Anyone At All

Taylor listened quietly, and couldn't help but be interested by the story, but as the details unfolded their striking resemblance to her own situation was too much. She flopped the blankets down with her arms and glared at Mamouru.

"Bull fucking shit. You expect me to believe anything you just said? Well, let me tell you a story about someone I knew back in New York. His name was Mike, and he liked girls, or at least what they could do for him. He figured out what to say and what to do to get just about any girl to think that she wanted him, except for one. This one girls saw through his bullshit and it drove him nuts, that he couldn't just fucking bang her and get it over with. So because he couldn't have her, he came over to her house, started making up bullshit stories just to fuck with her."

She sat up. "Get it? iYou're Mike! But do you know how I know that everything you just said was total shit? It wasn't the Tanaka shit, maybe there even was a Yuki Akimira, but the part that is a absolute dead giveaway that you're a filthy fucking liar?" She lowered her voice. "You have never been my friend."

She folded her arms and looked away. She knew she couldn't afford to keep pushing everyone away, but she couldn't just let people in who didn't belong. Mamouru most of all. If she couldn't trust the people closest to her, who she thought would've died for her, how could she ever think that she could trust Mamouru?

A tear dripped off her face and she realized she hadn't wiped them off yet. She pulled up the hem of her shirt to wipe her face off, unconsciously taunting Mamouru with a view of her still tight, defined midsection.

"What do you care, anyway? There's plenty of fish in the sea that aren't total freaks."

Mamouru listened to Taylor's story and when she was finished, he couldn't help but sile. "Yeah... Yeaah.. You're right... I guess we've never been friends before, sorry for that." He then took a sip of his drink. Now that sehe was up and looking at him, he tossed the can so it landed neatly next to her. He then looked at her seriously.

"But... What, exactly do I get out of coming here and telling you to make up with Johnny? Do you honestly think that's the best way to get into your pants? Hey, go get back together with my brother but beforewe do, let's fuck! You must think I'm a real idiot if that's what you think my plan was all along."

Mamouru huffed. He was tired of Taylor's bitchy attitude. "I came here because it's my duty to protect my brother. I thought he was in good hands but.. " He clenched his fists. "If you two had had an argument... Or it was clearly a disintegrating relationship, fine but..." He turned his head a bit. I've been in the middle of enough break ups to get the idea of what's what."

Mamouru let out a softer sigh. "I'm here, for you, because right now what's good for you is good for Johnny and I thought i'd at least give you a chance before I just kicked your ass. There. Is that the kind of prick, selfish thingyou're used to me saying? Oh, and if you don't believe my story go talk to my mother. She's forgotten more about wrestling injuries than either of us know. Plus, Johnny hasn't said anything to her about thebreak up so you're still in her good graces." Mamouru nodded. "When it comes to the behind the scenes part of wrestling, she's the best."

Mamouru was about ready to leave. Obviously Taylor already had her thoughts and wouldn't be swayed. If Mamouru stayed much longer he really might just beat the shit out of her. He turned, as if to leave, but stopped. "By the way... Johnny hasn't told anyone. He's barely spoken a word. All he does is work out very angrily. So... Fucking fix things... Or else you might not even have a Johnny to go back to."

"That's a little more like it." She growled, but in her pathetic state she couldn't manage to sound imposing. "But since I'm obviously just a bitch, why don't we skip to the part where you kick my ass. That'd get you off, wouldn't it?"

She took small comfort in the fact that Johnny hadn't said anything to anyone. The shame of having done what she did was enough to bear, let alone if everyone else knew about it. As for Johnny's mom... she didn't need to go get molested by her... ex-boyfriend's mom. Taylor knew a thing or two about injuries, too. Maybe not all in wrestling, but this wasn't her first time in a cast, so to speak.

Despite everything, when Mamouru turned to leave she couldn't help but with he wouldn't. In the moment, bad company was still better than none at all. At least it brought some small measure of hope, and without it the walls of her apartment were so empty, so static, they seemed to swallow up every sound and she often found herself poised as if listening for something. It was maddening.

"Do you, um... hey." She said as Mamouru was leaving. She felt stupid, and looked away. "Do you really think I'd look better blonde?" She asked sheepishly.

Mamouru stopped at Tylor's sudden words. He turned and looked at her seriously. "You have a natural beauty that you should flaunt. Hell, you flaunt everything else." He chuckled softly and then looked at her coyly. "You sure you don't wanna fuck? I'll be gentle and mind the injuries." Mamouru then laughed. "Ahh... Goodbye, Taylor-chan. If you need anything, I'm always available."He paused for a moment and flashed her a serious look before smiling again. "There's a part of me that definitely thinks it's a shame we can't be friends but then... It's more fun this way, is it not? More enticing at least." He winked at Taylor and slowly drug himself to the door, making sure he took his time, just in case...

