Her Head v. Her Heart
A/N: So, I didn't think that I would be getting this chapter up before Monday afternoon, but Arykah's here and she helped me out with it. So here ya go --ENJOY! (Don't own anything - but you knew that.)
Trish could remember a time when they didn't hang out together – not all of them in a big group. She could remember a time when she, Lita, and Stacy would just go back to the hotel after a house show or a taping, and order movies, eat junk food, and talk about men. Even when Lita started dating Matt, they had just invited him into their little slumber parties and stayed in.
But then Trish had started dating Dave, and Stacy hooked up with Randy, and it was easier for everyone to hang out in a bar once every week or so, than it was to fit in a hotel room. The more of a habit it became, the bigger the group seemed to grow. For months, it had been Lita, Stacy, and Trish against five or six guys. But now that the list of regulars was growing, the odds were starting to even out. Victoria had started to join them, and if they were at a Super Show or a combined PPV, Torrie and Jackie would come along, too.
Normally, she liked the crowds, but tonight wasn't normal. Tonight, their group consisted of herself and John, Lita and Edge, Stacy, Victoria, Jericho, Hunter, and Dave. That was no problem – that was her favorite mix of people in the world. But, for reasons known only to God and himself, Jericho had also invited Christy and Maria. Their high-pitched laughter and incessant giggling was enough to make Trish nearly come unhinged. She had already decided that if Maria laughed at one more thing John said, especially if it wasn't funny, she was going to lunge across the table and rip her throat out.
"So, Christy," Chris leaned toward the girl on his left after the waitress brought their second round of drinks. "Do you have a boyfriend now or what, Sweetheart?"
Lita rolled her eyes in Trish's direction and made a "gagging" face. John was the only other person that caught it, but he did his best to swallow back the laughter that was trying to escape his throat.
If Christy noticed, she didn't react. Fixated on Chris, she cleared her throat and sadly shook her head. "I was kinda into this guy from back home, but he was friends with my "ex" and he told me it just wasn't gonna work out." Rolling her eyes, she raised the bottle to her lips. "Something about 'bro's before ho's' or something?" she added with a questioning look in her eyes.
"That is bull shit," Lita piped up. It was such a defiant statement that it nearly made Trish jump. Edge even looked a little surprised by her outburst. "Well, it is. I mean, who actually believes that bull shit about not getting with someone just because your friend was with her before?"
The guys looked hesitant to answer, especially when Lita looked to her right and saw Edge's hand up. Her eyes doubled in size as she guffawed, almost spitting her beer onto the table top. "What?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes and Trish took another drink, settling against John's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned back in his chair. "You are one of two men at this table who cannot, with any amount of credibility, be in favor of that whole theory."
"Why?" Edge asked, popping a French fry into his mouth.
"Because you started bangin' your friend's ex before they broke up?" Victoria reminded him.
Another roll of his eyes sent Edge slumping into his chair. "Alright, fine. I ended a friendship over a girl. I suck," he threw his hands in the air and then reached for his beer. "I think, though, that every guy believes in The Code to some degree. It just depends on how, and to what extent, you follow it," he added. "If you had been with Christian, I would have never looked at you twice," he pointed out.
Trish quietly drank her beer and abstained from the conversation. "What about you, John? How do you justify yourself?" Lita asked, and Trish leaned over to punch her friend's thigh under the table. "Ouch. What?" Lita asked.
John cleared his throat and moved his arm from Trish's waist to the back of her chair, shifting his weight and risking a quick glance at Dave. The big man seemed amused at his friend's discomfort. "I can't justify it," he stated honestly. "It wasn't supposed to happen."
Though he very rarely spoke at these little get-togethers, Trish heard Dave clear his throat, a tell-tale sign that he was getting ready to lay something on them. "He asked me first," he said.
Her eyes, as well as Lita and Stacy's, doubled in size. "He what?" Trish asked, her mouth gaping as she turned to look at her boyfriend. "You asked for permission to date me?"
