𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘛𝘖𝘋𝘈𝘠 | RHEA RIPLEY

𝓒 ᴴᴬᴾᵀᴱᴿ 42 | not today

Toni swore she had never been in a more dysfunctional friend group like the one she was in right now.

She was caught in between the mess of all four of her friends being against each other.

Now, she had nothing to do with it all, but at the same time, she felt like she did. She felt like she was the voice of reason, because Alex had Tegan and Rhea had Dakota, and vice versa.

So, she was stuck in between the midst of it all and figuring out who to hang out with, was getting pretty hard to handle.

It was pretty annoying since just weeks ago, things were so different and now, everything had abruptly changed.

It all happened so fast that she couldn't understand it.

Though, she knew whose side she was on.

She didn't know much about what was going on between Tegan and Dakota, but she practically knew everything about Alex and Rhea. And by the looks of it and everything she had witnessed piecing together, she believed every detail Alex shared with her.

She believed Rhea was the one causing more harm than good.

She did understand why Rhea was being so hurtful in the first place, though. The consistent unfriendliness, the rude behavior toward Alex, and the purposeful denial about knowing her at all - Toni understood it completely.

She understood the hate Rhea would have after what Alex had done to her.

Despite that, it just felt like Rhea was doing this for fun now. Whether it be intentional or not, she was playing with Alex's emotions and it wasn't fair to either them.

It was so unfair in fact because Toni could see how much Rhea loved Alex.

Like the time she offered to take care of Alex (even though, she hated her), or the lingering stares at Alex that Toni would catch her doing (even though, again, she apparently hated her), or just whenever they were in each other's presence - it felt like heated tension, but now, Toni knew exactly what type of tension it was.

It wasn't an unpleasant one like she initially thought it was. It was one that weighed over them so heavily that it should've been clear they had, not a hatred but, a connection with one another.

Nonetheless, she needed to get Rhea's side of things to comprehend things from her perspective before she would give her opinion to either of them.

Because whatever was going on, she needed it to end - or she needed to help it in whichever way she could. And if it's by talking to them, then that's exactly what she's going to do.

She walked through the backstage halls of the NXT UK taping they were filming, walking directly to Rhea since she knew where she was going to be.

Toni knew none of this wasn't any of her business. Even if she was the friend in between everything - none of it needed her interference, but at the same time, she felt like she needed to.

Maybe if she did, they would finally solve everything that was going on between them.

Toni had laid eyes on the woman she was searching for. She was standing next to a stage box, leaning against it, obviously waiting for something. And Toni took this opportunity to approach her.

Though, Toni didn't expect the small smile Rhea gave her when she did.

"Hey, Toni." And of course, Rhea would decide to be sweet when Toni had to be upset with her.

She brushed off her kindness, "Don't hey Toni me." She came back with, in which Rhea instantly became confused, "We need to talk."

And right when she said those three words, it seemed as if she knew exactly what they needed to speak about as her confusion left and her eyes narrowed, suspiciously.