...I Can Fix That

Felina Rodriguez had a bit of a problem on her hands.

Minutes ago she’d defended her cousin’s honor by beating the shit out of newcomer Jacob Blake in his impromptu debut. That, she felt pretty damn good about. But in the process she’d destroyed a bench in half, a large weight rack, and the door to the equipment closet. That had the kickboxer in a bit of a panic.

Carmen hadn’t been there to see the chaos that had ensued just a little while ago, but she was likely going to be back soon. And chances were it wouldn’t be pretty when she found out about the damage to the gym Felina had caused... Or rather, if she found out.

“Shitshitshitshit--alright what am I gonna do...” she quickly and nervously mumbled to herself while pacing around the gym. She almost felt like a high school kid who broke something in a party she wasn’t supposed to have in the first place and had to hide the evidence before the parents got home. Except in this case, instead of a parent it was a title holder in the world’s top wrestling organization she was desperately hoping to avoid pissing off. Big difference. But that didn’t make her situation hopeless...maybe.

Felina whipped her phone out started a text to someone she’d never expected to call on for reinforcements: Army.

“Got a bit of an issue here. If you’re with Carmen, stall her for a bit and I’ll owe you one.”

*send*

The thought of owing Army a favor was highly unappealing to say the least, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She just hoped he actually was in some sort of position to stall Carmen. Fingers crossed. And with that it was time to hurry the fuck up and clean this mess!

The gaping hole where the equipment closet door was supposed to be was the first piece off the puzzle that came to mind. In her infinite wisdom, Felina found a mat and leaned it against the wall to cover the opening. Just as a temporary measure until she thought of how to actually fix it.

Between the broken bench and the destroyed weight rack, the latter seemed like the more glaring of the remaining problems, so she hurried over to that next. Felina crouched down, moving dumbbells out of her way to pick up pieces of the metal rack and tried to figure out how in the hell to reassemble it.

“Come on, how does this thing even...?” It was a race against time, and Felina wasn’t even sure how much she had. She just hoped she could she could figure out how to put this rack back together, get rid of the bench, and deal with the broken door before Carmen made it back. But it definitely wasn’t looking good...

”You’ll need a screwdriver, first of all.” Carmen answered, standing behind Felina with one hand on her hip and the other holding a grocery bag. From the look on her face, it seemed she was vaguely considering bopping her cousin in the head with whatever was inside.

She and Army had been out for a while, getting some cleaning supplies for the gym. As usual, the place was in serious need of tidying up over the weekend, and even though it was a drain on what little time she had these days, Carmen insisted on doing it herself. Her gym. Her responsibility. Her time. Besides, they didn't yet have the money to hire a janitor This would be the way of it until they did.

She felt that she’d left the gym in capable hands, knowing Felina to be a responsible and intelligent lady. Apparently, she was somewhat wrong on that point.

She’d come in through the side entrance to find that her gym - her gym - looked like it had been ground zero to a raging brawl. Who, though? She was curious. Judging by the way her cousin was hurriedly trying to cover it all, it was a safe bet she knew something on the matter.

So. Carmen looked around, surveyed the damage, then turned back to Felina, looking over her in her long, black track pants and matching shirt. She had on sunglasses, but the simmering anger in her eyes could be seen through them. "Explain."

Army, on the other, was right behind Carmen and didn’t seem to be paying either of them too much mind. He was too busy texting.

Suddenly, Felina’s phone vibrated with a message.

can’t help right now, too busy watching something funny. later! :p

Felina yelped and practically jumped out of her skin when she heard Carmen’s voice behind her. And immediately she got up and whipped right around to see her cousins standing there. “C-Carmen!!! Hey, I was just, u-uh, you know....” Well, Felina certainly didn’t know. What excuse could she possibly pull out of her ass here?

She gulped nervously as Carmen scanned the area. Quickly she was coming to the unpleasant realization that there was little choice but to be honest. Any excuse she came up with Carmen would see right through, though she wasn’t sure the truth would end much better. Even with shades on, Felina could tell her cousin was pissed. One of her cousins, anyway. Her phone vibrated as she got a text from the other. She glanced down at her phone and saw his message, then growled while shooting Army a quick glare. But she quickly got back to the business at hand.

After a big sigh escaped her lips, she started to explain. “Alright. So I was getting ready for a workout, right? Then some new guy waltzed in and said he was looking for you. Something about wanting to take your title and destroy your pride. But you were out, so I sorta decided to fight him instead. Called a ref over, kicked his ass around, and...” she filled in the rest with a gesturing wave of her arm to the destruction in sight that had come as a result.

