"First night of the new era," Lana commented under her breath. "Are you as excited as I am?"
Arden, who was too busy blending her eyeshadow to hear her friend's words, hummed in confirmation.
Lana looked over at the brown-haired woman and rolled her eyes. "You're not hearing a word that I'm saying, are you?"
"Nope," Arden breathed. Sitting back, she blinked rapidly so she could decide whether to continue adding pigment to her eyelids. "Do you think that this is a good look? I don't normally do colors, but the typical bronze-eye was beginning to bore me."
The blonde checked her friend's lids carelessly. "It's fine. I don't know why you're even doing your makeup, considering you won't even be going out there tonight."
Arden scoffed. "I do my makeup when I'm going to the grocery store. Besides, there might not be cameras following me around tonight but there might be a guy or two."
Lana wanted to say something, but she didn't know how to word it. All Arden could think - or talk about - was wrestling and men. In the few years they had known one another, Lana went back and forth between admiring the attention her friend put into her looks and detesting the amount of time she spent listening to Arden complain about the outcomes. The outcomes usually included harassment by male co-workers and slut-shaming by jealous fans.
Despite every chance she had to warn her friend about the dangers of sleeping around - emotional ones since anybody with a brain could think of the physical ones - Lana could never quite get the information to register through Arden's head. She even accepted Rusev's marriage proposal to, in part, prove to Arden that true love exists outside of a casual relationship. Her other reasoning for accepting the proposal had nothing to do with Arden, as she felt ready to call someone the one. Even if he wasn't exactly the one she had been looking for initially.
Arden, on the other hand, couldn't care any less about the risks of being in multiple casual relationships. There were no downsides, in her opinion. She didn't have to remember special occasions, buy gifts, meet parents, or even worry about hurting anybody's feelings. She slept with the men she wanted to and left when the sun rose.
One night stands were her WrestleMania's.
Dean, however... Dean played a special part in Arden's story. She met him when she first came to the WWE in 2013. She had just skipped the transition between FCW and NXT, so she was free to rule the developmental territory without having to make a name for herself in the former. Dean was already moving up to the main roster, having joined cahoots with his Shield buddies Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, and he didn't even bat an eyelash in Arden's direction.
Eventually the two connected over a beer. It was the night Seth Rollins betrayed his "brothers" with a - literal, almost - stab in the back. Dean was gushing to the bartender about how badly he wanted to bash his former partner's head in with his fists, only to be saved from a possible arrest by Arden's mysterious expressions.
She gave him one look and he fell onto his knees for her. Once the beer wore off the next morning, he'd realized his mistake and the two didn't contact one another until the Royal Rumble back in January 2015 when she slipped him her number as they were celebrating Roman Reign's win with nearly half of the main roster. Arden, still being in NXT, was taking a leap of faith that Dean would care enough to even read the number, let alone call it. Two weeks later, he did.
They've been fucking ever since.
"What time are you planning on going out there?"
Lana, who had been scrolling mindlessly through her phone, looked up. "Stephanie and Mick said they wanted us backstage at least ten minutes before the show goes live."
"They're really making you all go and stand out on that stage?" Arden shook her head at her own comment. It wasn't an abnormal request by the head of RAW.
"You can come stand with me in line," Lana offered. "Show the world that you've made your choice."
"Nobody has even told me that I get a choice." Arden stood up and shoved her makeup palettes into her suitcase before zipping it up. She didn't trust anybody with her bags; sometimes she didn't even trust Lana. People were always trying to prank Arden for her "sins" against the faces of the company so she got into the habit of watching her own back.
Lana stood as well, dropping her phone into her purse. "Fine. You still have to wait backstage with me, though."
"Don't you have a fiancé to wait with?"
"Rusev is boring sometimes." Lana admitted this with a blank expression, her arms casually crossing across her chest. "I need my favorite person to be standing with me, keeping me company."
Arden smiled brightly at her friend's request. Tossing her arm around the blonde-haired woman's shoulders, Arden began dragging the woman out of the locker room and into the chilling hallway. "If I'm your favorite person, does that mean I get to be your Maid of Honor at the wedding?"
"I do have a sister, you know."
"Your point being..."
"Never mind," Lana responded with a chuckle.
The walk towards the stage was a long one, full of awkward introductions to camera crews and various other wrestlers. Arden knew the entire roster, whether it be from her time down in NXT or her short tenure in the big leagues before her untimely wrist injury, but she wasn't close with anybody but Lana. Everybody else either had no opinions about Arden or was too afraid to contract a disease from shaking her hand. There wasn't really an in between.
Once they reached the mass of RAW personnel, Arden forced herself not to roll her eyes. Everyone was giddy and full of light - things that Arden despised. She promised herself, right then and there, that no matter which brand she signed to that she wouldn't ever smile as bright as Sami Zayn was as he waited to be summoned to the stage.
It was blinding.
Arden released Lana from her grasp and looked to her right, recognizing a familiar face standing off to the side. A smile, calmer than Zayn's, curled onto Arden's lips. She quickly nudged Lana's arm with her elbow and gestured into the direction of the tall man. "Look who it is," Arden commented.
Lana caught a glimpse of the man before turning back to face Arden once again. "So?"
