"Do ya feel better hun?" Joe asked, in a slurred voice. We'd been at the bar a couple hours now, and we were both pretty trashed.
"I don't feel anything." I tell him with a smirk.
"Don't lie to yourself." He states, throwing back another shot of tequila.
"Go easy on the tequila Joe, makes your clothes fall off." I tease him. "I don't want to think about how sad I am right now, or how much my life sucks. But I'm glad I have a friend like you." I add. "Can I get another Southern Comfort and Coke please?" I ask the bartender who smiles and nods.
"You know I'm here for you whenever you need me." He assures me. "I think Jon could be a good guy, and I think he has been a good guy for you but he's still part douche bag." He chuckles.
"Can we stop talking about it?" I ask him hopefully.
"Yeah. Sorry, I'll shut up." He mutters. He runs his hand over his face and glances at me, his eyes roaming over my face. "But you deserve better, you should know that." He states.
"Joe... You're drunk." I sigh.
"Just because I'm drunk doesn't mean I don't mean everything I say to you." He says, narrowing his eyes at me.
"I'm about to cut you off." I tell him raising my eyebrow in his direction.
"Psh." He scoffs. He picks up his beer and nurses on it, glancing up at the TV as if something interesting was on it. "You know I've had it bad for you for a long time." He murmurs, still looking at the TV.
"Joe, you're going to confess your undying love to me in my fragile state?" I ask him. I suck down half of my drink and look over at him.
"I'm an asshole." He shrugs.
"You're not an asshole." I laugh. "Would have been nice if you'd have said something freaking sooner, like before you started bringing Jon around." I add with a shrug. I could see myself with Joe. He'd never lead on that he was interested so I didn't bother.
"You know how well I am with women." He says.
"Yeah but I should be different." I tell him, "You've known me for like 4 years." I add.
"Which makes it so much harder!" He exclaims. "But now you know. I'm not encouraging you to be finished with Jon, I think you're great for him and I've seen how happy he makes you. Just know that I could make you happy too if you gave it a shot." He shrugs.
"Lets go home." I sigh.
"Because you're uncomfortable?" He asks, those intense gray eyes focusing on me.
"No, because I'm tired. And drunk." I smirk. "So lets go drive home, trashed." I mutter, shaking my head.
"You're a better drunk driver than me." He states, handing me the Range Rover keys. "We should have taken a cab." He says, sliding into the passenger seat of the truck.
"We'll be fine. It'll be like old times." I shrug, turning over the Rover. A few years ago when I'd first met Joe we'd go to Johnny's on my nights off, get totally hammered then go booze drive the dirt roads. Yeah, it was dangerous, reckless and stupid but we did it anyway.
"Those were the fun nights." He chuckles. "God we were dumb." He adds.
"We're still kinda dumb." I admit. We make it home in one piece thankfully, and I sigh when I dig through my bag.
"What's wrong?" He chuckles, watching me with an amused look.
"Oh, I packed this bag while I was balling and I didn't do an awesome job." I shrug. "Let me borrow a tshirt?" I ask him.
"Like you have to ask." He tells me, pulling off the one his was wearing and tossing it to me. "We don't have a spare room, you want me to sleep on the couch?" He offers.
"No, I don't want you to sleep on the fucking couch Joe. It's just going to be like, really really old times." I tell him, pulling back the covers and sliding under them.
"I'll be there in a few, I'm going to clean up the kitchen. Josh and Jay will be home tomorrow, they'll be pissed if I leave the kitchen like that." He tells me, pointing a thumb behind him.
"Alright." I murmur, turning onto my side and pulling the covers up to my chin. I hit the center button on my phone, hoping that I'd gotten a message from Jon but the only thing that lit up was my lock screen. Should I text him and way I was sorry? But I'm not sorry, I haven't done anything wrong. But god, I missed him something awful.
"How long are you going to be mad at me?" Text to Jon.
I left the window open. The message delivered and I watched it change to 'read' and waited for a reply. Nothing came.
"That's fine." Text to Jon.
After that I locked the screen and plugged it in, setting it on the nightstand next to me. My eyes were closed when Joe came into the room but I wasn't sleeping. Instead I was silently crying, no sobs, just quiet tears running down my face and soaking my pillow. He slide into bed next to me and turned to face me. I opened my eyes to find him studying me face, a pained expression on his own.
"Annabelle..." He murmurs softly, reaching up and wiping the tears from my cheeks.
"I texted him, twice. He ignored them both." I whisper with a sad smile.
"He'll realized what he did. It just might take a bit longer this time." He tells me. "Come here." He smiles slipping an arm under my neck and pulling my body against him. I suck in a shaky breath and rest my head on his chest.
