He was there again tonight with that whore. It was bad enough that he'd cheated on her, but it added insult to injury that she had to see them all of the time, even at work. Even better the hallway was half full with some of the roster, and too many of them were the people that she'd thought were her friends until they'd decided to pick sides. She was so done with the whole situation and just wished she could get away from it all. It would be a whole lot easier to move on if he didn't always seem to be wherever she was, intent on making her life hell, and anything she'd once felt for him had slowly morphed into an unwelcome, seething hatred. He couldn't decide whether he wanted to convince her to come back to him or if he wanted her to be as miserable as possible, but she didn't care what he wanted, she just wanted him to leave her alone.

As soon as she walked in the whore muttered something under her breath. Bayley couldn't even hear what it was exactly, but she knew immediately it had been directed at her and it hadn't been kind. Most of the bystanders were laughing and looking at her. It pissed her off that they had the gall to act like they hadn't claimed to be her friends only a couple of months ago, and she could feel tears of anger welling up. She did not want any of them to see tears and think they'd gotten to her, so she gave them the dirtiest look she could before making her way out the door at the back that led outside. Thankfully it was dark, quiet, and deserted and she made her way over to one of the picnic tables and sat down to try and calm herself down.

To her surprise it was only a few seconds before she heard the door open again. For a moment she was scared her ex was going to follow her, but when she looked up she was surprised to see Finn Balor instead. Finn was a bit of a mystery to her. He'd joined the roster last September and his reputation from overseas had preceded him. He was in one breath awe-inspiring and terrifying if rumors were to be believed. She'd seen enough tape to know he was an amazing wrestler, but she'd also seen a guy who gave the impression that he didn't give a fuck about the world or what they thought of him. She'd been at once jealous and weary. Since he'd joined the roster though she'd been even more confused. He'd been selective in his choice of friends, but most of those that he'd chosen were people she liked and respected. Sami really seemed to like him and Becky had had nothing but praise for her fellow countryman.

"Are you okay?" he asked once the door closed behind him. She would never normally put her problems on the shoulders of someone who was virtually a stranger to her, but he'd caught her at a particularly vulnerable moment and instead of putting him off with the 'I'm fine' that she'd planned everything seemed to spill out of her at once,

"No, I'm not okay. I'm so sick of his bullshit, and I can't get away from him. I just want to be done with it all, but he won't leave me alone, and now I hate him. I don't want to hate him, I just want to be indifferent, I want to not care what he or that whore or any of the rest of those backstabbing assholes think."

"The only person who can change that though is you."

"How in the hell am I supposed to do that? And why do you care anyway?"

"About that asshole ex of yours? I could give a rat's ass about him, but you, well a lot of people around here really seem to like you, a lot of my friends seem to like you, and no one else was coming after you. People can be cruel, and sometimes that's even okay, everyone has reasons for doing what they do, but someone in there should have said something, and they didn't. I've seen you with some of those people before, I thought they were supposed to be your friends."

"Yeah, well, obviously not."

"So fuck them then. Show them they don't matter. You give them the power if you are going to just let them get away with it. As for your ex, you can take away his power too. Move on, find somebody else to fuck. Let him watch you without him and I guarantee he'll change tactics then. Besides a good nut would go a long way to taking your mind off of him and any hatred you feel." She could feel the heat bloom across her face at his bluntly honest description, thankfully it was dark enough that hopefully he couldn't see it.

"I'm not like Alexa or Dana. I don't have a million guys drooling over me that I can just call on when I feel like it."

"You're doing yourself a disservice by thinking like that, and how is that a bad thing anyway? Alexa has guys drooling after her because that's how she presents herself. She flaunts everything she's got and gives it all away for free so that she can have the illusion that everyone wants her. The truth is though that they only want her because they think they won't have to work for it. You have just as much to offer as she does, probably more, but they aren't going to approach you because they know that they will have to work for it with you."

She'd never thought about it that way before and it was very flattering to have a guy she barely knew-a very attractive guy-see her that way.

"Thank you. I appreciate you saying that, but it doesn't really solve my problem right now, besides if I go around looking for somebody new people will assume I'm desperate. Things are bad enough as it is, I don't need that too."

"I'll help you."

"What? Why?"

"I'll help you, let them think you've moved on so you actually can without people breathing down your neck, and because I want to. I trust my friend's judgement when they say you're a good person, and I don't like how they treated you in there. I think I'd really enjoy watching you tell all of those assholes to go fuck themselves."

