Thank you to ShannonTheAwesomeOne and Kirsteign Renee Orton for the reviews, they are wonderful and I hope you enjoy this chapter. I am dedicating this one to you two!
Chapter 5: Scarred and Broken
I am scarred, broken beyond repair and it should scare me but it doesn't. You see, the more time I spend alone, the more I think about things, bad things. Would it really be a terrible thing if I just drove my rental car into a telephone pole, or if I just didn't show up to a venue, instead disappearing? Who would miss me? I don't think it would be that many people, if anyone noticed at all. Cody might notice that I wasn't around anymore but he'd get over it eventually, after all, I'm nothing special.
Half the time no one seems too interested in making me feel like I'm wanted or that they even know I'm alive as it is. Randy just talked about himself at the coffee shop, boasting about how he ended up in his hotel room with some dumb blonde who threw herself at him the second she laid eyes on him, and that's nothing new anyways. I've heard the same story only with a different location and different girl more than just once. That's not fair you know. Randy's supposed to be my friend, a guy that I can rely on to be there for me, to give me the impression that he wants me around but lately all I get is rejected and ignored. I would do anything for him but apparently that isn't enough.
It's really nice of Cody to stick by me though, but it's still not such a great act on his part. As soon as the guys show up, he's a totally different person, diving right into the conversation about Randy's latest prospect, or Ted's embarrassing failures with the women he's gone after. I just wish things would go back to the way they used to be, when we were all happy together, just the four of us, like a family almost. I'm starting to wonder if that will ever happen, if I'll ever be happy again. For the time being, I guess I'll just have to keep surviving and struggling on my own. Until someone wants me around, I'll be Quinn all alone, crying at night when it gets to be too much for me to handle. I'm only one person, I can only take so much. And so, my story continues.
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Wandering down the hall to the arena where the Smackdown taping was taking place, Quinn's eyes wandered from closed door to closed door. In an attempt to find the dressing room where she was supposed to be, Quinn had felt herself feeling more lost and alone than she had ever felt. Cody hadn't talked to her since she arrived back in her hotel room, not that she expected him too, but with the way things had been going with him over the past few days, she figured he might at least call her or text her just to talk, or set up a car pool to the arena. No such luck. She knew he had buddied up with Randy and Ted, probably ignoring Quinn at Randy's request.
He wasn't even trying to hide it anymore, or sugarcoat the fact that she was a nuisance to him. Randy Orton didn't really want Quinn around him anymore. She could tell by the way he never looked at her when they were hanging out, or the way he never mentioned that Quinn was welcome to tag along when the guys were discussing plans for before, or after, the shows. There was even something in his posture that changed when she got within ten feet of him, almost as if he was disappointed or irritated by her mere presence.
In her head, she hadn't done anything wrong. She always did what he had wanted her to do without putting up a fuss, that had to count for something. If they went out to the bar, she wouldn't drink so that Randy could enjoy the night downing alcohol with his guy friends, then she'd drive them all back to wherever they were staying and make sure he got back to his room without incident. She took care of him, made sure he didn't get into much trouble and in return, all she wanted was for him to take notice of her. More often than not, the poor girl had found herself wanting Randy to realize that she was with them, doing whatever he requested from her. She wanted him to be aware of her presence, to want to be with her, maybe even as more than friends. Having a crush on him was an understatement, Quinn knew she was falling hard for the Viper and there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop herself.
Nothing mattered to him though, he wasn't interested in her, he was barely interested in having her around him anymore, but she wasn't about to give up on getting his attention. Something had to change eventually.
Lifting the bag containing her gear up onto her shoulder further, Quinn continued down the hall, searching out the location of her dressing room. She turned another corner and her eyes landed on the small group of people huddled in the hallway conversing, each man dressed in some form of ring gear and a cover-up, consisting of a t-shirt of sorts. Her gaze moved to the torso of the largest man and she straightened up, slowing down her pace as well. She met his own sparkling eyes and blushed at the handsome smile plastered on his face.
"Fancy meeting you here Quinn."
She couldn't help but feel a tiny bit better at just the sound of his voice. Lately, her self worth had been dwindling but there was something about the man that made her feel the teeniest, tiniest bit better about being alive. There was something about his accent and the tone he used when speaking to her that tugged at her heart the slightest little bit. She forced a smile back at Wade Barrett and relaxed her grip on her bag full of her gear, feeling it fall off her shoulder to rest in the crook of her elbow.
