She needed another opinion from an outside source. That's what Dad did when he found out that she was autistic, he went to someone he didn't know for an opinion. Maybe that would work for her. But who could Petula ask about this? Surely not one of Jon's friends, they would tell him she came to them for help, and with Joe still a scary obsticle she had to overcome, that wouldn't help her. She wasn't even going to ask Stu's two European friends, she didn't trust Drew at all. So who else could she ask for advice? Fiona, no...she barely had a relationship with her own husband let alone give Petula any advice.

"You seem to be deep in thought there."

Midflick of the Zippo lighter, Petula looks up at the man she knew as CM Punk and Phil. She was not smoking, for once. She was thinking while flicking the lighter. It eased her mind if her hand was doing something and since she couldn't work on the RC at the moment, it helped.

"I'm thinking about something." She replied, looking down. "I've got a problem, I think I have a problem but...I'm not anyway sure. So I'm trying to identify the issue I have and working towards a solution."

Not the most obvious answer Phil was looking for from her. Her glasses dangled precariously from her nose as she stared at nothing, while flicking that zippo lighter. Phil looked her over, where the usual tech cloths the workers wore and sneakers. She didn't wear work shoes, she wore sneakers and black socks. Why did he notice that, he wasn't sure.

Petula looked at him. "Is it good for two men to like a woman at the same time?"

"In a love/romantic way, it's probably not a good thing. As friends kind of way, well depends on the guys involved. Why, do you have that problem?"

"Yes. Jon Good and Stu Bennett, both interesting men. One who makes me comfortable because he speaks in the same accent as my Dad and then there's the other, who is as strange as I am and who understands me. I'm afraid that if I tell Stu about my autism then he'll run away. I've had that happen before on numerous occasions and I just don't want that."

"You're autistic aren't you, Sugar?" Phil asked, leaning on the same light pole as she was.

"How did you figure it out?" She questioned, not looking at him fully but close enough.

"That..." he motioned to her, mainly to her face. "That right there. You can't look a person in the face. Your constant pondering of something social that you can't understand. Your guy issues. And you don't socialize, not in big groups at least."

She nodded. "I have Asperger's Syndrome. Social cues aside, I don't make friends real well because I don't know how."

"You walked out of it when you brought Jon his wallet."

"No, I brought Joe Jon's wallet. I can't look at Joe for long because he scares me."

"I figured it would have been Colby that scared you."

"No, he's more pleasant to look at even if he is odd to me. Joe...scares me. I guess he's a nice guy for not yelling at me, thinking I probably took his friend's wallet...but it's just irrational for me to think like that."

Phil looked at her, watching her flick that lighter with a new found passion. Flick Schnik it went. Every three flicks and schniks it would light up before the process went over again. She was agitated and in the years with the WWE he'd seen young fan after young fan come around with all sorts of issues, disabilities. She was a conflicted young woman who...by all means, just didn't understand it was good to have more than a single friend.

"I need an outside opinion. I can't go to Stephen, the nice one besides Stu, and I won't go to Joe because I'm scared of him. Colby...is strange to me and I'm not sure he would tell his friend." She finally admitted. "Can you be that outside source?"

"Hey, I can't give you relationship advice, I suck at that field myself. First you need to figure out your issue. Is it that you have friendship feelings with Jon and Stu at the same time?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Are you afraid that the other would get jealous?"

"I'm afraid to spend more time with one over the other, so yeah I guess I don't want either of them to get jealous. From the sounds of things, neither are the other's friend outside the ring."

Phil nodded, mulling it over. "Can I be totally honest with you, Sugar?"

"I'd like none other, please."

"Well, since I haven't spoken to either of them, and from what it looks like as an outsider, you might have a problem on your hands." She finally looked at him in fear, pouty mouth was slight open from shock. "You might have two men who at first might want to be friends with you but also want to be something more than just friends. Lovers, maybe."

"But I don't want that, not yet at least."

Okay, even that broke his heart. Phil looked up, sighing.

"Okay, Sugar, let's see if we can't figure this out for you. Has either of them mentioned any sort of feelings towards you?"

"Jon...he's said he'd want to be friends with me. He recommended that I take up boxing lessons from Stu to help me with my weight. I'm fat."

"That's where you need to stop, Petula." She looked at him. "You need to stop putting yourself down. You're fine, pretty."

She glanced at him. No one's called her pretty, well her Dad called her beautiful throughout her life but no one that was not really a friend told her she was anything. Phil called her pretty and it made her feel better about herself.

"But I'm still interested in loosing some weight, and boxing is more interesting than some of the things I see the divas do."

"Are you having any issues with them?" Phil knew how some of the divas could be, some of them weren't the nicest.

"One so far but...Stu seems to be the one that is there to get her off my back. She likes to comment that I am fat and ugly, she called me Ms. Piggy the other day." Another flick of the lighter.

"Who?"

"I...I don't want to start problems."

"Come on, Sugar, I want you to know that you're not going to start problems. But you have to trust me a little. If a diva is going after you, you need to speak up."

She flicked the Zippo lighter once before speaking up. "The diva is AJ. She's got this us or them idea, a backstage politicy or something that I don't understand. I don't know why she's so mean to me."

"Because you have something she wants maybe. I don't know what that is but...maybe she's jealous of you."

Could that be it?

"I miss my Dad." Petula found her hand reaching up and running a hand over her St. Michael pendant.

"What happened?"

"He died from a brain tumor. I was there, but I don't know what to do without him. If I have questions about this kind of stuff I go to him. He was my constant, he never changed...it made it more bareable to feel normal. But then he started changing, forgetting small things and getting headaches. Then we find out that he's got an inoperateable brain tumor and can't do anything about it. He started to loose his memory of me about three months ago. And finally two weeks ago, he dies. And I don't know what to do."

"Well, you're doing what you need to do now." She glanced at him. "You're mourning. You're telling me it hurts that he's gone and it is. When my grandmother died, I was heartbroken beyond Hell and back. Eventually the pain goes away."

"Like a page in a book, it keeps turning until something else comes along."

"Yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at it." He reached out and tugged on a lock of her short brown hair. "It'll get a lot easier as time goes on. Come on, let's go inside. I'll grab you a beer."

"I don't drink, but I'll take a Pepsi, since you wear one on your arm." She said, smiling at him slightly.

At least she found someone that she could trust. Sure he was older than her but she wasn't scared of him.

Jon looked up when he saw Petula and Phil approaching, both with Pepsi bottles in their hands. The moment he saw her smile at him, that happy feeling returned to his chest. But Jon was with Joe and Colby, and Petula didn't dare look at Jon because he was with them.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Phil asked, stopping.

"It's good. How're you doing, Petula?" Colby asked. She assumed that he was at least somewhat a little bit of a friend with Colby.

"Better." She answered, glancing at Joe again, fiddling with the soda bottle. "Better now. Um, are we still on for tonight, Jon? I'll stick around like last time if you want me to."

"Sure thing, Tula." He smiled pushing off from the wall. "We got to go get ready for the show. I'll see you later tonight."

And then he and the rest of them walked off...Joe looking back at her over his shoulder.


Eh, this was the best that I could come up with. How do you think I did?