"Okay, but how?" Instead of replying to her question he came over, stepped on the bench next to her and sat down on the top of the picnic table and said,

"Lean forward a little," she gave him a questioning look, unsure of what he doing, but did as he asked. He moved his leg and scooted over until he straddled her and said,

"I promise there is a purpose to this. Turn sideways and lean back against my leg here."

She did as he asked. The position that put them in was very intimate and very awkward, especially because she barely knew him. At least she was able to brace her arm against the top of his thigh to keep herself from laying too much against him. He leaned forward a little and started talking, his voice dropping to just above a whisper,

"Relax a little. None of your so called friends came after you, but I'm sure your ex won't be able to resist the chance to gloat once he's had his fill of attention in there. Show him he doesn't matter."

"Okay, but this is weird. No offense, but it's hard to relax being this close to someone I don't know."

"Stop thinking about it so much and get to know me. Ask me something, what are you curious about?"

"I don't know."

"Okay, I'll start. Who's your favorite wrestler?"

"That's easy. Macho Man. Has been since I was a little kid."

"Good choice. He was definitely larger than life and one of a kind."

"What's yours?"

"Too many to name honestly. I could give a half a dozen names. Guys I've worked with, guys I've wrestled against, legends I watched growing up. My friend Zack. I don't know if you've ever seen him, but he's an artist in the ring, and I miss my best friend Karl. I've really enjoyed it here so far, made a lot of new friends, but I can't wait for the day when I can have him by my side again."

"He was with you in Japan?"

"Yeah, have you seen any of my stuff from then?"

"Yeah, you were impressive, but I don't know. You guys weren't always very nice."

"No, you're right, we weren't, but like I said people have reasons for doing what they do."

"I guess that's true," she said, but before they could continue they heard the sound of the door opening, and it was her ex just as Finn had predicted. His tattooed, tanned skin and shining, dark hair were a stark contrast to the pale, handsome Irishman behind her, and she had to admit, when it came to looks, Finn had her ex beat.

Finn's voice dropped even lower as he whispered almost directly into her ear to ignore him. She searched her brain for another question to ask him which was enough to distract her for a moment, but as her ex got closer he said her name and she turned instinctively at the same time that Finn looked up. It gave her a little thrill to see the look on her exes face at the picture they must have presented. Finn was the first to speak and said,

"Can we help you?"

"I was talking to Bayley."

"No, I was talking to Bayley. You interrupted us. Now what do you need?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to make sure she was okay." Bayley knew now was the time to do what Finn had said and show him he didn't matter, so she said,

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

He looked shocked, and she realized that maybe she had been letting him get away with too much. She held her ground continuing to stare at him as he stood there gaping at her before he finally closed his mouth and turned and walked away. After the door closed behind him she started to move away, but Finn stopped her.

"We don't want to take the chance that he will come back, stay here for a bit. Who are you riding with this weekend?"

"Emma and Dana unfortunately. I used to ride with Sasha, Charlotte, and Becky, but they've been traveling a lot more, I think they are going to get moved up soon, and I've had to resort to those two."

"Tell them they will have to find someone else to ride with, you can ride with me."

"I don't know Finn. I'm not sure that this is the best idea. It was really nice of you to help put my ex off for the moment, but I don't think this is going to work for more than that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't think people would believe it. I'm not the kind of girl that that kind of thing happens to. I'm not Disney-princess pretty. I'm just a girl-gamer geek who's been obsessed with wrestling my whole life."

"What does that have to do with this?"

"Have you seen yourself? You are way out of my league. No one would buy it."

"Are you trying to piss me off?"

"What? No."

"I hate when people say stuff like that."

"Why? It's not an insult to you."

"Yes it is. Like I would choose who I want to be with over something so shallow. Besides when you say you aren't Disney-princess pretty all that means is you aren't a cookie-cutter cutout like everyone else, and that is not a bad thing. The opinions of the idiots your ex surrounds himself with, those people back in the hall, they don't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but don't worry we'll make them believe it anyway. Now about your ride, do you really want to ride with those two?"

"No, I wouldn't if I didn't need to save money on gas."

"Ride with me then. You can ask me more questions and get to know me better."

"Okay."

"Great, let me see your phone," she pulled it out, unlocked it and handed it to him. He put his number in then sent himself a text so he would have her number before handing it back and saying,

"Text me the directions to your place, and I'll pick you up in the morning."