Trouble Is...

Opportunity Rings

—— Five years later...——

The crowd was restless behind the curtains. Chants and cheers filled the arena. The nerves were starting to kick in from backstage. And how could they not, the place was sold out with thousands in attendance, and millions more watching from home.

Bella sat in a salon chair and waited for her hair and makeup to be done backstage. Her scene queen hair was long gone and she had let her natural brunette hair grow long. In between the years, she had also acquired a tattoo sleeve and a few other tattoos that were not so easily seen. Bella had done well for herself in the past years and managed to be recruited by World Wrestling Entertainment as a wrestler. Since then, she had trained for a couple of years and move onto the main roster, allowing her to compete on television.

There were also a few other changes, one being her name. For the wrestling world, she was known as Izzy. At first, the name ticked her off and she hated it. Now, she's reached the point of indifference. Although her friends and close colleagues did know better than to call her Izzy if she wasn't near fans or working.

Bella's hair was curled into soft waves. Her makeup on the other hand was heavy. Although she thought it looked a little ridiculous in regular lighting, this was so that she wouldn't be washed out under all the production lights in the ring and backstage. Normally, she would be wearing her usual work attire, black over the knee combat boots, a bedazzled corset, and black shorts. But she wasn't competing tonight per se.

A meeting held earlier had let the ladies know that the women's championship title was vacant. A tournament was to be held to decide which four women would compete for the title belt. The eight women chosen for the tournament were women with years of experience, prior champions, and Bella, the least experienced of the bunch. On one hand, she felt frightened of being made a fool next to these women. Yet, on the other hand, she figured that if it went well, competing alongside these women was a great way to gain credibility.

Her job tonight was to interrupt the match between her future opponent, Natalya, and Bella's on and off-screen friend Hayley. This was meant to set the scene and build up tension.

After thanking the hair and makeup ladies, she got into position behind the curtains. She waited for her cue and watched the match on a nearby screen. Hayley had "accidentally" hit the referee upside the head, making him hit the ground. And that was her cue.

Natalya had her back turned towards the ring. She charged into Hayley and celebrated her dominance. Bella snuck down the ramp and waited. Hayley had looked over at Bella, who held a finger over her lips and winked. A sly smile stretched across Hayley's face. Bella crouched and pulled a black steel chair out from under the ring.

Without a moment to waste, Natalya climbed the top rope, preparing to throw herself onto Hayley. Bella snuck behind her and smacked her across the head. Natalya toppled over, temporarily out cold. Bella threw the chair aside and started shaking the referee awake to count the pinfall. Hayley took this time to climb on top of Natalya and secure her victory.

The crowd booed the cheap victory. But the ladies paid no mind, laughing and hugging each other.

Once backstage, Bella was questioned for her actions by Oscar, a backstage interviewer. "Honestly, this was just a taste of what's coming to poor little Nattie. By the time I finish with her next week, this little accident will be the least of her worries. I promise you that," Bella said. Bella locked eyes with the interviewer and she looked him up and down. It was then when she noticed Oscar's bow tie was crooked. Her fingers grabbed his tie, and she pulled herself closer to him. He almost dropped the mic he held out, his cheeks flushed. She fixed his tie and gave him a little wink. 

"Your tie wasn't straight. Anyway, if that's all you got for me, I've gotta go celebrate." She gave the camera a little wave and walked off.

Now that she was off-camera and done for the night, the pressure was off. She made her way backstage to find Hayley, and on her way was stopped by one of her bosses.

"Great work tonight Izzy. That tie thing, genius! I like what I'm seeing!" Tom grinned. Judging by the compliment, Bella knew a request was to come. "By the way, I need you to cover Nikki's radio show gig next Monday in Maryland. We need her for something else. Can you do it?"

He told her it was a morning radio show that started at 6 am, and that they were giving out tickets to next week's show. She accepted, to keep herself in good graces with her superiors. Bella then excused herself to look for Hayley. She greeted coworkers and asked if they knew where she had gone. One of the guys told her she was by catering.

Sure enough, Hayley was sitting next to Natalya, eating. She greeted the girls and hugged Nattie.
  "I am so sorry. The chair was not my idea, but they wanted it in there, are you okay?" Bella asked, pulling up a seat beside the two.

"Taking a chair to the head isn't always easy, but I'm fine. You did well!" Natalya flashed a smile and excused herself to look for her husband.

"The guys are on their way! And, um, by the way, I heard what some of the girls were saying about you backstage," Hayley whispered. "You were right, they are not having it."

Bella groaned. When she was chosen for the tournament, she felt some of the girls change towards her. She hoped it was in her mind.

"Bella, they're jealous. Jealous that they're still stuck being background dancers and supposed 'managers' for some of the guys. They want their turn to come. Don't let it get to you B," Hayley said laying her head on Bella. Bella exhaled deeply and shook her head. Hayley offered her a biscuit.

