Summary: Best friends. The term describes Trish Stratus and John Cena – or does it? With all the drama going on in their lives, even they're not sure anymore.
Everything You Want
Part Seventeen:
WOMEN'S LOCKER ROOM
After she parted from Randy, Trish sat in the Women's locker room, packing her stuff up before she left for the hotel. She dropped her jacket and brush into her duffel bag, then zipped it up and headed for the door. She'd gotten barely five feet down the hall when she heard her name called. Turning around, and grinned at Stephanie. "Steph, hey! I haven't seen you in over a week."
Stephanie nodded and shrugged; linking her arm through Trish's as they both set off down the hall. "I've been so busy. My dad doesn't like to give anyone breaks – especially me," she groaned playfully and flashed a bright smile. "I've barely seen Chris, so forget about everyone else. But, I hear you've been getting closer to a certain young Superstar lately."
Trish felt her cheeks redden, and she shrugged. "Who told you that?"
"Everyone," Stephanie replied, nudging Trish in the arm. "Specifically Stacy… she seems to think you guys would make a cute couple."
"Stacy's awfully nosy," Trish grumbled, shaking her head. "I dunno… yeah, I guess we're getting pretty close. Randy's a good guy."
"And what about John?"
"What about him?" she shot back, her voice calm and uncaring.
"Uh oh, what's going on between you and John?"
Trish shrugged again, eyeing her shoes as she walked. "Things have been kind of odd between us for a while, and we had a fight yesterday, and I just refuse to dwell on it right now. I can't let stupid things get me upset."
"Well, I agree," Stephanie began. "But you and John have been friends since he came to the company… how can you guys just let that go?"
"I don't know if that's what we're doing, really," she replied, shaking her head. "I just don't know what to say to him right now. He knows that something's up, but he doesn't know why I'm ignoring him. And I can't explain it to him, because I can barely explain it to myself. I don't want to hurt him, but I also don't want to hurt myself. It's just all this big confusing dramatic move-moment, and I'm just tired of drama right now. I'm going to focus on the good things: my career, my friends, and Randy – who I care about more and more each time I see him. I want to work things out with John, but I need to figure out how to do that before I talk to him again."
"Well, not to butt in," Stephanie started, eyeing Trish for approval before she continued. "But John cares about you a lot – we can all tell that – and he's probably just worried that he's losing your friendship over something he can't control. Everybody's always had this theory that you and John were destined to be together, and that after a while, the sexual tension would get to be too much and you'd finally realize your feelings and fall deeply in love. We were all just waiting for it to happen. But now that you've got Randy…"
"And John has Michelle…"
Stephanie stopped suddenly, her face twisted in confusion. "John has who?"
"Michelle," Trish explained easily. "Didn't Stacy tell you? John is dating Michelle, the Diva Search contestant, and that's kind of part of our problem – even though John doesn't know that."
"No, Stacy didn't tell me John was with Michelle – all she said was that you and Randy had something going on, and that you and John were kind of drifting apart."
"Yeah, we're definitely drifting," Trish agreed, nodding. "But to be honest, that's probably my fault. You guys had part of that theory right…" she paused and watched as Stephanie's eyes widened. "I do… well, did, have feelings for John. But of course, I realized that too late, and by the time I'd finally decided to inform John of how I felt, he'd gotten with Michelle. So I felt stupid around him, and I started to ignore him. And now things are all messed up, and John doesn't even know why. Then we got into a fight yesterday, he called me a liar for not being honest with why I was ignoring him. It was all a mess."
"So why don't you just tell him why you're ignoring him?"
"Because then I'd have to tell him that I had feelings for him. I'd have to tell him that while we were hanging out like best friends, I really liked him as more than that. That would just cause even more drama than there already is, and I don't think I can deal with that," Trish and Stephanie stopped at the arena doors, and Trish leaned against the wall, her eyes closed. "I wish things could just be normal again – like they were."
"But apparently things weren't normal, Trish. You had feelings for John and you didn't tell him. That's not exactly what I'd call normal."
"Well how did you and Chris get together? One day you hated each other, and the next you were joined at the hip and finishing each other's sentences," Trish watched as a smile spread across Stephanie's lips. "That doesn't just happen. So how'd you guys finally admit your feelings?"
