I Suck at Life

Mercy shut her eyes tightly as Taylor scolded her. Every word she said was right on the money and Mercy knew better. She wanted to whine and cry and tell Taylor that it was ok, but there was nothing she could say to make Taylor understand.

Well, maybe there was one thing.

Mercy took a deep breath and then lifted her head up and looked at Taylor. "So, it's not ok for me to work for Brittany, but it's ok for you to hire Morrigan, who also raped my ex?" She said and looked at Taylor.

"Brittany says she is trying to change. I don't really believe her, but!" Mercy raised a finger in the air. "Well, I told her right up front that if she doesn't treat me with respect then that's it." Mercy waved her hand in front of her. "I'm not expecting anything, Taylor." Mercy said, sighing. "I know how stupid and wrong and dumb this is, but, maybe she WILL change?" Mercy said and shrugged.

"And maybe I'm just being an idiot. maybe it IS about the money. There's a lot of it." She then paused and looked at Taylor. "Besides, she is trusting me as much as I'm trusting her. She's handing her life over to me and if she messes with me, well, maybe I'll mess her up too." Mercy leaned back and crossed her arms. She doubted any of it would fly with Taylor, but it was how she felt.

"She says she's going to anger management..." Mercy added, as if maybe it might tip the scales.

Taylor stopped dead when Mercy brought up that.

Her face darkened and she shut her mouth tight. She didn't say another word while Mercy spoke, and only gazed at her with gleaming, stormy eyes. She set down her tea to keep from throwing it.

Suddenly, she wasn't sitting across the table from her friend Mercy. She was staring at the enemy, over a mocha latte and tea. Regardless of Taylor's complicated feelings on Brittany, the woman was the devil, and Mercy was in her back pocket. Whether she knew it or not.

And all it took was a little bit of money.

"Because money is so important," she said in a low voice, dark and dripping with sarcasm. Her eyes were still locked on the girl, with a kind of focus reserved for her opponents, something Mercy had not to that point experienced first hand from her.

"Well, I'm sure I'll see you in there," she said, as if concluding the conversation, though she didn't get up.

Mercy winced as Taylor's face darkened. She should have expected as much but it was hard to deal with. She was frozen by Taylor's gaze for a while before she slapped her hand down on the table.

"S-Stop it!" She said and shook her head. "You know, it's not like it was an easy choice, ok!" She said. "Like, what the hell...." Mercy furrowed her brow. "I-I know how bad it is but don't look at me like that!" She said and then let her head hang a bit. "Stop it..." She muttered and then looked up at Taylor again.

"So, what's the difference?" She repeated. "If you're going to get high and mighty on me, then what's the difference? Geeze, you make it seem like I'm going to plot against you or something. I'm not going to be involved in things she's a part of that have to do with my friends! You know, maybe it's a GOOD thing, you know?" Mercy said. "Maybe she can just be a wrestler now and not, I dunno... a dick!"

"Mercy," Taylor said evenly, not relenting for a second. "You're good at this shit. She's got all this money to pay whoever. Why do you think she came to you?"

Take that to mean whatever the fuck you want.

"Sure, I really hope that Brittany turns over a new leaf. I think about that a lot. I'll be the first one on her side if that happens. But I think we both know all the reasons why you took the job." Taylor reached back for the small purse she had slung over the chair and dug into it. "Brittany's giving you everything you want most. Money, power, and drama."

She stood up and slapped a 10,000 yen note on the table. "Lunch is on me, man. Eat up."

She grabbed her tea cup as she turned to leave, and in a fit of rage she whipped it against the wall. It shattered, and porcelain and hot tea went everywhere, making everyone else gasp. She took a moment to put down another 10,000 yen before storming to the door.

Mercy was left stunned by Taylor's display. The girl was truly outrageous! She looked down at the crumbled bill and frowned. She then looked back at Taylor as she was marching away and felt a pain in her chest.

"Taylor, what the hell!" She blurted and spun around. "Yeah, ok, you can say whatever you want and be pissed at me, but... seriously?!" She said and motioned towards the broken teacup. "Isn't that too much?!" She said, whimpering a bit.

Taylor paused on her way to the door and put her forehead to her palm. Her outburst was embarrassing enough without Mercy calling more attention to it, and her cheeks warmed while she searched for anything to say.

"I just... Gotta get out of here," she muttered, and shoved through the door out onto the sidewalk.

Mercy raised her arms up and let them drop as Taylor spoke. She huffed and blew a stray lock of her pink hair from her face and then drooped. Maybe Taylor was right about the things she liked, but she would never do anything to hurt her friends on purpose. She didn't understand why Taylor couldn't see that, at least.

A moment later, the door swung open again and Taylor returned, hurrying back to the counter with an apologetic look.

<I'm so sorry, I lost my temper and I'm ashamed. Please let me clean it up. I left money over there to replace everything,> she said in her ever-improving Japanese. She knelt down and began picking up fragments of the shattered tea cup. She was just glad that no one got sprayed by the hot tea.

"Mercy, sorry I lost my temper, but I'm super pissed at you right now. I don't know what this will mean, and I'm really scared that you're going to be one of the bad guys," she said earnestly.

Mercy was still trying to process everything when Taylor came back and started picking up the tea cup. She blinked and watched and even as Taylor spoke, it felt like she was still watching her walk away. Like Taylor was an apparition.

"Taylor..." Mercy said softly, frowning. "I wouldn't do this if I thought we couldn't stay friends." She said. "If i just wanted to cause drama, i wouldn't have even come to you to tell you. I wanted you to know because..." Mercy shrugged. "I wanted you to know... I am going to make sure that Brittany knows I won't be a part of anything involving you. If she means what she says, then she needs boundaries and that's one of them! I don't know if I could stop her from facing you but I won't be at ringside and I sure as heck won't be involved in any of it. If she wants you, she needs to fight you like an adult! I think that you'd be ok with that much, right?"

Mercy said, still looking helplessly at Taylor. "I'm... sorry..." She said and lowered her head. "I ... still have the contract, so... if it's really going to cause issues, then... I'll tell her that I just can't. I'm sure that the girls in the legal department could get me an ear with the boss..."

"It's not you that I'm worried about!" Taylor said, pausing her clean up to look over at Mercy. Then she felt compelled to clarify.

"I'm worried about her. She's a bad person. She gets off on fucking people up. And..."

She loaded all the teacup shards into one napkin and then wiped up as much of the tea as she could with more. She got up and brought the broken cup to the front counter and handed it over with an embarrassed, apologetic bow of her head.

"You're a big girl, Mercy. You can do whatever you want. Maybe I'm just freaking out again, but..." She closed her mouth and decided not to say any of the things she really wanted to, and instead only said "Good luck with whatever you decide to do."

She glanced down at her lazily stretchy white dress and at the spots of tea on it which made it slightly transparent in a few little areas. She was not remotely prepared to worry about that at the moment.

Without another word, she turned and walked out the door again, this time looking more defeated than enraged.