WCW
Part Two
"We've done some kissing, we've done some necking, we've even done some dry humping, clothes on, but that's the farthest we've ever gone." May put her glass on the table, rather loudly, and looked at Renee without a trace of amusement in her expression. "What's wrong with me? Why doesn't he want me? He's giving me confusing signals, he takes me out, he acts like we're an item, he kisses me so well that my toes feel it, but yet... he won't go any further."
"Maybe he's waiting for you to make the first move?" Renee suggested.
"I kissed him that first night we went out," May said. "We went to IHOP."
Renee laughed, feeling the effects of the wine. She wasn't drunk, but she was pleasantly buzzed. "Everyone knows about that."
"We did make it kind of memorable," May admitted with a mock-guilty smile. The dancing she and Dolph had done in the parking lot had made it to You Tube and then had spread to almost every wrestling site that could have an embedded video. It made it to facebook, to be posted and re-posted, comments ranging from "Aw, isn't that sweet?" to the implication that Dolph was crazy. Most of the comments were along the line of Dolph was a wonderful guy to do it, with a few guys commenting that May had better give him any sexual favor he wanted after doing that. At first the WWE hadn't been quite sure what to make of it, but when the publicity for it was favorable, they put the video on their website and started acting like the whole thing had been their idea. At first, for copyright purposes, they muted the video, but then they were contacted by the copyright holder with permission to allow the song to be heard, because the fan versions of the video had lead to the song having a rise in sales.
"That must have lead to fanfics," Renee said, slyly.
"I don't know, I haven't had a chance to check," May said, shrugging. "But if it did, I'll bet they were sweet and nice and they ended with Dolph offering to call my dad and ask permission to date me." She stared morosely at her glass before taking another swallow. "Do we need another bottle? I know I need more."
"Maybe just another glass?" Renee suggested, knowing another bottle would push her over the edge to sloppy drunk and she didn't want to be sloppy drunk. May, on the other hand, looked fairly sober, considering she had probably drunk slightly more than her share of both bottles. "For a tiny thing, you can hold your liquor."
"Yeah, I think I got that from Grandpa," May admitted, looking around and catching Mandy's attention, motioning her over. "He can out drink anyone. I keep waiting to find out his liver exploded, but so far, so good." She knocked her knuckles on the table.
Renee laughed. "Your grandfather is awesome," she said. She had met him, along with other members of the WWE. Any show done near New York, he was there, proud as hell to cheer on his granddaughter and he'd also shown up at any dinners May's mother threw for the members of the WWE when they were actually in New York.
The were interrupted by Mandy coming over. May ordered a glass of house white. When she left, May downed the last of the Cava in her glass and frowned. "But, yeah, I kissed Dolph on that first date, and we've since done a lot of kissing, and some heavy petting, but it never goes further. And I don't know why."
Renee frowned now, trying to think through the bubbly alcohol fog wrapping around her brain. "Maybe it's because Alicia has a big mouth?" she offered.
May looked at her. "I've wondered if that's part of it," she said, biting her lip. "I know Alicia told everyone who would listen that Seth was... my first, but that's the point, he was my first. Does that mean he has to be my only?"
"God, I hope not," Renee mumbled. "Especially if the rumors are true..." her voice trailed off, then she put her hand over her mouth as if realizing what she said. "Sorry!"
"What rumors?" May demanded, looking Renee as if she wasn't sure if she should laugh or grab her. "Tell me, what rumors!"
"Nothing about you!" Renee assured her. "But..." she flushed scarlet, a combination of embarrassment and sparkling wine. "Oh! I can't-"
"Tell me!" May demanded again, staring at her, eyes only slightly bloodshot. "Tell me or when Mandy returns with my glass, I'll order two more bottles and make you drink one until you do tell me."
"You make me drink another bottle and all I'll do is pass out," Renee reminded her, grinning. "But I'll probably puke first, on you."
"Good point," May said, nodding to Mandy who delivered her drink and then walked away, sensing the two girls were at a point in their conversation where they didn't want an overly friendly waitress butting in. "But please, tell me!" she begged, taking a sip from the newly delivered glass. "Did someone say something about Seth and I?"
"Not you, Seth," Renee said, waving her hands as if by doing so, she could collect her thoughts. "You know how it is in the locker room, May. You've been here long enough. People say stuff."
