Disclaimer: I don't own anyone in this story, unfortunately.
A/N: This is a double recycled story. With Punk leaving and with those amazing promos he is delivering on Raw, I'm starting to have premature withdraws of him and I want to keep my Punkryse muse running. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and I promise that this time I'll continue with this one (if you want to)
Rolling In The Deep
Whoever said that time was the best medicine to mend a broken heart has clearly never been in love with someone like her. He obviously hasn't been at the receiving end of her kisses, he has never been tricked by her devious smiles and he has never, ever had his heart ripped out of his chest and stomped under the heels of her designer's shoes as a result of her lies.
He has; he knew all about how that felt and he could tell without any doubt whatsoever that time has done nothing to him but turning him into the shadow of the person he once was, a bitter copy of his past self.
So no, time couldn't cure anything… he could testify about that; or who knew, maybe it was just that his was a severe case without a remedy. That was how hard she has hit him.
Pushing the inside of his bottom lip with the tip of his tongue, the man known around the wrestling world simply as CM Punk lowered his eyes to the ground and stared at his sneakers, wishing he could block the sound of her laughter as easily as he could block her image.
Maybe that right there was where his problem lay; maybe the reason time hasn't wiped the memory of her out of his mind was because she was always close by, reminding him day by day of her betrayal. Yup, that has to be it, as long as he could see her he wasn't going to be able to forget her. Not by a long shot.
"So Phil, do you have any plans for tomorrow? A few of us are planning on going sight-seeing, you should come."
Lifting his head and tilting it to the side, the green eyed Straight Edge Superstar fixed his eyes on the woman sitting by his side. She was smiling kindly at him and Phil knew at once what she was doing; she was trying to get his attention as a way to divert it from that other woman, the one that was occupying his mind.
He wished he could smile back at her but he couldn't, so instead of smiling he breathed out, trying to exhale the tension he was feeling so it would fade away. It almost worked, Beth has been a crucial part of his ongoing recovery and he was glad that she was sticking to him even though his moods varied from black to blacker; she has been the best of friends and a great supporter and like he stated before, what she just did almost worked. But just when he was about to respond to her, the night was filled with the raspy sound of her laughter.
That was it for him, he couldn't stand it anymore. He has been sitting in silence for quite enough time, acting as if nothing was bothering him and trying to focus his attention elsewhere; but doing that was almost impossible when she was so near, when he could see her and hear her so clearly.
Enough was enough and it was time for him to do something.
Grunting, he got up to his feet while the vague sound of Beth calling out for him out faded away. In that moment the only sound he could think of was the sound of her laughter and nothing else mattered. So he kept going, he was seeing red now and there was no stopping him.
So yeah, this was yet another night ruined by her, only that in that particular night, instead of walking away he walked to her, determined to put an end to her continuous erratic behavior.
He knew that whatever she did wasn't any of his business, not anymore; but as soon as he saw her arrive with Mike to the liquor's table the guys placed beside the hotel's pool he became somber and watchful. He saw her start drinking and not that he was keeping track on her but as of lately he has seen her drinking a lot, and when he said a lot he mean a lot.
Now, she has always been a party girl, there was no doubt about that and quite honestly that was one of the things about her that first got his attention. Not the drinking, mind you; everyone who knew him well enough was aware of how he felt about that… but what grabbed his attention about her was her personality. Maryse had a very lively aura going around her and she has never been shy to let anyone know that she liked to have her fun. She liked to dance, she liked to get loud and she liked the club scene quite a lot.
Back when they were together she didn't drink as much as she was drinking now and despite everything that happened between them he couldn't help but to worry because in all honesty she seemed out of control about it.
In that night he tried to ignore his concern, trying to convince himself that she wasn't his problem; but that way of thinking didn't help him at all and despite himself he kept an eye on her. He watched her laugh, drink and engage in a very friendly talk with Mike and yeah, he wasn't going to lie, he didn't like any of that. But what bothered him the most was that Mike kept encouraging her to drink more and more.
"I think that's enough for tonight." He said when he finally got to her and then he took the big red cup away from her lips and poured the liquid into the ground.
The blonde's jaw dropped wide open as she groaned her displeasure away. On his part, Mike stood up quickly in full fight mode. "Hey, that's not nice." She complained in her thick French accent, but then she began to giggle and turned to Mike.
"Tell him that's not nice."
"What the fuck is your problem?" Mike hissed under his breath as he eyed him thoughtfully through half closed eyes.
