"Pride and Prejudice"
An Edge/Ashley fanfic

Thanks to Christal-R, xAttitudex, csimiamigirl73 and Kristin4 for reviewing last chapter, keep 'em coming! :)

Hope you like the new one as well,
R&R!


Chapter 38
"Not Listening"

Almost a whole week had passed by.

Five long days replaying the same scenes in her head over and over again.

The fake kiss in the video (but then again, was it?), the conversation with Kelly, the last time she had seen him.

During all their fairly brief relationship they had never spent so many days apart. Not even when they were physically forced to… there had always been phone calls and text messages to fill the space in between. And, most of all, the happy thought of seeing him again after their respective engagements.

And now… now it was all gone.

There was nothing to look forward to, no happy thought to cheer her up.

Only the hurt and the scorn of having been fooled like this.

Ashley let out a weary sigh as she entered the car, positioning herself in the passenger's seat.

In her entire career with the WWE she had never dreaded so much the getting back on the road for a new series of house shows and then the usual Smackdown! episode.

She was sure that by now Kelly had spread the word… every single person must know by now how stupid she had been.

And she just didn't want to see the sympathetic or mocking looks on their faces.

Poor little Ashley who believed she had finally found true love.

Stupid little Ashley who acted all tough on the outside and then had fallen in the most cliché of all situations… especially considering who she was with.

No, she already felt pathetic enough without having to get their silent reminder.

She already played in her mind all the moments they had shared together in those months every single day… every time feeling more and more like an idiot for having believed him.

How could have he pretended all those months? Why had he—oh, right. Cause after all he had obtained what he wanted only a week before or something like that. It must have been the challenge of making fall for him the only diva that wasn't already dying at his feet.

Plus, of course, the interesting detail of having once belonged to Matt. Was she ever going to erase that mark from herself? Always only a Lita substitute. How depressing.

Another sigh was in order at this point.

Yet why was he still searching for her?

What did he still want from her? Wasn't it enough without having to torment her with all those –obviously rejected- calls and –deleted without even being read- text messages?

Was it so fun to rip her heart into pieces?

She just wanted to forget… to escape all this…

How was she to meet him? Even just to see him passing in one of the next arena's corridors?

Especially cause, judging from his constant attempts of getting in contact with her in the last days nevertheless, she surely wasn't expecting him to keep his distance now that they were forced to be in the same building.

Thing that, at the moment, she dreaded the most.

It was too soon, too soon…

Too soon and too painful.

"It's going to be alright, you know? We're going to be there with you."

Brian's voice abruptly awoke the dirty diva from her reverie as he smiled at her from the backseat.

"I hope so Bri Bri," she offered him a weak smile "I just… I don't even know."

"Well you don't have to," Paul promptly added, his hands firm on the steering wheel "he tries to get next to you, we attack. Simple, really." He winked at her sideways, making her playfully roll her eyes as she relaxed in her seat a little bit.

She could have perfectly sworn that if it hadn't been for her friends right now she wouldn't have even been headed to the arena. Probably she would have gotten fired… and at the moment she wouldn't have even cared.

But no, they all had taken good care of her. They all had prevented her to fall in a probable self-destructive path and wallow in self pity… there hadn't been a single moment of the day when they had left her alone. The two hooligans had evidently taken on themselves the task of keeping 'their little sister', as they liked to call her, safe… and so she hadn't even been allowed to fly back to New York after that famous day, no. She had spent those 5 days with them.

Then a visit from Michelle, a text message from Cherry, or a phone call from Matt had done the rest.

Right, Matt.

Since the first moment the older Hardy brother had been, even not physically, the most present of them all.

He had soothed when she was desperate in tears, he had joked to make her faintly smile, he had told her about the new plans he and Jeff had for The Hardy Show to distract her, he had spoken sympathetic words when she wondered if there was something wrong with her, he had insulted the bastard when there was need to.

And she had started to value his friendship and company again… blaming herself for having believed even for one little second that he had just been jealous of her and Edge or whatever it was… no, he just wanted to protect her.

Especially now that they both knew how it felt to have their hearts broken by the same man… even though in different ways, of course.

Having Matt by her side, even in the midst of this all, made her feel someway… safer.

"Is it him again?" Paul inquired with a scowl as her text alert went off.

The punk anxiously glanced at the electronic device in her lap, then her expression relaxed into a much softer one.

"No, it's Matt." She smiled as she scrolled down to read the message's contents.

