"What the hell was I supposed to do?" Kate asked in a harsh whisper. "Make him find hotel?"
"Um…" Julia trailed off. "Yeah."
Kate rolled her eyes, "Cause it would have been incredibly nice of me to turn my friend away."
"It would have been practical."
"It would have been rude," she countered as she heard footsteps overhead. "Ugh, I've got to go. I think he's up."
"Did you really just say 'ugh' about John Cena?" her friend did a double take.
"No, only because you're bothering me. Bye," she replied curtly and hit the end button, just as John walked into the kitchen in a pair of sweatpants and a wifebeater.
Lord, kill me.
"Morning," he mumbled and wiped a hand down his face as he leanced against the wall on his left.
"Try afternoon, Sunshine," Kate laughed as she brushed past him and headed into the family room.
"Really?" he looked up at the wall clock, which read 1:23pm. "Damn."
"Okay, Ron Simmons," she rolled her eyes and sat down on the couch.
John smiled at her as he approached the couch, "Call me Superman."
"Okay, Superman," she laughed. "Get any sleep last night?"
"Yeah," he nodded and plopped down next to her.
"Don't sound like it."
"Aww, Kate…" he sighed and then buried his head in her much smaller shoulder. "I'm still so tired!"
Christ.
"Poor Clark Kent," she rolled her eyes at him. "Seems like sleep is your kryptonite."
"So is boredom," he countered. "What are we doing today?"
"Well, I have a bowling tournament at 3…"
"Can I come?" his head shot up suddenly.
"I don't know, John…" she trailed off warily.
He looked down at her with puppy dog eyes, "Please?"
"God damnit… alright," Kate finally gave in. "Go grab something to eat from the fridge and then make yourself presentable."
John stood up on his feet and promptly saluted her, "Yes, sir… uh… m'am, uh…"
Kate pointed down the hallway, fighting a smile, "Just go!"
As John marched down the corridor, she shook her head and found herself thinking out loud, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"
"Do I get to meet Prince Charming today?" John asked from the passenger's seat as the car turned onto Route 33.
"Shit," she mumbled and hit her hands on the wheel. "I forgot about that."
"I know," he grinned proudly and folded his arms over his chest.
Kate let out a deep sigh, "Listen, I can't do anything about this now… just, I really like this guy, John. Don't embarrass me, okay?"
John reached out and pinched her cheek, "Okie dokee."
She smacked his hand away, "I mean it, John!"
"Okay, okay," he held his hands up in surrender as they pulled into a parking spot outside of the alley.
"Come on, let's go," she ordered him as they hopped out of the car.
John made his way to the trunk of Kate's Honda Element and opened it, pulling out the two-ball bag with his right arm.
"I'm sorry…" Kate slammed the trunk shut, "Are you high?"
"Excuse me?"
"That was your right fucking arm, Cena," she hissed at him. "Um, pectoral tendon… anyone?"
"We have to talk about that later, remind me," he pointed at her as they made their way to the front door.
"Um…" she trailed off warily as he held the door open for her. "Okay."
As they walked towards the door, a million thoughts ran through her mind.
What the hell could he possibly be talking about? If her gut was right, something was amiss in that crazy mind that belonged to the one and only John Cena. What it was, however, she couldn't be sure.
Immediately, upon entering the alley, they found it bustling with activity, making it almost chaotic.
"Holy shit," John deadpanned.
"Yep… and this is nothing," she replied and let him over to the check-in table.
"Hi, name please?" the balding man behind the folding table asked her.
"Kate Jackson… 180 division," Kate answered simply.
The man's eyes roamed over the sheet in front of him, "Ah… lanes 27 and 28. Stepladder format, we're figuring about ten rounds at the moment."
Shit, right in the fucking middle.
"Thank you," she replied graciously and walked a few feet over to her lanes.
"Where can I sit?" John asked as she began unzipping her bag.
"Right behind us, at the table," Kate pointed right next to him with a nod.
"Hey, Kate," a male voice addressed her from her left. "Making your return, I see."
