Chapter Two
Charlie Haas approached the locker room of Kurt Angle. It was his first match against Kurt Angle, and Kurt being his former mentor, not only onscreen, but off screen as well, he wanted to thank Kurt for his guidance and wish him well for his match, like a real sportsman. He heard Kurt yelling loudly over the phone, loud enough to pass through the walls of the arena. Taking a step back, unsure of whether to enter, the shouting stopped and Kurt opened the door about to leave.
"Haas!" said Kurt surprised that he was waiting outside. "Did you hear that?"
"Kind of…" Charlie replied slightly frightened.
"It's not what you think…"
"Uhh… what?"
"I mean… It's not that I'm afraid of committing you know… I'm just not ready for another… you get me?" asked Kurt as he scratched the back of his neck uneasily.
"Sure," Charlie nodded, not having a clue what Kurt was rambling on about.
"I hope you don't tell anyone…"
"I won't, I won't!"
"You're a good man Haas…" nodded Kurt with a strong slap to Charlie's back which startled him.
"Actually I was going to call you for our match which is up after Kidman and London…" said Charlie, changing topic.
"Oh… our match… oh of course!" chuckled Kurt. "I almost forgot…"
Charlie looked at Kurt worriedly, over the past week he had looked tense and preoccupied with thoughts and distracted.
"Are you ok?"
"Yes…" Kurt lied.
"Really?" asked Charlie, able to see through Kurt.
"No…" he sighed.
"As a friend and a student of yours, allow me to help you out, for once… it's the least I could do," offered Charlie in a gentlemanly manner.
"It's too complicated…"
"It's better to talk about it… Jackie makes me talk about my problems… it's a girl thing – but it works!"
"Jackie's a great gal… hold on to her…" Kurt advised.
"I know that," Charlie nodded. "Problems with the wife?"
"Much more complicated…" he said shaking his head as he rubbed his tense face.
"Oh really?" asked Charlie curiously.
"Well… you could call it a Lita and Edge number two…"
"W-w-what!" Charlie stuttered in astonishment, immediately knowing what he was talking about. "You mean with-"
"DON'T! Don't say it!"
"Oh my God!" shrieked Charlie with his hand slapping his head.
"Yeah ok! You don't have to overreact!"
"I'm sorry…" Charlie apologised, calming down.
"Please… you have to keep it a secret…" Kurt begged.
"Of course, of course…" Charlie nodded.
"Thanks man…" said Kurt in appreciation with a slap to Charlie's arm.
"Don't mention it… pal…" Charlie smirked as the two of them headed for their match.
"What happened!" asked John frantically, as he followed a crowd of people to the exit of the arena. Chavo Guerrero, Mark Jindrak and Booker T were amongst the few that crowded around but only Paul London bothered to answer John.
"H-h-he hit the Shooting Star… b-but he slipped off the turnbuckle and fell smack onto his back…" answered London edgily. The horde of people rushed after the paramedics and Peter who was laying on the stretcher screaming in excruciating pain.
"PETER!" Torrie screeched, bawling her eyes out as she ran towards the stretcher and held his hand. It was about time she arrived. She pushed through the others and reached Peter before they carried him into the ambulance.
"Torrie…" Peter grunted in agony, clutching his side. Torrie threw herself onto Peter.
"Ma'am please, step aside," demanded one of the paramedics firmly, brushing her off of Peter.
"NO! PLEASE! LET ME COME!" she begged hysterically, grabbing tightly onto Peter's hand.
"Ma'am, please…" said another paramedic, pushing her back. John speedily held her back despite her fighting back and she didn't give up easily. She stomped and kicked John several times which was far from pleasant to his shins and delicate toes. She eventually let go of Peter's hand, panting heavily, her maroon coloured face, showed exhaustion as her eyes showed distress and disappointment as watched the ambulance doors shut and speed off.
"No…" she sobbed helplessly, kneeling onto the floor. John's stomach twisted uncomfortably as he saw her in such a depressing state.
"Come on," John whispered comfortingly as he helped her up slowly and gently. She looked up at him with her teary green eyes and fell into his arms, clutching him as she continued to cry.
An exhausted Charlie Haas returned from his match, drenched in sweat from head to toe, matches with veterans like Kurt Angle always brought of the most in him. Charlie wiped his face with a towel that Jackie lovingly slipped into his backpack without him knowing… in fact it smelt of her… it was the sweetest scent ever..
