Page 18 of Heartbreaker
“Because she thinks she’s better than all of us,” Harper says under her breath, and her eyes roll so hard they almost end up on the floor.
“Shut up, Harper!” Raelynn hisses across the ring.
“Tell me I’m wrong, Rae.” Harper doesn’t wait for a response, her glare turning back on me. “Am I wrong, Savannah? You think you’re better than the rest of us because of where you come from. But the reality is you gothandedthis opportunity because you have big tits and a nice ass, while the rest of us had to work twice as hard to get here.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Sheldon says before I can respond. “Go on, Sav. You’re done for the day.” He shoos me out of the ring, but not before I catch John’s eye and his small headshake, retreating to his corner. Climbing out of the ring, I take my place between Rae and Bennett as Colin Montgomery is called in for his turn.
John’s presence has made everyone act... differently today. Okay, I take it back. His presence has only made the other girls act differently today. Every time I catch one of them gawking at him, drool pooling in the corner of their mouth, I remind myself no one can know how it affects me. It wouldn’t take a genius to see the look in their eyes and know exactly what they’re thinking. Instead, I dig my nails into my palms and force my attention on Colin, who delivers a heel turn promo in the center of the ring.
I hate that it makes me jealous. Who am I to be jealous, anyway? What he and I shared was a one-time thing. It wasn’t supposed to leave the walls of The Resort. Besides, let’s be real, he has probably slept with plenty of other women since then.
The mere thought of him in bed with another woman makes my skin crawl and sends a shudder down my spine.
A movement from the corner draws my attention away from the ring, and I find myself lost in a sea of blue. John smiles when I meet his gaze, and I only briefly return it before his attention turns back to the task at hand.
Fucked. I’m so fucked. How am I supposed to concentrate and work if he looks at me like that?
“Don’t look now, but someone is staringagain,” Raelynn whispers, and the words earn a snicker from the man standing on my other side. Her hand reaches behind my back to slap Bennett on the arm, glaring at him for possibly drawing attention our way.
“You two seem to be having a good time over there.”
Shit. I roll my eyes, ready to take two steps away from them, because I am not about to get roped into this. I already endured my thirty seconds of hell; I’m not looking to go through it again.
Lifting my gaze from the mat, I expect to find Sheldon’s heated gaze on the three of us, but instead, he’s staring down at Harper and her crony, Ava, on the other side of the ring.
“Since you’re feeling chatty today, Miss Valentine, why don’t you get in here and show us how it’s done?” Sheldon’s suggestion makes Rae snicker. The way she always does when Harper gets called out. It happens more often than not because she can never seem to keep her mouth shut, especially when it comes to me. She hates me, and she’s never had an issue letting everyone know it.
Harper mumbles to herself the whole way up the stairs, stepping through the ropes Sheldon holds open for her.
“Okay, Harper. Let’s pretend it’s theMonday Night Rageright after Wrestlefest. You just won the championship the night before from our current champ,Ivy Jade. Now you have to go out in front of a pissed off crowd because their golden girl lost the title to you.”
“You could have at least given me something hard,” Harper says.
Sheldon takes a deep breath and shares a tight smile with John over his shoulder. John rolls his eyes, settling back a little further into his corner, waiting for the show to begin.
Harper takes a breath before she breathes out a soft chuckle. “I feel like I’ve said it so many times, but I’m going to say itagain. I was right.” She smirks. “I was right, and you were wrong! I said I was going to walk out of Wrestlefest with this title, and I did.” Sheldon and John offer soft boos, playing the part of the audience. Bennett, Raelynn, and a few of the others join them. “You people are what’s wrong with this company! No, I take that back. You don’t know any better. You go along with whatever this company shoves down your throat. Whatever they tell you to like because as long as she has boobs and an ass, you don’t care!”
Another chorus of boos.
“This company needs a reality check. This title means everything to me, and those Barbie dolls pretending to be wrestlers don’t deserve it. They haven’t done what I’ve done. They haven’t fought the battles I did to get here! All this company wants is a pretty face to stand there and do what she’s told. Newsflash, this isn’t the ’50s, and we’re not here to be your playthings anymore. If this company really cared about women’s wrestling, they’d stop hiring models andcheerleaders.”
Harper stares directly at me when she says it, and while she means to try to intimidate me, it does the opposite. She only manages to piss me off. She has done nothing but harass and tear me down from the second I walked in the door, and why? Because her bestie Caitlin couldn’t cut it. And instead of facing the fact that her best friend wasn’t up to EWE standards, she uses my background as her excuse to tear me down. Raelynn came from the indie circuit, too, but she’s never held my years as a cheerleader against me. Neither has Bennett, or any of the trainers. Sure, they might call me Barbie or Pom-Poms, but they’ve never purposefully made me feel out of place.
“I didn’t win this title because I’m pretty.” She bats her eyelashes. “Or because I’m a legacy.” Her venomous stare is now on Callista, the daughter of two EWE legends, who stands on the other side of the ring. “Or because I fucked the right people. I earned this title. I worked my ass off for this, unlike the rest of those bobbleheads backstage. Unlike your preciousIvy Jade.” Harper smirks, glancing around the room at every single face, including John, who she winks at. He only chuckles in return, shaking his head. “But no more! I am here to save the women’s division, and I am going to rebuild it brick by brick.” Her gaze finds me again. “Just try and stop me.”
I do my best not to react, but my jaw clenches and my tongue presses against the roof of my mouth. Taking a deep breath, I rip my gaze from hers, only to land on John, who I know has been watching me the whole time. His brow quirks, but I look away, rolling my lips between my teeth, and keep my mouth shut. It’s not my place to say something. This isn’t a real storyline. It’s just practice—even if Harper can’t separate the two.
“Savannah,” Sheldon says, and I meet his wide grin. “You’re up. You are now the other half of this brewing feud. Your character is the antithesis of Harper. Go.”
Bennett doesn’t waste time, lifting me onto the apron as if I’m as light as a feather.
Why couldn’t he pick Rae? An inward groan resonates through me as I wipe my shoes on the apron and climb into the ring.Just let it flow, Sav.Make it believable.
Without thinking, I begin, “You’re here to ‘save’ the women’s division?” I scoff. “That’s funny considering how you barely show up for work.”
A low snicker sounds around the ring, but I’m locked in on Harper. If she wants to play games, fine. I’ll play. While she might have come from the indie circuit, she is far from the best of anyone standing here. How she manages to keep her job is beyond me because there have been too many times she hasn’t shown up or shows up halfway through the day. And that’s not how this is supposed to work.
From day one, it was made clear that you show up, you put in the work, and you try your hardest. You respect the ring, respect your peers, and respect the sport. You may fail, but you get back up and keep going. That’s how you get to the main roster one day. That’s how you make a name for yourself. And those who didn’t want to put in the work? Those who didn’t want to show up? Those who didn’t want to show respect? They were supposed to be out. So why hadn’t she been tossed out yet?
