Chapter 4
The next day...
"Criminy, Vel, how much do you carry around with you on a daily basis?" Chris demanded, struggling to carry her bags while they entered the gang's hotel room.
"Enough to keep a girl happy." she replied. "You can leave them there."
"Gah!" he cried, dropping them and flopping on the bed in exhaustion.
She giggled. "You are such a wuss, dude."
"Look, I offered to carry your bags, thank me for it."
"Well, aren't you at least going to be a gentleman and help me onto the other bed?" she asked.
He peeked up and groaned again, getting up. "Fine, Creature." he muttered, gently easing her onto the bed. "Easy does it...there ya go. Comfy?"
"Yeah...Uh Chris?"
"Yeah?"
"Your hand's on my thigh."
"Oh!" he cried, quickly removing his hand. "Sorry."
"It's ok. Normally, I'd kick your ass for it, but I'm crippled, so I'll let you off with a warning." the blonde replied.
"Oh, lucky me." he chuckled, lying down on the other bed again. Soon after, there was a comfortable silence between them, before Velvet spoke up again, "Chris, we need to talk."
"I agree, Vel."
"Um, yesterday night, Mickie mentioned how I should be nicer to you and y'know, lay off on the insults. And I realized, that she's right."
"Well, it turns out that Mickie told me the same thing, and she IS right. Vel, what the hell happened to us?" he asked, turning to her.
"I was asking myself that very same question last night. We used to have something great, Chris, and I was the one who ruined it because I was so insecure. You really are a good guy and I should've known that you weren't the cheating type."
"That's right, I'm not. What you did to me, Vel, really hurt. Before I met Mickie, I fell hard for you, I thought that what we had would last a real long time, but you doubted me and that's what changed things between us for good. See, at least Mickie never had the nerve to accuse me of cheating."
"What about that time way back when with the note that AJ found in her locker that was written by you?" she asked.
He sighed. "Velvet, I told you, that whole entire thing was a set up! I never wrote AJ anything, Ziggler and his goons did all that just to break us all up. But the bottom line is, Mickie never accused me of sleeping around, and I love her for trusting me." he continued, serious. "I'll never break her heart, like I never would've broken yours. In fact, you were the one who ended up breaking my heart when you were the one who ended things between us."
"Stop it, Chris! Stop making me feel even guiltier than I already do! I know what I did was wrong and-and I'm sorry! I know I never said it before, but I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you in any way, Chris. I swear." she pleaded truthfully. "So...you think you could ever forgive me?"
He glanced at her and shrugged. "Maybe I could." he said after a pause. "But there are going to be some ground rules."
"Ok, name em."
"We respect Mickie's wishes and stop lashing out at one another."
"Sure."
"Two, maybe we can finally become friends again."
"I'd really like that." she smiled and nodded.
"And three, you allow my first gesture of friendship to be me helping you in any way I can while your leg's messed up. Deal?" he asked, sticking out his hand.
She took his hand and shook it. "Deal." she agreed. "You know what, we can do a lot better than that. Hug?" she asked.
"Ah, all right, all right. But that's the most you're getting out of me." Sabin replied, getting up and wrapping his arms around her in a hug. The blonde couldn't help but to smile at this and wrapped her arms around him in return...right when Mickie walked in.
The two immediately broke away. "Mickie, hey!" Chris exclaimed.
"Hey, you two! Did my eyes deceive me, or were you two just...hugging?" the Country Diva asked, shocked. "Maybe I'm in the wrong room."
Velvet laughed. "No, Mickie, you're in the right place, and yes, we were hugging."
"We decided to take your advice and stop fighting and after a little chat, Velvet and I are friends once again. Somewhat." he agreed.
"Oh, you guys are the best! Now I won't have to be caught in the middle of one of your screaming matches anymore, yay!" the perky Diva cheered, wrapping her arms around the both of them in a group hug. "Y'see, now things are only going to get better from here on."
Velvet's eyes wandered around to look at Chris again, a small smile creeping onto her face, while Chris glanced back at her, flashing her a small smile in return.
Fast forwarding to Sunday afternoon, AJ, Mickie, and Velvet all had a little girls' day out at a local cafe, but little did they know, Eve, Nattie, and Beth just happened to be lurking around, too...
