Are we ok?
Alicia had been distant the last couple of weeks. She had not been booked for any matches in SCW since her match against Tempest, in which Austin was forced to be the special guest referee. Losing matches happens, being put in the ring with someone like Tempest, and losing was nothing to be ashamed of. Alicia knew that. But at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel slighted. She had watched as her sister Ran through everyone in the company before being stopped by Tempest having her career and her momentum halted.
She would get in the ring and get some sort of revenge for her sister. As well as keeping her own comeback tour on the rails. But in the end, all that happened was she lost to the better woman. She was just angry that her significant other had been roped into it because of his connection to both women.
And after a loss, not being booked being thrown away and forgotten like she was nothing. It played on every single one of Alicia's insecurities. Through everything in her life, the one thing that was always going to play on her mind would be a fear of being forgotten. Thrown away like she was nothing. That is one thing that she could never handle that she could never live with and it is the one thing that was playing on her mind. Losing to Tempest meant that she had been forgotten. She was sitting at home playing the Happy Mother and the Happy Housewife, doing exactly what she had been doing before she decided to go back to professional wrestling and try and finish her story the way she wanted to.
But none of that seemed to matter now, her personal relationship had suffered.
Austin had tried to continue like nothing happened, going to the gym and working out as well as helping out the young members, taking his own sabbatical from the ring as he healed up his shoulder after surgery. But, he sensed there was something wrong with Alicia. He kept his distance trying to make sure that he didn’t upset her or didn’t make her feel worse.
Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect. Alicia closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she stood in the kitchen, staring at her cup of coffee before taking a sip and placing it back down again moving her neck from side to side. A few large cracks were that echoed through the kitchen. She had just gotten back from taking both of her boys to school before coming home and finding Austin getting ready to go to the gym. He looked over at her an eyebrow raised as she wasn’t in her workout gear and didn’t have her gym bag sitting next to her ready to go like she usually does.
”Not coming today?” Austin was concerned, but he tried to hide it. His voice boomed with the kind of confidence that he usually had. But, Alicia could tell there was something in his voice. A small sliver of concern
She took another sip of her coffee, putting it down before folding her arms over her chest ”What’s the point? Since I lost to your work wife I haven’t been booked. All I’ve done is sit on my butt and watch her get a fucking bombshells championship match and then fumble the ball…” her bright blue eyes burned, sparkling with the type of anger and frustration that was usually reserved for the most dire of situations.
Austin shook his head, putting his gym bag down. He realized that all of the frustration Alicia had been feeling over the last few weeks had bubbled to the surface. ”That isn’t fair. You seem to be angry at Tempest for simply doing her job. Or maybe you are angry at me for simply doing mine.”
Alicia took a deep breath, realizing that her words came out a fair bit harsher than she had realized. She calmed herself down before standing straight up and nodding slowly at Austin acknowledging that maybe she took it a little bit too far. ”I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated. I know what this business is like, you can’t win every match, and everyone ends up losing it at some point. I just can’t stand the feeling that I’ve lost a step. And the worst part is I also feel like the company has moved on from me like I don’t matter and they have forgotten who I am. The fact that they haven’t asked me to show to cut a promo or to talk to fans or do personal appearances or have a match just hurts”
Austin slowly smiled and stepped forward. He reached out and slightly ran his thumb across Alicia‘s cheek, he leaned down kissing her slowly, the type of kiss that you give someone when you have nothing but passion and love for them. Alicia‘s breath hitched in her throat as she seemed to go weak at the knees, Austin smiled and stepped back.
”That’s cheating Aus…”
He simply chuckled, leaning against the kitchen counter and looking her up and down. ”The way I see it you have two options, option number one. I go to the gym. I have a workout and then I come home while you stay here. Have a day to yourself and relax and then make you dinner.” He pulls for a moment Alicia raises an eyebrow waiting for option number two. ”Or… I stay home with you, we spend the day together and maybe get a personal workout in”
Alicia couldn’t help the chuckle, Austin turning on his charms was always amusing. He was good-looking and confident but sometimes he would come out with things that were so cheesy Alicia couldn’t help it laugh. But this instance it was a moment of levity that she needed to pull herself out of the hole that she had started to dig for herself. ”Alright big guy… I think a day together is exactly what the doctor ordered” Alicia took a deep breath finally calming down and getting all of the frustrations out of the past couple of weeks she could now move forward. Or at least that was the plan.
