**: actions like smiling or pouting
"": thoughts of the characters
---------------------------------------------------

Excited, that is how Max was feeling, he finally had a reason to leave his house apart from training and going to the doctor also he would get to hang out with new people and friends like Nattie, TJ, Mercedes (Sasha), jey and jimmy uso, Renee and Saraya (Paige), all of them where in town for NXT, Saraya and Mercedes were building up momentum for the tournament for the NXT women's championship next month while jimmy and Jey where booked to have a tag team match against Enzo and Cass and Renee was there to enjoy a little night out with friends before she has to go in the road for extreme rules that sunday, he is almost finished getting ready to head out when he gets a text from Lexi

Lexi: we are heading to the bar rn, we will be waiting outside for you :)

Max: don't, enter and enjoy I will be there in no time

Lexi just responds with a emoji of thumbs up and smile which makes Max smile before finally getting ready and heading out to the bar

When he arrives at the bar and enters he is almost taken back by the amount of people inside most of them drunk and screaming as they watch a football game in the multiple TV posted on the wall behind the counter

This instantly worries him a little bit, that much amounts of drunk and agitated people convoluted inside such a little space is a potential ticking bomb, it just takes one drunk jackass to set off a dozen of others and ruin everyone's night, Max quickly moves through the crowd of people until he ends up in a less crowded area of the bar where people were eating dinner, there he finds his group all sitting in a big table, he sees Nattie who is facing away from him and talking to saraya who notices Max alongside the rest of the table, he signals them to not say anything while he slowly sneaks up to her

Max: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??

Nattie literally jumps off her chair like a cat and turns around with her eyes wide open like crazy and hand over her heart while giving Max a glare that could kill an entire army, the entire table erupts in laughter which also gains a glare from Nat before she faces Max again who just standing there with the most innocent face possible

Nattie: WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?

Max: *smirking* fun, amusement, pure and undeniable joy who knows?

She just squints her eyes and points at him right in his face

Nattie: I swear to God one day you are gonna get your comeuppance Coleman

Max mocks her doing the exact same pose as her and pocks her nose with his finger

Max: I would like to see you try Neidhart you have saying the same thing since 2007 and yet nothing happened

Nattie:*groan* you just wait, now sit in your place so we can order before I put your ass in a sharpshooter right here

Max: yes ma'am

He says while doing a exaggerated salute to which Nattie rolls her eyes and the rest chuckles

He gets to his seat which was in between Saraya and Rami and the second he sits Saraya playfully slaps his arm

Saraya: you're evil you know that right?

Max: *gasping and putting a hand over his heart* how dare miss Bevis I am nothing but a beacon of goodness and I'm hurt that you think otherwise

Saraya: yeah sure that isn't what TJ, Nattie and Renee have been saying

Renee: Hey!! That's not true at all don't listen to her Max

Max just stares at the three of them TJ and Nattie are just smirking while Renee tries to defend herself

Max: I expected that from the Neidharts but you Ren, that is a low blow and it burns

Renee: Max, I would never

Max: * false sobs* I trusted you Ren how could you, I will never forgive you

Renee: *reaching for his hand* will you forgive me if I buy you a bunch of french fries

Max: do you really think that is all it takes to save our relatio...

Renee: plus a free beer

Max: all is forgiven Ree Ree you are my best friend and I never doubted you

Ren, Saraya, TJ and Nattie laugh at the Shakespearean performance of Max while the rest of the table chuckles seeing this side of the superstar, is kinda of easy to forget that this people are exactly that just people who play characters all week, even thought Max's character has been able to show parts of his real self most of the time due to him being mostly a Babyface even in his short heel turn in 2009 which lasted a couple of months before he joined DX again that same year leaving legacy and going back to being a face.

Saraya: *clapping her hands* okay I am going to order some beers and food, who wants to help me?

Alexis/Remi: Me!/I can help

The three of them get up and head to the counter making their way through the crowd meanwhile Max sees that the seat besides Renee was empty now that Saraya was gone deciding to sit right next to her to confirm a little rumor he's been hearing lately

Max: soooooo.....

Renee: *cocking her eyebrows* so what?

Max: Moxley?

