Chapter 39: Birthday Blues
If there is one thing I hate more than Christmas is this wretched time of year. A time of year that sends a shiver down my spine as we get closer and closer to a day that most people seem to enjoy. But for me it is a day where I get the wrong kind of attention. The type of attention where I am flat bang at the center of it. Being celebrated for something that is completely out of my control and is inane and pedantic.
It’s my birthday.
And every year is the same thing. My sister asked me if I want to do anything. I say no. And she orchestrates some kind of surprise birthday party. Some kind of elaborate event that she thinks I’m not going to catch onto. Meanwhile, my brother and my older sister as well as my mother all get in on the act.
I talk about how they know I don’t want it to happen and they will respect my wishes.
No matter how many times I tell them I don’t want it to happen.
They say they know. They say that I will get my way this year.
And then every single May 13th it happens. Someone comes over to distract me. Whether or not that is Amber, my mother, or someone else who is floating around in my life like a certain ex who shall remain nameless as he pumps himself full of steroids. One of them comes over, they take me out for some stupid reason. And then I come home. The lights will be off and everyone will then say surprise.
Only it’s not a surprise.
It is a vomit inducing forced interaction with people that I really really don’t want or understand. And as the date has come closer this year part of me has been wondering just what they will do to distract me. Of course, this year I have other things to do and other things that I want to happen.
But, that is another bridge I need to cross. Conversations that need to be had. And none of them, and I mean none of them, have to do with my birthday. But here I was knowing exactly what was about to happen and the conversation I was about to have. I pulled the door open, Tasmin smiled at me. Her long blonde hair tied back. She had made a point to start coming around without her daughter. Mainly to give my niece and her father some daddy daughter time.
”So this time of year….” and there it was. She hadn’t even had time to put her handbag down before she decided to pull the conversation toward my birthday. ”Look, I know what you’re going to say, but this year is different. You have friends and family who care about you…..and want to celebrate another year of you being alive…” My nostrils flared and I ground my teeth together as my arms instinctively crossed over my chest. ”Why don’t we plan a party here? You won’t even have to do that much….Kallie and I will do the legwork…”
I shook my head and took in a sharp breath. The truth was that I didn’t even think I would be in this apartment by the time my birthday rolled around in a week. I had people circling to buy it. Because I was going back home. Something that Finn and I had talked about but others didn’t know about yet. For reasons that we hadn’t gotten into. ”Not here….somewhere else but not here”
Tasmin’s eyes lit up as I said it could be somewhere else. It was an instinctive moment. It was Me trying to cover up the fact that this apartment that I made such a big deal out of acquiring and making into a home was soon going to be sold to someone else because I was going back to my real home. The place that I actually felt comfortable. And I couldn’t tell her. As much as I wanted to. ”Okay I can do that. I wonder if Kallie will have an idea…” and like clockwork and timing. There was a knock at the door. I walked over and undid the latch opening it.
On the other side was Kallie. A large smile on her face as she held Dax in her arms. She waved with her free hand and made her way in looking over at Tasmin who smiled. ”Like oh my god, sorry I’m late but like this total “see you next Tuesday” was all over the road” she put Dax down in the small play area that I had brought into My Home. Full of children’s toys due to the fact that so many of my friends and family were reproducing and I didn’t want to have to deal with it.
Tasmin flashed a smile and moved across closer Kallie. ”Get your planning hat on. We are going to do Kayla’s birthday somewhere. Just not here. So you need to come up with a good idea on where-“ Kallie put her hand up in front of Tasmin’s face and narrowed her eyes. She moved over closer to me, circling Me and leaning in and out her eyes narrowing and opening before she put her finger up on the tip of her chin and tapped it.
”You and Finn made up. Not just that. You’ve told each other you love each other.
My job popped open, I started but was unable to make any noise that would be considered a word. Tasmin stood there and blinked, unable to fathom what she was saying or how Kallie would know. Kallie though, she just stood there. I finally brought it back together enough that I was able to form a sentence. ”Who…how?….” okay, it wasn’t a sense. But it was close enough give me a break.
Kallie smirked. ”How did I know? Kay, c’mon, I have like total EST about these things…”
”ESP”
”Yeah that’s what I said”
Tasmin went to open her mouth and say something. But stopped herself as she realized that Kallie was not going to get it or understand or even care at this point. ”Ok, so it seems like there are a few bridges that we need to cross here. But I’m not ready. I understand you both probably have questions. But the truth is that hand and I have no idea where this is going on what we are doing. I will say that I know where I’m going to be living but that’s beside the point”
Kallies eyes widened, Tasmin smiled. ”So, you’re moving back home?” Home. The way she said it made me smile. I tried to hide it but there was a small flicker when my lips twisted. Enough that they both saw it.
