A.N: Soz it's been so long since I've updated. Hope you've had a great Valentine's Day... LOL mine was fairly bland... I'll leave you to this long chapter whilst I attend my 16th B'day partay! Toodles! xox Zoe xox

Chapter Eighteen

"He's great," Torrie's mother smiled as she brought the last of the dishes.

"Isn't he?" Torrie smiled as she took the dishes from her mother and dumped them with the rest, washing each plate carefully, sponging them intensely.

"Are you alright dear?" her mother asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"You look troubled…"

"I promise I'm not," Torrie lied. "Now you go have fun ok?"

"Alright," she nodded, kissing her daughter on the lightly cheek. Was it that obvious that she had a lot on her mind? Everyone seemed to have noticed, the worst part was, that they were right. She had so much on her mind… Randy or John? Randy or John? RANDY OR JOHN?

"Can I help you out?" a voice said, interrupting her thoughts. She turned around to see Randy standing by the door. She exhaled loudly and forced herself to smile.

"Sure," she nodded as she went back to the dishes.

"Dinner was great, your mother is a great cook…" he complimented as he placed his hands on her hips and kissed the side of her neck.

"That tickles!" she chuckled as she pushed him away.

"Well there'll be more of that tonight," he promised.

"Wanna go somewhere?" asked Torrie slipping her gloves off. She figured it was finally time to tell him.

"Sure," he said with his hands in his pocket, giving a carefree shrug. He looked angelic.

"Matt, could you do the dishes please?" Torrie yelled across to Matt, sitting comfortably in the living room. He frowned when he saw her, she glared at him evilly as he rolled his eyes and got up. She knew that stare would work!

Torrie and Randy walked up to her room, hand in hand. She was concentrating on how to break up with him, she was never really good at that… she was always being dumped as strange as that may seem… She had always allowed people to take advantage of her, John for one. Thinking back about that time, Torrie wasn't sure she had wanted to end her perfect life with Randy. They sat on the edge of her bed, he slung his arm loosely around her shoulder, she shrugged it off and shook her head. He looked confused.

"Randy I-" she began but was then interrupted by a knocking at the door. She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "What?"

"Torrie, you're phone!" yelled her brother Travis. "Is it safe to come in?"

"Idiot…" she muttered as she headed to the door and slapped his arm.

"Ouch! This is all the thanks that I get?" he smirked. She snatched the phone off of him.

"Go away please," she said, looking at the phone. It was John.

"Want some privacy with John now do you?" he teased. She made a fist at him, threatening to beat him. He was older than she was but still childish.

"Hello?" she sighed.

"You will not believe what happened!" screamed John over the loudness of the music and cheerful people at the party. Torrie removed the phone from her ear due to the loudness of John's voice.

"John… don't shout," she said.

"I'm sorry. I'm just fucking pissed off!"

"What? Why?"

"Heather… she… argh I don't know!"

"John, what?"

"Have you broken up with Randy yet?"

"No, but I was going to…" she answered. "You?"

"No, not yet…"

"Well were you going to?"

"It's harder than you think…"

"Well you were the one who rushed me…"

"No you don't get it…" he sighed. "Heather announced that we were engaged…"

"WHAT!" exclaimed Torrie in total and utter shock. Her jaw hung wide open and her eyes wider than ever. "YOU PROPOSED TO HER?"

"NO! NO! NO WAY IN HELL!" shrieked John. "SHE PROPOSED TO HERSELF!"

"WHAT!"

"She went up on stage and told everyone we were engaged!"

"WHAT? WHY?"

"I DON'T KNOW! SHE'S A PYSCHOPATH!"

"Who does that sort of thing? Honestly!"

"I don't know what to do Tor," he said calming down.

"Of course you're going to break it off right?" she asked.

"Yes of course I will! I will right now!" he answered. "You do your bit too! I love you!"

"Love you too!" she said softly, before hanging up.

