Breaking the Pauper, Creating the Princess
Oct 1, 2016 21:12:01 GMT
Ernie Parker and Mr. Mason like this
Post by Tyler Keenan on Oct 1, 2016 21:12:01 GMT
AROUND ONE YEAR AGO...
Immediately after the end of the show, Tyler Keenan approaches the locker room of his old sworn rival, Evie Taylor, grinning from ear-to-ear with delight. He goes to knock on the door, but finds it slightly ajar, causing him to raise an eyebrow as he pushes it open. Walking inside, Tyler finds the whole locker room to be completely normal, with nothing out of the ordinary seeming to be happen. He has come bearing gifts, and places the champagne and box of chocolates he has brought onto Evie’s sofa as he looks around for any sign of the woman.
Immediately after the end of the show, Tyler Keenan approaches the locker room of his old sworn rival, Evie Taylor, grinning from ear-to-ear with delight. He goes to knock on the door, but finds it slightly ajar, causing him to raise an eyebrow as he pushes it open. Walking inside, Tyler finds the whole locker room to be completely normal, with nothing out of the ordinary seeming to be happen. He has come bearing gifts, and places the champagne and box of chocolates he has brought onto Evie’s sofa as he looks around for any sign of the woman.
As he snoops around her locker room, making sure the door is closed to ensure he would not be interrupted, Tyler notices that the bathroom door is slightly open, and hears the sound of unstoppable sobbing accompanying the rush of running water. Opening the bathroom door slightly, Tyler finds Evie Taylor curled up in a ball, resting her chin on her knees as he cries her heart out for some reason unknown to him. She is still dressed in her ring gear, which is increasingly becoming soaked the longer she sits under the shower, which seems to be running cold water by the way that Evie is shaking.
Also still wearing his ring gear, albeit under one of his own t-shirts, Tyler shuts the bathroom door for a second before throwing his t-shirt onto his gifts. He then enters the bathroom and slowly walks towards the shower, sitting down beside Evie as he allows her to rest her head on his shoulder for comfort and ease.
Anyone that knew Evie, knew she never cried.
The first time she ever had since she was seven was when her foster father had died last February. The last time she had cried for something other than grief? Was when her real father had relentlessly hit her with a leather belt repeating over and over again, "Shut up, you stupid bitch."
It was enough that she quickly learned that if she wanted to decrease her hurt, she had to be tough. There was nothing tough about her now. And as Tyler sunk down to her level, Evie felt like she had no other option than to lay her head on his shoulder, the weight of everything that had happened to her weighing her down enough to make her fragile and broken.
“I...” Evie can’t even say anything, she’s so distraught at her own actions. Tyler looks away and grins sadistically, knowing that this is his chance to win over his rival once and for all. He then sighs heavily and turns his face to a sad expression, running his hands through her soaked hair, twirling some of the strands on her scalp around his finger as he does so.
She sighs before burying her face in her hands again. Tyler sees this and shakes his head slowly, lifting her head out of her hands before cradling it with both of his arms. “What’s happened? Huh? What’s gone wrong in that head of yours, Miss Taylor?”
She suddenly pushes him away, anger lighting her dark eyes. “Like you don’t know.” Angry tears stream down her face, although it's hard to tell in the water. “Get the fuck out of my head. You have done nothing but twist everything. Why are you even here? You got what you wanted, you broke me now just leave me alone while I try to recover the pieces.”
Tyler takes the shove and follows through with it, falling to the ground softly. He laughs and licks his lips of all the water, but he sighs and sits back up. “Don’t be like that. If it’s any consolation, I’ve heard a rumour that your dad’s been locked up for grievous bodily harm, after some of the police found a baseball bat covered in blood that had his fingerprints left on it. I wonder how that’s happened, it’s not like he had many people willing to stab him in the back, huh?”
“He wouldn’t have even been released if you hadn’t poking in places you shouldn’t have been poking!” She scoots herself back into the corner of the shower, the wall hugging her shoulders on either side.
“I made a mistake, okay? I made a mistake. He promised me that he’d help, that he wouldn’t go too far deep into things that weren’t his business anymore!” Tyler moves slowly towards her, holding his hand out and speaking with a soft tone as he tries to calm her down.
She shakes her head, by now her hair is plastered to her head, she’s shivering. Her teeth clatter as she tries to get out her words, the anger in her voice losing its impact.
“Y-y-you just don’t think! Y-y-your s-s-so hell b-b-bent on getting leverage that th-the consequences me-mea-mean nothing!”
She hugs her knees tighter. “Y-you don’t kn-kno-know what he did!”
