Love and Grace

Cassie bounced back up off of Talia and to her feet as quickly as she'd gone down. She pulled her hands back, palms out, with a look of shock and confusion on her face.

"Sorrysorrysorry!" She blurted. "I-I-I-I, uh, I-I, um..." She meekly knelt down next to Talia and put her hand on her arm. "I thought we were just training some stuff... I was just goofing around." She said, looking very concerned. "Sorey." She said, her Canadian accent particularly obvious.

But... maybe Talia was upset about something too. She said she'd had a rough time... maybe she was still afraid. Cassie could help with that, for sure!

She reached down and wrapped her arms around Talia's upper body and under one arm, and dragged her up onto her lap so she was laying on her side. She hugged her gently and patted her on the back, almost like she was comforting a baby. It never occurred to her to do anything differently.

"So... What's really wrong?" She asked softly.

Talia didn't even notice that Cass wasn't pummeling her and kept her eyes closed and arms covering her face. Even as the girl apologized to her, Talia kept up the defensive posture, awaiting a thrashing at any moment. But it never came. She felt Cass gently lift her up and hug her. Slowly, Talia shifted her arms down so she could see Cass's face. To her surprise, the younger girl seemed sincere in her worry for her. For a moment she just stared at her, unsure of what her angle was. But perhaps the little time she had spent in Tension had already corrupted her mind and made her cynical. Maybe, for once, Cass really was genuine and not as deceiving as Talia thought.

But that didn't erase the fact that she was Taylor's friend. Talia looked off to the side and away from Cass as she asked her what was wrong. She couldn't tell her the truth. Rather, she didn't want to tell her the truth. This seemed like a girl she could be really good friends with and she didn't want to risk losing that. "I'd rather not talk about it..." she said as her arms moved down from her head to her lap. "I...I made a mistake a little while ago and someone got hurt because of it..." she began, not wanting to be clear in her description. "...Someone broke my phone to mock me and I just...swung at them." If Cass had been told the entire story of what happened, she'd probably catch on to that one detail. Otherwise, Talia intentionally kept it vague and left out some details. "I feel bad about it," she said hoping to appeal to Cass's personality. "I wish I hadn't hurt them."

Cassie listened quietly. Taylor never gave her the whole story, ever, about anything, and when Taylor was most recently attacked she made it sound to Cassie like she started the fight. Cassie knew better than to take her at her word. Taylor had told her that she was talking shit to this girl and pushing her around, and then she threw her phone and the girl flipped out and came after her. Of course, she failed to mention why she was being mean to the girl in the first place, and Cassie just didn't buy it. Taylor would rather have everyone thing she was the worst person in the world than to just tell the truth and admit that someone bullied her.

Cassie was quiet for a long time. The unavoidable conclusion was that she was currently comforting the person who had just beat up her best friend, her injured friend. She had no idea what to do.

"Why?" She said finally. Without realizing it she'd tightened her grip around Talia. "You're so scared of people that really try to hurt people, b-but... What do we do now?"

Talia looked up at Cassie with a frown. She could tell from the way Cass had tightened her grip that she figured it out. She wanted to undo everything that happened. Attacking Taylor really did nothing but hurt her. A single moment of anger had haunted her. She already lost two potential friends. Now she was staring at the third. Maybe Cass would be different, after all she was kind, respectful, and caring. She just hoped she'd forgive her where Taylor wouldn't.

But telling the truth wouldn't solve that. She was the one who started the argument after all, Taylor just responded to her bitterness in the only way she knew how. Talia did recall Cass mentioning the friend wrestling Johnny and his brother though; it must have been the same one, right? "...Do you know Johnny?" The girl asked, her hands still in the defenseless place of her lap. "I...may have been on a date with him...He ended up back together with Taylor anyways...I got jealous and..." she meant to say snapped but felt bad.

"I tried to apologize but she pretty much ignored me. I wanted to make it up to her but she thought I was crazy..." maybe she was after all. She did just snap. "...and I can't even be friends with Johnny..." she continued. She wanted it all to just go away. Maybe if she wasn't impulsive enough to go out on the town all day with Johnny it would never have happened. "I don't have anyone...I want to make it all better but I can't...I can't make up for my mistake..."

"You were... dating Johnny?" Cassie repeated, and unconsciously tightened her grip some more. "But... but..."

It just didn't make sense to her. She couldn't understand why any of them would do anything that they said they did. Cassie blew at her bangs that hung in her face, but they hardly moved. She felt a strange mixture of emotions, and wasn't sure if she was going to scold Talia or punish her or just cry.

"You... have to fix this." She said sternly. "I will help you fix it. Everything will be okay if you do the right thing. We have to call Taylor so you can talk about it." She stood up and began physically dragging Talia by her upper body toward where she had left her stuff. Her phone was in her bag somewhere.

Talia cringed as Cass tightened the grip further. Sure it was practically a hug, but with the way she was acting it could quickly turn into something painful if she wanted it to. "I...I want to fix this...but Taylor hates me." The girl was suddenly picked up and dragged by Cass. She didn't resist apart from having to adjust to stay standing. A bystander would just assume it was an awkward hug of a sort, unaware of the tension that was actually present. "W-What is the right thing?" Talia asked confused. It was weird saying something so close while being held by her, especially when it wasn't exactly the friendliest of circumstances now.

