A Little Bit on the Side

As she exited the locker room, fully dressed and drying her hair with a towel, Alex Withers noticed a familiar face greeting her. A dark-haired, scrawny man with beige carrier bag over the shoulder of his black t-shirt and a scraggly soul-patch on his chin, Dave, the manager for both her and her partner Rachel, had a more genuine smile on his face then Alex had seen in a while. He was the type to smile more than not, but it was usually a syrupy, sly smile, the type that draws people in but doesn't keep them around. But for right now, he seemed pretty happy with all of what had just happened. Of course, given what had just happened, Alex wasn't a whole lot more comfortable with that.

"Hey, Alex, great fucking job! You won one, and the crowd, they fucking ate it up!" he grabbed her by the shoulders with excitement as he spoke. "Seriously, I was't sure if you'd pull one off, but you did and they love it. We're going to be so loaded from this!"

Alex chose to ignore that last comment in lieu of keeping up with the positive mood. "Uh yeah, thanks. I wasn't sure if you'd even be here, given that I set this one up myself." Simply remembering made Alex blush: her first hentai match with a girl her best friend screwed, and she set it up herself. Alex was used to being exploited for her sexual orientation, making out with straight girls who just wanted to turn guys on, getting more handsy at parties with other girls almost as part of a show for everyone, she even almost got a part in a homebrew lesbian porn before the other girl backed out. She never felt good about it, but she had gotten used to it. But she had not expected that she'd ever set something up like that herself.

"Nah, it's fine! Sometimes you gotta show a little independence! Besides, I know you're good for a show every now and then, only this time we'll be swimming in cash for it!" Dave was practically shaking with enthusiasm when he spoke. "How about you stay right here, I'm going to grab a couple of brews for the each of us, okay?"

Alex cocked an eyebrow. "Aren't you driving us back?"

"I'll be fine, don't worry about it. Stay right here, okay?" he asked, heading off before Alex could really give an answer. For a few moments, Alex's attention was towards her own feet, her mind on the match she just had, and the girl she had just fucked to win. It had all ended well enough, but she still felt like she was-

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a thump and the sound of paper. Her eyes turned up to see Dave's bag hitting the wall as he turned the corner, a few papers floating to the ground. Alex always found it weird that Dave carried around documents and paperwork for their matches around with him, but it probably was a fast-moving business, and the three of them weren't exactly the most organized bunch to begin with. Alex started to head over to bring the papers back, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she at least wanted to see what it was that got dropped. Besides, it always seemed nice to her to know what you were returning when you gave it to someone.

With that in mind, she glanced down at the paper, and the numbers immediately rang a bell. Laid out was a list of their earnings from each match, for both her and Rachel, with all the allocations written out here. Dave himself only got about 10%, the reason Alex didn't argue with him coming along. 40% of each match went to the wrestlers themselves, enough to live more or less as free as they wanted to while they were in Japan. And the other 50% went to the gangsters and drug dealers Rachel had gotten involved with back home, the whole reason the three of them flew out to Japan in the first place. Or rather, that's what it was supposed to be. Alex wasn't the most astute learner, but she was at least okay with numbers, and the numbers she was seeing didn't add up. Between the two of them, Rachel was paid off a long time ago, just before their match with Killer King. But still, 50% was being cut out of every paycheck, and neither of them had even noticed.

When Dave returned, he had a can of local beer in each hand, the smile still fresh on his face. Alex, on the other hand, had a very pained expression, as her eyes traced up and down the paper, trying to make sense of it. "Hey Dave?" she asked, a concerned, almost accusatory tone in her voice, "Can you help me out with something, because I just don't get this." Finally, she looked up at him, a mix of sorrow, anger, and terror in her eyes. "I was going to give you this sheet that has our earnings on it, but... it says here Rach was paid off a long time ago. Can you explain this to me? Because I can only think of a few reasons for that, and I really don't like them."

The smile plastered over Dave's face faded as well as he heard these words. "Yo, Alex, you should really give that back."

