Boys and Stuff

Talia finished up her plate of food as she thought over Cassie's words. Her own weight class would be nice. No more giants completely overpowering her or anything. Though when she thought about it, the only person of her own size she ever wrestled was Cassie. And she couldn't even beat her. "Hey, so...what if you taught me? You know, like a trainer thing?" She had seen Cassie practice in Canada. It was like she had already started training her. "I can make my schedule around your free time too."

And the mention of judo got her curious as well. "That's the style of...well throwing people around I guess right?" It kinda made sense that John was good at that. She wasn't sure she'd be able to do that thought. "Say...do you know much about John?" She assumed they were good friends from that support he gave her during their match. "Like...I'm normally not into tension guys...but I also don't know anything about him other than that he's nice...and does judo. The redhead took a sip of water nervously. She wasn't entirely sure what she was even asking for. Anything good or bad, it didn't matter. She was just curious about what he was like. And why he was even in tension if he really was a good guy.

Cassie nodded. "I can help you, sure, but if you want to be serious about it you should definitely find a good school. And with me, you'd probably eventually end up with Taylor and Akashi, too, and I don't know if you really want that. Not yet, anyway."

She scraped up the last of her food, which was delicious, and tried to think about John. "Well..." She said. "I haven't seen him since before I left, I don't think. I don't know him very well, but he's nice, and... polite, and respectful, and sort of stern. And pretty. And I like his voice. I think he's kind of goofy sometimes, but he comes off pretty serious. Um..." How to say this... "I think if you want to really get to know John, you'll have to get to know his friends, too."

Talia forgot about them. Yea that wasn't as good of an idea as she originally believed. She took another sip of water and her glass was empty. Even if she was at peace with Cassie, she wasn't so sure such a truce could be made with Taylor or Akashi. Too much had happened for that to ever happen. "Yea," was all she replied in a little above a whisper.

"His friends?" Talia asked. She thought Cassie and company were his friends. After a few seconds of thought, though, she remembered that girl with John during their match. "Oh right...that girl I...shoved." She'd seen the rerun her match and how the woman would've leapt after Talia had John not held her back. Just another person who probably wanted to beat her up. "What about them?"

"Yeah. Her and another girl." Cassie recalled Amanda and Ro from the day they spent in the gym after John won his title. One was very tall, one was average height, but both had really, really big... well, you know.

"They're pretty nice. They're both kind of... nuts. Not in a bad way, really, but I guess John has known them for a really long time. They're all from Staten Island, like Taylor. John actually trained at the same gym as me and Taylor, but I wasn't there at the time, I don't think. I know they spend a lot of time together, so..." She shrugged, as if it wasn't all that important, even though it was the first thing she would do herself. "Just an idea."

Talia nodded mindlessly. She heard Taylor and was suddenly nervous about having to deal with her if she went out with John. Just more things to worry about. "I'll ask him...I mean like...we're suppose to go out sometime next week...so I'll ask him then." She was beginning to worry that maybe such a thing would be a lot of maintenance in avoiding and appeasing others. She sighed and smiled anyways. "Sooo...when's your next match?"

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Talia found herself waiting for Cassie again. She was very early this time, but she had good reason to be. She had gone on a date, and it went so well that she wanted to tell Cassie about it. And it wasn't even with the person they had talked about last time. She tapped her heels on the ground in excitement. It was odd, but she felt like Cassie would be happy for her. And that'd make her even happier.

Cassie dragged her feet all the way to lunch. After the events of Taylor's party, sort of her party too, the last thing she wanted was to listen to Talia talk about her date. It probably went great, too, and they were probably madly in love and everything would go off without a hitch and they'd be in marital bliss within a few months and Talia would rediscover her confidence and resume training and be better at jiu jitsu than Cassie and beat her in a match and go on to do everything Cassie ever wanted to do while Cassie would just sit there and be alone and stupid until she died of aloneness and stupid ugliness.

Eugh. But she couldn't be like that. She had to be happy for Talia. It was only fair. If Cassie had good news, she'd want Talia to be happy for her.

Not that that was ever going to happen.

