"Come in," a voice called from inside. I hesitantly set my hand on the door knob and turned it. Matt looked up at my reflection in the mirror in front of him with the emotion I'd seen from him all night - pure curiosity. When he saw it was me, he cast me a half-hearted smile, then went back to digging through his duffel bag.
"Hey, Matt."
"Adam," he greeted me. "What's up?"
I cleared my throat. "I heard about..."
He stopped and closed his eyes. "Yeah."
"Matt, do you -"
"Ah'm all right," he said, opening his eyes again. He pulled his Hardyz motorcross jersey out of his bag and slid it over his head. Then he continued digging through his bag. I sighed. This wasn't going to be pretty.
Matt and I became friends pretty quickly when we first met because we had something unusual in common. Our best friends growing up had both been bisexual. And they had finally fallen in love. With each other. That had made some pretty interesting conversation early on, but through that we found that we had a lot in common. He was a good kid, all in all. Even though he was from the South. But he had proven himself to be more than I'd expected. He'd even come to be someone I cared about, which was why I was here now.
"It's all right, Matt, you can talk to me," I said, crossing the room to him.
"Ah already said Ah'm all right," Matt said. I got the feeling he was trying to control his temper. I set my hand reassuringly on his shoulder and he closed his eyes again, slamming his fist on the counter in front of him.
"Christ, Adam, d'y'know what th'worst part is?"
"No, what's -"
"Ah still love her."
I stopped. God, things were getting twisted. "I'm sure -"
"Ah still love her, Adam. Sh'cheated on me, an' Ah still love her."
"Matt -"
"When sh'was tellin' me 'bout..." Matt sighed, "it, Ah was waitin' f' her t'apologize so Ah could forgive her, but when sh'finally said 'sorry,' it was followed by 'but Ah don't think we can be t'gether anymore.'"
I moved to put a consoling arm around Matt but he just shoved me off and spun away to a bench in the middle of the room, which he fell onto rather heavily. I followed, not having much other option.
"I'm sorry, Matt, is there anything I can do?"
Matt ran his hand through his still damp hair with frustration. "It shoulda been me. Ah shoulda been th'one t'break up with her. Ah didn't do anythin' wrong, sh'slept with someone else. But Ah'm not mad. Sh'hurt me, then dumped me."
"You wanted to dump her?" I asked, slightly confused.
"No! Ah wanted t'forgive her."
I sighed. At least I knew Matt felt the same way I did. Wait! Did I just say that? I put a hand to my forehead, frustrated. She had screwed him over, he hadn't done anything wrong. I needed to get that girl out of my head. I wanted to ask if she had given any explaination of her actions, but quickly decided that Matt might not be the best person to ask that. So what do I say to him now? 'I'm sorry' doesn't help. He won't agree with 'You're better off.' I can't insult her or tell him that she'll be back. Hell, I didn't even know what had happened, maybe she had good reason... And there I go defending her again. I sighed and looked back down to Matt who was slouching on the bench in front of me. I saw him bring his hand to his forehead and realized he was subtly trying to wipe away tears. I licked my lips nervously, then set my hand on his shoulder again.
"I'm here for you, man. If you need to talk - if you need anything. Just say the word."
"That means a lot t'me, Adam, but Ah don't think Ah'm ready t'talk jus' yet." Matt sighed and wiped his eyes again, openly this time. "But Ah appreciate y'listenin' t'what Ah had t'say so far."
"Anytime. You know that if Jeff and Jay get their way, we'll be in the same hotel tonight, just ask Jeff where we are. I'll be there if you need to talk."
"Yeah, thanks." He wiped away a few more tears and got back to his feet, facing me. "Ah better get m'shit t'gether, Ah'm sure Jeff wants t'get out of here sometime t'night. Hell, he didn't even have a match t'night."
"Sure, Matt. Sure." I slowly nodded, then backed off. Matt gave me another half-hearted smile and turned away from me. I guess that was my cue to leave. I went over to the door, then stopped with my hand on the door knob. "Are you...? Nevermind."
It probably wasn't a good idea to ask if he was still traveling with Amy.
"Am Ah what?"
"Nothing, it was nothing."
"Ah'll see y'later, Adam."
I sighed one last time. "Don't worry, Matt, it'll be fine."
He turned back to me suddenly, looking me square in the eyes, and I finally saw the pain he was feeling. It was terrible. He cast yet another half-hearted smile that didn't quite make it to his eyes. "Ah know it will. Thanks."
I nodded, feeling silly still, and went out into the hall. I think now was an appropriate time to find Jay and pump him for more details of the situation. I realized how truly simple this would be when I looked up and saw that Jeff had Jay pinned up against the wall across the hall in a heavy make-out session. I cleared my throat. This caused them to jump rather comedically.
