Chapter 13 #2
I roll my eyes. I stopped going out with the guys after shows when it became boring; I was tired of the same old thing.
Not to mention getting drunk the night before a match wasn’t very conducive to getting up at five in the morning and going to the gym before having to get in the ring in front of thousands of people.
“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Drake asks.
“We felt like having a drink,” Brody answers. “Figured we’d join you boys since you’re here.” And because if we ignored them, it would have caused an even bigger scene than the one they’ve probably already caused.
“Pull up a chair, boys!” Grady yells, half drunk, moving his chair over to make room between him and Austin. Brody pulls two chairs from a nearby table and ignores my glare.
“Alright,” Drake says once everyone is finally settled.
“We have something else we need to discuss.” He pauses when the waitress appears with a fresh round of drinks and two beers for me and Brody, smacking her on the ass when she walks by him.
She winks at him, and the whole display makes me roll my eyes.
Something tells me that if he were some normal guy, she’d have him thrown out for the action, but because he’s a “celebrity,” she feeds into it.
Once she’s gone, Drake turns back to the table with a serious expression. “Savvy Skye.”
My stomach drops. What the fuck is he talking about? When I meet his stare, a devilish grin spreads across his face.
“Our dear Savvy Skye has just suffered her first big title loss.”
Grady pouts. “Poor thing.”
Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
Drake continues, “Which means she’s going to be sad and looking for a shoulder to cry on.”
He cannot be serious.
“Get to the point, Drake,” Austin says, rolling his eyes.
“Isn’t it obvious? One of us can be that shoulder.”
I scoff. As if Savannah would go for any of them.
“Something you want to say, Brooks?” Drake raises a brow in my direction.
Brody does the same from behind his beer and waits to see how I’m going to get myself out of the hole I’ve just dug. I shake my head, looking away from them. I should keep my mouth shut.
“Didn’t think so.” Drake chuckles. “Now, as I was saying—”
“I can’t do this,” I say, and that Cheshire grin returns. “You cannot be fucking serious, Drake? As if Savannah would let any one of you within five feet of her. She has made it abundantly clear that she has no intention of dating anyone on the roster or within this company. And—”
“Who said anything about dating?” Scott asks, his tongue poking out to wet his lips, and that earns a high five from Miles.
I roll my eyes, and glancing over, I notice the waitress hand Colin the checkbook. I snatch it from his hands. “I cannot believe you guys are still doing this bullshit. This kid is barely making enough to pay the bills, and you want him to pick up your tab?”
“We all did it!” Grady argues.
“And?” Just because it’s been something we used to do doesn’t mean we need to continue the tradition. Some things are better left in the past…
Stuffing my card into the checkbook, I hand it back to the waitress without looking at the total because that would only piss me off further. I don’t care what it costs; the relieved look on Colin’s face tells me all I need to know.
“Why are you here?” Drake hisses after a minute. “You come in here, acting all high and mighty, like you’re better than us…Why even show up?”
“You’re the one proponing high school bullshit, Drake. Grow up,” I say, signing the returned bill.
“So, you wouldn’t take the chance to bend Savannah over the side of the ring and have your way with her if she’d let you?”
“That is enough.” I slam the pen down on the table.
Drake laughs, seemingly unfazed. “That’s what I thought.”
“Brooks, don’t,” Brody warns under his breath. “Don’t feed into it.”
My fingers scratch at my denim-clad thighs, picking at the fabric as I do my best to ignore the anger building in my chest.
“You know something, Brooks? You’ve always been Mr. Get-the-Girl. Why don’t you take a stab at it? Surely, you of all people can persuade her to change her mind.”
“Because I’m not doing something I know she doesn’t want.”
“She doesn’t know what she wants,” Drake says. “I mean, how could she? She’s never given it a shot. Someone just needs to show her what she’s missing. You’re friendly enough with her, so why not you?”
“Because I’m—”
“Scared she’ll say no?” Scott asks, and I glare at him.
“Oh, come on, Brooks. Give it a go,” Drake says. My glare returns to him. “How about this…you do the horizontal tango with Ms. Skye by the night of Wrestlefest and you’ll earn yourself six hundred apiece.”
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding…Is he making this a fucking wager?
“Take me out of this,” Brody says, leaning back in his chair.
“You don’t even have to date her, just show the girl a good time. Warm her up for the rest of us,” Drake continues.
My fists tighten, nails digging into the meat of my palms, but before I can tell Miles he can take his stupid bet and shove it up his ass, Grady says, “Unless you’d rather it be one of us, of course.”
Brody sighs beside me, already knowing what I’m about to do, and it only makes the pit in my stomach deepen. Makes the nausea push further up my throat, and I swallow hard to keep it contained.
“What do you say?” Drake pushes.
“She isn’t some trophy, Drake,” I say between clenched teeth. “She isn’t—”
“It’s you or me, Brooks. I’m being nice and letting you decide, but you better pick quick, or it’s gonna be me.”
I glance at Brody one more time, and he shakes his head. This is a bad idea. I know it, he knows it…but I cannot let one of these fuckers go after Savannah.
“Fine.” I sigh, scrubbing a hand down my face. “Deal.”
“Fuck.” My best friend pinches the bridge of his nose.
An even wider grin splits apart Drake’s face, and it makes my skin crawl. I feel like I just made a deal with the devil. “Well, boys, looks like Brooksy here is just like the rest of us, after all. He just needed a little reminder.”
Without another word, I push away from the table, and I hear Brody say something to the others before he follows. We walk through the lobby in silence, and it’s not until we get into the elevator that he finally says, “This is a bad idea, Brooks.” I don’t reply. “If Savannah finds out—”
“She won’t,” I snap, glaring at him, but I can only hold on to that anger for a second. I sigh. “She doesn’t need to know because nothing is going to happen.”
“What are you talking about? You just—”
“I’m not letting any of those fuckers near her, Brody. I will tell them nothing happened. I can’t…I couldn’t sit there and let them talk about her like that.”
“So you jumped in? Decided to throw your name in the ring? You didn’t have to do this, Brooks. You could’ve kept your mouth shut and just told her.”
“It wouldn’t have stopped them from messing with her,” I say, and my best friend sighs. He stares at me from across the elevator, eyes narrowed into thin slits. He folds his arms over his chest, and the black ink runs together. “The only way to protect her was to insert myself in their path.”
Brody scoffs, shaking his head. “I don’t like this, man.”
“Neither do I.”