Chapter 7
Strawberry Swisher Pt.1

Never in a million years would Candice have thought that her trip to Matt's room to talk would have ended with them having sex. But the truth was, she was currently laid out on Matt's chest trying her hardest to dig up some type of regret for what she had done, but the truth was she couldn't muster any up. As screwed up as it was, she didn't regret sleeping with her ex-boyfriend all the while cheating on her current boyfriend who was the brother to her ex-boyfriend. All she could think of was how great the sex was and how much she missed him.

She was seriously screwed up in the head, she knew it. But she wished that she could just look into her heart or mind and pick which brother she loved more and be with him. But it wasn't that simple. Even if she did know who she wanted to be with, it still left one of them with a broken heart.

If her life were a movie, instead of fighting over her or choosing between them, they would all realize that things were just too crazy and she would back off and settle down with some guy in her life that she hadn't paid much attention to. Or she would be the selfless angel and tell them that their relationship as brothers was worth more than any of their romantic relationships and would try to find who she really was without a man. And then some time later, she would realize who she really loved just as he moved on and the other brother would help her get back the man she loved.

But sadly her life wasn't some Hollywood romantic comedy. Instead it was her crazy reality. Her crazy screwed up unbelievable reality.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a sharp bang on the door. She looked up at Matt, but he was still completely out of it. She sat quiet and still hoping that whoever was at the door at such a godforsaken hour would leave, but it came again this time incessantly. She began to roughly shake Matt.

"Ungrh." She had no idea what the noise was supposed to mean, but she just shook him harder.

"Matt, someone's at the door." She whispered it directly into his ear and continued to shake him.

"Go open it then." He rolled over to his other side in an attempt to get away from her rough shaking.

"What the hell? I can't open the door naked, to your room. What if it's Maria, oh God, it's Jeff. He knows! How the hell does he know?" Candice said in a rough whisper and instantly shot up and began picking up her clothes and putting them on as fast as she could.

Matt groggily sat up on the bed and groped around in the floor for his boxers. When he found them he put them on and walked over to Candice. "It's probably nothing, if it is Jeff; he doesn't know there is no way in hell that he could know. Now go hide in the bathroom." He then walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. "Shit it is Jeff. Go get your ass in the bathroom!" Candice didn't need to be told twice and she made a beeline for the bathroom and quickly shut the door behind her. He heart felt as if it was trying to beat right out of her chest.

She should have known that she couldn't get away with sleeping with Matt again. She paced the bathroom for a couple of seconds before she realize that Matt and Jeff were out there and she had no clue what they were talking about. So she quickly glued her ear to the door and tried her best to listen in on their conversation. She couldn't hear it all because they were talking low and it was all muffled.

"…You…here…my room…" That sounded like Matt.

"I…..favorite….room." She guessed that was Jeff but from the bits she was getting the conversation didn't seem to make much sense. She heard a large crash and a thud followed by laughter.

"…Telll me …..drunk?" Matt again.

"Possibly…okay…..go back…see….like this." Only hearing part of the conversation was only making her angrier because she still had no clue what they were talking about and it made her imagination run wild. So Candice just plopped down on the edge of the tub waiting for Matt to come in and tell her when the coast was clear for her to leave.

That time came around fifteen minutes later. He entered the bathroom and quietly shut the door. Candice looked up at him and he smiled at her.

"Why are you grinning?" She whispered it again still unsure if the coast was clear for them.

"I just can't believe this shit." He walked over to the toilet, put the lid down and sat down with his head in his hands.

"What happened, why was he here?" Her leg began to jiggle nervously. She hated to admit it to herself, but for a while, she was sure that Matt would tell Jeff what had happened just to spite him and one up him. It wasn't likely, but she didn't put it past him completely, and that scared her, the thought that because of her, they wouldn't be as close as they once were. She felt like a home wrecker.

"He's drunk. That's why he's here. He passed out on the arm chair after I made him drink two bottles of water." Candice finally exhaled the breath she didn't know she had been holding. "He didn't want you to see him while he's so far gone. So he asked if he could crash here." Candice rested her back against the wall and gave Matt a smile of her own. She understood what Matt meant when he said that he couldn't believe what kind of night they had gotten themselves in to.

"So he's out there sleeping? I mean I appreciate his concern about me seeing him, but I've seen Jeff drunk plenty of times. But I guess better he be here, than to have gone back to our room and have seen I wasn't there." She could see Matt's demeanor change from relaxed to stiff in seconds.

"He's like really bad. He could barely stand and was just a mess. Worst I've ever seen him. But I guess we should get you out of here. It won't take much because he's out cold." Matt stood up and walked over to the door and was out of it before she could even respond to what he said.

When they walked back out to the room Candice looked over to the arm chair where Jeff was sprawled out on. He wasn't in it properly. He was laid out across it with one leg across the back of the chair and one in the front on the floor. All Candice could think was how cute he looked.