"About Seth?" May asked, shaking her head. "How much is there to say? He had his girlfriend who wasn't in the WWE, then when they broke up, it was Dwonda-"
"-Dwonda?" Renee interrupted, staring at her. "Dwonda?"
"Oh, fuck," May slammed her head to her forehead. "I'm more drunk than I thought. You did not hear that."
"Oh, yes I did!" Renee disagreed, "I heard that just fine. Dwonda? You call her Dwonda?" She laughed again.
"Dwonda Dwousy," May said, flushing a color that was somewhere between red and purple. "And, well, it's not as bad as you think.
"Dwonda Dwousey?" Renee hooted the words and then laughed even harder. "Oh god!"
"It was my sister!" May protested, still looking embarrassed. "Thia! She was young and she was still working on that whole speech thing. We were talking bout Ronda at dinner-"
"-Who brought it up?" Renee interrupted to ask.
"Seth," May admitted. "I think we were talking about movies and her latest had just come out, my sister Thia wanted to join in the conversation, and she called her Dwonda Dwousey." May shrugged, trying to pass this off as no big deal.
"What did Seth do?"
May shrugged again, taking another sip of wine. "I think he was going to pretend he hadn't heard her say it that way. But my whole family started laughing about it, and..." May's voice trailed off as she remembered the scene vividly, her brothers and sisters, even her parents and her grandparents, all chuckling and giggling over it, and Thia looking pleased, knowing she had caused the merriment, even if she wasn't quite sure how. "Let's just say Seth wasn't the happiest person in the world."
"He got upset at a toddler?" Renee looked indignant.
"No, he didn't get upset at Thia, he isn't that mean, but I think he thought my family was a bunch of low-brow, inbred hicks for laughing so hard at it." May snorted. "That man never did have a sense of humor when it came to that woman. I'm glad they're happy together, but they take themselves and each other way too seriously."
"That's the truth," Renee agreed.
"So, as I was saying," May said, trying to bring some dignity back in the situation, "Seth went from his girlfriend out of the business to Ronda-"
"-Dwonda!" Renee interrupted, giggling again.
"Ronda!" May repeated, giggling herself now. "To me, and except for accidentally telling Alicia Big Mouth that he was my first, I never said a word about his, uh, horizontal wrestling skills, so what does the locker room say?"
"Oh you know," it was Renee's turn to look embarrassed. "When Shield was around, people talked... and girls speculated about them, you know how it goes."
"Yeah, I know how it goes," May said, "But what did they say? And what does Seth have to do with it?"
Renee finished the last of her glass, only slightly more than a sip, before answering. "Well, there was speculation about what each one would be like, you know, in bed."
"Okay," May agreed, and made a circular motion with her hands, encouraging Renee to continue.
"Everyone said that Roman would be all sweet and romantic. He'd bring you flowers, take you to dinner, compliment you, and then make sweet love all night long." Renee said, only turning slightly pink.
"Then he'd be kind enough to sleep in the wet spot," May muttered, rolling their eyes.
At this Renee burst out laughing. "Okay, crude, but yeah! Dean, on the other hand-" She stopped abruptly and flushed. "I'm not saying this is how Dean is, but the speculation was that Dean would grab you and ravish you. You know what I mean, you'd end up making it in every single room in the house and both of you would wake up in the bathroom."
"Covered in cherry frosting and bruises, and neither of your remembering exactly how it happened?" May finished, grinning, "but knowing it was pretty awesome?"
"Something like that," Renee agreed.
"So, is it like that?"
"I'm not telling!" Renee squeaked.
"Fine, fine, be that way," May said, sighing. "Okay then, what about Seth? What did they say Seth would be like?"
"The general consensus was that Seth would tell you every single thing you did wrong and tell you how to make it better... for him." Renee admitted.
May's eyes were wide and she stared at Renee. "I just thought he was like that because I was new to the game!" she finally said.
Renee's expression was a mirror of May's. "No!" she gasped, "He really did criticize you?"
May shrugged. "Not quite like you put it, but he was quick to give me advice."
"Asshole," Renee mumbled.
May shrugged again. "I wasn't that upset. I was new to it all, I would rather he was honest than to just get bored with me because I didn't know anything."
"Yeah, advice to make him happy," Renee growled, shaking her head. "What about you?"