She pushed through the doors in a pink polo shirt and a knee-length blue skirt and flip-flops, and spotted Talia after a moment. She flip-flopped over to her and smiled.

"Hi, Talia," she said, and sat down. "How was your date?"

Talia was checking her phone when she saw that orange hair come around the corner. "Cassie!" she called out with a wave. She never was any good at hiding her feelings. She'd make a horrible poker player. "How are you?" she asked. And before waiting for an answer answered Cassie's question. "It was great! Well...it wasn't actually with John...it was with this other guy I met right after. I kinda...flaked out on John...and never really texted him a time to actually meet...but I ran into this guy named Charlie. He's really sweet. And...he's a tension wrestler too but he's kind and stuff like John. We got sushi one day and well...my sis showed up and started yelling at me and he stood up for me...yea he's great."

Talia stopped herself when she realized she was rambling on. And Cassie seemed a little off. She wasn't sure why. She usually wasn't good at reading people. "So...how are things with you?"

Cassie smiled through Talia's story. If nothing else, it was nice to see her happy about something. She couldn't help but react with some surprise at the name Charlie. A Tension wrestler?

"Is he... I met a girl named Alaina who said she had a roommate named Charlie." Of course it was Talia that he was going out with. Why not? "Well, that's really neat. I'm happy for you."

She shrugged, and grabbed a menu to help deflect attention from the question, and redirect the conversation somewhere else. "I'm okay. Why did Aurora yell at you? She's mad?" She frowned. "Have you talked to her at all since Canada?"

Talia bit her lip. It was probably a different Charlie. Otherwise, she wasn't sure why Charlie would have a girl roommate. Nevertheless, she nodded along. "Yea. I'm pretty excited." The waitress came by and took their order. As she walked away, Talia focused her attention back to Cassie with a sigh. "I hadn't talked to her since then...no...and she didn't like that one bit." She'd only been back a month now, but Aurora was probably right in being mad for not telling her.

"I didn't tell her I had come back to Japan. I actually told you before anyone else. She also..." said some other demeaning things. "...well, it's nothing now I guess." She imagined what Cassie would tell her to do next. "I should probably call her."

Talia fiddled with her phone as if about to call her sister but didn't. Aurora and Cassie hadn't exactly been friends. She wasn't sure how Cassie thought of Aurora, but she was pretty sure her sister still hated her friend. There was something other than Talia between the two and she wasn't sure how to go about asking about it. "So...I'm sorry about what happened with you and Mamouru..." she was referring to what happened between them during her match with Aurora. She had no idea just how much happened after that. "I'm sorry my sis got all mixed up in that..."

Cassie looked away and shook her head. "It's not your fault."

But in a way, it was. In a very real way it absolutely was, just not directly.

If Talia had never attacked Taylor in a jealous rage, if she had not later interfered in Taylor's match and attacked her with a chair, if Cassie had never had to pull her off of her, if Talia had never put on a mask and attacked Cassie and brutally beaten her, if Talia had just talked to Cassie or left her alone like she wanted... Nothing else after that would've happened. No second and third match. Talia was injured in that match when she attempted to jump from the ring to the announcer table, and Cassie got her feet up into her stomach as she fell. It seemed very appropriate that her injury had been caused by her own viciousness.

Aurora naturally sided with her sister, without knowing the details. Cassie couldn't really blame her for doing what she did. She had tackled Cassie, hit her, pulled her hair, called her awful things... Cassie closed her eyes as she remembered that moment, and how much it hurt. It still hurt.

But the match had happened because it was what Aurora wanted, and Mamouru made it happen. There was no limit to Mamouru's capacity for betrayal.

"Yeah," Cassie said quietly. "I'm..." The words caught in her throat, and then she looked at Talia with her head tilted to the side, her eyebrows raised sympathetically. "I don't really want to talk about it."

She fiddled with the menu, but she was barely hungry. She hadn't had much of an appetite since the party. What a mess everything was.

"You should talk to her, though," she said. "She's your sister. Family is important, and she just wants to make sure that you're okay, especially since..." She trailed off.