Orlando, December 31st. 11:45pm.KELLI LOVE:
Kelli Love scans the New Year's Eve Party for a familiar face. It's mostly people her friends know from their indies days, and a handful she's met since she started at FAWN a few years back, but those aren't who she's interested in. Across the room Kelli sees her, and the leggy (and booby) blonde shimmies and shoves her way through the crowd until she reaches…
TRIXIE DECKER:
Trixie leans over to the young tattooed woman with pink hair before her. “Yeah, being a wrestler is a lot of fun. I meet a lot of cool people, travel, get paid well...” She grins. “And the workout really does wonders for my stamina.”
The twenty-something is transfixed. “I bet. It just seems so exciting.”
“It is,” Trixie assures her. “Hey, I've got some of my memorabilia in my bedroom if you want to see it.”
The girl bites her lip. “Yeah, maybe. But, there's something I'd really, REALLY love it if you could do for me.”
“I'm all ears,” Trixie promises.
“Can you introduce me to Sammie Sinclair?” The hope wells in the woman's eyes. “Like, she is my soul mate. I know it's true. I had a tarot reading and my medium swore up and down she and I are meant to be together.”
Trixie winces. Every… damn… time. “Well, I mean, I might be able to arrange… something, y'know, like an autograph. But Sammie is in a loving, committed, and I'm pretty sure monogamous relationship.”
The groupie laughs. “That. Whatever. I'm totally hotter than HER,” the woman practically spits, refusing to even name Sammie's paramour. “And I'm pretty sure I could take her.”
Trixie blinks, taking in the woman's frail physique.
“Don't let this fool you,” the woman assures Trixie. “I won a fight in sixth grade.”
A tap on the shoulder makes Trixie turn around to see Kelli. “Excuse me,” the blonde announces, grabbing Trixie, “But I need to talk to her alone.” As soon as they're in Trixie's bedroom, Kelli closes and locks the door.
“We need to get that woman's name and make sure she's banned from FAWN shows for her own safety or Wendy will be using her intestines for suspenders.”
Kelli looks down at her phone, at a text from their mutual friend, wrestler Selia Brach. “Did you hear about the pay-per-view tonight?”
Trixie doesn't need to ask what she wanted to talk about. “Yeah. I heard about Camille. That's... that's screwed up.”
Kelli sits on the bed, crestfallen. “Why weren't we there? Isn't that something we've been trying to do? Run out to help people who don't have anyone to look out for 'em?” She returns her gaze to Trixie. “Isn't that what we said after what happened to Sunni? To Shelby?”
Trixie shrugged. “We can't be there all the time and, even if we'd been there, there is no way we could have shown up before Waterford did what she did. It sucks to know, but this isn't in any way about us. It's about her.” Trixie sits on the bed next to her friend. “We're outsiders in that mess at best. Hell, I haven't even met her or her wife.”
“It just seems so wrong,” Kelli says, tearing up as she looks over stills from Cam's interview. Trixie puts an arm around her.
“It is. And there's always someone who goes too far,” Jinx adds sadly. “But, look, I've been where she was. I've had a few hospital stays from matches. Shit, one was a girlfriend's way of telling me she wasn't interested in being my tag or life partner anymore. It sucks.”
“I feel like we should do something,” Kelli whimpers.
“Well, we can,” Decker follows, “but we're not getting in this fight. It's Yoona's, not ours. But, I've been working a bit in the FAWN offices, learning some of the higher admin stuff and I pulled a few strings, got their address, and something should be arriving soon for Cam.”
“Fiona's head?” Kelli asks, hopeful.
“Fruit basket, which now seems way less impressive,” Trixie replies. “Put a note in it saying we all hope she gets better, letting her know if she needs to talk about injuries and recovery, I'm around.” Trixie grits her teeth. “Invited her to your goddamn gaming night.”
“SHE CAN PLAY A BARD!” Kelli yells excited. “WE
NEED A BARD!”
“No one
needs a bard,” Trixie corrects. “That's all we can do for her. It sucks, but that's it.”
Kelli thinks for a minute. “I feel bad for Yoona, too. No one should beat themselves up over this. She couldn't have stopped it.”
Trixie leans her head on Kelli's shoulder. “Yeah. But don't worry. I ordered her something, too.”
ACROSS TOWNWade heaves himself off his chair and wobbles to the front of his dad's store. The gun shop closed hours ago but he and his old man liked to stay late and watch their website for e-orders. At the counter, Wade found his pop going over inventory.
“Hey, Dad,” the younger man said. “Just got a weird purchase.” He held up his notepad. “A taser, a cattle prod, two nightsticks, mace, two saps-” he paused and looked back at his father. “Buyer wants those monogrammed 'hers' and 'hers, too',” he looked back at the list, “and a goddamn cat-o-nine tails.”
Wade's father beamed. “Someone finally bought Kitty?!”
“Yeah, dad, but see, that's the thing.” Wade looked over the order again. “She wants to know if we gift wrap and if we'll hand-deliver orders in a basket?”
The old man's brow furrowed. “Her payment clear?”
“Yeah, and she added … a lot extra.” Wade put the order on the counter. “Isn't this weird?”
“Son,” the old man said, “the only thing weird here is that you're not ordering us a few hundred baskets so we can make this a thing. We finally found our way into the Valentine market.”
