Easing The Tension

Taylor wasn't entirely sure what it was that made her offer to show the new girl around. She wasn't even in Friction, but she was going about things like she was showing her around her new job. She had just been on a date with Taylor's "it's complicated" boyfriend, but she was talking to her like she was her friend. Was she her friend, already? Could it happen that fast?

Matters were somewhat complicated by the fact that Talia was a genuinely nice person, the sort you just didn't see in their line of work. Taylor felt bad about ruining her day, and just couldn't live with herself without doing something to make it better. That was true. But also, part of her was sort of... getting to know the competition, and not just in wrestling. Maybe she was being nice to Talia because she didn't really see her as a threat with Johnny, maybe because she trusted Johnny, maybe because Talia just seemed too... plain. She was someone you held hands with, not someone you had wild, passionate, athletically-demanding, creative sex with. But then, maybe Taylor WAS threatened by her because she was everything she was not.

Taylor snapped out of it. It wasn't in her nature to ruminate about that stuff. She realized that there had been a period of silence between Talia and herself as they walked down the Tokyo sidewalk toward the AFW building. She gave her a grin.

"You don't look like a fighter, man." She said, with no malice at all. "Doesn't mean you're not, man, but... Most fighter-people are messed up in the head. They don't get along with people, ya know. Like the assholes you've been in the ring with so far. Like me. So, I don't get it. You could get a job doing just about anything else, right? Why this?" She laughed, partly at herself. "I guess that's the question all of us ask ourselves every morning, especially when we wake up sore and beat up and stuff. What keeps you going?" She asked in part because she couldn't figure it out herself. Talia seemed more like a... preschool teacher or something. Or a mom, but like... a young, pretty, sweetie-pie mom.

"It's just like another block." She assured Talia.

Talia was more than a little bit confused. She had been dating Taylor's ex-boyfriend, one that she had only broke up with two weeks ago. Now, it was understandable why Johnny would want to do that...even if he never told Talia about her. But the way each of them had shown clear signs of care for each other...it just made Talia feel like the odd one out. After all, she had only known Johnny for a day now. One day. He needed time to think about things, but really Talia couldn't imagine him deciding against this girl next to her. And even if Johnny for some reason chose her, she didn't think she would be able to live with herself with how much Taylor clearly cared for him.

Ultimately, it left the two of them quiet. They wanted to be friendly and outgoing, but the elephant in the room was too big...so to speak. Even if they had the best of intentions, it was awkward. "I guess I could do something else," Talia admitted. It was a very real fact. There hadn't been a day she hadn't asked herself the same question. She was running out of excuses to give. There was her brother, of course, that motivated her to achieve more. But there was still that question of why she was wrestling in the first place. "Having to deal with all this pain...having to face embarrassment in front of countless people...it all seems, well...worth it." It was easy to say now, when she was only feeling a pain in her abdomen and right knee. "I don't want to sound...childish but this is what I've always wanted to do. I grew up watching wrestling on television and was enamored by it."

"Now that I am here, I can't give up. I'm not getting any younger, I won't get another chance to do this ten years from now." Even knowing it was her dream to wrestle, it was beginning to fatigue her soul. She was starting to doubt whether or not she could live this way, dream or not. It was getting more and more difficult waking up in the morning. But then she met Johnny and it all changed. Yet now it seemed like it was going to change right back to how it use to be, and this uncertainty showed in Talia's face. But hey, it was conversation at least. "How about you?" she asked as the building came into view in front of them.

"You were what by it?" Taylor asked. She felt a little twinge of anxiety, fearing that Talia would be one of those people who made her feel dumb. But she wasn't dumb! She just wasn't like... an English major or anything.

She let Talia finish, though. She got the feeling, listening to her, that she was someone at the end of her rope, looking for something good to latch on to. She also got the feeling that Johnny was that thing. She sort of felt bad for detaching her, but part of her felt the need to run her out of town, so to speak.

By the time she finished, Taylor found herself with an absent scowl on her face. It took her a moment to realize that Talia had asked her a question. She opened her mouth to answer it, but changed her mind.

