Saturday: September 22, 2007 4:13 PM

Chris smiles at me as I was changing different clothes for my brother's birthday. "Damn, you've got an amazing body."

I smile at Chris. "Thanks. All that sports entertaining has done me wonders."

"I don't think WWE could've done all of that to your body. You look amazing, Marissa."

I finished changing clothes. "And you're so handsome, Chris."

Chris pulls me to him. "Man, my girlfriend is so sexy."

I smile. "So are you, Chris."

Chris leans in and kisses me. "I'm excited to meet your brothers at this party, but I may be even more excited for after the party."

I kiss him back. "We have to go to the birthday party first."

"I know. I'm just so happy that we've been able to spend so many days together this week."

"Me too, but we'll get more of this in November. You and I will be travelling together all the time. We're going to both be on the same roster. It'll be amazing."

"Amazing doesn't do it justice. It'll be paradise."

I smile and pull out of the kiss. "I love the sound of that."

"We need to get going, don't we?"

"Yeah, we have thirty minutes until the birthday party starts, and his house is twenty minutes away if there's light traffic. We should get going."

Chris smiles at me. "Let's head out then. Did you get your brother's birthday present?"

"Shit! I almost forgot. Give me a second to go grab it and then we can leave."

Chris chuckles. "Okay, Rissa."

I run into my bedroom real quick to grab the present and make my way back to Chris. "We should be all good now."

"Okay, let's head out then. Don't forget to lock the apartment door."

We exit my apartment, and I lock the door to the apartment. Chris and I get on the elevator to head downstairs.

"So how big do you think this birthday party is going to be?" Chris asks me as he holds my hand.

"Not huge. I'd say twenty to thirty people maximum." I answer.

"That's not bad at all."

I pull my car into my brother's driveway. "From the looks of it, it seems like everyone is here for the most part."

Chris smiled as I parked my car. "This is exciting."

I nod as I spot Randy's Hummer parked nearby. "Yeah, it is."

"He's twenty-seven, right?"

"Yes, he is twenty-seven."

"How old is your younger brother again?"

"Twenty-one."

"Okay, just trying to keep things straight here."

"Are you nervous?" I ask with a small smile.

"Yeah, a little bit. It's your family. I want to leave a good impression on them. I want them to like me."

I grab his hand. "Chris, it means a lot to me that you want to make a good impression, but I don't think you have much to worry about."

"I hope not."

"My older brother may be a little overprotective at times, but I'm sure things will be fine."

"Are you sure that Randy didn't get in his ear about me?"

I sigh. "Honestly, I don't know what Randy has said about you. I asked Tyler to look past whatever he said. I'm his sister. He trusts my judgment."

Chris nodded. "Okay. We should probably get inside."

"Yeah, we should."

Chris and I exit the car. I grab the present to take inside before locking the car. Chris puts an arm around me as we walk inside. I immediately locked eyes with Randy, who was talking to Tyler at the moment. I look at Chris before tensing up. He keeps his grip on me as Randy excuses himself from talking to Tyler and walks past us in the opposite direction. I feel Chris tense up. I squeeze Chris's shoulder.

Tyler walked over and pulled me into a hug. "Hey, brat. Long time no see."

I laugh. "I saw you two weeks ago. Happy birthday."

"Thanks."

"Anyway, Chris, this is Tyler. Tyler, this is Chris…my boyfriend."

Tyler let me go and looked at Chris. "Nice to meet you finally. How long have you known my sister?"

"Nice to meet you too, Tyler. I've known your sister since 2004, pretty early on in her time in WWE. We just didn't always get along. Things are a lot different now." Chris answers.

"I see. And how long have you two been dating exactly?"

"We've been dating since about the end of May, so it's been about four months now."

"Okay, Rissa, why don't you go find Colby and put your present with the others? Let me and Chris talk alone for a few minutes."

"Uh…are you sure?" I say quietly as I glance at Chris.

Chris smiles at me. "It's fine, babe."

"Okay then. I'll go find Colby."

I walk past Tyler and Chris and start looking for Colby. I spot Colby by a pile of presents and approach him.

Colby takes the present from me. "Hey, where's the boyfriend?"

I roll my eyes. "Tyler wanted to talk to him alone."

"Oh, I see. I actually did want to have a small talk with you alone. Should we do that while they're still talking?"

I nod. "Sure. Let's go."

Colby guides me into the guest room, which used to be my bedroom when I lived here when I was younger, and closed the door behind us.

I give Colby a serious look. "What's going on?"

