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Back In
San Diego, CA -- Jaycee’s Apartment
13 AUGUST 2023
OFF-Camera
In the midst of a dream, Jaycee hears the sounds of applause from the crowd, only something isn’t right. At first it was light, but it continued to build like each and every fan in attendance was up out of their seats and stomping their feet in excitement. When it finally builds to a fever pitch with thousands of fans all perfectly synchronized with one another, Jaycee feeds off of the excitement around him and leaps from the top turnbuckle, only for the mat to appear to move away from him. He falls for what feels like hours, only he doesn’t ever seem to be getting any closer to the mat itself. Instead, he weightlessly hangs in the air confused. When he finally realizes that the forces of gravity are not optional, and something was definitely wrong with the world around him, he slams hard into the mat. Only, it wasn’t as pleasant a landing as he would have had in front of a sold out crowd. The crowd evaporated around him, and his true surroundings appeared in their place. The whole thing was incredibly disorienting, especially because even though the crowd was gone, their enthusiasm remained. Jaycee was on the hardwood floor of the bedroom in his apartment, having rolled and fallen out of bed, but still heard the applause around him. It took a few more moments of trying to get himself oriented before he realized that it wasn’t a crowd, but a heavy banging on the front door of his apartment. He sat up in a panic, and the lingering memories of the dream he was just immersed in slipped away almost in their entirety.
Nobody was supposed to be here today. There was nothing set to be delivered from any the various services he used to never have to leave his apartment. When he got back into town, he had paid rent in full for the entire calendar year, so there was no way that his landlord was looking for him.. He looks around and sees no emergency that would require an angry neighbor to beat down his door. There was no smoke hanging in the air around him. He started taking inventory of the room around him. How long had he been asleep? For that matter, how had he even gotten home. The last thing he remembered was that he had been out for a night of fun with Eiley and Oz to celebrate the fact that at least those two were doing something worthwhile with their lives. Everything went black after that.
JAYCEE: Those two are going to be the death of me….
He mutters under his breath despite the fact that there was no way the would-be intruder at his door could have heard anything he said over the banging sounds coming from the living room.
JAYCEE: STOP IT ALREADY! I’M COMIN’!
He shakes off his fall and pushes himself up off the floor. The moment he steps foot in the living room, he notices that he got into a whole lot more than drinking with the World Mixed Tag Team Champions. He moves to the coffee table and quickly pushes his kit of paraphernalia into one of the drawers before looking around to make sure that there was nothing else laying out in the open. It would have been nice to have just a few seconds to gather his thoughts before having to deal with another living and breathing human, but that wasn’t in the cards today. The beating on his door didn’t stop, even though he was certain that whoever was standing on the other side of it had heard him yell from his room. He couldn’t think of a more hostile way of being woken up in the morning, if that is what it was. He wasn’t even going to attempt to locate his phone in the mess. He needed the thumping to cease though just so that he could think.
JAYCEE: ..I don’t know who you are, but I swear on your life I am going to fu---
Jaycee never completes the thought. He looks around in the mess for a shirt, but doesn’t see one in the immediate vicinity. It wasn’t a big deal. After all, they were here with a free wake up call, the least he could do was treat them to a show. Granted, it should take a second to brush off whoever it was, so it was not like he really needed to be presentable. He puts his shoulder against the frame of the door and pulls the door open just barely far enough to look out.
JAYCEE: What do you wa--
He sees who is standing at the door and it takes the words out of him. Jaycee wasn’t even sure that she knew where he lived, but there she was, the Sin City Bombshell Champion herself was the one with the audacity to beat down his door without so much as a heads up that she was headed his way. She had her fake smile plastered all over her face already, but beneath it Jaycee could tell that she was actually seething, even if he didn’t understand why.
COURT: How are you doing, champ?
She manages to ask the question without the smile fading from her face. It was very clear that Jaycee was meant to take offense to the comment, but he didn’t have the energy for that. With Court, that inner coldness was very thinly veiled under relentless sarcasm, so if he didn’t want to get yelled at, he needed to keep that smile on her face.
COURT: Not going to invite me in?