"Man, you got the wrong fucking attitude." She said. "If it's your dream just to be in wrestling, and you don't mind getting your ass kicked just so you can stick around... I hope you like getting your ass kicked. Fuck that, man, go hit the gym twice a day, work your ass off and get serious. We don't play nice here, people that fall behind get trampled. If you fight, you have to fight to win, and I mean I fight clean, but not everyone else does. It's not a fair fight against a lot of these bitches, so you've got to be that much better than them."

She felt like she was lecturing her, but she didn't mean to be. It was just her experience, and... okay, maybe she was lecturing a little bit. "For me, I never had a choice. I was waiting tables in New York, man, and I mean... look at me, I think you can figure out how I lost that job. Fighting is the only think I was ever any good at, and I like being on stage, like, I don't get nervous in front of people, not really. So I figured I could make a real living doing this, and... I guess I work my ass off every day because I know what it's like to be, like... picked on and beat up and... I know what it's like to be helpless. And I'm not big like some of these girls, so I can't slip up, I've got to work really really hard, or else I'll end up like..." She was going to say "like you", but she didn't. She paused awkwardly while she tried to think of something else to say.

They had reached the walkway up to the Friction building, anyway. "Like all these girls that come in here and some sick bitch like Gatt sends them packing. Maybe we'll run into a few of those in here." She said as she pushed through the glass double doors into the Friction lobby.

Talia listened to Taylor's words with some scrutiny. It's not like she wanted to get beaten up all the time. She already did spend almost all her free time working out and training. She didn't just want to wrestle, she wanted to win. And it was never going to be easy, Talia knew that. She just hoped things would fall together, that somehow it would all work out for her. "I do my best to get better, to train so I don't get my butt kicked..." But it wasn't that simple. It never was for her. "There's just no one to help me. I can't afford a trainer so I end up just watching others and trying to copy them." She didn't want to get beaten up, she just didn't know how to grow out from her problem.

But why was she taking advice from Taylor? Sure her words were truthful, but considering the circumstances it almost seemed inappropriate for her to be telling Talia what to do. But the girl kept her mouth shut and listened to Taylor. She still expected the girl to snap at her at any moment, and she didn't want to provoke that reaction any sooner than it had to be. It was odd, though, hearing how some of the women in Friction sounded as bad as the men from Tension. She knew there was no love amongst rivals here at Friction, but she never thought the bitterness between wrestlers was enough to make some quit. Hopefully that would never happen to her. "I'd prefer it if we didn't have to meet them..." Talia answered in reply to running into sick bitches.

Even among the lectures, though there was still one thing constantly kicking Talia in the back of her head. She hadn't heard anything about the relationship from Johnny, clearly he was uncomfortable with it. Taylor would be even moreso, but she didn't have as much to gain from lying as Johnny did. At least Talia didn't think so. As they entered the Friction lobby, the girl looking around at the different displays. When her sight came back to the ground, she saw the skirt that she was wearing. The skirt that Johnny picked out for her. It was a little shorter than what she was use to. Something, that Talia then realized, was more suited for Taylor.

She tilted her head back up and sighed. Now all she could think about was connecting everything Johnny had ever said to Taylor in some way. It was all she could think about. "So how did you two meet? Johnny mentioned he knew Akashi, did you meet him through her?" Talia really knew none of the details regarding the two. As much as she had talked (and enjoyed it) with Johnny, she knew nothing about Taylor with the exception of her Friction matches and biography. "Have you been...or...were you together for a long time?"

Taylor's first instinct upon hearing that Talia didn't have anyone to help her train was to offer to train her, more because she found she really liked to teach and train and coach than an actual desire to help Talia get better. She did hope the girl got better and found some success; she didn't wish the sort of anguish that continued failure brought in this business on anyone. She didn't have any ill will for Talia.

Still, she didn't offer. That might be a little forward. She didn't want to offer and then find out that she hated the girl. That'd be awkward, and there was already plenty of awkward going around.

