A.N.: Okay, since its been a while, I would suggest reading the previous chap again otherwise a few things could confuse you, lol. I'm very sorry this has taken so long.
.&.&.&.
I awoke around mid-day the next morning, inexplicably tucked into my own bed alongside Katie, both of us fully clothed and probably looking worse for wear. I was too scared to look at myself, but Katie looked a hot mess. We were cuddled up together, both of our faces covered in drool. Whether it was mine or Katie's, I had no idea, but I quickly rolled onto my back and wiped my face clean with the duvet.
Even though I'd drunk myself stupid the night before, my head was gloriously clear of any side-effects from being drunk. Although my memories were somewhat of a blur, I could remember vaguely throwing bricks at Angela's house, laughing a lot and crying on Matt's shoulder. That was pretty much it. I didn't really remember anything that was said, except for Katie's admission that her now-former boyfriend, Matt Hardy, had abused her.
I nudged Katie roughly and she grunted in disapproval. "Wake up," I groaned as I ran a hand through my hair with a sigh. A wave of nausea washed over me and I moaned out in despair. Looked like I didn't fully escape the aftermath of drinking in excess. "Wake up," I repeated, resting my arm over my forehead and closing my eyes.
"I'm awake," Katie groaned into her pillow next to me, holding her hands firmly over her ears. "Bollocks, my head's fucking pounding."
I laughed slowly and turned to look at her, she had her eyes squeezed shut against the small amount of light in the room. "Sucks to be you then." Katie frowned and turned further into her pillow, her hands still securely covering her ears from any potential loud noises. For a few moments, I contemplated on talking to her about what she had confided in me last night about Matt Hardy. However, I decided that it definitely wasn't the best time to be having a deep and meaningful conversation. Both of us were feeling varying effects of hang overs, Katie obviously receiving the worse end of the stick and I didn't think either of us would have been able to concentrate on the conversation at hand fully enough to do it justice.
Instead, I rolled out of bed and staggered across the room to the door. The apartment was mostly quiet except for the TV in the living room. I was headed towards the kitchen to put some bread in the toaster when I took in a large sniff of air, noting a distinct smell of freshly-fried bacon in the air. The feeling of nausea instantly returned and I rushed to the bathroom, barging in and leaning over the sink to empty my guts. Very lady-like.
Looking up into the mirror and into my own eyes, I groaned for the umpteenth time that day and held onto my belly. Hang over-induced sick-fests are just the worst. The door opened as I lowered my head, I presumed it was Katie so said nothing, in respect of her own hangover.
"Oh, I didn't realize that you're up, Hopey," came the all-too-familiar screechy voice of my enemy, Angela. I looked up at her and instantly began being sick in the sink again. Coincidence? I think not. "Aw, you're being sick? Good, you deserve it." Angela grinned maliciously and I shot a glare at her back as she turned around and left me alone. Fucking bitch.
Five minutes later, I felt it was safe to leave the bathroom as I hadn't been sick since and I couldn't hear Angela. I tentatively entered the kitchen, being careful not to breathe in too much in case I inhaled some bacon scents and started being sick again. Slipping some bread into the toaster, I ventured across the hall to the living room door and leaned in.
"Morning," I said smiling wanly at Matt, then Angela. My eye caught the time on the clock, it was just after noon. "Or afternoon, rather."
Angela didn't say anything, she just stared stonily at me. Matt grinned at me and leapt off the couch, and followed me back into the kitchen, leaving a disgruntled pig on the couch to watch a film by herself. I grabbed my slightly burnt toast and took a large, dry bite of it and began chewing as Matt came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and nuzzling slightly at my neck. I felt the urge to pull away, but decided against it because... well, because it felt good.
"How are you today?" he asked gently. I shrugged and shoved some more toast in my mouth. "Angela told me you were being sick in the bathroom." I nodded and continued putting toast into my mouth; it's the best way to get rid of a hang over. Dry toast. Not exactly the nicest tasting thing in the world, but it does the trick.
"Mmm, only twice," I said through a full mouth. Matt began kissing at my neck, his shadow of facial hair tickling at my skin.
