"Obviously, you overcame the weight issue. Now, I'm sure it wasn't easy. What would you say was the thing that pushed you over the edge? Was there one thing that motivated your transformation?"
"Oh, yeah…" Allison nods. "During my freshman year of high school my father got promoted. The promotion ended up taking us away from West Newbury and down to Atlanta…."
Grabbing John's hands, Allison leaned forward and rested her forehead against his. She didn't really want to say goodbye, but she felt that their friendship could hold on. Through time and distance, everything would stay the same. "It's not that big a deal… You'll be away in prep school, right? So what's the difference?" she asked him with a sad smile.
"You're going to be miles away from here, Ali." John reminded her, his full lips pouting. "I can at least come home on the weekends, but I feel like I'm seeing you for the last time here."
"You're my best friend. Don't you know that I'll be calling and checking on you? I love you, John." The words flew from her mouth before she could stop them.
Since the day she had played baseball with him and his crew, her life had changed. When word on the street spread that she had been accepted by the Cena family bad boy, the insults stopped. People actually started to leave her alone, and for the first time, she felt proud to walk through the neighborhood.
It was as if, overnight, her life had done a complete turnaround. She had someone to confide in, to understand her. Someone who took the time to get to know her, and allowed her to put her fears and desires on the table without being judged for them.
Instead, John did everything in his power to make her realize that she could have anything she wanted. He taught her about diet, exercise and, above all, about the the importance of the person she was on the inside. He didn't care about what everyone else thought, he had taken the time to find out what he thought of her for himself. Even if he never knew it, that meant the world to Allison.
Pulling back, but keeping their hands linked, John smiled and ran a hand softly over her long blond hair. "I love you too, li'l sis… You've been the bestest friend a guy could have."
Smiling back at him, Allison fought against the feeling in her gut. Her love for John went a lot further than friends or family. She loved him like she knew no other could. He was her world, her everything. He had started her on the road to achieving her dream, and now it would be up to her to make the rest of the journey alone, hoping that he'd have her after it was done.
"Same here, big brother," she chuckled, silently vowing to herself that, when she saw him again, she'd be just like the girls he pined after. She'd be as beautiful on the outside as he told her she was on the inside. "Promise me you'll do great things? I wanna hear about the football games and the cheerleaders you've conquered."
Grinning, John just shook his head and let go of her hand when her family came out of the house, announcing it was time to go. "I promise." He assured her, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her head. "Take care of you."
Releasing John and following her family to the large moving truck she waved to him one last time, hating the feeling that crept up in her heart. He could be right. This could be the last time they ever saw each other like this. It was entirely possible that she would be down South fighting to be everything for him, while he moved on with his life and forgot about her. "You just wait, John Cena… The next time you see me it will be in the pages of Vogue." She laughed as she climbed into the U-haul.
With a smile and a wave, she closed the door to the truck, watching John through the side mirror as her father eased rambling vehicle out of the driveway and down the road. John's image continued shrinking until they turned the corner toward her new life, a good distance away from the one she had finally started to love.
"Saying good bye to him was the hardest thing I ever had to do… I told myself that day that I would find a way to make him proud and show him that I was listening to everything he taught me. That his friendship meant so much to me, I didn't want to let him down." Allison states with a forlorn look in her eye.
"So it was easy after that?"
Shooting him an amused look, Allison allows herself to chuckle at Michael's question, shaking her head as she slides back into the plush chair and curl her legs beneath her,
"Why don't you tell your fans just how you maintain the body that they admire now?"
"I've had the same routine since I was in high school. I met this guy a few years after moving to Atlanta… my senior year I think. Anyway, he and I got to talking about weight loss and shit and next thing I know he tells me he's a trainer…"
"Come on, Allison… PUSH the fuckin' bar!" Rat barked at her, his wide shoulders and menacing eyes moving into her direct line of site.
Blinking back the site of him, as well as the burning sensation coursing through her chest, she screamed as she pushed the bar away from her body. "I hate you some days!" Her voice screeched over the sound of death metal beating through the speakers of the gym.