"Who was that you said 'I love you' to?" Heather asked jealously. John turned around and bit his lip.

"My sister…" he lied once again.

"Oh ok…" she nodded. John thought for a second how it would be like being married to her, she's so gullible, he could bring a girl home every night, simply saying that it was his sister… imagine that… "What did she want?"

"Huh?" said John, snapping out of his daze. "Pardon?"

"What did your sister want?"

"Er… she wished me a Merry Christmas…"

"Oh that's nice," smiled Heather. "Did you wish her one for me?"

"No…"

"Oh…" frowned Heather.

"Heather what the hell was that on stage just now?" asked John angrily.

"Oh… I saw a ring and liked it… it was on sale! And everyone asked why I was wearing a 10 Karat diamond ring and whether I was engaged so I just made up a story of you proposing to me… which you have to do sometime soon, otherwise I can't wear it anymore…"

"How much was it?" John asked, he didn't hear anything else after the 'it was on sale!' bit… she talked too fast, half of the stuff she said was not really worth hearing anyway!

"Not that much… but I charged it to your credit card…" she shrugged as she picked at her nails.

"You what!" shrieked John. Heather brought out his card, which was cut in two. John's eyes widened and gaped at it in astonishment as Heather dropped the remainder in his hands.

"I used it all up, sorry!" she giggled. "Anyway, I have to introduce you to someone!"

"Heather I have to talk to you about something important…" said John as she chucked the rubbish into his pocket..

"That can wait, I need you to meet someone John," Heather demanded.

"No, but this is important!" he pleaded.

"Wait!" she scolded fiercely. He rolled his eyes and saw a short, tubby, bald man appear from behind Heather. "Here he is!"

"Hello John," said the man as his rosy cheeks parted into a smile. "Do you know who I am?"

"No," answered John bluntly. Who did this guy think he was? Asking John 'Do you know who I am?' in such a cocky manner…

"Does the name Howard Martin, come to mind?" he smirked.

"No…" John answered again.

"John, this is my Uncle Howard," scoffed Heather. "He's with my dad's company and he's with the music industry and stuff…"

"OH!" John exclaimed.

"Yeah and this is my stupid fiancé…" Heather laughed referring to John. Her uncle sniggered with her. "If he wasn't so cute I would've said no…"

"Why couldn't I have been uglier?" muttered John as he looked to the ground.

"So I've heard from Heather that you're a hip-hop genius, is this true?" asked Howard.

"Oh yeah!" John nodded excitedly. "By the way, when you said you were Howard Martin, I didn't know you were THE Howard Martin… I didn't think you were so erm… handsome…!"

"Oh shucks!" Howard giggled girlishly, as did Heather. Being gullible and laughing like sissies must run in the blood…

"Well I don't usually offer my card to anyone as I am a really busy man nowadays, but since you're my favourite niece's favourite person-"

"After Justin Timberlake!" Heather interrupted.

"Fine, since you my favourite niece's second favourite person in the world, I shall offer you my card and we can arrange something and I'll hear you out," said Howard as he pulled his wallet out of his suit pocket, he brought out his business card and gave it to John. John examined the card… he had never heard of Howard… or the company…

"Thank you," John said anyway. He figured that this was better than nothing at all. Heather and her uncle walked away as John kept examining the card. Finally, this was his chance to be everything he had wanted! A career in wrestling, now the music industry, he had a great house, car – all except for a great girlfriend, just a ditzy 'fiancée' – which reminded him that he had to call Torrie. Oh dear what was he going to say? It was down to choices, now he could only choose one thing, either Torrie or his hip-hop career. As easy as it seems, most guys would pick Torrie over anything, any day! But no one loved music like John and he had waited for this moment his entire life… he even had to be with Heather for almost three years, until he seized this opportunity.

So he did use her, but that was the only way to get what you wanted in this world. If John didn't sleep with Heather, some other fool would have nabbed this chance – it didn't make a difference.

