Post by Aurora Graves on Jun 9, 2018 15:00:04 GMT -5
Graeter’s Ice Cream
Columbus, Ohio
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Aurora Graves sat alone in a far corner of the ice cream shop, the remnants of a banana split lingering at the bottom of the dish in front of her. Only the cherry remained, resting in a pool of melted ice cream and chocolate sauce. With the tip of her finger, Aurora rolled the cherry up the side of the dish, only to have it fall back down, landing with a soft splat back into the chocolatey pool. Not even looking into the camera, she let out a sigh.
Aurora: It’s been nearly a year...
Again, she pushed the cherry up the side of the dish, and once again, it fell back into the dish. She paused, licking the resultant blob of chocolate off of her finger. She looked up into the camera, a glare of half-annoyance, half-frustration in her eyes and a barely noticeable growl in her voice.
Aurora: 10 months and one day, to be exact. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve held championship gold. This doesn’t sit very well with me, and yet I haven’t been able to do much to remedy that. Call it a slump – call it whatever you want – I call it frustrating as all fuck!
Meanwhile, my husband has been able to add yet another singles title to the collection he already had long before he ever met me. And as his wife, you’d better believe I’m proud of him. Also as his wife, I still find myself standing by and watching as everyone still has the unmitigated audacity to refer to him as “the lesser Graves,” and it STILL pisses me off to no end! “Lesser Graves?” Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit! If he’s the lesser Graves, then why is it that HE’S the one making ME look like the one getting left in the shadows? Why is HE the one with the Young Lions Championship, while I’m still trying to find my own footing, and not doing a very good job of it lately?
Another go with the cherry, another fall into the dish. At this point, it was obvious that Aurora was deliberately letting it fall back. She leaned back and sighed, the force of her back hitting the chair’s backrest caused the chair to scrape against the floor. It only moved a fraction of an inch, but the resulting noise was still enough to make Aurora cringe.
Aurora: And maybe that’s part of the problem. Maybe because I’m so concerned with playing the role of the supportive wife, I’ve lost my own focus. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll have my husband’s back until the day I die, but I need to get back to what I had set out to do over two years ago – focus on getting some gold of my own.
I mean, come on! How does a girl go from a four-time champion and a number one contender for not one, but TWO top-tier championships to Dead Eye’s welcoming committee?
She scoffed, then raised her eyebrow, pointing a finger toward the ceiling.
Aurora: Now, I know what you’re going to say. “But Aurora, you won that match, and Dead Eye’s a fucking legend! Doesn’t that count for anything?” And in a way, it does. But at the same time, what does beating a legend in his first match after a couple of years do for me? Sure, it’s a big win, but at the same time, it leaves room for my detractors to say “he was just shaking off the ring rust.” Or the perennial favorite... “Aurora Graves just got lucky.” And maybe they’re right. Maybe if I had faced him in his prime, the end result would’ve been a little different.
One more go with the cherry, and yet another instance of her letting it hit the bottom of the dish. A mild smirk formed on her lips before she continued.
Aurora: Still, it seems that for as far ahead I think I might be getting, something always happens to send me crashing back down to the bottom like Jill and that motherfucking bucket. And every time I find myself at the bottom of the hill, what do I do? I dust the grass off my ass and I do it all over again in the hopes that maybe...just maybe, I’ll finally make it up to the top of the hill. That’s what happened to me after the Global Cup. Alex Jones knocked me off of the hill, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him keep me from climbing back up.
Alex, we’ve danced this dance before, but this time, I intend for things to turn out a little bit differently. No, scratch that – to hell with intentions. I will NOT let the same thing happen again! Those days when I didn’t care about championships are long gone, and I won’t stop until I’ve proved to the entire fucking world that I’m just as dangerous as a singles wrestler as I am in tag team wrestling.
And as for you, well...
She tilted her head to the side as the smirk on her face widened just a little bit.
Aurora: If you want to beat me, you’re going to have to knock me down, and you’re going to have to really make it count. You’re going to have to make sure that I don’t get back up again, because if I do, I’m going to come at you twice as hard, looking to return the favor.
Aurora took one final look at the cherry as it sat in its milky, chocolatey swirl of a puddle. With a little bit of a chuckle, she slipped her spoon into the dish, scooping it up. She placed the spoon onto a napkin on the table, then pounded her hand against the handle, launching the cherry into the air. This time, the cherry landed into Aurora’s open mouth. After devouring the fruity orb, she looked into the camera and winked as the scene faded to black.