Note: The idea behind this: set your iPod to shuffle, write a story for each of the next 10 songs that play while the song is playing. I sort of give myself a little... or a lot... of leeway on the shuffle and skipped all my Les Mis tracks, and songs I don't know well enough. And I played some of them twice. And I only have five, because I degenerated into skipping everything. Also, I know it's possible to write in the first or third person... I just don't seem to remember how.
1. Here Without You, 3 Doors Down
You always pick up the phone. You dial his number. And then you remember, that he doesn't take your calls anymore, that he changed his number without telling you, and nobody will give you his new one.
It's the nights that are the worst, no matter what anyone says. You can deal with the condemnation of your peers. You can deal with the jeers of the crowd. You can even deal with the backlash from management. It's here, lying in your bed, when the hours spool out before you, unending and intractable, that you miss him the most, that you feel keenly what you did.
He needed a break and you both knew it. Everyone knew it, but nobody was willing to take money off the table, not even when it came to John Cena's health. So you sabotaged him. You got him fired. It was the greatest con you ever pulled on anyone, and you did it because you love him.
You always call him, but he never answers.
2. Rumor Has It, Adele
He watches you wherever you go, and though you used to find it flattering, now it confines you. He's suspicious of you, which is funny, because he's the one who leaves your room at night to sleep in Randy Orton's bed.
When you're at the arena, his eyes are on you, claiming you before the world, but you're not a possession, you're your own man. His gaze follows you across the airport to your gate, onto your plane, where he can't follow.
He doesn't know if you double back, catch another flight heading towards St. Louis. He doesn't know that you're cheating on him too.
3. Mr. Brightside, The Killers
Takes place in the Long Way Down universe.
Over my days off, I can't help but imagine it, over and over. Punk and April, lying in bed together. Her body, so small and dainty under his. Soft and yielding in a way mine never could be. I've always known that Punk's not gay, that he's had plenty of girlfriends before he was with me, so I'm not sure why it bothers me so much.
It started off so innocently. Some flirting. Harmless flirting, I thought, because he'd never go for it, probably wouldn't even realize what I was doing. Then, a night together in a hotel room, where he surprised the hell out of me by being more into it than I ever could have guessed. A few more nights, and suddenly I was falling head over heels for him, for his sarcastic wit and off beat charm, for the way he is in private, fun and affectionate.
Fast forward a year, and it's all falling apart. He wants things that I haven't been giving him. He wants something that I am not, and while I'd do anything for him, that's not something I can change. It turns out John Cena can do anything but make the man he loves happy.
4. New Wave, Against Me
"Don't you ever get tired of this?" you ask him.
He shrugs. You take that as a yes, but what the fuck can I do? He's John Cena, and he built the modern era of wrestling, but now he carries it on his back and it threatens to cripple him. You're the guy nobody expected to be a success, but now, in this moment, you are powerful beyond belief.
"Just watch me," you say. "I'm going to change everything."
You sign your contract and imagine yourself burning this place to the ground. You imagine dancing in the ashes with John. You imagine so many things, because everything is possible.
"Just don't change yourself," he says.
5. Somebody Told Me, The Killers
"So, are you dating Amy again?" John asks without preamble.
You shrug. "I was. Not anymore. Why are you interested?"
"I just heard..." he shrugs this time.
You know what he heard. You were dating her, who used to date him, who's now dating her, who used to date you... it's like middle school, and you're sick of hearing about it, even more sick because it's true.
"Fuck you, John," you say to him and storm off to your locker room.
He finds you there a while later. He blushes and looks down at his hands as he stands in your doorway, and you think you finally get why he was asking.