'It only took a minute,
To fall in love with you.' - It Only Took A Minute, Mandy Moore
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Chapter Nine
:
Obvious
Dawn slowly slunk up to her hotel room, the one that she was sharing with Jeff, as usual. A couple weeks had passed since her return, 10 days out of the 14 belonging to training. Training that often times deteriorated into nothing more than a tickle-fest. Edge and Christian, or rather Adam and Jason, would tickle her unmercifully while Jeff held her arms behind her. It was partially her fault though, for being such a quick learned and instantly picking up on their demonstrations.
She had convinced the boys to let them get her to do something… new. They often had her jumping high enough in the air just from off the mat to do a front-flip splash, pretty high jumping for a white girl. But what she had wanted was to do something like Chris' moonsault, only without the use of the second rope to get high enough. To put it simply, she wanted to be able to do a back-flip splash kind of move. It was quite simple actually, she could get high enough for it. Jay had to make sure that she wasn't going to snap her neck doing the move in case she didn't get high enough, he ended up flat on his face as he couldn't even perform the move. Adam tried next, ending up as Jay did. Jeff was next in line, actually getting high enough to do the back-flip, not quite high enough though. He ended up putting his arms down and then springing back to avoid ending up as the other two, but at least they knew she wouldn't break any bones without enough hang time. Of course, their was always the possibility of an accident, but without accident the move was sage.
Now all Dawn wanted to do was take a shower. She kicked the door to the room closed and tossed her shirt to the ground, followed by her pants and then her bra and her underwear as well, leaving a trail of clothes leading to the bathroom. Jeff would we back in a little while, so Dawn didn't even bother to close the door all the way. The second the hot water hit her body, she could feel her muscles relaxing. She hadn't even realized she was this sore as her arm strained just to pick up a bar of soap. I've got to get into better shape.
Ten minutes later she stepped out, wrapping one of the bath robes supplied by the hotel. When she opened the door, she saw Jeff, dangling her bra on his finger. Immediately she snatched it away and glared at him.
"What?" he asked innocently. "You actually bought that one, didn't you?"
"Darn right I did." Jeff snickered at her, throwing her black, glow-red flames bra out of his sight. She ushered him out into the other room so she could put on some clothes while he pretended to whine and pout.
"You act just like Stephanie, Jeff, I swear," Dawn huffed mockingly.
He acted as he were taken a back by that, but he did as he was told and flopped down on the couch in the other room. A couple minutes later Dawn came out, leaning lazily against the doorframe of the bedroom. Jeff's jaw dropped when he got a look at her. She was wearing some kind of see-through mesh robe, and her undergarments weren't doing much to cover her up either. A lacey black bra with eXtreme sewed in purple letters and a little bikini thong to match. If Jeff had been thinking straight, he would have told to her that her little temptation tease wasn't working, but with the thoughts going through his mind; the obvious sign of arousal in his pants made it very clear that he liked what he saw.
Dawn took that as a cue and did a slow little twirl for him. His eyes looked her up and down, from her pouty pink lips to her smooth white legs. She swayed her hips as she sauntered towards him until he pulled her down onto his lap for her to know just what she was doing to him.
It was wrong. Jeff knew it. Not only was it wrong, but immoral and rather illegal. But sometimes, love works in funny ways. The poet of the Hardy Boyz knew that, Jeff had even often written about that very subject. For now, though, he just rested her chin on her shoulder. He wouldn't take it as far as he had always imagined doing when he found the love that he'd always wanted in his life, not yet anyway. Instead, Jeff became Dawn's own personal pillow for the evening, falling asleep wrapped in his strong embrace.
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Amy huffed as she stalked back to Jeff and Dawn's room; she'd "borrowed" their room key from the front desk without permission, but neither of them were answering the door. She slipped the keycard through the slot lazily, plotting ice cubes stuffed down Jeff's bowers for making her go through all that trouble, but what are friends for anyway?
Plots of payback were put on hold, however, once she saw the two curled together on the couch. They looked so peaceful. It took her a moment to notice just what Dawn was wearing, how Jeff had his arm wrapped around her so protectively… they looked happy. Even though she should have been slightly discouraged knowing that Jeff was perhaps involved with someone so young, Amy found herself instead wanting to leave them to their privacy. She quietly backed out of the room, clicking the door shut softly with one thought on her mind: Don't let Matt find out, you two.
Dawn's head turned towards the door. She thought she'd heard it close shut, but there wasn't anyone around and Jeff was snoring under her. It was a good thing he didn't snore light a freight train, or else there would often be a pillow covering his head. Dawn smiled, Jeff looked cute when he slept. They had somehow gotten in a lying position during their sleep and Jeff's multi-colored hair was spread all around his face. His lips were parted slightly and she found herself kissing him gently.
"Morning," he mumbled.
"Good morning," she said overly cheerily. Jeff yawned widely with Dawn pretending to inspect his mouth for any signs of sickness, earning her a funny look.
"You seem a bit… odd this morning."
She nodded, mouthing three little letters that made Jeff understand her change in behavior very quickly. The phone was ringing behind them and Dawn giggled as she crawled over the phone to answer the phone.
"'Ello!" she greeted. There was a short pause as Jeff sat listening to her end of the conversation.
"Sure, breakfast sounds good. We'll be there in a few!" Dawn tossed the phone back in the receiver, turning to Jeff who already knew who was on the phone.
