Roman heard Seth cry as soon as he unlocked the locker room and stepped inside. He dropped his bag on the floor and pulled Seth into his arms.

"I'm sorry," Seth sobbed.
"It's okay. Let it all out," Roman said.
"Maybe if she had her phone on her, she would call. Maybe she's stuck somewhere and needs help," Seth said.
"You can't think like that," Roman said.
"She would never have left without her phone," Seth said.
"I know," Roman said.

Roman held Seth for almost an entire minute before Seth finally sniffled and let go of his older friend. Roman knew how much Seth was hurting. It had been an entire month without any sign of life from Aster. No one knew where she was. Seth was going out of his mind, and all Roman could do was be there for his friend.

"They've started talking about her as if she's dead," Seth said.
"I'm sorry," Roman said.
"She's not fucking dead!" Seth growled. "I know it, Roman. I just fucking know it. I can feel it in my heart. Aster is not dead!"
"I believe you," Roman said.

Seth sat down and ran his hands down his face.

"She's not dead," he said lowly.

Roman was not going to argue with Seth on that. And somewhere he felt it too. Aster wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead. He refused to allow her to be dead in his mind. She would return one day and be reunited with Seth. He had to keep up hope along with Seth. Anything else would hurt too much.

"Wanna fight Randy tonight?" Roman asked.
"I fucking hate him," Seth said.
"I've never seen you try to hurt anyone the way you did last night. He barely escaped. I kinda wanna see you continue that," Roman smirked.

Seth cracked the smallest of smiles. It did feel good hurting Randy. He had taken all the hurt and anger inside him and placed it on Randy. He wanted to keep doing that. Show the world how much he was hurting by pulling people apart one by one. Maybe Aster was out there watching, seeing the pain he was carrying around.

"It's your match," Seth said.
"They don't care who steps into the ring as long as someone does," Roman said. "I could use a night to sit back and commentate on your ass instead."
"Alright, I'm in. Let me break some bones tonight," Seth said.
"That's the spirit," Roman grinned.


She couldn't take her eyes off the screen. Seth was beating Randy's ass like crazy. It was mesmerizing to watch. For some reason she couldn't help but smile at the sight. The match ended with Seth stomping Randy's head into the mat. Seeing that suddenly made her hear him say a sentence inside her head the same way she had heard Roman's voice.

"She will never be yours!"

It felt like an invisible force was pulling on her heart. It hurt like nothing had ever hurt before. She got up from the chair and stumbled out to the bathroom. She fell to her knees in front of the toilet and vomited. She heard the locker room door being unlocked but she couldn't pick herself up from the floor. Randy appeared seconds later and looked concerned. He dropped down next to her and pulled her into his arms.

"What's going on? Are you sick?" He asked.
"I don't feel so good," she said.
"No shit," he chuckled. "You puked your guts out by the looks of it."

He flushed the toilet to get her vomit flushed out.

"What happened?" He asked.
"I don't know. Maybe food poisoning," she lied.
"You feel warm," he said.
"I wanna go home," she said.
"Of course. Let me grab our stuff and we can leave," he said.
"Is it okay if I sleep on the couch tonight?" She asked.

She could see in his face that it wasn't okay but that he wasn't sure if she should pick this battle or not.

"It's closer to the bathroom," she said. "I don't wanna throw up all over you tonight. You're too cute for that."

Hearing her call him cute made him smile.

"Couch it is," he said. "Hopefully it's just a one day thing and you'll feel better tomorrow."
"Hopefully," she agreed. "Thank you, Randy."