The Great Escape

AN: Thank you to Christal-R, RKO.I.F, , WWEFan1990, Melissa Cristina, Cena-Wilson-Crazy, xSomeKindaRush, CrazyWWEFreakJNH, Ashleymassarophan1, Deeelyndz, jojocheer28, Chain Gang Princess and TJ Sparkles for reviewing the last chapter.

You guys are awesome! :D

Chapter Ten – See If I Care

THE GIRLS

It was a beautiful day. The sun beamed down, hitting just the right spots, while the busy traffic on the road was drowned out by the swoosh of the trees above. Popular shops surrounded the sidewalk, as did the happy shoppers who slipped inside to find the bargain of their dreams.

It was just a shame that the peaceful experience and the summer weather were being ruined for four particular college students.

"Delicious."

"Overpriced."

"Frothy."

"Overpriced."

"Worth it."

"Still overpriced."

Both Maria and Mickie lagged behind as, in front of them, their friends indulged in another ridiculous argument. They could no longer enjoy the sights and every time they tried to, they were brought back to the shouting match.

Eve flicked back her curls as she tried not to let her anger get the better of her. Up until now she had been excited for today—hanging out with her girls and a few of the guys had never sounded more tempting. It was now, however, that she was starting to regret her decision to invite a particular someone along. As usual, the girl was being a pain in her ass.

"You don't have to come, you know."

"I'm afraid I do," said Ashley and rolled her eyes as, after a glance in her direction, Maria cowered in fear. "Miss Bubbly here wouldn't leave me alone until I agreed. And just look at her; she's too innocent to refuse."

The brunette conceded. "You do have a point. But still," she went on to say, "We don't have to meet up with the guys—"

"Oh thank God."

"—We could always take you clothes shopping for your impending date with Adam." She finished with a mischievous smirk.

The blonde's eyes narrowed into slits. "Overpriced coffee at Starbucks is just fine."

An unkind snigger escaped from Mickie's mouth before she could stop it and two of the three turned to her in mild surprise. Ashley didn't bother to, as she already knew what her best friend was being reminded of, and waited for the explanation patiently.

"I'm sorry," apologized the brunette after snorting, "it's just...well, Ash has decided not to make a huge effort for the date. It's her way of protesting because she can't do anything to stop it."

"Which means," added the stubborn girl as she spotted the annoying green sign of their destination mere feet away, "I'll be greeting him wearing my scummiest clothes."

"Don't be silly, Ash." Maria giggled. The redhead, excited at the prospect of seeing Randy, rushed forwards and swung open the heavy door with all her strength. "You won't be greeting him at all—you'll be too busy gritting your teeth and making a mental note to kill Mickie when you next see her."

"She's got a point."

As the redhead rushed ahead, Ashley, for the first time that morning, agreed with Eve. "You're right. She knows me too well."

The three fell into silence as they watched their friend greet Randy with a whole lot of enthusiasm, and then blush when he offered her the seat beside him.

"Oh God...Eve, quick!" Mickie hissed all of a sudden, grabbing the Latina by the arm. "Um...come and get a drink with me."

The other two shared a smirk before the brunette dragged her away. It was quite clear what—or better yet, who—her problem was.

Ashley was left alone but that didn't stop her from walking over to the table and introducing herself. As she hadn't been out with them for dinner before, she'd never had the pleasure—or horror, she didn't know yet—of meeting them officially.

"Hey. I'm..."

She trailed off at the inconvenient moment, leaving the guys to wonder what the problem was. If they'd followed her gaze to the restroom where a certain someone was just slipping into sight then they would have known.

"Are you stalking me?" Adam smirked as he came to a stop in front of her.

Clearly not amused, the smile on her face disappeared, and her lips pursed into a familiar thin line. It was now that she was making a mental note to kill Mickie; her best friend had nicely failed to reveal who else would be here.

"But I—" She began, clearly put-off. "We're not supposed to see each other until the date."

Well she had been avoiding him, but that wasn't the point.

"I think you'll find that's the night before the wedding." A moment later, he raised an eyebrow. "Ashley Massaro, are you hinting at me?"

There was a moment of silence and then a splutter of, "Ugh, you're so...I can't believe...you're just...I'm outta here!"

As the blonde disappeared, Maria shrugged. "She took that pretty well, I reckon."

General chatter returned to the table as Adam took his seat, defeated. As though nothing out of the ordinary had happened the group moved onto their next topic of conversation.