"So I still can't believe that you and Chris are friends now, Velvet. I have to get used to not hearing the names 'Thing' and 'Creature' being yelled back and forth." AJ said with a little chuckle.
She laughed. "Well, thank Mickie for that. If it weren't for her, Chris and I would still be hating one another."
"I'm such a good matchmaker, aren't I?" Mickie smiled along. "So AJ, what's new with you and your boy toy Alex?"
"Just still beating him at every video game imaginable and thinking about Japan." the tiny Diva smiled.
"Japan? What does that have to do with anything?" asked Velvet.
"A while back, Alex mentioned how he wanted to take me to Japan one day so that we could explore and have one hell of a time out there. And ever since I heard about all we could do there, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It would be the perfect getaway for Alex and I to go on and we'd be super happy together all the way on the other side of the world."
"Hey, a trip like that sounds perfect for the two of you. Ever consider when you want to go there?" asked Mickie.
"I dunno. It's hard to find time when we all have such a heavy work schedule, but I have to talk to Alex about it later on." the Diva replied. But when she turned around to look for a waitress, her eyes were locked on the Destructive Divas and the one woman sitting in between them - Eve. "Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me."
"What?" asked Velvet.
"Look who else decided to show up." she gestured back.
"Oh, come on! Why is it that wherever we go, THEY just have to be here, too?" demanded Mickie.
"Oh, so they're the bitches you guys were telling me about." Velvet nodded.
"Yes. And Eve apparently has her sights set on my boyfriend, but she's not getting her damned hands onto him as long as I'm around." AJ replied, angrily stirring her drink.
"Ugh, nothing worse than a woman going after another chick's man." the blonde replied.
"Here here." Mickie agreed. "Just ignore em and they won't bother us. Hopefully."
Meanwhile, at the Bad Girls' table...
"Just look at her. Watching me." Eve scowled. "She probably thinks that I'm not gonna do anything to steal her man, but she is so wrong about that."
"Well just what exactly do you have in mind next?" asked Natalya. "You didn't exactly prove your worth into our group just yet."
"Oh, shut up, I'm thinking." she interrupted.
The Canadian Diva whispered to Beth, "Are you just gonna sit there and let her talk to me like that? I'm your best friend, your Sister! And all this time, you haven't even tried to come to my defense."
"Nattie, you know that I love you, but you just have to give Eve a chance to prove herself. Trust me, I think we'll all grow to become great friends." she nodded.
Nattie made a fake gagging noise in reply.
When a waitress was coming by with a few drinks, a lightbulb went off in Eve's head. "That's it!"
"What?" asked Beth.
"Watch and learn." First, while the waitress had her back turned with her tray in hand, Eve snatched a glass of wine off of it. Next, she looked to the table next to hers and found some sick dude coughing and hacking all the way, before taking a sip out of the glass. When he wasn't looking, Eve switched the contaminated glass with the clean one, and placed the contaminated glass onto the waitress's tray. The woman had no idea that anything was moved, so she went ahead to deliver the glasses to AJ, Velvet, and Mickie.
"Bada boom, bada bing." Eve smiled.
"Damn! That's sick, even I wouldn't have thought of that!" Beth exclaimed, surprised. "What's gonna happen now?"
"Oh, you'll see." the Latina smirked evilly, admiring herself in her pocket mirror. From there, she saw Natalya's angry reflection staring back at her. "Is there a problem?"
She wanted to say something, but didn't. "No. Forget it."
"Good, stay out of my breathing space, all right?" she retorted.
"Hmm." the Canadian growled, crossing her arms.
Back at the good girls' table...
"...But anyway, I'm definitely gonna talk to Alex later and see if that trip to Japan could happen sooner than later." AJ finished.
"Aw, I wish Chris and I could go to some foreign country. I've always wanted to visit London, personally, because I could have the shopping spree of a lifetime over there." Mickie smiled. "And then Chris could spoil me like a little princess. Ooh, I'm getting excited just thinking about it! Definitely going to talk to him about it later on."
