Trading Heartbeats

Chapter 21 - Surprise, Surprise

The night of the RAW house-show progressed on flawlessly; each superstar had performed just as they were supposed to. All except for one, who hadn't shown up to the house-show any at all; one who had been sitting on his hotel suite bed and looking at the suitcase he was supposed to be packing. Lying there in bed, turned on his side, his blue/green eyes refocused themselves onto the clock on his bedside table. The time had now been 8:30pm. Good, he thought, he still had time. Shifting his position on the bed to lying down on his back, Cody stared up at the ceiling watching the dried paint peel into various shapes. With a sigh, he thought back to last night. CM Punk strolled past him carelessly as if nothing had been wrong. Cody could remember the anger and animosity he'd felt as he watched that destroyer waltz past him without even the slightest look of regret on his face.

Even now, just the thought of him had made Cody's blood boil and his fingers curl up into a fist. Considering the time he would take to ponder the disturbing occurrence, he found himself wrapped up in more questions than thoughts. Had he still loved Amelia? No, he couldn't. Not after what she'd done … then why was he so concerned when he'd heard she hadn't made it to the airport with her friends or when she'd run away from her apartment. Was he truly mad at Amelia? Well, of course! She'd had sex with another man, she'd cheated on him; that wasn't something you couldn't be mad at. He paused before wondering again. Although, what if it's the case where … she'd been taken advantage of? Was she still to blame? After all, she did try to call him. He remembered his phone being blown up seven times by her name and number that night.

Then suddenly, a thought had struck him. He could feel his blood running cold through his veins as he asked himself the final question. Had he done something wrong? Was it maybe his fault that she'd run away? What if he'd taken her phone call? Despite whatever she may have told him, he would surely tell her that there was still a place for her at their house in Marietta. Or would he? Would it have made a difference if he'd answered? Or would it have gotten severely worse - even though, with the circumstances they were facing, it didn't seem like it could. Cody rolled over onto his side once more, keeping his back to the light and staring at the light blue wall, deep in thought.

It had been 8 months since the incident, and everything had seemed to settle out perfectly. He'd been standing in front of his house in Marietta with two suitcases clutched in his hands. He looked up at one of the windows of the house - one of the bedroom's windows - only to have a wide smile stretch across his face. The window opened, and a girl with long, flowing, red hair and brilliant green eyes, dressed in a crème coloured, long-sleeved dress had peered out of it equally smiling with Cody. Suddenly, the girl had turned away from the window. Cody could hear the sound of footsteps running down the staircase. As he turned his gaze towards the door, he dropped his suitcases almost immediately as the girl had raced out through the door barefooted and flung her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply. Cody wrapped his arms around her waist securely as he, too, kissed back with intensity. Their kiss had grown warmer and deeper with every second they'd spent there.

As the kiss prolonged, however, Cody could feel it growing faint, airy almost. Opening his eyes from the kiss, he watched as something exceptionally unusual had begun to happen; the redheaded girl had begun to vanish in his arms. Cody, panicking, had strengthened his grip and tried to pull the girl towards him only to be left hugging himself. His heart had pounded against his chest with a great force as he tried to make sense of this situation. "Amelia," he shouted as he looked around at the trees and house worriedly. He sprinted off, with incredible speed, into the trees that surrounded the house, weaving his way around the fallen tree trunks and piles of leaves. "Amelia," he shouted even louder this time as he stopped. His chest heaved as he looked around at the many trees with panic, worry, concern and fear etched upon his face. Just as he'd opened his mouth to shout again, a chilling sound had stopped him. "Cody," a passive voice had seemed to whisper to him. Cody turned his head in every direction looking for the source of the sound.

"Cody," the voice spoke to him a bit louder this time coming from the direction of the house. Cody sprinted off back towards the house, nearly tripping on rocks and stones and running through piles of leaves. As he reached back at his house, however, what he saw next had sent a shiver down his spine. Standing there, with a smug smirk playing on his lip-ringed lips, was a devious-looking CM Punk. Cody wanted to just leap at him and tear him to shreds, however, he was … petrified. Punk chuckled at Cody's inability to move. Suddenly, Cody watched Punk raise a lit match and toss it through the opened door and onto the wooden floor of the house. A giggle had pervaded the air. As Cody looked up, his senses following the sound, he saw Amelia there in the bedroom, as she had once been, waving at him with a smile on her face.

"Get out," he shouted at her; suddenly, Cody watched as the fire continue to spread throughout the house. Looking through the window, he watched as the stairs had become engulfed in flames. He looked back up at Amelia who was still waving and giggling at him. "Get out," he shouted at her still trying to gain mobility in his body. To no avail, he remained in that spot, petrified. Tears had begun to sting his eyes as he watched helplessly as the house was engulfed in fire and crumbled almost instantly.

Just as suddenly as the house had crumbled, Cody had fallen to his hands and knees - tears, spewing out of his eyes and hatred, quickening his heartbeat. Cody clutched onto the grass looking up, his eyes with fire dwelling inside of them, at the chuckling CM Punk who, just as Amelia had, had begun to fade away. Cody stayed there, in that position, with tears running down his face. He'd lost everything … Punk had destroyed everything. He'd taken Amelia from him.