I snapped out of it and shook my head, folding my arms back over my chest again as I regained my composure. I needed to nip this in the bud right now and stop it from going any further. ”There is a reason why I haven’t told anyone. You both cannot tell anyone else. Tasmin that means you cannot tell Adam and Kallie you cannot tell Aidan. Believe me I didn’t tell you to for a reason and if I’m not going to tell my sister and my best friend. You have to understand why I don’t want you telling your husbands.” I sneered and narrowed my eyes.
Kallie took a sharp inhale and her hands moved up to her chest as her fingers spread. She breathed in and out a few times looking like she was about to cry as both myself and my sister looked over at her tilting our heads in confusion. ”You said I was your best friend?”
I took a deep breath in and clenched my hands together into fist. I realized my mistake. But now it was too late.
Kallie smiled and bounced up and down. ”Best friend best friend I’m your best friend”
I shook my head and threw my arms in the air, Tasmin leaning close and shook her head as well. ”You see what you’ve done now?”
I had seen what I’ve done. But I’ve seen it too late. I needed to make sure that no one else knew what happened. At least not until I could talk to Finn and we could decide where we were going with this. What we were doing. All the happiness that I had, everything inside me that had been singing with content calm since he and I revealed our feelings for each other was also scared to death.
And that was a problem.
Waste of my time
”Aren’t you all getting sick of this?”
Kayla takes a slow deep breath in, closing her eyes before exhaling and calming herself down. After all there is no point in getting angry before getting into the meat and potatoes of the promo.
”I mean, I walked into this company and every single female in the roster acted like I didn’t exist. I signed my contract on the dotted line after being away from professional wrestling for about a year. But before I left, I was dominating companies like they were going out of fashion. I walked into one comp and smashed up a championship against someone who is apparently a legend. After coming from two other companies where I was the world champion, and I took out every single one of their so-called heroes.”
“I have a track record of being one of the best and most brutal professional wrestlers on the planet today. And I took every single criticism that the fans had. I took every single criticism that the office had. And I made myself better. It is incredible to me how even after they forgot to book me and seemingly forgot that I existed I have come all the way up to be one of the most decorated professional wrestlers on the planet today. I held the Internet championship three times and I beat everyone who came at me. When I lost the championship, I got it right back by beating the people who beat me first.”
“This is what I do. I then snatched up those mixed tag team championships and save them from a team that honestly had no idea what to do with them. They wanted to elevate them by barely holding them and being a couple of moronic chuckleheads who talked about the future while simultaneously living in the past and stayed nestled in the shadow of their mentors, one of which doesn’t have the guts to walk her aging ass back in the ring to face me, instead being content with talking shit on twitter.”
“It was pathetic. But I still went ahead and took those championships. That would be impressive enough right? Beating some of the so-called Hall of Fame stars that this company has while beating every single young star that this company also has, while defending and regaining a championship that so many other people had forgotten about until Tempest got her hands on it and restored some of the glory I gave it….. I made the SCW Internet championship matter. Just like I have made the mixed tag team championships matter.”
Her nostrils flare as she looks down at the bombshells championship sitting in front of her. Sitting right next to the tag team championship that she mentioned. She closes her eyes again and calms herself down. Again, no point in snapping and going too far overboard.
”But, after all of that I was still being ignored. I was. You can all deny it and you can all say that I had a certain amount of respect but I didn’t. And I watched the biggest prize in this company, at least for the bombshells, was being disrespected. Not even buying unworthy champion. Because Julianna as much as I dislike her was a worthy champion. She just wasn’t the type of champion we needed. see Julianna. DiMaria believes that the title makes the champion not the other way around. Where is I know you need to make the championship. After so many big names holding this thing, for it to fall how it has is more indicative of where the division is as a whole.•
“And I refuse to let this championship fail. I refuse to let it fall to the places that other titles have in this company. I mean I get it, Julianna isn’t the one who made this championship fail. It was Courtney Pierce. But she had so much to live up to. Courtney was a champion that had to follow Amber Ryan Roxi Johnson and Masque De Lune trading the championship back-and-forth over and over again for essentially two years”
“I’m here to do what needs to be done and restore the championship to where it needs to be.”
“And I did by taking the championship to the main event. And I continue to do that by main eventing and being a star. Last time you all saw me I destroyed Ariana Angelos again. That match was quite honestly a waste of my time. That is a woman who I have beaten so many times that you’d think if she was presented with a contract to face Me the first thing she would do is tear it up and the second thing she would do would be to yell at management and tell them that she doesn’t want to face me ever again. That is what a sane person would do. Unfortunately the little Greek twit has no idea what she’s doing with her life. So in a moment that is quite literally the definition of insanity. She keeps throwing herself at me like a desperate woman in her mid forties would to a halfway decent looking young man at a bar.”
