Happy holidays everyone!(:

Chapter 54

Taylor and Randy follow Layla around the corner and they stop near a catering table. Standing next to it, Taylor looks at a tall, beautiful, now brunette woman.

"Emma?" Taylor calls out. The brunette turns with a smile on her face. Taylor runs full speed at her childhood friend, almost knocking her down.

Emma giggles and squeezes Taylor tightly. "I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too." Taylor pulls away and looks at her. She's now brunette and her hair falls a little past her shoulders. She looks exactly the same, she just grew more, now standing at the height of 5'7. "Your hair, I like it."

"Look at you! Your hair doesn't come to your butt anymore!" Taylor giggles. "And you're still the same height as you were in high school." Emma smiles.

"Oh very funny." Taylor smiles. "It's not my fault I couldn't grow anymore." Taylor gasps. "Who's this?" She kneels down to a blonde haired, blue-eyed little girl holding a poster with the divas on it.

"This," Emma kneels beside the girl, "is Noel." That so happens to be Taylor's middle name. "She's a huge fan."

Noel smiles shyly at Taylor. "Hi!" Taylor smiles. "What ya got there?" Noel holds the poster up. All the divas are featured on it but Alice and AJ's faces are scribbled out. Taylor laughs. "This one is great!"

"Can you sign it?" Noel asks nervously.

"I sure can." Taylor smiles. Noel hands her a silver marker and Taylor looks at it. It looks like the same marker that Randy used to sign Emma's shirt.

Taylor signs the poster. "I can get all the divas to sign this if you like." She smiles.

Noel nods her head excitedly. Taylor, Emma, Randy and Layla laugh.

Taylor stands back up. "Noel is my name too."

"No it isn't." Noel giggles. "It's Taylor!"

"My middle name isn't Taylor." She winks and turns back to the adults. "I'm sorry let me introduce you all." She smiles. "You probably already met Layla but this is Randy. Randy, this is Emma."

Randy steps up and shakes her hand. "So this is Emma. It's nice to finally meet you." Emma shakes his hand but says nothing. She's completely star struck. Even though she stopped liking Randy and stopped watched wrestling years ago, she can't believe Randy is right in front of her.

"Are you shy?" Taylor giggles. Randy laughs and Emma giggles. "I get it. Childhood favorite, you meet them and completely lose yourself." Taylor smiles. "When I came here my on my first day, John winked at me!"

"No," Emma says, "get out!"

Taylor nods. "I'm serious."

"But he's a real jerk face though." Layla adds.

"Really?" Emma looks at them confused. "Is it bad that I like him now?"

"Yes ma'am." Randy nods.

Emma giggles. "God, we have so much to catch up on. Here," Emma hands Taylor her phone, "put your number in, I'll call you tomorrow. Noel is getting restless."

Taylor giggles and puts her number in. "There," she smiles and kneels back down to Noel "I will take that poster and get every signature and give it your mom to give to you."

Noel hesitates but gives the poster and marker to Taylor. "Take good care of it."

"I will." She smiles and hugs her. Taylor stands up and hugs Emma.

"It was so great to see you." Emma pulls away. "And meet you guys two." She smiles at Randy and Layla.

"We'll meet up tomorrow?"

"Of course." Emma smiles and takes Noel's hand and they leave.

Taylor stands there with a smile on her face. "I like the middle name," Randy says, who already knew her middle name, "the last name can be adjusted though." He says with a grin. A grin appears on Layla's face also, obviously getting Randy's joke. But it flies right over Taylor's head and she doesn't catch on.

Taylor turns to them with a smile. "I can't believe she's here." Taylor shakes her head in awe.

"You have your childhood friend back." Layla smiles.

"You guys think she'd be my friend again?" Taylor asks.

"She'd be dumb not to." Randy winks.


The next day, Taylor and Emma are sitting at a table in a local café of the mall while Noel is over playing at the play area. "So I want to college for a bit. I wanted to become like, a magazine model." Emma tells Taylor about her life after high school. "I found a modeling company and started working for them. That's where I met Robert." She smiles and rolls the ring on her left ring finger around. "I started modeling for Vogue."

"That's great!" Taylor smiles and nibbles on her sandwich.

"Robert and I started dating and three years later we got married. A year after that, we had Noel." She smiles.

Taylor smiles. "I like the name."

"Me too." Emma takes a sip of her iced coffee. "Alright, enough of me. I want to hear all about your life!" Emma leans in.

Taylor giggles. "There isn't much to tell."

"Oh don't give me that! For starters, you're living your dream and it's the most amazing thing. You always talked so much about being here in this business and now you are!" Emma smiles.

Taylor smiles back. "To this day I still can't believe I'm on the roster and became friends with all the people that I have."

"Speaking of that, let's talk about how you were totally obsessed with John Cena when we were younger but now you're best friends with Randy Orton. We must be in a parallel universe."

