Scar Tissue 2: Irreversible Damage
"Hey, I'm watchin' the worlds collide. Hey, there's nobody else inside. Girls, they don't know what they want. But you, you just walk right in."
"So, I heard a rumor," Victoria stated as she slid into the restaurant booth beside her friend, Lita. "Orton tagged Mickie last night."
Chewing her breakfast, Lita raised an eyebrow and then shrugged. "Another one bites the dust," she smiled, lifting a glass of orange juice to her lips.
Both women knew the charms of Randy Orton first hand, though Lita had far more experience than Victoria ever would. She had been Randy's fall-back girl for years. On the rare occasion that the woman he had chosen for the evening would get cold feet and back out of their little tryst, he would always make his way to her room for consolation.
Not that Lita was hanging her head or feeling like second prize. She had Edge, and she was happy with him, just as she had been happy with Matt Hardy before him. Her only attraction to Randy was physical, and she knew that the feeling was mutual. If he wanted to give her a great night, she would let him, but it was nothing more. And it hadn't happened in months - not since he had finally bedded Trish.
"Morning," Trish smiled as she slid into the booth beside Victoria. "What are we talking about?" The girls shared a look and continued eating. "Me," Trish concluded.
With a sigh, Victoria took a drink from her coffee and turned in the seat to face Trish. "I kinda feel like you should hear this from us, instead of someone else," she started, but then stopped when she looked toward the door. "Ya know what? Nevermind."
Trish turned her head to see Randy enter the restaurant and make his way toward the buffet line with some of the other wrestlers. "I know he fucked Mickie last night," she informed her friends. When they continued looking at their plates, she sighed. "What? You guys think I can't tell which girl he's been with? I've been in the ring with all of them - I know what their perfume smells like, even mixed with sweat."
Dropping her fork to her plate, Lita raised her eyes to Trish. "What the fuck are you doing, Stratus?" she asked suddenly.
Taken aback, Trish held her hands up defensively. "Whoah. What the hell, Li?"
"No, don't pretend you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about." Though her voice was low, her tone was unmistakeable. "Why the fuck are you wasting your time following him around like a fucking bitch puppy?"
Trish opened her mouth to answer, and then shut it again as she noticed Randy approaching the table. "You don't wanna sit here, Orton," she teased.
His blue eyes twinkled as sat next to Lita and leaned over the table to kiss Trish quickly. "Why not?"
"Well," Trish looked around and pointed to a table in the corner. "There's seven Diva search girls over there. Wouldn't want them thinking you've got a girlfriend."
Randy rolled his eyes and reached over to take Trish's hand. "Cute, Stratus. Anyway, I'm not staying," he said, reaching into his pocket. "You left your phone in the room."
Trish accepted it and felt him tighten his grip on her hand. It was moments like this, confusing moments where he seemed focused only on her, that made her question everything she thought she knew about Randy Orton. "I could have just gotten it when I went back up to get my bags," she reminded him, forgetting that her friends were sitting there.
"I already checked us out. Bags are in the car. We'll leave when you're finished," he licked his lips as he spoke, holding her eyes. "Just let me know when."
With another kiss, he was gone. Even knowing that her friends were about to berate her couldn't wipe the smile off of her lips as she watched him leave. "Okay," she finally said with a roll of her eyes. "Tell me how stupid I am."
"What are you guys doing?" Lita asked again, continuing to eat her breakfast as though the young man had never been there. "Are you dating? Fucking? What is this thing you have going?"
"It's a," Trish searched for the right word to describe it, "A situation?"
Lita leaned forward and shook her head in disbelief. "Let me tell you what it is, Trish. It's you falling in love with an asshole who doesn't deserve you, and let's face it, probably doesn't even want you."
"What is this third degree?" Trish asked, also leaning forward. "You jealous he's not running to you in the middle of the night anymore? Pissed that I satisfy him in ways you couldn't?"
A sardonic, almost maniacal laugh sounded from deep in Lita's throat. "Oh yeah, cause you keep him so satisfied, Trish. So satisfied that he still wants to fuck anything with a pussy that comes within thirty feet of him," she motioned with a wide sweep of her arm, hissing through clenched teeth.
"What the fuck do I care who else he's fucking, Lita?" Trish narrowed her eyes and tried to remain unaffected, as though she didn't know the words her friend was spewing were nearly gospel truth.
"You don't even get it, do you?" Lita asked, her shoulders sagging as she sank back in her seat. "You don't even get that he's totally using you for his own pleasure. You're falling in love with him, just like Stacy did, and you can't even see it."
"I gotta admit," Victoria jumped in, hoping to disarm the proverbial bomb before it did any more damage. "I never thought I would see the day you let a guy treat you like he does."
"You guys don't understand."
"You're right," Lita interrupted. "I don't understand because it's completely incomprehensible. It doesn't make any fucking sense, Trish. Don't think you're going to tell me that the few times he makes you smile are worth all the nights you fall asleep alone, knowing he's out there fucking someone else."
"You're the one who told me to realize that he wasn't even capable of being the boyfriend kinda guy," Trish shot, gripping the edge of the table to keep from screaming. "You're the one who said the sex was so great I should just get over the other stuff and be happy that I get a chance to ride his dick on a semi-consistent basis!"
Victoria looked nervously around the room. "Sweetie, people are starting to look," she warned, lowering her head and her voice. "Listen, you know how he is, okay? All we're saying is you need to be careful."
"You guys are making way too big a deal out of this. Relax," Trish sighed. "Randy and I are not exclusive. We're not in a relationship. We can fuck whoever we want."
Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Lita leveled Trish with a firm look. "Then why aren't you sleeping with anyone else?" When Trish lowered her eyes, Lita's tone softened. "Because you only want him. Trish," she said, tapping on the table until she got her friend's attention again. "You want a relationship."
It doesn't really fucking matter what I want, does it? "No, I don't. You guys think I do, but I don't. I had a relationship, remember? They don't work for me. What I have with Randy works, whether you understand it or not." Standing, she smoothed her palms over her jeans and hitched her purse onto her shoulder. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get on the road."
She knew they were right - she was letting him get away with more than she had ever let any guy get away with. But the circumstances were different. And he couldn't break her heart if she didn't let him. Rounding the corner of the building, she steeled her resolve. She had no say over Randy's choices, and she didn't want one. He could do whatever he wanted.
Even if what he wanted was to make out with some random Diva search chick against the side of his car.
With a deep breath, she approached, willing the ache in her chest to cease. "You ready to go, Orton?" she asked.
The girl jumped, but Randy just smiled and patted her ass as she walked away. "I thought you'd be a little longer," he said as they both got into the car. An eery silence followed them for a few miles before he spoke again. "Look, about that," he started.
But Trish just turned the radio up. "No. You don't have to explain anything to me. You're not my boyfriend. You can do whatever you want."
The clipped tone of her words cut through him, but he refused to show the emotion. This was how he wanted it. This was how it had to be. Whether he liked it or not. "Right."