Chapter 17
Both Colby and Zelia broke apart instantly, their eyes wide at the sight of a very irate looking Jon standing a few feet from them. "Man, chill the fuck out. I was comforting her." Colby was the first to speak, pushing Zelia behind him. "Something YOU should be doing."
"Right, like I'd ever comfort a whore like her." Jon spat viciously, his eyes a dazzling blue because of how pissed off he was. Whenever he was calm, they had the grey overlay to them, but right now they were nothing but two icicles directed at his so-called friend and the woman who ripped his heart out singlehandedly.
"Do you think every single person she touches she fucks?" Colby demanded angrily, clenching his fists at his sides. "She's a sweet girl, Jon, and you just don't wanna admit that you have feelings for her! Or better yet, that you lo-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Jon cut Colby off and was done talking, tackling Colby to the ground with an animalistic roar.
Zelia barely moved out of the way and felt her eyes shoot open because Colby's head had bounced off the asphalt. "Stop it, Jon! He's not doing anything! We're just friends!" She cried out, going on pure instinct and began yanking on his arm to try to get Jon off of Colby "Please!"
"GET OFF ME!" Jon roared, swinging his hand back and felt it connect with Zelia's face while going to punch Colby, immediately freezing.
"SHIT! Get the fuck off of me, bro!" Colby snarled, shoving Jon away from him and scrambled over to where Zelia lay on the ground, holding the side of her face. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO, ASSHOLE?"
"Zelia…"
"Zelia, let me see your face." Colby demanded, breathing heavily and ignored the blood coming from his split lip and eyebrow where Jon's fist had connected. "Roll over, sweetheart."
Zelia swallowed hard, feeling as though her face might explode and winced, letting Colby turn her over so he could look over her face. "Y-You're bleeding…" She stammered out, chest rising and falling rapidly.
Jon was still frozen solid, his feet feeling as though they were cemented to the ground. He didn't move when other footsteps clomped toward them, his eyes remaining on Zelia. Both of his hands trembled along with the rest of his body and Jon couldn't believe he'd just struck Zelia. It was an accident, she grabbed his arm and he reacted instinctively. Jon was NOT a woman beater, contrary to popular belief because of the whole mess he had with Reby Sky back in the Indy's.
"What the fuck happened?" A low baritone growl resonated around them and Jon recognized the voice instantly.
"Mark…"
"She got caught in the middle of our scuffle." Colby answered before Jon could, slowly pulling Zelia into a sitting position. "She was backhanded…"
Mark's acid eyes immediately landed on Colby, a snarl curving his lips. "By who, boy?" He demanded, ignoring Zelia's soft plea.
Colby didn't say anything and that gave Mark his answer, acidic eyes turning on Jon. Another second later, Jon was dangling from Mark's muscular large hand by the neck, his feet completely off the ground. Colby swallowed hard with wide chocolate eyes, not knowing what to do. Part of him wanted to watch Jon suffer, but this man as like a brother to him and he felt a certain loyalty spark within. Zelia managed to stumble to her feet, holding her face and pushed aside her pain because she had to stop Mark from throttling Jon.
"Mark, stop it!" She cried out, using a lot of her energy and felt Colby behind her in case she collapsed, wincing. "Please, it was an accident! Please don't hurt him!"
Mark didn't believe that, glaring back at the boy that made Zelia's life miserable since they reunited back in November. "That's a lie!" He growled angrily. "Don't lie to me, Zelia!"
"I-I'm not." Her voice dropped because Zelia felt incredibly dizzy and sick, swaying a little. "P-Please don't hurt him…" She reached out and touched Mark's arm that had the hand attached currently throttling Jon. "Mark, let him go now."
Snarling, Mark made the mistake of locking eyes with her red-rimmed swollen jade and immediately opened his hand as Jon crashed to the asphalt in a heap. He didn't know what to do right now. He watched as Zelia dropped to her knees beside Jon and shook his head sadly, walking away back inside the arena. Joe and Valisa flew past him with wide eyes, having received a text message from Colby about what happened.
"Jon…" Zelia whispered, hating hearing him gasp and cough harshly from being throttled, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Jon, are you okay?"
"Get the fuck away from me." Jon growled harshly, acting like her words just physically burned him and stumbled to his feet. "You're nothing but a whore and I'M DONE WITH YOU! You tell your big bad dog that he's about to be put down courtesy of Jonathan Good." He spit on the ground right at her, not catching his mark and stalked away from everyone, heading further down the parking lot.
