Chapter 15: The Bowling Alley

'This is not my idea of fun.' Trish thought, as she pulled on a pair of bowling shoes. She had only accepted Matt's offer of going along to the bowling alley, because she couldn't bear the thought of another night in on her own, at the hotel. Ever since Molly and Randy had become friendly with each other, she had suffered a streak of those.

She had become used to a cozy little routine with Molly; attend each event together, work out together, dine together, party together… Trish had missed that during the week, and had felt extremely lonely as a result. In effect, Molly and Randy being together was doing her head in.

"Well look who it is…" Trish heard the all too familiar voice of one of her least favorite people; Chris Jericho. She turned and saw Jericho, alongside Christian; flanking them were Victoria and Gail Kim. 'Fantastic… all my enemies have come together for a reunion party.'

"Hey guys, glad you could make it!" Matt said excitedly, as he returned to the side of Trish, having secured a lane for them all to play on. "We're all set to go, if you all get your shoes… we can start hitting some strikes!"

As the newly arrived foursome followed his suggestion, Trish followed Matt towards the lane they were going to use during their game. She had a bone to pick with him, for his choice of invitees.

"Did you have to ask all of them along?" she snapped, her forehead wrinkling as her rage came to prominence on her face. "I mean, Jericho and the CLB… I can just about condone… but Vicky and Gail?"

"I didn't invite them Trish." Matt informed her. "I told the guys they could bring somebody along with them if they wanted. Blame them, not me."

'Typical.' Trish concluded, as Matt waded straight in to pick up a bowling ball. He looked like he was eager to get started, whilst she was on the verge of wanting to leave. 'Give it a chance, it might be fun… ugh, who am I kidding?'

"It's been too long since I had a bowl… how about you Trish?" Matt asked.

"What?" Trish responded, oblivious to what he was inquiring about.

"Bowling… you play much?"

"No." she replied, bluntly. She folded her arms and sat on one of the leather clad benches, that was alongside the lane they were playing on.

Matt checked her out; he was bemused by her lack of enthusiasm. 'Why did she even bother coming, if she is just going to be like this?' he thought. "We could have done something else you know Trish, it wouldn't have bothered me." he said, trying to improve her mood.

All it succeeding in doing was stirring her into action. She sprung to her feet and grabbed the nearest ball; she practically barged her way past Matt and sent her ball careering down the alley towards the pins. With a crash, she knocked over all ten, simple as that.

Matt watched on, his mouth gaping wide as he took in what Trish had just done. "I thought you said you didn't play much!"

"I don't. Must be beginners luck." Trish said, as she walked straight past Matt again and re-stationed herself on the bench.

"Looks like we missed some action peeps!" Christian said, as the other quartet made their way over to join Matt and Trish. "What happened there V1?"

Matt nodded in the direction of Trish, to intimate that she was responsible for the X that was flashing on their electronic scorecard.

"Looks like you are on to a winner there Matty boy!" Chris said, playfully slapping Matt on the back. "Come on Queen V, we are going to have to put these chumps in their place!"

"You're nuts Chris!" Victoria said, chuckling at Chris' battle cry.

"The lady is right Jericho, you are crazy if you think you can beat Captain Charisma and the Asian Sensation… we're talking dream team here man!" Christian retaliated, bringing Gail in close to his side; the two puts arms around each others sides, to show the solidarity between them as a team.

Meanwhile, Trish was silently cursing her luck. 'It's going to be a long night.' she suspected.

Trish continued to play a consistent game, and along with Matt, they were cruising as far as the team scores were concerned. She had managed to calm down somewhat, and she almost began to enjoy Matt's company; he was a nice guy after all, who was articulate and very respectful of her. She couldn't recall too many guys treating her that way in the past, whether that was her own fault or not.

Through the random nonsense the other two guys were spouting and the annoying laughter of their partners, Trish picked up on an interesting phenomenon. 'Randy and Molly… Chris and Victoria… Christian and Gail…' Basically all of Matt's friends had suddenly become interested in those girls, in a very short space of time. Being the curious woman she was, she sensed that something was going on; and she was determined to get to the bottom of it, by hook or by crook.

She picked up on Chris and Christian slinking off in the direction of the men's room, which was suspicious enough in itself. She was prepared to do a little undercover detective work to try and establish if there was anything going on to explain the recent spate of new relationships.

"I'll be back in a minute Matt, I need to go make a call." she said to Matt, fobbing him off with any old excuse to give her the opportunity to follow the other men.

She stealthily followed them, charting their course extremely carefully. They stopped just shy of the men's room and found a quiet corner just off from there to have their 'secret' discussion. Trish managed to navigate a safe path to a pillar, which allowed her to listen in without them knowing about it. Trish had to really focus her hearing in, as she could only just make out their mumbled tones.

"This has to end soon, Vicky is doing my head in Christian! But never mind that… what's this about Molly and Randy? Can you believe that?"

"Yeah, but come on Chris… Molly will see through him sooner or later… I mean Molly and Randy, how stupid is that!"

"Yeah, but he has gone away with her this weekend… to her place no less. You gotta hand it to the kid, he is pulling out all the stops. I reckon he is doing it just to spite the two of us you know."

"Can't argue with that… I hope he realizes that his efforts are all academic though, because Captain Charisma has got this one in the bag!"

"So you think you're in there with Gail do you, junior?"

"I don't think I'm in there Chris… I know."

"Well hurry up and get on with it then, before Vicky drives me even more berserk… or worse still, Molly and Randy… ugh!"

"Damn, I dread to think… no worries man, I'm ready to seal the deal…"

With that, the conversation ended and Trish made sure she was not visible to either Jericho or Christian, as they made their way back over towards Matt and the other girls. She tried to take in everything they had said and make sense of what they had been referring to. It didn't take her long to figure it out; 'Sounds like there is some sort of game going on… I should have known…'