The Deville You Know Ch12
Walking into Raw with Sonya and Mandy, Paige had two big worries. The first one was dispatched by the end of the show.
"Girls, can we talk to you all?" She called out in the locker room. She was relieved even to get a response.
"Sonya and I want to offer you all our apologies for the incident last week. It was the most umprofessional thing I have ever done in the ring. It was unacceptable to the fans, to Mandy, to our opponents. I'm grateful to Mandy and Alexa for improvising the finish to the match. I wasn't in the right frame of mind and you did the right thing for us all. I swear to you all that it will never happen again."
Yeah, everything Paige said goes for me too." Sonya said. "I don't want to repeat her words too much. I was immature, and behaved like a rookie, which I shouldn't do at this level. I will learn from it, and I'm truly sorry for my part."
The silence hung in the air, scaring both of them.
"Why did it happen?" Mickie James asked.
"We had a falling out. A bad one. But it's still no excuse." Paige answered.
"Have you talked, are things between you better?" Alexa was next to ask a question.
"Well, we're..." Paige started then stopped, unable to tell everyone they went on a date over the weekend. She froze and felt embarrassed.
"We are fine now. We had to fix it after the trouble we got in with Hunter. He made it clear what would have happened otherwise." Sonya jumped in.
"Ok, well then let's put it in the past. You screwed up, but you apologised, and I think we accept it. Yes?" Bayley looked for objections but didn't get one. "So that's it. We have to stay united to keep the division looking good, and that includes you two." Always the bubbly one of the group, Bayley hugged the both at once, then pulled others in.
They then went to see Hunter, and after a small repeat of the apology and his warning over future events, he explained the plan for the show. They had turned the fan footage of their fight into a story. It has been over the WWE official social media platforms and friction among the group was teased. It started backstage with Mandy being asked by Renee on camera if there was any problem in Absolution. She denied it, but Paige and Sonya could be heard screaming at each other. Sonya then stormed off, Mandy unable to stop her. Sonya stormed into Alexa's dressing room, asking her to help put Paige back on the shelf for good this time, solving both their problems . It led to a tag team match where Paige and Mandy vs Sonya and Alexa. Alexa got double teamed early, but fought back. She eventually got the tag but as soon as Sonya stepped into the ring, she threw a high kick that nearly took the head off the champion. All three then took Alexa apart before Paige laughed at Alexa, grabbing a mic and making it official that they would collide at Wrestlemania. The crowd, which were behind Sonya at the start, rained down boos as the three left the arena as a team once again.
The post show media was heavily focused on the three of them, and Paige had done the best she could to make sure the team was the focus, not her. That fact wasn't lost on anyone. Hunter told her she'd done a great job, and she picked the right moment to pull out a performance like that. It has restored her confidence in her work, and as Monday rolled into Tuesday, she did the best she could to cling onto that confidence as the evening approached, and her second date with Sonya.
She had made a point to let Sonya know the time and place with as much notice as she could, remembering the pacing she did waiting for the same information. She also made sure to arrive a little early, got a soft drink, and took a seat by the window so she could see Sonya arriving.
She let out a deep breath when Sonya did sow up, mostly because she was ten minutes late. She almost raced from the car to the door when she arrived. Looking around she saw Paige and came over just as fast.
"I'm so sorry I'm late, got behind, then forgot to call a car." She said, clearly upset with herself.
"It's ok. You're just fashionably late." Paige smiled, hiding her relief.
"I should have called, or texted, or something." Sonya said.
"I told you, it's fine. How about, you pay for the first drinks, and it's square."
"Done." Sonya felt a lot better immediately, and starting looking for her cash. Paige followed her to the bar, giving up the table.
"You don't want to sit there? Sonya asked when she realised.
"No, not in the window. I don't want anyone spotting us." Paige said, but realised it wasn't taken well. "Fans or something." She said to try and clarify.