"Night." I mumble as I secured an arm around his stomach.
"Good night." He rumbles in response.
***...***...***...***
"You coming with us to the water park?" Josh asks from the kitchen. I'd been planted on the couch most of the morning watching Ghost Adventure reruns. "Come on girl, your ass has made a permanent indent in that couch." He adds with a chuckle.
"Come on Bananabelle, it'll fun." Joe encourages me.
"Listen, she's coming. She doesn't get a choice, don't pretend like she does." Jay laughs, walking in with his trunks on.
"Don't make me be the only girl." Trinity begs me, flopping down on the couch next to me. "You gotta stop thinking about him girl... It's been almost two weeks." She says in a softer tone. Yep, you heard that right. I hadn't heard from Jon in two weeks.
"Alright, let me go get my bikini on." I sigh, pushing her legs off my lap.
"Damn!" Josh teases me when I come out of the bedroom in a pair of shorts and my black and pink bikini. Trinity gives him a smack and laughs. She was starting to grow on me, I got along with her really well. "What?! She looks good!" He defends himself.
"Are we ready then?" Jay asks.
"Lets float on the tubes for a while." Joe suggests when we get there. I don't respond, only nod my agreement with him. "I think it was good for you to leave your phone at home." He adds.
"No one calls me anyway." I shrug with a small smile. Joe grabs a double tube and we wade into the entrance of the lazy river. "I'm gonna fall on my face." I chuckle. He holds the tube in place while I fall down into it with a laugh.
"You used to be graceful." He tease me.
"Shut up." I grumble at him. I used my feet and pushed us off the wall and into the river area. "We can do this all day." I sigh, taking in the feeling of the sun on my skin.
"Your tan is fading." He comments.
"Yeah well, we can't all be a tanned Samoan god." I tease him making laugh out loud.
"I'm a god huh?" He grins.
"You could be." I nod. He gives me a mischievous look and swings us around. By the time I notice it's already to late and he's got me under a waterfall. Huge, heavy piles of water dumping all over my head. "No, no... I take it back." I glower at him. "You're not a god, you're an asshole."
"I try." He winks. "You look good wet." he adds with a chuckle. I only huff at him and scoop up some water in my hand, throwing it at him.
"That wasn't nice." He laughs, wiping it from his eyes.
"I don't play nice." I smirk at him. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head, kicking his feet up on the tube and closing his eyes. "Pretty brave, closing your eyes like that. We should go on the tube slide later." I suggest.
"They have the new one they just finished." He agrees. "Looks fun. You should go through that dark tube of death." He tells me with a smirk, eyes still closed.
"I don't think so." I say shaking my head furiously.
"No fun." He shrugs.
"I'm a lot of fun." I argue with him. He opens his eyes, watching me adjust on the tube so my bottom half is outside of it and my top half is leaning over onto his side. I run my fingers lightly over his bicep and grin with goosebumps form under my fingertips.
"Stop that..." He warns me.
"Who's no fun now?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.
"Oh, I'm tons of fun. Just wind me up." He winks. I roll my eyes and rest my head on my hands while we float in the cool water. "I think you should come to the show tomorrow night." He finally says after probably ten minutes of silence.
"I don't want to go." I tell him simply, shaking my head 'no'.
"You can't not go to shows just because you don't want to see him." He sighs. "Josh, Jay and Trin are going to be there tomorrow night. Hang out with Trin and Arieanna and if you see him, which yeah, you probably will don't let it bother you."
"Please don't make me go..." I plead with him.
"What are you scared of?" He asks, tilting his head at me. He was trying to understand, but I just didn't know how to word it. I was terrified to see Jon, I knew he didn't want to see me and I didn't want to face his wrath again.
"What if he yells at me again?" I ask him.
"He isn't going to yell at you. Hell, he probably won't even look at you. Not with me around anyway." He assures me. "Plus I'm wrestling, please say you'll go."
"Ok. I'll go." I finally cave to his request.
"The girls will make sure you're so busy that you won't even have time to look around you." He says.
***...***...***...***
"Oh my god, I've missed you so much!" Kelly exclaims, wrapping her arms around me. He was there. Standing with Colby a few feet away, but I wasn't going to look at him. "Are you living with Joe now?" She asks.
"I don't know what's going on right now." I tell her honestly. "They all say they want me to move in, so I might." I add with a shrug. "How have things been?" I ask her. It's taking every ounce of self control to not glance behind her at Jon, who hadn't taken his eyes off me since I got there. Trinity helped me get ready tonight. She did my hair and make up, even though I was only in jeans and a tank top.
"Hey sweet cheeks." Colby greets me with a big grin.
