Charlotte wished the ringing in her ears was the cause of her splitting headache and the taste of pickles lingering over her lips. It wasn't as the hungover Flair tried to piece together the reason behind her stomach pain and why she was cuddling a styrofoam container full of various cold fryer food.

Sun, the 'final boss' to those who had too much to drink the night before, danced between the curtains drawing shadows on the wall above her bed that made it seem like they were taunting and dancing at Charlotte's pain.

"Water…" Charlotte thought to herself, smacking her lips together to try and chase away her cottonmouth.

Sitting on her bedside table was a bottle of water and a folded piece of notebook paper. Charlotte used the last bit of strength and power in her tank to sit up and reach for both items.

Char,

Went out to get breakfast. Drink the water. You'll need it, love

-Becky

The sloppy curves and scribbles that could only be written by her girlfriend made Charlotte smile. Only Becky could do something so minute and thoughtful to make her heart swell in her chest. She should've opened her eyes to loving her girlfriend sooner and she could've gotten through her Summer a lot smoother with all the pity-drinking she'd done then.

The night before started to come back to Charlotte. The last thing she recalled before waking up was eating at Roadies - that would explain the box of poppers, mushrooms, and mozzarella sticks. Charlotte recalled asking the bartender for a recommendation, then watching in mild confusion when the man poured her a shot of tequila and pickle juice - that would explain the taste of vinegar and salt on her lips.

Recalling the reason for her one-person celebration wasn't as hard as trying to remember if she plugged her phone in or not.

Ric was a free man after weeks of delegation and Charlotte could safely and confidently guess that he celebrated the same way she had.

Ric. That lucky mother fucker had gotten off on all charges when it was as clear as day that he was more guilty than a toddler denying tracking mud on the carpet despite their muddy shoes. Maybe that's what a million-dollar legal team did for their clients - get people off from conviction despite the damning evidence against them.

Following yesterday's verdict, Charlotte had been too emotional to rally the news to Becky. The thought of going out and drinking until she forgot what day it was had Charlotte's attention more than telling her girlfriend why she had the sudden urge to go out.

Charlotte's phone rumbled next to her leg. She sighed in disappointment; Her drunken self clearly did not remember to charge her phone when she got home the night before. Judging by her twisted pajama top and lack of any kind of clothing covering her lower half, other things hadn't been forgotten about.

Speaking of those other things, the notification on Charlotte's phone was a text from Becky. The goofball redhead was standing in line at Nitros, a black tank top matching the snapback she wore over her tangled, curly locks, a tight-lipped smile of mild disappointment on her face from the long line behind her. The text simply read "kill me" followed by a crying face and squirt gun emoji.

Charlotte carefully crawled out of bed. Just because she was in a bit of pain, didn't mean she was going to stand aside and let her baby suffer. Standing in the reflection of her full-body mirror, Charlotte turned to the side to hide her bare front and raised her left foot on her toes to flex her calf muscle. She decided to send it over texts instead of Snapchat so Becky always had the picture to look at whenever she was standing in line and thought about shooting herself with a squirt gun.

Topping off the text with a few 'kissy face' emojis, Charlotte sent the picture and went about her way to find some bottoms. A warm shower and some Gatorade sounded like the ideal thing right now too.

But her relief plan would have to wait for now. Charlotte's phone started to rumble in her hand. Instead of the gleeful smile of her Becky like she anticipated, the number wasn't an Ohio area code at all; It was a New York number that hadn't been saved to her phone yet.

Charlotte quickly located her panties next to her inside-out blue jeans and slid those on. Rubbing the pulsating vein in her temple, Charlotte swiped her thumb across the screen and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Yeah?"

"Is this my beautiful daughter?"

Charlotte's breath died in her throat. She didn't remember the last time she was able to speak to her dad on the phone before the trial. It had just been third-party updates through Nora or whatever she saw on TV. But here he was, asking to speak to Charlotte like he didn't recognize the sound of her voice.

"Y'ello?"

Charlotte hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until Ric spoke again.

"Yeah, h-hey, dad. It's me. It's good to hear from you."

She meant that. The last several weeks had been a fucking nightmare for her family. Not having the luxury of speaking to Ric in hopes of relieving some stress or hearing updates about his trial was maddening.