"Fine, I don't get much attention from fans yet anyway. I'm not much of a marquee the way you are." Sonya replied.
"You will be, give it time. You'll be looking for a place to hide too." Paige scanned, and found a table with nobody nearby, she led Sonya to it and they sat down.
"Are you OK?" Sonya asked. "You've always seemed really open to fans."
"I am. If we still get asked for pictures or something, I won't say no, but I would rather we weren't disturbed, this is our time." Paige's last remark went a long way to easing Sonya's nerves, her concerns about Paige being as into things as she was still existed, but she had no desire to stop her pursuit.
"I'm glad. I've been looking forward to this since Saturday at the concert battle." She said, encouraging the focus back onto them.
"I'm still sore at the result of that you know." Paige said, laughing.
"I know, those girls got screwed over, but the important thing is we had a good time right?" Paige sensed Sonya's nerves as she said that, and despite her own, she took a quick look at the bar area, then reached over and squeezed her hand for a second.
"I had a great time, you really nailed it. Best first date ever, ok?" Sonya heard no insincerity in Paige's words, nor was any implied.
"It took a lot of the stress out after Friday, and that fighting. I'm still so sorry about that."
"Stop that there. Don't ever think about that night again. We both screwed up big time, we got in major trouble, but we can't change it. We just have to not fight anymore, you know, unless it's in the script."
"You think we will have to fight each other?" Sonya asked.
"Eventually, yeah. Once Absolution runs its course, I'd bet there will be some kind of feud between us. I don't know how it will go, but there's little to know chance we won't work a match in some way, some time."
"Hmm, I can't say I like the thought of it, but that's the job. I just would hate cutting a promo on you."
"You serious? After your work with Mandy at TV this week? You told her off good and proper, and she's your best friend."
"Yeah, but that's why it was easy, she's my best friend, but you're my..."
"Don't." Paige said, knocking Sonya back a bit. "You can't be reluctant to go after me when you have to. You have great talking skills, and if you hold back, they'll know. I want you to be a huge success, be the star I think you can be."
"You know it means a lot to hear that, even more when it comes from you. Paige, I , erm." Sonya lost confidence in herself for a moment.
"You deserve it, you just need to keep working as hard as you can." Paige tried to be encouraging, even though she knew that wasn't the direction her date was trying to steer the conversation. "If you want, we can go to the Performance Center and work on some more stuff. That will be all business though."
Those words helped Sonya find her voice again. "Paige, you know I don't want to only talk about work right?"
"Sure, you want to get some food? I don't know what's good here, but I could ask someone."
"Paige." The attempt at distraction was only met with a sad expression.
Paige sighed. "Yeah, I know what you meant. I know we still have a lot to talk about, a lot to get out in the open. It's just, this is all so new, and confusing."
"Oh Paige, of course it's confusing." Sonya said sympathetically. "But if you don't talk about it, then it won't get any better, and eventually it will make you miserable."
"I don't want to be like that, not anymore. Ok, let's talk." Paige took a big drink from her beer, and waited for Sonya to speak next.
"Let's start with the big one, get it out of the way, what happened the night we kissed? Now at the restaurant, in my hotel room. You were gone the next day, and that note ripped my heart out."
"I'm sorry." Paige felt herself getting unsettled already, so she took a breath. Sonya could see that she meant the apology. She went to take Paige's hand, but it was pulled back.
"It's ok, I'm glad you said that, but I don't want you to be upset. I just need to know.
"I woke up, really early morning, I can't remember what time, and when I saw you, I remembered that we...I remembered what happened. I guess I freaked out."
"You guess?" Sonya stayed calm.
"Ok, I freaked out." Paige said. "I freaked out big time. I didn't know what to do, but I knew I had to get out of there."
"Why did you freak out? You make me sound like a fiend." Sonya said, not in a manner that showed any offence was taken.