"I will," she replied, her voice even more tense now, "just as soon as you explain this shit to me. Why were you pocketing their cut, and not telling either of us?"

"...Look," he replied after an agonizingly long pause. "Setting this stuff up is hard work. You gotta meet with people, make connections, sort out the numbers. Ten percent just isn't enough, okay?"

And with that, the other emotions in Alex subsided, and anger took the forefront. "Rachel could've died!" she shouted, dropping all attempts at negotiation anymore, "This shit hurts, man! And I've seen that girl on a fucking stretcher with tears on her face one too many fucking times!" Alex shook as she searched herself for the right words, "What is this about?! Is it because she fucking dumped you, is that it? Petty fucking revenge?"

"First of all, this has nothing to do with that!" Dave exploded back, his anger only a step below Alex's. "And second of all, that bitch had no right to dump me! She was nothing when I found her and I was fucking good to her!"

"You cheated on her, man!" Alex's voice cracked with indignation.

"Yeah, and you fucking snitched on me!"

"Sarah told her, Dave. The girl you slept with told Rachel because she felt bad going behind her back. I never said a fucking word, because I thought maybe you could turn around. I should have, I see that now, but I've never even told her I knew!" The looks on Dave's face went pale, and Alex took the chance to get closer. "Look, whatever sick fucking game you're playing, we're done. We don't need you as a manager, and she certainly doesn't need you in her life."

Despite the heat of their argument, Dave cocked an eyebrow at that last comment. "Hold up, you can't just-" he was cut short, however, as Alex delivered a swift kick to his groin.

"I might not be the best wrestler here. I might be the worst wrestler in all of fucking Japan, I don't know. But I know that even that is enough to kick your ass if I have to." With Dave keeled over, Alex pulled his head towards her, placing it between her legs. Thus far she had only been on the receiving end, but Alex had enough fury-fulled strength to lift him up and bring his head down on to the hard tile with a pile driver. As he lie on the floor, groaning, Alex lifted him to his feet by the shirt, slamming him into a nearby wall and driving a forearm into his neck multiple times. Finally, she grabbed one of the beer cans from off the floor, bashing it into his head before pulling him under her arm and delivering a DDT into the ground once more.

"Listen you slimy, sadist piece of shit," she seethed, grasping Dave by the hair so he would face her properly. "You keep your dirty money. You keep all that shit you pocketed on the side, while the kindest girl on the fucking planet suffered like no one on earth should ever suffer. I want you to take that money, and use it on the first plane out of this country. If I so much as hear somebody mention you, a friend of a friend of a friend of fucking anybody, if Rachel is reminded to so much as that you even exist, I will fucking find you, and you'll be lucky if you can even eat out of a straw when I'm done. You got that?!" Each word from Alex's lips was like the growling of a blood-crazed bull, and Dave could only nod in reply. "Good, now get your ass out of here."

Despite the rapid succession of attacks, Dave managed to get to his feet and out of the building fine, without so much as another word. Alex, on the other hand, simply cupped her forehead in one hand, the other grasping onto her elbow. The two of them were without a manager, which was definitely for the better, but now they were stuck. If either of them were to go back to Canada, they would have nothing waiting for them but broken homes and more shitty relationships. As homesick as she was from time to time, Alex had to admit that, aside from the professional beatings, Japan had been a million times better than where they had come from, the people they knew (which also included it's fair share of unprofessional beatings anyway). But if they stayed, chances are their matches would go about the same: they were not really that good of fighters, and their spectacular losses earned them more reputation and money than a few moderate wins ever would. Besides, the match Alex had just finished was proof to her that neither of them had what it takes to beat on someone weaker or kinder than they were, even if that girl was willing to hit them back.

With a sigh, Alex finally decided that she'd convene with Rachel about it, figure out where they were at. Rachel had gone to meet one girl she had fought at a restaurant downtown, and Alex knew well enough where to go that she could probably find it on her phone. She was still shaking from some residual fury, but at least they had gotten that asshole out of their life.