PART 2

"Trish, I don't see why you have to be so mean to her," Chris said, glancing across the locker room at the blonde woman.

Though the room was actually only shared by Jay and himself, Trish was pretty much a mainstay inside anyway. From her seat on the opposite side of the room, Trish's eyes widened, and she sent him a look of innocent shock.

"Chris, stop saying that! I'm *not* mean to Amy! In fact, I've been nothing but nice to her for the past God knows how many weeks! But you have to understand, I can only take so much sarcasm, and I'll only put up with so many of her dry remarks before I give up. She is the one pushing herself away, Chris, not the other way around," Trish defended herself, a semi-hurt look filling her dark brown eyes. She'd be lying if she said it didn't hurt when Chris, who was supposedly her best friend, accused her of such things.

"Look, she's going through a tough time. She was just pushed out of the storyline with us and she's not getting much TV time... you can't blame her for feeling a bit isolated," he replied.

"A little isolated is one thing..." Trish began, shaking her head. "She acts as though we totally betrayed her! The only one of us who she doesn't hate right now is you, which is ironic considering *you* are the one writing the storyline and *you* pulled her from the angle!"

Chris shook his head, but he wasn't quite sure why. It was true that he was the one responsible for her being removed from the storyline, but he hadn't meant to hurt her by doing so. He would *never* intentionally hurt Amy's feelings, not ever. In all honesty, he simply felt the angle would be received better by the audience as a love triangle as opposed to involving four people.

"Point is..." he said, ignoring Trish's last comments, "you and Jay haven't exactly been nice to Amy, and..."

"Bullshit we haven't," a third voice called, and both Trish and Chris shifted their heads in the direction of the sound. They watched as Jay emerged from the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind him and sending Chris a look of disbelief.

"I know I speak for Trish and myself when I say that we've tried. Time and time again, I've blown off the cocky stares, and I've bit my tongue when she made her sarcastic little comments. You can play her little game all you want, Chris, but I refuse."

Chris groaned, smacking his forehead.

"What game?! There is no game, Jay. Whether or not you see it, she feels left out. If you had any heart, you'd lay off her a little," he said.

"I've laid off her completely," Jay replied. "I haven't said so much as a word to her in about a week. But I'm not about to let her pull that sympathy bid and make me feel like an asshole when I've done nothing wrong."

From her chair, which was resting against the opposite wall by the door, Trish frowned. She gazed up at her to friends, hoping a fight would *not* be the result of the thick fog of tension which loomed over their heads. She sighed remorsefully, wondering what went wrong, what had snapped inside of Amy's head to make her want to throw perfectly good friendships out like yesterday's garbage.

It all seemed to happen so suddenly. One moment, the four of them were the best of friends and had a tremendous thing going, and the next, it was all over. To be honest, Amy's sudden seclusion hurt Trish more that she was willing to let show. While she was doing her best to press on and pretend that a thing such as this was only a passing matter, the fact was that it truly wrenched at her heart.

As the days passed, Trish began to get a sinking feeling that there was more to the issues Amy was having with them then it seemed. Judging by her words and actions over the past few weeks, Trish thought it safe to say that Amy felt a little more than betrayed. She didn't want to say it out of fear of sounding overly egotistical, but after the looks, the comments, and just her overall attitude as of late, it almost seemed as though the redhead was jealous of her. Not necessarily of Trish herself, but of the relationships she had with Chris and Jay. During Amy's recovery following her neck surgery, the three Canadians had simply grown close, and she supposed it was possible that Amy couldn't handle that.

If that was the case, though, Trish didn't have a clue as to why she'd be envious. At least when *she* became friends with the two Canadians, she hadn't had to suffer the nasty accusation that she was sleeping with them, much like Trish had. It was a sad thing, but there was tons of hostility in the women's locker room. The only ones besides Amy who wouldn't talk shit on another diva without so much as blinking an eye were Lisa Marie and Stacy Keibler. The second Trish began hanging around with Chris and Jay, rumors began running rampant that she was screwing at least one, if not both, of them. Despite the fact that she was nothing like her old character, some people were still obsessed with the idea of Trish Stratus being a slut, and couldn't accept the fact that she could be friends with the two men without fucking them. Of course, when Amy became friends with them, she was simply 'being one of the guys.' Women could be harsh sometimes.

Shaking her head, Trish drew herself out of the cloud of her thoughts. She wasn't sure how she'd managed to drift so far from what was going on in the locker room. She refocused her attention on her two friends, specifically on Chris.

"Chris, just drop it, please. We've been trying as hard as we can to downplay the issue... just let it go," she requested. Chris sighed, turning away from Jay to face her.

"I can't just let it go," he replied. "I want to know what's going on with her. I know there's more to this than meets the eye."

"Jesus Christ, how blind are you?!" Jay cried, grabbing Chris by the forearm and drawing him back to him. "If you weren't so caught up in that goddamn crush you have on her, you'd be able to see it plain as day. This is no one's fault but her own."

"I don't have any feelings for Amy other than friendship," Chris retorted defensively, ignoring the short haired man's final remark.

"Please," Jay responded with a snort. "I know you better than you know yourself, Chris. You've fallen for her, or you're at least on your way there."

Chris's expression softened, his eyes finding the floor and locking on it. He supposed it was pointless to deny it. He'd had growing feelings for the redhead since the longest time, he had just always opted to hide it. Still, he didn't see what that had to do with this discussion. If Jay knew him as well as he swore he did, he would know that Chris is fiercely defensive of his friends, especially when they were being singled out for something.

"So what if I like her?" Chris asked, drawing his gaze back up to Jay. "What point are you trying to make?"

"I just told you... you're blind," Jay replied, his gaze steady. "I'll tell you what you can do, though. Find Amy, take her somewhere, and tell her how you feel. I guarantee that even if she feels the same, it'll only be a matter of a few weeks till you see what I mean." Cocking his head to the side, Chris raised an eyebrow.

"And if I don't?"

Jay groaned, "Then the two of you can fall in love, get married and have a thousand babies, for all I care. I'm done trying to help you."

He stood before Chris for a minute, both pairs of their stern eyes locking in a heated gaze. For a moment, it looked as though Jay was going to speak again, but he held his tongue. Simply shaking his head, he pushed past Chris and walked away, sending an apologetic look to Trish before stepping out the door. He knew she hated confrontation between the two, but he really couldn't be around Chris at the moment.

After watching his best friend storm off, Chris yanked the rubber band holding his hair back out, tossing it to the floor. He threw himself down on the couch, burying his head in his hands as he rubbed his temples, feeling the beginning twinges of heading coming on. Trish eyed him with concern, thoughtfully chewing on her lip. After hesitating for a moment, she stood from her seat and walked over to him, tentatively taking a seat beside him.

"Chris, you know he gets like that when he's angry," she said softly.

"Yeah, I know, Trish," he replied. He still didn't think the way his friend was acting was justifiable. "That doesn't make it right."

"It's just that this thing with Amy..."

"You guys are wrong about her," he said, cutting her off. "She's not as bad as you think... and I'm going to prove it."