"Oh, ah... um..." Jay sputtered for a moment.
"Can't find your tongue? I think Jeff might have it."
Jay blushed, which was unusual for him. Jeff, however, just smirked and took ahold of Jay's hand. "Y'can have it back. Here."
He took Jay's face in his free hand for another kiss and I rolled my eyes. I would have complained, but, as before, that cuteness factor was overwhelming. I cleared my throat again. Jeff turned back to me, beaming. Jay wasn't looking to miffed, either.
"How's m'brother?"
I shrugged. "Not in a talking mood."
"We want t'see him."
"No way," I answered quickly.
"What d'y'mean, 'no way'? Ah have a right t'see m'brother when ever Ah want t'see him," Jeff shot back, getting defensive.
"Sure, you do. But not Jay. And definitely not you with Jay. The last thing he needs to see is you two lovebirds in his condition."
Jay nudged Jeff. "He's right."
"Ah guess so," Jeff looked back up to me, smirking again. "F'once."
"You just keep telling yourself that, Farmer Joe."
Jeff looked back up at me with a blythe smile and ignored the comment. Jay stole back his attention, though, by tugging his hand. "Hey, Adam and I are going to go find a hotel. I'll call you when we check in and let you know where we are."
"All right," Jeff answered, sounding slightly reluctant. Jay gave him a short kiss goodbye. I'd seen this before. That was never enough. Well, enough for them, at least. I started off down the hall, I'd seen plenty.
"Hang on, Adam, I'm coming!" Jay called after me.
"I'll believe it when I see it," I muttered.
"I heard that!"
"You were supposed to."
Their goodbyes usually lasted as long as the visit itself. I wasn't going to just stand around and watch that. After I had gone about a hundred feet, I finally heard Jay's footsteps following me at a jogging pace.
"Ah'll see y'later, Adam, dear," Jay called after me in a sickeningly sweet tone. I held up my hand in an obscene gesture behind me as Jay and I kept walking. Jay didn't do anything, he rather accepted Jeff's and my pseudo-hatred.
"So what'd Matt say?"
"Oh.. just..."
"What?" Jay pressed.
"That he still loves Amy."
Jay nodded. "Yeah, he told Jeff that, too."
"I don't understand."
"Neither does Jeff."
"What happened?"
"How do you mean?"
"Did Amy try to explain herself at all?"
"Oh, yeah. She said that Matt was nice, but she wanted a little variation. She was too young to be tied down to one person."
"You would think she should have told that to Matt before she slept with someone else."
Jay shrugged. "Hey, personally, I just think girls are irrational. Guys are much more straightforward. We don't have problems like this, for the most part."
"That'd be because you've found your soulmate. I remember you whining about insensitive guys back in the pre-Jeff era."
Jay shrugged. "Those don't count."
I smiled and shook my head. "Very rational, Jay."
"I know it."
We walked in silence for a moment, then came to the locker room where we had left our bags. Chris was in there, getting his things together after his match as well.
"Hello, boys," he greeted us broadly.
I grinned. "Hey, nice match tonight."
"Of course," he answered, still playing cocky. Then he added, slightly downplaying, "Yours was.. nice, too... I'm sure."
Jay stopped in the middle of the room. "Wait, didn't you guys fight each other...?"
"Yes, Junior," Chris said, setting a hand on Jay's shoulder and explaining as if he were a child. Jay gave him a mock dirty look, then Chris waved as he opened the door. "So long! Farewell! Auf Wiedersehen -!"
"Goodbye!" Jay and I called in unison, finishing his verse. Chris gave us a confused look, then let the door slam behind him, and I shook my head, laughing.
"So now what?" Jay asked, suddenly.
"What?"
"What do you do about Amy?"
"Me? Nothing. I stay far, far away from her."
Jay shrugged. "I guess that's one solution."
"The more relevant question is what do I do about Matt?"
"I wish I could help you, man."
"Yeah, me too," I replied. "Hey, I've got a question. I was going to ask Matt, but rational thinking got the better of me."
"Hey, what's that feel like?" Jay asked with a grin. I smiled.
"No, seriously. Are Amy and Matt still traveling together?"
"She can't really walk to SmackDown. I guess her other option would be to ride with Scott, but I don't think Rob would take kindly to that."
"Wow, that sucks for Matt."
"Yeah, and Jeff."
"What?"
"Well, Amy's not talking to Matt anymore, so he just has to deal with her presence. Jeff has to deal with the two trying to see whose side he's on. The poor kid..."
"That's an ugly situation."
"That said..."
"What?"
"I guess you'll understand if Jeff just happens to end up staying with us tonight..."
"I don't even know what to do with you sometimes, Jay."
"You know you love me."
I shook my head at the ramifications of that one and picked up my bag. "Let's get out of here."
