The Great Escape
AN: Thank you to Crazysexycool432355, Melissa Cristina, Ashleymassarophan1, RKO.I.F, Deeelyndz, CrazyWWEFreakJNH, WWEFan1990, Christal-R, Cena-Wilson-Crazy, xSomeKindaRush, jojocheer28, Chain Gang Princess, TJ Sparkle, JeffxMaria and MonkeysUnkle for reviewing the last chapter.
You guys are awesome! :D
And y'all seem to be divided on the Ashley/Eve situation. Interesting...
Chapter Eight – You Don't Know Him
MARIA
Maria was confused.
It wasn't an unusual thing for her to be less than aware of what was going on around here of course, but she felt like she'd missed something here. Fresh from a dinner date with Randy, she didn't expect to wake up to such an uncomfortable atmosphere the next morning.
All credit for the situation went to Eve, who trudged around the room like she'd just suffered a particularly bad nightmare. Granted she was facing a couple of lectures this morning, but she thought the brunette enjoyed them. Perhaps she was wrong.
"Okay, I can't take it anymore!" She announced to her best friend a moment after slipping off her bed. "What's wrong with you grumpy gills?"
"Been watching Finding Nemo again?"
"Obviously; it's the best."
"It's nothing, Maria, really..." The Latina sighed as she tied back her stubborn curls. "Nothing you'd want to get involved in anyway."
"Oh come on. You can tell me anything!" At the girl's hesitant look, she added, "Please?"
"I just hate upsetting you."
"Tell me what the problem is and I'll find out if it upsets me or not."
In defeat, Eve shrugged. "Okay. I told Ashley that she was hiding from her past."
Maria cringed. "You didn't..."
"The girl needs to be pushed! I know we all promised not to say anything to her but now it's getting to the point where it's hard to watch her like this."
"I know it is but..."
"You don't have to worry, okay? I talked to Mickie last night about what happened and we both agreed that I'll apologize to her." A lengthy sigh was drawn from the brunette's lips. "Then everything will be back to normal."
"Oh. Well okay."
But even the redhead had to admit that things going back to "normal" wasn't all that comforting of a thought.
"Alright. Well I'm out of here. From one lecture to another I suppose. I'll see you at lunch?"
Maria nodded and watched as her roommate gathered her things and left. Once alone, she turned to the mirror, surveying her chosen outfit for the day. As usual the term "rock glam" came to mind and she nodded contently at the colourful display she had on.
She was a little more excited for her classes today, though it was really no surprise as Randy was in a few of them. He'd been showing up a lot more in her life since the first time they met, and now she was pleasantly surprised to find they had a lot in common.
They were definitely growing closer as friends.
In fact it took her a lot of effort to pull herself away from her glazed look in the mirror and realize she had been thinking about him for the past two minutes. A guilty blush tickled her cheeks as she picked up her bag but she managed to compose herself by the time she was out of the girls' dorm.
She needn't have bothered to make the effort as she—literally—bumped into the object of her affections outside their room, changing their potentially perfect meeting moment into a positively embarrassing scene.
Her books flew everywhere and she dropped to the floor to collect them. "I'm so sorry!" She apologized quickly, but didn't look up to meet his gaze. "I should have looked where I was going. Clumsy me, huh?"
"Maria—"
"Seriously, I'm such a klutz!"
She didn't have a chance to ramble on as he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back to her feet. Books and scattered papers were easily forgotten about as he smirked in her direction. "Maria, it's okay."
The redhead nodded shyly. This was a rare time, she noted, in which physical contact was made between them and she couldn't help but feel their position was a little intimate.
"So I wanted to talk to you about something actually," he continued as he knelt down to pick up the items, "the thing is—"
"I do." She beamed. Apparently other thoughts were going through her mind at the sight of him in front of her on one bended knee. When he glanced up to her, her smile dropped. "I do...w-w-want to hear what you have to say. Um...what did you want to talk to me about?"
Randy chuckled. "Right. I was talking to Michelle this morning and she wondered if you wanted to hang out with her sometime."
"Hang out?"
"Yeah." He nodded as he gave her books back to her. "Since you and I are getting close now, or at least it seems that way, it seemed like a good idea to her for you guys to spend some time together too. What do you say?"
"Sure." She nodded after a moment. After all, she didn't see the harm in hanging out with the blonde if it meant a new friendship. "Should I, like, contact her or something?"
"Oh no, I'll give her your number. Is that okay?"
"Sure it is. I don't mind."
"Cool." He grinned and then peered over her shoulder. "We should probably go inside now; class is about to start."
She agreed, and as his hand intimately touched the small of her back to guide her in, she was finally able to contain her feelings. Or at least she turned away from him in order to hide her blush.
Everything had returned back to its normal state.