Rat's lips widened in a sardonic grin, his eyes hardening as he took in her words. "Shut up with the whining. I'm sick of fuckin' hearing it." He informed her, his Italian accent growing thick as his agitation began to build. "I told you if you didn't get the cardio in on your own, you'd pay for it during our next visit. Did you think I was playin'? Do I look like a stand up comedian to you?"
Groaning loudly, she bit her lip to keep from retaliating against the large man standing over her, instead continuing to press the weight, her arms shaking from her efforts.
Rat had proven to be a great friend to her, as well as an intense trainer. He pushed her body past any limit that John had set, or that she had even aspired to for herself. Rat's no-nonsense persona left no room for punking out. He expected her to be drained, to the point of physical illness, every time they worked together. He refused to stop pushing until he was sure she'd had enough.
"Alright…" He sighed, plucking the hundred pound weights from her easily and placing them on the floor at his feet. "I wanna see you on that Precor machine for at least an hour before you leave here. Got me?"
Rolling her eyes, she sat up on the bench and rubbed a hand over her aching chest. "This is the very last time I let you talk me into going out and drinking and then coming in here like this." She grinned, looking over at his massive frame.
Shrugging his large shoulders, Rat winked at her. "But you had fun," his deep voice was matter-of-fact as he smirked. "Now! You've got one hour," he barked pointing to the machine in the corner of the gym.
"Yeah… yeah. You keep this up and I'll report you for buying an under-aged girl drinks last night," she grinned, walking to him and dropping a brief kiss on his cheek.
"Just keep telling yourself that, little girl. I'll just have to remind you about those kids that used to pick on you when you were fat!" With a growl, he swatted her backside and pushed her toward the cardio machine.
Glaring at him over her shoulder, she rubbed her stinging cheek and stuck her tongue out at him, before climbing onto the machine he had already set for her workout. She watched as the other guys in the room continued around the machines, their muscles building and swelling as they moved from one workout to another, and her mind drifted back to John.
She had spoken to his younger brother a few months earlier and learned that her friend had relocated to Los Angles. His brother also said that John was living with his fiancee, a woman he'd met while in prep school.
It hadn't been long after her family moved her away that she had seemingly lost touch with John. He had answered her calls and even spent a little time chatting with her about his life, but the connection that they had once shared seemed to dwindle with each passing conversation.
Her fears of what would happen when she moved had come true. No matter how hard she tried to keep their bond together, her life with John ended the moment she moved to the south. The hardest part for her has also been the fact that his memory was beginning to fade in her mind. She couldn't remember his face that clearly, and his voice no longer sounded like the man she wanted him to be.
Jumping down off the machine an hour later, her legs felt like rubber under her. With every step, she feared she would end up in a heap on the floor. "Hey, Rat, I'm heading home for the day," she told him, poking her head inside his office door.
Rat looked up at her from his reclined position and motioned her inside as he finished his conversation on the phone. "Ali… I was just looking over your food journal and I'm thinking that we need to possibly bring a little more fat into your diet."
Sitting down in an old worn chair next to his desk, she eyeballed him seriously. "We can't do that… you know that any amount of fat I take in makes me swell. I'm doing so good; I don't want to lose my momentum here."
Shaking his bald head, he hands her the journal. "Trust me. You've mentioned the feeling of being sluggish and beat all the time. You're in here everyday, your body needs the fat to give you energy. If we just tweak your diet a bit, alternate your cardio days with your weight training days, I think you'll be fine," he assured her seriously.
Nodding her head, she stood and leaned over, kissing the stubble on his crown. She gave his shoulders a firm squeeze as she headed for the door. "OK. I'll try it. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."
"I never thought anyone could push me that hard, but watching my body take the shape that I wanted was worth it all. I'm not someone that can tell other people what they need to do to change their workouts or to tell them what to eat. Hell, if I had my choice, I'd be eating McDonald's every day rather than worrying about fat content, but I'm not someone who can do that. I have to watch everything that I put in my face, so that it doesn't show on my hips."