Renee eyes widen and she chokes with the water she was drinking as she struggles to even formulate a word while Max just stares at her with a evil smirk on his face, a smirk that scares Renee as it reminded her a lot of Stephanie

Renee: "Jesus Shawn was right they are alike"

She regains her composure as much as she can, Max chuckling at the obvious answer he got from her without her even saying a word

Renee: *clears throat* I don't know what are you talking about

Max: come on Ren the beans have been spilled from the get go you don't have to lie to me

Renee: *groans* alright I had a date with him two weeks ago

Max: well well well I should give it to you paquette this pairing never even crossed my mind considering how different both of you are

Renee: you tell me when he asked me to go in a date I couldn't fucking believe it

Max: well the fans always thought you looked cute together maybe he saw that too

Renee agrees with him, for months since Jon's debut in NXT people always ranted in social media how they looked like a really good couple they always treated as nothing but the rest of the locker room who would make jokes to both of them about it maybe the idea of them grew in Jon

Max: already planning on going on a second date?

Renee: who knows, maybe? It wasn't that bad but i would think less about that and more about what are going say to her

Max was confused while Renee points behind him when he turns around he realizes what she means, Pamela, she was just sitting there in silence looking around nervously giving an awkward smile to everyone who asked her if she was okay

Max sighs as he thinks what to tell her he can't approach her and just tell her it was okay and nothing else but in that instant he remembers exactly what to tell her

Max: "okay let's not mess this up"

He starts making his way to her which Pam instantly sees and just tries not to look at him in the eyes while he just sits on her right on the empty chair that Rami left. For a couple of seconds Max says nothing and just looks around the table while Pam is just sinking even deeper into her chair

Max: can I tell you a story? If it's okay with you

Pam turns to look at him and stares at him for a while before she responds

Pam: em.... yes of course

Max: back in 1999 when I was 14 I was told by my dad that Vince heard that I was training in the dungeon with the harts and even wrestling in some matches in starcade ,you know Bruce's promotion, so he thought because of the ongoing storyline of the corporate ministry he could put together a match with me in it and taste the waters before going all in with me in the future

Pam: I remember it you went up against edge

Max: yes he was the person I trusted the most to do it with because we trained basically together in the dungeon so he was the obvious choice for the job, anyways I could believe it me a 14 year old having a match? I thought I was gonna get in trouble with the law but I also knew Vince was gonna pull something out of his ass to have me in that match he always made things like that possible

Max just laughed at the sudden memories that were coming back to him while Pam stared at him kinda imagining where the story was going

Max: I was so excited, I started training leading up to it but I remember one day before an episode of raw I was just there in the middle of the ring with all those empty seats I just imagined them being filled with people seeing me wrestle my first WWE match and fear took over, I started to over push myself and one day training in the dungeon I passed out

Pam: what?

Max: I fainted in front of Bret fucking hart and the rest of the hart family including Nattie and TJ, all just because I couldn't bare the fear of actually make a fool of myself on that ring

Pam: what did you do? because at the end you had your match

Max: I didn't do anything but my father did, one day he sited me down and said to me *clears throat* "son, you must understand something"

Pam just giggled at the obviously exaggerated impression of Nakoa, Max's dad, Max smiled seeing that his plan of making pam a little bit happy was working, slowly but surely.

Max: "i know you feel like you are a loser but let me tell you who a real loser is, a real loser is someone so afraid of failing that they don't bet on themselves and don't even try"

Pam just looked at Max whose whole actitude changed to a serious one as he turned to be face to face to her

Max: what I am basically trying to say pam, just like my dad did with me, you shouldn't be disappointed in what happened because what I saw was a girl who instead of backing down because of the fear decided to push herself over the limit ,even if it hurt her, just to show how good she was

Pam: you mean that?

Max: fuck yeah but now that I did all of that I need you to do three things for me okay?

Pam: yes

Max: first, never push yourself like that again know your limits try to improve but never push yourself more than you can take, second,  reinforce your self esteem you are incredible pam the little I saw was worthy of a main event in raw or of a ppv worthy match and third for the rest of the night be happy because what happened could have  happened to anyone with as much spirit and enthusiasm as you so don't let it ruin your days like that

As he finished the sentence Saraya, Alexis and Rami came back with food and drinks

Pam: I'll try and Max, thank you really

Everyone went back to their places and Pam spent the rest of the night with a genuine smile on her face knowing that her conviction with a little of now obvious self care will only help her become the one thing she dreams about nowadays, a superstar