"He-" May began, then took a sip of her wine. "Look, I don't want to talk about that, okay? It's my fault too, I didn't tell him I was a virgin when I hooked up with him in that bar, so it isn't like he took advantage of me, I pushed myself on him. Not to mention, Seth and I are over. He's with Ronda-"
"Dwonda," Renee interrupted, giggling.
"Ronda!" May repeated, suppressing her own giggles. "He's with Ronda and the two of them are happy, so I can't fault that. I mean, at least they're getting some, which is more than I can say for me." She sighed.
"Again, maybe Dolph is nervous because, well, he knows Seth was your first," Renee suggested. "And after all that crap with Amy, he might be worried that you're worried about him."
"Crap with Amy?" May looked at her. "You mean the comedian he dated?"
"Yeah," Renee said, looking at her, realizing May looked completely bewildered. "Uh, you know about her, don't you?"
May shrugged. "I know they dated, I know he still keeps in touch with her. I mean, he responds to her tweets and stuff. They seem to be comfortable in the 'we're still friends' zone."
Her own glass empty, Renee grabbed May's glass, which was only a quarter full, and drained it. "Oh, Girlfriend, if that's all you've heard, you don't know that half of it." She looked around for Mandy. "We'd better order another bottle."
"Do you think May is into me?"
Dean looked up from the mini refrigerator, hand pausing from grabbing a beer. "What?" he turned to stare at Dolph who was sitting on the bed, looking fairly morose for Dolph.
"Do you think May is into me?" Dolph repeated. The show was over and they were in Dean and Renee's room together. Dean had promised Renee he wouldn't go out and party that night, so he and Dolph had decided to go to Dean's room and have a few drinks together and wait for the girls to get back.
"I don't know," Dean said, continuing where he had left off, and actually grabbing the beer this time. He pulled it out and tossed it easily to Dolph, who caught it gently and held it for a moment, making sure the bubbles had calmed down before opening it. "We only have science together and she's not my lab partner." Dean grabbed another beer for himself and straightened up, closing the refrigerator door. "But if you want, I can have Renee give her a note during study hall."
"Ha-ha, very funny," Dolph muttered, opening his beer, the second one of the night, and taking a healthy swallow.
"Dude, you waltzed with her in the parking lot of IHOP," Dean reminded him, sitting down on the other bed. He liked when Renee and he could get a room with two beds, rather than one. There was something satisfying about having one bed as a playground and then to have another, clean bed to sleep in. Dolph was laying on the playground bed, a fact that Dean had no intention of telling him. "If that didn't score major points with her, then she's too much maintenance. And I know for a fact, she is not a high maintenance type of woman, so what brought this on? The fact that she and Renee are having a drink-and-be-bitchy night?"
"Yeah, I just-" Dolph began, then stopped and frowned. "How do you know she's not a high maintenance type of woman?" he asked, the hint of a growl in his voice.
"Easy, Noodles, don't jump to any conclusions," Dean said with a chuckle. "I'm just remembering when she was dating Seth, half the time it was like she never existed." When this earned him a murderous look from Dolph, Dean sat up straight, a puzzled look on his face. "What?"
"That's because to Seth, she didn't really exist," Dolph said, surprised at the venom that crept into his voice. In an effort to calm himself down, give a little space between words, he brought his bottle to his lips and drank down a good quarter of the bottle in one gulp.
"Yeah, she did," Dean protested, looking slightly bewildered as if he had no clue where this attack was coming from.
"No, she didn't," Dolph disagreed. "Dean, don't pretend everything was all peachy-keen when they dated. You and your buddy Romy treated her like dirt."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked, looking honestly puzzled.
"Don't play stupid, it works in the ring, but not here," Dolph said. "She's forgiven you, I guess, so I need to be the bigger man, and do the same, and I have, but that doesn't mean I forget, you know? May and I were friends then, just friends. She and my brother were good friends back when they were both in NXT and it gave us a common ground to be friends, But still, I'm not stupid. She never talked about it, but it was always there."
"What was there?" Dean asked, upper lip curled in an expression of almost bewilderment. "I'm not playing stupid, Dolph, I swear, I really don't know what you're talking about."
