LegendSpeaking: Only two more chapters after this...
Austin Aries stepped out of his car, slinging his gym bag over his shoulder before walking over to the passanger door and opened it so his four year old daughter, Annalynn could come out. When she placed her feet on the ground, she threw her backpack over her shoulder, just like her father, and grinned up at him. "Uncle Alex is here?" she asked, grabbing hold of his hand. "And all my Aunts?"
"Gail, Traci and Candy," Austin answered, watching as she smiled at his response. "Plus, AJ, Joe, Chris, Petey, Eric..."
"My whole family is here!" Annalynn said excitedly, jumping up and down. She stopped suddenly and let go of her fathers hand as she placed her backpack that had the Disney Princesses on it on the ground. "I should get my pictures out," she mumbled, taking out her drinking boxes and fruit snacks, placing them on the ground.
He grinned as he stopped and helped out his daughter, finding the pink folder that she keeps all her drawings in. Bringing it out, she clasped her tiny hand around it so she could zip up the zipper, continuing to smile at her Dad. "I drew one for Traci and it's me and her with Cinderella, because that's her favourite. And then this one is for Gail where we're with Jasmine...here's for Aunt Val..." Annalynn began walking again, explaining the pictures too Austin while they made their way towards the entrance of the studio. When he saw Alex's car parked next to Petey's, he couldn't help but chuckle: the two were always attached at the hip whenever he saw them.
Annalynn shreiked as a pair of arms from behind her picked her up and spun her around while Austin stumbled upon his footsteps when someone from behind him jumped on his back. Both of their bags hit the ground as they embraced their attackers with a hug, laughter echoing throughout the parking lot. "You jackass," Austin mumbled, giving Alex a small push while they both grinned when they saw Candy and Annalynn hugging. "I thought you weren't coming until later?"
Alex shrugged his shoulders, watching as his fiancee took the little girl away to the Women's dressing room. "We wanted to see Annie earlier. Besides, Candy cane has to talk to Traci about their match tonight anyways, because if it goes good, then she gets signed, and we're getting married in a week. Has she talked to you about Annalynn being the flower girl?" The two wrestlers began to walk around the studio, talking to fellow wrestlers that Austin hadn't seen in a while or introducing him to the new guys.
It wasn't until Austin mentioned the rivalry between AJ and Petey when Alex suggested they should claim a hallway for them to sit and talk in. "They're still the same," he said with a shrug. "They still hate each other...Petey doesn't know about AJ and his new girlfriend..."
"I need to talk to Petey tonight. It's uh...kind of important..." his eyes shifted around the room, uncomfortable with the silence that fell upon them.
"Sure dude," Alex agreed. "What's it about?" Before he could let the words escape his lips, he broke out into a huge smile when he saw Petey with Libby and Annalynn. Both Alex and Austin stood up to greet the siblings with Austin and Libby sharing a small smile between each other. Annalynn jumped up in Alex's arms, giggling as he pretended to eat her arm.
Petey shook Austin's hand, "good to have you back," he told him, pulling him in for a hug and patted him on the back.
"Um, Petey?" Libby questioned, bowing her head and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "There's been something I've wanted to talk to you about..." She kept her eyes focused on the ground while she played with the sleeves that were around her wrist from her shirt. "See, I've kind of been seeing this guy..."
"He's a nice guy though," Austin cut her off with a smile. "And he has a cute little girl." He messed up Annalynn's hair while raising an eyebrow when he saw her struggling to get out of Alex's grip.
"Hey! I know! How about we take a tour of the rest of the studio by walking down the hall this wa..." Alex didn't bother finishing his sentence when Annalynn escaped from his arms and ran down the hall, smiling until she reached AJ's legs with a hug. Petey and Libby turned around, both of their faces frowning when they saw AJ picking up Annalynn with Sadie not far behind.
Her eyes met Austin's, both going wide and shocked. "Baby," Sadie whispered, tugging at AJ's hand. "Baby, come on, we'll go somewhere else..."
"No!" Petey shouted, startling everyone around him. "Sades, what's going on?"
Sadie continued to stare at Austin, not able to take her focus off of him. He hardly changed since the last time they had met, he still had a goatee, same scruffy hair, same intense eyes. It wasn't until he glanced down at her sandals did he see the heart shaped toe ring. "Wow," he mumbled to himself, leaning against the wall for support.
"Hey," Sadie mumbled back, hiding behind AJ. Libby gently took a hold of Annalynn's hand and lead her out of the hallway, leaving the five wrestlers to themselves.
For once, AJ and Petey looked at each other because neither of them knew what was going on. Sadie, Austin and Alex were silent as the glares continued because they didn't know what to say. With Sadie hiding behind her boyfriend, Alex shoving his hands in his pockets, Austin sitting on the ground because his legs couldn't support him anymore, and AJ and Petey not knowing why the three of them were silent, it made an awkward situation for anyone that walked by.
"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Petey finally asked, trying not to raise his voice.
"Austin and I... we used to date," Sadie finally spoke, ignoring Austin's chuckle from the ground. "Things got rocky and we broke up..."
"That's such bull shit," he moaned with his head in his hands. "But hey, figures you wouldn't tell the truth since you never said why you left in the first place."
She let go of AJ's hand and searched through her purse for her cigerettes. With a huff, she left the hallway with a smoke hanging out of her mouth, freshly lit. "Run away!" she heard Austin yell at her. "Run away like you always do! Fuck, God forbid you actually face a problem..."
