December 2007
"Come on, move it!"
The traffic was jammed badly on the expressway, and the woman glanced at the time glinting from the digital clock in the dashboard. Damn it... At the rate this was going, she was never going to make it in time.
Torrie Wilson groaned loudly and raised the volume of the radio, hoping some loud hard rock would sway her from freaking out. She was on her way to a SmackDown taping and had a match against Michelle McCool that evening. Of course, the odds were looking spectacular that she wasn't even going to make it.
"Come on, come on!" She grimaced at the thought of being late again. She couldn't afford to be late again, and she damned sure as hell didn't want to have to pay another fine. It just wasn't fair! She had made sure she'd had plenty of time ahead of her when she'd set off on this trip.
She flipped the radio to AM and switched to an all news station. She listened carefully, and sure enough, it seemed there was an accident on the very highway she was traveling. Shaking her head dejectedly, she knew that a lot of drivers were probably being idiots and slowing down or stopping altogether just to stare at others' misfortune.
The platinum blonde put the hard rock station back on and exhaled deeply. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to keep her temper in check. The last thing she needed was to lose her cool while she was behind the wheel of a car.
She wished Lisa Marie had rode with her like she usually did. However, the dark-haired woman had had a family emergency and had gotten permission to miss this week's taping because of it. Maybe she should have caught a ride with one of the other girls, or even with a guy or two. She hated traveling alone.
Torrie suddenly shot a look at the driver behind her, glaring over her shoulder. The man was practically sitting on his horn at her to move. Well, what in hell was she supposed to do? Traffic ahead of her and to her right was bumper-to-bumper, so it wasn't as though she could do anything!
Wishing she had a pair of earplugs with her, the blonde increased the volume on the radio. In fact, the music was suddenly so loud that she could feel the bass reverberating through the seat. But she didn't care... She thought she would rather suffer some hearing loss than listen to the jerk behind her blaring his horn. What a rude piece of crap!
Torrie's heart began to pound uncontrollably mere minutes later when she suddenly noticed the man standing to her left. He looked angry and raised a fist to knock on her driver's side window, which, in the winter on the East Coast, was blessedly tightly rolled all the way up. She flinched just a bit as his fist struck the glass a second time. Trying not to curse under her breath, the woman put the window down just a crack.
"May I help you?"
"Yeah... Yeah, you can. Lady, will you turn that racket down? I can't hear my own radio!" he shouted.
Torrie quickly reached for the radio and lowered the volume a considerable amount. She hoped that would put an end to this conversation.
"Better?" she asked, not bothering to mask her own annoyance this time.
"You got an attitude on you, don't you?" the man asked. He began to laugh, and it grated on the blonde's nerves. "I swear, I don't understand broads like you."
Torrie glared at him, disbelieving her ears. What was this guy's problem? Didn't he have anything better to do while stuck in a traffic jam than pick a fight with her?
"Look," she said evenly, "I turned my radio down like you asked. Now, would you please just go back to your car and leave me alone?"
Her request only prompted more laughter out of the guy. She glared at him as he continued to stand there beside her car, and she suddenly realized something...
... The traffic was moving!
Shooing the man away, the diva quickly closed her window all the way and started to drive again. It was at a pretty slow speed for a ways until she finally passed the accident. It had been a three-car pile-up, complete with an ambulance. She hoped no one was seriously hurt, or worse. And of course, she'd been right in her guess that drivers had been stalling because they were watching the scene. As soon as she passed the wreck, traffic picked up and moved like normal.
Torrie drove a tiny bit faster than she usually did, but it was purely out of fear of being late to the arena. Unfortunately, she failed to arrive at the time she would have liked, but at least she was lucky enough to find an empty parking space, and quickly at that.
Just as she was pulling her rental into the spot, it happened... She felt the car get hit by something - something that also felt distinctly and unmistakenly metal.
"Oh, Christ!" she cried as she glanced over her shoulder. Worry quickly gave way for anger as she realized the other car had been trying to steal her space!
She released her seatbelt and stepped out of the car, leaving the engine still running with the parking brake on.
Gesturing toward the other driver, she noticed the person step out of their car. It was another woman, and to Torrie's discomfort, she noticed there was a child in the backseat. She guessed they were fans here for SmackDown tonight.
"What's the big idea?" she asked.
"I think the 'big idea' is that I was parking my car," the woman retorted.
Torrie shook her head.
"You can't do that when I was here first. I was backing in and you tried to steal my spot by pulling in head-first? I don't think so!"
"Aren't you one of the WWE divas?" the woman asked her. But before the blonde could say anything in response, she continued. "Yeah, you are... You walk around like you think you own everything, like you're Queen of the Universe and should get everything handed to you on a silver platter. What a bitch! I'm sorry I'm helping to pay your salary!"
Torrie's eyes widened in shock. What was going on? Was there a full moon out tonight that she hadn't noticed? She shook her head.
"You can think whatever you like about me - that's your choice. But be that as it may, you're still going to have to move your car."
The woman laughed, but with absolutely no traces of humor in it.
"I don't think so," she spat.
The diva glanced around the parking lot, hoping to see someone who might help her. It seemed that no one was willing. And there wasn't a soul around that she knew, since all of her fellow WWE superstars were already in the arena, as, unlike her, they'd arrived on time.
"Look at what you've done to my rental car!" Torrie cried. She'd only just taken notice of the sizeable dent in the back. She grimaced as she took it all in. "We'd better exchange information."
The woman had quickly gotten back into her vehicle. She flipped Torrie off with her driver's side window rolled down.
"Like hell, bitch!" she heard her yell. She couldn't believe this monster was leaving! She began to chase after the car, but all she succeeded in doing as hearing the little boy in the backseat start to cry.
"You bitch!" Torrie felt as though she were on the verge of tears. She stared after the car, somehow managing to remember the license plate. In a haste, she hurried back to her rental, got in and snatched up her cell phone to type it into her Notes. She would report that witch, all right.