Suddenly, something had shoved against him. Cody had jumped into reality. It was all … a dream, he thought to himself. "Cody, are you okay," a woman with a British accent asked. Cody jumped a bit realizing he'd not been alone. Looking up at the woman, he'd realized it to be a familiar face … a very familiar face. Her mouse-brown, straight bangs had nearly grown past her eyes which were filled with concern and worry. He stared up at his ex-girlfriend and WWE diva, Layla El.

"I-I'm fine, Layla," Cody stuttered as he sat himself up. This was the last thing he needed … complication. "Um, I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but how did you get in here," Cody asked as he looked at her. Layla merely blushed a bit before stepping back.

"You, well … you dropped your key outside," Layla answered. Cody raised one eyebrow.

"You could've knocked," he mumbled stiffly.

"Oh, but I did; then, when you didn't answer, I got worried, so I came to check on you - see if everything was alright," she answered with a slight smile. Cody returned a small polite smile. He then turned his gaze to the lamp. What had she even come to his door for, anyways? "Are you sure you're alright, Cody," she asked uneasily. Cody looked back at her.

"Hm? Oh," he paused, "yes." Layla looked at him unsurely then took a deep breath before continuing on.

"Um, Cody … there was a reason why I'd actually wanted to talk to you," she began. Cody looked up at her curiously. A slight smirk had come onto her face from the attention, "Well … I heard that something had gone wrong with your past relationship, and I know it's none of my concern, but as a friend," she stressed, "I figured I should be there for you, if you need a talk." She gently sat herself down beside Cody on the bed. Cody merely looked at her blankly. He didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell her that just her mere presence had made him uncomfortable, and that he was fine and didn't need anyone's help, but he figured, partly due to the fact that she was a wrestler herself, he should let her down easy.

"Th-Thanks, Layla," he told her, "but, it's alright. I've got everything under control." Layla raised one eyebrow.

"It didn't seem like it," she persisted referencing the dream.

"But really, everything's -" his sentence had been broken midway by the sudden clash of Layla's lips on his. Cody, stunned at this gesture, stared at her blankly as the kiss continued. Layla pulled away after a couple minutes of intensely kissing Cody. Without even looking at Cody, she dropped the key on the bed and left the suite. Cody sat there absolutely stunned. Had Layla just…? Yes. Had she really…? Yes. Did he want that? No … well, maybe. He hadn't known. At this point, Cody had been confused; between deciphering his dream and deciphering how he felt about Layla's motives, his head was in a tizzy. As he glanced over at the clock, he sprang up out of his bed immediately and piled in the remainder of his possessions. It was now way passed the time he was supposed to leave for the airport. As he bustled out of the hotel and scrambled into the car, Cody had sped off down to the airport.

Thankfully, he'd got there just in the nick of time. After presenting his ticket to the employee, he was allowed on the plane. With ease, he found his seat in first class and seated himself down in it. Using the time before boarding to catch his breath, Cody stared out at the star-lit sky. As the plane had taken off, Cody sunk himself down in his seat and leaned his head on his own shoulder. He could feel the weight on his eyelids increase as he begun to think of the recent happenings - his bizarre dream and … Layla. Realizing that it'd be best if he would push those thoughts aside and relieve his eyelids of the struggle to stay open, he drifted off to sleep.

An entire week had passed after the incident between himself and Amelia. Punk, who had now been gathering up his possessions and going down to check out of the hotel, was still focused on his original game plan - to win Khaila back. With this thought permanently stuck in his mind, Punk entered into the lobby and swiftly checked out without a problem. As he packed up his luggage into the back of the car, he buckled himself in and sped off down the street to the airport. The sky was a light grey colour and there hadn't been any sun out in Lafayette today, he noted as he continued driving down to the airport. A small smirk had begun to sprawl across Punk's face as he realized the perfection of his plan; even though, he hadn't had a fully-detailed one yet, it was bound to be fool-proof. After all, I am CM Punk, he thought to himself.

After several minutes, Punk had driven all the way to the airport and boarded onto his plane. Within seconds, the plane had taken off and Punk was not only on his way back home, but on his way to fulfilling his plan.

It's been an entire week, Khaila thought to herself as she lay in her bed staring up at the ceiling. She still hadn't taken the pregnancy test that she'd bought yet. There was no doubt that she'd felt even stranger during the course of this week though. She'd been hungry every moment of the day, and she'd thrown up at considerable intervals during the week. Something had still caused her to doubt all of this though; she wondered whether or not she'd willed herself into any of it. Could she have? Would she? She had to find out. She needed to put all this worrying to an end. She looked at her bathroom door which had been wide open. Slowly, she sat herself up and got to her feet. Making her way over to the bathroom, she locked the door behind her and opened the drawer she'd stowed the pregnancy test in.

Khaila took a deep breath as she opened it up. In a few minutes, she'd left it there on a towel waiting for its results. Unlocking the bathroom door, she paced around her bedroom glancing up at the clock every 15 seconds or so awaiting the results. Who knew five minutes could take so long? Just then, a knock had sounded at the door. Thank God, Khaila thought to herself, at least I'll have Brittany and Sonelle to keep me company. Reaching the door, she turned the knob and opened it. As she had done this, however, her expression had changed from anxious to thunderstruck. The stranger at the door gave her one of his smug lip-ringed lipped smirks as he opened his arms and said, "Surprise, surprise."