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Chapter Ten

AURORA

T here’s a quote for times like these. Sometimes your dreams can become nightmares . I finally get what I’ve been working my ass off for, and in walks Theodore Abrams to fuck it all up. My big break is playing an obsessive fangirl. Great, love it . I get to stroke his ego and make him even more impossible to be around.

“Asshole!” I shout as he walks down the hallway, leaving me to figure everything out by myself. Was that the best thing to shout in front of my new boss’s office? Probably not, but hey, at least he’s getting a good sample of my personality.

My saving grace is that there are conveniently printed-off signs marking doors and stand-up floor signs pointing out where things are for talent. It takes me a little bit, but I find my way to the women’s locker room.

This looks so much nicer than the locker rooms that I’ve used over the years. The lockers have doors that aren’t falling off. It doesn’t smell like piss and mildew. It’s full of women that I’ve seen on TV. All of them eye me as I step inside, and I feel like the new, weird girl at school. I’m half expecting them to throw my bag out into the hallway and tell me to dress out there because I’m too weird to get dressed with them.

“Rory!?”

The sound of my name breaks me from the thought spiral I’m on about this becoming a teenage drama.

Juliette Stanton is… She’s my girl crush. She’s the definition of perfect. Tall, toned, tan. She’s covered in gorgeously intricate tattoos with raven-colored hair that looks like she should be in a shampoo commercial. Her dark blue eyes are framed by dark lashes and dark makeup and she has pouty lips. A goddess among mortals.

“Jules!” I smile as she embraces me, breathing in her fruity scent.

When she pulls away, she smiles. “When I saw your name on the run-down, I was freaking out. Did you get a try-out? You’ve fucking deserved one since forever. I texted Kai and he didn’t know anything.”

“Sort of?” I shrug. “I’m actually on a pay-per-appearance deal.”

“Okay, oh my god. That’s big!” she says. “Come, sit. Tell me everything.”

For all the badassery that Jules exudes, she’s also a total sweetheart. Most of the time. After she warms up to someone.

Jules is known as ‘the cobra’. She’s hardcore as fuck . She’ll take bumps that most guys won’t. I’ve always wondered if she’s a little bit unstable or just that dedicated. Deathmatches, the ones with a lot of blood and things that make people think wrestling is a bunch of violent ogres, are what made her a name on the indies. They’re what got Weston Hext interested in her.

It’s hard for the rest of us to carve out a niche when Jules is blazing a trail.

We sit on one of the benches in the back of the locker room, and I run down everything with her. I choose to leave out most of the personal interactions with Theodore. She doesn’t need to know how much I hate my new partner. Just thinking of him as my ‘partner’ makes me want to gag.

“Oh. That sounds fun,” Jules says after I tell her about the storyline. Definitely the last word that I’d use to describe it. “Think of how in-depth you could go with it. Play up all the subtleties until you screw Hex out of the title win.” She calls him ‘Hex’ so casually, like they’re the best of friends nowadays. “Then you could close the PPV with something super fucking dramatic. It could be one of those final shots that people talk about for ages.”

Sure, it sounds great. Hell, I’d probably call it fun if it wasn’t for the fact that I have to work with Theodore. Does Jules not know what a piece of garbage he is? Have they not interacted since she’s been signed?

“Yeah, I guess it does sound… fun .” I decide to dance around the subject a bit, not cut straight to my issue. “I’m not sure how I feel about working with him. He has a bit of a reputation.”

She hums her agreement. “He’s rough around the edges, but he loves this business. It’s probably the one thing that he takes seriously. He’s going to give his all to this, that’s for sure. Everything will be fine if you give your all too. Theodore’s the type to appreciate hard work.”

He also appreciates getting under my skin. I hadn’t thought about him once—at least not outside of seeing him on TV—since that night at the bar. Now I’m going to begin my career by his side. Talk about karma. Who did I wrong to end up in this position?

I sigh. “Yeah, I mean, I’ll give it my all. But what about him? He seems like such an asshole. From everything that I’ve heard.” And everything he’s said to me.

“He’s never really been an ass to me,” Jules offers, and I’m surprised. I assumed he would’ve torn her a new one for getting noticed by Hext or something. “He doesn’t talk a lot to people backstage, anyway.”

I’m trying to pair the fact that Theodore’s never been an ass to Jules with the Theodore that I know. It doesn’t compute. She seems like a prime target for his assholery, yet she’s never been a victim.

I don’t get the chance to press her about it a bit more because Jules turns the conversation to our match tonight. She’s going to win. It’s not going to be an upset victory by some unknown girl walking into the company, but she’s asking me for ideas.

Talking about wrestling is so much easier than talking about Theodore. Because I hate him and yet I can’t help but be just a little curious about him. Not enough to get myself tangled up in him though.

That is the last thing I need to do.