Date June 11th 2018 / Time Unknown / Status Not Recording
Location The Carnage Arena – Baltimore, Maryland

Beating Petrangelo felt pretty damn good. I can’t lie. Felt better than good, actually. There’s nothing I love more than heading up the ramp and into the backstage area feeling… no, knowing that I proved that son of a Bitch wrong.

I’m petty like that, what can I say?

I wipe my face off as I get backstage, smearing the blood on my pants as I see Jack strolling up to me, a look of both concern and maybe a little bit of pride on his face. Can’t really keep myself from grinning as he speaks up.

“Hey, you alright?”

I shrug my shoulders and nod my head.

“That was nothing.”

Although my back is fucking killing me right now. I guess I have to say that he put up a pretty good fight… for a Bitch. But I’ll never actually say that outloud. Fuck him, that’s why.

Jack nods his head and turns to walk beside me. Probably a good thing he doesn’t touch me, unless he wants my blood all over him too. Maybe he’s into that type of thing, who knows. But I know I’ll never hear the end of it if I don’t go get my head stitched up; so I might as well just go. That and.. I kinda care about how he feels.

Kinda.

“What are you laughing about?”

Jack says, startling me. I cover my mouth and shake my head.

“Just thinking about something…”

“Oh?”

“That I probably wouldn’t be going to medical right now, if not for you.”

He snickers, wrapping his arm loosely around my shoulders and instantly I feel those butterflies that all the teenagers are feeling these days. Fuck.

“I never told you to go.”

“No, but you matter.. And let’s just say I know I’d hear it if I didn’t.”

I glance to the side to see a satisfied grin on his face. Yep. Got him pegged. We get to the doorway of the doctors office and I turn towards him, looking up into his eyes.

“Listen, I know I’m all bloody and shit.. stuff, but..”

Before I can do what I intended, he leans down and plants a soft kiss on my lips.

“You were saying?”

There’s not much I can really say now.. He kinda took my clever little line away when he also took my cute little finish away too. Instead I just lean back against the doorway and sigh.

“Nothing, handsome. We can talk about it more… Soon? You know, once I don’t look like I was involved in some kind of murder.”

There’s absolutely no way I can even try to look cute when I’m covered in blood. I mean, I don’t mind. I could care less, except when he looks at me. Then suddenly I want to look perfect. What the fuck’s this man doing to me?

He nods his head and takes a step back.

“Well you just come find me when you’re done, and we can talk about anything you want.”

“Deal.”

He winks at me and walks away, and me being who I am – I just have to stand there and watch him leave. But as he’s leaving, I see someone familiar sitting just down the hall, flanked by JC and her girlfriend… Maggie, I think it is.

Lucy.

Suddenly I forget that I’m supposed to be getting my head stitched up. I move back out of the doorway and towards her, watching her closely. She looks miserable. She’s not even looking up at JC or Maggie as they speak to one another. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like this. Then again, I’m sure she looked much worse when she was in the hospital.

But I wasn’t there, was I?

I didn’t even make a move to try to find her when she got kidnapped by our father. I didn’t even try to go to the hospital when I heard she was found. What kind of sister am I? A terrible one by everyone’s standards, I’m sure.

None of them know though why I didn’t go.

None of them know.. Except maybe Lucy.

I see her finally look up at them as they both turn their attention down to her and her face instantly turns angry as she lashes out at them. I stop my approach, wondering if now is the right time to be doing this – that is until she looks past them and our eyes meet.

Her face drops and it’s almost like she’s looking at our father… The disgust in her eyes as she gives me the once over and stands up. Makes me feel dirty.. Like I shouldn’t even be in the same room, let alone the same building as her. She walks between Maggie and JC, as they both turn to see what she’s looking at – and their eyes turn to me with that same disdain.

Talk about not feeling wanted.

Maybe I should just turn and leave now… Maybe I was right to stay away.

“Kyra.”

She says, her voice flat and monotone as she reaches me. I had this entire conversation mapped out in my head since everything happened.. I even practiced it when I was by myself at night, laying in bed, thinking about everything that had happened.

Lucy, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you in your time of need. Are you okay? Do you need me to do anything for you? Is.. Is Dad really…

“Lucy, hi.”

“Hey. Good match out there.”

I shrug my shoulders and pull my eyes away from hers, looking around at the walls surrounding us.

“Uh, yeah.. Thanks. H-How are you–”

“Fine.”

My eyes stop on her heavily bandaged face. Her right cheek is swollen and bruised. I’d heard she’d had a second surgery on a broken cheekbone after the world title match at the UGWC pay per view, I guess the rumors were true. She’s still got a lot of lasting damage from whatever our father did to her.

This is what he was going to do to me…

“Hey, that’s great. I–”

“Don’t apologize. Jesus Christ, don’t apologize. I know he sent you a note. I knew you weren’t going to touch this with a thousand foot pole and I don’t fucking blame you. Just don’t insult me by apologizing.”

Fuck. Her anger is apparent. I don’t know if it’s at me, or just in general but I can feel it practically beating me in the face as the words fly from her mouth.

“But hey, he’s dead and all it took was ten days of torture. Seems like karma got me back for leaving you all those years ago, huh?”