"Nobody wants to..." Taylor said melodically under her breath, regarding the potential for encountering said sick bitches. She pushed through the scurrying masses of people that always accompanied a show night to lead Talia toward the points of interest.

"I met Johnny in a club." Taylor said with a smile. "I was out dancing by myself and kind of out prowling around for Japanese boys, and I saw both of them. I was actually thinking I was after his brother, at first, but he turned out to be an ass. Don't tell Johnny that, though." She said with a laugh.

"And we've been together for a while now... Ya know, we were pretty serious and stuff, up until..." She did NOT want to talk about that situation with this chick. "Dude, I'm not mad at you, okay? I understand, right? Johnny's crazy hot and he's super sweet in a really... ya know, Johnny kind of way. And you're new and lonely and losing and you wanted something to make you feel good, and Johnny was... I dunno. Rebounding? I don't know what you guys did, but it was my fault for doing what I did, and like... whatever man. We're cool, a'right? Don't get all... squirmy on me."

She realized she was heading to the gym without even thinking about it. It was a habit that was well engrained in her.

Talia followed Taylor as she led her through the crowds. No one was able to recognize either of them in such a small time frame. Once again she heard bad words about Johnny's brother. It actually made her want to meet him, if only to see how bad he really was. Then Taylor called her out on why she was being so quiet. Of course she was always aware of why she wanted to be with Johnny. However, having someone else tell her how lonely and desperate she was for something good was somewhat of a downer. She really didn't have a response to Taylor. "What do you want me to say?" she suddenly asked in an uncharacteristically bitter tone. "We like the same guy, he'll choose one of us. But regardless no hard feelings, let's be friends?" Talia stopped following Taylor, choosing instead to just stare at her. She wasn't really sure what she was thinking when she decided to let Taylor show her around Friction. Originally she assumed it was because she thought Taylor wouldn't like her.

But now she really knew why. It was because she didn't like Taylor. And it wasn't because of anything Taylor did or said. It was because she had something Talia wanted. "I want to just drop it...or ignore it at least but I can't." Even if she had only met Johnny twenty hours before, it had felt like a lot more. He was far more than a potential boyfriend to Talia. He was also her first real friend here in Japan. And the worst part was that she doubted going back to just friends was possible. The weight of the past would always be present, and oh so very awkward. Talia looked around at some of the bystanders who had started eavesdropping on them. "Can I help you?" she asked in her least satirical voice. Talia walked right past Taylor, leading herself to what was the gym though she didn't know it at the time. She just wanted to be out of the public.

When she got a good ways away from the crowds, she turned around to face Taylor. "I'm sorry...for not being so composed but things haven't been easy for me either. Not as bad as you perhaps, but still bad enough to make me rather upset right now." She couldn't compare herself to Taylor. After all, she could compete tonight if she really had to, Taylor couldn't. "I thought I found something to hold onto, but I was mistaken," she confessed to her. "Thought my luck was going to turn around but it didn't. Instead of just ignoring me like before now karma is teasing me with things I can't have."

Taylor was a little surprised by Talia's little show of... what was it? Bitchiness? That didn't seem quite right. Were people like her still capable of being bitches? Honestly, she sort of liked it. It made her a little less uncomfortable around her to know that she got angry too.

But then Talia kept going on about it, and she got downright whiny. Whining about how unfair it was that she couldn't date Taylor's boyfriend... at least, that was assuming that Johnny picked Taylor. He would, though. Right?

Taylor had had enough, and she shoved Talia sideways into the wall just inside the door to the gym. Immediately, she got up in her face, her nose only a few inches away from the shorter girl's, staring her down like she was ready to fight her if she needed to.

"Look." She said forcefully, pointing a finger in Talia's face. "I'm real sorry you hit it off with a guy with baggage. Maybe next time ask the dude if he's single before you get all clingy. Don't be mad at me about it, a'right, and don't fucking whine about it! You can't do that, man!" Her voice took on more of a pleading quality. Talia's obvious weakness was making Taylor uncomfortable, and she just wanted her to snap out of it.