"How bad is this issue between Chris and Randy really?" Colby asks me.

I sigh as I sit down on the bed. "Admittedly, I'm not fully sure of all the details myself. They've never liked each other as far as I know."

"Never ever?"

"My first time backstage at a WWE show, back when I was in the Diva Search, Randy warned me that Chris was an obnoxious ass. Chris ran into me when I was with Randy that night and told me that I shouldn't hang out with Randy. I've witnessed a good amount of arguments between the two. These issues have to be deep rooted. Randy never talked about the origins of the issues when we were still friends. Chris hasn't talked about them since we've been friends, let alone at all since we've been dating."

Colby sighs. "If only you knew the root of the issues, then it'd be a lot easier to handle the situation."

"I wish I knew."

"You and Randy never talked about your issue, did you?"

"We did a little bit the night of SummerSlam, but there were no apologies over it. It was just him making it clear that he understands why I am upset with him over it."

"I think he downplayed how bad his issues with Chris are. Randy said that it wasn't anything too bad, but he's also been making snide comments about Chris in front of Tyler a lot."

"Like what?"

"How he's always full of himself, he isn't a good guy, he's got a reputation for sleeping around. Stuff like that."

I roll my eyes. "Like Randy is any better."

"I think he's jealous."

"Jealous? Why would he be jealous? Randy and I were never anything but friends."

"I'm not saying he's jealous like an ex boyfriend, but you two used to do so much together. Maybe Randy is jealous that you spend time with Chris instead of him now."

I shake my head. "That's a possibility."

"It's a shame you two couldn't work things out. You two always seemed so happy hanging out together."

"Well, I don't think things are changing anytime. The only way I'll probably be able to work on things with Randy is if he and Chris were able to get past their issues."

"Yeah, it doesn't seem like that is going to happen."

"I wish it could happen, but I think it's impossible."

Randy's POV

I stood by my car, smoking a cigarette as I stared at Tyler's house. Tyler was one of my best friends, and I didn't want to miss his birthday party. However, seeing Chris with Marissa on his arm made me sick. It was going to end horribly, and I knew that. I had tried to warn Tyler about Chris, but I wasn't so sure that he was listening to me. It was enough seeing Chris at work, but seeing him around people who I spent my time with at home was starting to get to be too much. I looked at my phone as I received a text.

Kenny: Tyler is opening cards and presents soon. You better get inside soon.

Me: I will. How'd his talk with Chris go?

I sigh as I stared at my phone, waiting for a response.

Kenny: Tyler still seems quite unsure about him. I don't know about him either. He hasn't even tried to talk to me, and I'm his girlfriend's cousin.

Me: Believe me, I'm not surprised.

I roll my eyes. This was drama just waiting to happen. I'm honestly starting to believe Chris was only dating Marissa to get to me. The sad thing is she hasn't noticed. There was no way that this was going to end well. I put my cigarette out and start to walk inside.

Chris was nearby when I entered the house. He looked at me and smirked.

"I bet this drives you crazy, Randal." Chris comments. "Not only do you have to see me with the woman who you still have feelings for, but now I'm around her family and multiple people that you grew up around. It must make you so angry. I bet you want to explode over this with all the anger building up. Don't you?"

I get in Chris's face. "Let me make something clear, Christopher. I know that I can't do anything about you being Marissa's boyfriend. I know that I can't help the fact that you are around her family because of that. Here's the thing though, I've been around longer than you, and I'll still be around this family when you're not. I will be around after Marissa is not with you anymore. I will be around when she will need a shoulder to cry on. I'm certain that if you weren't around right now, that Marissa and I would have actually been able to talk and work things out."

"Don't you go blaming your issues with her on me. She doesn't like you, plain and simple. The only person at fault for that is you."

"I know it started because of me, but you swooped in when she was vulnerable to weasel your way into being close to her. Then, you stir up trouble when it comes to me every time you get the chance."

"Your jealousy is really starting to show, Orton. It's not a good look for you."

"I'm not jealous. I just know that Marissa could do much better than you. One day, she's going to wake up and realize that."

"How about you do everyone a favor and stay out of my business?!" Chris shoves me.

"Did you just put your hands on me?! You better watch yourself, Jericho!" I glare at Chris.

Chris and I are about to start hitting each other. We're both watching each other, waiting for the other to strike. I know that numerous people at the party are watching.

Marissa shoves her way between us. "Are you two crazy? Can't you two try to be civil? Knock it off. Now."

