For the past several days, things had been going fairly well between the group of four traveling partners. The shyness that Hunter had warned Charlotte to expect from Valentina hadn't really come to fruition. Although at times it had been apparent that she was making a conscious effort to involve herself in conversation, she had gotten involved, and over time had seemed more relaxed.
Lucy had also started to interact with the group more often. She could be temperamental to say the least, but Sonya felt like she was able to make an educated guess as to why. "I think she has social anxiety," she had said to Charlotte one night in a locker room when Lucy hadn't been around. "We see her as being standoffish, abrupt and rude. But from her point of view, she'll be feeling like no one understands her, no one truly wants to know her, and she'll generally feel awkward around people."
Trying her best to understand what that would be like for the person experiencing it, Charlotte had sympathy for Lucy. "So you're saying it's about us meeting each other somewhere in the middle?" she had asked.
"Yeah," Sonya had said. "Over time, we'll get there. I like her sense of humour, and you can't help laughing at her sarcasm from time to time."
"And Val is an absolute sweetheart," Charlotte had added. "If I'm not careful, I'll end up not regretting that we don't have travel time to ourselves anymore."
Sonya hadn't gone any further down that road because she would have ended up yearning to kiss her Queen right there in the locker room.
Today, though, it was Lucy's turn to drive the car, and she had been in a foul mood all morning. Between snapping at everyone in the car and raging at other drivers, she was well on her way to getting under everyone's skin. Sitting in the front passenger seat, Valentina seemed to be intimidated by the angry woman beside her, and hadn't said anything for at least half an hour.
Seeing a sign for a gas station flash by, Sonya decided to speak up from the back. "Why don't we stop for gas and we can have a break for ten minutes?"
"We don't need gas," Lucy replied. "And we've been making slow progress as it is with all of these fucking idiots in the way."
"Let's stop anyway," Sonya insisted. "I think we could all use a bit of a break."
"Fine," Lucy snapped.
A couple of minutes later, she was pulling the car into the gas station as requested. "Fucking typical," she grumbled, seeing that all of the pumps were already occupied. She pulled up behind one of the cars to wait.
Just as Lucy parked, the person in the car she had pulled up behind began backing up to leave.
"She hasn't seen us," Val said.
Lucy leaned on the horn to alert the other driver, but incredibly the car kept coming backwards until it bumped into the front of the rental people carrier with the four wrestlers inside.
"Great," Charlotte said sarcastically, happy at least that the impact had been light enough to probably not do much damage.
Lucy was already getting out of the car, having totally lost her temper. The driver of the other car, an overweight middle aged woman, was also getting out of her vehicle.
"What the fuck?" Lucy demanded aggressively.
"You weren't there when I started backing up," the woman said, making it sound like an accusation of fault on Lucy's behalf.
"I was parked before you even moved, you stupid fat cow!" Lucy yelled at her. "And you must be deaf, too, since I was blasting my horn at you for a good five seconds!"
Sonya, Charlotte and Val all got out of the car, wanting to calm Lucy down and resolve the situation before things got out of hand.
"Who are you calling fat, you fucking bitch?" the other driver shouted, starting to walk in Lucy's direction.
Lucy met her halfway. Standing almost six feet tall, she was half a foot taller than the other woman. "Get the fuck out of my face before I fill you in," Lucy threatened.
Before things could get physical, Charlotte and Sonya rushed over to separate them.
While that was happening, Val crouched down to look at the damage to the vehicles. There was barely a mark on the people carrier, while a taillight had been broken on the other car. "There's no damage on our car," she called out to the other driver, who has being led away by Charlotte. "It was your fault, so why don't you just go and we'll say no more about it?"
"Alright, after that bitch apologises for calling me fat," the woman shouted, angrier with Lucy than about the accident.
Lucy however, was still livid about the way the woman had confronted her. "Why would I apologise for the truth, you fat, ugly cunt?"
Wanting to get the confrontation over with as soon as possible, Sonya took Lucy's arm and tried to lead her back to the car. "Come on, we're leaving," she said forcefully.
To everyone's surprise, Lucy whipped her arm free of Sonya's grasp and pushed her so hard that she fell on her ass. "Never touch me, you fucking bitch!" Lucy yelled, going red in the face.
That was way too much for Charlotte. She wasn't going to put up with her girl being pushed over and insulted, particularly when she had done nothing wrong. "Right, that's it," she said angrily, walking back over to the car as Sonya got up off the floor. "We're out of here, and you're not coming," she said, pointing at Lucy.
"What do you mean I'm not coming?"
Charlotte reached the car and stood in the open driver's doorway. The keys were still in the car. "I mean you're not traveling with us again, ever, starting now. Make your own way to the fucking arena."
Apparently resigned to the accident being her fault, the fat woman had taken the opportunity to get in her car and take off while the attention wasn't on her. As her car pulled away, Sonya walked around the people carrier to get back in. "Char, we can't leave her here. How's she going to make it in time for the show?"
"I don't care," Charlotte said angrily. She pointed at Lucy. "You never put your hands on Sonya, Val, or anyone else who works for WWE like that again, or you'll answer to me."
"Wait a minute," Lucy said, shocked. She seemed not to be able to move from where she was standing, dumbfounded that Charlotte was going to leave her behind.
