DiBiase Posse Party, Izod Center, East Rutherford, NJ 12-30-11

Okay, look.

Anybody who's witnessed the way that these two have gotten along since Ted showed up in Mississippi would think that one of them or both of them are freaking nuts, the way that their emotions rollercoastered and spiraled. He came and brought her back from the airport. Now, while this was nice, they'd gotten into a semi-argument. Semi- because it wasn't too nuts, but enough for her to sleep on the couch before he left; this left her in a bit of a bind *after* he left because she'd returned the rental car she had at the airport.

She had to get another rental car for the rest of her vacation, right? Yes, yes she did. A girl has to get from Point A to Point B somehow.

Call it impulse or whatever, but in the early morning hours after he left, she'd ended up on her laptop, looking at flights to Newark Airport. Now, for the uninitiated, Newark International Airport is disgusting. Next door to it is a huge prison, and it's on an ugly roadway that's filled with oil or gas holders or whatever you want to call them. The air quality is nasty and nobody wants to be there.

The Izod Center in East Rutherford is, however, located far enough away so it's not as nasty yet close enough to make a decent commute, and the smarter wrestlers know to stay closer to the arena than the airport, so their rooms don't get burglarized and they can find more to do during their off-time. Miranda had been to the arena many times, and knew the area like the back of her hand.

Under a sock puppet account on Twitter, she'd gotten the details on the day's DiBiase Posse Party.

She flew into Newark, and rented a car. She's justifying this in her head as maybe a little crazy, but then again, so is her life when it comes to Ted.

She drove the rental to the airport. She'd spent time on the flight putting herself together, and was flying out the same night, back to Mississippi....which means she'll be returning this rental within the same twenty-four hours that she rented it, and renting *yet another* car in another state over a thousand miles away.

Crazy, right?

With her hair in a ponytail, and sunglasses, and a hoodie, she wasn't really recognizable unless someone knew who she was. Otherwise, she looks like any other slender, twentysomething attractive brunette in a parking lot at a WWE show. She had a couple of beers with the fans who set it up, still not giving her identity away, and having no intention of doing so. She'd chipped in with a $20 bill and sat on the trunk of her rental car on the unseasonably warm day, and was actually having a decent time, and then heard one of the fangirls attending scream, "He's coming!"

The fans started to assemble. Miranda stood behind the biggest, most overweight man there was, and sipped her beer. Cheering was happening as Ted got nearer and all of a sudden, Miranda had the urge to get in the car and just drive the hell out of there.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING? her mind screamed.

Too late to turn back now, though. So she stayed right behind the guy as the fans made a sort of receiving line for Ted.

(Check out my reg for my backstory. I'm not going to put it all out here when you can access it yourself.)

Di Biase Posse Parties were great grounds to cruise for wannabe professional wrestlers. These people coming to the parties are one of two types: Fangirls (who will throw money at wrestlers) or wannabe wrestlers, who Troy is leaving his business card with.

So he's saying his own hellos and at some of the East Coast parties, is hobnobbing with who's there, sometimes he gets some money for "tuition to his wrestling school" and other times, he'll pick up a fangirl and have a good time.

As WWE personnel came out with Ted, though, Troy knew to make himself scarce. He'd heard that WWE Security was "strongly suggesting that" Troy be removed from these events so no fans get preyed on.

So he ended up standing next to Miranda and checked her out.

Ugh. Eww. NoooOoo. Miranda sighed and had a choice to make. Stand next to someone blackballed by WWE-------of COURSE she knew who Troy was. Anybody connected to the business in even the smallest capacity did--------or "out" herself, where Ted might see her. Which was the lesser evil?

Troy checking her out had her skin crawling. Even if someone doesn't know who Troy is, it's easy to just pick up on the vibe he sends out. She adjusted the brim of her baseball cap downward and stepped to the right of the fat guy, looking for a happy medium (further away from Troy, and hopefully still camouflaged enough so Ted wouldn't see her) and still tried to blend in.

Camouflage is a great word to describe the guy, due to his sheer size, that the girl Troy was checking out moved beside. The size allowed Troy to move slightly over and avoid WWE Security at the same time.

He watched, waiting for this one to all fangirl out, too. The screaming..even dudes were screaming, which is strange and yet can translate into dollars for Troy..was getting deafening the closer that DiBiase got. Soon, he'd have to take a few steps back, go further into the parking lot until the appearance was over, and then go back and mingle with these people and pass out his business cards.

But for the moment, he used the opportunity to tuck a business card into the back pocket of the girl's jeans. A wry grin awaited her if she even noticed that a hand just brushed against her ass.

After getting repeatedly asspunched over recent days, rest assured anything brushing against her ass is going to be felt.