Tyler takes a deep breath and moves closer towards her, almost sitting in front of her as his hair becomes increasingly wet. He begins to shake slightly as well, still holding his hand out, this time resting it on her knee. “It’s not leverage. You’re just blind, blind to the fact that you’ve grown accustomed to a life that consists of pandering to other people. All of this, this whole situation with your father, it was to show you that you need to look after yourself, because anyone can swoop in and fuck up your life if you leave your guard open to try and get to know strangers and put yourself in risky situations! All of this, every single minute of torture and agony, is just another reason why you need to open your fucking eyes, sweetheart!”
She gives a curt laugh, “M-my life was j-ju-just fine b-b-before y-you came along.”
Tyler rolls his eyes. “Fine? You were happy with ‘fine’? Don’t you want anything more than that? You have no one to look out for you anymore! Your friends are either married or just want you for a means to an end! Is this what you want? To be alone for the rest of your life, moving from pillar to post because there is no other option? Sure, you make a decent wage with this wrestling, but it’s not enough to satisfy you, I can tell. Look at me and tell me this what you want, Evie. Forget the bravado and the pandering to the fans, forget the stupid morals that they want you to uphold, just look at me and tell me if this is the life you’re comfortable living for the rest of your life.”
“I-I-I don’t know! W-wh-what exactly do y-you get outta this, eh?” Her voice has gone down a notch, almost complacent, the verge of giving up trying to fight him.
“I’ll be honest with you. I get an ally, an unbreakable one.” Tyler grins and secretly rubs his hands together without her knowledge, preparing to see if this is it.
“W-why?” She takes a deep breath but her body continues to shake and he realizes now it has more to do with her emotional state than the cold water.
“To show the world, show them that you’re not their advocate anymore, that’s you’re not a slave to their whims and their wants. There’s more to this than helping sick children and kissing babies, there are photoshoots, red carpet walks, fine dining, name it and you get it. You just need to know how to get it, and it’s yours. This good girl Evie Taylor, this isn’t you, not anymore, and you know it deep down, you just have to believe it.” Tyler moves his knees up and begins to unravel his wrist tape, biting his bottom lip in anticipation.
For a good five minutes she sits, staring straight ahead.
“W-why did you choose m-m-me?” Her voice is barely above a whisper now.
Tyler chuckles and rolls his eyes. “I want you to guess.”
She shrugs, moving up to rub her own arms now. “It-It’s not like I’m the b-b-best here.”
Tyler laughs and moves closer towards her. “Do you remember when you returned? That night, when we were all preparing for the night to begin? With everyone outside the arena, taking pictures with fans and signing autographs, you seemed like the only one that tried to fake your happiness. You might try and convince me that you’re pleased to sign sheets of paper for ungrateful fans, but I know that you’re not. Coupled with your beauty and your figure, it’s a lot better than the others, they don’t have what you have. They don’t have your potential, the ability to become the biggest star in the wrestling world.”
“The fans... Th-they di-didn’t win my m-matches. Th-that was MY hard w-work.”
Tyler nods understandingly. “And what did they give you in return for your hard work?”
“Th-they liked me.” Her mouth drops open into a bow shape as the realization, at least what she perceived as reality in her broken state to be that her need to be liked steamed back to her days of being rejected by so many as she grew up. Constantly feeling that she had to be more than she was so people would like her.
“No, you think that they like you.” Tyler places his hand on her shoulder and rubs it up and down. “But as soon as you change, as soon as you realize that you want to look after yourself instead of looking after them and their happiness, they’ll turn on you at the flick of a switch. The only people who cater to these fans are the people who are content with what they have done in their life. The Veterans of this industry, the old boys, they’re the people who should be looking after their fans and their ideals, not someone like you with a life to live.”
“All I w-wanted w-wa-was to be p-pa-part of something.” She shakes her head. “N-n-NO! G-g-get out of my h-he-head, T-T-Tyler!”
“I’m not in your head, I’ve never been in your head.” Tyler places his other hand on her other shoulder, before slowly running them up to hold her head. “I’m trying to make you understand, you’re better than this, and I’ll help you get through it. All you have to do is something you already do, and you know it.”
“I-I-I already T-told Y-you! I-I-I go out t-there and I-I-I fight. It’s w-what I-I’ve done m-my whole li-life.”
Tyler looks her in the eyes and rolls them, before he stands up and begins to walk out of the shower. “This isn’t what you want, I know it and you do, you’re just refusing to accept it because you think that you can be happy living in a small, shitty apartment, eating microwave meals, wearing tatty clothes that wear out in a month, all while having to trek down to Seattle all the time to sign autographs for fans who will do nothing but sell them or lose them, and fight for money that will barely pay your bills. You’re better than this, but you’ve been brainwashed by all of this superhero bravado bullshit that you can’t seem to wake up anymore and see it like it is: You have the ability to become big, to live in a city where the world knows your name, you just have to show it to me that you believe it.”
“Not everything's about money Tyler.” But she doesn’t seem convinced by her own words.
