AUTHOR'S NOTE: So my updates haven't been frequent and I feel so guilty :(
But anyways, welcome back to another exciting and drama filled chapter. I don't wanna waste a lot of time talking but I feel this chapter might make a number of you quite happy. So on with the story.
WARNING: This story may contain triggering scenes and strong language not meant for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised. (I love to get that outta the way)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters except my OC Kendra and other OC's I might have forgotten to mention. This story is a pure work of fiction (hence its written on) and most of the events and facts are completely made up so... I guess that's it.
Chapter 23 - ...And Opposite...
"What the hell is wrong with me? What did I ever do wrong?" Kendra thought as she replayed all the events of the past week involving Bret, in her head.
Was she cursed? Why haven't things returned to normal after almost seven years? Why did he still have such obvious disdain for her? Why was she still so scared of him despite the number of times she had tried to convince herself that she wasn't? Why? Why? WHY?
Plus with the added stress of what would happen to her internship in the next four days, going back to Canada, wondering what was up with her sister's marriage and her nightmares which bothered her to no end, Kendra's mind was like a dreaded mine field.
"...earth to Kendra! Can you hear me?" Sable asked. Kendra groggily turned over to the blonde.
"Yeah, sorry I was just thinking about... stuff but my attention is on you all the way. What's up?" Kendra asked in a choked up voice.
"Well for starters I've been talking about work and Summerslam for the past fifteen minutes and you've just been staring off into space." Sable said seeming quite upset.
"I'm sorry." Kendra said. She didn't mean to ignore Sable, she just got caught up with all the things she was stressing about and lost focus. Sable sighed.
"It was your idea to hang out and now you're staring off into space" Sable took a deep breath to prevent herself from sounding to mean to her friend. "What's wrong? And don't you dare tell me it's nothing because you're looking and behaving like you're completely out of it!"
"I've just got a lot on my mind I'm sorry. I..."
"Let it out girl. You'll feel a whole lot better if you just let it out. Stop holding everything in please. You're only causing yourself harm and it hurts me to see you like this! Through out today you've barely said a complete sentence" Sable exclaimed. "Please just talk to me. I'm your friend I can help." Kendra looked Sable in the eyes and could see the blonde woman was tearing up a bit which showed how much she really cared about Kendra. "Please"
"Sable, I don't even know where to start. I..." Kendra visibly struggled to start talking but the words just wouldn't come out. "...I'm okay." She said. Sable stared at her for a couple of seconds.
"Let's go back to the hotel Kendra when we're done" Sable said referring to the mani-pedis they were currently doing.
"But Sable..."
"But nothing!" Sable yelled slightly. "I care about you Ken but at this point its quite obvious to everyone and their mom that you've got some personal issues to address" Sable said. Kendra sunk her head.
"Yeah don't we all?" Kendra murmured.
"We do and you know what happens when we do, we let it out. Whatever it is, I know I can help. A problem shared is half stored. If you keep on holding everything in you're just digging a whole that you'll most definitely find hard to get out of"
Kendra said nothing to Sable as she stared into space. She knew Sable was right. A hundred percent right. And while she just couldn't open up about the exact things that really bothered her. She could talk about others.
"You're right Sabes. Th truth is I've barely slept a wink in days, I'm freaked out about my job, the guilt about my sister's marriage is haunting me, the Sunny and Candido fiasco still affects me a little but not that much and that's about it. Also, I miss Curt." She breathed out. Sable gave her a sad smile.
"Feel a little better?"
"Yes, no, maybe... I don't know" She said with a sigh.
"It's alright. Just try to relax and take everything one step at a time. You're only human after all. Get enough sleep, work out, eat healthy, hang out more and try to distance yourself from all the negativity. And about Curt, a real bummer. It's only natural to miss your best friend"
Curt.
She had just realized how much she'd truly missed him since he was out with his injury. With the exception of the Bret situation, Kendra could comfortably talk to Curt about basically anything else. His absence definitely hit her hard.
