Seven Ways From Sunday

Desperation

It was amazing how much life could change in the course of a few months. Bayley was feeling antsy, restless, unsatisfied. A few months ago she'd been riding high, she was the Raw Women's Champion, her friend Finn was returning from injury and she'd had a flirting, teasing, almost-there thing going with Seth. Now she'd lost the title, she'd barely seen or spoken to Finn, and she'd crashed and burned with Seth.

She wasn't sure what was going on with her and Finn. She'd expected to fall back into the easy friendship they'd shared back in NXT. She'd really missed him while he was out on injury and she was finding her feet on Raw, but things had been off between them ever since he got back. They'd hung out once or twice, but it had been way more awkward than it used to be. He'd been almost cold to her on more than one occasion and she'd pulled back, confused and uncertain on where she'd stepped wrong.

At least with Seth she knew exactly what had gone wrong. The fact of the matter was that she was too nice, too naive for Seth. He hadn't seemed to mind earlier on. He'd endured her artless school-girl flirting and still seemed interested, but as things started to heat up it became obvious he was way out of her league.

She wasn't a virgin, but with Seth she might as well have been. It had quickly gone from white-hot to bumbling awkward as her lack of experience met his expectations, and the one and only time they'd ever hooked up had been...disappointing. After that it had fizzled out fast, and she was left feeling inadequate.

With Tyler, Carmella, Becky, Charlotte and the New Day all on Smackdown, the state of her friendships with Finn and Seth, and with Sasha on a different schedule this week she'd been left without a travel companion. She probably could have found someone to ride with, but her mental state meant she'd almost prefer to be alone right now, which is why she'd decided she was going to power on through the night instead of staying here and heading out tomorrow. She was stopping at the gas station, hoping she could get a decent cup of coffee, and digging around for her keys when she looked up to see Finn right in front of her. She hadn't seen Finn in days, so of course she would run into him on a night when he was on her mind. If he cared enough to notice anymore she would have worried he'd be mad. He'd always hated when she drove by herself after a show. She quickly found out that even if he hadn't seemed to care that much about her recently, he was still angry.

"Bayley."

"Hi Finn."

"What are you doing?'

"I'm heading on tonight."

"With who?"

"Just me."

"Aren't you tired?"

"Yeah, but I'll be fine."

"You know how much I hate when you do that. It's not safe for anyone to drive by themselves when they're tired, but it's even more dangerous for a woman at night. You can't just pull over and get some rest without taking even more risks."

"I've driven at night before. I'll be fine."

"Dammit Bayley! That's not the point."

"Why do you care? You haven't talked to me in weeks. I'm none of your concern."

"Look I'm sorry, I know I've been an ass lately, that doesn't mean I don't care about what happens to you."

"You have a nice way of showing it," she snapped back. She could tell she'd pissed him off, his ice-cold blue eyes were staring her down.

"Look I've needed to talk to you anyway, why don't you come back with me, you can tell me why you're really sneaking off, and if you still want to leave in an hour I'll ride with you."