Paige's POV

It's the Monday after Money in the Bank. I had just barely beat Naomi, and I'm on cloud nine. Nothing, and nobody, is going to take my championship from me.

I arrive at the arena and head to the locker room. Of course I get stares from the other divas, they never wanted me to be on the roster, let alone the divas champion. I walk to the back and place my stuff down then head to catering.

I get there, but I keep looking back. I feel as though somebody is following me; I keep hearing these faint footsteps, but nobody's there. And I keep hearing laughing coming from behind, but, of course, nobody is there. Maybe I'm just losing it. I go over and grab a water. I grab another, after downing the first bottle, and I head back to the locker room to get ready. Even though I have a match, a championship match, I don't know against who. I'm thinking they're going to bring somebody from NXT like they did me. Or it could be some Tough Enough girl. Or maybe they're going to give me some actual competition and bring back somebody. Any way I look at it, the title is staying with me, and it isn't going anywhere.

"Or maybe it's her." The voice in my head says. "You know you want it to be her. You haven't seen her in 3 months since you stole the one thing that mattered most to her."

I shake my head. "She's gone. For good. And I don't want it to be her." I say.

"Oh, stop denying it, Saraya. You miss her and you know it. You miss being her best friend. You two told each other everything. She was truly the greatest thing to ever happen to you."

"That's true. She was my best friend, but the key word in that sentence is 'was'. She was upset because I did what nobody could do for 295 days. So, instead of getting a rematch, she left the company and is never coming back."

"Of course you feel this way, a sense of abandonment. And who could blame you. I mean, you loved her...  maybe even in--"

"No! I was not in love with her."

"You kept saying that before, until that night you stayed with her."

"I was drunk that night, she helped me out, and nothing happened between us."

"If you were drunk that night, how do you know nothing happened?"

"She told me nothing happened. You know what? I'm not in love with her, she's not here tonight, she's not going to be my friend again."

I didn't know that I took so much time talking to myself, because I was already dressed and somebody came and told me I was needed at the Guerilla. So I'm going to get going. I grab my championship and head over.

A backstage producer says I have 5 minutes until I go out, so decide to stretch a little. I bend over to stretch, and I see a pair of Chuck Taylors in between my legs. I stand up straight and turn around to see John (Dean), and my nerves calm all the way down. I thought it was somebody else.

"You scared me." I say, stretching my arms, and he hugs me from behind. Things between me and John are very awkward. At one point, we used to date, but then he cheated, so we broke up, and after that, he kept apologizing and asking me out. Eventually, he took the memo, but he still insists we stay friends or whatever.

"How'd I scare you?" He asks.

"I saw your shoes, and they reminded me of somebody." I say. He looks down at his shoes and chuckles.

"You know she's not coming back, right?" He asks, knowing who I'm talking about. I just nod at him. Suddenly, I here the same footsteps. I turn around and there's this short, petite person with a hoodie and some Chuck Taylors. I walk over to them before they could walk away.

"So, you came back to steal my title? Well I don't think so!" I say as turn them to make them face me. I'm so surprised to see that it WASN'T who I thought it was, and it was just somebody from the truck. I apologize and walk back to the guerilla where John is holding my championship.

"What are you doing?" I ask, catching him with a shocked face.

"Oh I was admiring your name on your belt. It's so pretty." He says. I nod nervously and slowly take it from him. He stares at me for a long time. Suddenly the same producer from before came and told me I was to speak a little about my short time here. As soon as he walked away, I hear my music play, so I had barely any time to prepare anything.

*out in the ring*

Once the crowd dies down, I start to speak. "I'm a woman of a few words, by the way." I say. 

*time skip*

and I am here to stay." I say with the up most confidence, mostly because I think it's true. I am going nowhere, and nobody is going to take my belt.

Suddenly, my heart drops into my stomach as I her her theme song. Even though the fans are so loud I might be going deaf, I can't hear anything in my mind except for all of the convincing I told myself going out the door. I kept telling myself that she wasn't coming back, both to the WWE and into my life. Now here she comes --skipping down the ramp and into the ring about to face me for my championship.

I wanted a challenge, well now I've found one in A.J. Lee.

Shitty, I know. I promise it'll get better.