"My poor baby," he muttered, soon returning to laying gentle kisses all over my neck. I pulled away, slightly irritated at his behaviour considering his wife was only in the next room. Not only that, but she was living with us now. Or at least I presumed so, since it was what had been planned.
"What's with you today?" I asked before stuffing the rest of the toast into my mouth and swallowing it whole, not even bothering to chew it. I turned around, his arms still around me and looked into his eyes as he rubbed my lower back soothingly. Matt smiled, gazing back into my own eyes. He leaned in closer to me, our lips barely touching.
"I've been thinking about what you said all day," he whispered, his tongue flicked out quickly, licking my lower lip slightly and leaving tingles in its wake. I smiled but then frowned, having no idea what he was talking about. "And I just want you to know that I l-"
"Why, what did I say? Was it something stupid?" I continued frowning and soon Matt was joining me.
"You don't remember?" he asked, obviously crestfallen and a little hurt by my mind's refusal to allow me the memories of the previous night.
"Not at all, sorry. I probably didn't mean it, whatever it was."
"Oh," he pulled away slightly, taking his hands off of me but still staying close.
"Yeah," I said, feeling a little guilty that I'd just killed his mood.
"Get away from him you filthy little slut."
Both Matt and I turned to see an enraged Angela standing in the doorway, giving me one hell of a death stare. She stormed across the room towards me, her face contorted in anger and her fists raised slightly. Angela wanted a fight. I wasn't prepared to give it to her.
"Calm down, Angie," Matt called out as he rushed forward to intercept her. He managed to grab hold of her and was attempting to drag her away from me, but she was feisty and giving him a hard job of it. Meanwhile, I just stood there at the counter, staring and blinking dumbly in disbelief. I wasn't going to get angry, I had no right to. Recently, I'd been enjoying her husband much more than I really should have been.
"You're a fucking cunt, Hope French!" Angela shouted over Matt's attempts to calm her down. I could feel my eyes going very wide, and I literally couldn't say anything to her. Not because she didn't deserve it, but because I was in actual shock. I laughed. The hatred within Angela quite obviously increased upon my shocked laughter and she began thrashing at Matt, digging her nails into his face in a vain attempt to get free.
"Fuck! Angela, stop it! You're just being paranoid," he screamed out, trying to stop Angela by holding her hands together behind her back. I frowned slightly. She wasn't just being paranoid really. If she'd walked in just a few minutes earlier, she would have caught Matt kissing my neck and licking me.
"Fuck you both! I can't wait for you to be fired, Hope! It's only a matter of time," and with that she shoved past Matt and stormed out of the room. A loud slam a few seconds later told us that she'd also left the apartment.
Matt took a step towards me but I stopped him with a stern glare. "You should go find her. She's your wife," I looked away from him, not wanting to see him as I fought the tears that were threatening to come up. Even though I hated Angela, her words had still hurt and he was still her husband. About twenty seconds later I heard the front door open and close again. I sighed and slumped over to the table, sliding onto a chair and resting my head on my hands.
It wasn't long before Katie had joined me in the kitchen and was making herself a cup of coffee, frowning at the loud noise the kettle was making as she did so. "Who the bloody hell was screaming earlier? Bloody woke me up."
"Angela," I offered, not caring to elaborate further. Katie took the hint and silently began making herself some toast too. I picked up my phone, which was lying on the table, and slid it up. Apparently I had three missed calls, two from Scotty and one from the FCW Offices, as well as accompanying voice mail messages.
With a deep sigh, I phoned up my voice mail and pressed the appropriate buttons needed to hear the messages. The first was from Scotty.
"I can't believe you. You're a fucking slut." My mouth literally fell open and I looked over to Katie, but she had her back to me. Was today 'diss Hope French and call her derogatory names for no reason day'? If it was, I must have forgotten to mark it on my calendar. I didn't have time to contemplate further as the next message began playing, which was from FCW.
"Hello Hope, this is Steve Keirn here. I need to speak to you urgently about an event that allegedly took place last night, please meet me after the tapings tonight, thanks."
Maybe that was what Angela had meant by saying it was only a matter of time before I was fired. If my amazing skills of deduction were correct, she reported me for bricking her house last night. Fucking bitch.
