We Like To Party

Taylor's jaw dropped. For a moment, she was too taken aback to even begin to conceive of a retort. She couldn't believe the shit that Ace was saying to her, in her own home! At her party!

"Motherfucker, I remember saying that she was the best Friction champ we've ever had, in front of everyone. Maybe you weren't-"

Ace's parting shot at Akashi stopped Taylor dead. Without a second thought she lashed out with her fist and swatted Ace in the mouth with a fast left cross.

Nikolette was just not quite on time. She had been listening to the conversation but it went south before she could even step in.

Nik pushed herself between Taylor and Ace,putting her hand on Taylor's chest to hold her back while her body faced towards Ace.

"Oi!" Nik barked, furrowing her brow. "Taylor wasn't beggin for a rematch, Angel was. Taylor's the champ fair an square and ya shouldn't be talkin bout 'er like that in her own dang home!"

The engineer turned and flashed a glance back at Taylor. She then looked back to Ace. "And talkin bout someone's love life... That's just low." She growled the last part. "Last time I checked, ya weren't exactly a model girlfriend yerself. Ever stop ta think that maybe Akashi didn't go see Angel cause she was in the hospital herself? She got pretty messed up too, ya know."

Ace stumbled back, leaning against the snack table, one hand going to her mouth, checking for damage as her lip throbbed from that punch. Just figured. Just another sign she pissed off the universe she supposed. First her belt was stolen, then she got punched in the face, and then she got lectured and treated as a bad guy by the girlfriend of the girl that stole her belt. Wonderful.

She had fucked up, that was clear. Mixing her bad mood with drinking just gave it an outlet, and she had gone too far. She looked up and glared as Nikolette stood in front of Taylor and lectured her. Figured. She had no intention of actually fighting, but Taylor throw's a punch and everybody moves in to protect her. Like she'd be dumb enough to actually fight her with her entire...army or whatever behind her.

"Shut up Nik, like you know anything about my love life...or winning fairly for that matter...Did you give Gwen a big hug and celebrate with her after Avalanche? Tell that cheating bitch of a girlfriend of your's to enjoy the title belt she stole from me, I'll be coming for it soon enough..s'all her damn fault anyway."

Standing up she looked around, wondering which of Taylor's friends would "protect" the champ by coming after her, before directing her next comments at Taylor.

"Whatever, I fucked up, I shouldn't have said any of that...I'll leave if you want,  unless you or some of your friends wanna take another shot at me like you and the hypocrite here..."

She said, seriously considering taking another shot, even as her lip started to swell.

Taylor pulled Nikolette's shoulder to turn her so that they faced each other, and put a finger in her face. "Nik," she said, so tense she might've exploded. "Don't call me that, and back the fuck up."

She wanted to jump on Ace and pound her face in, and her blood alcohol content egged her on, but she found enough of a grip on her senses to pause for a moment. She drew a deep, calming breath and let it out slowly. She tried to relax her quivering muscles, and then she resisted the urge to point her finger at Ace.

"Ace. Haley. What. The fuck."

Nikolette was surprised when Taylor turned her but she remained stoic, even after having to listen to Ace's harsh words. How did the girl even KNOW she HAD a girlfriend?

"What, the champ? You ahsamed of it, or somethin?" Nik asked and looked at Taylor. "I ain't budgin," she said. "Just stay calm."

Nikolette turned back to Ace. "I ain't never cheated in any of my matches." She snapped back. "How do you even know 'bout my girlfriend? I ain't even told anyone but Taylor. Yer the one that had her business all over live television." Nik said. She definitely wasn't going to answer Ace about Gwen winning the title. She wasn't too happy with how things went down, that was for sure.

Ace groaned, rubbing her face with her hand for a second and taking a deep breath. Calming herself, she held her hands out and shook her head.

"Alright...alright look. I'm sorry, okay? I'm just drunk...and I've been upset since Avalanche with Gwen and Angel and all. I'm being a bitch. Your the champ, you won fairly, you deserve the belt."

She said, directing her words towards Taylor and ignoring Nikolette completely, stepping closer to her.

"So again, I'm sorry, I'm just...I'm not myself right now. I'll leave, you guys can go back to celebrating your winning the belt, and maybe we can just...I dunno, blow over all this..."

Ace stepped closer, extending her hand, making an offer of peace.

"Sound good champ?"

Taylor kept her mouth shut tight while Ace spoke, and focused on getting each tense, uneven breath in and out. She smoldered quietly, and cast a resentful glance at Nikolette when the stubborn country girl refused to get out of the way.

She looked down at Ace's outstretched hand. It was all well intentioned, for sure, but...

Taylor put her head down and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and finger. She felt energy racing in her chest and about to boil over, and she didn't have anything close to the willpower to hold it all in.

Fuck it.

"Don't..." Her voice rose from a growl. "FUCKING CALL ME THAT! I'M NOT THE CHAMP!" She screamed, red faced and breathing hard. She looked over the faces of the party guests, now that she was the center of attention. "...A'RIGHT?"

Johnny didn't really pay attention to the various groups that formed up. He was just sitting back, watching the match until he had heard commotion from the back of the room. He stood up and found Taylor screaming and rushed over to her.

He stepped in between her and Ace and put his hands on her hips, looking her in the eyes. "Babe, what's going on?" He said, smiling weakly and trying to keep her focused on him. "It's cool, babe. Just, be cool, alright? Why don't we go out back and get some fresh air for a bit?"

Ace's eyes went wide, backing away from Taylor and Johnny.

Looking around, she stepped back towards the bar, speechless at Taylor's outburst. Honestly she didn't know if she had caused it or if Nik did or anybody else. She watched though, as Johnny helped her, feeling more and more horrible with each passing second about the recent chain of events as well as feeling concerned.

"Babe," Taylor raised a finger to her husband in warning. "Do I look like I have a fresh air problem to you?"

She pushed against Johnny with the back of her forearm while she stepped past him to roughly shove Nikolette away with both hands. "And the NEXT ASSHOLE who gets between me and ANYBODY is getting FUCKING DROPPED!" She screamed at Nikolette, and then looked at Ace. Her eyes took a moment longer than usual to focus on her. "I am SO FUCKING SICK of everybody talking about how I need everyone else to PROTECT ME!"

She spared a glance at Avery, just for a split second.

"And ya know what else? Now that everybody's listening? I, am SO. FUCKING. SICK. Of TRYING TO BE NICE ALL THE TIME! I was nice to this aaasshole, and look what it got me! Fuckin' startin' shit every two seconds. Fuck it, man, I'm so fucking tired of taking deep breaths and counting to ten. You PEOPLE have no IDEA how lucky you are that I hold my shit back! Fuckin' Kelly Conway doesn't hold back! WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I?"

She raised her hands and looked wild-eyed between the dozen faces in the basement.