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There's not a genuine bone in your body, Alexa.
\
March 4, 2019
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hours before Raw.
Alexa had sat with her hand against her chin, thinking but mostly brooding over words that shouldn't have mattered—couldn't have mattered—to someone like her. But for weeks they had lingered in her mind, and it was hard for her to say how much it affected her.
The only solace that came to her, perhaps, was the fact she had been right about the entire situation.
After all, the Goddess was right about everything—despite how genuine or ingenuine a person Becky thought she was.
Yes, Alexa thought, it truly gave her some sort of pride to know that The Man was having a hard time getting back on her road to WrestleMania. First with the knee injury she sustained from Royal Rumble, then being suspended for sixty days, and finally being arrested for refusing to let the Big Boss hold her down—it must have been hell and back for The Man Becky Lynch.
With everything that has been happening, how could she still possibly keep going after that?
Well, whatever, Alexa thought bemusedly. It was no skin off the Goddess's nose. Serves her right for judging Little Miss Bliss so terribly.
So then, she thought, why was she still so upset about the whole thing?
Alexa stared at the ceiling from where she was. She was sitting in the nosebleed section of some arena in Philadelphia where Raw was being held. She was trying to kill time, debating to go home prior to the start of Raw, just hours before they told her she wouldn't be hosting her show tonight. Figures, Alexa sighed, but that had been the least of her worries. There had been other problems she was dealing with.
Like how she was still trying to bounce her way back to the ring. Despite what others believed, she had been hard at work practicing her new moveset. She still hadn't been 100%, even if she had been cleared, and she was spending her remaining time trying to make sure that she was coming back as dominant as ever.
But even then, she believed it would be a long road ahead to get back to the top.
Of which case, she'd take whatever sort of opportunity she'd get to make everyone remember that Alexa Bliss was still as relevant as she always was.
That was until she was informed that there wouldn't be any time for her show tonight on Raw, and Alexa grumbled to herself once more.
But perhaps—she had to look at the bright side of things, after all, as she glanced across rows and rows of seats that would soon be filled by raucous fans and otherwise obnoxious jeering people—perhaps it was best to sit back and watch the show for a change.
She had settled herself with that glass half-full thought, when someone called out to her to take a phone call.
"What the hell?"
The burly security guard shrugged, and motioned for her to follow him.
Weird, she thought. But then again, she had definitely seen weirder as of late.
When he led her to one of those old payphones in the hallway, Alexa's eyebrow grew even more higher with suspicion.
"These things still exist?"
The burly man grunted in affirmation, but not before shoving the grimy old thing into her hands, much to Alexa's displeasure.
The scorned Goddess shook her head after he left, and sneered, "God, I wish I were still champion."
The old speaker on the payphone squeaked a staticky "Hello?" and Alexa sighed.
"Hi, this better not be a prank call or else I'm hanging up."
"No, no! Please don't," came the voice. "You're my only call in this hellhole and I ain't about to waste it."
If Alexa hadn’t known any better, she would have thought the person on the phone was sick or something—that distinct raspiness often struck her as such whenever it sounded panicked. But because she unfortunately knew better, she knew exactly whose voice it belonged to. That voice that was laced with that certain accent.
“Oh, God,” she groaned. “Not you. I am so hanging up.”
“Alexa, wait—"
"Well, it’s nice to know you still remember my real name. As opposed to Lexi, Dumbo, Harley Quinn, Tweedledum, C U Next Tuesday—"
"I'm serious. Please. I’ve only got about a minute or so."
Alexa glared at the payphone in front of her.
"Hello?"
"Go ahead, Becky. I'm listening, unlike some people who refused to take my advice," she huffed.
"Right. About that... I should've known better," she sighed, her voice quiet, barely audible over the static. "I’m sorry."
"Huh? What? No comprendo."
"I said I was sorry."
"A little louder, please."
"I may be in jail right now, but I can still beat you up, you unbearable little—"
"I guess I'll be hanging up now..."
"No! Wait," she could practically feel Becky clench and unclench her defined jaw, fists balling up in frustration somewhere in this town's jail cell—wherever the hell it was—and debating whether she should give up amicably or not. Alexa smirked at her silent turmoil over the microphone end of the phone.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Truly, Lexi. You were right, I shouldn't have apologized to them. I shouldn’t have listened to them. To any of them. I was wrong, alright? Are you happy now?"
"Hmm, yeah, sure," she said, checking out her clean, pristine manicure. "But I'm a girl who's hard to please, y'know.”
“Of course...”
“Anyway, I can't imagine you're calling just to apologize to me."
"Right again, lass," she heard her smirk over the line. "Listen, I need a favor."