He sighs heavily and looks back at the mess of empty bottles scattered around the room. He didn’t care so much about them as he did making sure that he had gotten rid of evidence of anything other than the drinking. The last thing that he needed was Court deep up his ass like everyone had been with Kris back in the day. Feeling that as long as he kept her in this room he was probably fine, he pushes the door open and steps away so she can walk past him.
JAYCEE: Suit yourself. Place is kind of busted. The maid apparently died…
She steps through the door, and he pushes it closed with his heel to cut off the sunlight beaming down on his face. His eyes weren’t yet ready for that intense kind of light, and he knew that there was no way that he could try to pass as having his shit together unless the lighting was considerably lower. Court didn’t react to his attempt at a joke, so he tried yet again to crack her fake smile.
JAYCEE: ...but it didn’t happen here, you’re good.
She passed by him and headed directly towards the center of the room. He took the opportunity to move the opposite direction to the hallway. It was probably smart to get himself covered up quickly. Court wasn’t stupid, by any means and she was already suspicious. He heads towards the bedroom and emerges a moment later, throwing on a hooded Jet City sweatshirt. As he puts his arms through the holes and brings it over his head, he sighs, hoping that he could speed this along.
JAYCEE: What can I do for you?
COURT: Oh, I was just coming to check in on you. I know that things have been a little tough lately. Oz and Eiley are champions. I am the top Bombshell in the company. I figured you might be feeling a big left out. So how are you doing, Jaycee?
He holds his arms out to his sides, motioning to the chaos of the room around him.
JAYCEE: Been having a blast. Look around! I have the place to myself. Nobody is chasing me anymore, and I don’t have anything big to look forward to…. It’s been... fun.
She nods, looking around. He could tell that she wasn’t buying it. Then again, there was probably that inkling in her mind when she decided to make the trip over. She turns her eyes to him, and they narrow. Jaycee averts his gaze knowing that his eyes would provide all the proof she needed about her suspicions..
COURT: Relaxing, huh? You have a party, or was this all you?
She gestures towards the mess of the room, but doesn’t take her eyes off of him.
JAYCEE: Eiley and Oz had a little something to do with it.
Court’s eyes widen. He didn’t know which of his words were surprising to her, but that was the reaction on her face. He made an attempt to question it, but she cut him off before he could.
COURT: They were here, with you?
He nods, and Court spins on her heel, once again surveying the room before bringing her gaze back to him. Jaycee could tell that the thin veil of politeness was starting to get shredded to pieces.
COURT: I flew with Oz and Eiley to Brazil for Climax Control three days ago….
He laughs, blowing her off. There was no way. The three of them were out on the town making fun of how Jet City South still hadn’t recovered from the hurt that Court put on it last week. Nobody had been able to enter the gym to get any work done, and that was the whole reason that they went out and partied so hard. She had to just be poking at him to see what he would do since he wasn’t fully awake. He wasn’t going to play her game though.
JAYCEE: That’s not possible. You popped your top before your match with Keira and wrecked the gym. We went out to celebrate the fact that you finally snapped. To be fair, you should have come with us…
He shrugs his shoulders and laughs. It sounded genuine. For the first time, he was starting to realize that there was a real possibility that he was still intoxicated from the night before. The deep need for him to reconvene the celebration was already starting to scratch at him from under his skin as well. If he were to say that out loud, Court would see it as a red flag. Jaycee just saw it as a problem for later though.
JAYCEE: So they most definitely didn’t leave with you a few days ago. We aren’t supposed to leave until Wednesday. I have promos and shit to record from the giant Jesus statue thing on Thursday.
He walks past her and into the kitchen before swinging open the refrigerator and staring inside.
JAYCEE: So I appreciate you coming to check on me and all that good stuff, but if you came to beat down my door just to yank my chain, you can go. I am clearly on top of shit…
He grabs two bottles of water from the fridge, and kicks it closed as he moves back into the living room. He hears her sigh, almost like she was starting to realize that he wasn’t going to be budged on the issue.
JAYCEE: Water?