“I’m sorry,” Felina said, awkwardly scratching the back of her head as she spoke. “I figured if I dealt with him for you, that’d be one less prick you’d have to worry about tryin’ to ambush you for your title. I didn’t mean to trash the place. It just kinda happened, y’know...?”

She hoped Carmen would be understanding enough, but she couldn’t know for sure. All Felina could do was bite her lip nervously and wait for her cousin’s reaction...

Carmen listened. And listened. And listened to Felina as she gave her explanation for the disarray in her gym. The gym Carmen dreamed of. The gym Carmen slaved over for almost a year to pay for. Her hard work, her legacy.

Needless to say, Carmen’s mood didn’t improve as the explanation went on.

She opened her mouth then closed it again as she processed what had gone down here. She expected that wrestlers would come to her gym to challenge her for the title, and she knew there was a strong possibility it would happen when she wasn’t around. She didn’t think that would lead to a match happening when she wasn’t around, though. Not like this.

”Dealt with him for me?” Carmen rubbed the bridge of her nose as Army moved off to the side, setting up some of the groceries. ”Felina, that doesn’t even make sense. The belt’s always on the line, anybody can challenge for it whenever they want. Pinning whoever is stopping him from coming after me. Not even close.”

She ran a hand over her face and looked back at Felina, with a face that seemed to be wavering between anger and disappointment.

“It at least stopped him from doing it now! I mean he was by the end he wasn’t in any shape to try.......” Felina started, before her voice trailed off. She got a strong sense that she needed to just stop talking. Or at least, stop trying to explain herself. Even though things had unfolded as she’d described, the bottom line was she’d let a stranger rile her up, and what happened after had been her fault.

“I’m sorry, Carmen,” Felina said, hanging her head down and rubbing a hand over her neck. She’d never felt ashamed after winning a fight before, but that’s exactly how she felt now. As she probably should. Felina couldn’t even look her cousin in the eye right now.

”Stop. Just stop.”

Carmen was still rubbing her eyes as Felina threw an apology her way and tried some weak explanation. It fell on deaf ears. Carmen already had more than her share of headaches these days, and this was not one that she needed.

After a long pause, Carmen finally gathered her thoughts and spoke. ”I expect better from you, Felina.” Her words came out like she was a mother disciplining an unruly child. ”I brought you over here because I trusted you, because I thought you were mature enough to handle all of this, and this,” She swung her arm around, gesturing to it all. ”This is seriously how you repay that trust?”

Valley kicked one of the weights away, letting the small, puny thing bounce off and come to a rolling stop. ”And all you can do is say ‘sorry’.”

Army had been a little busy getting things set up, but when Carmen said that last bit, he looked around with a little sympathy, glancing between his cousin and sister as this veered deeper into awkward territory.

Felina knew she’d screwed up, and she’d known her cousin would be angry. But this was much worse than she’d anticipated. Carmen’s words cut right to the bone, each one feeling like a fresh stab wound to her heart.

Instinct told her to again say she was sorry, but Carmen had already made it plain and clear any further apology was utterly worthless. For what felt like an eternity, she just stood there, looking straight down and feeling painfully ashamed.

“I’ll fix it...” she finally said. It was all Felina could think to say, or muster the will to say, and even as she did her voice was uncharacteristically weak and broken. But the mess was her doing, so the least she could do was take responsibility and try to clean it up. But before doing anything, she waited for Carmen’s approval.

”Don’t.” Carmen brought her hands up at Felina’s words, waving it off. ”Just. Don’t.”

She took a breath - a long, deep breath - and finally turned away from her cousin after a moment. She felt like venting more. She needed to vent more. But the day wasn’t halfway through yet, and there was still plenty of things left to do in it. Important things. ”I have a meeting. I expect this to be cleaned up when I get back.”

Carmen spoke the words as if they were a royal decree, and then she was gone, out the doors once again, leaving Felina alone with her older cousin. After a few seconds of feeling like more of a jerk than he was comfortable with, Army came over and started lifting up the weight rack, getting it up high enough for her to slide a pin in near the bottom and get it stable again. ”Come on, let’s get this done.”

Felina practically flinched when Carmen cut her off. Then she just stood there, biting her bottom lip and feeling about as terrible as was humanly possible at the moment. Those next few moments waiting for her cousin to speak again felt an eternity.

When Carmen finally did speak and announced she was leaving again, Felina was immensely relieved to hear her torture was mercifully ending, but enough damage had already been done. She remained still as a statue as Carmen took her leave, until she heard Army’s voice.

She answered only with a weak and silent nod, then turned and went to join Army, kneeling beside him and picking up a pin to slide into the open slot. As bad as she was feeling, Felina still understood they were on the clock and had a lot of work to do before Carmen returned again.