While Mickie went on about Sabin, Velvet couldn't help but to feel a little jealous. But the thing was, she had no reason to be jealous. She and Chris were friends again, and only friends. Or so she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted when AJ raised her glass and exclaimed, "I propose a toast! To um...loyalty and friendship! Heh, that's all I could come up with." she giggled.
Velvet and Mickie laughed along and toasted their glasses with hers. The tiny Diva kept laughing and stirred her straw through her new drink, before taking a sip. She had no idea that she was drinking from the contaminated glass that Eve had switched, though. Uh oh.
Later that evening, in the Guns' hotel room...
"So Velvet hasn't jammed a fork in your neck in the past couple of days. This whole friendship thing between you guys is legit now, isn't it?" Alex asked, playing a game of Final Fantasy with Chris on their Playstation 3.
"Shockingly, yes. After that talk that we had, we finally realized that we're not as horrible to each other as we originally thought we were." he replied, his eyes glued on the TV.
"Bravo, you two have finally grown up." Shelley smiled.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome. So I'm guessing that what Punk was saying the other night was a lie, huh?"
"What?"
"You remember. When he mentioned that the only reason that Velvet even decided to hang out with us was just to get closer to you again?" asked Alex.
"Oh, oh yeah." he said quietly.
Alex turned to him. "Chris, is there something wrong?"
"No! Nothing's wrong. So uh, what's new with you and AJ?"
"Well, I've been seriously thinking more and more about taking her on a trip to Japan with me over the summer. Ever since I mentioned it on the plane to her, she seemed so happy and excited and I realized that the two of us would have a blast visiting Tokyo, seeing the sights, that stuff." he explained.
"Oh wow, good for you guys! How the hell are you going to find time to plan a trip like that with the schedule that we have, though?" asked Sabin.
"Eh...good question. Gonna worry about that later."
"Oh, ok. Come to think of it, I need to take Mickie out on a trip, too. She did say once that she wanted to visit London, and me being the awesome boyfriend that I am, I plan to make that dream a reality for her!" he smiled.
"Great! Make sure to bring Velvet along, too." Alex smirked, trying to rile him up.
"Oh, shut up, dillweed, who asked you?" he demanded, throwing a pillow at him.
"Haha, that's the Chris I know and love!" he laughed back. Soon after that, AJ, Mickie, and Velvet returned.
"Hey, Guns, what's news?" Mickie announced, giving Chris a sweet kiss on the lips.
"Hey, my Hardcore Goddess, what's up?" he smiled, pausing the game and pulling her into another kiss.
Velvet, on the other hand, had to turn her head while they kissed because of that all-too-familiar pang of jealousy that she felt more than often.
"How was your girls' day out?" he asked.
"Things were fine at first, but then AJ started acting a little weird." Mickie replied.
Alex grew concerned. "What? Babe, are you ok?" he asked, approaching her.
About an hour or so after she and the girls had left the cafe, she suddenly started feeling fatigued, not a normal feeling for her. But she played it off. "Oh, I'm fine, don't worry about me. I'm just feeling a little tired, is all."
"Which is pretty strange, considering you were as bright as a button earlier." Velvet chimed in. "Maybe you better lie down or something."
"April, is your condition that bad?" Alex asked, gently putting his hands on her shoulders.
"No, really, baby." she held her forehead and stumbled a little. "I'm-I'm fine." she coughed.
"You don't sound fine." Chris replied.
"Seriously, April, just lie down, you're scaring me a little bit here." agreed Alex.
"I just have a little head cold, It's a normal thing for me...ow." she said, holding her head in pain. "Why is it so...hot in here..." she trailed off, before becoming too weak and didn't have the strength to stand up. Once she collapsed in Alex's arms, he quickly scooped her up while the friends crowded around her and cried, "APRIL! Babe, it's ok, I'm here. I'm here."
"We have to get her to a hospital or something." announced Mickie.
"I'll call an ambulance." Chris announced, rushing to the phone.
AJ looked up to see a blurry vision of Alex stroking her hair back and gazing at her. "Oh, Alex...what's happening to me?" she uttered.
He felt her forehead. "My God, you're burning up. Don't worry, princess, we're gonna get you some help. Don't worry." he whispered, kissing her forehead.
