The Rivals

||Anita||
As I opened my eyes all I saw was Quinn standing up victoriously. She’d won, but how? I didn’t have much time to think before Barbra grabbed me.
“Let’s see Paul love you when you’re bald.” She hissed in my ear. I looked up at Quinn. Fine, I would be strong. It was just hair, it’d grow back. I looked her right in the face, letting her know I wasn’t afraid to take the brunt of my own stupid plan. But Quinn just looked at me for a while before crushing the razor under her foot. I kneeled there like a death row inmate who’d just been told he was being released. Quinn just looked at me again then she walked off without a word.
But, why?
If she hated me so much, if she’d planned this entire thing, then why would she be helping me? Barbra screamed at her to come back, but I just elbowed her in the face and stood up, running after Quinn.
“QUINN!” I had to talk to her, I had to ask her why, after everything she’d done, she’d help me. And I wanted to, as much to my surprise as yours, thank her for her mercy. But she shoved past John and was gone. As I stood there, watching her leave I saw John. He looked at me with fury in his eyes.
“Why did you let her get away?” He demanded.
“Wh-what?” I asked.
“She was supposed to shave your head and humiliate you! Why did you let her not do it?!” He hollered, getting right in my face.
“Look Mr. Whoreinaitis,” I snapped. “Quinn was the bigger person out there, you should be proud of her and stop riding her about being a great fighter and an even greater diva. Now get the Hell out of my face.” I shoved past him and ran to the locker room, determined to find Quinn. But by the time I got there she was long gone. I slammed my palm to the locker. “GODDAMMIT!” I screamed. I needed to talk to her, badly.
“Ani?” I opened the door, expecting to see Paul, only to be face to face with Cody. I tried to shut the door again, but he overpowered me and kept it open without much trouble.
“What in the Hell could you possibly want?’ I demanded.
“Have you read the script for Smackdown yet?” He asked simply.
“No, we aren’t supposed to be getting it until tomorrow-”
“Well, creative wanted to give us some time to prep for our new storyline-” I ripped the script out of his hand.
“What?” I asked as I skimmed to find what he was talking about.
“Page thirty-seven, you’ll be getting the same one tomorrow, I just thought you might want to know in advance.” I flipped to page thirty-seven. Teddy was going to reprimand me for letting my past feelings for Paul get in the way of my work and losing the match to Barbra and him. I shuddered, remembering Barbra attacking Paul. Then he was going to… I looked up at Cody.
“You’re kidding me.”
“I’m glad I’m not.” He said. “I’ve never been attacked by a girl before last week.” He said, winking at me.
“It won’t be the last time.” I said, slamming the script back into his chest. “Now get out of my face.” I slammed the door to the locker room and quickly changed. When I walked back out I let out a sigh of relief as I saw Paul, smiling sympathetically. Before he could even say a word I shook my head.
“Let’s just go.” I whispered. He put his arm around me and we walked outside. I looked up into the Mississippi sky and realized that next Tuesday I would be home again. I let a small smile unfold on my face. I couldn’t wait to be back home.
Paul didn’t talk the entire way back to the hotel, how was I going to tell him about tomorrow? I looked over at him, the sun was setting through his car window and lit up his entire face, making him look like a painting or something. I just smiled and reached over, taking his hand in mine. I didn’t want to ruin this moment.
When we got back to the hotel and he shut the door he just looked at me for a long time. Finally he spoke. “What were you thinking?” He asked.
“I don’t know.” I admitted. Paul walked over to me and ran his fingers through my hair. “Paul, would you still have loved me if Quinn had shaved my head?” I asked.
“Ani, of course I would. You just don’t need to take unnecessary risks like that. You’re lucky Quinn decided to be nice.”
“I know.” I whispered.
“Besides, if you ask me, it’s Barbra you should be yelling at, not Quinn.”
“She couldn’t plan something like that by herself-”
“Then we need to figure out who did.” He said. “Because if it was Quinn there’s no way she would have let you keep your hair.” I pressed my face into my hands and ran them up through my hair. How could I have been so stupid? Paul was right, she wouldn’t have spared me that humiliation. He wrapped his arms around me. “I love you, and I don’t want to see you get hurt anymore, so please. End this.” I nodded.