"You too, baby girl. I've missed you," Ric sounded like he'd just woken up, or maybe been crying earlier. He, for once, wasn't loud and boisterous like he usually was. Ric spoke calmly and enunciated each word with care.

Charlotte didn't know what to say. Should she bring up the trial? Ric was probably as sick of hearing about it as Charlotte was at this point, so maybe she should just stick to volleyball? Maybe her grades or the crippling anxiety she developed after being harrassed by paparazzi for weeks would work better as a topic of discussion.

Ric spoke again. "How's Roman doin'? I haven't seen him in ages! Bet he's still putin' in the work on the gridiron, huh? Haha!"

Charlotte chuckled dryly. "Uh, Roman and I broke up, dad. He's doing really well though. I think he's leading the division in tackles or something like that."

"Oh… then you're single now? Better get you another football player. Maybe that Dean kid. He's crazy, but you could use a little crazy."

Charlotte heard voices from the hallway grow, then muffle followed by keys landing on her kitchen island.

Charlotte felt a little wave of joy wash over her at the thought of Becky returning from the cafe. "Actually, dad, I'm dating someone else. I think Nora showed you a few pictures."

"I don't remember seeing no pictures with you and a boy…"

Charlotte sighed. What were the odds that Ric would disown her for dating a girl? Little to none, right? After all, did he have any place to hold bitter judgment against her after all the shit he put the family through in just the last few months, forget about the last twenty years? Perhaps not, but Charlotte still felt herself dreading what Ric would say about her and the girl in the other room.

She chuckled nervously. "Uh, no. Me and the girl with orange hair? That's Becky…"

Ric sputtered a laugh. "That's yours? Oh, hell, you are my daughter! How'd you pull that off? Wait, I know, you're a Flair! Wooo!"

Charlotte laughed. For once in her life, she laughed at her dad's outlandish personality. She just dropped what to some may have been a life-altering announcement. Not for Ric though. Hearing that his daughter was with another woman was probably the least of his worries at this point in his life.

"Yeah, we've been together for about a month," Charlotte told her father, her face lighting up when the topic of discussion shuffled into the room with a disposable paper cup of tea in each hand. "She's really sweet. I think we'll visit you and mom for Thanksgiving this year so you can meet her."

Charlotte checked Becky's expression for her take. Her brow was pressed together in question, but her eyes were soft and sparkling in the dim sunlight.

"Thanksgivin'? That sounds incredible, Charlotte..."

Ric chuckled his old man chuckle again, loving the sound of his youngest daughter enjoying her tenure at college despite his actions.

"...how are ya on food? Do you need money or anythin'?"

"No, I'm still alright, dad," Charlotte hadn't called her father by his first name yet, which must've been the first time that happened in years.

He was always 'Ric' or 'Richard' just to get under his skin out of spite for whatever he'd done to upset her. Not anymore though. Hearing her old man happy that he was a free man didn't warrant any anger.

"Alrighty. I won't push nothin'. Just wanted to check on you, baby girl. I've missed ya a lot. Tell Becky I said hi. We'll set an extra spot for her for Thanksgivin'. Love ya, kid."

Charlotte repeated back Ric's departing words without a second thought. She wanted to speak more to her father but figured he was in a rush to call a whole list of people now that he wasn't restricted from coming in contact with anyone.

They hadn't talked about the trial and Charlotte was thankful for that. She didn't care what happened and for what reason at the moment. Ric was going to be ok and that's all that mattered.

"Was that Ric?" Becky asked.

Charlotte nodded. "Yeah. He was calling to check up. Told him I broke up with Roman and I'm dating you now."

Becky draped her arms around Charlotte's waist, pulling her in close to her person.

"I 'eard. What's t'e occasion?" Becky asked.

"He was acquitted yesterday," Charlotte told.

Becky's eyes shot open. "What?"

Charlotte showered Becky with several kisses. "I know. I'm sorry I forgot to tell you. I just really needed a drink and didn't want to think about it. Please don't be mad at me. I know I should've said something."

Becky grinned. "Mad? No, ma'am. That's great! I'm glad fer 'im. Now you don' need ta be mopin' in 'ere all t'e time."