Taylor laughs. "Well he just turned out to be a kind of a jerk is all."

"And Randy?" Emma smirks.

"Randy turned out to be the exact opposite. He's so cool and a really awesome guy. He's funny and caring and I just- Taylor cuts herself off as she feels herself going on endlessly about Randy.

Emma leans forward with a little smirk on her face. "Mhm sounds like someone has a crush."

"Psh. It's not a crush! Randy is my friend." Taylor waves her hand around in the air.

"So you're telling me if you had the chance to date him, if he wasn't with someone, you wouldn't?"

Taylor looks at Emma. Would she date Randy? She doesn't even the answer to that question. "I-I-it w-he-" she stutters.

Emma busts out laughing. "Say no more him. I've heard all that I've needed to." Taylor frowns and tries to hide her embarrassment by playing with things on the table. "So um, what happened with you and Dolph?" Emma asks with a frown. "I know you two dated. I saw the pictures on twitter but you stopped uploading them."

Taylor sighs. "We dated for three months and I felt like I was on top of the world. But then he slept with AJ."

Emma puts her coffee down to keep from choking. "AJ? Lee?"

Taylor nods. "The one and only."

Emma frowns. "That's such a bummer." She reaches her hand across the table and rests it on Taylor's. "You're too good for him anyway." She smiles.

"That's what everyone keeps saying." Taylor looks down.

"That's because it's true." Emma smiles and Taylor looks back up at her with a smile. "So other than any of the drama, how do you like it? The whole experience."

"It's awesome." Taylor smiles. "Performing in front of all those people was super scary at first but it's such an honor to put on a show for them. I love meeting all fans from around the world and being to places I've never been. Most of the people I work with are so amazing and I love them. It feels like a second home." She gushes over her job.

Emma smiles, completely memorized by her story. She then frowns. "I'm sorry again, about that night. Getting mad at you was so childish. How could I blame such a thing on you?"

Taylor waves it off. "We were young and dumb. Now we're old and wise. We'll start over fresh." She smiles.

Emma leans across the table and hugs her. Emma takes her phone out and takes a picture of the two.

"So, how did Noel get into wrestling?" Taylor smiles.

Emma smiles. "Well one day, Robert was watching and at the time, you were fighting Eve. I think it was your debut match?"

"Ah. Good times." Taylor laughs.

"I told her that you were an old friend and she said you were pretty and started watching ever since. She tries to be like you. One day, I caught her using the scissors to make arm sleeves like the ones you wear. She cut the sleeves off of a t-shirt of hers."

Taylor laughs. "Awh. I didn't think anyone wanted to be like me."

"Oh please. You have so many little kids who admire you. Not just them but and teenagers too." Emma smiles.

Taylor smiles bright, nearly in tears. Even though her life as been hell, reconnecting with Emma has given her new hope.

"Oh and this one time." Emma laughs.

"What?" Taylor smiles.

"Noel went over to her friend's house. She was supposed to spend the night at her house. Later in the day, I got a call from the girl's mom saying that Noel tried to kick her in the head and that I needed to come get her. That high kicking move you do."

Taylor gasps. "Really?! What happened?"

"Let's just stay Noel and that girl are no longer friends."

Taylor cups her hands over her mouth. "Never try that at home."

"That's what I told her and I grounded her from watching you for a week."

Taylor shakes her head. "Wow. Who else does she like?"

"Well she hates Alice. She saw that one time when you and her had a match and she tried to beat you up after it ended."

"Yeah. I did see Alice's face scribbled out on that poster." Taylor says.

"Noel hates AJ. She says it hurts her ears when she screams."

Taylor laughs. "It hurts mine too."

"Randy scares her when he bangs on the mat."

"Taylor laughs again. "Vintage Orton!"

"I think she's indifferent about everyone else. She loves John too!"

"She's like a little me." Taylor shakes her head. "Kids are something else." She giggles.

"They sure are. But we love them." Emma smiles.

"Do you guys want to come to the next show? I could bring you backstage and you and Noel could meet everyone!" Taylor smiles.

Noel comes running up to them. Taylor smiles as the bubbly four-year old sits in Emma's lap and sips on her juice box.

"Hey Noel?" Taylor smiles. Noel continues to drink her juice but looks at Taylor. "How would you like to come backstage tomorrow night and meet the rest of my friends and sit up front to watch me wrestle?"

Noel sets her juice box down. "I like that! Can we do that mommy?" She wraps her arms around Emma's neck and looks at her.

"Of course we can sweetheart." Emma smiles. "You ready to go back to the hotel?"

Noel hesitates then nods her head. "I want to have a sleepover with Taylor." She hops off of Emma's lap and goes over to Taylor. She grabs Taylor's hand. "Come on." Taylor laughs and the three leave, heading back to the hotel.

So I flipped Emma's daughter's name about three different times but I adore the name Noel:)