She quickly went around the room and started picking up the pieces of clothing that she had forgotten in her rush to the bathroom. When she was sure she had everything she turned to see where Matt was but he simply walked over to the door.

Regret and nervousness quickly settled deep in her stomach. She wasn't prepared for whatever talk they were going to have to have about what they did and what it meant.

It was silent on the walk back to her room, but once they reached the door she turned around to prepare for whatever was about to happen. They were silent and she looked at anything but him. She had to say something the silence was killing her. Especially because he was leaned up against the wall with an unreadable expression on his face staring at her.

"Well Matt, I-" Before she could even get it out, he stopped her.

"Candice, we can talk about this some other time. Just go get some sleep; I know you don't want to do this now." He looked at her, and the look said everything that he didn't. The look said how betrayed and hurt he was. It told her how much he missed her, and most of all it told her how much he still loved her. It made her heart clinch and it took everything inside of her not to drag him in to her room for another round. Instead she leaned up and kissed him and instantly his arms were around her. The kiss didn't last long. It was simple and sweet and when it was over she whispered a quiet goodnight, and practically ran into her room. She hated feeling so confused about her life and so much like a slut.

The next morning when Maria woke up, she had a large grin on her face. She had hardly been able to sleep from the pure excitement and euphoria coursing through her veins after spending time with John.

She couldn't believe how well 'Make John See How Beautiful I Am Compared to the Troll Michelle' was working. She never would have guessed things would move as quickly as they had. But she was glad for it, because it meant that finally John would be free from the grips of the evil Michelle.

Still laid out in her bed even though it was close to eleven in the morning, Maria closed her eyes and once again relived the events from the previous night.

Last Night

Maria ran around her room doing some last minute surface cleaning making sure everything was in order. The last thing she wanted was for John to come in and see random clothes strewn around and think she was a pig. Or see her comfort over cute panties and think that she wore granny panties all of the time. It was just sometimes when her skin became irritated with lace. And they were comfy!

She nearly jumped out of her skin when there was a knock on her door. She quickly gave her self and the room a once over to make sure everything was in order and went over to answer the door.

When she opened the door she made sure that her grin was a friendly one and not a creepy one that gave away how excited she was to see him. They greeted each other and she stepped aside so he could enter her room. He walked in and took at seat on her bed and she tried not to squeal.

"Is there anything I can get you? Water? Whatever's in the mini-fridge?" He laughed and declined her offer.

That left her awkwardly standing by the door as they stared at each other. She was nervous. She had proven before that whenever she got around him and talked, out came one of her crazy rants. She didn't want to embarrass herself again by going off on a tangent about something he didn't give two shits about, but the silence was killing her. It was slowly eating away at her like those vulture birds that slowly picked away at the dead bodies of poor animals. She felt like the dead animal and John was slowly picking away at her with his strong gaze. Oh what she would do for him to pick away at her clothes. She could already envision those abs through his shirt as if she had x-ray vision. All those nights of seeing him shirtless around the area definitely were working against her now because thinking about that beautifully sculpted chest was making her mind go blank. But it was just any type of mind blank. But the type where nothing was in there except for that image and fantasies about what she could do to that sculpted chest as he sat on her bed. Her bed! John Cena was on her bed! Why hadn't she jumped him yet?

"You okay?" She quickly snapped out of her thoughts and looked at John's face. He looked a little apprehensive now. She cursed herself for scaring him without even saying or doing anything.

"Yeah I'm fine why do you ask?" She slowly walked over to the bed and sat down a good five feet away from him.

"You just got this glazed over look in your eyes; I wasn't sure what was happening."

"Oh it was nothing. Just got lost in my thoughts, but anyway, what should we do? Did you have anything in particular in your mind?" She looked at him and this time made sure that her gaze stayed on his face. Not that it was any easier to keep focus. His eyes were so blue like the clear sky in the summer, but later in the day when the sun wasn't completely set, but it was far enough out of the sky that all of the gold and orange was gone. And those lips…she mentally gave her head a shake. She really had to stop.

"Well no, nothing in particular. It's just everyone's going out to that stupid club down the street and I just really don't want to be around so many people right now." Maria couldn't help but smile. He didn't want to be around so many people her ass. He wanted to get away from the evil troll! She would have loved to have pounced on him at that very moment, but she knew it wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do.

Yeah she wanted to make sure that John and Michelle would break up, but she didn't want Michelle to break up with John because she found out he was fooling around with Maria. She wanted John to see the evil ways of Michelle and then break up with her, because if he was doing the breaking up, he wouldn't need any post-relationship recovery time. He would be able to quickly jump right into a relationship with Maria, and then things would be simple and all would be perfect in her life.