"Yeah, who knew you'd find a WWE Diva at a Smackdown taping." She joked back, closing the distance between them. She tossed a wave at Justin and Heath standing next to him before glancing at the fourth man, Zack Ryder, who was grinning like an idiot at her. His sunglasses, a bright orange colour for the frames, remained covering his eyes, his headband placed just right around his head to surround his spiked up hair.
"Quinn bro, how's it going?" Zack asked as he checked her out from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, his head moving as he did so.
"Don't call me bro." She shot back at the Long Island native, the other three letting out a laugh at her statement.
It didn't take much for Zack Ryder to get the point but Quinn instantly felt a pang of regret as he dropped his shoulders and wandered away, knowing where he wasn't wanted. She knew how he felt, quite often she was in his position, but as much as she wanted to call out and tell him she was sorry for making him feel unwanted, her voice just refused to work. She let out a low grunt and turned her attention away from the sad retreating wrestler, debating what she was going to do; stay and converse with someone who seemed to genuinely want to be around her, or go after a guy who probably needed to be put in his place anyway.
"What's up with you and Rhodes?" Heath asked, breaking her out of her internal debate over Zack Ryder. Quinn stared at him, clearly confused as to what he was referring too, there was much more to his question than she could even begin to give him an answer too without specification. "Yesterday, you and him were having coffee together, are you two just friends or is there something going on between you two?"
"Um-"
"You don't have to answer him." Wade cut her off, sensing her uneasiness, but also knowing that Heath was crossing a line into her personal business. She swore though, that the look on Wade's face suggested maybe he wanted to know the answer as well.
"It's okay. We're just friends. He made it blatantly obvious that nothing would ever happen between us from the first time we ever spoke." She stated, trying to sound bubbly and happy.
"And you're okay with that? You don't want to be more than friends?" Heath continued to press, wanting to know as much as he possibly could about the strange, gorgeous girl.
"Nope. Cody's more like my girlfriend most of the time anyways." She nodded with a single forced chuckle. She swore that as soon as the words left her mouth, Wade seemed to relax a little bit. Perhaps he was more interested in her than she could have ever imagined.
"Does the same go for Dibiase and Orton?" Justin questioned, wondering how a likeable girl like Quinn ended up being friends with a pompous jerk like Randy Orton.
"They're just friends of mine." Quinn nodded, hoping that her tone didn't give away that she wanted to be more than friends with Randy.
Heath seemed satisfied with her answers as he retreated into silence, watching her carefully. Justin threw her a smile of his own and nodded his understanding at him. Stepping away from the girl, Heath and Justin turned around and began walking down the hall, leaving Quinn standing next to Wade, simply being able to watch as the uneasiness of being left alone with the larger man took over. She inhaled a deep breath, careful not to make it too obvious to Wade that she was a little nervous, and her eyes met his, a warm smile present on his face.
"Some friends of mine were heading out tonight after the taping for a few drinks…" He started, shifting his body slightly so that he was just a little bit closer to her.
"Oh, that sounds like fun." Quinn replied back, a hitch in her voice. She mentally prepared herself for the rejection she had faced so many times before in similar situations. Someone would make a statement about heading out somewhere but neglect to actually invite her, or make her feel like she was welcome.
She watched carefully as he raised his right hand up and rubbed the back of his neck. Quinn's lips dropped into a frown and she stepped to the side, getting ready to walk away before he had the chance to exclude her from his plans. She nodded at him and turned her shoulders away from him, hesitating as his fingers gingerly wrapped themselves around her forearm.
"Wait," he looked at her, her eyes met his, "I'd love for you to join us."
Quinn tried to suppress the large grin quickly spreading over her lips. She couldn't help but light up at his offer. After months of feeling like no one cared to have her around, someone invited her out. She wasn't about to spend another night alone in her hotel room crying.
"Yeah, absolutely." She beamed at him, her arm feeling cold where his fingers had just been as his hand moved away from her.
"Alright then. I'll come find you after your match."
Quinn simply nodded at him, not trusting her voice totally. She flashed him another small smile before stepping around him and continuing on her way to her dressing room, hoisting her bag back onto her shoulder as she did so. Wade watched her walk away, trying to contain the pleasant smile erupting on his own face. He dropped his gaze to the floor and shook his head, moving away from the place he stood, now making his way to his own dressing room.