John pulled his cell phone out and stared at it, wondering whether he should tell her or not. He tucked the phone away, deciding that he wanted her to call him. He leaned against the wall and rubbed his face, he was so confused as to what to do. This was harder than he thought it would've been. He needed help on this one, he thought of calling Dawn Marie for advice but he wasn't that desperate! Luckily a waiter walked past and resolved his problem.

"So champagne sir?" asked the waiter. John helped himself to two glasses and chugged them down in no time as the waiter just stared in amazement. John let out a burp much to the disgust of the waiter, who was about to leave before John took another two glasses.

"Maybe I should just leave this with you…" nodded the waiter was he left the tray on the table next to John.

"Yeah you do that!" hiccupped a drowsy John. He didn't really like alcohol, he just liked it when he was troubled, right now it was probably his only friend. John drank more and more, growing sleepier every time. Soon he got so drowsy that he fell to the floor and blacked out…

With a quick peck on the lips, Torrie flipped off the lights and pulled the covers over her head. It was 4am, she was exhausted, pissed off at the fact John hadn't called her, which could only mean one thing – that he hadn't done it, and lastly, she wanted to avoid any conversation with Randy, until John had confirmed that he was over with Heather. She felt guilty for using Randy as a 'rebound'.

"Goodnight," she wished him, shut her eyes tightly and faking a yawn. "I'm so tired…"

"Whoa, wait… I have something to discuss with you!" Randy chuckled as he leaned across to switch the lights back on. Uh-oh… "Remember when I told you I had a 'surprise' for you?"

"No…" she lied, trying to sound innocent. He looked at her, raising an eyebrow in confusion.. "Could you tell me tomorrow? I'm so tired right now…"

"This can't wait though!" he pleaded as he wrapped his hand around her waist, holding her back and preventing her from reaching the light switch.

"Is it really?" she asked with a pout.

"Yes!" he chuckled.

"Fine," she sighed as she sat up against the headboard. "But I have something to tell you too…"

"Ok, do you want to go first?"

"No, go ahead Randy,"

"Ok, well I was thinking a lot about us, cos I always do, and I just wanna say that I've never ever felt this way about anybody before, and I also know that that's the cheesiest and most overused line in the world. But it's true ok!" Randy smirked. Torrie smiled slightly, she didn't allow herself to get too cheerful, she knew she was just going to end it with bad news anyway. "So, I thought that this would be great for us, I think it's the next step to our relationship…" Don't say it! She prayed as she closed her eyes, don't mention anything that has to do with marriage! How would she reject him? How could she possibly look him in the eyes and tell him that she's cheated on him with John. How?

"So…" he said. Torrie felt sweat trickle down the side of her face as she quickly wiped it away. Don't say it! Don't say it!

Then her phone rang. Torrie exhaled loudly as Randy shook his head. It was John… again.

"I'm sorry Randy," she apologised, although she was so thankful for his call. She headed to the bathroom and answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey Torrie," he exhaled.

"Hey, did you do it?" she asked curiously.

"No, and I think you're right, we shouldn't do this on Christmas Eve or morning… or anytime soon…" he chuckled apprehensively.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked sternly.

"Emm well I think it's a bit harsh… you were right… and you haven't broken up with Randy h-have you?" he stuttered.

"No, but I was going to… have you?" she asked. He hesitated to answer causing Torrie to grow suspicious. "JOHN?"

"I couldn't do it! I'm sorry!" he apologised. "Her uncle… offered me a record deal."

"So you're saying you're picking a record deal over me!" Torrie shrieked. She could feel her blood boil as she gritted her teeth together in rage. She felt ridiculed as she thought about what she had just said. John had chosen a record deal over her, it was inevitable but still allowed him to use her like he did. It was her own fault, she should have learnt from her mistakes.