"Shit, I'm sorry," came Scotty's voice next. "We need to talk. Come round mine whenever you can, I'll be home all day and night. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to call you that. Oy vey." I scowled and deleted all the messages from my phone, then tossed it back onto the table.
I could tell the day was going to be horrible already.
.&.&.&.
Four hours later and overly large sunglasses, accompanied by some coffee, were the order of the day. My mild hang over was gone but I was incredibly tired and really starting to show it. The pounding loud music playing in Matt's car as we pulled up early outside the FCW arena was helping somewhat; it was definitely keeping me wide awake.
Angela and myself had taken Matt up on an offer to be driven to and from work that day, as he was scheduled to take part in the main event. Stars from WWE's main roster did appearances almost every week in FCW, and this week it was Matt's turn. They were in the front, I was in the back. None of us were talking.
Angela exited the vehicle first, briskly walking to the back and retrieving her luggage from the boot before storming into the arena. I just stared at her with a frown, silently wondering why life had to be so full of drama and bullshit. My mind was soon lost as I stared into space, only to be awoken by Matt shaking me lightly from the door.
"Hope, you okay?" he asked, concern etched into his features. I looked at him, still in my own little world, as if he was an alien invader. Then, quite suddenly, I snapped out of it and nodded slowly.
"Yeah, sorry. Just a little distracted by things, I guess," Matt smiled sympathetically to me, because after all, we were going through this love drama together. He hooked his head around the side of the car and looked up to the arena, then back at me.
"It'll all work out, don't worry," he said with a small grin. I wanted to believe him. "Are you ready to go in yet? Fans are starting to arrive," I groaned and looked behind me out the window. Sure enough, the FCW die hards were huddled up together at the entrance, waiting to be allowed inside so they can fight one another for the best seat. It was always the same group of fans who turned up early and for some reason, doing this made them feel like they actually knew you. Of course, they probably knew nothing about me other than my name and that I was British.
"I don't want to face them today," I mumbled, turning back to look at Matt before resting my head glumly on the car seat.
"Come on," he said, offering his hand to me. "We'll face them together."
I smiled and took his hand, allowing him to slowly pull me out of the car. Still linked together, we made our way to the back of the car and he unloaded our luggage, then we set off up the parking lot to the entrance with it tow. The fans instantly pulled their cameras out when they saw us, and I tried to pull my hand away from Matt's as if suddenly burned. But he wouldn't let me, he kept our hands firmly held together as his goofy grin swept over his face.
We stopped before the fans, simply because Matt still wouldn't let go of me. Personally I just wanted to walk right past them into the arena. They always asked such personal questions, and I could only imagine what would arise with Matt and myself standing before them, hand-in-hand.
Matt put his arm around me, and we posed for some photos as the fans attempted chatting to us. Little did I know, Matt was pulling the infamous bunny ears behind my head. I was wondering why two of the female fans were giggling. Then, it happened, the one thing I had been dreading. The one thing I was worried that if asked, I would start crying or freak out or something crazy.
"Are you two dating?" one of them called out from the small crowd. Yet, despite how deep the question cut me, I looked to Matt and couldn't help smiling.
"No comment," I stated, then walked on into the arena alone, feeling much more confident and stronger than before. I knew I had Matt's presence and care to thank for that.
.&.&.&.
A little over an hour later and the entire FCW roster, with accompanying main roster guests, were huddled up backstage listening to a talk by the head trainer, Steve Keirn. He'd been rabbiting on for a good fifteen minutes, and personally I'd lost interest around the fifteen second mark.
I was stood with Beverly, secretly staring at and admiring her shoes and wondering where she'd bought them. I hadn't been proper girly clothes shopping in a long time. Angela was sat across the room, with Matt standing behind her. I didn't even need to look at him to know his eyes were on me almost the entire speech.
"And finally," Steve said, 'yes!' I thought. "I must remind everyone to be on their best behaviour both in and out of the ring from now on. It's no secret that the WWE likes to fire many workers around this time of the year and considering we've already lost Scott Colton, aka Scotty Goldman and Cat White, aka Saylor James..." 'oh no!' I thought.