Maria had found this out from Ashley, who stood beside her now sucking on a red lollipop. An apology had been offered to the dirty-blonde girl this morning and while she hadn't accepted, she didn't seem to care to waste time on a petty argument with Eve.
So yeah, normality was shining through on today of all days.
Starting with a frustrated ramble from her dear friend.
"I swear the dude won't leave me the frick alone! He's so damn annoying; why doesn't he understand what he's like?" There were no guesses as to who the mystery man was in this conversation. "Besides, I already told him I wasn't interested—the first time I met him actually."
"Are you sure you're not?" The redhead teased, stifling a giggle as her friend turned to her with wide eyes.
"How could you say that? The guy is a freakin' tool!"
"I'm just saying...because it seems to me that he's the centre of attention in your little world, Ash."
"Only because he makes it his business to make himself so unforgettable. It's annoying...no, it's more than annoying."
"Or is it just annoying because you secretly have a thing for him?"
"I swear, Maria; you're as cute as a button but you sure know how to piss me off."
"That's my secret weapon." She giggled, pulling an imaginary gun from her pocket and narrowing her eyes. She was now thinking herself to be one of Charlie's Angels—at least she was until another thought entered her mind. "Hold on a second. How can you be as cute as a button? Are buttons even cute? I guess some are but still..."
The two pondered over this for a few minutes, creating, for the first time since they'd met together, a comfortable silence. The sun hit them perfectly as they finally reached the girls' dorm, and they were almost regretful to open the doors and step inside.
All thoughts of the popular phrase left Maria's mind when she happened to spot Michelle outside her room. The skinny blonde had a couple of suitcases surrounding her oddly enough, and seemed a little exhausted.
Intrigued, she dragged an unwilling Ashley with her to greet her crush's girlfriend. "Hey Michelle!" She greeted cheerfully enough and pointed to the luggage. "Going somewhere?"
Michelle greeted the pair, and then rolled her eyes. "I'm moving over to the next dorm. I'm not exactly getting along with my assigned roommate."
"Major suckage."
"Yes," said the blonde hesitantly, clearly not taking to Ashley's choice of words. "Major, uh, suckage."
"Oh yeah? So who's your—"
Her obvious question was perfectly answered in the next moment, as a slim blonde opened the door quite forcefully and flung a furry black jacket at her—now former—roommate's head. A thick French accent filled the otherwise quiet hallway. "I don't wear such bad fashion choices." Even after noticing the company, she scoffed. "Jealousy is ugly, Michelle."
"Ladies and gentleman, Maryse Oullet," the blonde rolled her eyes again, "and her trademark saying."
"She sounds...wonderful." Ashley remarked after taking the candy out of her mouth.
"Yeah." Michelle sighed lightly and then turned to Maria. "So did Randy tell you about my suggestion?"
"Oh yes, he did! I'd love to hang out soon."
"Oh good. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he'd forgotten to tell you. Well you know what he's like..."
"Actually," she shrugged, "I don't."
"Oh...that's right." A smile just touched Michelle's lip. "You don't."
There was a moment of silence. Maria, desperately trying not to judge her, as that was not her nature, couldn't help but to feel a little perturbed by the comment. There was just something about her tone that irked her.
"Anyway, I'll get your number later. See you both around."
After a short goodbye, she was out of the door and out of sight.
"Um..."
"Well she's a bitch," said Ashley, raising an eyebrow as she sucked on her lollipop again.
"Ashley, she isn't!"
"Of course you would say that. You think good of everyone." The dirty-blonde girl rolled her eyes as they resumed their journey to her room. "I'm going to have to teach you a lesson about bitches."
"Being one yourself?"
"Well it does take one to know one, yes. Good girl; you're learning quickly."
Maria merely shook her head and tried not to let her friend's behaviour affect her too. Still...something was unsettling about that particular comment, she knew.
They reached the room in no time, and she was pleasantly surprised to find Mickie sitting on her bed, a pensive look on her face. Perhaps the brunette would be able to help her in the situation; if she didn't talk about what happened, she knew it would bug her for the rest of the day. Mickie James was a good person to go to advice to as well, unlike Eve and Ashley, who merely offered unhelpful opinions such as "bitch" and "whore".
"Hey Micks. Do you think—"
"Hold on!" Apparently, Mickie James was also busy. "Oh, it just passed. Damn it! But hey, how are you girls doing?"
"Fine," said Ashley as she collapsed on her bed and offered her friend a look that clearly meant you're a very weird girl. "What are you up to?"
"Yeah, what just passed?"
"Oh, don't worry about that," commented the brunette as she swung her feet to the floor, standing up and then walking over to Maria to give her a friendly hug. She would have done the same with her best friend had she not known how the dirty-blonde was with physical contact. "I was trying to think of a song for this week's music challenge with the older bro."
"What's the category this week?"
