The Hidden Life of AJ Lee

Chapter 5- Blackmail

AJ's POV
Second Raw of 2014

I wasn't very happy walking to the ring that night. A lot had happened to me that week and I wasn't really in a good place mentally.

To start things off, just to top off my mess, I was in an episode all week. So yeah, moping around and hating myself consumed a lot of my week, which isn't necessarily a pleasant thing to take part in.

And, on Main Event, I fought Kaitlyn for the last time. Ever. I know I should be happy about that in the long run since we were mortal enemies, but we started off as best friends. And to see my other half of the Chickbusters quit and leave the roster just made my heart sink a little.

And then there was that pesky little Straight Edge Superstar I was trying to avoid, but I tried to get him out of my mind. My episode was gone, finally, and I could focus on what was important tonight, which was winning my match.

The one thing that is really surprising though is how even when the Total Divas control the division, even with Kaitlyn gone, even when Daniel Bryan's fiancé wants to smash my face in, people still clap and cheer for crazy little AJ Lee. Even with my sarcastic, independent, better-than-all-the-other-divas attitude, I still get my name chanted in a positive way. Of course, not everyone cheers for me, but it gives me some charisma.

So tonight, as I skip with my lovely, pink, bedazzled belt with Tamina by my side, I tried to clear my mind of Punk and Kaitlyn and my pills. I cleared my mind of everything except trying to win this match.

Tamina and I were against both of the Funkadactyls in a tag team match, so it would most likely work as usual for us. She beats up whichever one of them gets stuck in the ring, then Tamina tags me in and I finish her off. Simple and yet enjoyable.

The match started and for a good bit of the time I watched Tamina beat up Cameron. This really made me anxious to get in the ring. It had been a while since I'd actually been in a match on Raw. I wanted to get in there and kick some ass.

Tamina must have seen my excitement and came over to tag me in. People started cheering when I stepped into the ring, which again surprised me since I wasn't always used to a True Diva getting picked over a Total Diva. I started doing what I do best: beat people up who annoy me. And the whole Total Divas cast annoyed me.

And then, mid my destruction of Cameron, a chant started in the audience. "We love AJ!" was being yelled into the ring by the fans. More fire started burning in my veins. I was hyped up, I was excited. My name was being chanted again and again and again. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like.

I continued to beat up Cameron until I finally kicked her right in the face, which won us the match. But I wasn't done, not even close.

I sent Tamina out on her, to which Naomi got kind of mad about and then started to beat me up. To which resulted in me and Tamina being forced to scramble out of the ring, up the ramp, and backstage again to where we started.

Like usual, this is when me and Tamina parted ways for the evening. She'd go off and do who knows what and I went to go pack all my stuff up into my bag and get the heck out of the arena. Usually this was about the time I took a pill, but after deciding not to take them to work it had been something I was still getting used to.

After Tamina left, I took my hair out of the pigtails they were in. I usually just tied them back so they wouldn't get in the way of my matches, so there was no real use to have them now. Besides, pigtails sometimes just seemed too... sweet.

I made my way back to the locker room, only for my brain to become a little fuzzy. I felt a little unbalanced. Must have been another side effect from the Lamictal. No problem though, this had happened before. As long as I was alone when I fell on my butt.

But, just my dumb luck, a grouchy, tattooed, former WWE Champion bumped into me. I sighed in annoyance and turned around so I could look at CM Punk face to face.

Well, for one, I could tell he really was in pain. Punk had his hand covering his ribcage, which if it hadn't been covered by his jacket I assumed would have blue and purple bruises forming rapidly. He didn't look very happy either, which I'm sure was caused by more than one person, one of them perhaps being me.

"Hey, I have a bone to pick with you," Punk said. I rolled my eyes.

"What?" I said. He looked at me, confused,

"Well, you sure seem better."

"Better?"

"Considering the fact that you were screaming at me about a week ago through your phone, yeah, better." Crap, I forgot he heard my little rampage. CM Punk started to become blurry through my eyes.

"Better than you at least," I replied. That comment didn't really help my situation much.

"Ok, so seriously, I have stuff to do, but what was that about?"

"It was nothing," I said. Lie. I could feel my coordination start to fall out of line, but I tried to ignore it.

"Yeah right, what is it, AJ? I'm serious," Punk said. I put my hand to my head.

"I have to go," I said, trying to turn around only to stumble and almost land myself on the floor.

"I can see you're in a hurry," Punk said, mocking my horrible footwork. But I was to anxious to take his tone to heart.

"Yeah, kind of, so you go..." I started to get drowsy and my legs started to give beneath me. "You go..." I felt myself fall and my head bumped against the wall of the backstage hallway.

"Ow," I managed to get out before I felt my consciousness slip beneath me and a hand gripped my arm.

_____

I woke up to find myself lying on a bench in a locker room. A locker room that wasn't the diva's locker room. I tried to pull myself to sit up, only to realize that my head was in a lot of pain.

I rubbed the back of my skull and looked at my surroundings. It was a large locker room, well, actually more of a personal locker room. I assumed it was probably for somebody pretty popular and high in the industry.

"You're lucky I didn't take you to the hospital," I heard Punk's voice come from the corner of the room. I looked over in his direction.

"What?" I asked.

"Can you imagine what would happen if you came back to everyone asking why CM Punk took little miss AJ to the hospital after she blacked out due to some side effects from her little 'headache' pills?" he asked, smirking. I glared at him.

"Listen, I don't know why the heck you need these pills and frankly I don't really care, but I found out what you're gonna do to keep me quiet about them," he said. I started paying a little more attention.

"Are you serious? The great CM Punk has seriously turned to blackmail?" I asked.

"Look, to get me to shut up about them, you're gonna stop taking the pills all together," he said. Wait, what?

"Punk, listen, I know you're ticked, but-"

"No, I'm serious," he said. "I don't know why you need them, but obviously they're not working considering the way you've been acting and what just happened. So just stop taking them."

"It's not really that easy, you know," I said. "Besides, how are you to possibly know if I'm taking them or not?"

"Um, I'll be able to tell with your little side effects that keep occurring," Punk replied. "Just, stop taking them. I looked them up and the side effects get pretty dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt."

"Why?" I asked. "Why do you not want me to take them? Why is this so important to you?"

Punk looked me in the eyes as he stood up and walked towards the door. "Because I'm still worried about you."

He opened the door to his locker room. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go yell at the Authority." Punk left without another word.

- El ♥