So she knew that before anything could happen John would always need an alibi and a strong one in case Michelle got suspicious and started questioning things. Thankfully Maria had thought ahead on this one and came up with possible alibis and places where she and John could be alone and still fool around in her guide book to operation 'Make John See How Beautiful I Am Compared to the Troll Michelle'.

"We can go see a movie; I saw a theater not too far from here earlier." She knew it was perfect for him. It was dark so no one would be able to see them, and it gave him a reason to not be in his room when Michelle returned.

"That sounds like a good idea." He smiled and they both stood up and walked over to the door.

Present Day

Maria could hardly remember the title of the movie they had seen. They had picked a random film that looked bad with the hopes that it would be less people in the theater with them. They were right as there was only three other people in the theater. At first they were both unsure as to who was going to make the first move. Maria didn't want to because she didn't want to be wrong about what John had wanted, and he was unsure if she knew what his intentions were. But soon that was all forgotten and once the first move was made, they proceeded to make out for the rest of the move and through all of the credits.

She was still very much in disbelief about what had taken place. She had made out with and had been groped by John Cena! And it hadn't been a dream. She had a couple of hickeys very low down in her cleavage to prove it.

Finally after reliving her night for about the hundredth time she decided it was finally time to get out of her bed and shower. She had to find Candice or any of her close friends to tell them how much of a success her operation was. But before she could take two steps towards her bathroom, there was a knock on her door.

She quickly went over to open it hoping it was John. She was slightly disappointed when it was only Matt, but she wasn't that disappointed because it meant that she had someone to spill her night to.

"Matt you wouldn't believe the night I had last night!" She was practically bouncing with excitement. But it seemed that he didn't even pay attention to anything she had said. He just paced back and forth around her room.

"Maria, Candice and I had sex last night." He stopped pacing and stared at her and she just started back at him unsure if she had heard right.

"Wait does this mean that you guys are back together? Because you guys getting back together would fix things? Right?" It was his turn to stare at her. Maria just sat back down on her bed because something told her this was going to take some time.

"I don't know what it means. I told her we could talk about it later because I don't even know what I want any more." He went back to pacing.

"What do you mean you don't know what you want? Last week you were in my room crying your eyes out talking about how much you missed her and wanted her back. Last night you had sex with her, but suddenly today you don't know what you want anymore?" Maria was very confused. It seemed like her friends changed their emotions towards each other more often than high school teenagers towards the latest fads. Matt glared at her for the crying part she guessed as he stopped his pacing.

"For the record I wasn't crying, there was something in my eye. But I love Candice. Of course I do, that's not just going to go away. But last night she came to my room to talk and my mind was screaming at me how bad she screwed me over. She's dating my brother! But then another part reminded me that while Jeff continuously poured his heart out to me about how he felt for her, I was dating her. So I'm also at fault for this. But I can't just sit back and watch her be with some other guy. But I have to watch it because he's my brother and I already betrayed him once. But the fact that she can be with me in one breath, and then just go and be with Jeff in the next and still come back, have sex with me and still be with Jeff, it just makes me not want to be with her. It's gross to think I'm sharing her with my brother." By the end of his rant, Matt had gone back to pacing.

"Okay, let me get this straight. You love Candice, but at the same time, you kind of hate her because she's still leading you on, but at the end of the day goes home to Jeff." Matt nodded and Maria cocked her head to the side like a confused dog. "Matt, I don't know what to tell you. I mean I understand you love her, and Candice is my best friend, but you can't just sit back and take it while she plays you like a yo-yo. Just step back and figure out what you want without sex clouding your mind." He sighed and turned towards her.

"Why is this so complicated? It would be easier to just hate her or just love her rather than feeling both. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it." Then he was out of the door just as fast as he had stormed in.

Maria frowned realizing that while she listened to Matt rant, she hadn't been able to tell him about her wonderful night. She shrugged and continued with her trip to the bathroom to shower. She wasn't going to let the Matt, Candice and Jeff triangle ruin the high she was still on. But her friends seriously needed to get their shit together. While it was quite entertaining seeing as it was pretty much a real life harlequin novel, it wasn't as enjoyable because someone was going to end up hurt and her friends weren't as fun when they had their own problems to deal with.

AN: This chapter is longer but I cut it because as I was writing it, this seemed like a good point to end this chapter. Once again I hope the length of the chapter makes up for the time between updates. The next chapter should be up sometime next week. I love writing this story because it's very easy to write because it's pretty light and simple. Also I am very ahead on Why Should I Care. I got a renewed intrest when I found theme songs to the whole Candice/Matt/Jeff triangle. I stumbled upon the songs when searching for what to name this chapter after. The songs fit perfectly and it excites me a lot that it happened unintentionally even though I loved the songs forever. I hope you liked this chapter! Review and tell me what you think so far!