CHAPTER EIGHT
There's another house show tonight, but I'm stuck on the sidelines. To make matters worse, Colby, Dean, and Taylor all have to be there. I'm going to be alone. TJ has a match, but what if he comes around afterward while everyone else is still at the show?
"Girl, come here," Rosa says, breaking me out of my thoughts. "I'm not on tonight. You're gonna stay with me in my room. You, me, and a couple of the girls. We're having a slumber party, no boys allowed."
I'm speechless. Is she serious? A slumber party?
"Yeah! It's gonna be great!" Saraya declares as she joins us. "I brought the horror movies!" She's got her trademark sarcastic tone, but I think she's serious about that part.
"Uh-uh, no horror movies," Rosa says.
Tenille and Alicia appear. "Romantic comedies?" Tenille, better known as Emma, asks hopefully. Saraya crinkles her nose in disgust. Alicia rolls her eyes.
"Rosa said no boys," Alicia reminds her. "So no romance."
"Did you bring them?" Rosa asks Alicia excitedly.
"Of course," Alicia says. She produces a set of eight dvds.
"Harry Potter?" Saraya asks. "Is that a slam on me because I'm British?"
"It's for April," Rosa says. "Tonight is about cheering her up."
I am genuinely touched, and geeking out. I absolutely love Harry Potter, possibly to an unhealthy degree. (I'm kidding. You can never love Harry Potter too much.)
"Thank you," I say to Rosa. I have no words.
"We have a no Bellas rule, too," Rosa says, "but they're working tonight anyway. They're tagging with Nattie against Cameron, Summer Rae, and Charlotte."
"Ugh, glad I'm missing that," Saraya says. "Ashley is only getting pushed because she's Ric Flair's kid. It should have been Pam or Mercedes." She's referring to Bayley and Sasha Banks, and I happen to agree with her. Ashley's okay, but those two are ready for the main roster. She's not. Her promo skills are definitely there, but she's kind of green in the ring.
"I hope you're okay with who I invited," Rosa says to me quietly.
"This is great," I tell her. "Really." I'm so touched she is going to so much trouble for me.
"Everyone needs a girls night once in a while," Alicia says.
"Absolutely, Tori," Saraya agrees. I sometimes forget Alicia's real name is Victoria. We've never hung out much outside of work, so I've always called her Alicia. In my mind, Victoria is an awesome former Diva who also wore spiders in the ring. It's hard to remember a lot of names are different in real life.
We arrive at Rosa's room. Her mini fridge is filled with water, diet soda, and energy drinks. She has a month's supply of microwaveable popcorn.
"No Brie Mode tonight, I guess?" Saraya asks as she sees the lack of liquor.
"No Brie Mode ever. I'm sober, remember?" Rosa asks.
"And this is a No Bella Zone," Alicia pipes up.
"Exactly!" Tenille says. I'm surprised so many girls are bashing the Bellas. Tenille never says anything bad about anyone. She's not the idiot she portrays as Emma, but she is a total sweetheart. "It's rotten what they did to you."
"It was all Nikki," I say. "Brie had no idea."
"Convenient," Saraya says with an eye roll. "Of course she said that. Bryan would freak out on her if she admitted she was in on it."
"She kept apologizing."
"She still pinned you. That's not the act of someone who's sorry," Alicia says.
"She had to. I couldn't even move, let alone finish the match."
"She should have let the ref call the match," Saraya argues. "That was your win. She stole it."
I don't know why I'm defending Brie. I guess it's because I believe her. "She's an awful actress," I point out. "She's not lying. She was worried about me."
"Enough," Rosa says. She pops in the first Harry Potter film. This shuts us all up. Rosa makes two bowls on popcorn that she puts between all of us. Soon, we're relaxing and enjoying the movie and for the first time in a while, I forget about evey single thing that's bothering me. In this moment, I have friends and good movies to focus on. This is exactly what I need. As Saraya and Alicia attempt to throw popcorn into each others' mouths and keep missing, and Tenille gets extremely excited by the magic in the movie, Rosa squeezes my hand. Somehow, at least for this moment, I know I'm going to be okay.
*Skip, Skip, Skip... LATER*
I wake up to a concerned group of women looking at me like I've lost my mind. "You were screaming in your sleep," Saraya says.
"I've had some wicked nightmares, but this seemed pretty bad," Tenille says.
"Are you okay?" Alicia asks me.
I wasn't dreaming about TJ this time. Instead, this was an older terror of mine. "I'm sorry," I say.