"I miss Curt so much" She said with a sniffle.
"Me too. He'll soon come back. But until then and beyond, know that I'm here for you. Just don't bottle up things okay? It's not healthy"
"I know. I'm sorry. Just that it's hard to open up sometimes."
"It's alright. I know everything will workout pretty soon. Okay?" Sable said. Kendra nodded.
"I believe so. But I'll take you up on the offer of going back to the hotel. God knows I need to get some rest" Kendra said with a sigh. "Sorry if I ruined our girls day."
"Your health comes first Kendy. If you're mentally exhausted then the only thing you should be doing is resting. We'll have plenty more days to hang out and drive each other crazy"
"Yeah. You're right" She replied. They sat in silence for a while until they were through with the mani-pedis. "Alright we should get going"
"Yeah, just gimme a minute or two. I need to make a call" Sable said. Kendra nodded as the blonde walked away to another part of the spa.
Kendra was extremely grateful to have a friend like Sable who was understanding and didn't take offense to any of her antics. Talking and finally letting some things out turned out to be slightly beneficial and something told her that everything was gonna turn out okay after all.
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"...I'm really worried about Davey. He barely picks up my calls and he hasn't checked up on the kids in weeks. Is something wrong?" A worried Diana Smith said on the phone.
"trust me if anything's wrong I'll be the first one to tell you. You know the way Davey is sometimes. Out of all of us he's the one the stress of the road affects the most. But I can 95 percent assure you that he's fine" Owen said trying to reassure his sister.
"What happened to the other five percent?" She asked panicking. Owen was silent for a while thinking of what to say. "Owen James Hart! Davey's not shooting up again is he?" Owen winced as he heard the exasperated voice of his sister.
"He's been clean for a long time trust me" Owen said though he couldn't really attest to this fact.
"He better!" She took in a deep breath. "Sorry for yelling at you bro. I'm just..."
"I get it. You're just worried about your husband. It's perfectly understandable. Tell you what, once we are done talking, I'll go check on Davey how does that sound?" Owen offered. He could almost feel Diana smiling at the other end.
"Thank you Owen. You're the best"
"I know. Just try to take care and don't beat yourself up about Davey. I'll knock some sense into him." Owen joked making his sister laugh.
"But not too much. Remember he's still my husband okay?" Diana said. "Well take care. Say hello to Bret, Kendy, Jim and Pillman okay?"
"Yes ma'am. Love you"
"Love you too O." Diana said hanging up the phone.
Owen sighed. For some reason he couldn't get rid of this gut feeling he had that something wasn't right. He didn't wanna bother Diana or anything but Kendra's words kept ringing in his ear.
"I think Davey's cheating on Diana!" Was it really possible? Well, answers he wanted and answers he was gonna find.
"Davey open up! It's Owen!" He said knocking hard on the door. "Open up!" Owen yelled. He heard a bit of shuffling from inside the room before an extremely groggy looking Davey in a towel answered the door.
"What the hell man?" Davey asked with a mini-glare. "For goodness sake I'm about to shower and here you are trying to break my door down."
"Can I come in?" Owen asked ignoring Davey's complaints. The Englishman rolled his eyes before stepping aside for Owen to enter the room.
"What's up man? What's so important that had you just minutes from punching a whole through my door?" Davey asked.
"Diana" Owen said plainly. He could've sworn he saw a flash of fear in Davey's eyes for just a nanosecond before they returned back to normal.
"What about her?" Davey asked coolly.
"Are you fucking serious? Why haven't you called her or communicated with her? She's worried sick!" Owen said.
"I've been busy."
"Bullshit. Cut that crap. Is something up? She thinks you're shooting up again" Owen said. Davey's eyes widened almost instantly.
"What? Hell no. I've been clean for..."
"Yeah, yeah I told her all that no need to panic. But seriously what is up with you?" Owen asked changing his tone from an angry one to a worried one. "Forget that she's my sister. She's your wife. You don't cut her off like that. What's up?
