RD 2: Talia vs Johnny - Stay Quiet! Match at Library

"And I'm happy for you to have...whatever it is you have with that self-centered...girl," she said bitterly as she turned around. She fully intended to say bitch but managed to stop herself mid sentence. Talia didn't want to hear all this stuff about Taylor and Johnny, it only made it sting that much more. He kept justifying that he won in the best possible way but Talia didn't care at all about that. The point was, he won when she wanted to. But Johnny didn't stop there. She stood there with her mouth half open staring at him.

"How dare you make an accusation like that?" she asked in disgust as she reached out and slapped him across the face. "You think I like getting beaten up or something? You think I like getting injured and hurt?"

Johnny threw up his hands at Talia's words. He ignored her comment. He was surprised she didn't use a harsher tone. She would have probably been in the right to do so giving the circumstances. But her next statement was just too much.

"Well, what the heck am I supposed to think!? You're goin crazy cause I didn't! You seem ta like fightin dudes that are twice yer size. You say you're in Friction but I barely see ya there. Still fightin dudes in Tension. Why? If yer lookin fer prestige, then obviously Friction would be the better place ta go, man. So... I guess I have ta wonder. Maybe ya do like it. Maybe ya really do wanna get beat up, man! Ain't exactly givin me any reasons ta think otherwise!"

Talia never wanted this argument. Johnny didn't understand her the first time when they were calm, he certainly wouldn't understand it this time when they're both so hostile. She couldn't really devote all her time to Friction due to her contract obligations but Johnny was right, she had been spending more time wrestling in Tension. But Johnny kept going. His last sentence set her off. For a moment she just stared at him. She swung her arm at Johnny's face again, this time with her hand clenched in a fist. She wasn't going to take that from Johnny, not when he was the one actually wrestling (and beating) other women. "What do you know about me?" she'd yell after it. "You're the one who beat me up our last match and even stripped me down and humiliated me!"

Johnny furrowed his brow at Talia. but before he could even do anything, Talia swung out her fist and slammed it into his face. He stumbled back, holding his aching jaw. He glared at her. He motioned with his free hand in a sweeping arc towards Talia, trying to make his point as much with his body language as he was with his words.

"Yer gonna bring that up! The hell!?" Johnny scoffed. "You really must have been knocked around too much. I didn't do any of that on purpose. I was tryin to end the match because I didn't wanna take things too far! Shit! Don't you even fucking remember why we even became close? Cause I felt bad that they put us in a no holds barred match. Cause I felt bad that all that stuff happened. You said it was a match! Now you're throwing it back in my face!? What the fuck, man!?"

Talia was furious. All the frustration and embarrassment caused by Johnny was boiling over for her. All the good times she had with Johnny had been pushed to the back of her head. Here he was justifying why he chose to embarrass her time and time again. It all became mush in her head. "You can't beat me...You just...find ways to humiliate me instead of actually fighting. I don't want to get hurt, I want to win. But if I have to lose, I'd rather take the honorable beating then to be humiliated time and time again by you!" She stomped her foot on the ground in anger, her breathing speeding up.

"No one takes me seriously because of...stupid antics like yours!" she yelled as she took another step toward him.

"Are ya even listenin to yourself!?" Johnny exclaimed. "What the fuck is honorable about a beatin!? You're whacked man. So twisted in the fuckin head that ya can't even hear what yer sayin!" Johnny let out a sigh. "So, lemme get this straight. If I had made ya yell out by puttin yer face through a bookshelf and then snapped yer ankle to make ya scream, that woulda been better!?. Yer fucked up! Yer fucked up in the head, Talia-chan!" Johnny said pointing to his head with his finger. "I can't believe I actually thought fer a second that bein with you woulda been half as... fuckin... anythin as bein with Taylor! Shit!"

Johnny looked at Talia coldly. "Instead a kissin ya, I bet ya'd be askin me ta punch ya in the face!"

Talia didn't want this argument anymore. She knew she wasn't in the proper mindsight to reason what she said before saying it. Things just blurted out and now she just hated herself and Johnny and for that matter. But it was the last thing Johnny said that suddenly made her feel like she was punched in the stomach. It just hurt. Once again she was compared to Taylor, and once again someone thought she fell short of it. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing mean or condescending or anything came out. Tears just filled her eyes.

"Well I'm sorry...but I'm not Taylor," she said after a moment. Her voice had suddenly become raspy and choked up. She turned around to face away from Johnny. She didn't even want to look at him, but more importantly she didn't want him to see her. She quickly brushed her eyes off with her arm. "Why don't you just go back to that...to her..." she mumbled before opening the door to leave. That couldn't have gone any worse.

Johnny's words, in the moment and in the heat of the argument were things he was pretty certain that he would want to take it back. Why couldn't she see that he was trying to do everything he could for her sake. Things just got out of control though. He didn't know how or why but when he saw her turn away and heard the crackle in her voice, he instantly felt a terrible wave of shame wash over him.

But what could he say now? What could he do? The whole reason he even came to this place was so that he COULD go back to Taylor. He thought he had lost Talia as anything with what had happened before and just when he thought that he could have her back in his lie, he made all the wrong moves and said all the wrong words. Once again he had to watch her turn and leave in shambles. Johnny turned away. He couldn't even watch her leave. He felt like he was put on this earth to somehow, someway, constantly make this young girl miserable.