"I'm scared, well, I was scared." Was all she got in response. Sonya knew both were true, but confronting her with that fact wasn't going to help anything.
"You never needed to be afraid of anything with me. I just want us to be honest. What were you scared of?"
"This. I know that sounds ridiculous when we're sitting here together, but I was scared that this could happen." Paige said, regressing into herself.
"But why?" Sonya asked, certain of the answer.
"I don't know."
"Yes you do. Please." The silence following lasted ages.
"I'm scared because I've never had feelings for another woman before. Ever."
"Never?" Sonya asked. Mandy said that you told the camera you had been with another woman on Total Divas."
"What?" Paige thought, then realised. "That was for the cameras. They wanted to build the suspense something could happen with me and Rosa. There wasn't a chance of that, and I was as certain as I could get that I'd never have feelings like that. But then I had a lot of problems these last two years, most of them caused by a guy. I swore I was done with men when I started training so WWE would let me get back in the ring, and they did."
"You don't have to talk about that." Sonya said. "I know you went though hell."
"Everyone does, it wasn't exactly kept private. I felt like I needed to be on my own from now on. But on my first day back, well, I met you."
"Oh Paige, you have no idea how sweet that sounds to me, but I know it's not that straightforward. A lot has happened these last few months, but I still don't understand most of it.
"That night, after we kissed to shut up those assholes hitting on you. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about it. But I tried to put it behind me. Then we got talking and before you knew it, I had asked you to hangout with me and my friends."
"Yeah, you did. You know, Mandy kept going on at me, I thought it was just going to be us that night." Sonya said with a smile, trying to ease the tension.
"She did huh?"
"Yeah. I felt so stupid when I got there, but they were really cool."
"They are, and they loved you, so you've got that in your favour I guess." Paige recoiled in embarrassment when she realised what she said. "Another drink?" She quickly said, hurrying off to the bar. She was served quickly so there was no chance that Sonya had forgotten where the subject was left off. She took another big drink from her glass as soon as she sat down.
"So, do you regret asking me to the bar that night?" Sonya asked, smiling to try and east the tension of the conversation.
"No, of course not, except it got quite busy and it took me ages to get to you, I felt bad about that, but we had a good time when we did hang out."
"Yeah, I thought so." Sonya agreed.
"I thought I'd made a new friend, but again, I couldn't stop thinking about you. I felt connected to you, and I struggled to understand it. Then Renee caught me staring at you at the Performance Center."
"You were staring at me?" Now it was Sonya who was getting embarrassed.
"Well, I didn't know I was at the time. Renee spotted me. That's when she said, well, you know."
"Do I?" Sonya asked.
"Yeah, I told you, that night. She told me to ask you out."
"Oh yeah, right. Well, so, you didn't obviously."
"No, like I said, I freaked out. That's why I threw myself at that barman. I thought I had to find a guy. Nearly made another mistake. I can't seem to make good choices." Paige looked down.
"You made good ones too. I mean you're here right." Sonya tried to be more positive and it raised a smile on her date's face.
"True. I'm glad I'm here, even if I'm still unsure."
"So tell me, why are you unsure about this?" Sonya asked, gesturing between the two of them.
"It's not you." Paige said, deflecting.
"Well that's a good start. Paige, I know what you're thinking, I've been there, but if you don't talk about it, you can't get past it." Sonya said, putting her hand on top on Paige's, trying to be comforting.
"Fine, you know I like you, and that I've never had feelings for a woman before, but now it's gotten so much more real now. We have been out twice, and I'm starting to think what it would mean if things went further."
"Further? I'm not just trying to get you into bed you know." Sonya said, half serious in her tone, which was picked up on.
"I know that. You proved that on our first date. But the idea of sleeping with another woman still feels weird. Like, really weird." Paige found herself whispering more and more, so Sonya decided to follow suit.
"Again, this isn't just about sex for me. There's no pressure here."