Eve approached the table a moment later, an iced caramel drink of some sort in her hand, only to find herself distracted by her best friend. She watched with great interest as Randy and Maria interacted with one another. It was as if they were in their own little world; even as the others laughed at a joke, they didn't take their eyes off of each other.

Hmm, she thought, I think I'm going to have to talk to her later.

"Hey Eve."

Disrupted, she shifted her gaze from the pair to Mike, who stood to greet her. After getting a kiss on the cheek, she blushed lightly. "Hey yourself. Oh, Mickie will be over in just a second—she's just ordering her drink."

She was rather certain he didn't care for this particular issue, but Phil did. In fact he looked up from his book just to spot her. When he did a smirk curved his lips.

A smile on her face at the sight of this, Eve took a seat, waiting for Mike to take his before she carried on the conversation. "So how have you been? I haven't seen you recently."

"I've been good," shrugged the blonde, "how about you? Maria told me you were stressed out about something."

"She did?"

"Yep."

She shot a glance at her best friend, trying to send her a message via the mind. This particular message wasn't so kind and roughly went along the lines of: Thanks a bunch, you ditzy idiot. It was just a moment later that she was surprised as Maria looked in her direction, but she was forced to roll her eyes when the redhead offered a thumbs up and a bubbly smile.

"Hey, Eve," interrupted Phil, "is Mickie hiding over there because of me?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

The dark-haired guy nodded, suppressing a smile as he stood to go over and greet her.

"Eve?"

Crashing back into reality, the Latina turned to Mike, who was smiling back at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I—"

Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, breaking them apart once again. It was with a guilty smile that Eve excused herself to see who it was.

New message from: Matt.

Swallowing lightly, she pushed her phone back into her pocket. Was this karma's way of telling her that keeping secrets was wrong? Because if so, she didn't know how much longer she could take it.

"Guess who?"

As two hands pressed gently against her head and then closed over her eyes, Mickie stiffened. It didn't take a genius to work out who'd just approached her, and with a sharp breath, she opened her mouth to respond.

"Hey Phil. What's up?"

"Why don't you tell me?" He laughed, pulling his hands back to his side and allowing her to see again. "You've been avoiding me as far as I know."

She didn't answer. She was far too concerned about the position they were in now; with her back pressed against his chest, she could hardly concentrate on her view out of the window, never mind his accusation.

"Wow. You're shyer than usual."

She could feel his breath against her neck. He was close—usually, for her, this would be a too-close-for-comfort situation, but she didn't particularly care. It felt nice.

"Can you blame me?" She eventually found her voice, a little high-pitched but nicely controlled all the same. "You're really—"

"Testing you?"

At those two words, she finally turned around, eager to question him. She found herself gazing into his eyes, and then down to his lips, cutting off anything she had wished to say before.

"How are we supposed to have a decent conversation if you can't even talk to me?"

"I can..."

"No, you can't." He chuckled. "You look like you want to run away every time I see you. And how is that any way to start a relationship?"

"Well it's not obviously but..." She gulped suddenly. "A relationship?"

"Yeah, a relationship. I mean, I like you, Mickie; I think you're awesome. You just have this issue with me."

"Issue?"

"You're really shy, Mickie."

"Shy?"

"Yeah. I would have made a move already if it wasn't for you being so fragile."

"Made a move?"

"Okay," said Phil, placing his hands on her shoulders, "Are you going to keep repeating everything I say? If so, I'm going to walk away."

She grew a little more confident, despite the physical contact, and cleared her throat. "So go ahead. Make a move or whatever...see if I care."

"See if I care?"

"Okay, admittedly I didn't mean to sound like that," she winced, "but what I do mean is that I am perfectly fine with whatever you want to do with me."

...

"Oh God, that sounded terrible! I mean...with...well, you know..."

Phil couldn't help but to laugh as he took his hands away from her shoulders, and placed them back at his sides. It was with a smirk that he asked, "Are you sure you could handle it?"

"Positive."

This was a lie. Far from confident now, Mickie felt as though she would pass out if he were to come any closer to her. As he leaned closer, she couldn't help but to wonder, why didn't they teach you about guys back in high school? If they did she surely wouldn't be having a problem now trying to work out what she was supposed to be doing.

"You sure?" He whispered one last time, his lips almost against hers.

"Mhm." She replied shakily.

And at long last, his lips pressed against hers. For a moment she couldn't do anything but stand there, shocked. Thankfully, a moment later, she came to her senses and kissed him back. As the passion seeped through she slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her.

When he pulled away, she kept her eyes closed. "I knew it." She whispered softly.

"You knew what?"