An old enemy
”Well, that was a horrible experience. It’s something that I don’t think any of you know how it feels, to be put in a situation like that. See, this profession is hard enough as it is. We put our bodies on the line and we get in the ring and we go at each other all for people's amusement. You win, you lose and you take some steps back. Admittedly some people can look brave when they lose and their careers won’t suffer but that is a rarity in this business.”
Alicia shakes her head her long blonde hair tied back in a messy bun with her lips painted a bright cherry red, a black Hoodie sits over the top of a black and grey band shirt showing the logo of American Deathcore band Whitechapel.
”I’m not going to stand here and say that losing to Tempest is some kind of big dishonorable event that is going to ruin my life. There is no shame in losing the tempest. I just hate the fact that Austin got dragged into it and thrown in the middle. I hate the fact that he was involved and it took my focus off of the match. And I hate the fact that since I lost her, I have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for my chance to get back in the ring. All it’s done is piss me off.”
“And don’t get it twisted I’m not angry at Tempest. She did nothing wrong. She got in the ring with Me and when the dust settled she was the one who had her handheld high and she got to move on with her career and go after Kayla Richards, who is our current bombshells champion. And yes Tempest did fail but she also put up a hell of a fight.”
“More of a fight, than I probably would have right now”
“But, the end of that match did leave me wondering where I was going to go from here. I had come back and started to remind people exactly who I am and what I’m about, but that loss to Tempest and then having to sit at home made me question exactly why I was doing this. But in the end? I came to the same answer as I had before. I know why I’m doing this, I know the kind of legacy I have in the legacy. I want to submit. And I can tell you this right now I am not going to rest until I reach every single one of my goals that I have left.”
Alicia can’t help with small shaking her head as she folds her arms over her chest.
”But, now that I am back I get to face some new name in SCW in Prudence Pierce., Hold on a second. Wait, what do you mean? Prudence isn’t new? What do you mean she used to be known as Kate Steele? What the fuck is this bullshit?”
Alicia looks over to the side, someone is sitting there whispering to her about Kate's different name and what she’s gone through. Alicia shakes her head her eyebrows raising before turning back and continuing with her promo flabbergasted at the unbelievable bullshit she just got forced to sit through and listen to
”Kate Steele. New name, same bullshit. When I came to this company I knew of you, I’ve seen you in our previous employers company and we had tussled many times before and over and over again. I ended up with my hand held high while all you did was fail. And all you ever did was make excuses time and time again. You would come back and talk about how you were going to make sure you tried your hardest only to fall on your ass and fail.”
“And never in meeting where you went wrong or taking ownership of it. Constantly making excuses to the fans and also to your family. Now, I understand you just got married so you’re going to change your name and do your best Crystal Hilton impersonation. But most people don’t completely change their first name their personality and everything about themselves to fit their new narrative when it comes to their wife.”
“Most people just take the other person's last name and get on with it but in typical Kate Steele/prudence Pierce fashion you have to overcomplicate things and spit in the face of common decency and social norms just because you feel like it and you want to be contrarian because you aren’t good enough for anything else”
“And since you got back all you have done is lose. You walk in you act like you’re going to do something great and then you fail. You make excuses and you fail and this is a constant thing with you. It is a cycle of abusive bullshit where you seem to think that you are capable of breaking the Internet and becoming a star when you’re not even capable of remembering your own past.”
“So he’s what’s going to happen Prudence. You and I are going to get in the ring in this hard-core match and I’m going to grab any weapon that’s around me and I’m gonna beat the hell out of you with it. Not because I actually think it’s going to beat any sense into you because that ship has long sailed. I am going to take out the collective frustrations of anyone who has ever believed in you or believed the bullshit that has come out of your mouth about Changing and I’m going to unleash it on you. All of that frustration and all of that anger is going to come out all over you by my hand. And then maybe just maybe you’ll finally get it through your head that no one wants you here and no one cares….”