"Not for you maybe, but I feel tons of it. What will people say, what will they think? Friends, family, work? I just got back and this could throw everything again."
"I know. Remember I came out on tv in front of Triple H. Very few people knew before that. I had to deal with all of them at the same time as preparing for the show. Not exactly how I planned it, but you can't plan it. I won't try and tell you that coming out isn't a big thing, and scary. But the only thing you have to remember is that everybody who really cares about you, won't change their opinion over something like this."
"And if they do?"
"Then to hell with them. What matters most is what you think, and hopefully to a smaller point, what I think." Sonya said.
"Of course I care what you think. Paige said, with a bit more confidence.
"Just take as long as you need. I'm not going anywhere. I know what I want, and I'll wait as long as I have to for it. Wait, that makes me sound like I'm after sex again." Sonya facepalmed as Paige laughed.
"So what do you want, if it's not sex?" Paige asked. She was smiling, but Sonya could see she meant the question.
However before anything else could be said, a waitress put a binder down on their table.
"Good evening ladies, welcome to Sullivan's. It's our famous karaoke night, so what can I sign you up for?"
"Oh no, we aren't here for karaoke, thank you." Sonya said, wanting the waitress away as soon as possible so she could answer the original question.
"No, wait. I'm game, I love karaoke." Paige said, taking the binder.
"You love karaoke?" Sonya wasn't convinced.
"Well, I do when I've had a drink. Wow girl, you have a lot of songs."
"It's why we get them flocking in. In an hour, this place will be packed. One rule is no doubling up on songs, you can't sing a song somebody else has, so don't pick the same thing!" The waitress continued to be very enthusiastic.
"Packed? Paige, maybe we should go. We need to talk more." Sonya tried to ignore the waitress as best possible, but it's wasn't an easy task.
"Sonya please. We've been talking all evening. Let's enjoy the rest of the night. Come on. I want to have a good time with you."
Sonya sighed. She felt like they were making real progress with their feelings, getting a lot of the obstacles out of their way. She was on the verge of being able to put Paige's fears aside and ask her to be her girlfriend when the waitress came over. She wanted to punch smile off the over-happy face standing with them, but she knew that moment had passed for this night. 'Next time'. She thought.
"You go ahead then, I'm not going to sing." She said, putting on a bit of a false front.
"Noooo." Paige whined. "Come on Sonya, it'll be fun."
"No, it won't."
"It will, just let your hair down instead of putting it up." Paige said, intentionally playing off Sonya's phrase.
"Paige, she said there are going to be a lot of people here, watching us."
"Yeah, how's that different to wrestling?"
Sonya leaned in to whisper in Paige's ear. "I suck. I can't sing a note. They'll hate me. At least in the ring I'm supposed to be getting boos."
Paige couldn't help but smile. "You really are very sweet for a tough chick. I'm no singer either, but it doesn't matter. This is karaoke in a bar, not headlining the Warped tour. If you sing well at karaoke, you're doing it wrong."
The reassurance helped, but Sonya was so fixated on Paige's smile she'd have done pretty much anything she was asked at that moment. The serious side of the conversation disappeared from her mind, and a desire to impress took over.
"Fine. But I warned you. I am possibly the worlds worst singer."
"Yes!" Paige said through a grin. "I'll even go first so you don't have to worry about following anyone else."
They each made the selections and the waitress went away to get other people's requests. Sonya looked around and, just as they were told, more and more people were coming in and the waitress quickly had a line of people looking to get up and sing. By the time she took the stage to announce the beginning of the karaoke, the place was full and getting rowdy. It wasn't helped when the first performer went all out on 'Rock You Like A Hurricane' and was cheered loudly. The next performer wasn't so good and quickly lost confidence in their rendition of 'Don't Stop Believin'. The irony was obvious to everyone.