Charlotte dropped her head. "Yeah, that's true. I doubt the paparazzi will leave me alone right away, but they'll get bored in a week or two. I really want to go work out now."

"After breakfast?" Becky handed one cup to Charlotte. "Got yer favorite. Almost lost me mind after t'at picture sent me tongue to Helsinki."

Charlotte smirked. "And did you like it?"

Becky nodded. "I do enjoy a bit of teasin' with me tea."

Charlotte and Becky exchanged another kiss. Becky cupped a quick feel and a playful squeeze on Charlotte's ass with her free hand, making the taller blonde yelp in surprise and kiss Becky's lips once more.

House ZBZ was gearing up for the festivities later in the day. The sisters spent Thursday morning decorating the inside and outside of their campus home with decor dedicated for the upcoming October holiday.

Alexa's favorite holiday was always going to be Christmas. But that didn't stop her from gushing with ideas about how her sorority should dress up for Halloween. Maybe it was an interior love for decoration planning that had been secretly harboring in Alexa since she was little and only appeared during appropriate holidays. Halloween, Christmas, St. Patrick's Day. She might've thrown a couple of streamers around Dean's apartment for Boxing Day if she, one, knew what the proper color scheme was and two, knew what that holiday was even about.

Bliss watched a few ZBZ pledges drape faux cobwebs around the awning, banisters, and support columns all along the front of the house. She would've done it herself but she came up short even with the help of a ladder.

"Perfect. Everything looks perfect," Alexa told herself, mostly to calm her nerves surrounding the upcoming party.

AJ and Nikki were at Alexa's side too. For her pledge process, instead of having to decorate or clean the house, Nikki was instructed to follow Alexa around with a Tupperware full of snickerdoodle so the ZBZ president could anxiously eat a cookie whenever she felt she needed one.

On the other hand, AJ kept a close eye on the newest little person with dark hair. Alexa had taken this new girl under her wing, but AJ saw something else in Nikki's eyes whenever Alexa paid her a compliment or swooned over her stupid snickerdoodles. To be fair, the treats were to kill for and AJ helped herself to a few. But that didn't mean that AJ felt a little twinge of skepticism question as to Nikki's true motives.

Alexa wasn't aware of Nikki's admiration or AJ's narrowed stare. She just wanted everything to go well tonight for BPO and, most importantly, Dean. She had no idea what the overall plan was regarding the capacity limitations and curfew, but she had faith in Dean and BPO.

As for AJ, except for watching Nikki closely, she was feeling her best self since coming back from rehab. She woke up that morning cuddled under Dana's arm, her face practically buried in her chest. Even Brian, who woke up before the other two, was as sweet in the morning as anytime else. AJ joked that he didn't have any room to be grumpy in the morning when he had two "smoke shows" sleeping beside him.

For maybe the first morning in a long time, AJ didn't think about Seth or what his stupid girlfriend accused her of or what she was going to do about her enrollment with SU. She had Dana back and that filled a part of her heart that had been hollow for some time; She also had Brian's morning wood probing her in the back of her thigh, but Dana offered to take care of it while AJ showered and headed over to ZBZ early to help with set-up.

"Where did you say you were last night?" Alexa was listening to AJ's story, but her focus kept coming back to ZBZ's outward appearance.

AJ beamed a smile. "I spent the night with Dana and our boyfriend."

Alexa laughed at first, thinking AJ was just messing with her. When she saw that her equally tiny best friend was completely serious, Alexa paused her laughter and raised her brow.

"Oh wow!" Alexa was shocked, to say the least. AJ had a history of not being very willing to share, yet here she was apparently 'sharing' her ex.

AJ nodded proudly. "Yep. I get my baby back and she can snap into me like a SlimJim whenever she wants. Life is good, Lexi. You should bring in a third for you and Dean. I bet lover boy would like that."

Alexa laughed, finding the thought utterly ridiculous. "Yeah, no. He's enough for me and I know he would never want to. Besides, I've done enough of that for now. Remember?"

AJ snickered, nodding as she briefly thought about their time in Mexico. At that moment, she caught Nikki rolling her eyes and sulking into her container of cookies.

"Good," AJ thought. "Maybe she gets the fucking picture now. I'm the only sexy midget allowed to simp over Alexa."