"Oh, please. You totally have the hots for him."
It was Lana's turn to nudge her friend, only her elbow struck Arden's arm much harder than the latter's had. "Rusev is just over there," Lana hissed under her breath.
Arden glanced over at Rusev and rolled her eyes. "So what? It isn't like he can do anything about you having a friendly conversation with your favorite NXT rookie!" Grasping her friend's hand, Arden tugged Lana over towards the taller man. "If it isn't Logan Blackwell."
Logan, hovering over her at six feet, eight inches tall, smiled crookedly at the women. "If it isn't my favorite little women."
"What are you doing here?"
Logan ran a hand through his long hair, which was surprisingly not pulled back. His outfit, much too casual to be ring-ready, reminded Arden of a biker. A biker, that is, who spoke like Vin Diesel and actually trimmed his beard.
"I came to celebrate Finn's birthday," he answered. With a tilt of his head, he got the two women to glance over at Finn Bálor in the middle of the swarming roster.
While Lana remained keen on watching Logan, Arden allowed herself to keep an eye on Finn. He smiled - annoyingly similar to Sami - and stood with a gracefully clumsy appearance. He was obviously being congratulated by many people, having been the first NXT member drafted up and making his debut on his birthday, but Arden could see through the happiness on his lips. He looked troubled. Perhaps it was just stress, but Arden could sense it.
"I forgot you two knew each other. From Japan, right?"
"We were both ready to make a name for ourselves. Japan was the start of everything for the both of us," Logan responded to Arden's comment with a confidence that Lana couldn't help but swoon at. "We used to joke about how different things were in Japan versus everywhere else in the world. Even though he hails from Ireland and I from Detroit...we have so much in common that it's weird."
Arden scoffed. "Sounds like you're in love with him."
Without waiting for Arden to return her eyes to his, Logan refuted. "Definitely not." The man's eyes then drifted off in Lana's direction, catching the hues of her tawny irises, and he didn't break contact. "I'm into women."
Lana held down a gulp of anxiety. "That's cool," she stated - much too stern to sound genuine.
Arden bit back a laugh and looked from her friend up to Logan. "Tell your boyfriend that I wish him a happy birthday."
"Why don't you tell him yourself?"
"Yeah... I'm right here."
Arden felt a wave of warmth fill her cheeks as she turned on her heels. Her breath escaped her in a rush. His eyes were so familiar...
"Aren't 'ya going to wish me a happy birthday?" Finn asked, smirking as he crossed his arms over his chest.
With the last remnants of sanity she still possessed, Arden mimicked him and crossed her own arms. "Happy Birthday, Finn. How old are you? 40? 45?"
"35, actually. I appreciate the sentiment. With age comes wisdom."
"And wrinkles," she added with a smirk of her own. She then peered up at his eyebrows and pursed her lips. "It looks like age is taking its time on you, though. You're lucky."
Finn noticed the teasing and he couldn't refrain from chuckling. A power move, he supposed. She looked ridiculous, trying her best to appear strong and untouched by his presence. To him, although he didn't realize it in the moment, she was absolute perfection.
Her long brunette tresses that perfectly framed her thin face could bring a man to his knees. Her eyes were oceanic and mystifying. Her lips were plump in the right places, only thinning out in the corners to provide ease when smiling. Her skin seemed flawlessly smooth, giving her the best foundation for the sultry expressions she was known to hand out.
Finn wasn't stupid. He knew what people around the locker room said about Arden Lights. Arden Home-wrecking Lights. Her reputation spread like wildfire and no matter how hard he tried not to pay attention to gossip, his ears fell victim to the rumors. Then those rumors became fact and all he had was a painted image of Arden that he couldn't wash from his mind.
Considering how innocent he played in love, he couldn't stop himself from picturing her the way she was described. It was a dangerous area for him to divulge into, so he only allowed his mind to go to those darker places. His body remained in the sunshine.
"Lucky, indeed."
Arden didn't break her stare until shouting came from the front of the group.
"I need everyone to line up! Stand by whoever you want, but don't miss your cue!"
One quick gander behind Finn by Arden at the crew member shouting orders offered Finn enough time to disappear into the crowd and lose Arden's sight. She attempted to cover up her search by casually returning her eyes to Lana every few seconds. Eventually, she gave up and backed away so that she was standing next to Logan behind the RAW roster.
Logan, who opted not to mention the sigh he watched pass through Arden's lips, continued staring ahead. "So, RAW or SmackDown for you?"
Arden didn't look up at her taller friend. She couldn't. There was something gluing her eyes to the mass of people in front of her, although she couldn't understand what. However, she did manage to spit out a quick response.
"I think that decision just got a little tougher."
a/n: Here's the newest chapter! The OC Logan Blackwell belongs to harhar1011 who was kind enough to let me include him in this story. I hope that his addition to this story is well-received.
Thank you so much for the response on the first chapter! I appreciate everyone's support very much and I cannot wait to show you all what I have in store for the future of Arden's story. Let me know what your thoughts on this chapter were by leaving a quick review! If you are a fellow author on this site then you know how wonderful it is to hear from the people who read your stories. It just means so much!
With love. :)