Phil ignored him and with his lips tightly pursed he grabbed Maryse by the arm and dragged her out of the pool area and directly back into the hotel. As he walked, he could listen to Beth asking him something and Mike bad-mouthing him, but none of them made any attempt of stopping him.
"No, Phil… I want to stay at the pool. What are you doing?" Maryse complained but she kept walking after him, the sound of her heels echoing loudly through the almost deserted hotel lobby.
He heard her complains perfectly fine, but he wasn't concerned with what she wanted, it was one of those moments where his anger was making him black out and could only act on his impulses.
Back at the pool, when he got up to his feet to walk to her, his mind has been set on taking the obviously drunk blonde back to her room, but since he didn't know which one was her room and because he was afraid of finding out who she was rooming with, he decided to take her to his. Once there he could call one of her girlfriends to make them pick her up or something. But for now, to his room it was.
Once they made it across the lobby and up the elevator, the two former lovers finally arrived to his door and with one hand still hand holding Maryse's arm, Phil managed to open the door.
"Why are we here?" She asked coldly once he made her step inside and closed the door behind them. Now her laughter and her giggles where a thing of the past, it seemed they remained at the pool.
Phil shook his head, throwing the room key card over the desk as he eyed her over. In the silence of his room, the olive green orbs that served him as eyes took notice of everything about her, starting with her long toned legs, going up to the little blue dress that fit her body so perfectly and finally to the way her hair framed her perfect face. To him, she has been and will always be simply stunning, but too bad that her insides were as wicked as her outsides were pretty.
"Look at you-" He said in the lowest of tones as his lips formed a snarl. "You are drunk as you'll ever be. Is this what you have turned into? What a shame, Maryse, what a shame." He chuckled after the words were said, feeling everything but amused under the circumstances.
"And why do you care?" Maryse mumbled, her eyes half closing as her lips quirked. "What I do or what I 'turned' into is my problem, not yours."
Phil nodded, his jaw tensing as he felt a bolt of anger run up his spine. She was right, what she did was her problem and not his; but it was just that for the longest time he has been holding everything inside and now that he had her face to face for the first time in seven months he wasn't sure if he could keep things to himself.
"You are right; I shouldn't care about what you do. I mean stupid me for being concerned over the fact that you found a new passion on getting drunk out of your mind and sleeping your way around that locker room. I mean if that's your thing then congratulations. Oh but one question though, what happened to Teddy? Did you get tired of him as easily as you got tired of me?"
He saw the way her eyes flickered and the way her lips trembled and for a wild second he felt bad about what he said. After all this was the woman he once loved more than anything and it was sad what they had turned into, that they had hurt each other so bad. Especially her, she hurt him like no one had hurt him before and that was something he couldn't forget.
"You know what, fuck you. I don't need any of this." Maryse said and when she started to turn around he grabbed her by the elbow and forced her to turn back to him.
"What, are going back down there to drink yourself until you pass out or do you want to see if your fuck of the night is still willing to take you?" He asked through his clenched jaw, feeling bitter and unable to hold his tongue.
"And what if I do?" She spat back at him, trying to push him out of her way. She failed in her attempt as he didn't move an inch. "Let me go, Phil." Her request came out as a broken plead and he could see she was struggling to keep herself together.
Knowing her as he knew her, he was sure that if he pushed her some more she was going to break and a wicked part of him wanted to see her crumble, that part of him wanted her to hurt as much as she hurt him.
That made him feel bad, not only because of his way of thinking but also because of her; with the way she was behaving now, she was walking a path of self-destruction and he hated it on her behalf.
Shaking his head, his features softened as he looked at her. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"
"What do you care?" She wiped angrily at a lone tear that escaped her eye and then she tilted her head up, staring at him defiantly.
"I shouldn't, but I care about you, I still do." For a moment he forgot everything about their fallout and his eyes saw her as the Maryse she has been with him, the one with the silly humor and the easy smile, his Maryse. With that memory in mind, he brushed her hair behind her ear lovingly, but quickly after that she pushed his hand away and the moment was broken.
"Don't do that." Her lips trembled lightly as she looked away, blinking several times to keep the tears away.
"I care about you and I hate what you have become."
"Oh come on, Phil! That's a lie and you know it." She shouted, her voice full with venom and her features carved in stone. "If you cared about me even the slightest bit you wouldn't have…"
Snorting, Phil went back to feeling bitter about what the woman in front of him did to him so he interrupted her; he couldn't let her go on with her farce. "You cheated on me!" He yelled back at her and she cringed. "I did nothing but give you all I ever had and you fucking cheated on me. Fuck it, Maryse I… I thought you were perfect and I loved you more than anything in the world so don't you try to blame this on me." He finished, glaring deep into the pools of her hazel eyes.