Taylor almost blushed. She sat up straight with her hands in her lap and as Mamouru was taking his time leaving she lost her nerve.

"Can you show me Youtube?" She blurted out. It sounded so astoundingly stupid that she really did blush, but it was the first excuse she could think of to get him to stay. "I have a computer and everything, but... they hate me, and I don't really know... anything." She added quietly.

"Eh?" Mamouru turned around and gave Taylor an odd look. He then rn his fingers through his hair. "Oh my..." Was she really that computer illiterate? He turned fully around and smiled. "Well... I don't mind at all. It's pretty easy really. You want to upload a video, right?" He asked. He didn't want to assume she actually meant just going there to watch.

Either way, he slid back in and removed his jacket, tossing it over a nearby chair and waiting for Taylor to lead him to the computer.

"Um... Yes." Taylor said. After an awkward moment of hesitation, she turned and moved to the far side of her bed, knelt down, wincing and favoring her ribs as she did, and fished a laptop out from under it. It had a layer of dust on it that she wiped off.

"So... You have to promise not to laugh at me about this stuff. I'm full retard with computers. I don't, like... use them or anything, so I don't know how things work." She opened the laptop and found the power button, then sat on the bed and waited for it to boot. She fidgeted.

"Why does it take so looong?" She complained, partly because every moment of waiting for it to load was time spent in awkward silence with Mamouru. She very specifically did not say anything about their previous conversation, opting instead to pretend like it never happened and nervously hoping that Mamouru didn't bring it back up.

Mamouru smiled at Taylor and shuffled over next to her on te bed as she took out her lap top. "No more than I would for anything else." He teased as he listened to her go on about her comuter retardation. He chuckled softly. "Well, I'm guessing that you were never made aware of the 'social media' clause that's found in most standard contracts these days? Really, there's no need to be afraid of it, Taylor-chan. Technology really is quite beneficial. There are whole sites dedicated to the AFW and particular wrestlers. Heck, thanks to some places you can even chat directly with fans. Though... You have to realize that not everyone has nice things to say. Mamouru guessed that if he showed her a site like that, she might think it was neat until they ran across the inevitable hate post. Mamouru didn't want to spend an hour trying to onvince Taylor not to tell someone she'd kick their ass for calling her names.

But as the computer whirred to life, and Taylor complained, he took it in stride. "there's a lot of things it needs to get running. It's ok to be a little patient. What... Exactly are you looking to do? Aside from emails, there's games and music and everything else. Tell me what you want from this thing, and I'll show you how to make it work for that, if that's ok?"

Mamouru scooted closer so their legs touched. He was peering at the screen as he watched her try and fumble around. It was actually pretty cute. "Johnny's just as terrible with omputers." He mused, not even realizing what he was saying.

"Yeah, I know. We're pretty dumb that way." Taylor said. She eventually managed to open Internet Explorer. Everything was going well so far.

She stared blankly at the screen. She slowly moved the cursor up to the address bar and typed "youtube". Nothing happened. After a moment, she remembered and pressed enter, but it didn't go to Youtube and only gave her "website suggestions".

She turned a warm shade of red. "Um... Here. I'll be right back." She handed Mamouru the laptop and headed off to the kitchen for a glass of water. Then she realized she wasn't actually wearing any pants, and set the water down, grabbed a pile of clothes from her small closet in the living room, and disappeared into the bathroom.

Mamouru watched Taylor fumble and smiled inwardly. It was rather cute. But suddenly she had enough and tossed the laptop at Mamouru and hopped up. Mamouru gave Taylor and odd look but haad the youtube site up before she was even vnished into the bathroom.

"Uh.... Taylor-chan?" He called out. "It's not really going to be helpful if you don't at least watch!"

He sighed and turned back to the computer. He began searching videos. He had seen most of Taylors, but he decided to search her name anyway. There were hundreds of hits, mostly of her doing something cool in a match. He scrolled uuntil he found a partcular link. It was an Music video that spliced Taylor and her matches with the worst kind of bubbly happy J-pop playing. Mamouru had to click... And he wasn't disappointed. It could Taylor at her most cheerful, running down the ramps, tauning opponents and doing cool moves. But the way it was done...

"Ahaha! Mamouru had to laugh. There was even some pretty decent animation that had been drawn of Chibi Taylor being extra cute. It was the best thing. Ever. "Aha! T-Taylor kawaii des-chan! Ahaha!" it was just too much for him.

Without realizing it, he was up and on his feet and walking to the batchroom. "Oh, Taylor-chan! You have to see this!" He said as he came to the baathroom. If the door was closed, he'd knock, but if it was open, he'd be able to see right in.