"Morning dirty diva, I guess you're not having your best pre-shows moments… I know. Stay strong, I'll be right there beside you. See you in 1 hour. Love, Matt."

…After all maybe it wasn't her the one who needed to hide tonight.

x—x—x—x—x

Patience had never been one of Adam's virtues.

Not at all.

Many things could have been said about the Rated R superstar, good and bad, but surely being a patient person wasn't included in the list.

And it fully showed as he once again started to pace his hotel room, running a hand through his blond hair.

What was he supposed to do?

This waiting was nearly killing him inside… he didn't know what to do anymore.

He had tried anything he could… he had called, but she had refused each and every one of his tries. He had written… but no one of his text messages had received an answer. He had left her multiple voice mails… but had no way to find out if she had even listened to them.

Heck, he had even called her own house in New York…! But the only answer he had succeeded to gain from her brother was that she wasn't expected at home anytime soon.

Great. Just great.

And so he was back at the starting line… exactly like 5 days before. With no clue of what had really happened and no clue of what telling her… besides that he really, honestly, was innocent in all this.

But then again, even though he someway managed to reach the dirty diva and make her listen to him, was she going to believe him?

A frustrated sigh was in order as he stopped for a moment, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Those last 5 days without her had been simply a torture for him.

Not being able to listen to her voice, to see her beautiful smile, to hear her laugh when he teased her, to hold her in his arms…

If he didn't know any better he would have sworn that he was going crazy.

Yeah, crazy in love maybe… but he had already ascertained that, oh if he had.

And the fact of not knowing whatever was passing in that pretty head of hers at the moment was the last torture of it all. Especially… especially after having witnessed her leaving the arena the previous Friday in Matt Hardy's arms.

What was that?!

Wasn't he present when the elder Hardy had spat such disgusted words at the two of them? When she had snapped back telling him to fuck off…? Cause, really, he remembered it perfectly.

Why was it all turning upside down then now?

What was he to do?

Heartbreaking wasn't his special ability, definitely not.

It had been too much time since he had experienced something like this… or wait, even then, it wasn't like this. Cause he wasn't so deeply in love with his girlfriend as it was now with Ashley… that had only been a juvenile passion… this was positively the love of his life.

Yes, that was the only conclusion he had come to in the last 5 days.

Conclusion that, nevertheless, didn't make any difference at the moment cause she was apparently determined of not talking to him ever again.

Maybe that was all some kind of karma for what he had done to Matt a couple of years before…

In that case, yes, karma was definitely a bitch.

Luckily for him, his thoughts were then interrupted by the door bursting open as a panting Kenny appeared.

"So?" The champ eagerly asked, immediately jumping up from his seat.

"She's not arrived yet." His young friend revealed, the information accompanied by a negative shaking of his head "And neither London nor Kendrick. So maybe she's with them."

"Yeah, maybe." He sighed in dismay "Or maybe with Hardy."

"What?"

"Nothing, never mind." He sighed once again, starting to pace the room again.

It seemed that he had to wait a little bit longer to finally see her again. If such encounter would have been a pleasant one or not… no one was to know yet.

x—x—x—x—x

A couple of hours later, checked in at the hotel, and now in her own room with Michelle and Cherry, Ashley's mood hadn't improved much.

It seemed like her friends had developed a not-so-secret plan of not leaving her alone for even one minute and, even though she gratefully appreciated their cares, she couldn't help but start to feel… someway smothered.

"You gotta be kidding me!" The all-American girl scoffed "And since when Maryse even started to consider herself a fighting diva?!"

"I've never seen her in the ring…" Cherry mused "besides that time when she was supposed to kick me and instead tripped over her own feet." The shy girl pointed out with a giggle.

"Yeah…" Michelle rolled her eyes "remember how much we laughed at that, Ash?"

"…Yeah." She forced a smile.

Of course she remembered… she had obliged Adam to watch the replay 3 times and they got into a playful argument as he accused her of jealousy for their past flirting.

"Oh," the faith-heart-soul diva sighed as she stood up from her spot on the bed "I'm running late for a photo shoot… will you be alright?"

Cherry eagerly nodded at the knowing look aimed at her own direction.

"I'm sure we'll be just fine!" She cheerfully exclaimed.

Ashley had to block an eye-roll as she met Cherry's good hearted smile and weakly smiled back.

She didn't feel like needing a special babysitting squad. She was just heartbroken, it wasn't like she had suicidal tendencies or something like that. And that restless feeling boiled inside of her once again as the two divas found themselves alone.