"Hey Colb." I smile. "You wrestling tonight?" I ask him curiously.
"Yeah I'm tagging with Joe." He nods.
"Awesome." I tell him, looking back at Kelly. She gives me a sympathetic look, and glances behind me when Joe approaches.
"Girls are looking for you." Joe says, resting his hand reassuringly on the small of my back. "They're in catering." He adds. Out of the corner of my eye I see Jon glaring daggers at Joe, who is totally cool about the situation, completely ignoring him.
"Alright. You want to come and meet Trin and Arieanne?" I ask Kelly, nodding my head towards the hallway.
"Yeah, I'll be back." She says, glancing over her shoulder at Colby who only nods.
"Have fun." He tells her.
"Come with us." I say to Joe, pulling on his arm. I knew the second I walked away shit was going to hit the fan between him and Jon, and I didn't think that work was the right place for that.
"I'll catch up with you later." He replies, glancing between Jon and myself.
"Then I'm not going." I murmur, so only he can hear me. He sighs and looks down at me with one of his famous 'not amused' expressions. "I'm serious." I add.
"Meet you at the gorilla in a half hour?" He asks Colby.
"Yeah man." He agrees.
"Alright, lets go." He tells me, guiding me down the hallway by my shoulders. "What was that about?" He asks, raising an eyebrow at me once we were a good distance away.
"You and Jon were seconds from ripping into each other. It doesn't need to happen." I tell him with a shrug.
"Jon is Jon, it's something he thinks he needs to do." He responds.
"Yeah, but you're better than that." I say making him smile.
"I'm glad you think so." He says, pulling open the door for both Kelly and I to walk in.
"I'm moving in with the guys." I tell Kelly when we sit down. "I didn't want to tell you earlier because I didn't want to risk any kind of lashing." She gives me a disappointed look. "Kelly I've done everything I can. I've texted, I've called... I've showed up at the house twice and he's walked out both times. He doesn't want to talk to me." I shrug. "And I can't live with him if he can't even stand to look at me."
"I wish I had something encouraging to say... But he won't talk about you to either Colby or I." She sighs.
"Girl you need to move on. Find yourself a man that's going to treat you the way you need to be treated and you'll realize that Jon was just a stepping stone to a real relationship." Trinity pipes up.
"I hate to say that she's right, but I feel like if you guys were going to get back together you'd have made some kind of step towards that by now." Kelly says softly.
"Can you let me get over Jon first before you start talking about meeting other men?" I ask them. "I'm not instant." I shrug.
"You're going to be fine." Joe smiles, tugging gently on my pony tail.
"Thank you." I sigh. The next few minutes I listen to the girls talk, sipping every once in a while on my vitamin water and nibbling on the cheese and crackers on my plate.
"I've got to get to the gorilla. See you after the match." Joe tells me, pushing himself up from the table. His fingers run through my hair as he walks away and disappears out the doors.
"Like him." Trinity states. "The man is in love with you, and he's a good one. Scoop him up while you can." She says.
"Since when has Joe liked you?" Kelly asks obviously confused.
"Oh this a recent uncover." I tell her.
"Well I'm not going to say it's a bad idea." She replies. "I spent all last week trying to get Jon to talk to you, but a relationship isn't one sided and I feel like you're the only one trying at this point."
"I don't understand why everyone wants to talk about this. I came here because Joe begged me too, not to talk about or see Jon. In fact I didn't want to come out of fear I'd see him. It's to the point where I'm terrified to come face to face with him." I admit to them.
"We'll stop." Arieanne says. She had an understanding look on her face and I silently thanked her with my eyes. "She doesn't want to talk about it anymore." She adds, glowering at Trinity.
"I'm sorry. I'm pushy sometimes." Trinity tells me with a shrug.
"We should get drunk tonight." I tell them, trying to change the subject. "Girls night out or something." I suggest.
"That could be fun." Kelly grins in agreement.
"I'm totally down." Trinity nods. "Are we planning on leaving right from here?" She asks.
"Why not? We all look freaking hot as fuck." I shrug.
"Hell yeah we do!" Arieanne agrees.
"And that Voodoo night club is just a few blocks from here, they're supposed to have a good DJ tonight." Kelly adds.
"Alright then it's settled." Trinity says. "We can all crash at the guy's house if you need to." She adds, looking at Kelly.
"I'll probably have Colby pick me up after." She smiles.
"She can't spend a night without him if she tried." I laugh.
"Shut up!" She grins, giving me a shove.
A/N: Ok so the next chapter is mostly the girls night and I'm not going to tell you guys that Annabelle and Jon won't eventually work it out but until they do, who knows what I'll throw out there.