The Rivals

||Anita||
As the bell rang and the match ended I watched Quinn leave feeling more than a little guilty. I stalked over to Chris and pulled him up off the ground. “What in the Hell was that!?” I demanded. He was still in pain, so I just grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him backstage. Once I’d gotten him to the trainer room, with a lot of help from Paul, I got right back in his face. “What were you doing?!” I hollered.
“What you said…” He whimpered.
“No, you didn’t. I told you to just come down and maybe interfere if it looked like she was going to win! I didn’t say to shove your tongue halfway down her throat you old perv!” I took a deep breath and ran my hands through my hair.
“Jesus, Ani, you should go apologize.” Paul suggested. I just nodded. I had never intended for Chris to take it that far.
“I’m going to go find her.” I finally said. I walked out and went to the locker room, Barbie was cowering in the corner, but before I could say anything Quinn got right in my face.
“You know Bob I only wish I was as vindictive as you. If I was, Barbie would be fucking that boyfriend of yours.” She snapped. I looked over at Barbra, had they been planning to use her to take Paul away from me? Before I could think too much about it Quinn was right back in my face. “You have made a big mistake Anita, you’ve crossed the line. You are going to pay dearly for it.” Then she stormed out. Sarona walked out behind her, making sure to slam into me with her shoulder. As I changed I noticed Barbie still cowering in the corner. I just looked at her for a while after I was packed and ready to go, then I just walked out.
See how merciful I can be?
But that meant there would be no mercy whatsoever for Quinn. I had come in here to try and apologize and that stupid little brat hadn’t even let me say a word! Well, I guess I can’t call her little since she’s three years older than me, and taller than me, but you get my point.
As I walked out Paul was waiting for me, looking gorgeous in his wrestling gear, I smiled at him.
“You have a match tonight?” He nodded with a huge smile, god I loved his smile.
“But it’s also Drew’s last match. I beat him then Teddy’s going to fire him.”
“Well that’s not your fault, we told him he should have never married Tiffany, you don’t date a GM, it’s just not a good plan.” I reassured him.
“I know it’s just…” He sighed, his smile gone. He and Drew were really close, we all three were pretty good friends.
“Drew understands, it’s not you, it’s the script.” I smiled at him and gave him a small hug, burying my face in his chest. I thought about Quinn talking about Barbie stealing Paul away from me and it just made me hold him tighter. He pulled back from me.
“What’s wrong Ani?” He asked. I shook my head.
“I’ll talk to you after your match.” A techie came over and told Paul he needed to go, I gave him a small kiss for good luck and watched as he left. He had just gotten out of hearing range when Natalie and Beth strode up to me on their high horses.
“What were you doing today? That’s low Anita.” Natalie snapped.
“You know that Quinn and Phil are happy together, why would you ever try to break them up?” Beth added.
“I never intended for that to happen-” I tried but Natalie just shook her head.
“The only reason you’re still here is because you’re such good friends with Teddy. That’s actually it. You do realize that right?”
“I didn’t choose to be a heel-” I tried again, but this time it was Beth who interrupted me.
“Neither did we, but we still have our moments where we’re okay, everyone just hates you all the time.” Natalie nodded and patted my cheek.
“Maybe you should start having some actual talent, not just connections.”
“Now ladies, are you tormenting this poor girl?” We all looked up to See Cody Runnels smiling his beautiful smile.
“No Cody.” Beth and Natalie said as if in a trance.
“Well, why don’t you two go find something else to do? I have to talk to Ani here.” I blinked a few times at this, Paul was the only one who ever called me Ani. Natalie and Beth walked off as Cody sauntered up to me.
“Nice moves in the ring today.” He said, grinning. I sighed.
“I already tried to tell everyone, I didn’t tell Chris to-” Cody put his finger to my lips.
“Shh.” He cooed. Okay, this was weird. I suddenly remembered Quinn saying she would get me back for this, had she told Cody to do this so Paul would break up with me? Before I could think Cody got even closer to me, so I backed up. “Listen, I’m going to be in an intergender tag team match next week for Smackdown and they told me I could pick my partner, you interested?” I must be dreaming. Cody was a champion, asking me to be in a match with him?
Wait…
This had to be a trap. Cody had never even talked to me before. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Why me?” I asked bluntly. I’ve never been one for beating around the bush. Cody smiled.
“Because we’re the two biggest heels on Smackdown, and I think we could have a very successful relationship. Business relationship of course.” He said, his perfect teeth glimmering in the lights. I raised my eyebrows.
“I’ll think about it.” I said simply. Cody’s smile fell the slightest bit.
“It’s not Paul, is it?”
“I’ll think about it.” I repeated. Just then Paul walked up, glistening from his fight. He nodded his head at Cody.
“Mr. Runnels.” He said simply.
“Mr. Lloyd.” Cody replied. Paul slipped his arm around my waist. I think he thought this would send Cody away, but Cody either didn’t get the hint or ignored it.
“What do you want with Ani?” Paul asked, like me, he was pretty blunt about things.
“I was wondering if she would like to be my partner in an intergender tag team match next week.” Paul tensed up.
“Well, do you want to Ani?” Paul asked. I shrugged.
“I told him I’d think about it.” Paul turned back to Cody with a smug look on his face.
“Well there’s your answer Mr. Runnels, so have a nice day.” Cody scowled and finally scampered off. Paul looked at me, thinking the same thing I was. “Do you think it’s a trap?” He asked.
“Well if it is, now you know, so it won’t work.”
“Well if something does happen, I will thoroughly enjoy beating that smug little grin off his face.” Paul teased. I smiled and ran my hand over his arm.
“What happened to you not liking pda?” I asked.