"Great. Another one?"
"And I was hoping you'd say yes."
"You really need to start asking favors from someone else, y'know. Someone might actually think we're friends or something."
"Trust me, Lexi, I wish I could."
"Well, I can't promise I'll be this nice again. Also, you've got about 30 seconds to convince me why I should help you."
"That's all the time I need, darling." And Alexa could almost hear that grin unfurl across her face in smug fashion.
\
Once the show was over, Alexa pulled up her hoodie, armed already with an ice pack and a first aid kit for her old rival. She just needed to be sneaky and cunning and then she could—
“Alexa?”
“Fuck,” she muttered.
“What’re you doing?”
She greeted the Intercontinental Champion—and Mr. Perfect Abs—with a beaming smile.
“Hiya Finn,” she squeaked. “Don’t mind me, just gonna ice my hamstring, ha ha.”
“You alright? What happened?”
“I’m fine. Just rolled my ankle.”
“But you didn’t have a match today.”
“Accidents happen, I guess,” she said, turning to walk away.
“Sure it isn’t for someone else?”
Alexa mumbled in frustration. She was already intent on meeting Becky, but this guy—however handsome he was, or how great his abs were—was definitely not gonna let her go without some sort of explanation. She plastered a smile on her face once more. “I mean, who else could it be for?”
“I don’t know, maybe a certain man?”
“Trust me, bud. My love life is nil. Unless you’re volunteering to change that?”
Finn chuckled, “I wasn’t talking about a man, Alexa. I was talking about The Man.”
Alexa visibly gulped.
Busted, she thought, time to get the hell out of here. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat, especially with a hunk of meat like you. But it looks like I’m short on time and I’ve gotta go—”
“Alexa,” he said. “Relax. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Secret? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That ice pack is for Becky, isn’t it?”
She must have given him the most absurd look on her face, because Finn couldn’t help but laugh. Alexa rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, ha ha, funny,” she spat. “You know, Finn, I don’t know if Becky has told you a lot about me, but we’re not the best of friends. In fact, we hate each other.”
“Well, Becky tells me some things. Not a lot, mind you. She’s been rather busy as of late. But that’s not what she tells me.”
Alexa paused. “What do you mean?”
Finn flashed her a smile, and Alexa swears there’s just something about Irish people and their smiles that get the heartbeat going.
“You should hurry. She might not be around for very long.”
“Yeah,” Alexa muttered, remembering the song again. “Tell me about it.”
So off she went. The locker room had not been too far from here and if she had any more resolve, she would have stormed the hallway in haste just to be able to throw the first aid kit right into Becky’s face.
Yes, Alexa thought. Just throw it in her face, say “Ha!” and be done with it all.
But Finn’s words, as brief as they were, had begun to weigh on her mind as quickly as rocks thrown into a lake had sunk to the bottom. She had already done enough for the Irish Lass Kicker—probably more than enough to last her this entire month—and all it took was a quick pick-up line for Becky to convince Alexa to pick her up from jail.
I owe you, Becky had told her as soon as she jumped into the car with her. She was grinning ear to ear after the Authority decided to drop all charges on her. Alexa couldn’t help but smile at the outcome.
You already do, dumbbutt, Alexa retorted. Remember the last time I took you to a show?
Becky smiled. That I do.
Alexa was beginning to think she was losing her hard-earned bad reputation over this girl.
Because finding out that the Authority would be dropping all charges on The Man had been a huge relief for the Goddess. And for Alexa, that had been the most confusing part of it all.
Goddammit all, she thought. Why couldn’t things be so simple? This was hard for Alexa to wrap her mind around. It had already been bad enough for Alexa to think so fondly of Becky, the worst person to be around, but to actually be this upset over Becky being wrecked in the ring time and time again was becoming exhausting.
Not to mention, she was starting to think, judging from what Finn had told her just mere minutes ago, that Becky might not think too badly about the Goddess of WWE either.
Jesus, Alexa thought, the idea was repulsive to her on paper. Because she could deal with being attracted to someone—hell, even having crushes.
But having feelings? Emotions? Disgusting, is what they were. Not to mention inconvenient when it came to one of her worst enemies. In fact, she was half-convinced that Becky was playing this game all too well for her liking. And Finn dropping that bomb on Alexa was too much for her to handle.
Yet for some reason, and against her better judgment, Alexa felt warm thinking about it.
The worst part of it, however, was the fact that Alexa had no idea how to deal with all of this whatsoever. It seemed that she had been entirely and utterly at the whim of Becky. And even when she attempted to reconcile with her by showing sincerity, her feelings would get thrown back into her face. Just like it happened on Raw weeks ago when she tried to convince Becky not to apologize to the Authority.
