or warned you about him at least."
"It's really not his fault." AJ pointed out.
"I think a lot of the pain you're feeling is his fault." Punk said to her.
"I can't keep blaming everyone for my mistakes." She said to him. "I'm the one who dated Jay, I'm the one who moved out of state with him, I'm the one that got pregnant, I'm the one who agreed to marry him and I'm the one who lost the baby."
"Do you even hear yourself?" Punk asked disgusted. "You didn't choose to lose your baby and you certainly didn't get pregnant on your own."
"I lost the baby. I was carrying the baby and I didn't do a good job obviously." She told him and he shook his head. "You don't know what it's like to one minute be carrying a life inside of you and within a blink of an eye it be gone. The pain is absolutely agonizing."
"I can't even imagine and I would never want to." He told her. "But I know enough to know it wasn't your fault."
"I didn't tell you this story so you could make me feel better I told you it so you'd stop asking me." She said to him. "I want to be able to look at you at work and not think about any of this stuff anymore. I want to work at WWE and you are champion there so I have to learn-"
"You see me and it brings you pain?" Punk questioned feeling hurt.
"No it just brings up a lot of these memories though." she honestly told him.
Punk once again kissed the top of her hand but then let it go and stood up. He put on his jacket and walked to the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked chasing him before he reached the door.
"I don't want to cause you anymore pain." He said to her. "I don't like that I hurt you but I can understand it."
"I don't want you to go." AJ insisted.
"And I don't want you to hurt." Punk argued lightly.
"If you walk out on me one more time so help me god Phil I will-" She couldn't finish because she began to cry and he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her.
"I would make it all go away for you if I could." He told her holding her close.
"I know." She cried against his chest. "You need to stay and we need to talk about other things because I can't have all of my memories of you walking out on me. I don't want to hate you, I don't want to blame you, I want us to be the way we used to be. I want to remember the good stuff."
"Like how after you convinced Vinny to sneak you into the bar and I pulled you out of there we ended up at that awful club?" Punk asked and he heard giggle against his chest.
"You took me to a strip club." She remembered.
"I didn't know that's what it was." He laughed at the memory himself.
"I don't want to go back to the cabana yet." AJ whined as Punk began the drive back to the country club. "Can't we just go back to the bar?" "No." Punk scoffed. "That place isn't good for you." "Come on." She again whined. "I got all dressed up and I want one fun night being out." "I thought you got all dressed up for me." Punk said to her and she rolled her eyes.
"Yea I did..." she trailed off. "I really want to go back to the bar." "You don't even drink." Punk pointed out. "What are you going to do there?"
"Dance." She shrugged. "But I don't dance." He argued.
"Who said I was dancing with you?" AJ asked him seriously and he shot her a glare. "I'm kidding." She said then grabbed his arm.
"AJ I'm driving!" He yelled.
"Look pull in there! It's a club!" She cheered pointing and he turned into the parking lot.
"You're not 21." Punk reminded her. "And even if you do get in what are we going to do? I'm not dancing and that means you're not dancing."
"Wouldn't it be fun to just be out together? We don't have to hide in front of people we can just curl up in a booth together, order some food and be in a fun environment." she said and stuck her bottom lip out at him.
"If they don't let you in we're not sneaking in." He warned her annoyed as he took off his seat belt and she quickly jumped out of the car.
As they approached the door they noticed the bouncer holding a list.
"I hate to break it to you but we're not on that list." Punk whispered into her ear.
"How do I look?" She asked turning to face him before reaching the door.
"You look great. Not a day over sixteen." He said seriously and she shot him a dirty look.
"Well you better hope I at least look my age or you'll get arrested." She warned him then walked towards the door. "Hi." AJ greeted the bouncer and he looked up as Punk stood behind her.
"Name?" The bouncer asked unimpressed by her appearance.
"I think they left my name off the list actually." She said to him sweetly. "You see, I'm supposed to start work tonight..." she began to tell the bouncer and Punk eyed her like she was crazy.
"You're the new girl." The bouncer smiled stepping aside so she could enter. "You're early." he noted looking at his watch. "They weren't expecting you until midnight."
"Oh, well I like to be prompt." AJ said grabbing Punk's hand before stepping inside. "See?" She said to Punk as they entered the fancy upscale club that a had a huge stage. "I guess a band is going to play." "Where did you learn to lie like that?" He asked her but she responded by wrapping her arms around his waist which made him lean down to kiss her.
"I've snuck into a few clubs before." She said to him simply. "Thank you." "You got us in." Punk retorted with a chuckle.
"Tanya." a man greeted walking over to her. "You can head back." "Oh I'm not Tanya." AJ said to him.
"Are you sure?" the man asked eyeing her. "The bouncer just let you in and said you were starting tonight. I'm only expecting Tanya tonight."
"Yea ok." AJ said and Punk rolled his eyes.
"We don't really recommend the girls bringing their boyfriends." The man said to her and Punk narrowed his eyes at him. "They tend to get a little heated." "He doesn't care." AJ shrugged. "Alright." The man said to her. "Do you have a bra on?"
"Excuse me?" Punk asked before AJ could.
"We told you to bring your own bra and pantie set." The man groaned. "Maybe the girls have a spare-" "I'm sorry what job is this?" AJ asked him. "I told you over the phone you'll waitress for a bit then hit the stage." He said and a waitress walked by dressed in only her bra and underwear.
"This is a strip club." Punk whispered to AJ and her jaw dropped.
"Or if you're more comfortable we can start you off in the private gentleman's rooms." The man said looking at his clipboard.
"I-" AJ started.
"She's nineteen." Punk told the guy and now his face dropped.
"Are you sure?" The man asked tilting his head to examine AJ closer.
"You know what? You're right he's already heated." AJ said stepping in front of Punk before he did something stupid the manager. "I'm going to cool him off outside." she quickly grabbed his wrist and tugged him out of the club.
"I can't believe you were going to let me strip!" AJ said the second they stepped outside.
"You thought I was going to let you strip?" Punk asked with a laugh.
"I need your jacket." She said covering herself with her arms.
"Cold?" he asked removing his jacket and helping her into it.
"No. I just didn't realize I looked like a stripper." she said bitterly.
"You look beautiful." He assured her walking her back to the car.
"Tonight blew." She frowned as they reached the car.
"You're so young you have so much time to enjoy being 21 when you actually turn 21." he reminded her.
"But I wanted to have fun with you." She said and he rubbed his hands up and down her arms.
"We have plenty of time for that." He promised her.
"You didn't look like a stripper." Punk said still holding her.
"I did." She laughed resting her head against him as she just let him hold her. "I just wanted to look older for you and do adult things to keep you interested."
"Bars and clubs have never interested me." He told her. "You interested me."
"Do you want to split my TV dinner with me and watch a movie?" She offered and looked up at him hopefully.
"No." He said to her and she tried to hide her disappointment. "I'd rather order a pizza and watch the movie. I don't like microwavable meals." He said pulling away and walking back further into the apartment.
AJ locked the door and looked towards Punk with relief. She was glad he knew everything and knew she could trust him. Tonight was the beginning of her and Punk starting their friendship over...