I didn't listen to the rest, it was just a repeat of the basic rules. Although, considering I'd received a written warning once before and I was almost certain I was going to get a warning later on in my meeting with Steve, perhaps I should have.
No, I was far too preoccupied by the news that Cat had been fired. Despite not being the best of friends, I figured she could have at least told me. It did explain why she wasn't answering my text messages and why I hadn't seen her lately. My mood had suddenly gone from being pleasantly happy because of Matt, to quite upset because of Cat's release. Great.
Everyone started moving around me and suddenly the depression was lifted slightly. It seemed as if the pre-show meeting was over. Yay!
Then I saw Steve Keirn making a bee-line for me, and my mood depreciated once more. "Hope," he called out. I smiled weakly, trying in vain to pretend I was happy to see him. His face looked stern, like he wasn't best pleased to see me, either. "Did you get my message?" I simply nodded. "Good, please come by my office ten minutes after the show has ended and we can have a little talk."
He walked away without checking that was okay for me, and I put my hand up to my forehead in a salute and said a very sarcastic yet quiet, "Yes sir."
Five minutes passed, and the show was starting. The first match of the night was the diva's in the Queen of FCW tournie. Angela, with Alicia Fox was taking on Rosa Mendes, who I had the duty of accompanying to the ring that night. We'd decided to go for matching colors of red and black, an age old yet sexy combination. I was in normal clothing and Rosa was, obviously, in her ring gear, which I was quite jealous of. It was then I realized I needed to do both some clothes and ring wear shopping. If I only had the time and energy. Being in love with another man's husband was hard, tiring work.
We were the first out, to Rosa's music, followed by Angela and Alicia. Myself and Alicia stood at ringside, doing nothing for the most part except cheering the woman we were managing on, although I got to verbally abuse Angela whenever she was in ear shot, which made me quite happy.
The match was soon coming to an end and the referee looked pointedly towards me to tell me so. Angela was on the floor close to my side of the ring, and Alicia and Rosa were now arguing, which drew the attention of the referee. I moved in close, reaching into the ring and grabbing roughly onto Angela's hair, then pulling her neck down on the bottom rope and choking her with it.
I laughed and turned around to face the fans, my arms held out as I cockily taunted them. Angela, meanwhile, got to her feet and ran at me with a baseball slide to the face just as I turned around to face her again. I staggered back, holding onto my cheek as pain seared through it. The bitch stiffed (made the move stronger than safe/needed) me! I couldn't have been sure of it at the time, because it was an easy move to accidentally make stiff, but I knew she did in my heart.
Restraining myself from attacking her, I stood at ringside and watched the rest of the match as I could feel my face already starting to bruise. Fabulous. Angela used the momentum she gained from attacking me to do a matrix evasion on Rosa, then got a roll up on her for the three count. Once the match was over, Rosa began freaking out. She slid out of the ring and began brawling with Alicia Fox, blaming her for her loss.
Angela and myself shared a stare down, but I began retreating up the entrance way. She turned away to look at Rosa and Fox, and I ran back to the ring and slid in. Of course, she was ready, because it was in the script. However, I wasn't ready for the stiff right hand she threw at my cheek. I fell to the ground in shock, and she kicked me hard in the face, breaking my nose and causing blood to begin pouring like a steam out of my nostrils. Another hard kick to the head and I was feeling distinctly light headed.
My hands flew up to cover my face and head and I felt her begin kicking away at my ribs instead. Then I heard something crack and my world quickly turned to black.
.&.&.&.
A.N.: Uh oh, Hope's in trouble and Angela's... a bitch, lol.
Again, I'm very sorry this has taken so long. I've not been overly busy, really. Just lazy and preggo. XD
As always, thank you to my wonderful reviewers: CenaCandiceLover4Life, Faither, Lily, BournePriceless54, X..x.X, JohnCenaFan, Straight Edge Queen and Alexa. To Alexa: Yeah, they are a lot of fun aren't they? Hehe. And breaking stuff is fun, too. =P
I promise you, the next chapter will be up sometime within the next few days; I already have half of it written! I'd like to thank everyone for being so patient with me, and I am again sincerely sorry it has taken me so long to write this.