"The way you and Roman treated May!" Dolph said, louder and sharper than he intended. "Okay, I get it, Roman and Ronda somehow magically bonded, even thought the man has his own sisters, somehow they didn't fill a void in his life, that Ronda could fill. I think it's fucking creepy, but I get it. I wonder if his wife gets it, but that's their problem. So, yeah, given that Roman thinks Ronda hung the fucking moon, I get why he was pissed off at Seth and even a bit at May at first. But Jesus Christ, Seth and Ronda were over."
"Yeah, we all know that," Dean said, trying not to roll his eyes. "Your point?"
"My point is that May was innocent of any wrongdoing. Even Seth knew enough not to paint her with the blame brush, which, actually surprised me." Dolph drained down the rest of the bottle and went over to the refrigerator and helped himself to another.
"Please, Dolph, help yourself," Dean muttered under his breath. He wasn't really worried about it, it a mini bar, where they charged twelve dollars for a beer, it was a small refrigerator kept in the room for the convenience of the guests and he had stocked it with beer himself, but he was surprised Dolph hadn't asked, or at least announced he was going to help himself. "Yeah, again, where are we going with this?"
"May is the one who paid for it, she paid for everything and she paid for two years," Dolph said, a little surprised himself at how upset he was getting about this. "Roman and you forgave Seth, the whole brotherhood thing, I guess, but Roman couldn't bring himself to forgive May, who never did anything wrong in the first place!" He opened his beer and took a sip as he went back to the bed to sit down.
"How did she pay?" Dean asked, tipping his head to one side.
"She paid by being snubbed by Roman. You too, in truth, but mostly Roman."
"How so?"
"Oh, don't be dense," Dolph said, shaking his head. "Everyone in the locker room saw it. Everyone. If May and Seth were in catering together and Roman came in, he'd look at them, then go and sit somewhere else. If May walked in and Roman and Seth were sitting together, she would look at Seth and he would give her that, 'please don't join us,' look, and May would slink off to sit somewhere else."
"Yeah, when it comes to Ronda, Roman is a real dick," Dean said casually, treating it as the common knowledge it was. "I don't get it either, I mean, she's okay and she makes Seth happy, but I don't really see why all the higher ups treat her like her shit doesn't stink. She's okay, but she was also coddled right to the top. I mean, she's Seth's lady and for that, I get along with her, but Renee has pointed out she's got a raging ego and I see it. But really, is it May's goal in life to be buddies with Roman Reigns?"
"No," Dolph said. "Well, I don't think so now, but there was a time when she was dating Seth where she wanted all of you folks to get along. She gets along great with Renee. But when it came to things like...going out as a group, as you three were prone to do, May didn't go with you! Because of Roman."
"Guys night out," Dean said, shrugging. "Like right now, you and I are drinking in my hotel room, because the ladies are having a night out. Sometimes Seth, me and Roman went out together, just the guys."
"How often did you or now do you have guys only nights, now that Seth is back with Ronda?" Dolph asked, pointedly.
Dean thought about it for a moment, and frowned. "Okay, I see your point." The truth was, if the three of them did decide to go and grab something to eat after a show, or have a few drinks, Ronda always tagged along. He never thought about it much, because Roman was really close to Ronda, and in some ways, she was one of the guys. But, now that Dolph was being so blunt about it, he could remember a few times when Renee had gone along with them, and May had not. Renee had asked once, why May didn't join them, and Seth had brushed it off with some excuse, she had to catch up on emails to her family, or she was just too tired. Dean wondered now, if those excuses were as lame as they sounded.
"Seth acted like he was single when he dated May," Dolph said. "I'm not saying he cheated on her, but even when you guys were in Florida, or someplace Roman's wife was around, all of you went out together, but May stayed back at the hotel. Do you understand how that must have made her feel?" He drank another swallow from the bottle, then frowned at it, realizing he'd better sip or he was going to end up getting hammered and he really didn't want to get hammered tonight.
"I have no clue how that made her feel," Dean said, finishing his own bottle and going to get another one. "She never said anything, at least not that I heard about it. If she said anything to Seth about it, he never told us."
"She probably didn't," Dolph admitted. "But that didn't mean she didn't feel anything. God, Dean, didn't you see it, or didn't Roman see it, or were the two of you too busy crying because Ronda wasn't around?"
"See what?" Dean asked, ignoring the Ronda remark.