"It was weird," Stephanie admitted. "One minute we were fighting, and the next I was crying because Chris had said something real mean about me never finding someone to love me, or something like that. I hadn't meant to cry, but I couldn't control it. So there I was, crying like a baby, and Chris was freaked. I'd never cried in front of him before, and he felt like a complete jackass, so he apologized and said he didn't mean to hurt me…" she paused for a moment, grinning at her memories. "I calmed down considerably, and out of nowhere, he hugged me. It was so weird, but it felt right, you know? Then he told me that he really did think I'd find someone. And he said he knew someone who liked me."
"Aw, and I wonder who that was," Trish commented, smiling.
Stephanie nodded and continued, "So of course I was like, 'Who?' and then he smiled at me… the cute, cocky smile he always does when he knows something you don't. Then… he kissed me. I was shocked, but I kissed him back, and here we are now. We never really talked about it. Not like, 'Okay, we're going to date now' it just happened. And here we are almost a year later."
"But this is different, Steph," Trish countered, ignoring the eye roll Stephanie sent her way. "John and I have been the best of friends for two years, and in those two years, there hasn't been the obvious sexual tension that you guys all see – at least not that we noticed. But then one day, I realized that there was just something about him… he's good looking, he's incredibly nice to me – despite what people think, and I've never gotten along with a guy better than I get along with him. Except for Jay, of course, but Jay and I will never be anything more than friends. We discovered that one night after a drunken kiss. The point is that, if I had just walked up to him and said, 'Hey John, I have feelings for you as more than a friend, he would've been freaked and I would've felt crappy. I didn't want to lose my best friend, but apparently, it's too late for that now anyway."
"Trish, you haven't lost him," Stephanie reasoned. "At least not yet. You guys need to talk. An honest talk - one on one – where you both get your feelings out there, and deal with them in the best way possible. If John has true feelings for Michelle, and you have true feelings for Randy, then working things out shouldn't be so hard."
"And if that's not the case?"
"Are you worried that you don't care enough about Randy?"
"No! No," Trish vehemently shook her head, meeting Stephanie's eyes to prove that she was sincere. "I do care about Randy. I don't know what we'll become yet, but I have real feelings for him. I guess I'm just scared to come clean with my feelings for John."
"And that's a fear you're going to have to get over, my dear," Stephanie winked and picked up her duffel bag off the floor. "Until then, just try to sort everything out in your mind. That way when you do talk to John, you'll have your thoughts all organized and hopefully you guys can be honest and open with each other. But Trish…"
Before she could continue, Trish's cell phone began to ring. She pulled it from her purse and read the caller ID, then showed it to Stephanie.
"Answer it," Stephanie said, pushing the phone back towards to Trish. "I'll talk to you tomorrow. See you later, girl."
Trish nodded and waited until Stephanie was gone until she answered the phone. She greeted the familiar voice, "Hey… what's up?"
"Not much… I just wanted to see if you were coming to the hotel any time soon. I figured we could order a pay-per-view movie and get some room service and talk about things."
Trish grinned and picked up her bags off the floor. She pushed open the doors to the arena and headed to her car. "I was actually leaving right now. I can be there in about twenty minutes."
"Great," Trish could hear his smile from the other end of the phone. "I'll see you then."
"Bye, Randy," she hung up the phone and dumped her bags into the car.
AT THE HOTEL
"Damn key!" John cursed loudly as he pounded his fist into his hotel room door. Seconds later, the door swung open and John barged inside, dropping his things off at the foot of the bed. He laid back onto the bed and groaned loudly, ignoring the woman standing before him with a concerned like on her face.
"John, are you alright?"
"Fine."
"You don't sound fine," Michelle countered, sitting on the bed beside John. She placed her hand on his side and looked down to meet his eyes. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm fine, Michelle, don't worry," John replied, sitting up. He took her hand off of his side and laced his fingers through hers. He shot her a reassuring smile and leaned forward, pressing his lips softly to hers.
"Are you sure? You stomped in here all mad. Bad day?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," he replied, his mind flashing back to the kiss he'd witnessed earlier in the day. He could tell Michelle all about Randy and Trish, but that would just lead to questions about how things were with Trish, and why he cared that they'd been kissing. "But it's not important, so don't worry about me."
"As long as you're sure…"
"Nothing's wrong," John assured Michelle, flashing a smile and pulling her in for a hug. But as he held her tightly, his mind couldn't help but to wander to her question: Is something wrong? He'd said no, but the visions of Randy and Trish kissing in his mind were starting to prove him otherwise. It seemed he did have a problem with his best friends, and he had no idea why.
Sorry for the lack of updates, guys, but I've been on vacation. Let me know if you're still liking the story!