A/N: Here's the next chapter. Thanks to anyone who's been reading, and reviews are appreciated as always! :) Enjoy!
Chapter 11
John snapped his attention back to AJ as he ripped his hand away from her. She was standing there with a smug look on her face. "What the fuck AJ?"
"What baby?" she asked coyly.
"Don't fuckin baby me! Why the fuck did you kiss me like that? You kissed me like you knew Trish was coming." John stopped for a minute. Everything made sense. "That's because you knew she was coming, didn't you?" he shouted angrily. "You fucking knew she was coming, didn't you? You did it on purpose so she would see it!" he shouted angrily.
The corners of AJ's lips twisted into an evil smile. "I don't know what you're talking about baby. It's perfectly normal for a girl to give her man a kiss whenever she wants to, no matter who happens to be walking by."
"I'm not your man, AJ!"
"Johnny, when are you going to learn? You are my man. I want you, and I always get what I want," she said with a seductive smile. She stepped towards him and quickly wrapped her arms around his neck.
Rage now cursed through John's body. He took her arms and unwound them from around his neck, giving her a slight shove back from him. The features of his face grew hard, his jaw tightened; he had pure fire in his icy blue eyes. "Why would you do that to me?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"Why wouldn't I baby? You're mine and she's got to learn on way or another to stay away from things that are mine. And she's going to learn, I always get what I want."
"You don't have me, you've never had me, and you're never going to get me… ever. Period. End of story. I don't know how many other ways to tell you, AJ!"
"Well after what she just saw, it doesn't look like she wants anything to do with you anymore anyway!"
"Go fuck yourself AJ," John turned and stormed away.
AJ watched John disappear down the corridor and nodded to herself in approval. She was happy with the way her evil little plan had played out. She was equally as happy about the reaction from Trish when she saw them kissing. She didn't quite get the reaction out of John she had hoped for, but she knew that didn't matter. She knew he would eventually calm down, and they would be happy. Yes… Together and happy… Just like she wanted.
John kicked open the locker room door and stormed in. He was still full of anger. His jaw was still clenched shut; his hands were tightly wound into balls at his sides. He paced the locker room for a minute trying to figure out what to do. He sat down on a chair and ran his hands over his short hair and let out an exasperated sigh.
Randy looked up from his paper. "You okay man?"
"No, I'm not fuckin okay," he barked.
"No need to bite my head off jackass."
John sighed again. "Sorry."
"What's wrong?"
"AJ," John snapped.
"What about AJ?"
"She fuckin ran into me in the hallway. She cornered me, telling me she had something extremely important to tell me. She said it was about Trish, so my stupid ass stopped. She started going on about something, I couldn't even tell you what, then the next thing I knew, she grabbed my face and kissed me. At that exact moment, Trish turned the corner with Natalya and Kaitlyn. So needless to say, Trish took off. She wouldn't even listen to my explanation. AJ fuckin set me up! Then if that wasn't bad enough, she starts popping off at the mouth about how I was hers and blah blah blah…" John got up again and kicked a metal folding chair across the room in anger. It made a loud crash as it landed on the floor.
"No fucking way dude! Are you serious?"
"Dead serious."
"Wow. I don't even know what to say. I knew she was conniving, but this really takes the cake."
He leaned against the cool concrete wall of the locker room. It felt good against his warm skin. He slid down the wall until he came to a rest on the floor. "The look on Trish's face… In her eyes… The tears… It killed me," he said softly. She wanted no parts of anything I had to say. Even Natalya and Kaitlyn wouldn't hear it."
"So you didn't talk to her?"
"No… I doubt neither Natalya nor Kaitlyn would even let me anywhere near her right now."
"Text her? She may not answer you, but at least you can tell her what happened and she'll read it," Randy offered softly.
John sighed and reached over for his phone. He scrolled through his contacts until he found her name. He clicked on her name and the box popped up for a text message. He sat there staring at the blank screen, not sure how to start.
I know you don't want to talk to me right now, but please hear me out. It's not what you think. I'd rather explain face to face rather than over the phone – J
He sat there with his phone in his hand waiting for a response. There wasn't one. Half an hour passed, then an hour, and still nothing. He put his phone down to go wrestle in his match for the night. He left his phone in Randy's care, asking him to respond to her if she were to text him back. As soon as his match was over, he hurried to the back and straight to the locker room where Randy sat with John's phone on his lap. He looked at Randy with the question in his eyes. Randy knew what the question was; he shook his head 'no' to his friend. John's face deflated, and he slumped down into a chair.
"Maybe try the locker room?" Randy offered softly. "Can't hurt to try, right? At least this way she'll know you at least made the effort," he said with a sympathetic smile.
John picked himself up off the chair and headed out of the locker room. He navigated his way through the hallways of the arena towards the women's locker room. His stomach started twisting itself into knots the closer he got. He reached the door and raised his hand to knock. He hesitated for a minute, and then knocked. He stood there nervously waiting. A few minutes later, the locker room door slowly opened, and Natalya stepped out.
"What do you want?" she snapped.
"I want to explain myself to Trish."
"There's really nothing to explain at this point. It's pretty self explanatory. We saw it with our own eyes. You're an ass! You're just like the rest of them! You're everything you claimed you weren't and you did everything you claimed you wouldn't! I can't believe you'd do that to her after all the effort you put out to try and get her to give you a shot in the first place! After all the conversations we had about it. You hurt my best friend John and I let you! I can't believe I even trusted you!" Natalya spat, the anger growing in her voice.
"You got it wrong. It's not what it looked like."
"Yeah… AJ's tongue down your throat. That's not what it looked like, sure. It was exactly what it looked like John!"
"No it wasn't. AJ set me up! I was headed from the locker room to get something to eat and I ran into her on my way. She started talking but I ignored her. She said she needed to talk to me, that it was something important about Trish, so I stopped. That's the only reason I stopped, because she said it was about Trish. Alicia was with her and when AJ got me to stop, Alicia continued on her way. AJ must have known that you guys were coming, and she grabbed me and kissed me. She did it because she knew you were coming… Trish was coming. She did it because she knew Trish would see it."
Natalya was silent for a few minutes, trying to digest everything John had just said. "Really John? That's the best story you could come up with?" she scoffed.
"It's not a story, it's the truth."
"That sounds just a little too convenient. I know what I saw."
"It's the truth Natalya. I swear. Can you please just get Trish? I want to explain myself to her. I tried to text her but she didn't answer, and I'd rather not have this conversation face to face rather than through text."
Natalya was still bouncing around ideas in her head. Was he telling the truth? Was he lying? He had to be. That story was bullshit. I know what I saw. They were kissing. AJ's arms were wrapped around his neck. She was so distracted with her own thoughts; she didn't hear John at first.
"Please ask her to come out here and talk to me?" he asked again.
"She's not here. Her match against Layla got cancelled because Layla hurt her back. She got herself a rental car and left for Albany. She said she just wanted to be alone right now." Natalya wasn't really sure what to believe now. She knew what she saw, but the look in John's eyes looked so sincere. Was he really that good of a liar?
"Damn it!" John turned and punched the wall in anger. He ran his hands through his short hair and let out an exasperated sigh. He headed back towards the men's locker room.
Natalya stood there replaying the conversation over again in her head. She couldn't be wrong. She saw it with her own eyes. AJ's arms were wrapped around John's neck, AJ's tongue was down John's throat, and there was no mistaking that, right?