"Well… erm… kinda…" he giggled nervously as he detected hints of annoyance in her voice. She hung up immediately as tears spilt from her eyes, she wiped them away roughly a left the bathroom. She forgot why she had loved him so much in the first place when she had Randy all along. Actually, she was kind of glad John didn't break up with Heather, now she didn't have to break up with Randy or put up with John's fickleness ever again.

"I'm back!" she grinned as she entered the room. Randy was sitting on the bed, waiting for her patiently with a smile plastered across his face.

"Well you look happy," he chuckled. "Who was that?"

"Dawn," she lied. "She was drunk… it was amusing…"

"Well can I get back to what I was saying?" he asked. She shut the door behind her and ran back to bed excitedly. Finally, he was going to propose to her and she was ready, forget about John…

"Go on," she nodded with a grin. He held her hands in his and pulled her in for a peck on the lips.

"I've been meaning to do this for a long, long, long time now… and I've spoken to a few people and they agree that I should go through with this…" he said. Torrie's eyes lit up, smiling from ear-to-ear, in her mind she spelled out her name, Mrs Randy Orton… Mrs Torrie Orton… Mrs Torrie Wilson-Orton. Didn't sound to bad, did it?

"And I want to be with you forever, I can't picture waking up to anyone else except for you. And life is shorter than we think it is, so I want to be with you whenever I can… That's why I thought it would be good if we…"

"Yes…" nodded Torrie, encouraging him to continue his sentence. She gripped his hands tightly and looked intently into his eyes.

"I thought it would be good if we were on the same show…" he smiled. Torrie's mouth hung open.

"What!" chuckled Torrie in disbelief. What? Where was the engagement ring? Why didn't he propose? Why? Why? Why!

"Don't you agree? You could come to RAW and be my valet and you could go after the Women's Championship… that's what you want isn't it?" he laughed elatedly as he pulled her into a hug. Torrie was still speechless. Tears had formed and slowly trickled down. He broke apart the hug as her heard her soft sobs. "You're crying! Why?"

"… I'm just so h-happy…" she brought herself to say. It was a total and utter lie. Just when she had wanted him to propose, he didn't. She was completely ready to forget about John and move on, in fact, she had gotten him out of her system already. Everything she hoped for in life had gone completely wrong, she was left to ask herself why.

"That's what you want right? I'm glad you're happy… damn it I'm happy too!"

"Was this your surprise?" she asked through sobs.

"Yes," he beamed proudly.

"It's a great surprise!" she said, once again it was forced.

"I'm so glad we can finally travel together…" he said, pulling her into a hug again, her eyes shut and head resting on his shoulder. "After all, there's nothing holding you back on Smackdown…"

"How about… John?" she asked, opening her eyes and looking up at Randy. Even saying his name was difficult for her, she tried hard not to let too many memories with John flood back.

"What about him?" shrugged Randy. "Yeah, you're his valet, I've spoken to officials about it and they say they can come up with something to split you two up… It's in the works."

"Oh ok," she replied blandly. Was this really the end for her and John?

"Go to sleep honey," he yawned, pulling the covers over her and himself. Torrie held his back to him, afraid that he would be able to notice the unresponsiveness in her face. "I love you…"

"Love you too…" she said softly. Randy fell asleep in no time, but Torrie stayed wide-awake, wondering whether she did want to go to RAW. Randy was right, there really was nothing keeping her on Smackdown. Sure her friends were on Smackdown, but she had Stacy, Trish and Victoria on RAW… The Women's Championship was on RAW too… and all the better to get away from John, if she went to RAW. If John went ahead and married Heather, she would never be able to face him ever again, the embarrassment would be excruciating…

Then she thought about Randy and her new life with him. It didn't seem so bad, Randy was great, he had never done anything to hurt her, he really cared for her too. She turned around and faced Randy, who was sleeping angelically. She smiled at the sight, crawling closer to him she rested her head on her chest and slowly fell asleep.