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CHAPTER NINE

"we were
strange in love,
her and I.
too wild to last,
too rare to break."
~atticus

Adam

Salem's kiss was on my mind for weeks after it happened.

The moment made me feel extremely guilty with my relationship; for some reason I felt better only feeling some type of way for Salem but it vanished when I actually acted upon my urges.

I loved Britt too much to hurt her, yet if she knew how much I was keeping from her, her heart wouldn't just be broken—it'd be shattered.

On the same token, Britt had been distancing herself from me as well. If my encounter with Salem hadn't have happened, I might have been more worried: all of her late nights at work, twice as many training sessions, and almost never keeping me updated. Our arguments had been exponentially increasing since TakeOver. I was furious with how Britt acted when Salem got hurt, especially because she would've held it over me if I hadn't done what she had asked.

At this point, Britt and I argued every time we saw one another, which was saying something seeing as I saw her less than I saw Salem—and Salem knows how to avoid people.

I was stuck; how do you love two people at once?

Britt was my girlfriend who didn't seem to want to try to fix things to be the way they had before. Salem was my forbidden love; she was someone who I could stare at from far away but never pursue. Even if she had feelings for me, she would never act on them. We could never be together. What the hell was I supposed to do?

Any time she brushed past me I would stiffen; the smell of her shampoo made me want to take her to the back room.

Yet, now Salem acted as if I didn't exist. I got to watch her and Kyle's friendship blossom into something gag-worthy. If I hadn't known Kyle better I would've thought that he liked her.

Undisputed Era had now been doing everything together: workouts, wrestling, media—the list went on. I couldn't stop seeing Salem.

I was there when she hit a new squat PR, one that the entire roster doubted she could hit. Instead of me getting to spot her and celebrate, I watched on the sidelines as she jumped into Kyle's arms with a smile.

I watched from commentary when she would get a big win in a match while Kyle and Bobby were the first to celebrate in the ring with her. Our hugs felt foreign; our smiles were forced. We wanted something neither of us could have.

Even Roderick started off on a good foot with our resident mysterious wonder. He would be joining the group at TakeOver in New Orleans and so he had been bonding with us recently and gotten along great with the brunette.

Salem was never that good at making friends—what changed? Was I that much of a burden for her?

Today was the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I had been readying myself for the event while Britt was in the bathroom, yelling at someone over the phone. I sighed in frustration seeing that my only time I got to spend with my girlfriend anymore was like this. Britt had been struggling on the independent scene a bit. She hadn't wanted me to give her a push which I respected, but her frustrations within the business started affecting our relationship and ultimately her other career in dentistry.