Matt Hardy paced the corridor outside the Smackdown Divas' locker room, holding a relatively small bunch of flowers tightly in his grip. He smiled to himself, and rehearsed his speech in his head for the millionth time. Nodding his head, and realizing he was as ready as he was ever going to be, Matt knocked on the door. Maria opened it. She saw the flowers in his hand, and immediately got the wrong idea.
"Matt, oh my god, are these for me?"
She reached for the flowers, but Matt, with a confused look, snatched them away.
"N-No! They're… Is Katie in there?"
Maria's face fell, and her grin was soon replaced with a look of dejection.
"No. She's in with Teddy Long right now."
"Oh, well--"
Maria slammed the door in a shocked Matt's face.
"Women…"
Katie exited Teddy Long's office with mixed emotions. She didn't know whether to smile or cry. Well… She certainly wasn't going to cry. But a part of her was quite upset. The other part was hugely excited. That other part slowly disintegrated however, when Katie saw Matt Hardy's smiling face at the other end of the corridor. She didn't want this to be harder than it already needed to be.
"Katie!"
"Hey Matt"
They smiled at each other for a beat, before they both blurted out at the same time,
"Look, I have something to tell you"
Katie laughed sheepishly, and Matt smiled back at her.
"You go first"
"Well thank you, apparently chivalry isn't dead" Katie smiled. "Well… This isn't easy for me to say, at all, but, Matt… I've been traded. To Raw."
Matt's face fell. Suddenly, he wished he had've gone first. Or last week. Or the week before that…
"Oh wow… Congratulations"
Matt willed himself to be happy for her, even though he was pissed off on the inside.
"Yeah. Thanks, it's gonna be good to go back home. I'm gonna miss you though, you and all the guys, Jericho, Truth, Shane…"
"Yeah, yeah… We'll miss you too."
"Thanks buddy."
Buddy. The word stung Matt's heart. Buddy is what you call friends.
"So what was it you had to tell me?"
"What? Oh, uh, I…" Come on Matt, think of something! Anything! "I saw Michelle before, trying to be all cool, and bam, flat on her face."
Katie laughed, clearly buying his B-S story. Matt faked a smile, his grip growing even tighter on the flowers behind his back.
"Well, listen, I've gotta go pack my things, I have a meeting with Vince about my trade first thing tomorrow. Good luck Matty."
She kissed him on the cheek and began to walk off, when Matt stopped her.
"Katie"
Katie turned around, and smiled
"Yeah?"
A million thoughts were racing through Matt's mind. He didn't even know what to say.
"…I'm gonna miss you so much."
Katie's smile turned to a look of sympathy, guilt and sadness, as she ran back to Matt. She ran into his arms and they hugged each other so tightly they could barely breathe, neither of them saying another word.