"So I ran into Deuce… and I turned my back at him, can you believe it?" She piped up with a surprised tone "I mean… maybe it was a little rude, but it surely felt great!" She let out a giggle.

"Wow."

"So what do you think of—"

No. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, blocking the shy diva's words out. She needed to be alone. Now. For how painful that it could be, she needed to remain alone with her own recollections… especially now, that, one way or another, sooner or later she was going to see him again.

True enough… but how to do that without hurting Cherry's –already delicate- feelings in the process?

"Ice-cream!" The punk diva suddenly exclaimed.

"…Sure, you wanna go to that nice place across the street?" She asked after a first surprised moment.

"Actually, I don't feel like going out, would you mind…?" She trailed off trying her best puppy eyes.

"Sure, I'll go right now!" She happily sprinted up.

Okay, she was going to hell for deceiving someone as innocent as Cherry, maybe with a bit more of clarity of her feelings, but still.

"Cherry, wait."

"Oh right… what flavor?" She asked, eager to be helpful.

The dirty diva sincerely smiled, handing her a 20 dollar bills.

"Take all the ones you prefer… I'm sure I'll find something I like too."

"You sure?" She hesitantly asked.

"Hey, we deserve a little treat once in awhile, right? After all… we need to celebrate your little win over Deuce as well, right?"

"Alright! You like chocolate, right?" She anxiously asked, already on the door.

"Of course I do!"

"Awesome, I'll be right back then."

She hadn't even time to let out a relieved sigh once the door got closed, that a knock echoed inside the room.

"Yes, I like whipped cream on top too--" she abruptly stopped as she realized that actually it wasn't her friend the one knocking on her door.

"Hey," Adam softly greeted her with a hopeful smile.

"What are you doing here?" She bitterly replied, folding her arms on her chest.

He surely couldn't say that such welcome was a surprise… but it hurt nevertheless.

"Look Ash, I was hoping that we could--"

But no, she didn't even give him enough time to finish as he faked an impressed look.

"Oh and I was hoping that you could be less than an ass to me and that our relationship could be something real… guess what? It didn't work that way." She scoffed.

"Ash please… I just want to talk to you." He pleaded.

"And talk about what, Adam? Have you found even the shittiest possible excuse to explain me how on hell is possible that Kelly has the bandana that you admitted you took from me?"

He shook his head in frustration, leaning with an arm on the doorframe… probably trying to convince her not to shut the door in his face.

"No, but--"

"Then I think we have nothing to talk about." She cut him off, tightening the grip on her own arms as to give herself more strength to make it through the confrontation.

"Ash," he kept on pleading, trying to capture her eyes "please. We can't… we can't leave things this way, we… I… you know I love you."

She had to gather all her strength this time to avoid his gaze, well knowing it would have been too dangerous (and then too painful) for her to get lost in his eyes. So she opted for a much safer head-shaking, fixing her own gaze on an undetermined spot on the hotel's carpet.

"I don't know anything." She spat, her voice almost a whisper "And it's time for you to leave."

And with that she moved her hand to close the door… which, as predictable, was promptly held open by the Rated R superstar's much stronger palm.

"Just 5 minutes…" He tried to negotiate… but it was all in vain when another voice piped up from behind him.

"I thought she clearly told you to get lost." Matt calmly said, walking around the rejected superstar.

The latter slowly turned to glare at the dark haired man, the fire burning again in his eyes once they met the half smirk on the older Hardy brother's face.

"This is none of your business, so you get lost." He hissed.

"Oh, but I think it definitely is since you're threatening my friend here." He innocently shrugged his shoulders, an amused hint in his voice.

"I'm not threatening anyone but you." He spat as the two slowly got into each other's face.

"See? That's the problem with you," Matt smiled "I don't feel threatened at all by a scumbag like you."

"Let's see if you still think so after--"

But after what Edge had in mind to do wasn't revealed as, after anxiously observing the potential exploding exchange, Ashley eventually interrupted the two.

"Guys!" She called out, still avoiding his gaze once they both turned to look at her and instinctively drew a step back from each other.

But a moment later the two men still got back at their impromptu staring contest, with Adam's hands closing into fists at his sides.

"Matt, please." She softly pleaded, and the United States champion finally left his previous spot –not before grinning one more time at his rival- to join the diva on the doorframe.

"Yeah, you're right," he calmly said as he protectively wrapped an arm around her shoulders "he's not worth it."

And with that he leaded her inside and closed the door behind them, leaving a much enraged and hurt Adam to helplessly stare back into nothing.