"Seth was using May like she was a hooker or something!" Dolph cried out, and this time no one could mistake the anger in his voice. "'Hey, let me go out and drink with my buddies, then I'll come back and screw you, if we're both awake!' Can you imagine how that made May feel? The girl was a virgin when she went to bed with Seth-"
"She didn't tell him she was a virgin," Dean interrupted. "You can't pin that one on Seth. She came on to him at the bar, and acted like she'd done this before."
"I'm not pinning it on Seth!" Dolph drained the bottle and went for another one, stuck somewhere between 'be careful' and 'screw this I'm angry.' He threw the old bottle in the trash and helped himself to another beer. "At least not the first night. But I'm sure he knew after that. May would have told him. Maybe not the morning after, but some time in the first week. So he knew he was her first, and he still treated her like a piece of meat! And not even good meat, the cheap stuff!"
Dean tipped his head back and roared with laughter.
Dolph glared at him. "It's not funny."
"Yeah it is," Dean said, still laughing as he spoke, "Dolph, we all know May didn't do anything wrong."
"Yeah, so why did Roman treat her like shit?" Dolph asked. "I mean, Ronda left to pursue her acting career. Yeah, she thought that she and Seth were still an item, but apparently Seth didn't. It was a horrible misunderstanding that May got caught in the middle of. So why did Roman act like May had broken them up? Ronda and Seth were already on the skids at that point, everyone saw it. Seth couldn't deal with her ego! So why did Roman take it out on May? It wasn't fair!"
"No, it wasn't," Dean said, "It was pretty damned shitty of him. But, that's on him, it's not on May. It's not May's fault Roman was being a dick."
"But do you think May didn't suffer because of that?" Dolph asked. "Do you think May didn't feel like an outsider. Jesus, the day I asked her to go to IHOP with me, she asked me if everyone on the roster was feeling sorry for her, if they looked at her as a temporary resting place for Seth's dick while he was away from his one twue wuv, Ronda. Roman's Seth's and in part your attitude left that woman feeling like she was nothing. Seth was her first... lover, for lack of a better term, and he totally didn't appreciate what a gift she gave him, what trust she put in him. How did he reward her? By making sure she knew, every second of every day, that she was not Ronda Rousey. And he did that to her for two years!"
"If things were that miserable, then why didn't she leave him?" Dean asked.
"I don't know," Dolph admitted. "Maybe it's for the same reason people stay with people who physically abuse them. You keep being made to feel like you're no good for anything but being abused, and after awhile, you believe it. You stay with that person because they make you feel like they're the only one who will put up with your crap."
"I don't know, May seems to have a pretty good sense of self," Dean said. "I mean, she knows she's a good wrestler, and she is. I'm not saying she's got ego, like Ronda, but she is good. If Trips had shown the same interest in her that he showed to Ronda, there's no reason why May wouldn't have been as popular as Ronda."
"I don't know, there's something weird about how popular Ronda is," Dolph said darkly. "It makes absolutely no sense. Yes, I can see her being popular enough, but for some reason, it's like that woman put a spell over the WWE universe. I swear, she's got some inward knowledge of who she needs to pander to and who she doesn't."
"Ronda's got issues of her own," Dean said, feeling that he needed to deflect the conversation away from Ronda. "And none of this is telling me why you're upset that May is out talking with Renee tonight. Why do you care? It's just a girls night out. A chance for them to extend the claws a bit, without hurting anyone."
"I care because I want to do everything right!" Dolph said. "You know my past, you know about Amy, you read the gossip rags, you know my reputation!"
"Yeah, so?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, so, I walked into things with May knowing that I've already got a few strikes against me. Let's face it, my reputation is that of a man whore. Hell, let's not even put the man in front of it. If it's a bad term for women, it's a bad term for men too. My reputation is that of a whore. I don't want May to see me as that! I don't want her to see me as my reputation, because I'm not just my reputation. I want her to see who I am!"
Dean stared at him in disbelief. "Holy shit!" he finally said.
"What?"
"You aren't falling for May," Dean said, "You've fallen for May. Past tense. You're head over heals."
Dolph glared at him, part of him wanting to punch him in the face, but realizing that he didn't want to harm Dean because Dean was full of it, he wanted to harm Dean, because somehow, in Dolph's semi intoxicating rant, Dean discovered the truth.
End of Part Two.