Post by Kathleen Conway on Oct 16, 2013 21:09:34 GMT
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10/14/13
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Kathleen Conway and her husband, Jake come back through the curtain together in the Giant Center, moments after Kathy's loss to a very promising up and coming young Diamond, Ana Valentine.
Kathy: Every time we come back here, especially to this arena, it's the same. Like deja vu, I'm always reminded of the same thing...
Jake: What's that?
Kathy: The first time I went out there on my own for a match was in this very arena.
Jake: Oh you mean your first loss?
Kathy: I prefer to think of it as my first challenge.
Jake raises an eyebrow at his wife.
Jake: Okay, I give up. How do you do it?
Kathy: Do what?
Jake: Not let the losses eat away at you, I thought you'd be disappointed that you just lost to a rookie this close to your Ruby Championship shot.
Kathy stops and looks at her husband with unbridled sincerity.
Kathy: Just because I'm not throwing chairs, flipping tables or punching Willy Carter in the face doesn't mean I'm not disappointed honey. I wanted to win out there tonight, but in the end I did ask Ana to step up and challenge me, and that's exactly what she did. I can't be disappointed in that.
Jake: Know what I remember about your first one on one match? I remember that it was against Kelly, back when she was still a Fox and I remember that bastard Adam set me up using our daughter to lure me away from the arena and give the bitch an unfair advantage...
The anger as that memory surfaces flashes across Jake's expression for a moment, clearly it was still a sore spot for him. He clenched his fist, clearly it still bothered him that he had never been able to best Adam inside a wrestling ring and every time he had failed, Kathy had suffered. Kathy saw his irritation and stepped closer to him, she reached up and tucked rogue stands of his blonde hair behind his ear as she ran her fingers through it. Her sparkling blue eyes locked with the dusky brown of his as her voice dropped to a whisper.
Kathy: I'm sorry. I know it still hurts when you think of all the people who have tried to tear us apart over the years, it hurts me too, believe me, it does. But I also know its not healthy for me to hold on to those feelings, it does neither of us any good to be bitter about the things that have happened and the things we cannot change. Adam, Kyle, Michael, they've all tried to come between us, to take me away from you, yet none of them have succeeded. I'm still here, and Adam and Kyle are not....so in the end, who has really won? We have.
Kathy smiles.
Kathy: Even Mike as Imperial and a Tag Team Champion may think he's on top of the world right now, but look at all its cost for him to get there. His wife, his marriage, his son, they're all victims of his greed and corruption. Just because you haven't been able to get even with him yet for trying to ruin our lives again doesn't mean karma already hasn't. We're still together. We're still a family. We're still hopelessly in love, and we're still the envy of both locker-rooms who can't stand that...
Jake grins at his wife, reminded once again of why once he had fallen in love with her, he had never fallen out of it again.
Jake: See, this is why I love you. You have this remarkable ability to make me take a step back and look at things from an entirely new perspective, one that I hadn't even thought about before...
Kathy: Sometimes it helps to look at things through a fresh pair of eyes, babe. Besides, I really can't afford to have you distracted now, can I? I need you to help train me for my match against Ashley next week...
Jake's pupils widen as a thought suddenly strikes him.
Jake: Oh that reminds me, I was going to see Lockheart about having some sort of no interference stipulation added to your match so we don't have a repeat of what happened against Eternity. You deserve a fair chance at the title...
Jake turns to leave but Kathy reaches out and grabs his hand, stopping him, the couple lock eyes again.
Kathy: Don't. I'll take my chances against Ashley, all I really need from you is your love and belief, honey. That's all I've ever asked from you.
Jake: You'll always have that, baby. You'll never need to ask for it...
The dusk brightens in Jake's eyes hinting of the light that lay beyond it and in that moment, Kathy felt as if she was once again peering into his soul on the deepest, most private and most intimate level.
Kathy: And that's why I love you...
Jake wraps his arm around his wife's waist and the couple continue on their journey through life and the hallways of the arena together.
It is quite daunting when you stop and think about it for a moment, isn't it Ashley? Have you thought about it? Of course you have. You must have, how could a fighting Champion like you not think about it, you've had a month to sit back and think about it, and I know you didn't waste any of that time on girly shopping sprees for shoes or cute fashion accessories because you're not really as superfluous as all the other Diamonds would have me believe...
Are you?
Tell me you actually did something productive with the time off that you were afforded since you won that Ruby Championship, tell me you spent the time in the gyms and the health classes staving off any possibility of ring rust. Tell me you're exactly what I need you to be this Sunday...
One hundred per cent.
I will accept no less and you shouldn't either, Ashley. I want you to have absolutely no excuses to fall back on. I want you to have absolutely no reasons to feel disappointed in yourself, whatever happens this Sunday, I want you to know you came into this match with me and gave it your all. Everything you had. Every ounce of blood, every drop of sweat, every tear...
I want you to be every bit the fighting Champion we both know you are.
I want you to silence your critics, and I want you to do it not for me Ashley, not for Mike Laszlo either, I want you to do it for yourself. You've never needed to convince me Ashley. I knew from the first time I watched you in that ring that you had something special in you. You truly were a Diamond in the rough, and now you're a Diamond nestled in the rubies of your greatest triumph...
Well done, girl.
You truly are a testament to the feisty Italian spark that runs through your veins, burning red, white and green. You deserve all of your successes, however many or however few they might be, but that really is a story time will tell so much better than I ever could. I cannot promise you victory any more than I can promise you defeat, so I'm not even going to try. Things are never that simple or indeed as black and white as they might first appear on the surface. I learned that some years ago and now I can look beyond the surface, that is why I will never judge you for what you do outside the ring with your own time and with whomever you choose to keep for company.
I've had those criticisms thrown at me my whole career and I'm not about to throw mud at you for the sake of it.