She actually had spun around a bit in reflex. Something that's come over Miranda as of late is something she'd held inside for a long time, more often than not, that she'd held back for too long, that has surfaced with a vengeance. If she let it out more often, then it wouldn't be as strong when it happened, which was an aggressiveness. Ted could vouch for that aggressiveness at home during their last trip back there. She could normally channel that aggressiveness within, turning it into assertiveness which was getting her ahead at work, but when you swallow something for so long, it spontaneously erupts. In Miranda, it turns into a streak of hostility.

Her sunglasses fell forward slightly and her head tucked, to make pointed eye contact. She was not usually a confrontational person, but really? Brushing his hand on her ass? Jerkoff.

Glare given, the next thing she did was text Security to report that Troy Vogel was here. She texted away on her physical phone keyboard almost as theatrically as John Laurinaitis.

Thank God for the heavyset fan....

...oh no.

He wasn't standing there anymore. He'd moved forward and to the right, totally no longer being her barricade.

Oh, SHIT.

Ted was shaking everybody's hands and posing for pictures.

He was also about eight to ten feet away.

OH, SHIT!!!

She put her phone away, pushed her sunglasses back up and took a step back. She then heard Security's phones going off, presumably from her text.

Barring someone (ANYONE! lol) distracting Ted, he was headed her way. And Security, some of who trailed just feet behind Ted, also spotted her.

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!!!

"Bastard," she muttered under her breath in Troy Vogel's general direction.

Troy's grin spread across his face at the angry look. He has no idea that it's she who tipped off Security, but it's apparent that the grin was a short lived one, because he's now walking at a brisk pace in the direction away from the party to obscure himself among parked cars.

At least she had spirit, and his cell number is on the card tucked in her jeans pocket, he said. If Security doesn't have him ejected from the venue, he'll be back once Ted Di Biase and Security go back inside the building.

Well, sometimes the things you see out here might bother you some. For someone like Miranda at least. And he can say that because she'd got mad when Kristen said hi. Fucking hi.

Jealous? Maybe. Probably a little. Something is wrong with her. So the kiss he planted on Kaitlyn's cheek when she walked out there probably bothered a few fangirls too, and would end up on the internet. But hey, sue him. She'd probably end up with him on TV now, or at least get more time on SD!

Just helping a friend. In more ways than one. But we won't talk about all of that with you know who here.

Natalya had tagged along, but she was with Tyson, and he was one to become extremely annoying should you get around her too much. Like, reminded you that he's her boyfriend in the most obvious ways, which he thought was inconspicuous. Some people.

Anyway, Miranda would see just how...nice he could be. When unprovoked, not bothered, or anything. While she was usually up to no good, or something of the sort, the divas got the nice side of him. Sort of backwards, considering who his wife was, and who the friends are, but that was Ted for you.

Anyway, he hadn't started going around yet, shaking hands and hugging kids and whatnot. He introduced the girls, pointed out the food, and continued on his conversation with Kaitlyn and Natalya. He wasn't being shitty with the fans, but usually if you let them talk among themselves, they're not that awkward later. And awkward fans are by far the worst.

She's worked for the company long enough to have witnessed what she's seeing, when he thought she wasn't looking, in the past. THIS is the Ted she originally got with. The one that's drawl crept through his words and almost seemed more pronounced right now, although it was the backdrop of the New York/New Jersey crowd accents of the fans just making Ted's stand out more.

One of the more experienced (as in older, yet still in good enough shape) WWE Security guys had just spotted Troy and walked right past her, to have him ejected from the parking lot. At least she could now write this trip off as a business expense, technically. She'd "assisted Security."

The heavyset guy she'd used as camouflage was making his way to the food, and she was more within his line of vision than she'd been. She took her phone out, and texted Ted.

This was a bad idea on my part. Sorry. Have a good time.

Now, if he's even got his phone on him, and happens to look, maybe he'd spot her on her way out. She got hit by a lightning bolt of reality.

He could be a good guy. Just not to her in any quantity that would make life a happy one. Friends? Sure. Spouses? No. They'd both been married before. They knew what realistic and unrealistic expectations in a marriage were. The rollercoaster had to stop, the rollercoaster of her emotions being crazy, good crazy, over him one second, and ready to cry the next.

She'd really thought they'd made a breakthrough in Mississippi, when he came and got her at the airport, and again, that was an example of being on top of the rollercoaster. Then the plummeting crash to the bottom. Then showing up here..another peak. And the way she was feeling now...a crash.

She wasn't bipolar. Neither was Ted. Their relationship was. She was now going into shutdown mode, amputating the feelings that threatened to hit her here, in a fucking parking lot of all places, in front of people from work and fans and especially Ted.

No. Not professional. And the one thing she could be, especially since she was now able to write this trip off as a business expense, was professional.