This has nothing to do with you wanting my place at WrestleMania. Right?
Granted, maybe she did try to gain the trust of The Man after their impromptu date. And maybe Alexa did try to take advantage of an opportunity when she saw it. Just out of sheer, typical, Blissful boredom. But that didn’t mean it hurt any less when Becky immediately shut her down.
That didn’t mean there wasn’t some part of her that wanted Becky to believe in her.
There’s not a genuine bone in your body, Alexa.
Alexa scowled. This sudden realization reignited her fury once more, and she pushed open the double doors into the empty locker room.
“Becky! Where are you?” She didn’t care who heard her at this point. “Becky!”
“Here.”
Alexa turned around. Just behind some walls of lockers in the far corner, a tired Becky poked her orange-haired head out from nowhere. The girl, compared to just an hour ago when she had appeared normal, now looked battered and bruised from the neck down, with her leather jacket tossed aside. Her shirt, bearing her roguish mugshot photos, had been ripped open from her side, exposing the arm that had been nearly ripped off.
Miraculously, her arm was still attached even after three deadly armbars. But now she wore a sling to keep it together, much to Becky’s chagrin. However, upon seeing the first aid kit in Alexa’s hands, changed her demeanor quickly to that of amusement.
“Here to see me, nurse?”
Alexa rolled her eyes, her initial feelings sliding off her worried face. “You told me to bring you ice and a first aid kit. But I don’t see why if you’ve already seen the doctor.”
Becky shrugged. “Maybe I just wanted to waste your time by having you run around like a headless chicken looking for me.”
Dear God, I am going to kill her.
“Alright, alright. Calm down.” Becky chuckled. “Maybe I just wanted to see you.”
“Okay, why?” Alexa spat.
“What do you mean ‘why?’”
“I mean, why?”
The other girl stared at her.
"Seriously?"
Alexa blinked.
"Jesus you're actually more hopeless than I am, aren't you?"
“Becky," Alexa pinched the bridge of her nose, "can you please stop fucking around?”
"I can't believe Finn was right."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I should've known you were clueless."
"BECKY."
The other girl sighed. “I mean, maybe I just wanted to spend some time with you.” She motioned with her hand. "Get it?"
Alexa narrowed her eyes.
”Oh my gosh, Lexi, I like you.”
And just like a computer program, Alexa Bliss had crashed.
“Whoa! Leaving so soon? But we hardly got a chance to trade insults today.”
“Look, seriously. This was all fun and games and crap, but I think I want out now.”
“What?”
“It’s over, Becky. Whatever this is, I want nothing to do with it. Okay?”
“Lexi, wait—”
"This confusing, crapfest of a mess—"
"I'm sorry—"
“—is over. Okay?"
"Lexi, please—"
"Nuh uh. Nope. Bye.”
“Just listen to me—”
“I don’t want to listen anymore.”
“Lexi—”
“And stop calling me that, dammit! We aren’t friends, alright? We aren’t even acquaintances. We aren’t anything. And whatever it is that’s keeping me from strangling you right now is just pure pity from my end. And maybe just a tiny bit of admiration and sympathy and one stupid, weak crush on you, and—“
“Alexa.”
“What? ”
“Can I at least say something first?”
“And what could that possibly be, Bex?”
She crossed the gap between them, wincing slightly in pain. The nickname, Alexa had realized, was foreign on her tongue, yet fit so right against her lips, just like the moment that had unfurled next. Becky’s free hand, the one that dropped from cradling her sore and beat-up arm, was instead now cradling Alexa’s face. In one short but gradual move, Becky had leaned down just enough to meet those lips with her own. In one slow motion, she had opened up to taste the sweet lip gloss from her lips. Alexa couldn’t help but stand there. Eyes fluttering just a bit, wondering if this was real, wondering if this was a dream—like all those other dreams she’s had that she hadn’t bothered to think about again, simply for the fact that it was just too delusional to think about.
But in fact it had been that, and just the opposite.
It had been too crazy to think about, and too perfect, as well.
Like a light switch, it was impressive how quickly everything changed under the right circumstances. Her body had moved against her will. Her hands were in a trance, snaking softly around the other girl’s hips. Yet in the midst of it all, her brain spoke whispers too, asking questions like what is this? and what is going on?
How did this happen?
And why did it take so damn long?
But her vision became hazy and her thoughts floated just as the heat began to rise. And when she had felt that hand wrap around her neck, nudging her back ever so slightly with wonderful interest, suddenly all sense or logic rose and rose until there was nothing left to think about.
Her last thought—before finally pulling away, only to come back for more—had been very brief.
I don’t think this is a game anymore...
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