(Disclaimer: "Only One" belongs to Lifehouse, one of the best bands on the planet.)
02.
Benoit couldn't help it. He kept thinking about their meeting in the hall, and then the brief one through the doors. He knew he shouldn't think of her like that, but he had to keep coming back for more.
He had heard the rumors about her, but it was up to him whether to believe them. And after a few talks with her, he knew that he couldn't believe it if he wanted to.
But the thing he didn't understand at all was—Hunter. Hunter had this beautiful girl obeying his every command, and he treated her like garbage. What the hell was wrong with him?
Someday, Benoit thought bitterly, this is all going to come back and bite him in the ass. He had a way of knowing these things, and he knew that this was going to come to haunt him.
He tried to get his thoughts back to Trish. She was very pretty, and she was quite intelligent. She had told Benoit once that if she wasn't wrestling, she would have gone to medical school. Benoit had some of the best conversations with her.
She was open minded and tried to look at things from any perspective. She was also insightful; she knew what was going on. When with Benoit, she seemed headstrong and strong willed. But when Hunter came to retrieve her, she seemed weak and pitiful.
It was like she transformed. She was a plaything to Vince and Hunter, and seemed so fragile, to be handled with care. But they just tossed her around so she could easily break. They WANTED her to break.
// She's got a pretty smile
It covers up the poison
That she hides //
There was something about her that Benoit both loved and hated at the same time. She could put her best face forward for the world when she was slowly crumbling. Benoit admired it. She was able not to show her feelings. He also detested it. She was secretly screaming for help, but still remained helpless.
Benoit shook his head of these thoughts. When did he get so thoughtful? When did he start to care? It was a feeling to care for someone. Especially someone like Trish. And Benoit knew that Hunter could take him down, any day, but he feel superior when standing up for her.
Things were always so complicated. He remembered the first time he met Trish, two years ago…He should have known that there was something oddly different about her. A good different.
'Meet the newest addition to the WWF team, and the newest diva, Miss Trish Stratus,' Vince led the lost looking blonde into the team room. The staff clapped, but the women gave her hateful glares as if to say, 'you slut. Whore. Go back to where you came from.' As if to say, she wasn't welcomed.
Benoit stared at her. She looked intelligent. Intelligent enough to be a doctor or professor. Not a wrestler. But he could see why Vince had chose her.
She was beautiful. Long golden blonde hair that fell around her shoulders. A sculpted face, and a very nice figure.
"Hello," Benoit mouthed. Then he wanted to kick himself. A rabid wolverine never made the first move.
She waved delicately. Vince grabbed her hand. "Have a seat, Trish." She should have known that Vince was someone to keep both eyes out for.
After the meeting, Benoit came up to her. "Hey. I am Chris Benoit." He stuck out his hand.
She took it. "Trish Stratus."
"Stratus? Like the cloud?" Benoit asked.
Trish smiled. "Well, it's not my real name. My real name is Patricia Stratigus."
"Can I call you Trish?"
"Sure."
They clicked. He had warned her about Vince and Hunter. "What about them?" She asked him over coffee. "Well," Benoit said, "sleep with one eye open. They'll do just about anything to get a pretty girl like you in their grasp."
Too bad she didn't take that advice. Vince had told her if she wanted to keep her job, she'd listen to everything Hunter and himself had to say. 'If you were smart,' Vince told her, 'you'd do it. Because we can easily throw you on your slutty ass.'
After that, she changed. She was still bright and the same Trish, but she was always paler. She feared more things. Vince and Hunter corrupted her.
// She walks around in
Circles in my head
Waiting for a chance to break me //
Sometimes he wondered if Trish was in a secret pact with Vince, and she would turn on him any minute. But then he heard her sexy and sultry laugh, and her worries, and he knew that definitely wasn't the case.
He could spot her out from a crowd of millions of people. She always had on a long glossy hat, and a matching coat or long sweater to match. On other people, that would look horrible. On her, it fit.
"What the hell am I doing?" He whispered. "You're talking like you're falling for her," He scolded himself. As much as he didn't want to believe it, he knew it wasn't far from the truth.
He thought he knew more about her than he knew about himself. He knew her favorite color was pink, he knew her favorite food was pizza, and he knew that she had a weakness for soap operas.
If she was trying to break him down like Hunter wanted her to, she was doing a very good job by making him believe the opposite.
// A chance to take me down
Now I see, the burden that you gave me
Is too much to carry //
She planted something on him. She gave him the burden of being in love with her. Benoit didn't know if he could handle such a heavy task. It was too much for his heart. But he loved every thing about her. How her high heeled shoes would scrap the floor and make scuff marks. How she always fingered the rim of a coffee cup before taking a sip.
He knew she was different. She knew she was different. Now if only Vince and Hunter knew it.
It was the way she carried herself. It was different from the others. The way she entered the ring and did a match, it was different than the others. She could pull off stunts that no one else could do, in ring and out of the ring.
She was the only one.
// Too much to bury inside
I guess you're the only one
That nobody changes //
The only one that everyone left alone. The only one that people seemed to be afraid to touch; for fear they would mess her up. She was like a delicate china doll.
She was made of iron. When the world fall apart around her, there she was, standing tall. She took pride in that. She had once told Benoit:
"I have a way of being able to overcome things. Sometimes, it's the greatest thing. Other times, I wish that I let those obstacles get in my way."
He had still yet to understand what that meant, but it sounded so good in his ears. It was like something out of a book, something that every human being should live by. She said it was her personal quote.
// You're still the only one
Left standing
When everything else goes down //
And, she was still the only one.