“This silly feud needs to be over.” I agreed.
“That’s my girl.” He whispered.
“I’m going to take a shower.” I said. He nodded, and when I came out fifteen minutes later he was fast asleep. I smiled, he was adorable when he slept. I quickly got dressed and slid in next to him and closed my eyes.
The headlights were the first thing I saw as the car swerved into my lane, sliding on the slick road and trying to deal with the wind had been too much, as he collided with me my car began spinning, I remembered what my dad had taught me and turned into the spin. But before I could stop I saw the other headlights as the truck speared into my passenger side door, sending me rolling over the hillside, over and over until my world went black.
Then I was at my parents house, the wind was trying to push my feet out from under me as I made my way to the storm cellar, the rain hitting me so hard I knew it would leave welts. I threw open the doors only to see the water which formed into hands, dragging me down into the cellar and certain death.
I sat up, covered in a thin layer of sweat, panting. Paul was next to me, his face etched in concern.
“Ani, Ani it’s okay, you’re here now you’re okay.” It took me a while to realize I wasn’t dead. I swallowed nervously and wiped away the tears that had rolled down my cheeks in terror. “Are you okay?’ I nodded as there was a knock on the door. As Paul got up to answer it I just sat there with my face in my hands. The nightmares had never been that vivid before except right after the accident.
“Is everything okay? We heard someone scream.” I knew Stuart (Wade Barrett’s) accent anywhere.
“Everything’s fine. Ani just had a bad dream, sorry to wake you guys up.” Paul replied calmly.
“Is she okay?” I heard A.J. ask.
“Yes, she’s fine, thank you. Again, I’m sorry for waking everyone up.” As Paul closed the door and walked back I just hugged him, feeling the tears roll down my face. Paul just kissed the top of my head. “It’s okay Ani, you’re here with me, you’re safe now.”
“They haven’t been that bad in years Paul…” I whispered.
“Maybe you should go see a psychiatrist-” He started, but I just shook my head.
“They’ll tell me the same thing, that it will never go away. They’ll just give me drugs again and say I’m not mentally fit to compete Paul. I can’t leave, not now.” Paul sighed and kissed my forehead.
“It’ll be fine Ani, we’ll talk to anyone who may want to interview you and tell them not to talk about it.” I nodded and looked up at Paul.
“What would I do without you?’ I asked, smiling.
“Be a miserable cat lady.” He teased, trying to make me feel better. I just leaned on his chest as he laid back down. “But I guess I’m going to have to stay up all night with you now.” He said with that same devilish smile. He flipped over so he was over me so quickly that it took me a second to process what had happened, then he kissed me; and let’s just say I didn’t have any nightmares for the rest of the night.
The next night on Smackdown I looked over the script, but no matter how many times I read it, it was the same thing. Paul was reading his copy and sighed. “Well this sucks.” He said, letting out a long sigh.
“No kidding.” I said. A techie told me it was time for my promo, so I kissed Paul goodbye and followed the techie to Teddy’s office where he and Cody were waiting for me.
“You look nice.” Cody cooed.
“Back off Romeo.” I snapped. Teddy sighed as the camera started rolling.
“Bobbie, your behavior last week was inexcusable.”
“Teddy let me explain-” I started, but he cut me off.
“You are letting your past relationship with Justin get in the way of your business decisions. So, from now on, I will be giving you something new to think about.”
“Have fun being suspended-” Cody started.
“Hold up playa.” Teddy said. “She’s not suspended.” Cody looked furious.
“What?! Teddy, she attacked me to protect her ex boyfriend-”
“And now she will be protecting you.” Teddy said. Cody and I did our best to look confused.
“Huh?” We asked simultaneously.
“From now on you two are partners. You will accompany each other to the other’s matches and if you do anything to sabotage their match you will both be suspended. Cody, you will automatically lose your title to the Big Show, and Bobbie, kiss your dreams of winning the Diva’s championship goodbye for at least six months.”
“WHAT?!” Cody hollered.