"What bothers me is that they're so fake!" Bella picked at the biscuit. "Three of the other girls had told me to my face that I didn't deserve it. I respect them more than the other girls who are inviting me to go out, but talking behind my back."

"Can you imagine how fake they'll be if you win the title? They'll be like- OH MY GAWD IZZEEEY!" Hayley tried to keep a straight face as she continued with her loudly obnoxious extra girly accent. "CONGRATS, WE SHOULD GO CELEBRATEE SOMEWHERE!"

"Twenty dollars says I can name exactly who they're talking about," Roman Reigns said. He set a cup across from the girls. 

"Fifty says I can name the four girls it applies to," Dolph Ziggler laughed. He plopped his plate next to Roman.

"So nice of you two to finally join us, now will you all kindly shut the fuck up before they hear," Bella shushed. Hayley filled them in on the locker room drama. The guys repeated over and over that they didn't care about petty drama, but the truth was they loved it. They were also the ones to tell the girls of gossip they heard backstage.

"That's bullshit," Roman said. "These are the same girls who would want everyone to congratulate them if they were in your spot."

"Exactly!" Hayley yelled, practically falling out of her seat. "And you know they would be upset if you didn't say anything."

"They'd walk around with their head up high, thinking they run the place, even without a title," Dolph said swaying his head side to side and flipping his hair. Bella knew all of this to be true. "This is about you, not them."

"Thanks guys, I appreciate the support." Bella gushed. "But enough about the irrelevant, the tour bus people called me. They told me the bus we wanted is available if we want it, sooo are we getting it?"

The group talked about getting a tour bus while they were on the road to help cut down travel and hotel costs.

"Yeah let's do it. We have extra spots too right?" Hayley asked.

"Yeah 5 extra, but if you guys want I can ask the two guys I tag team with and we can leave it at 7 so it's not too many people on board," Roman said.

"7 is not too many," she recalled her tour days where there were at least twice as many on that bus.

"Oh god we're going to be on a bus full of guys aren't we Bella?" Hayley protested.
"Nah these two don't count," Bella joked.

"Oh look at her, she thinks she's a comedian now," Roman said as he reached across and took Bella's biscuit.

"I was eating that," Bella complained.

"You were picking at it, like some weird-ass bird." Bella's mouth dropped open and Hayley tried to stifle back laughter. Roman smirked and scarfed it down. "Okay I'll catch you guys later I've got a match."

The group wished him luck. Bella's phone rang and she sighed. A photo of Bella kissing a man with a lip ring popped up. Hayley and Dolph exchanged glances as Bella flipped the phone over.
"I can say you're dead!" Hayley offered. "Or Dolph can answer and say--"

"Nope, sorry leave me out of this one." He said. "I will push the button for you to answer, but you should take that."

Bella nodded and stepped into an empty hallway. She picked up the phone and stayed quiet, waiting for an excuse.

"Hey, babe." His voice was slurred. Bella rolled her eyes and remained silent.

"So what you're not going to talk now?" She could hear a can opening. "And you looked so happy being all close to the interview guy. Meanwhile, you won't even call me."

"I'm tired of you calling me just to have conversations like this."

"Look just tell me, are you sleeping with him?"

With that, Bella reached a breaking point. Her blood boiled and she turned red with rage. But, it wasn't the typical rage where the tears blurred her vision and she was unable to find the words to say. This was a rage that made her stand tall and throw her filter away. She stormed out of the building as he repeated his question, practically accusing her due to the lack of response.

"Are you fucking kidding me? You think I'm sleeping with a guy because you saw me get close to him."

"The way you looked at him-"

"I wasn't fucking finished. Interrupt me again and I will hang up, so crack open another cold one because you may need a drink for this one love. So first of all, I'm fucking working. You know this. Everything on screen is for entertainment. Second, we haven't had a decent conversation without you accusing me of anything in over three months."

"That's not-"

"First and only warning, I'm still not done. Three fucking months of you ignoring me, unless you see me close to another guy. You're fucking ridiculous. Third, don't fucking come at me and say I won't call you. You won't pick up. I have to text your fucking bandmates to ask if you're fucking alive. You need to pull your shit together because honestly, I'm over it. I don't need this." Regardless of the emotions, she kept her composure and managed to not raise her voice.

"I don't need my fucking girlfriend giving me a reason to doubt her. And it's always you. 'This is bad for me. I don't like this about you.' Well, I don't need this shit either Isabella. Honestly, I'm done here too." 

"So that's it? It's over? Choose wisely because I don't do second chances."

"Yeah don't worry about that, let's just get this over with. It's fucking over Isabella, have a nice fucking life." The line disconnected.

In all honesty, she wasn't hurt. She didn't know what to label how she felt, but relief came pretty close. What she knew, was that it felt like a weight was taken off her shoulders. But was it lifted weight, or a void being created? Maybe she hasn't yet processed the end of her three-year relationship. There was a chance that she would regret everything the next day. She couldn't tell if she wanted to cry. All she was able to do was sit down on the cement, take a deep breath, and stare up at the sky.