Paige's turn came up a few names later. She hit the stage with a smile and went into her go to karaoke song, 'Use Somebody'. Sonya knew it was her usual choice as she had seen a bit of footage of her singing it before, but she really did a good job with it, and Sonya couldn't help mixed feelings, pleased that
Age was singing well, but she knew she had to follow it.
Sonya is hopes that this song lasted about two hours didn't come to pass, and Paige got a good reaction when she left the stage, the best of the night so far.
"You did great Paige." Sonya said sincerely.
"Thanks, your turn now, get up there." Paige replied as Sonya heard her name over the speakers.
Sonya got up on stage, fighting her desire to run for it. She's gone for 'Man, I Feel Like AWoman'. It was something she felt appropriate, and fast paced so it might feel like it was going faster. She took a deep breath as the words came up on the screen for her to sing, and went for it. Instantly she heard how bad her voice was when she tried to me melodious. As she tried to carry on she saw the crowd had gone quiet and her tone deaf singing was echoing around everywhere. She looked to Paige and saw she was still smiling, then started waving her hand in time with the music. Sonya found a resilience inside her and doubled her efforts with her stage performance, acting like a rock star instead of a karaoke failure. She still couldn't sing a note, just as she said, but the crowd got into her actions and started cheering. The cheers certainly spurred Sonya on, but Paige dancing closer to the stage was all the motivation she needed.
When she was done the crowd gave her an even bigger ovation. She jumped off the stage and headed straight for Paige, who help her arms out and gave Sonya a big hug.
"You were incredible!" Paige said enthusiastically. "I knew you were going to be a star!"
"Paige, I might be the worst singer ever, I mean ever ever." Sonya said, laughing, enjoying the reaction.
Paige released the hug but one hand lingered on Sonya's cheek. "Well, yeah, but you aren't trying to win a Grammy. You owned that stage even though you knew it. You're amazing."
They looked into each other's eyes for what felt like an eternity. The fact the next singer had started was completely lost on them, as was the rest of the bar, and in that moment, the rest of the world.
Every desire, every instinct in Sonya's body was telling her to go for the kiss. It was what she wanted more than anything. And in that moment, she was sure Paige wanted it too.
Paige certainly did want it too, but as she looked around at all the people, something got in her head, making her take her hand away and go bright red. "I , Er, I mean, it's getting late, we should probably call it a night." She said, checking her purse.
Sonya took a second to try swallow her disappointment. "Ok, if you want to." She said, failing miserably.
"Oh, well I could stay a little longer." Paige instantly replied, even before she realised what she was saying. The hurt in Sonya's voice had done something to her, and she didn't know what.
"One more drink?" Sonya said, a smile returning. Paige nodded, and they enjoyed watching other singers while they had that last drink. They didn't say much, but both snuck looks at the other when they could, trying to not get caught doing so.
When the drinks were gone, they went outside and booked Uber's, going in separate directions. Paige's arrived first.
"You want me to stay?" Paige asked, still feeling guilty.
"No, mine is less than 2 mins away, see?" Sonya showed Paige her phone to confirm what she was saying.
"Ok. Fly out together Friday morning?" Paige asked.
"Definitely. I'll text you to arrange it."
"Ok, so, I'll see you?"
"Yeah, see you."
Sonya wasn't sure what to do next. She stepped in for a hug, and was relieved when she felt Paige's arm around her too. She released it, and Paige got into her car, giving a wave as it pulled away, with Sonya's all but taking its place at the curb. As she made her way home, she realised she was almost as unsure confused as Paige had come across in her attempts to explain, but for a whole different reason. She didn't know where they stood. As this became clear to her, she knew she wasn't happy with that. She wanted so much more. When it came to Paige, she wanted everything.
A.N: Thanks for reading. This wasn't an easy one to write so I hope you've still been able to enjoy it.
My sincerest thanks to those who have followed and favourited, and the reviews for my work here have been very kind recently, and are really appreciated. I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on what the future holds for Sonya and Paige. If they have one that is ;-)