"Don't apologize," Rosa says quickly.
"I have really bad nightmares sometimes." I want to hold it in, but the secrets inside of me are becoming too much and I feel like I might explode. "I went through some stuff as a kid."
Rosa looks at me and I can tell she really understand now why I can't talk about what TJ did to me. "There was this free afterschool program I used to go to, and one of the guys who worked there used to... used to do things to me." I have only admitted this to one person before, and that was Phil. I had too many nightmares and he pushed until I finally told him the truth.
"Bastard," Saraya swears under her breath.
"April, I'm so sorry," Tenille says. She immediately hugs me.
"I was only eight or nine," I continue. "I was too scared to tell anyone. It didn't stop until I was thirteen and I stopped going to the program." Now that I've started, I can't stop. These are old wounds I try not to pick at, but I'm literally holding in more than my head can handle and I have to tell someone something.
"What kind of sick perv does that?" Alicia asks in disgust.
"What's his name?" Saraya asks. "I'll turn him into a girl. Rip 'em off with my bare hands, I swear!" I believe her.
"Does Phil know?" Rosa asks me.
"Yes. He tries really hard to be supportive. Actually, he reacted just like you, Saraya, but I told him I just wanted to keep the past in the past. Maybe I'm still afraid of what he'll do if I tell someone... It seems dumb now, but he told me he'd hurt my family, and I believed him, and I guess after he told me it was my fault so many times, I started to believe him..." I struggle not to cry.
"Order of the Phoenix?" Rosa suggests. I nod. It's the middle of the night, but none of us can sleep now. We spend the rest of the night watching movies and they don't treat me any differently than they did before. Maybe these girls can actually be my friends. It's a strangely comforting thought.
*Skip, Skip, Skip... LATER*
It's the next day. I'm heading back to Colby's room when I run into Nikki and John Cena. I curse internally. "You little bitch!" Nikki screams.
"Nicole..." John says warningly.
"I know you're trying to steal my sister's husband!"
I laugh. That is ridiculous. "Bryan? Please. He's like a brother to me," I say.
"You're nothing but a whore, AJ! Everyone knows it!" She shoves me hard and I hit the wall.
I am sick and tired of people pushing me around and calling me a whore. I snap. I'm hitting Nikki before anyone can stop me. I'm screaming, bashing her against the wall, clawing at her, throwing punches... It's all a blur.
Strong arms pull me off of her. I try to fight them and they get tighter. I start panicking. "Let me go!" I scream.
"April, ow, stop! Stop! It's Nick!" Nick is holding me and wearing his Show Off t-shirt. I try to calm down.
"Crazy bitch!" Nikki shouts. She tries to attack me.
John grabs her and holds her back. "Stop it," he tells her. "Something's wrong. Her eyes are wild. Can't you see that? Leave her alone."
"If you ever touch me again, I'll kill you, you cunt-skank-bitch-whore!" I yell as John drags Nikki away.
When Nick lets me go, he cracks a smile. "Cunt-skank-bitch-whore?" He asks, laughing,
I laugh, too. "I couldn't pick one."
"I like it." He studies me. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," I say. "I just snapped."
"Everyone snaps once in a while. Ignore Nikki. Why would you go for Bryan? You married Mr. Best In the World. She's an idiot."
Colby appears. He sees me and whatever I must look like. "Don't worry," Nick says. "Nikki looks worse." He winks at me and leaves.
"What happened?" Colby asks me.
"I'll explain over breakfast," I promise. He leads me into his room and I close the door.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed this fic so far. To the one person who seems to have an issue with it, let me just say for the record that everyone copes with sexual assault in their own way. AJ is not meant to be portrayed as a bitch or a slut or any of that. She's traumatized and she's trying to survive by figuring out who she can and cannot trust. I'm sorry if you feel this portrayal is unrealistic, but trust me, you're not the only person who's gone through this sort of thing and your coping mechanisms may be different from another survivor's. Also, I'm not trying to crucify CM Punk with this fic; I'm just showing how his actions affect AJ for the sake of the universe this fic takes place in. If you want a nicer portrayal, read my Kayfabe humor fic, The Super Secret Sisterhood of Female Wrestlers, in which Punk is portrayed much kinder. It's a story. Please don't assume you know anything about why it's being written as it is.
Again, thanks for all of the support, and sorry it took me a while to get this chapter finished. I really appreciate all of you for sticking with this story!