"Look I've gotta take a quick shower but when I'm through we'll settle this shit alright?" Davey said. Owen narrowed his eyes at his brother in-law.
"Fine. Get to it" He commanded. Davey rolled his eyes before stepping into the bathroom. "You have five minutes"
"Shut it!" Davey yelled back. Owen sat down on Davey's bed waiting patiently. All kinds of thoughts were running through his mind when he heard a buzzing sound from Davey's phone. The man had a text.
"Yo Davey, it looks like..." Owen glanced at the phone screen and saw that the message was from Sunny.
"I'll be in town on Friday if you wanna meet up" It boldly displayed on the lock screen.
Owen's heart raced as he prayed that the worst hadn't happened. The temptation to open Davey's phone and read previous text messages was overwhelming but he definitely could control himself well enough. He had to respect his brother-in-law's privacy. Plus he and Sunny were sort of close. They were free to hang out. Yeah.
He was just freaked out about what Kendra told him and this had to be a stupid coincidence.
He trusted Davey. Didn't he?
Owen set the phone down in it's original position and shook away all other arbitrary thoughts as he waited for Davey to come out of the shower which happened soon enough.
"So, what's up?" Davey asked.
"You tell me. Why are you and Diana not communicating? Or specifically, why you're not picking up her calls." Davey sighed.
"I've been overwhelmed with work. She knows this" Davey said.
"You've been working for the past eighteen years. What makes now any different?" Owen retorted.
"Well... I dunno" Davey said with a sigh. "Listen I'll call her right now and apologize and all that shit but she has to understand that I'm busy and I have a lot running through. And when I make enough time, I will talk to her and the kids" Davey said. "I promise"
"Well... you know I'll still be on your case until I get a good testimony from her." Owen said. Davey chuckled.
"Wouldn't have it any other way. And from what it's worth I'll make it up to her." Davey said seeming sincere. And while Owen had his doubts, he still trusted Davey and took his word for it.
"Don't disappoint Smith" Owen said and on that note, he departed from his brother's room.
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Kendra sat upright on her hotel room bed doing what she normally did in her free time which was writing out potential WWF storylines and scripts on her laptop. She had a whole five months of content written down but with the whole Vince Russo fiasco, she didn't really have an avenue to share them so they just sat there. Accumulating by the day.
It had been about an hour since she and Sable said their goodbyes. It kinda sucked that she'd end up spending her day off alone in a hotel room but for the sake of her mental health, maybe she just needed some time to herself to recuperate and get her shit together. And what other way than to do what she loved best: writing.
Yep. A good ol' quiet day in... Or so she thought. Because as fate had it, she heard a knock on the door.
It was tempting to ignore considering the fact that there was a ninety percent chance that it could be Bret who was at the door. She was definitely not interested.
But as the knocks persisted she knew she just had to suck it up and go to the door.
"Who is it?" She called out.
"It's me. Shawn" Shawn replied from the other side. Well that was interesting. Within a few seconds she unlocked the door and opened it. "Looking good" He complimented. Kendra gave him a small sarcastic smile.
"Lie of the decade" She said as she opened the door fully giving him the green light to step in.
"Don't put yourself down Kendy, you always look good" Shawn said closing the door behind himself. "And wearing that..." He trailed off as he took in her appearance. She donned a red tank top and black shorts with her midriff slightly exposed. And sure she looked a bit tired and all, and her black eye was still prominent, she still looked absolutely gorgeous to him.
"You're such a pervert Michaels" She said with a small laugh and she got back on her bed.
"I try" He said with a wink. "Can I?" He asked motioning to the side of her bed. She nodded. "Thanks" He said as he plopped down on her bed. "So what's up?"
"I'm cool. Just trying to catch up on a few storylines I've been writing for a while. And what about y...?"
"Storylines? Can I take a look?" He asked seeming interested. He'd only gotten a glimpse of her creative juices from what he'd heard from her and what Russo said on the recording but he'd never actually seen a sample of her work
"Yeah, sure. Here" She said handing her laptop over to him. "They are all categorized" She bit her lip nervously as he scanned through the pages of her work. She was a bit nervous because with the exception of Curt and Vince Asshole, no one in the Federation had actually seen her work first hand.