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It was her first scheduled match since the New Year had began. She wasn't necessarily a main eventing Diva but she was definitely one of the better girls on the roster, competing in the same league as Beth Phoenix and Natalya for the most part. Now, she waited inside the ring for Kelly Kelly to prance down the ramp, the crowd going absolutely insane for the Maxim model. Quinn just watched, alternating flicking each leg back to her butt, trying to get herself prepared for the match at hand.
Glancing backwards, Quinn looked at the announce panel, nodding her acknowledgement at Jerry 'The King' Lawler and the ever so annoying Michael Cole. She turned out whatever Cole was saying, most likely something degrading towards her, maybe even about the Diva's division as a whole was lacking massive amounts of talent, something that Quinn disagreed with greatly. It was full of decent talent, maybe not all of the talent was getting used to it's full potential but there were definitely girls on the roster that wrestled really well.
When the bell rung, signaling the start of the match, Quinn ran right for the blonde and wrapped her hands around her head, Kelly Kelly doing the same. The two of them moved in a circle, both gripping the others neck as they fought for dominance, to figure out who would take control. Quinn dropped the blonde to her knees before taking a fistful of her luscious blonde locks. Dragging the poor girl across the mat, Quinn let go of her and dropped an elbow into Kelly Kelly's chest, a loud scream of pain emanating from her lips.
A few more minutes of dominating the match, Quinn even going as far as to take a leap of the top rope to take down her opponent, and she was able to pin the younger blonde with ease. She stood up, flicked her hair out of her face and let the referee raise her arm in victory. The crowd seemed pretty split between cheering for her and booing for her. It was fairly obvious that Kelly Kelly was a crowd favourite, Quinn had known that going into the match and was somewhat expecting a mixed crowd reaction.
"Good match." Kelly Kelly whispered to Quinn as she rolled out of the ring, slowly making her way to her feet and struggling to walk on her own up the ramp.
Quinn basked in the cheers of the crowd for a few seconds longer before walking over to the ropes and climbing through, using the steel steps to flaunt her walk. Her first match since the beginning of the New Year was a much-needed success, Quinn feeling slightly better.
As soon as she stepped backstage, Quinn let out a huge sigh of relief. She definitely loved to be in front of a crowd, she liked it even more when she won her matches but she always felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders as soon as she was out of sight of the WWE Universe. She set her hands on her hips and looked around backstage, starting to walk towards the hallway to her dressing room.
With each footstep she took, a sound echoed in the open backstage area of the arena. She started to walk faster, trying to get to her dressing room to celebrate a good match by herself. At least if she was alone, she wouldn't have to feel embarrassed in front of other people and she knew that Randy wouldn't have been impressed with her short Diva's match. He was hardly impressed by anything she did anymore.
"Quinn!"
Turning around at the sound of her name, Quinn fought back a smile. She waited for Wade to close the gap between him and her, his own smile lighting up his handsome features. She wasn't expecting him to wrap his arms around but he did, whispering his congratulations into her ear as he did so. She hesitantly hugged him back but took the gesture in stride, running her palms down his arms as he pulled away.
"Thanks Wade." She nodded, his arms moving away from her body completely. She took the opportunity to look him over now, a pair of jeans covered his legs now instead of him standing there in his ring gear. A white t-shirt hugged his upper body nicely and the casual shoes on his feet suggested that wherever he had invited her too wasn't a terribly fancy place at all.
"How soon can you be ready to go?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I can meet you somewhere in about twenty minutes if that's okay? I can meet you at the place if that's what you want too-"
"Could you meet us out in the parking lot then? White Honda, Drew said he would drive."
"Oh, so you don't need me to drive then?" She asked, somewhat shocked. Every other time that Randy had told her they were going out to a bar, she was always guilted into driving, after she had nearly begged and pleaded for him to invite her and let her come anyway.
"Not unless you want to." He replied, rather confused at her question.
"Alright, I'll meet you in the parking lot in about twenty minutes." She smiled.
"Sounds good." He nodded at her, she just looked back at him.
Without another word exchanged between the two of them, Quinn took off down the hallway in a jog. Her wrestling boot buckles jingled as her legs moved quickly, trying to get her body to her dressing room where she had a limited amount of time to shower and get ready for her night out.
Wade watched her go, trying to contain the smile on his face. He had only known the girl for a few days but she was already starting to grow on him. He found himself intrigued by her, wondering what her life was like or what she did in her spare time. He most definitely wanted to get to know her a lot better than he did. Quinn O'Reilly had him hooked.
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