"Do you think that'll work?" Alexa asked her best friend, snapping AJ out of her trance. "You, Dana, and her- I mean, your boyfriend? That works ok?"

AJ shrugged. "So far, so good. I haven't had to jerk his 'meat mallet' yet so it'll be somethin' when I eventually do. Dana said I'd have to so Brian won't get jealous. So… yeah, sister."

Alexa tutted her tongue, rocking her head to one shoulder. "I'm just glad you're happy. You were pretty quiet at the lakehouse."

AJ swallowed hard. "Yeah, but ya know. I wasn't drowning in pussy like I was the year before."

Nikki sputtered a laugh. Alexa flashed the pledge a smile and plucked another treat from the container. AJ shot Nikki a dirty look, which hadn't gone unnoticed by the pledge, but neither girl said anything further.

"This better fucking work" was all Dean Ambrose had to say about BPO's plan to host their Halloween party without getting lynched by Student Affairs.

The entire morning, BPO pledges and members decorated the basement for the upcoming party. Along with the fake spiderwebs, fake bats, and other decorations, Kevin made the genius call of putting soundproof padding along the walls and ceiling to try and muffle as much sound as humanly possible. Would it work? Only time would tell, but BPO was willing to try anything at this point.

Dean, Kevin, Sami, Seth, Toni, and Axel stood around the basement door. Harper and Anderson opted to stay downstairs to test the sound system for any leaks that needed to be fixed by later that night. So far, no one was able to hear anything from the main floor.

"Have they started playing?" Axel asked.

Kevin shook his head irritably. He threw open the basement door, ready to scream his head off at his brothers. The sudden blast of rock music nearly knocked Kevin off his feet. The others surrounding him covered their ears to save themselves from the loud music suddenly pouring into the main level of the house.

The music cut off. Luke Harper and Karl Anderson shuffled up the steps, both rubbing their ears.

"Did it sound ok?" Kevin asked.

"WHAT?" Karl yelled out, rubbing his ears.

Kevin shook his head. "Ok, so that's one pain in the ass sorted." He turned to the others. "So we can have more people in the basement, but someone has to watch the door so people don't keep coming in and out. Otis and Tucker can be on police watch."

"What about up here?" Dean asked.

"Keep it limited to a couple of people," Kevin explained. "If they want to drink and chill out, come up here. The costume contest and music will be in the basement. Let's just hope Laurin-fuckface doesn't come into the house because this door is the only thing keeping the sound out. He walks in while someone is coming in or out and we're fucked."

"WE SHOULD BE GOOD TO GO!" Karl shouted.

Kevin dismissed himself and Sami, then ducked into the chapter room and shut the door.

Dean turned to his friends, trying to keep his balance on his crutches.

"Should be good, right?" He asked. It did seem foolproof; Dean just hoped Laurinaitis didn't decide to check the basement if he visited them that night.

Seth shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think anything will happen. Maybe Laurinaitis walks by or sends that Max jerk, but there's no way this gets fucked up."

Dean nodded. Laurinaitis and Max were a pain in the ass, but it wasn't likely that they were going to be up the entire night just to catch a Greek house violating their new rules. The only real concern Dean had was police and the silence Alpha Kappa had been in the last few weeks. It was a surprise that Barrett hadn't been running his mouth trying to bait a "strike" out of BPO, but maybe the AK President had let bygones be bygones.

But Dean knew better than to assume people were keen to change in a short amount of time.

The perfect scene had been set for the ass-kicking of biblical proportions. Roman Reigns was making breakfast for an attractive young woman that wasn't his girlfriend. Scandalous? Or was Roman just a good-hearted young man?

Good-hearted, obviously. Roman hadn't had a malicious thought in his mind when he woke up in the middle of the night after falling asleep on the couch watching a movie, and noticed that Sasha had too fallen asleep. Instead of waking his friend and telling her to head home, Roman let her stay asleep and fetched a spare blanket and pillow for her.

Now the following morning, Roman scooped scrambled eggs and crispy bacon onto Sasha's plate. Through tired eyes and a sleepy grin, Sasha thanked her Samoan chef for his hospitality. Roman casually mentioned it was no big deal and fixed himself a serving.

"Where's Tessa today?" Sasha asked, sipping on a glass of orange juice.