If he didn't have his phone with him, then he could likely assume that the text she sent, whenever he happens to see it, meant their relationship in general and he'd never have known she was here in the first place.

She asked a parking attendant where Row C8 was. That's where her rental was. It was on the opposite side of the building. Great. That means walking PAST everything again....no. She'll just go the long route.

They had their moments, she said. And that's a lot more than some people have in a lifetime. She put the hood up on her jacket as it was starting to get a little chillier out, and walked briskly through the sections of the lot.

Danni was in Jersey as a member of the local crew yet again, having made enough money to stay on the East Coast and follow for a while. While not a big DiBiase fangirl, she appreciated and respected his work and his legacy. So since she'd been at the arena early to help set up the ring, she'd had time on her hands and figured she'd cruise the DiBiase Posse Party.

But of course, she heard a few snide remarks from fans. That didn't surprise her; she'd heard snide remarks from the Superstars, too. She wasn't sure if it was Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes or Ted DiBiase himself who'd labeled her the "demon dyke" but that name had stuck backstage for awhile back in '09. But almost 3 years had passed between then and now, the nickname faded a bit, but after plucking an empanada from the food tray, she decided to walk away, and get a powerwalk in for now. On work weeks, she didn't hit the gym as often as she wanted to, but walking's the best exercise there is, anyway.

She recognized Miranda from production, NOT as Ted's wife. She doesn't even know Miranda's last name. So she caught up with her. "You powerwalk too?" she asked, wiping the empanada crumbs from her hand to her sweatpants. She had a rough idea that Miranda would know who she was. It's not like Danni was easy to forget, anyway.

Miranda turned and blinked. How the hell was she recognized? Hood, baseball cap, sunglasses? Oh, God. Yeah. This was one of the temps that WWE hired from place to place that unloaded their trucks and did set-ups.

She recognized Miranda's figure, that had to be it. She had a great ass, that even attire like this couldn't hide. It's not the first time a lesbian noticed but it's the first time she was approached like this. "No, not really. I just need to get back to the airport or I'll miss my return flight. Happy New Year," Miranda offered and quickened her step, taking a turn toward the west. Miranda wasn't homophobic. She just knew that people like Danni attracted attention, which was unwanted attention for Miranda right now. So if she was rude, sorry.

Danni froze when Miranda turned like that, like she'd been shocked. Guilty as charged on recognizing the figure, but it was in an appreciation, not a degradation like people recognize Danni's build. Danni's gaydar works well enough for her to, while she has no idea you're married, particularly the personal lives and specifics of who, she wasn't going to hit on Miranda. But Danni backed off. She could tell that it wasn't personal, the rebuff.

"Happy New Year," she responded, and continued her powerwalk back to the arena. The DiBiase Posse People were a good turnout. Not as big as some cities, but they had decent food here.

Well sure he had his phone, and sure he could be a good guy. I mean, any guy could. But the last time he tried talking to her somewhat civilly, he was cussed at. Time before that, she was going out the house in party heels (and the outfit too match,). Time before that, he had to bring the kid just to get in the house, and even then they had conflict.

No, no, we're not done yet.

And the time before that, she basically caught an attitude, threw her hand in his face, and walked. That doesn't exactly scream "Let's make this work.", obviously. These girls were somewhat dummies, but they lacked attacked. Backbone. Not to say he liked it, but it allowed it to be friendly. It's the little things Ted pays attention to, excluding faces. So when he got Miranda's text, it wasn't much he can do.

For one, WWE cameras always came out here now, and he really couldn't leave if he wanted. He had to be enthusiastic, had to do everything. The extra people out here were just star power, and if anything, foreshadow for future face changes.

Uhh....Okay? With the fans, so.

He thought he might of saw her, but no. And if he did, what exactly could he do? He'd try to talk to her later, but, with the success rate of that, he was about 50/50 on that idea. It tended to do more damage than good.

Traffic was remarkably light not only on the way out (because, duh, this was an event. Traffic was coming *IN*. That's not remarkable, that's obvious. I mean on the major highway that the arena feeds out to) but all the way to the airport.

She was on the next flight out of Newark, back the way she came. Her intention's to spend the rest of her vacation at the house, but not waiting for him to return. No, no no no no. No expectations of anything, of anyone. Not even of herself. Just clean the place up, getting it ready for the realtor to start showing it again once Miranda left and went back..

well, went back to where? She'll have to go back to Tampa to get her stuff, but she's not going to stay there much longer, either. She's got a lot of decisions to make, but right now, the biggest decision she wanted to make, once she got back in the door of the Mississippi house, was if it was going to be pizza or Chinese delivery, and then regular or lemon scented Pine Sol. That's it.