My Number One Fan

“Dom, Aalyah, settle down please.” Angie said, grabbing the two to stop them from running around.
“Dom tricked me!” Aalyah said as Dom hid behind his father.
“Dominick, what did you do?” Oscar asked, looking behind him to his son.
“Nothing, I just got her to go into Jeff and Riley’s room and try on one of Riley’s dresses.”
“Kids, this isn’t our house, and you don’t just go into people’s closets and put on their clothes.”
“Hey you know what,” I said, remembering something. “I’ll be right back.” I went to the guest room and opened the closet, opening the door on the ceiling that led to the attic. When I moved in, I had a lot of things and no room for them, so we ended up shoving most of it into the attic. I walked to a trunk and opened it, smiling when I seen it was just the trunk I was looking for.
“Jeff, come help me real quick!” I yelled, hoping he could hear me so I wouldn’t have to use my phone. When I heard footsteps entering the room, I knew he heard me.
“What are you doing?” he asked when he saw I was in the attic.
“Getting something to keep Dom and Aalyah’s attention.” I answered. “Help me get this trunk down.” With slight difficulty, which included the trunk nearly falling on Jeff’s head, we got it down.
“Dominick, Aalyah, come here!” I called when we got the trunk into the living room. When they walked in, Oscar and Angie following close behind them, I bent and opened the trunk.
“These are games I use to play with Matt and Jeff when we were younger, and not wrestling.” I said, picking up a box. “You can play with them whenever you come over here.”
“Wow, thanks Riley!” Dom said, looking through the box. He found my old baseball bat and mitt, when I played with Jeff and Matt when we were way younger.
“You played ball?” he asked, shocked.
“A little bit.” I answered. “Jeff and Matt are the real players though. They both wanted to become professionals when they were growing up.”
“But they ended up being wrestlers,” Oscar said, looking over at Jeff.
“Had a bigger passion for it than baseball,” Jeff said with a shrug.
“Do you have a ball?” Dom asked.
“Actually, yeah we do. I can go hit fly balls and you can try to catch them.” Jeff said, grabbing the bat and digging through the trunk until he found the ball.
“Is it okay?” Dom asked his parents. They both nodded.
“Let’s go,” Jeff said, leading Dom out into the front yard. Aalyah found my set of Jacks.
“What are these?” she asked me, holding the sack up.
“Those are called Jacks. Here, we’ll go out onto the porch and I’ll show you how to play it while we watch Jeff and Dominick.” She picked the Jacks up and ran out the front door. Oscar, Angie and I followed. Jeff and Dom was already in a full out game of catch. Oscar ran out to join them while Angie stayed on the porch with Aalyah and me.
“Okay, so this is how you do it,” I said, picking up the bouncing ball. “You pick up as many Jacks as you can, then you catch the ball. If you miss the ball, then you put the Jacks back and it’s the next person’s turn.”
“Okay!” Aalyah said. She watched me do a quick demonstration before having me put them back to try it herself.
“The both of you are great with kids,” Angie said, looking over to where Jeff was still hitting fly balls.
“Thanks, and believe it or not, the first little kid we’ve been around that we actually had to help take care of is my little brother Gunner.”
“Really?” Angie asked, picking the ball up to take a turn.
“Yeah. Not a lot of kids around here to baby sit Angie.” I said, looking around the yard.
“Oh yeah, it’s kind of hard to remember you’re actually from a small town.” Angie replied, sitting back as Aalyah grabbed the ball.
“Yeah, but it is still nice to be here. It’s so quiet and everything here.” I said. “And the air is so fresh. I don’t know why I left here.”
“Wasn’t it because you and Jeff had a huge misunderstanding?” Angie asked.
“Yeah, it was a misunderstanding on my part.” I answered her. “I really have no idea what I was thinking then. He’s the sweetest guy I’ve ever met.” I watched as he hit another ball out for Dominick to catch. He turned to look at us, smiling. He winked at me and turned back to the game.
“You two are great together.” Angie said. “You have no idea how much Jeff talks to Oscar about you, about how much he really loves you.”
“Yeah.” I said, still watching him. “We really are lucky to have found each other aren’t we?”
“Absolutely.” Angie said. Jeff came up to the porch and sat down beside me.
“Oscar took over,” he said, panting slightly. He watched as Aalyah bounced the ball, picked up a Jack, and grabbed the ball before it landed on the ground. “So is that how you do it? Mind if I try?” When Aalyah handed him the ball, he attempted to do the same thing she did, but missed the ball. “Your turn again,” he said, setting the Jack back down. She giggled and picked up the ball.
“So, what are you two up here talking about?” Jeff asked, leaning against the banister.
“Nothing really,” Angie answered. “Just stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?” Jeff asked, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward him.
“Girl stuff,” I replied. He stopped asking questions at once. We hung out outside for a while longer, Oscar and Dominick finally coming up to the porch after a while.
“So, who’s hungry?” I asked after a while as the sun started setting.
“I am!” Dom and Aalyah said together. We collected the toys and walked back into the house. Angie and I went into the kitchen to look for something to cook.
“They’ll be happy with Hot Dogs,” Angie muttered, looking in the freezer.
“Well, we’ll have the guys grill hot dogs and hamburgers and we’ll work on stuff in here.” I said, reaching around her to grab the meats from the freezer. “Jeff, Oscar!” I called. They walked into the kitchen, and just barely caught the hot dogs and hamburgers when I threw them at him.
“Get grilling,” Angie said, smiling. They grabbed the grilling equipment and went into the backyard.
“So, what else?” I asked her, thinking.
“Mac and Cheese is a must.” Angie replied. I nodded and opened up a cabinet, grabbing out two boxes of macaroni and cheese. Angie put water on the boil when the house phone rang.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hello, is Mr. Hardy there?” The person on the other line asked.
“May I ask who’s calling?” I asked. We knew fans got a hold of the landline’s number, so we screened calls for each other.
“This is Steven Andrews with the World Wrestling Entertainment’s drug facility.” the answer replied. “I have urgent business to discuss with Mr. Hardy.”
“Jeff!” I called out the back door. He walked in and I handed him the phone. “A Mr. Andrews from WWE’s drug facility,” I answered his questioning look.
“This is Jeff Hardy,” Jeff said into the phone. He listened for a moment before replying. “Yes, I understand.” he said, rubbing his temple with his fingers. “Yes, I’ll be waiting. Thank you.” He hung up the phone, and banged it onto the counter, staring at the floor.
“Jeff, honey what’s wrong?” I asked him, walking up to him and wrapping my arms around him.
“They’re sending a tester out every week to make sure I stay clean through out my suspension.” he said, wrapping his arms more securely around me. “And if I’m not clean, I’m fired.”