"Matt and Amy want us to join them for breakfast?"
"Yup. Now get ready, I told her we'd be there soon," she announced, still seeming to be in a very cheery mood as she bounced into the bedroom with a pair of clothes.
Fifteen minutes later they were in the local Ihop's across the street from the hotel, Matt waving them over. The food had just arrived, and it seems the two had taken the liberty of ordering for Jeff and Dawn. Neither of them complained as they took a seat in the booth and all began to fill their empty stomachs. There was soon a whole-hearted conversation going on at the table, the few people that were actually eating breakfast there so early glancing over at the loud laughter that was coming from their table.
Amy couldn't help but watch Jeff and Dawn after seeing them sleeping together like that in the hotel room. Just watching them laugh together, subtle touches, quick stolen glances that normally would have been considered a passing look between two friends. But now Amy got a deeper meaning from it, it seemed so obvious now. Matt's hand was covering her own and she smiled lightly at that as her attention once again turned to the odd pair sitting across from her.
She knew it was wrong, but Jeff knew it too. He wasn't an idiot after all, no matter what kind of risks he took in the ring. Amy could only hope that Matt didn't start looking as far into it as she was now. But he didn't notice anything that morning, from what Amy could see anyway.
Matt watched while Amy kept staring over at Jeff and Dawn. They looked like they were enjoying themselves, a little too much. Him and Amy had been like that before he got the courage to show her how he felt, he would recognize that anywhere. He told Jeff not to do anything stupid, apparently he hadn't listened. Maybe he wasn't sexually involved with her, since that was simply beyond stupidity, but he was starting, it seemed, to get romantically involved. And that was too close.
Breakfast was fun, filled with jokes and stories, tales of their lives and where they grew up. Dawn smiled, Jeff had wrapped his leg around her under the table, out of view. Matt and Amy were so unaware of what was going on between them, the emotion that was there. Dawn almost snickered at the thought, living a secret relationship is hardly what she planned, but the path of love is often full of obstacles.
When they got back to the hotel, Jeff had his arm wrapped around Dawn's shoulder, as Matt did Amy. One was supposed to look a friendly gesture, but somehow, they all knew that Jeff was just showing his affection openly and trying to pass it off as something with less meaning. Matt kissed Amy quickly on the cheek and sent her back to the room, however, he stayed.
"Hey Jeff, can I talk to you?" Jeff shrugged.
"Alone," Matt said, gesturing politely for Dawn to leave. She too shrugged and went on her way back to her and Jeff's shared room while Matt led his little brother to a partially secluded part of the lobby and sat them down.
"Whatcha' want, bro?" Jeff asked quizzically.
Matt really wasn't good at this sort of thing, but he had to be the brother, so pretend to know what I'm doing here.
"You and Dawn seem to be getting along well," Matt began, unsure of how else to start it.
"Yeah, she's probably the only person other than you that I can relate with in some way." Along with the fact that she's fun to be with, smart, beautiful, funny, talented, different…
"You like her a lot?"
"We're like best friends, Matt. Are you getting to a point?" Jeff knew his brother well, and he knew what was coming.
"Jeff, you know I've always looked out for you. I don't want you to get yourself into trouble. Dawn's too young. I know you're starting to get into a relationship with her, but don't," Matt practically blurted out.
The younger Hardy simply stared at his elder brother. His jaw was set, hands balled into fists so tight that his knuckles were turning white.
"You have no right to tell me who I can and can't be in a relationship with, Matt. Do you expect me t just say 'poof' and then all my feelings for her are gone? It's not that easy! You of all people should know that," Jeff shouted angrily. He loved his brother dearly, but he was an adult too, free to make his own decisions. Despite Matt being older, Jeff perhaps had just as much life experience. Just because he was the younger of the two didn't mean he had to play the younger brother role, but Matt seemed to be fine playing big brother. And that just made Jeff angrier. He quickly stalked off before Matt could get it another word, even though he could hear him yelling after him, Jeff wasn't listening. He refused to let his brother follow him as well, entering the open elevator and pressing the button for the doors to close quickly, leaving a stunned Matt behind the shut doors.
Dawn knew she should have gone back to the room and now she was really regretting staying and eavesdropping, no less. She slid back against the wall, banging her head back against the hard concrete. It touched her deeply to hear Jeff defend the relationship he had with her, but at the same time it was killing her. Jeff wasn't afraid to let anyone know it seemed, even Matt. And Matt was enraged, furious even. She couldn't help but feel as if she were driving these two brothers apart. They had always been close, she could tell just from looking at them and with her own relationship with Kyle, her brother, gone so wrong, Dawn didn't want theirs to end up that way.
There was also something else nagging at her. Would Matt keep this to himself? Or would he expose her and Matt? Dawn shuddered at her own thoughts. Matt wouldn't do that, would he? I know he wants to keep Jeff out of trouble, but doesn't he want him to be happy too? Maybe the two just didn't come in the same package. Dawn frowned. She had to take a lot of blame for this, they were fighting about her. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Her and Jeff were supposed to be happy despite keeping their relationship a secret, but now what?
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A/N – Sorry this chapter took so long to get up, everyone… I came down with a major case of Writer's Block! But I'm over it now. Don't worry! J
Teaser – Will Matt pull the cat out of the bag? Is Dawn going to do something about it? What about Jeff? Is Amy going to play a role in all this? Tune in to what should be the final chapter to find out…