Getting back into the car, Valentina was in tears at how nasty the whole situation had gotten. Sonya got in and closed her door. Lastly, Charlotte got in and slammed her door. She backed the car up so that she could leave without driving through the pumping area, then burned rubber as she pulled away.
Lucy stood there watching the car leave, unable to believe what she was seeing. Her case was in the car, and her money was in her case. All she had was her cell phone in her pocket. She felt betrayed by her so-called friends. How could Charlotte leave her like that? And how could the others go along with it?
In a daze, Lucy wandered into the gas station's store, not even knowing why she was going in there. She had no money to buy anything anyway. Wandering blankly around the store, looking at the items on sale without really looking at them, her anger faded and it slowly dawned on her that Charlotte wasn't the one in the wrong. She was right, pushing Sonya over had been going way too far.
"I fucked up properly this time," Lucy muttered, knowing that she owed all three of her friends a serious and heartfelt apology if she was going to be accepted back into the group. Being accepted back into the group was what she wanted. Over the past couple of days, she had started to get past her natural awkwardness around people and had been starting to enjoy her new travel arrangements. Now all of that could be ruined, she realised.
Not only was being kicked out of the group bad enough, the news of it happening was likely to get back to Hunter Helmsley and Vince McMahon, which would end up landing her in even more hot water. After all, it had been Hunter's idea to set the arrangement up in the first place.
The first priority had to be getting to the arena before the call time for the show, and the only way to do that with just a cell phone on hand was to get an Uber ride that would probably take two hours and cost a small fortune. Charlotte's lesson was going to be an expensive one as well as a profound one.
"Maybe we should go back for her?" Sonya asked Charlotte. By now they were a couple of miles away from the gas station.
"No way," Charlotte said. "She pushed you over and abused you. I don't care what kind of anxiety issues she has, I'm not standing for that. I meant what I said, she's not traveling with us again."
It was clear that Lucy wasn't the only one who needed some time to cool off. Sonya greatly appreciated Charlotte going in to bat for her, and she totally understood the depth of feeling involved. If Lucy had treated Charlotte that way, Sonya was sure she would have been just as furious. Equally, though, she didn't want Lucy to be thrown out of the group over what had happened. She couldn't help thinking that the initial mistake had been hers, in taking hold of Lucy's arm while she was already worked up. People with social anxiety didn't like their personal space invaded, and they certainly didn't like to be touched in that kind of way.
Deciding to say nothing more on the subject for now, Sonya resolved herself to trying her best to get it worked out when Lucy showed up at the arena. She hoped that Charlotte wouldn't stay as angry as she currently was for long, and that once calmer heads prevailed, she would want reconciliation in order to keep the group together.
Lucy managed to get to the arena for that night's event before the designated call time, arriving about half an hour after Charlotte, Sonya and Valentina.
Feeling sheepish about what had gone on earlier, Val had barely said a word since the incident, and had taken it upon herself to bring Lucy's case into the locker room for her.
There was never anything sheepish about Lucy Thorne, but she didn't look angry when she walked into the locker room. She walked straight up to the group and said, "I need to speak to the three of you in private."
Having already picked up on the fact that something must have happened with Lucy, Mandy Rose encouraged the other women to leave the locker room for a while and give the four women involved the privacy they needed. The request to leave for a short time wasn't all that unusual, so no one objected. It took them a minute or so to file out of the room.
"This had better be good," Charlotte said to Lucy once the door had closed behind Lana, who had been the last to leave. The choice of words showed that while Charlotte was still a long way from happy with what had happened, she was willing to speak to Lucy about it. Or, rather, to let Lucy try and make amends.
"Guys, can we all just get along, please?" Valentina asked despairingly. "The last few days have been good. I don't want all this drama. It's enough pressure being called up and given the title without having to deal with this. I am so stressed out right now."
No one had expected Val to speak up, and her words had an effect on everyone, especially Lucy, who uncharacteristically put a comforting arm around the small woman's shoulders. "I'm sorry. This is on me. I was in a vile mood from the moment I got up today and I don't know why. But that's not something I should be taking out on you guys, and I should not have pushed you over, Sonya."
"I realise I probably trigger you by grabbing your arm in that situation, so I'm sorry too," Sonya said graciously.
"You also called her a bitch," Charlotte said to Lucy.
"I'm sorry for that too," Lucy said sincerely. "You're not a bitch. You guys have been good to me. I want what Val just said, for us all to get along. Can we do that?"
"I think we can," Sonya said positively.
"Me too," Val said, standing with her arm around Lucy's waist in a touching show of solidarity.
"Char?" Sonya asked.
Charlotte relented. She had wanted to teach Lucy a lesson about her behaviour, and the lesson seemed to have been learned. "Yeah, we can do that," she said in a conciliatory manner.
Stepping forward, Sonya joined in the embrace with Val and Lucy.
Charlotte joined them and said, "We're an odd bunch of friends, aren't we?"
"We are," Val chuckled.
"Guys?" Lucy said. "No offense, but I don't want to hug you again."
Everyone laughed, and that drew a line under the day's negative events. At the end of it all, it had actually helped to bring them closer together.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
For those wanting more Flairville content, fear not, it's coming! But for now I needed to show the two new friends integrating (or not) into the group.
Next time, the first Smackdown after Valentina won the title. What do you think is going to happen?