“Yeah, okay. Like you seriously believe that.” Tyler walks back to the shower, still soaking wet, and slumps back down next to her. “Money makes the world go around, it’s the truth.”
“Easy f-for s-someone that N-never ate scraps f-from a Trash bin, easy for s-someone that n-n-never wanted f-for anything.”
“But you do want something,” Tyler turns and looks at her, through all of the soaking clothing and hair, he smiles. “Tell me what you want and we’ll sort it out.”
She looks up at him, “I don’t want t-to care anymore.”
He laughs and cradles her head once more. “If you don’t want to care, then what do you think of those fans? What does their hero think of them now, after everything that has happened?”
She stills, the voice that comes out is not the Evie everyone ‘loves’. “They never gave a shit about me.”
Tyler nods his head in understanding. “And who does give a shit about you?”
“You?”
“Is that what you believe?”
She pulls away again. “No.”
Tyler raises an eyebrow. “Do you want me to?”
“Ye-NO!” She tries to move further into the shower.
Tyler moves forwards further into the shower, following Evie. He moves forwards and sits right in front of her, smiling. “It doesn’t sound like you believe yourself, so let’s test it. Don’t pull away this time, yeah?” Tyler chuckles and leans towards her, kissing her fully on the lips and holding the back of her head with both arms as he brings her down onto the shower floor with him. She balls her fists, trying to fight, but stops, her hands moving to his shoulders.
The two of them drop to the shower floor, making out passionately.
After a few minutes, Tyler pulls back and sighs happily. “So, how did you feel about that one?”
After a few minutes, Tyler pulls back and sighs happily. “So, how did you feel about that one?”
“You didn’t get punched, what do you think?”
Tyler laughs and carefully helps her up from the floor, holding her in a tender hug as the two of them carefully work together to get out of the shower. “You need to get yourself dry and get changed out of that ring gear, I've got some fresh clothes you might like in my bag.”
“I have sweats in my bag. Just going home to bed anyway.”
She runs to her open gym bag, her ring gear clinging to her more than normal. She starts to rifle through it, pulling out a towel that looked to have seen better days and starts to dry her hair.
Tyler, however, is not far from done. He exits the bathroom and goes over to the door, where Shayne Carter has left a messenger bag at Keenan’s request. He unzips it and pulls out a solid gold tennis bracelet and a pink sleeveless top. He walks over and places them down in front of her. “Are you still comfortable wearing sweats?”
She looks up through the towel and mess of brown hair, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because you're not going home. You're coming to my place, I have a treat lined up for you.” Tyler smiles and walks towards Evie, hoping to slide the bracelet on her wrist.
He takes her wrist and she doesn’t resist it as he clips it. She looks at it, not sure how to react to the lavish gift. It was probably the only non-costume jewelry she’d ever worn. Tyler pulls back and admires Evie as she admires the jewelry. “Do you like it? I think it matches your eyes.”
“It’s beautiful. How did you even know I’d accept it?”
Tyler smiles. “You have the same taste as my sister, rich, gold and stinking of power and arrogance. You'll fit in well.”
“You... You don’t have to... Give me things, to make me stay. You know that right?”
Tyler holds his hands out and present the pink top. “I’m not buying them for you to make you stay, I know that you will. I’m buying them for you because I’ve got something planned, and the people you’re going to meet appreciate wealth and an attitude that is...well, diva-ish.”
She shakes her head, “I’m not a diva. I appreciate and work hard for everything I have... I...”
Confliction runs across her eyes, all her life she’d wanted to be like the rich families that would pass her by while she begged for loose change. Like the girl she’d met as a child who had teased her about being poor and her mother who had given her that ruined princess dress. The one she’d worked hard at repairing. A regular day Cinderella. She goes to take the shirt from him but stops. A voice inside tells her that this was wrong. That Tyler was a snake in the grass that had injected her with his own brand of venom. The other part of her was thinking, ‘why shouldn’t she enjoy what he was offering. No one else had ever offered her anything close to this. Didn’t she deserve to be the one being spoiled?’ She’d been a champion, twice and her bank account wasn’t any better off. She was still living in almost squalor, her credit card nearly maxed. What did she have to show for her devotion to the people watching at home? Nothing. Having the adoration of a bunch of people that didn’t give a shit whether she was there or not didn’t give her the satisfaction she desired. They didn’t really see her, they saw some girl on TV. And when she’d left, none of them had been disappointed. She clenches her fists, her brow furrowing as she looks up at Tyler.
“I suppose you don’t have pants in there too, do you?”
Tyler laughs, pulling out his iPhone, adorned in it's golden case. “There’s a pair of skinny jeans, as well as the pink swimsuit I suggest you try on. I need to make a phone call, I won’t be long.”
Tyler winks at her and types some digits into his phone, before he walks away and out of the room as the number begins to ring.
Tyler winks at her and types some digits into his phone, before he walks away and out of the room as the number begins to ring.