All Zelia could do was bury her face in her hands, her emotional pain overshadowing her throbbing heavily bruised cheek, her heart completely shattering at Jon's harsh words.
~!~
The next night was the Smackdown! taping and would mark Zelia's official debut in the company with Team Hell No. They had a match against 3MB, which stood for 3 Man Band that consisted of Heath Miller, Raj Dhesi and Andrew Galloway, –Fans knew them as Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre- but only Heath and Andrew were facing Glen and Bryan that night. Zelia hadn't said a word to anyone after what transpired the night before, wanting to put it completely out of her mind. The whole right side of her face heavily bruised in a mixture of blue, purple and black. Luckily, her eye wasn't swollen shut or she wouldn't be able to debut on Smackdown! that night.
Tiffany, the makeup artist, worked her magic and managed to cover the bruise up with a lot of foundation, but it didn't look caked on. Her eyes were smoked out, dark red lipstick painted her mouth and her outfit was the same as it had been the night before. Corset top, skinny black jeans, steel toed knee-high boots and the black choker around her neck. Her nails were redone in black and clipped down to a sporty style. The only difference tonight was Janet, the hairstylist, decided to pin her hair up on top of her head in a black clip, making the black tresses fan out behind her to hang down her neck and back.
She looked breathtaking, Jon thought, as he taped his hands up for the Shield segment that night, stopping mid-tape to stare at his hand. The hand that struck Zelia. The bruise could still somewhat be shown through the makeup, but luckily her hair covered most of that side. He had to look really close in order to see it and felt sick to his stomach, clenching his fist tightly. Colby hadn't spoken a word to him and Joe maintained his distance, both leaving Jon completely alone. For whatever reason, Mark did not report the incident and Jon was grateful because the last thing he wanted was to be suspended. Jon was not a woman beater by any means, so the fact he struck the woman he'd been in love with for years made his stomach twist violently.
And he still had no idea why he went ballistic on Colby.
"Jealousy." Joe had said earlier while they were working out and Jon had asked that question aloud.
He was right. Jon was jealous of every single man that laid a finger on Zelia and he didn't understand why. Maybe it was his dominant side coming out and he definitely had one. He was the only man who wanted to touch Zelia in any capacity and the thought of her screwing around with married men sickened him. No matter what Zelia did behind closed doors, there was no excuse for Jon to do what he did to her. It didn't matter that he struck her on accident, the bottom line was he laid an abusive hand on her and it made his stomach churn. This situation with Zelia had been blown way out of proportion and Jon had to make it right. They would have to work closely together because now she was on television, so Jon didn't want a tense working environment. If she wanted to screw married men, he had to accept that and move on somehow.
After the segment, Zelia was definitely a little more at ease than she had been the previous night. Her face was throbbing though. Tylenol was the only thing on her mind at the moment because her throbbing face had caused a small headache to form. Zelia arrived back in the locker room, grabbed her bottle of Tylenol, cell phone and headed into the bathroom to change. She pulled on a long sleeved burnt orange top and black dress pants, –Jeans weren't permitted to wear from Superstars and Divas- taking the clip out of her hair. Zelia sighed with relief and knew the clip holding her hair up had contributed to her headache. She headed outside with bottled water, needing some air to try to help settle her adrenaline down and jumped up on the equipment trunk, letting the night air rush over her. Her cell phone rang as soon as she popped some Tylenol and looked down at the caller ID, jade eyes widening at the name.
"Holy shit." She whispered, answering on the 4th ring. "Hello?"
"Hey Zelly."
It was Aric Connely, Jon's old tag team partner back in HWA and also an old friend of Zelia's. "Well I'll be damned. Ric, how the hell are you?"
Aric chuckled, not minding that she called him by his ring name from back in HWA. "I'm good, girl. Real good. How are you? I saw you on TV with some of the other guys."
Zelia blushed, lowering her eyes and leaned back against the truck that the equipment trunk was against. "Yeah, it's definitely different." She admitted, suddenly needing a cigarette because it'd been quite a while since the last time she spoke to Aric. The only reason he had her number was because she'd kept in contact with him and made him promise never to tell anyone, especially Jon. "So to what do I owe this honor for you calling?"
Aric heaved a sigh through the phone. "I know you told me to only call you when it's an emergency, but I figured you'd want to know this information before it got out."
"Okay…" Zelia took a long drag of her cigarette and prepared herself for the absolute worse.
"Sam got signed to the WWE."