Roman shook his head. "I don't know. I haven't heard from her since last night. Guess she got held up at a study group or something."

Sasha shrugged her shoulders. She didn't want to push Roman's problems off like they didn't matter, but his home cooking was her main focus at the moment and required her full attention.

"These are great, Ro," Banks commented with a nod. "Thanks for letting me crash here last night. I totally didn't mean to."

"Like I said, no big deal. Just let me pick the movie next time so no one falls asleep."

Sasha cocked an eyebrow, prompting a sarcastic smirk from Reigns. Sasha scoffed lightly and licked her lips.

"Figured a football player could handle a Marvel movie better than he can handle COD," she shot back with a chuckle.

"Oh-kay," Roman shook his head as Sasha broke out laughing. "You got lucky a few times."

"Did I?" Sasha challenged. She caught herself tracking her eyes over Roman's frame a few ticks. It didn't hurt to check one of her friends out, right? Besides, Roman was a gem to look at.

"More than a few," Roman continued with a grin. "I refuse to count the games where we played RPG tag for ten minutes."

"That was the best part, Ro," Sasha chuckled.

Just as Sasha went in for another bite of her eggs, Tessa made her long-awaited re-appreance at the apartment. Judging by her expression once she noticed Sasha, it could be assumed that Tessa wasn't thrilled to see her.

"Hey, there you are," Roman pecked his girlfriend on her cheek as one armed snaked around her frame. "We were just talking about you."

Tessa offered a tight-lipped smile. "Sorry. I was up late with a study group. Couldn't keep my eyes open. Almost fell asleep at the library."

The three shared a laugh, but Sasha's faded out when she caught another side-eye glare from Tessa. Before she had time to dwell on the aparent issue, Tessa asked to speak to Roman privately and the two headed for his bedroom.

Sasha's previous interactions with Tessa were few and far in-between. Today most likely was the first time Sasha had the chance to speak to Roman's new girlfriend, so to see that Tessa apparently already had an issue with her was strange.

"I'm not stealing your man. I'm just eating eggs, jeez," Sasha thought to herself. The last thing she needed was Roman's girl thinking she had some ridiculous motive.

To Sasha's left, Tessa's phone lay face up with the screen unlocked. There was a video in the middle of playing left on pause from Tessa's photo gallery.

Sasha isn't one to poke around in other people's business, but she couldn't help but look over to get a better view at what was happening in the video. From her viewpoint, it looked like a snake shedding its skin. Sasha didn't take Tessa for one who was into reptilian habits.

Sasha tapped the play button on the video. The sudden stomach-churning sounds of gagging and slurping filled the room as Sasha realized the "snake" in the video was Roman's precious organ and Tessa was doing what girlfriends did for their boyfriends.

Sasha locked the screen and pushed the phone away. If she had any attraction to Roman, which she didn't, it was gone now for sure.

For maybe the first time since they started exclusively seeing each other, Seth and Toni had a moment along together at House BPO. Both had been helping with decoration and other preperations for the part later in the evening, when Seth noticed that he and Toni were the only ones currently on the second floor.

Seth fed his fingers between Toni's, and the blonde kiwi thought for a moment that he was going to risk blowing their cover with a quickie. But Seth resisted getting Toni undressed, at least for the moment.

"Is now the best time?" Toni could hear other BPO brothers walking around the house. One misplaced sound and they were as good as fucked. BPO wouldn't have a reason to give a shit that Seth was with Toni, but the many football players belonging to the organization would definitely have a word or two to say about the relationship.

Seth chuckled. "Not here, babe. The team would skin me alive. I wanted to talk to you about tonight."

Toni nodded, already having an idea about what they needed to do. Despite their relationship taking a new step after their mutual declarations of love the day prior, they needed to play the part and pretend like they weren't a couple. Toni wished they didn't have to, but she wasn't going to waste years of hard work just because she felt a few rules were unfair.

Seth continued. "I'm not going to ignore you or anything. We just have to act like we're good friends, ya know? I mean we are, but…"

"No slow dancin' or kissin'?" Toni quipped with a smirk.

Seth snickered. "I wish. You're the first girlfriend I've had that I actually want to show off all the time."

"Ah, again with the fluff shite."