Chris's eyes soften as he looks at Marissa. I scoff before walking outside to my car to get away for a little bit.

Marissa's POV

I drove towards my apartment without a word. All Chris and Randy needed to do was get along for one night, and they couldn't do it. I was angry with both of them. Things were so tense that I had to take Chris back to my apartment. I didn't even get to stay for my brother to open presents.

Admittedly, it was for the best. Chris had shoved Randy, and while Randy had been involved in the situation, he hadn't put his hands on Chris, which meant this was going to reflect badly on Chris instead of Randy. It reflecting badly on Chris was going to likely backfire on me. I wasn't happy about any of this.

Chris placed his hand on my lap. "Babe…"

"This isn't okay, Chris." I say as I continue to drive. "I asked you to be decent to Randy for one night, Chris. Hell, you didn't even have to talk to him. I just needed you to not fight with him."

"Randy is at fault for this too, Rissa. Don't just blame me."

"Trust me, I'm not just blaming you, but you put your hands on him. He didn't touch you. You were just supposed to worry about meeting my family and not fight with Randy, so excuse me for being a bit pissed off at you." I take the key for my apartment off of my key ring and hand it to him. "I'll be back in a couple hours."

"Where are you going?"

I park the car. "I don't get to see my brothers very much, especially my younger brother. I'm going to spend a couple hours with them."

Randy's POV

I looked at Tyler as we stood in the kitchen as the party was starting to clear out. "I'm sorry about earlier. Thanks for not kicking me out."

Tyler gave me a serious look. "Listen, I'm not happy about what happened. Not one bit. I probably should've listened to Marissa about your issues with Chris."

"Maybe they're a bit more serious than I said. I let this get out of control."

"I'm not done. I should've listened to Marissa about your issues with Chris, but I also should've listened to you about how Chris is as a person."

"You don't like him?"

"I don't. He's stuck up. He's a jackass. He was looking at my baby sister like she was a piece of meat. He put his hands on my best friend in the middle of my birthday party."

"He was taunting me about dating her. That's what started it."

Tyler shook his head. "That doesn't even surprise me one bit. What's his deal anyway? Dating a woman who's damn near twelve years younger than him. She's only twenty-five. That's damn near half her life younger than him."

I shrug. "It's weird."

"I knew she was likely going to date a wrestler at some point, but this ain't cool. Damn, I had a lot of hope it would be you until the RKO Incident."

"You had a lot of hope I would date your baby sister?"

"Don't act so clueless, Randal. I know you have feelings for Marissa. I've known for a while actually."

I raise an eyebrow. "What?"

"You always had this certain look when looking at a girl you were interested in when we were in high school. I noticed you giving her that same look. You guys were travelling together all the time. After she joined WWE, you two were closer than ever. You've been giving her that look since you broke up with Stacy pretty much. That's how I knew when you explained everything with the RKO Incident to me, that you were being honest with me. You have feelings for her. Chris taunts you because he sees it too. I really wished that incident hadn't happened because you could've been dating her right now."

"I didn't know you wanted me to date her. I don't think I would've had a chance though."

"If she was going to date a wrestler, you would be my first choice. I know you and trust you. You say that you wouldn't have a chance, but you guys were close. She adored you. Plus, she was always happy when she was with you. That happiness isn't there with Chris. I don't like him. I'll tell her that, but she probably won't dump him over that."

"Any chance I would've had with her is long gone." I sigh. "I'm going to head out. See ya around."

"Bye, Randy. Drive carefully."

I head towards the front door as I see Marissa walking in. I take a deep breath as I look at her.

"Marissa." I mutter.

Marissa looks at me. "I'm not having a conversation with you right now."

Marissa's POV

I watched Randy pass me as he exited the house. I couldn't talk to him right now as I knew I'd blow up on him. I sigh before walking into the kitchen to find Tyler.

He handed me a plate with a piece of cake. "I saved you a piece."

I take it from him. "How'd you know that I was going to come back?"

"I know my little sister."

"I'm sorry about everything earlier."

"I'm not mad at you, Rissa. You tried to warn me about their issues. I don't think I'm a big fan of Chris though."

"I knew this was going to happen."

"It's not just because of what happened between him and Randy. He seemed a bit stuck up to me, and I'm not a big fan of an almost twelve year age difference. You're twenty-five. He's about to be thirty-seven. It's weird."

"It sounds like Randy is getting your ear a bit when it comes to Chris."

Tyler sighs. "He's not."

"Well, I'm still dating him. You're going to have to respect that."