"What are you doing?" asked Jackie as she watched Charlie sniff the towel with such infatuation in the middle of the hallway. Charlie froze and hid the towel behind him and stood upright.
"Nothing…" he lied.
"You are so weird…." she chuckled pulling him into a hug.
"I'm sweaty…" he warned her.
"I don't care…" she sighed, tightening her grip. Automatically, Charlie detected that something was wrong due to her negative tone.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing…" she said shaking her head and pulling apart, tucking the strands of hair that fell across her face behind her ear.
"Are you sure that nothing is wrong, or is that a girl's code for saying 'Yes something is wrong, except I don't want you to know but I'm a girl and I have to talk about it…'?"
"You know me so well!" she squealed as her frown turned into a glittery grin.
"Tell me about it…"
"Well… our bikini match was cancelled-"
"Our bikini match? I wasn't scheduled for a bikini match…" Charlie joked. Jackie simply glared at him with her arms folded in an annoyed manner. "Not time to make jokes? Ok… sorry…"
"Well it's cos Dawn Marie isn't here…"
"Oh…?" Charlie responded, pretending to act surprise and his goofy grin faded instantly at the sound of her name.
"Yeah… it's cos she's pregnant…" Jackie whispered.
"Really?" Charlie shrieked, acting goofily… he was never a good actor.
"Why are you being weird again?"
"I'm not w-weird…" he stammered. "That's totally weird! How do you know?"
"She told me…"
"Did she tell you who the father was?" asked Charlie nervously as he bit his fingernails.
"No… why do you care so much?"
"I … like… gossip!" Charlie lied once again, making excuses along the way.
"You're worse than us girls!"
"Us? I'm not a girl…" he joked, trying to released the tension from the situation, but just made matters worse.
"Are you sure?" she scoffed as she walked off, upset by him. Charlie watched her dart to the women's locker room, wondering what he said that was so wrong.
John made it an effort to stall, but he was just around the corner from her now. They were in the hospital, John had driven her there. The incident was over two hours ago but she was still weeping. Her eyes had gone puffy and her hair a mess, he couldn't stand to see her.
He went to get coffee for the both of them across the street, promising he'd return in no time. But by the time he returned the coffee has been chilled as it was ice cold outside. He bravely peeped round the corner only to find that she was gone.
"What…" John said to himself looking around. The seats were empty, there was barely anyone in the vestibule. He quickly chucked the coffees into the rubbish before attempting to find her. As he passed the ladies room, he heard a loud sniff.
"Torrie?" he asked, knocking gently on the door. The sniffing sounds grew louder causing him to cringe. Being the nice guy that he was, he attempted to enter the women's washroom to comfort her. He twisted at the knob and slowly pushed the door open.
"John what are you doing?" asked a voice behind him. He quickly turned around only to find Torrie standing there. He turned back around to see who was in the toilet, a women in her forties with a disgusting flu stood there shocked at John's actions.
"Sorry!" John apologised as he quickly shut the door.
"How dare y-" John heard the woman yell from inside before sneezing.
"There you are!" he chuckled as he saw Torrie. She was still red-eyed but at least she was crying like she was before.
"Sorry…" she apologised.
"Don't worry about it…Where were you?"
"I went to see Peter," she replied with a faint smile.
"How was he?" asked John concerned speaking in a softer, more sympathetic tone.
"He'll have to stay here for a while… he fractured his hip bone…" Torrie explained, John noticed tears forming by her eyes.
"Ouch…" John winced.
"Well he doesn't seem to be in pain, they've injected morphine in him and keep forcing painkillers down his throat…" shrugged Torrie, brushing the little droplets of tears that trickled down.
"Poor guy…" John sighed sympathetically, avoiding eye contact. He hated when girls cried in front of him, he always felt uncomfortable and was the worst at consoling people... maybe it was a guy thing... Everything he would say would make matters worse...
"Well, we have to go back to the arena to pick up our stuff now…" Torrie said quickly, changing the subject.
"Yeah…" nodded John, she walked off with her head hung low. He followed closely behind her. She seemed emotionally unstable at the moment and John couldn't help but feel somewhat envious of Kidman. Not because he's out with a hip injury but because he had a beautiful wife who genuinely cared for him and John wanted that, and whatever John wants… John gets…
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! What did yo guys think of this chapter? I personally find Charlie's personality to be amusing hugs him Please review!