On her part, Maryse shook her head. "I never cheated on you." The words came out in a sob, her tears flowing freely while she tried to wipe them all with the back of her hand.
Phil couldn't stand it. Her lies, her tears… he hated to see her cry but he knew better than to believe in those tears. Chuckling, he looked up to the ceiling. "Maryse, I saw you kissing him so don't even pretend to tell me you never cheated."
He remembered that day clearly; he remembered the anger, the hurt, the betrayal… everything that happened that night was engraved in his mind never to go away. It has clearly been a low point in his life and still to that day he wished he has done something about it other than step back and hide in his locker room for the rest of the night. He wished he would have done something to him. But he didn't, he just fled the scene and discharged all his frustration on her later that night.
Mind you, it wasn't like he did any harm to her psychically, but that night when she walked into their hotel room as if nothing was amiss, he told her that he has seen her kiss Ted and she laughed, she just fucking laughed and he lost it right there.
If she would have given him those tears she now seemed to command at will maybe things would have been different; if she would have told him she was sorry and that she made a mistake everything would have been different because God knew that he would have taken her back right in that moment. After all she was his everything and he would have forgiven her in an instant.
But no, when he told her what he saw she laughed and to him that only meant that he was nothing but a game to her as she didn't even care that she got busted…
That has been it for him, his anger and hurt mixed up and he verbally discharged his ire on her; then after all was said and done on his part he kicked her out of his room and out of his life.
It seemed that simple but it wasn't, he may have kicked her out of his life but she refused to leave his mind and his heart. That was the worst part, because life didn't give him time to recover, not when he had to see the two of them on the road, on the show, backstage, eating at catering…
Shortly after that, Maryse started to get all wild and now they were both there, in his room.
Sitting down over his bed, Phil ran his hands through his short hair and sighed. "Look, just go… I won't stop you and I won't get in your life ever again."
Taking in a deep breath, the French-Canadian lifted her head and assumed a defiant pose that talked of arrogance and pride. "I will go, Phil, trust me on that one, but not before you hear me out."
Phil shut his eyes; he really didn't want to hear it.
"I won't lie, that night I did kiss Ted, but if you only cared to look at the whole scene maybe you would have noticed that we were shooting some promotional pictures and that the big kiss that freaked you out was nothing but a little peck on the lips. If you would have just taken a little of your time to let me talk to you would have known that." She said through clenched teeth. "But noooo, it was easier to assume I was cheating on you without giving me the benefit of the doubt."
Phil looked up, his eyes fixing on hers. Could she be saying the truth? He didn't remember seeing anyone holding a camera back to that night, just Maryse glued to Ted's lips as he held his Million Dollar belt over his shoulder… so what if…?
"You laughed about it when I told you." He said dumbly as a burning sensation started to creep up to his face.
Maryse snorted, shaking her head as her liquid eyes remained staring into his. "So that's your big argument, that I laughed when you told me? Phil, I laughed because I thought it was ridiculous that you were jealous over Ted. But you know what? I'm glad things turned out the way they did so I could see how you truly felt about me."
"I loved you."
"No you didn't, if you loved me even half the way you said you did you wouldn't have said the things you said to me that night and you would have at least let me explain things to you. But you didn't, and do you even know how that made me feel? Awful. Oh but you didn't stop there, now you assume that I'm sleeping with all the guys I talk to so that speaks real nice about your love for me."
He didn't know what to think after she said that. Yes it was true that he never gave her the benefit of the doubt and that he never even let her talk, not even when she repeatedly told him there was nothing going on between her and Ted.
So what if what she was saying was the truth? If that was the case he screwed up big time by acting the way he acted with her. He told her a lot of things that didn't make him proud and as it turned out there was a big chance that he did so without any real reason.
He practically went off against the woman he loved because of a misunderstanding and he didn't even let her defend herself. Trying to find something to hold his stance, he went back in memory lane and yeah, much to the credibility of her story, he did see them kiss right in front of a big black curtain like the one that was used for photo shooting backstage… "Maryse, I-"
Lifting her hand up in the air, the blonde Diva motioned him to shut up. "Save it, now I'm the one who doesn't want to hear it so keep whatever you want to say to yourself."
With that said, Maryse turned on her heels and walked out the door. In a matter of seconds she was gone and he was left alone with his solitude once again.
TBC?