"Kendra. These are amazing. How are you still just an intern?" Shawn asked. "These are incredible! And I noticed the constant theme is you wanting to drift away from the zany and cartoony characters to something more serious and edgy. This is brilliant!" He exclaimed.
"You really think so? And how the hell did you notice what I was going for within the short time you scanned through it?" She asked unable to keep the grin off her face. It always made her happy when someone gave her work positive criticism because she knew how much effort she'd put into it.
"Yeah I'm often very perspective. Especially when it comes to things... and people that I care about" He said genuinely. "I love the stories. Even the scripts. But do you really see me and Hunter as these juvenile motherfuckers?" Shawn asked a bit amused by the way she'd written their characters.
"Yes! That and more. I suspected it initially when you guys always got on Bret's nerves but I confirmed it for a fact that day I hung out with you two after my rental broke down. (See Chapter 3 & 4). Y'all are a couple of clowns and would be nice for them to incorporate it on screen. Especially for Hunter" She said smiling at the possibilities. But her amused smile quickly turned to a sad one which Shawn didn't fail to notice.
"Everything alright?" He asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just wondering if all these will ever be a reality. I have been working on and building on all these for almost five months and some of these ideas can last up to a decade or even more if ever implemented. There's a lot of untapped talent on the roster right now. Especially Steve..."
"I noticed" Shawn said inadvertently interrupting her. Steve seemed to be a common theme in all her stories and it bothered him a tiny bit.
"Shawn" Kendra called out giving him a knowing smile. "Are you jealous?"
"Damn right I am" He shouted out in a humorous manner which made Kendra burst out into laughter.
"Wait now why's that? You are the WWF champion after all and you're already a huge megastar. Not to mention one of the best in the entire industry" She pointed out. Shawn was no doubt flattered by her compliments. She sure knew how to stroke a man's ego. "But you see Steve, he could be better"
"Whqt?!" He yelled with his eyes almost popping out of their sockets. She fluttered her eyelashes innocently at him. It was cute as hell but he wasn't gonna let what she said slide so easily "What did you say girl?"
"You heard me loud and clear HBK" She smirked at him. Oh she was really riling him up by using his nickname.
"Don't ever say that again" He threatened playfully. She raised an eyebrow as she was ready to fully invest in whatever the hell it is they were doing.
"Or what?" She asked with a laugh. "What are you gonna do to me?"
That statement made Shawn tense up a bit as it stirred up some... let's just say emotions in him but he quickly regained himself and gave her her little smirk.
"Try me" He said turning over to her.
"Well, I'm a mature lady, I don't like going around looking for trouble so I'll just end it there" She declared putting her hands up in the air in surrender. Shawn narrowed his eyes at her.
"Good. I always knew you were..."
"Steve is better woo!" She announced and in a swift movement Shawn picked her up gently on his shoulders. "Shawn you motherfucker! What the hell do you think you're doing? Drop me this instant!" She commanded amidst laughs. "Better do what I say or there will be dire consequences"
"You want me to do that are you sure?" He asked with a wicked undertone.
"Yes you crazy man! Drop me this... no wait, don't drop me! SHAWWWNNN!"
"Your wish is my command babygirl" And with that he gave her a full on body slam on the bed. "How do you like that?!" He asked with excitement. When he got no response he quickly turned over to her and fear gripped him. Her eyes were closed and she had a pained expression on her face. He quickly went over to her to find out what happened. "Oh no, oh no are you okay? I'm so sorry"
"Ugh my head" She groaned bringing her hand up to her head.
"I'm so sorry. I had no idea I was too hard on you I..." Suddenly she burst into laughter as she was unable to keep up with the act for another second. Shawn was stunned.