“And much like that man I have to tell you Ariana, I’m not interested.”
Kayla laughed to herself and shook her head before reaching down and picking up the SCW bombshells world championship and throwing it over her leather jacket clad shoulder. She holds the title close and smiles before shaking her head.
”Now while I know that I have to keep on jumping into the ring and staying active, I have a very large match coming up that I need to focus on. I’m facing Julianna DiMaria one on one in a two out of three falls match. And as I focus on that I am staying warmed up and staying in match shape by facing some of the apparent best that this company can throw with Me. Ariana is definitely not a name that I would consider to be a threat to me. But Harper Mason? While she she is certainly much more of a challenge than Ariana is I also wouldn’t consider her a threat and I would also consider this match to be a colossal waste of my fucking time.”
“Now, Ariana has held a roulette championship as well as holding the Internet championship after I was done with it. She wasted both of those opportunities in both of those divisions. Harper Mason hasn’t had opportunities in those divisions. So you might think that because she hasn’t been a champion I might believe she isn’t as big of a threat as Ariana was. The truth is? I know Harper is a bigger threat. Because Harper hasn’t been tainted by the same brush of failure that Ariana has. Harper, you are a struggling new name in this company. You are someone who does have talent. But you’re also someone who hasn’t been able to realize that potential that everyone including management apparently sees in you.”
“Potential is a loaded word in this company.”
“I was painted with the potential brush when I stepped in here. And that’s all I ever heard. Even as I had a winning record all through the first two years I was here, I still didn’t get to where I needed to be until I stood up and talk what I was owed. Shit, I am undefeated on climax control, I am undefeated this year. And I need to stop myself because as I use that word undefeated I’m starting to sound like Julianna DiMaria and nobody wants that.”
She chuckles again and gives a small shrug before looking down at the bombshells championship and running her thumb across her nameplate. A huge smile comes across her face as she is filled with a sense of pride and happiness.
”The fact remains that I am one of the scariest women on this roster. You can look at women like Tempest or Zoey Lukas who are huge and muscular and can break people in half. You can look at women like Bella Madison who have legacies with their parents on their side. but when push comes to shove? When you really look at who is the most dangerous Harper, you look at a woman like me. Because I am a woman like you who had that word potential thrown at me. But unlike you who isn’t really living up to it, unlike you who is sitting back and smiling as she gets given opportunities like this one, I’m a woman who takes opportunities. This isn’t the type of opportunity that you want.”
“This is a non-title match on a show where I’ve never been defeated as I’m pissed off and heading into a huge title defense. And most people would believe I’ll be distracted by that right? The looming defense on the horizon. But I want you to look at it this way. I was embarrassed by my challenger, she attacked me and I have not been able to get my hands on her. She taunted me and I wasn’t able to smack that smug look off her face.”
“So, let’s say I have some pent-up aggression”
“Let’s say I have some anger issues.”
“Who do you think I’m getting ready to unleash all of that on? You are coming into this match with a huge smile on your face thinking it is some type of gold and opportunity. And I admit facing a world champion in a main event for someone like you is an opportunity. but against a woman like me in the mood that I’m in, it’s less of a golden opportunity and more of a punishment. So I have to wonder just who the fuck you have pissed off. Because you could put in a good showing against me and I could slip on a banana peel or have some kind of concussion or get stung by a Madagascan wasp thereby making me paralyzed, that is the only way that you would ever come out of this a winner.”
Now she starts letting herself get angry, sneering as the words come out with a certain venom.
”No, the reality of this situation is going to hit you. You’re going to walk down to that ring, you are going to get between those ropes, and instantly you are going to be in deepwater unable to breathe. Because I am going to drown you. I’m going to drown you in the realisation that I am a champion who has been backed into a corner. A champion who has been embarrassed. A champion that had to claw her way up through everything and earn everything and take everything. Who now has to be put against a woman who has potential, the potential to be good.”
“Good…not great.”
“And with what I have coming at me? The type of woman who I know has nothing to lose and that makes her dangerous? Facing you Harper? I’m going to have to use you to make a statement. It might be cruel, it might be something that you never expected, but it is something that I have to do. so when the dust is settled and you are laying there staring up at the lights I want you to know something. This was never ever. But if you want to blame someone, for what is about to happen to you. For the pain that you are about to go through. Then you need to go and find Julianna DiMaria after this match and you need to get her to apologize to you, because everything that I’m about to do is her fault. And I’m not sorry.”