“You can’t do this!” I snarled.
“Oh yes I can. You two have caused so much damage around here that it’s about time that you began to make up for it. And to make sure we’re all clear, Cody, Bobbie will accompany you to your rematch with Justin tonight.” I let the camera catch my expression of total fear, which was real by the way, of a repeat of Cody beating Paul into a bloody pulp. The camera continued to roll as Cody and I walked out of Teddy’s office.
“This time, your little boyfriend is really going to get it.” Cody swore.
“I swear to God, if you try to pull anything-” I said, getting right in his face. “I will bust up that pretty little face of yours.” Cody matched my glare.
“I’d love to see you try.”
“Bring it pretty boy!” I challenged, but just then Barbra walked up to us. It took everything I had not to snap her neck.
“So Bobbie, tonight when Justin wins, try not to be too jealous, okay?” How did everyone not hate her guts as much as I did?
“If you think this crap with you and Quinn is anywhere near over, you’re dead wrong you little skank.” Hey, if creative wanted me to beat the Hell out of Barbra, I’d give it to them. “Next week on Raw, you two are mine.”
“How about you just focus on your match tonight, I’d hate to see you get suspended.” She said, smiling evilly. She looked at Cody. “See you later Rhodes.” She said, blowing him a kiss. As Cody just stood there, mystified, I glared after Barbra as the camera cut out.
I went back to the green room to see Paul smiling at me. “That was lovely.” He said. “I especially enjoyed you calling her a skank. But why did you mention Quinn? I thought you were going to forget her?”
“Well, the fans don’t know that, so I need to keep up this stupid rivalry, at least until our Wrestle Mania match in three weeks. Then it’s done.”
“Promise?” He asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
“I promise, now please just promise me you’re going to kick Cody’s ass.” I said, pointing to the script.
“Yep, I beat him.”
“Thank God.” I muttered. As a techie came out to get us I made sure to look as pissed off as I felt as Cody dragged me to the ring, us both yelling at each other the entire time, which the crowd loved. They wanted us both to get suspended like nobody’s business. I took a seat next to Josh as Paul came down, Barbra by his side, which made me seethe. She sat next to Booker as the match started. I didn’t try to hide my cheering for Paul and taking every chance I got to shoot Barbra dirty looks. Finally Cody turned around to tell me to shut up and cheer for him, giving Paul a perfect opportunity to drop kick him in the back of the head and then perform his beautiful 450 splash, knocking the wind right out of Cody and getting the pin.
Barbra ran over to Paul, as I walked over to Cody with a snarky little smile on my face.
“Good job.” I said sarcastically as he rolled out of the ring. “That was impressive, I’m so glad I got paired with such an idiot.” Cody huffed at me, but then smiled and turned to Paul.
“Hey Justin.” He called. Paul looked over as Cody grabbed me and forced his lips to mine. I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do for a second, but then punched Cody square in the jaw and gagged as he went toppling backwards. But Cody just looked back at Paul and smiled. I have to tell you, I have never seen Paul so pissed off in my life. He’d probably get yelled at for not staying in character because as Barbra cooed in his ear his eyes were shooting daggers at Cody before he pulled away from her and stormed off.
I turned back to Cody and shoved him as we yelled at each other all the way back up the ramp. When we got backstage Paul knocked Cody’s lights out with a single punch, grabbing me and walking out of the arena.
I could have sworn I saw Quinn smiling at the whole thing while Paul stormed into his dressing room. As I slipped into mine my suspicions were confirmed as Quinn sat on the bench next to my locker.
“See how it feels?” She asked simply.
“I swear to God if you planned that.” I started, but Quinn just started laughing.
“I wish. I just wanted to tell you I accept your challenge for next week on Raw, and this time don’t let me beat you so easily.”
“The only easy thing for me to do will be smashing your face into the ring post.” I quipped. Then we both smiled at each other for a moment, not a friendship smile, but like a Dwayne Johnson and John Cena smile. A smile that meant we’d enjoy beating the hell out of the other one. Then Quinn left and I changed into my street clothes and jogged over to meet up with Paul.
I couldn’t wait for Monday.