"Oh my God you were so scared. Hah!" She began to laugh even harder when she noticed the look of utter disbelief on his face. "You're so gullible" She said as she made an attempt to sit up but Shawn restricted her movement. "Do you mind?"
"You're gonna pay for that" He said.
"What do you..." He cut her off as he began tickling her. "Shawn stop!" She said amidst laughs. It was obvious that Shawn remembered how ticklish she was (See Chapter 3) which was sadly at her own detriment. "I'm sorry okay."
"I didn't hear you" He said as he carried on with the tickling. "Your midriff is right here."
"NO! I'm sorry Shawn, you hear me. I'm sorry!" She said. He broke out into a laugh as he stopped and got off her. While it was tempting to keep on tickling her especially at her midriff section, he had to respect his boundaries. "jerk"
"Is that the sound of someone who wants to be tortured again?" He asked. She pouted in response but didn't say a word. "That's what I thought"
"Fuck you Shawn, you're an asshole"
"And you're just a bundle of joy" He retorted making both of them laugh.
"That was fun Shawn. I haven't laughed like that in a long time so in a weird way, thank you" She said still laughing.
"No problem and hey..." He said grabbing her hand gently. "...about what you started saying earlier. You know before we both got caught up in the whole Steve thing..."
"Which you started. Yeah I know that" She said with a grin.
"Yeah. Sure" He said rolling his eyes playfully. "What I wanted to say is, you're great. You have a lot of talent and potential, you look like a smart worker and you've a lot of great ideas. Just give it time. With luck, everything will turn out in your favor. And who knows by the end of this week, Vince Russo's stinky ass may be out of your hair forever" Kendra smiled.
"Thanks Shawn for all your help. And thanks for all that today. I really needed that. I've been in a shitty mood for a while but you really lifted up my spirits. I appreciate it"
"Anything for my favorite girl." He said with a wink. "And I'm glad you feel better"
"Yeah. By the way, why did you come over? I appreciate it, but why? We don't usually hang out" She questioned.
"Well, let's just say I got the idea from a little voice at the back of my head" Shawn said with a sly smile. Kendra gazed at him with a look of confusion.
"I see that. Nonetheless thanks."
"Anytime. And about the issue of us not hanging out all the time, let's fix that"
"As a date?" She asked. Shawn laughed.
"No. Just us hanging out. If you like, you can call out Sable, I can get Hunter and X-Pac. If you want it could be just us. You're call. But we definitely should hang out more" Shawn suggested. Kendra gave it a thought for a second.
"Sure. I'd like that"
"Awesome. See you around darling" He said giving her hand a little squeeze as he stood up from her bed. "I'll be out of your hair for now. Maybe give you sometime to work on your ideas"
"Yeah" She trailed off going into some thoughts. "Or... if you're not doing anything else, we can watch a movie?" She suggested.
"Now that'll be great" He said plopping down on the couch as he grabbed the remote. "Order some popcorn will you. I'll just scan through some channels to find something good"
"Yeah, you do that. Just give me a minute" She said.
"Alright" Shawn replied. Kendra got out her phone and clicked on a particular contact.
Nice work. I know you are responsible for calling Shawn over. I owe you big time. But I'll probably kill you the next time I see you :)- Kendra.
Within a few seconds she got a reply.
Wouldn't have it any other way. - Sable.
With that Kendra smirked at her phone before putting it down at the nightstand and going ahead to order her popcorn. Once she was done with that, she went over to the couch and sat down right next to Shawn.
"Hope you like Forrest Gump"
"Not like, love" She replied as the movie began to play.
And that's a wrap. Talk about Chemistry.
So like I said in the earlier A/N, I hope this chapter made you guys happy. I'm not an expert on writing fluff but in this time of the story especially with the depressing stuff, I felt it was just necessary. It's also a bit of the calm before a storm for our girl Kendra so brace yourselves for the next few chapters cause they will definitely be explosive.
Thanks for all the support. Hope my reading audience continues to grow. Y'all are amazing.
Please remember to stay safe 3. See you all in the next chapter.