John nodded, and she noticed an adorable blush growing in his cheeks. "I'd been noticin' you for awhile, but Dave's been my boy for years. And I didn't so much ask as. . ." he trailed, as if trying to figure out how to explain it. When he and Dave had talked about John dating Trish, there had been a sort of unspoken agreement that she would never have to know about it.
"He was obviously into you, and we were obviously done, so I told him to go for it," Dave admitted, meeting Trish's eye and doing everything he could to mask the emotion behind his eyes.
It had been the hardest thing he had ever done, but after only one night of watching them together, he knew it was the best thing for Trish. Even through the dim haze of his broken heart, he could tell that she lit up every time John showed her the slightest bit of attention. She laughed with him, and she looked happy. It was the look she used to give him, in the beginning. It was the look that made his stomach turn all rainbows and butterflies. There was nothing in the world more beautiful, in his opinion, than a smiling Trish Stratus.
Trish's heart ached slightly at the sacrificial gift of love he had given her without letting her know. She had turned his entire world inside out without any notice, and he had turned around and given her what he thought would make her happy. Tears pricked the backs of her eyes and she reached out for John's hand, squeezing it tightly.
"See," Randy interjected with the shake of his head. "I don't get that," he told Dave. "I think you just don't fuck with a friend's girl. Even if they are "ex," he insisted.
Lita, ever the opportunist, seized this comment as the perfect moment to swing her plan into action. "That's where guys and girls are different, I think. I mean, let me ask you something, Trish. Hypothetically, if Stacy wanted to hook up with Dave, would you have a problem with it?" the red-head asked, pointing to her two friends across the table, sitting side-by-side and looking incredibly uncomfortable.
Trish wanted to scream "yes" and demand that he never sleep with anyone else ever again. But that was ridiculous, and her boyfriend was anxiously anticipating her answer. Shaking her head, she licked her lips and tried to think of the best answer to give. "I don't know that I would wanna hear all the details that we usually give each other about our men, but I mean, what can I say? I can't expect him to never date again, ya know?" She knew his eyes were on her, but she couldn't make herself look at him. If she was going to say what she needed to say, she couldn't look in his eyes to do it. "Especially not since I'm the one that ended it."
Randy was insistent with the shake of his head. "Doesn't matter who ended it. It's a matter of respect, ya know?"
"So you'd have a problem with Stacy and Dave?" Lita asked him, her eyebrow raised.
Nodding as though it were obvious, Randy took another drink. "I'd have a problem with Stacy and anyone at this table. There are millions of men and women in the world. There's no reason that my friends have to pick my girl."
Stacy slammed her cocktail glass onto the table and turned firey eyes toward him. "What the fuck kinda logic is that, ass hole?" He looked taken aback. "You wanna look me in the eye and shoot off that line about respect again? I am NOT your girl. I WAS your girl, until you decided that you needed to get some skank ass fromas many random groupies as you could get up in. I was your girl until you decided that wasn't enough for you. And if you ever, EVER, fuck with my sex life in some backward attempt to boost your own fuckin' ego?" She stood up, glaring through him with firey eyes. "You better pray I never hear about it."
How he had become the center of this argument, he didn't know. But Dave stood quietly, slid his chair to the table, and extended his hand to Stacy. No doubt, there would be hell to pay later, but he didn't care. He was tired of Randy showing up at random hours, complaining about women using him for his fame or his money. He was tired of hearing the young man bitch and moan about being unhappy with his life. Dave had a feeling it had something to do with losing Stacy, and if this is how he had to show Randy that she wasn't going to sit around and wait for him to be ready, this is what he would do. And if it helped him show Trish that he was capable of moving on, that their little tryst the week before had meant as little to him as it had to her, that was a bonus.
Lita watched Dave lead Stacy out the front door of the bar and smiled to herself. That had been a lot easier than she had anticipated. But her victory was short-lived as she turned and saw the look on John's face. It was the heartbreaking expression of a man who knew that he would never have as much of his love's heart as he wanted.
Just wanted to give you a head's up - I know I haven't given you much John/Trish alone time - but it's coming. The next chapter will be the "Stratus-Cena Show."