“I make an exception for anyone trying to get that close to you.” He said, completely serious. I smiled at his jealousy and stood on my tip toes to kiss the tip of his nose. “Well I’m going to go get changed so we can maybe get something to eat.” He pulled his hand from my back as we walked to the boy’s locker room. I sat outside while Paul quickly changed then we were off to find some place to eat.
He noticed me just sort of picking at me food with a fork and looked at me.“So what were you going to talk to me about? Did you apologize to Quinn?” I let out a long sigh.
“I tried, but…” I thought about her comment of Barbra stealing Paul again. He reached over and took my hand.
“Ani, please tell me.” I let out a long sigh and told him about what she’d said about Barbra and what she said about getting me back. I quoted her directly, and at the ‘Barbie would be fucking that boyfriend of yours’ comment he almost choked on his sandwich. When I finished he just looked at me for a long time. “I hope you know I have no interest in Barbra whatsoever.”
“I know, we’ve already been through this. I trust you Paul, you’d never do something like that.”
“Damn straight.” He muttered. “I can’t believe Phil doesn’t say anything about this, I mean, you tried to apologize, she just didn’t want to listen. Maybe you can try again on Monday.” I let out another long sigh.
“I guess.”
“Now back to Cody, do you want to be in that match? That might be a very smart alliance to make. And I’ll beat his ass into a coma if he tries anything.” I just continued to pick at my food.
“The timing just seems too perfect. I just feel like something is going to happen.”
“But if it does, we’ll know it was planned, do you know who it’s against?” I shook my head.
“He didn’t tell me.”
“Well maybe you can call him tomorrow.” I was silent the entire ride back to the hotel. I just couldn’t get Quinn’s words out of my head, I didn’t want anything to happen to Paul because she and I didn’t get along. So when we got to the hotel I told him I was going to find Quinn and apologize. He sighed, but then just kissed me and walked into our room.
We all know who’s in what rooms in case of emergency, so I walked over to the room Quinn shared with Phil and knocked. I opened the door to see Phil, looking very confused.
“What are you doing here?” He asked.
“I need to apologize to Quinn about what happened.” I said. Phil laced his hands behind his head.
“I think what you need to do is just stay the Hell away from her. And if you ever send Chris anywhere near Quinn again, I’ll be taking it out on your little boy toy.” Then Phil slammed the door in my face. I bit my lip.
So much for apologizing.
I walked back to Paul and I’s room feeling defeated. But as I knocked he opened the door and smiled. “I didn’t get to apologize…again.” He shrugged.
“Try again on Monday.” He suggested. Then he got this devilish grin on his face as he pulled me into our room, shut the door, and pressed me against it. “But until then I’m going to have to keep a very close eye on you.” He said, brushing a piece of hair out of my face.
“Paul…” I whispered, but he cut me off by smashing his lips to mine. I slowly wrapped my arms around his neck as he wrapped my legs around his stomach. He then effortlessly picked me up and dropped me on the bed, his lips never leaving mine as he laid over me and slowly moved his kisses down my throat. But then I sighed.“Paul. Can we not…you know…tonight?” He looked up, obviously disappointed. But when I weakly smiled at him he just kissed me again and sat up. “Are you mad?” I asked. He shook his head.
“You’ve had a rough day Ani, I get it.”
“So did you! I just…” I sighed and sat up. “I can’t get Quinn’s face out of my head when she yelled at me. I hurt her Paul, I feel like shit.”
“I thought you hated her?”
“I don’t hate anyone that much. I would never want to break her and Phil up.”
“That’s because you’re a good person Ani.” He kissed me again before he slipped off his shirt and his pants and crawled under the covers, patting the spot next to him. I stood up, sliding off my jeans, my ring and my bracelets and took out my earrings, setting them on the nightstand. I hopped in and cuddled up next to him. I watched as he fell asleep and gently kissed him so I wouldn’t wake him up. I tried to fall asleep, but the minute I closed my eyes all I could see was the water, dragging me down as the wind threw me every which way. I opened my eyes back up.
No sleep for me tonight, again. I sighed and slowly slipped out of bed and walked over to the window, looking at a nighttime Kansas. We would be back in Louisiana in just a few weeks, I would be safe again in the lights of New Orleans, back home.
I let out another long sigh. It’d been seven years and I still was having nightmares. I leaned against the window as I head Paul groan.
“Come back to bed Ani.”
“Go back to sleep Paul.” But instead of listening to me he got out of bed and wrapped his arms around my stomach.
“Nightmares again?” He asked, knowing my insomnia all too well.
“What else could it possibly be?” I asked. He kissed the top of my head. “I think it’s because I know we’re going back, they’re going to ask me to be on TV and I know they’re going to talk about it.”
“Ani, what happened happened. It’s in the past, the present is here, with me.” I turned around and smashed my lips to his desperately, wanting to make the ghosts go away. Paul picked up immediately and embraced me, pressing my back into the wall and softly running his lips down the side of my neck. His hands slipped down my sides, sending jolts of electricity through my body. He then grabbed my legs and wrapped them around his stomach again, pressing me even harder into the wall as his lips found mine again. We looked at eachother for the breifest moment, then he carried me back to bed where we spent the rest of the night in each other’s arms.
When Raw rolled around the next week I was more than a little nervous. I hadn’t seen Quinn to apologize, and I was going to be in the mixed tag team match with Cody tomorrow. I sat back on the couch, Paul by my side, and looked over the script again. I was going to be in a match against Quinn tonight, then use a steel chair while the ref was distracted, why he was distracted I wasn't told, costing her the win. I let out a sigh.
How could I try to be a good guy if they never gave me a chance?