"I...I apologized to her...I told Johnny we couldn't even be friends...I even told her to hit me back but she didn't want to...I don't know what else to do..." Talia frowned and looked away, afraid that calling Taylor would only make things worse for her.

"Well, I don't know either." Cassie said, and set Talia down next to her gym bag like a sack of potatoes. "But there has to be something! Taylor doesn't just hate people. I know she doesn't. You did a bad thing. And... I know Taylor probably... ya know, helped. You don't have to be friends, but you can't go around thinking you hate each other." She said sternly.

She fished her phone out of a pocket on the bag and pressed Taylor's speed dial button. She held the phone up to her ear and looked absently at Talia while she waited for it to ring. She tapped her foot. "You're gonna fix it." She said. "Because... or else..." She thought that if it wasn't fixed, they'd end up fighting, and Cassie didn't want to fight her. At least, not when she wasn't actually trying to hurt anyone.

Taylor answered. Cassie turned away and tried to be quiet so Talia wouldn't hear everything, and after a short conversation it was clear that things wouldn't work out the way Cassie hoped. Not today.

"That bitch? Keep her there, I'll come beat her ass for talking shit to everyone." Taylor said.

"What? No! No, that's the opposite of... no, I'll come meet you. We'll do... something."

Cassie hung up and looked sheepishly at Talia. "Taylor's not feeling really well right now, so I'm going to go keep her company and cheer her up. So... I guess we'll have to fix things... another time?" She said hesitantly. She forced a smile.

Talia groaned as Cass put her down on the bench. "Ow..." she said as she felt her ass. She looked up at the girl as she took out her phone. "I don't hate her...she hates me..." But then again, hate was a strong word. She was still jealous of Taylor after all, and would be as long as she was with Johnny. Talia stared right back at Cass as she tapped her foot and waited. She couldn't help but sigh and look away when she added or else to her sentence. What else could Talia do to fix it? It felt like it was a straight forward threat to her.

"There won't be another time will there?" she asked after Cass hung up her phone. Even with the girl's forced smile, Talia just stared blankly at her. "There never is." Reluctantly, she got to her feet. Things had gone downhill so fast for her, it almost felt unreal. She had already made enemies in a league that she hadn't even wrestled in yet. The girl then would just turn around and begin to walk away. She had no reason to stay, and it was hopeless to try and fix things. Even this kind and wonderful girl Cass was devoted to her friends. She just happened to be with Taylor already, and it only made Talia sigh once more.

She just hoped in the near future, she'd meet someone who wouldn't hate her for getting angry once. "I'm sorry..." she said once more to Cass.

Cassie looked greatly concerned and perplexed by everything Talia said. She watched her quietly, her brow knitted up and a frown on her face and shifting from foot to foot while Talia turned to leave. It was just too much to bear.

Then Cassie pounced. She leapt up behind Talia and wrapped her arms and legs around her so the girl was wearing her like a backpack. She gave her a tight, affectionate squeeze that lasted for longer than one would've expected. She thought of hugs as having medicinal properties, and sometimes it took longer than others to get the bad feelings out. That's what her mom used to tell her when she was little.

"What's your phone number?" She said, maneuvering her phone into her left hand. "If you live in Tokyo now, I can show you around the place and we can have lunch and go shopping and stuff!" She said, excited, but nervous, about the prospect of it. What if Talia said no?

Well... she'd just have to try harder. She knew she couldn't fix everything for everyone... but this wasn't just anyone. She was a friend of Taylor's! Well, that wasn't true. Not even close, actually. If Cassie had her way, she would be, that was for sure. Maybe she had her rose colored glasses on like everyone said she did, but she wasn't going to fix anything expecting them to just kill each other.

Talia wasn't expecting the hug from Cassie at all. At first she almost thought it was going to turn into a wrestling move such as a rear naked choke. But when it didn't she wasn't sure how to respond. Cass clearly cared greatly about Taylor, and Taylor very clearly wanted to beat Talia up. Just like she pretty much couldn't be friends with Johnny, she doubted a friendship with Cass would work. She was actually kind of impressed by Cass's dual-devotion too, not imagining the girl would still try to be nice to Talia even knowing full out what had happened. But she couldn't do it. It wouldn't be right.

"Cass...if Taylor and you are friends...I don't think we should hang out." Obviously, she did want to spend time with the girl on a subconscious level. Cassie seemed like such a fun person. "She already caught me hanging out with Johnny...and I didn't even know they were together then. Now she knows I know you two are good friends. If I try to hang out with you..." Talia trailed off. It wasn't the same to share girlfriends but even then it was still distasteful in her eyes. "...She'll think I'm like...out to get her or something...and she already wants to pound my face in."

Even so, Talia didn't try to shrug Cass off of her. She even reached up to hold the girl's arms with her own and leaned forward so she could keep her balance.