"Your hair is totally soft...definitely touchable."

"Er...thanks," said Phil, now taking note of how her fingers played with his hair. "That's what every guy wants to hear after he kisses someone."

But it didn't stop him from kissing her again. She giggled against his lips—this, the whole scene, was simply perfect in her mind.

Well it was until...

"Wooo!" Cheers came from a certain table. It didn't seem to matter that everyone else in the shop had begun to stare at the supporters; they carried on regardless. "Go Mickie!"

The brunette, slightly confused, pulled away and looked past Phil's shoulder. A pink blush tickled her cheeks as she took in Eve and Maria's grins and the guys knowing smirk. "Oh my gosh..."

"You okay?"

"I...uhm..." Her gaze flickered from them to her crush. "I really have to go now."

And as expected, even though Phil didn't know her so well, she fled from the place. He was left to watch in amusement as she rushed past the clear window and then out of sight.

If there was someone who wasn't shy, it was Maria Kanellis.

Just a minute after seeing one of her closest friends run away from a guy, she turned back to Randy, eager to get back to their conversation. It wasn't so important, as they were merely discussing their music preferences, but she was so interested in what he had to say that she didn't ever want to stop talking to him.

She was only now realizing that her crush on him was becoming something much more; if she wasn't careful, and she wasn't, her feelings for him would grow much stronger than it should be possible.

But as she stared at him with wide eyes, and he smiled back with that cute grin of his, she didn't seem to care about anything...about any objects in the way. Michelle was far from her mind as she felt their friendship grow.

She had no intention of splitting up a good relationship, of course, but she wasn't about to allow any frantic bunny boiler thoughts come to mind. She was finally happy to find that she could be friends with a guy she had a crush on—just friends.

"So how is Michelle anyway?" Maria enquired, leaning forward on her knees. She, being fully indulged in the conversation, wasn't aware of how close she was to him now. "She told me she was going to call me about doing something together, but she hasn't yet."

"Oh right," nodded Randy. "I remember her telling me something about that. I think she's got an issue with her roommate."

"But I thought she just moved out?"

"Oh no, that was with Maryse. Now there's a problem with the new one...Kelly or something." He shook his head, and it was clear he was trying not to roll his eyes. A moment later a smile curved his lips. "But she'll call in no time. She doesn't break her promises."

"That's nice of her." She smiled lightly. "Well I'm looking forward to getting to know her...and I hope you don't mind me asking, but how did you two meet?"

"I've actually known her since kindergarten. I grew up with her and our parents," he stopped to roll his eyes, "decided that it would be a good idea to set us up. It turned out pretty well in the end. We've been dating since the start of high school."

"Oh wow. That's a long relationship."

"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" There was a slight pause. "But I love her. She's everything you could ask for in a girlfriend."

The redhead nodded. "I'm sure. It sounds like you might be heading down the aisle soon enough."

Maria meant this as a joke, and even giggled at her wit, but Randy choked on his drink. She watched on in concern as he lifted a napkin to his mouth to muffle his coughs.

"Oh...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

She trailed off. What didn't she mean to do anyway?

"It's okay." He attempted a laugh as he turned to face her again. "I'm just...uh...not thinking about marriage right now."

"Well no, of course not. I'm sorry I brought it up."

Now feeling slightly awkward, she recoiled back into her seat, searching for an opening to start another conversation. But there simply wasn't one. Surprisingly, she felt a hand touch her jean-clad knee.

"It really is okay, Maria." Randy smiled at her. "You were just interested. There's nothing wrong with that."

"I suppose not." She smiled back.

The two stayed that way for a little longer, and it wasn't until he suddenly pulled his hand back that she realized how intimate the situation was. Tucking her red curls behind her ears, she glanced away and in the direction of her best friend.

Strangely enough, Eve was staring right at her. The brunette mouthed, "We need to talk", and then got back to her conversation with Mike.

For once, Maria agreed. She had a feeling that her friendship with Randy was going to be hard to maintain if she couldn't stop having these "forbidden" moments with him.

"So...erm...can you believe Phil and Mickie? Talk about unexpected!"

Her fake enthusiasm seemed to do wonders, as the dark-haired guy was able to agree and then talk about the pair. She nodded at the right time, but had to wonder, all the same, if he felt the moment between them too.

No, he didn't, she thought to herself as she watched Randy talk, of course he didn't feel anything in the so-called moment. He has a girlfriend and he's happy with her. Who am I to disturb anything between them? Exactly. I'm no-one.

So there's the next chapter. Please review :)

Up next is Ashley's chapter.