Kate smiled and turned her head towards the comment, "Hey, Justin!"
John's head shot up and he smirked.
The 5'7" eighteen year old appeared beside her and ran a hand through his black, wavy hair, "Who's this?"
The 6'1" man reached up and took off his Red Sox hat, "John…" he extended his hand out and received a surprisingly strong handshake, "John Cena."
"Hey," Justin's aquamarine eyes glinted. "It's nice to meet you… my cousin's a huge fan."
"Thanks," the elder man nodded.
"Kate," her longtime crush flashed a smile her way, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming today?"
"Last minute decision," she shrugged innocently.
John shook his head as he took a seat and smiled to himself, Look at her work him over.
"I'm assigned to lanes 23 and 24, so I guess I'll be seeing you for a little while then, huh?" Justin asked her, crossing in front of her to his own lane.
"Yeah," she smiled back at him, "Definitely."
After about forty minutes, John looked up at the screen above the lanes and grinned as the final scored flashed on the screen.
KJ – 246
VD – 187
Kate shook her opponent's hand and smiled at John, "I'm going to go wait on the line for the snack bar and get some water, you want anything?"
"I'll take some water too, thanks," he replied and watched as Justin finished his game on the other lane.
JB – 221
MM – 217
Justin turned around to say something to Kate on the other lane, but found that she was no where to be seen, "Hey, have you seen Kate?"
"She went to the snack bar," the older man informed him and waved him closer. "Let me talk to you for a minute, man."
"Um… okay," the eighteen year old agreed and sat down on the large bench opposite the table. "What's up?"
"You like her, don't you?"
She is going to kill me for this.
"Well," Justin smiled to himself and ran a hand through his hair, "I… uh… yeah."
"Then what are you waiting for?" John eyed him, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his chest.
"To figure out if she likes me," he responded quickly.
The wrestler shook his head and laughed, "Dude, are you that blind? She's diggin' you… it's pretty obvious."
"Not to me… wait. How do you know?"
"Like I said, it's pretty obvious," John raised his eyebrows to try and imply what he was really saying.
"Oh… OH," the younger male nodded in firm understanding. "Gotcha."
"So are you going to do something about it?" John challenged the muscular teenager.
"Not at this particular moment, but yeah," Justin nodded. "I will."
"Good," John assured him, just as Kate returned with two bottles of water, one for herself and one for John.
"Hey, what'd I miss?" she tilted her head to the side as she handed John his bottle.
"Not much," he informed her. "Justin won his match."
"Congrats," Kate grinned at him and gave him a quick hug, causing him to smile behind her back. "That's awesome."
"I see you won too," he squeezed her slightly, "Great job."
"Thanks," she nodded and looked behind John to see an older man posting the new set of matches. "Ah, schematics. Well, good luck in the rest of the tournament. I'll see you later alright?" she smiled at him and then headed off for the list.
Justin let out an exhale of breath and shook his head, "Women."
John chuckled, "Damn straight."
"Hey, John?" Kate asked her friend as she sat down at the kitchen table, where he was reading the newspaper.
"Yeah?" he replied, not looking up from the sports section.
"Thanks."
"For what?" he finally glanced up at the blonde.
"For not embarrassing me," she blushed. "I appreciate it."
John waved her off, "Don't worry about it. Listen," he put down the paper, "Do you think you could do me a favor next Sunday?"
"Um… maybe. I have midterms," she chewed on her bottom lips, "But food science is the next day, so yeah. Probably. What is it?"
"I need you to come to New York with me," John leveled with her. "I can't tell you why yet, as nothing's final, but… do you think you could?"
"I'm sure it'd be fine with my mom. She loves you anyway," Kate laughed and adjusted the cuff of her Rutgers sweatshirt. "Why New York?"
"Kate," the blue-eyed man sighed. "I can't tell you."
"Oh… right," she looked down and then back up again. "Well, I'm going to start dinner for when Mom gets home. We'll ask her then, okay?"