If you truly love that guy you just met a few weeks ago, who am I to judge? I say more power to you, girl. You'd be surprised just how much one drink with a cute guy can change your life. The point is I don't care about who you are outside the ring, frankly that's none of my business. What is my business however, is just who you are inside the ring and who you will be come Sunday. That really is all that concerns me. This is our chance Ashley, maybe one of the only ones we will ever get to shut all the smug little bitches who perforate this industry up and show them that two girls for whom this was never a first choice can still steal the show away from the "real"...
Kathy does the finger quotes and looks rather unimpressed.
...wrestlers. I know you're as sick of hearing it as I am. The only other women on the entire card for this Pay Per View are fighting for a PPV appearance bonus or a chance to impress the suits in some vain hope of a Diamonds World Championship down the road, but for us, we have a real match with real stakes. A match that means something, not only to the fans and to this company, but to each of us. You are the only fighting Champion in the entire Diamonds Division, it may only be for one night but for that one night we both know it will not be all about Jessica Reed's dominance and will to win...
Instead it will be all about Ashley Mastrangelo and her first ever major Championship.
You'd be a fool not to take this opportunity and make the most of the spotlight whilst you have it, and I know you're not a fool Ashley. Every girl remembers her first time, sure there will be a few awkward fumbles, maybe even a time when you question what the hell you're doing and whether the pleasure of the climax you're expecting will ever be reached, preferably with as little pain and blood as possible, but ultimately I want us both to be satisfied. I want to make the night special and memorable for both of us. I don't want people to remember this match as rising star against ring veteran, I want them to remember it as defending Champion against determined Challenger...
I want this to be my first time and I want it to be with you Ashley. I want you to make an honest Queen out of me. I've waited for too long. I want my crown. The jewels which stud it may have changed...
But my ambition has not.
Kathy was quite unprepared for the strength and the potency with which the hunger had returned. She had always known that she had quite the libido, so did Jake. It was one of the more primal and superficial levels on which the couple worked so well, but she had no idea that three months without it was all it took to ramp up her physical desires. She brushed her teeth, letting the toothpaste froth at her mouth as she looked in the mirror and was reminded of the animal she once was. A time when the sex was on an entirely different level.
Kathy shook her head and sighed as she stopped brushing and spit out the white froth into the wash basin and she laughed.
Jesus Christ! What is wrong with me? Sex on the brain, everything reminds me of it. And guys think they're the only ones who go through it. Even some of the things I said to Ashley were just...
Kathy held a glass under the tap, filled it to the brim and took a deep mouthful before spitting it in the air for no other reason than it made her feel good. Alive. Even as the splash-back rained down all over her face. Her mind took her back to her first time. memorable mostly for how disappointing it ultimately ended up being.
I was twenty again, I had known James for four years. I don't know what happened, just got sick of waiting for him to ask me out I guess. So I took the plunge, and made the first move. As much as I liked it when a man was decisive and confident in himself, when I really wanted something, I never shied away from taking control of the situation. Mom always joked that if you left everything up to men, nothing would ever get done, or at least done right.
She wasn't wrong about that.
So here we were, James and I. It was a cold December in Wichita, but no colder than average. We had just seen the epic that was Titanic and its length had taken us into the early hours of the night, but it was so worth it. I was still taken by the romance of it all. It was still amazing to me that a movie could touch me so deeply that it left me feeling a little buzzed.
"So, now what?"
I was disappointed that those were the words that came out of his mouth as we sat in his Dad's 1994 Chevrolet Camaro. Guys were so oblivious to the signals sometimes.
"I could take you back home....if you want..."
Awww, it was the sweet, gentlemanly response, but not the one I really wanted to hear, so I hid my disappointment and took control.
"How about you just kiss me and we see what happens?"
James' silly grin revealed itself, as he unbuckled his seatbelt, and leant forward. I closed my eyes as our lips met, four years of waiting and imagining this moment in my head and three minutes into the kiss and it became obvious this was so much better in my head. Even at first base, he held back more than I expected him too, and it was only when my hands began to find a way to his belt buckle, did he truly rise to the occasion, and become more passionate and forthright in his advances.
The kisses got deeper and longer, but he still treated my breasts as if they weren't attached. His fumbling gropes were actually quite painful and several times I had to redirect his hands or remind him to be gentler, still we got through it, as awkward as it was, the only things I really remember about my first time was how much pain and blood a perforated hymen could really produce. Not an altogether pleasant experience, not least because he didn't have protection, and if my mom wasn't quite as cautious as she was, I wouldn't have had any either.
I don't remember much about that night, but I remember being disappointed that love wasn't everything Hollywood told me it should be...
Her mind took her from that memory to another several years later.
This time nobody was in control of my desires, not even me. I had grown so tired and bored of Steve Evans not fulfilling my most basic needs, all whilst peddling a hollow facade of superficial sexiness for the television that I had allowed herself to fall victim to the most tragically stupid romantic cliche of all.
I still don't know why, the best I could reason to justify it to myself was that keeping Solitaire's birth a secret from Steve because I knew he clearly wasn't ready for the responsibility had finally gotten too much for me. I needed some kind of release, and there he was, Zach. Steve's best friend. He seemed so dangerous, so edgy and so musically talented that I fell for the whole White Gangsta Rapper bit.
I don't remember much of that one night we shared together, but I do remember I had decided that once was enough. The bed was cold and lonely the next morning...
Kathy growled at her own reflection in the bathroom mirror as the rubber band of her mind abruptly took her away from the shame of that memory and snapped back to the present. She knew her husband Jake was on the other side of the door, already in bed, waiting for her. Her wild Blonde Stallion...and that excited her...
There was life in The Wild Kat yet.
Well howdy there pardner.