Voices in My Head

Life on the road had gone back to its normal trot: arrive in a city, get stages and backstage set up, full arenas everywhere they went followed by taking everything down again.
Much to Ana’s surprise, the whole ‘spiked drink’ story had not spread within the touring crew past the few people that had been involved and Steph and Paul. They had taken the doctor’s advise and Paul had gone to the cops to make a statement, asking to keep them informed if there was any developments in their investigation.

Ana had signed the contract and had been in various meetings with Steph consisting of her listening to her boss and people from the creative team throwing ideas around on how to slowly integrate Ana in some backstage stories without it instantly ending up in some romance story line. Stephanie knew that Ana still wasn’t convinced being pulled into a full blown romantic story line with Randy or anyone else, so she tried to push for just some banter and smack-talk to keep their backstage footage interesting and somewhat fun.

“We’ll start you tomorrow afternoon, filming as you finish unloading. Show what you do for a bit, maybe get a bit agitated that cameras are in your face and have one of the boys come to create some space. Depending who it is, we’ll just let it play out naturally, I know you are a quick thinker and have a colourful imagination. Just make sure you’re not using any strong swear words. We’ll be handing you some general guidelines of a script, but after talking to you these last few days, we’re convinced you won’t need a full script to pull this off.”

One of the creative heads said as he got some papers together for Stephanie to look over. Ana shrugged her shoulders and was about to get up from her chair as Steph put a hand on her arm.

“Are there any men on the roster you wouldn’t be wanting any on screen romance with? I mean….should it develop into that?”

This was a heavy question and she could see the other three people in the room turn their heads to gauge her response. To her, it was still all make-belief and as long as it stayed that way, she had no issues.

“Let’s get one thing straight: I refuse to be partnered up with someone who is in a relationship or something like that. And I mean story line or real. I refuse to be depicted as a home-wrecker, I have worked too hard in my actual profession for millions of strangers on the internet to hate me for something that comes out of this whole ‘creative’ writing think-tank. I appreciate the opportunity you’re trying to offer, but that’s where I draw the line.”

Steph smiled and started writing something down and nodding to her other employees before allowing her to leave. Yet again, she was feeling positively surprised by Ana not being shy on making her thoughts heard and not holding back, she had so much respect for this girl.

It was early afternoon, most structures had been assembled over the course of the previous evening and there was only final touches left, so Ana strolled to the parking lot to find the other stage hands sitting in camping chairs between busses, music blaring from a small speakers on a late lunch break. To her surprise, Randy was sitting next to Brad and both of them were laughing together with some of the other guys on her crew as she drew closer.

“Having a good time boys?”

The small group turned their heads and some people waved or hollered, but Brad and Randy quickly whispered before desperately trying to look comfortable and hiding their smiles. Grabbing a bottle of water from a cooler near Brad, she was about to plop down on the ground as Randy pulled a free chair from behind him and signaled her to sit. She gladly accepted and sat down in between him and Brad, pushing her shoes off her feet as she tried to relax before they all had to get back to work in about half an hour.

“I hate this dry Texas heat, I’ll never get used to it.”

One of the guys said as he pulled on his shirt in an ill attempt to push some air around under said garment. He was right; it was hot for the time of year. There were some hums of agreement in the group. Some were already sitting shirtless and with their shoes and even socks off their feet.

“Trust me, if you’ve never been to Australia in their summer time, you have no idea what you’re talking about: this is nothing compared to summer temperatures in Sydney around Christmas time!”

Randy piped up, pulling his shirt off as he finished talking and taking a drink from his bottle of water.

Some of the younger guys looked confused and were about to ask if he was quite alright, until he smiled and added:

“They’re South of the equator, so it’s middle of summer around Christmas time, reversed seasons and all”

To say Orton and her had gotten closer since the hospital incident would have been an understatement, but if asked, both would have denied the fact. For about a week or two after, Randy was checking up on her so frequently that she almost punched him but his reflexes had saved him. They had agreed to movie nights with friend after, meetings with other people around. Their backstage bickering had somewhat slowed down, though he still loved pushing her buttons; it was just too easy to get her riled up.

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be Orton?”

Ana chimed in just as he was about to chat with Brad, making it clear that he was no longer welcome at the “roadie meet”.

He stretched his arms and folded them behind his head, looking around the crows and jutted out his lower lip in thought before turning back to look at her with a smile.

“Nope! Done my workout, fixed my changing room stall for later. I have absolutely nothing to do until pre-match food later tonight. You trying to get rid of me Riot?”

Some of the guys were chuckling and she was close to going off, when she noticed cameras at her peripheral vision. Fucking Steph! Settling back into her chair, she took a drink of her water and listened to the guys around her.

“So what, it’s Thursday today so it’s Mass Murder movie day. AJ already picked Friday 13 but I said we’ll let you get 2nd pick. Any idea?”

“Boondock Saints, obviously!”

All 7 men around her started laughing but Randy held her glance.

“I said mass murderer. You just wanna see something with Norman Reedus because you get off on older men!”

“Excuse me? Have you counted the dead bodies in that movie? More Than Friday 13th I am sure,…and Norman Reedus is a fucking handsome man, back then and now! I would jump his bones should I ever have the pleasure of meeting him, you’re just jealous!”

Their eyes were focused on each other as they both rose from their chairs coming to a stand with their noses almost touching if not for the height difference.

“I haven’t even ever watched the movie and I already know it’s gonna suck because you defend this guy so much.”

“I’ll stand backstage and smile when you lose your match tonight Orton. And after you have lost, I will play the movie and you will admit defeat again when you tell me that you are loving this movie just as much as I am.”

Randy huffed a laugh and placed his large hands on her hips, pulling her closer than before:

“Are you trying to tell me that I am losing tonight?”

Trying not to get lost in his blue eyes, she attempted to push away from him but found herself in a vice grip.

“Yes, I am. And when you do, you will come back here crying about it.”

Their faces were now inches apart and she couldn’t deny that a wet spot was forming in her panties as one of his hands was pushing one of her rebellious hairs behind her ear.

“You just gave me all the more reason to win. Friday 13th it is when I am victorious. And I WILL be victorious!”

Her eyes closed involuntary as he pulled his fingers through her hair but she was just able to silence the moan about to follow.

“You lose: ”Your bus. You win,…your call!”

His hand was still in her hair but he saw the cameras hiding behind the bus, stepping away from her and giving her space.

“I accept that.”