I don’t even know what to say to that. Yeah, she ran away when we were younger, and left me there with him. I went through hell after she left. He.. Well, he blamed me for everything and until I finally got out – I’m sure I looked similar to what she does now. Do I see it as cosmic payback for what she did? A few years ago I might have. But now? I don’t know. Part of me thinks I should. Part of me thinks that I’m glad it was her… Even though she went through the same shit I did when we were younger. And the other part of me, the part that knows that all of that is wrong and terrible.. Well that part hates myself for even thinking those things to begin with.

I sigh and run my hands through my matted hair.

I know what I should say… You didn’t deserve that, you didn’t deserve what he did to you.

“He’s dead… Wow.”

Avoidance. Yeah, that’ll do the trick.

She nods her head.

“Yeah. Watched it happen to.”

She looks like she’s deep in thought, like she’s having a conversation inside her head for a few moments until she finally snaps back into reality and she shrugs her shoulders.

“Now I’ve gotta deal with their estate.. Exactly what I want to spend the next.. However long doing.”

We hear Maggie say something behind her and she turns around to acknowledge her girlfriend before she turns back around and looks me over once more.

“If you need anything…”

“I’ve gotta go. Warden says I need some rest. See you.”

And with that, she turns and leaves… I take a step back as I watch her. She’s walking around like she’s triple her current age. It’s kind of worrying, honestly, but I really don’t know what I can do. Doesn’t really seem like she wants anything to do with me… Can’t really blame her though.. I do probably remind her of him.

I shake my head and turn around, might as well go get my head patched up. Might as well try to salvage this night… Hopefully.

 

Date June 23rd 2018 / Time 8:47PM / Status Not Recording
Location BB&T Pavilion – Camden, New Jersey

“Two beers.”

I say to the attendant as I give her a few bucks and watch her scurry off to grab our drinks. It’s hard to keep track of just about anything in this proverbial sea of humanity… But at least the music is good.

I was lucky to have scored the tickets I did.

Also pretty damn lucky to have a man who appreciates classic rock like I do.

I turn away from the stand and run face first into a man trying to step up to the very same stand as I am. He smiles at me and averts his eyes for just a moment before looking down at me.

“Hey gorgeous.”

I roll my eyes and move to turn back around, but he softly grabs my arm.

“You here with anyone?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. My boyfriend.”

He nods his head and looks to my side again, softly nodding his head.

“Lucky guy.”

I get a bad feeling as I pull my arm from his grasp and shrug my shoulders.

“I like to think so.”

“Listen, you wanna ditch him and party with us?”

He reaches out and puts his arm over my shoulder, leaning into the pole that’s holding the tent up.  Like I’d ditch Jack fucking Michaels for this loser… or.. Wait a minute…

“Us?”

He nods again and another man steps out from behind me, and now I’m flanked by two men – obviously drunk.. At least I think they are. Something just doesn’t feel right about this.

“Yeah, baby. Here’s your drink.”

He hands me a cup and a little spills out onto my shirt. He reaches out to wipe it off of my chest, but I swat his hand away.

“First off, don’t call me baby. Secondly… No.”

“Oh come on…”

I turn back towards the stand to see my two drinks sitting neatly on the bar. Now wait a minute…

“We’ve gotta be better company than whoever you’re here with.”

I shake my head and reach for my two drinks, dropping the one that the second man gave me in the process. He must think I’m a fucking moron if he thinks I’m going to drink something that a complete (and creepy) stranger gives me.

“Hey! She dropped my beer, bro.”

“Not cool, baby.”

The first man leans over my shoulder and moves a little hair off of my shoulder.

“You can just make that up to us though…”

“And how do you suppose I do that?”

I ask, leaving my drinks on the counter and turning back around. I can’t even trust that they didn’t fuck with my drinks too. Trying to drug someone’s drink at a thing like this isn’t exactly creative… and yet I never thought about it until this moment.

“Well–”

He says, tilting his head to the side.

Fuck this. As he reaches for my waist I reel back and punch him directly in the eye, sending him flying backwards to the ground.

“What the fuck was that for?!”

“Bitch!”

I reach up and grab my drinks and throw one in the second mans face, before dumping the second one on the first guy. I throw the cups down on the ground and I’m tempted to just throw down and beat both of their asses but then I remember Jack is waiting for me and I settle for kicking the first man in the gut for his troubles.

“You picked the wrong bitch to fuck with… Can’t get pussy the regular way huh? Gotta try to spike my drink with something? Do me a favor and fuck off… Assholes.”

I leave them and head back into the pavilion, finding Jack standing exactly where I left him and the anger I felt mere moments ago just fades away as he turns his attention from the concert and looks down at me, grinning.

“There you are. Thought you might have gotten lost.”

I laugh and shake my head.

“Nope.”

He looks down at my hands and then back into my eyes with a confused expression on his face.

“Where are our drinks?”

I look down and realize that I didn’t even bother to get a new set of drinks after that little… mishap.

“Fuck… I… Well, it’s a long story.”

Before he can question anything, I grab his shirt and pull him down into a kiss as the band begins playing “I want to know what love is”.

Good timing..

 

OOC – Jack Michaels used with permission.