It took Zelia a minute to realize who Aric was talking about and she felt her jade eyes widen. "You mean…Sami? Sami Callihan?" His real name was Sam Johnston and he was a close friend of Jon and Aric's, though Zelia also had a friendship with the man. One of the nicest guys she ever met in her life was Sami. "That's amazing! I take it he's going into developmental."
Aric breathed a sigh of relief, glad Zelia wasn't upset about this. He was the one who called her to let her know about Jon being signed to the WWE, though he wasn't sure if Zelia even believed him. She had to see with her own eyes that Jon had arrived in the same company as her. It was also Aric who sent over all of Zelia's credentials to WWE headquarters because he felt horrible when HWA let her go, only for the entire company to shut down a few months afterwards. Of course, she would never know that because Aric didn't want her thinking it was a charity handout.
"Yes, just like Moxley did." Even though Jon had dropped the name Moxley for the name Ambrose, he still saw the man as Jon Moxley and nobody else. "Listen, I have to go, but I just thought I'd relay the news to you. And for the record, you looked beautiful last night. Keep up the great work, Zelly."
"Take care, Ric."
They ended the call and Zelia finished her cigarette before hopping off of the equipment trunk, her mind spinning. Sami had finally made it to the big leagues. He was extremely talented, she just hoped the WWE gave him the right character. Grabbing her bag and purse, Zelia pulled her keys out and headed toward her rental car, ready to go back to the hotel for the night. The parking lot lamps made it easier to locate her car in the darkness, but nothing prepared Zelia for what she was about to see.
"What the hell?"
Zelia dropped her purse and bag on the asphalt, tears instantly filling her eyes as her hand covered her open mouth. Her rental was completely trashed from the front to back, shattered glass surrounding it from the broken windows. The windshield was also smashed in along with the back, huge dents all over the body. But what caught Zelia's eye the most and what made her heart clench painfully in her chest was the red spray-painted word that stuck out against the white car like a sore thumb. WHORE. The events from the previous night after Raw flashed through her mind and there was only one person who called her that and who was capable of this kind of damage.
"That son of a bitch…" She whispered, trying to keep her temper in check, but it was extremely hard to do.
At that moment, suspect number one walked out of the building with his book bag over his shoulders and bag in hand, lighting up a cigarette. He had a black t-shirt on with ripped blue jeans, a black baseball cap on his head backwards and headphones around his neck. Joe had already taken off back to the hotel and Colby was on the phone with his girlfriend in Florida, so Jon would have to wait a bit before heading back to the hotel. His ears perked up at the sound of crying, instantly making every part of his body tense and headed in the direction.
"Zelia?" He called her name from behind, recognizing her instantly even through the dimly lit parking lot and noticed the damage sustained to her rental car. "What the hell happened here?"
Zelia slowly turned around to face him, her face completely tear streaked and that anger she desperately tried fighting down exploded. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She shrieked, flying at him and Jon ended up catching her, stumbling back a little.
"What the fuck, Zelia?!" Jon growled, trying to block her raging fists as they struck him in all directions, even nailing him in the eye. He held her away at arm's length, but her arms were long enough to still reach his body. "ZELIA, STOP!"
"NO!" She screamed, shaking her head as her heart completely shattered again, wondering how many more times it would before giving out. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU!"
Was she serious? She was actually accusing him of destroying her rental car? Had Zelia completely lost her mind? Jon could tell he wouldn't be able to talk to her until she calmed down. There was only way to do it, as much as he didn't want to, there was simply no choice in the matter. Yanking her flush against his rock hard body, Jon roughly captured her mouth with his in an explosive kiss, tightening his hands on her upper arms. Zelia whimpered against his mouth and couldn't fight the kiss off, more tears spilling down her cheeks. No matter what he did or called her, Zelia still loved him and that would never change. When they parted, both were breathing heavily and Jon instantly released her, taking a step back, damp dishwater blonde hair hanging somewhat in his eyes.
"Why did you do this?" She asked in a calmer voice, chest rising and falling.
"I didn't." Jon grunted, hating that he'd shown her affection all to calm her down. "I wouldn't do something like this, I'm smarter than that, Zelia."
"It says whore, Jon." Zelia pointed out, glaring at him now. "You called me that last night, remember? Who else would spray-paint whore across my rental car after destroying it? I don't know what I ever did to you to deserve this, but…"
"I DIDN'T FUCKING DO IT!" Jon erupted, his voice carrying through the parking lot and fought the urge to yank her in his arms again to kiss her just to shut her up.
"I don't believe you." Zelia said flat out, folding her arms in front of her chest and shook her head as he stalked away from her, touching her swollen lips with her fingertips.
If Jon didn't do this, who did?