"I'm serious…"

Seth scratched the stubble around his jaw. Obviously ZBZ was going to attend this party, which meant AJ Lee was most likely going to appear. Seth had no intention of going near the woman to avoid conflict, but he wasn't sure how Toni was going to act around her, especially while she was drinking.

"But AJ," said Seth, speaking softly to not come off accusatory. "I don't want you to fight with her tonight. With Laruinaitis and that other guy poking around-"

"Seth," Toni cut her boyfriend off, setting a soft hand on his elbow. "I'll behave. Just as long as that little shit keeps her distance."

Seth nodded. "She will. I know she's obsessed or whatever, but I know she won't fuck with us. You made sure of that."

"Oh did I?" giggled Toni, stepping into her boyfriend for a quick kiss. "Fucking A right I did," she thought to herself, briefly picturing herself smashing the tiny woman upside the head with a bottle of liquor.

AJ was starting to push her obsession with Seth aside, but not because of Toni's threats or the painstaking endless heartache she felt at the hands of the boy she loved dearly.

No, the key to AJ's freedom was in the hands of Dana Brooke. The last few days were a whirlwind of feelings and emotions she didn't want to experience one after the other in a matter of hours. But the gentle stare and loving grace of her ex-new new girlfriend made these terrible waves of stupid feelings less stressful.

Maybe she would've gotten over Seth in due time. Perhaps her tour with Punk would help her forget why she was determined to ruin her own life for some asshole idiot from Tampa. What she didn't expect was Dana's proposal for a three-way relationship with a walking, breathing section of the Rockies rounding off the trio. Unexpected, of course, but so far AJ had no reason to complain.

Body and brain numbing euphoria accompanied by soft gasps and high-pitched squeals and giggles hadn't been heard by the walls inside AJ's apartment in a number of months.

AJ herself couldn't shake the feeling back into her feet, but she didn't care. She stared at her living room ceiling, the t-shirt bunching up her back making her skin stick to the couch. Dana was somewhere under the afghan blanket draped over AJ's lower-half. For all AJ could know, the fucking Pope could be making the shape beneath the blanket, but she knew too better than to think those lips and that tongue belonged to anyone but her Dana.

They stopped by AJ's apartment to figure out lunch after a long morning of decorating and delegating with ZBZ. AJ kicked off her shoes, plopped back-first onto the couch, and pulled her phone out fully intending to order lunch.

But Dana unbuttoned AJ's jeans and turned them inside-out without so much as a squeak of protest from her girlfriend.

Dana's bleach-blonde head of hair poked out from underneath the blanket. AJ's wide-eyed stare triggered a laughing fit from Dana, prompting AJ to blink and realize she hadn't said a word since Dana went down on her.

"Holy sweet penguin fuck, Dana!" AJ gasped with labored breathes.

Dana planted a kiss below AJ's naval. "Just wanted you to know how much I love you, baby."

Dana excused herself to use the restroom. AJ sat up, keeping her privates covered with the afghan, deciding she had no real reason to get dressed just in case Dana decided they weren't done yet.

AJ's phone buzzed. Suddenly remembering she hadn't put in a food order yet, AJ swiped away the empty text message in favor of UberEats and her desired sushi place.

"Baby!" AJ called out, pausing a moment to giggle at how good it felt to call Dana her 'baby' again. "I'm ordering sushi! What kind do you want?"

"Um, dragon roll and shrimp tempura, pretty please!" Dana yelled back.

AJ hummed to herself as she punched in the order. After receiving a text confirming the request had been sent, AJ opened the text she received a minute before. It was an unknown number; The message was a video without a preview.

AJ shrugged her shoulders and hit play.

"Oh, Roman, fuck!"

"You like that you fucking whore?"

"WHOA!" AJ flung her phone across the couch. She expected a meme or any number of 'shock' videos, but to hear sweet Roman Reigns screaming vulgarities while he angrily fucked some brunette was the last thing AJ expected.

Dana shuffled from the bathroom, her phone balacing in her fingertips. "Um, AJ I just got the weirdest text…"

AJ stared off into the distance with wide eyes. "Was it Row-row-row-your-boat pounding some poor woman?"

"Uh… yeah, how did you know?"

AJ chuckled dryly. "Uh, because I just got the same text. And I don't think I can look at Roman the same."