"Most Inspirational. I want to keep up with the winning streak; I've kicked his ass in the past three weeks so I can't stop now. Ash, do you have any choices from your playlist?"
"Probably, but I'm tired so I'm gonna crash now."
"Thanks so much," said Mickie and rolled her eyes. As Ashley turned away from the two, she added, "Besties for life!" sarcastically.
"I could help you out!" Maria suggested, rather excited all of a sudden. "Most inspirational, huh?"
"No offense, Maria, but you're idea of inspirational is Maneater by Nelly Furtado."
A frown creased her features. "Well yes..." After a knowing look, she giggled. "Alright, I'll leave the music-finding to you. I do, however, need your help on something."
"Sure. What is it?"
"Well I'm just confused about something."
"What a big surprise."
"Okay Miss Sarcastic, you can stop now." She pointed a finger in her friend's direction.
"Sorry. Go ahead."
"Okay. Well you know Michelle, Randy's girlfriend?" After waiting for a nod, she added, "Well Ash and I just saw her out in the hall. She's moving into the next dorm by the way; her roommate, Maryse I think her name is, doesn't get along with her...or more like she doesn't get along with her. You know her, right? I think I've seen her around...she has this really thick French accent. You must know her—"
"MARIA!" Both Mickie and Ashley yelled, scaring the life out of her.
"Oh right...sorry. I got a little distracted there."
"You think?" The blonde shook her head before turning away from them again.
"So anyways, we stopped and talked to her but, I don't know, she seemed a little...odd."
"Odd...how so?"
"Well Randy told me before class today that she wanted to hang out with me since I'm friends with her boyfriend. That made sense to me so I said that was cool...but then I talked to her and she made some comment about not knowing him...and I don't like to think so, but she seemed kind of proud that she knew him better than I did."
"That's classic jealousy for you."
"Michelle...jealous? Of what?"
"Of what?" Mickie repeated, laughing as she grabbed her iPod from the end of her bed. "Maria, she's jealous of you and Randy spending so much time together! It's typical girlfriend behaviour, of course."
She felt her eyes widen, but it was only half of what she felt inside. How on earth could someone like Michelle McCool—with such supermodel looks and posture—be jealous of her? What was there to be jealous of? Surely she knew how beautiful she was, and how lucky Randy was to have her.
"You give yourself little credit, Maria," said the brunette when she saw the look on her face. "Yes, Michelle does have a reason to be jealous."
"No, she really doesn't."
"...But she does."
"Okay...supposing she does," scoffed Maria, imagining for one moment that there was indeed something to be suspicious of, "it doesn't make sense for her to be jealous of me. Surely she'd just feel pity for me?"
"Pity? Why's that?"
"Because he's with her, and he's happy with her. It's not like he's going to suddenly break up with her for me. That's just absurd."
"Maria, listen to me. You really are clueless sometimes. I see the way you and Randy interact; you might not see it, and there's no doubt about that since he's all you pay attention to, but you do seem overly friendly with each other."
She gasped. "I'm a slut!"
At this point, Mickie laughed again. "Oh dear. I don't think you're getting the point—you're not a slut. Far from it actually."
"Okay. Spell it out for me. What's your point?"
"Randy might just like you too, and Michelle knows it."
Already she was heading for the door, shaking her head. "Don't be ridiculous, Mickie. You know that's not possible."
"It is though; it really is." The brunette smirked. A moment later, however, she frowned. "Damn it. I'm going to have to search really hard for an inspirational song." Apparently done with their conversation a mere few seconds ago, her face lit up. "I know, I'll call Chris! He's really good with music!"
"You do that. I'm going to head back to my room now. See you both later."
After receiving grunts from both of them, she travelled to her own room, thinking all the while how her friend's logic of the situation just couldn't be true. Plain and simple, Mickie James was crazy; she'd always thought that and now she was definitely sure.
She was a moment short of opening her door when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a familiar flash of rainbow-coloured hair. She turned with a knowing smile, waiting until she was seen before offering a wave. "Hi, Jeff. Sneaking out again?"
"Yeah." He nodded, but a frown was on his face. "There wasn't much point of sneaking in though."
"Oh...is something wrong?"
"Candice is just a bit distant, that's it." Jeff told her as he walked towards her. "I guess it's no big deal..."
"I'm sorry anyway." She touched his arm softly. "I hope things get better for you."
"Me too. I should go; I don't want to get caught."
"Of course. See ya!"
After stepping into her room, she leaned against the door. It seemed like everybody else's problems—Eve's, Ashley's, now Jeff's—were much bigger than hers, and she needn't worry about what someone else had told her. It didn't matter if she suspected that what Mickie was saying was true; the non-existent love triangle was simply not an issue.
Now content, Maria happily collapsed onto her bed.
So there's the next chapter. Please review :)
Up next is Mickie's chapter.