She backed off. "I know, okay, I know that it literally just happened and you need time to cool off. I get it, okay, that's cool. But... don't think you can just bitch out me and make me the bad guy. You don't have to like me or anything, but like, don't cross that line." She looked out over the gym, and at the practice rings that stood spaced out over the massive gym floor. How many grudges were settled in those rings? How many more started there? "If you've got it bad enough that you can't let it go, maybe you want to settle it in the ring over there? I don't even care, man, if you want a crack at me I've got you covered."

Talia really didn't expect Taylor to shove her like she did, but she did force Taylor's hands off her after her back was to the wall. "Don't touch me," she stated flatly as Taylor then got in her face. She stared right back at her before the girl then pointed a finger in her face. Once again, Talia said "Don't touch me," though this time it was far more aggravated than the first. She was really starting to get tired of being pushed around by seemingly everyone. Well, everyone except post-match Johnny. Of course, this just made Talia even angrier.

But even then, she didn't want to fight Taylor. It seemed beyond her. Really though, she assumed it was beyond everyone. And to wrestle someone who was injured seemed almost heinous. Especially since Talia had watched it happen live on TV. Then something finally dawned on her. She did know Johnny and Taylor had something going on before she met him. Johnny was the guy who rushed into the ring to save her from Brittany. Talia suddenly clenched up, angry at herself for not realizing it sooner. She had been so blinded with herself that she neglected to think everything through. But she would not let Taylor know that, not in the least. "Just for your information...he grabbed me first, I merely grabbed him back."

Talia then forced her way off the wall and away from Taylor. "And why would I wrestle you? I know your last opponent was cruel, but not everyone enjoys hurting already injured people." She meant well by the statement but regretted it instantly immediately. In the AFW, it was quite the opposite at times. Even if Taylor was confident despite her injuries, Talia wasn't about to encourage her to fight more. "Plus, your boy took his anger for you out on me yesterday, so I'm not at my best. Not that I'd need to be to..." Talia mumbled off as she turned around and walked towards the ring, slow enough to show little interest in it just yet.

Taylor laughed ironically, her face tightening with anger under her smile after Talia's crack about Johnny. She had been trying to be nice, but this chick was really talking some shit now.

By the time she got to the bit about her own condition, Taylor was feeling a tingle of adrenaline. "Mothafucker, you couldn't hurt me with an aluminum goddamn baseball bat." She grinned, keeping her eyes intensely fixed on Talia. She grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked on it to spin her around again.

"Maybe if you wanna break a few more of my ribs, it'd be a fair fight, but right now you better fuckin' watch your mouth. Forget about Johnny, man, you've got way bigger things to worry about now." She stepped up to Talia to get up in her face again. "So do you want to say you're sorry, or do you want to get your ass beat right here in front of everybody?"

Taylor wasn't even worried about this chick. Screw her. She was going to learn the difference between C-rate Tension talent and top-level Friction girls. She wouldn't even feel bad about it. "Maybe after I kick your ass, I'll tell Johnny all about it." She said, not really needing to elaborate on the setting in which she'd be telling him.

Talia was trying to cool off. What was wrong with her? She never got this angry about anything. When she felt Taylor spin her around, she reached up to grab her hands and forcefully shoved them to the side. "I said don't touch me!" Talia was breathing fast, fuming with anger. Putting up with words was one thing but consistently being pushed around was finally about to make the usually kind girl snap. It didn't even matter to her right then that it was Taylor Parker, one of the American Friction wrestlers that she loved watching. If anything, this all made much more sense now. When Taylor was acting nice to Talia, she didn't even see her as the same person. The smack-talking hot tempered girl in front of her was the Taylor she knew from Friction.

Talia stared right back at Taylor, unfazed. "I'm sure he'd enjoy the story. He probably gets off to watching you touch other Friction girls." Seriously what was wrong with her? Had she really fallen this much out of frustration? "Here, let me text Johnny so he can watch. Whatever happens between us, he still wins." As if fully intending to do just that, Talia reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Though it was a bluff meant just to irritate Taylor, she proceeded to start a text for Johnny.