John nodded in agreement, "Okay."
"Morning, sleepyhead," John laughed, drinking from his glass of orange juice as Kate dragged herself into the kitchen, a complete reversal of the previous morning.
"Shut up, Cena," she muttered, reaching for a bowl in the cabinet.
"Oooh… temper, temper," he wagged a finger and her. "You ready for school?"
"Fuck. School," she replied through gritted teeth as she poured herself a bowl of cereal.
"Come on Kate," he continued to chuckle as he brought a forkful of eggs to his mouth. "It can't be that bad."
Kate shot him a glare, "Excuse me?"
John looked down at his plate and began stirring the eggs in a circle, "Maybe not."
The younger person snorted, "That's what I thought."
Kate sighed in relief as she opened her locker door and noticed there was no Mallory in sight.
"Oh, Jackson…" a sing song voice called from the classroom beside her row of lockers.
Fuck.
"Mallory," she forced a pained grin and looked behind her. "How are you today?"
"Just great," the girl bubbled and pulled out a copy of Star Magazine from her bag. "Especially since your darling John Cena was caught out with a mystery babe in New York City this weekend. Here, look," she thrust the tabloid at the natural blonde.
Kate glanced skimmed over the page with her hazel eyes.
Sure enough, there was a picture of John Cena dining with a blonde whose back was to the camera and therefore unrecognizable.
"Allow me to read for you," Mallory sneered and ripped the magazine from her grasp. "Ehem," she cleared her throat and then pressed on. "Former WWE Champion John Cena was caught dining with a woman at an unidentifiable restaurant over the weekend and an anonymous onlooker states that "they looked closer than just mere acquaintances." This comes as a surprise, especially considering Cena recently got engaged to his longtime girlfriend."
"I'm so glad you're more interested in his personal life than I am," Kate retorted with an annoyed chuckle.
"Aww, poor Katie. Is Prince Charming not what you expected," her enemy teased her, sticking out her lower lip for effect and then cackling. "Here," she threw it at her feet, before turning on her heels, with Alexa not far behind, "You can keep it!"
Kate sighed as she picked up the magazine from her feet and stared at the picture.
"I'd recognize that brown sweater anywhere."
A/N: Okay, so I don't know if you guys have seen my profile recently on this site, but before you proceed, you must look at it… the update for 1/30/08 anyway.
Yeah… that's right. I messaged John on his apparently official, new myspace and despite his non-communication policy, he wrote me back.
I wrote him a message about my surgery and how his road to recovery inspired me… and I must admit, it was a DAMN GOOD letter.
Here's what he wrote.
"Danielle,
Even though I only have a few moments on here, I'm going against my non-communicating rule for one minute. Your message touched me and I am glad that I could help you through your rehabilitation process. I know that an ACL injury is something that most have trouble dealing with. Especially that painful therapy process but I have to say you sound like a very strong young woman. I wish you the best and I hope you are fully recovered soon. Stay strong… and stay sweet. And don't let anything get you down for long, not even an injury like that. We just have to look at them as obstacles we have to overcome to reach our final destination.
Take care,
John"
I seriously almost died when I read that AOL Mail was saying that I had a message from John Cena in my Myspace inbox.
Seriously, my stories are starting to predict the future and it's scaring me to DEATH.
Um... and I apologize for the massive amount of dialogue, but my muse ran wild today. And my mind's running at 1000 mph at the moment.
Anyway, shout outs:
Cassymae, goddessofthenite, giftiebee, Enigmatic Lotus Leaf, JCEdgeRKO, I'm.Totally.Fxcking.Awesome, faxness-rulz, Johnny, xxwithlovexx, littleone999, pinkshadow89, SKYE-07, WWESupernatural102292, jada951, JessieStarr, miniature-hero, 101mizzpoet101, Fozzy-Floozy, Queen Chaos-Hardy, Lilmisshardygirl, and MissyKate21 (kind of hard to be Kate now, isn't it? Hehe).
God damn, I'm on cloud nine.
Review as always!
Danielle