"It was your fault!" she shouted back, taking the cigerette out of her mouth and storming back over. "It was your fault I left. It was your fault that I fell in love, and it was your fault that I ended up pregnant! It was all your fucking fault, Austin. All of it." He finally stood up, his head down and hands shoved in his pockets, much like his friend.
"Oh, and running away to Japan, dying your hair, getting coloured contact lenses and a boob job is supposed to make all of this go away? Damnit Dolly, you have a four year old daughter that asks about you constantly and draws pictures of what you think you look like... you think you have problems? Try dealing with that. Try dealing with the questions Annalynn constantly asks about you, and I have to make answers because you aren't there to answer them. You left us with nothing, Dolly! Not a fucking thing! You took all your money, and left. Just upped and left. God, you're just like your mother." She slapped him in the face after the last comment was spatted at her, tears falling from her eyes.
Dolly turned, hoping she could wrap her arms around her boyfriend and have her soothe her with his southern accent telling her everything would be OK, but he was off to the wall, standing beside Petey.
"Baby," she choked out, reaching out for him, "baby please..."
"You?" AJ finally asked. "You're Dolly? You're the Dolly that moved from Toronto, and slept with her teacher?" Doing her best to keep quiet, she wiped the tears away from her eyes without saying anything. "And you!" AJ shouted, pointing his finger at Alex. "You knew this whole time? You knew who she was before hand because you and Austin are best friends. This is fucking unbelivable..."
"No..." Petey mumbled. "What's unbelievable, is that fucking Alex kept this quiet and kept quiet about you," he pushed AJ away from him, "and whatever her the hell her name is!"
"I'm sorry," she apologized, looking at Petey. "Petey, just listen please," she begged. "I...I love AJ. He's different now, and we're in love..."
"You don't know love," Austin said. "You run away from love. When someone says they love you, you fuck off. The entire idea of love scares you, and it always has..."
"I was nineteen!" she shouted, her voice cracking. "I was nineteen, and I was in love with you. I was in love with you for twenty one months, and if it weren't for me, you wouldn't know love. You wouldn't know what it's like to charish someone as much as you charish Annalynn, or how to be proud as proud as you are of her. You wouldn't know any of that if it weren't for me. None of it!" Finally, she collapased to the floor without anyone catching her.
She sat there on the ground while everyone around her left, walking around the fallen woman as she cried. She cried and cried in the hallway by herself until she felt the familar arms helping her up and the tight embrace around her neck as she sobbed into their shoulder.
"Oh Dolly..." Candy mumbled, kissing the top of her head. "I had no idea..." The sounds that were leaving the smaller body were the same sounds that Candy remembered from the night in the Chevy when Dolly first found out she was pregnant. She never spoke or looked at her, but the hiccups and shaky breaths were still the same. "It's OK, Doll face..." she whispered, holding back tears of her own.
"He's right," Dolly whispered, pulling away and wiping away the tear that was falling down her cheek. "I am like my mother." Candy held her hand and lead her outside where the sat by the side of the building where she watched her old friend dig through her purse for her cigerettes. Taking a drag out of her smoke, Dolly watched her feet as they began to tap against the ground on an even beat, showing the nicotine wasn't helping her nerves. "I just left," she said out loud, waving her cigerette around in the air. "I didn't think about Austin, or Annalynn...because I couldn't handle having a kid, I just left. Japan was so miserable for the first few months..."
"Doll, you aren't even thinking straight," Candy whispered, taking the cigerette away and snubbing it out with the toe of her shoe. "You can stay with me tonight, OK? Alex is sharing a room with AJ, so it'll just be me and you, like the old days."
"The days that I left for no reason," Dolly mumbled, leaning a head on her friends shoulder. "Can I tell you something?" she asked suddenly, only moving slightly so she could look at Candy. When the red head nodded, Dolly gave her a small smile, "if it was a boy...I would've stayed. It's just...Austin didn't need me after Annalynn, you know? He had the girl in his life that he could love and spoil...he didn't need me anymore."
Candy sighed, wrapping an arm around Dolly's shoulders and pulling her close. "He's an excellent father. And Libby does an amazing job with Annie..." letting out another sigh, Candy gave a small laugh. "Alex loves her so much, he treats her like it's his own kid. All the guys do, and the girls just adore her. She's very mature," she pointed out.
"I can't believe you're still with Alex," Dolly moaned. "Oh, and before you find out from someone else...I kissed him. Twice."
Candy grinned, messing up the top of her friends hair, "I know," she whispered. "It was my idea to have him challenge you like that, to see if you really were willing to commit to AJ. You two seem happy together."
Dolly grinned back at Candy, a small blush rising to her cheeks. "I really love him," she said quietly. "I just don't know when to tell him. Those three words kill me, ya know?"
Candy nodded. "You'll find the right time. When Alex and I first figured out we loved each other...nothing mattered anymore. We got engaged like, weeks after because we waited so long to tell each other..." she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth as she stood up and held out her hand for her friend to take, "I want you to be my maid of honor, Dolly," Candy offered. "I want you up there with me when I give my word to him."
"Candy," Dolly gasped, accepting her hand, "I can't..."
"Please? You're my best friend, anyone else would just seem wrong. The entire locker room is going to be there anyways, and it's at Joe's beach house...please, Doll face?" Candy asked again. "I really need you up there with me."
With a shrug, Dolly agreed. "I...I guess so," she stuttered.
The red head shriekd in excitement as she hgged her long time friend, picking her up and spinning her in a circle. "Excellent! Now, we'll go to the change room and get ready for tonight. But tomorrow...you got a lot of explaining to to for Petey and AJ."