He tosses it to her from across the room, but she sidesteps and lets it sail past her head without even reaching for it. Her eyes were glued to her phone as she scrolled through looking for the evidence to back up her claims. She finds what she is looking for, and turns the screen towards him as he spins the cap off of his bottle and takes a long drink from it. The video shows both Oz and Eiley at a signing down in Reno, with two children holding each of their tag team titles. The giant statue that Jaycee mentioned was in the background behind them as clear as day.
JAYCEE: Cool photoshop… but I’m still not buying.
She scrolls a little bit more on her phone, and this time turns it back around with a headline from SCW about Jaycee having to cancel several of his appearances with no explanation being given for the absence. For the first time, he appears to start to believe some of what she is saying before quickly snatching the phone. He backs out of the screen to look at the date, and then spits his next drink of whatever out across the mess of the floor.
JAYCEE: IT IS FUCKING SATURDAY!?
She walks over and picks up the bottle of water that he had thrown her. She shakes her head, and places it down on the table in front of him as she takes her phone back from him. A few taps later, the two of them can hear his phone ringing from a pile of clothes and bottles. Jaycee moves across the room and shuffles through the items until he finds it. The amount of missed calls and messages are not surprising. Somehow he was missing almost an entire week of his life. His 2% battery was proof enough that he had discarded the phone at least a few days ago.
COURT: You’re honestly lucky that you aren’t fired. You missed your promo space. You have no time to promote this thing. You no showed all your events, and that’s all on top of the mess from last year.
She puts a hand over her mouth, and stops herself from saying anything further. She wasn’t trying to bring up the past that Jaycee had no control over. This was something different. This was a much darker path that he had full control over, and she was trying urge him away from it as gently as possible.
COURT: ...all of this is bad, but we can still salvage things if we leave now.
He kills off the rest of his bottle of water before reaching for hers and starting on it.
He couldn’t explain why he was suddenly so dehydrated, but if he was missing as much time as Court said he was, that question had way too many possible answers to figure it out now.
JAYCEE: I mean what is there to salvage anyways? I’m the only one of us that isn’t doing shit worth talking about….
He shakes his head in a defeated manner and finishes the second bottle of water before getting back to his feet. If they were going to try and make a mad dash back to the show, he couldn’t be wasting anymore time, even if his whole body was screaming at him that heading out now was a terrible idea.
COURT: Look dude, I know that this shit isn’t the dream. I know that being part of Jet City is harder than just showing up ready to work. There is a whole lot of shit that will get in your head and pull you off track. You just can’t let this shit take over. I have seen all of this bef---
He laughs at her, cutting her off.
JAYCEE: Don’t compare this to the shit that Kris used to get away with back in the day…
He turns to her with a condescending look on his face and rolls his eyes.
JAYCEE: You’re probably going to jump to calling that denial, but it ain’t. So I lost a few days… so what? It’s not like I am anywhere close to the level that he was.
She shivers though while he has another laugh. All of this was very familiar to Court; scary familiar and yet she wasn’t removing herself from the situation the way that she kept telling herself that she wished she would have when it was Kris.
JAYCEE: I just had a little bit too much fun is all… or maybe I just wanted to live in the moment for just a second instead of having to be worried about what comes next for me. I mean look at this match. Vaughn is going to be down there. Why would they do that unless they are teeing me up for the Roulette shot they don’t have a contender for?
She sits down on the couch, crossing her legs as she lets out a soft sigh. He was successfully turning the conversation away from whatever problem he may or may not have.
COURT: I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. How is any of that a bad thing? You wanted all of this! There is no way that any of it should be overwhelming now. You’re getting everything you ever wanted finally.
He looks up at the ceiling and lets out another sigh.
JAYCEE: ...and if it all goes wrong it’s my fault now. It used to be a thing that could be snatched away by anyone. Now the only way that it can fail is if I fail, and it looks like I have been doing nothing but falling short lately. I just wanted to forget about that for a while.
On some level, she felt bad for him, but that wasn’t going to help him at the moment.
COURT: Look, we can deal with the feelings behind all of this on the plane. We can talk the whole thing out, but we have to go like…. yesterday.
She stops and seems to think over her choice of words. Trying to push him along felt like a harsh dismissal of what he was going through but she was at a loss for how else to phrase things. Her eyes mirror her brain trying to search for the right word.
COURT: We have to go. Now.
