Better Days

Chapter 11: Pain and Anger

Once again, Wade was the first one to wake up the next morning. Instead of getting up and leaving the room for breakfast, he rolled over and wrapped his arms around Riley, pulling her snug against his warm, smooth skin.

Riley wiggled around slightly, trying to get comfortable now that he was suddenly clinging to her. She felt like she had exposed everything that she worked so hard to hide from him, figuratively and literally. Now though, she was kind of cold, her bare arms outside of the covers. She stretched her legs out, regretting her decision. Riley let out a groan, pain flooding over her body, that was when Wade sat up, pulling his arms away from her.

"You okay?" He asked, moving his hand up and down her bare back.

The previous night had been one of the best of his life. Sure he had been a little concerned about her and feared that it was way too soon to induldge in certain physical activities but Riley had insisted and he couldn't control himself any longer.

"Um yeah." She replied quietly, continuing to wiggle around, trying to alleviate the pain.

"Maybe the doctor was right about the no physical activity." He smirked.

"If that's what you want to think, fine with me."

She pushed him away from her, throwing the covers back and hopping out of bed, completely naked and not caring about it as she dragged her feet towards the bathroom. She had learned the previous day to close the bathroom door for Wade, and that is precisely what she did, she shut the bathroom door, then climbed into the shower, praying to god no one noticed her funny walk, although she was never that lucky

XxxxxxXxxxxxX

John Cena spotted Riley as soon as she stepped inside the arena, the first thing he noticed was her half limp, half stiff leg-walking problem, the second thing he noticed was her own 'Mac' t-shirt. Riley was moving extremely slow, probably trying not to hurt herself more that he could tell she was. It didn't help much that Wade Barrett was way ahead of her, almost ignoring her altogether, not bothering to help her.

John jogged over to her, setting his arm across her shoulders and kissing the top of her head. Riley wrapped her arms around his middle and hung on tight as the two of them wandered around, John smiling and greeting anyone they came across. Riley liked being near John more, he knew that she didn't like being social, thus he took the brunt of the conversations, letting her remain silent.

A while later, after wandering around and listening to John have a few conversations with various people, he led Riley towards his locker room. When Riley's eyes landed on the bench, she made her way towards it as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast at all, Randy Orton clearly found the way she was walking extremely funny. Not only was she walking slow but she was walking in an awkward way

"Shut up Orton!" She barked, finally sitting down on the bench.

"What happened to you?" He asked.

"Fuck off."

"Alright fine Mac." Randy shrugged with a snicker.

Riley looked at John, who had yet to sit down. She waved her hand at him and he strode across towards her. He leaned down and let her whisper her demand into his ear, then he disappeared from the locker room altogether.

"Seriously Mac, you okay?" Randy asked, his amusement dying off and being replaced with legitimate concern, she was clearly in a lot of pain.

"My downstairs hurts." She stated, looking down between her legs.

"From what?"

"I don't fuckin' know, probably whatever the fuck happened like three days ago, you know when I almost died." She snapped right back, Randy not daring to say another word, she was growing tired of being treated like a broken china doll.

Moments later, John waltzed back into the silent locker room carrying an ice pack. Riley stood up, snatched the ice pack from John's hand rudely and stormed out of the locker room.

Slowly but surely Riley marched through the arena, still walking funny, glaring at anyone who even looked at her, she didn't want to talk to anyone, she didn't even want to see anyone. Riley's eyes locked onto the door she wanted and she picked up the pace, settling into a painful jog as she made her way towards the Nexus locker room. Riley leaned her back against the door before she pushed it, spinning a little as she entered the room.

Wade's eyes locked on her as the door opened, he continued to stare at her as she tiptoed awkwardly through the room, sitting on the bench next to Justin, leaning her back against Justin's side and finally setting the ice pack in her hand between her thighs. He shook his head as she relaxed a little, even going so far as to shut her eyes.

"Do I even want to know what you did?" Justin asked, trying not to move so he wouldn't bother her.

"Probably not." Riley replied with a smile.

"Well I do!" Michael Tarver interrupted, a grin appearing on his face.

Riley decided at that moment that he was a lot less scary when she could see his entire face. Sure he was purposely trying to look intimidating when he wore his stupid facemask thing but she kind of liked his smile. It made him seem more like a human being instead of a big dumb threat to the WWE

"Well sir, I had surgery and it hurts today, so I'm icing it to make it feel better." She stated with a smile.

"Lame, I was looking forward to a riveting tale, you disappointed me Mac."

"Sorry to disappoint you Tarver. Anyways, you guys should run along though, I hear Cena's in the ring waiting to take on the big scary Nexus." Riley laughed.

Taking her hint, the Nexus boys, minus Wade, stood up from the bench and made their way out of the locker room. Riley watched them go and then made sure the door shut behind them. She grabbed her ice pack, stood up, walked over to the door and threw the lock across. Wade remained sitting on the bench, watching her walk towards him.

She planted her butt down on the bench next to him, her legs spread far apart. Riley set the ice pack back on her crotch before shutting her legs enough for it to stay there without her help. She leaned sideways against Wade, his arm snaking around her shoulders.

"Seriously, what happened?" He asked, glancing at the ice pack.

"You." She answered, wrapping her arms around his torso.

"Bloody hell I knew it was a bad idea."

"Oh, no, not the whole 'no physical activity' stipulation Barrett." She shook her head.

"Then what?"

"Well first of all I haven't really had sex in a few months and second of all, you're fuckin' big Barrett!"

Wade let out a chuckle at her. Sure Riley liked to say whatever was on her mind but he certainly was not thinking she'd ever tell him something like that.

"You know we can't walk around holding hands and being all mushy gushy in front of people right?" Riley asked, looking up at him, a somber look on her face.

"Riley I wouldn't expect anything less than for you to run around telling people that you bloody well hate me and wish I would die."

"Ah okay. Cool."

"Wouldn't want them to get the impression that you've gone soft right."

"Not like you last night." Riley grinned; he chuckled at her lame joke.

"With that said, what are you telling people you did to your…"

"Most people so far have accepted my 'it's from my surgery' excuse, although I'm guessing most people are either stupid or afraid of me because my surgery wasn't on my crotch."

"I'm voting scared of you." Wade chuckled.

"Look I got to get back to John, he already thinks we're like fuck buddies-"

"We are."

"Well yeah but he doesn't need to know that. Anyways, like I was saying, see you later, right?" She looked at him, her eyes had a sparkle that he had never seen before.

"If you want to."

"Okay." She smiled.

Wade moved his arm away from her shoulders, freeing her from his grip. She grabbed the ice pack in one hand and pushed herself off the bench with the other. Before leaving the locker room though, Riley leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his lips.

Wade watched her leave, a smile forming on his lips. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all.