The Great Escape

AN: Thank you to RKO.I.F, xSomeKindaRush, Christal-R, CrazyWWEFreakJNH, Melissa Cristina, MonkeysUncle, WWEFan1990, Deeelyndz, Ashleymassarophan1, jojocheer28, Cena-Wilson-Crazy, rory21, purplefeather21, TJ Sparkles, MzxJones, JeffxMaria and Chain Gang Princess for reviewing the last chapter.

Thanks so much :D

Chapter Eleven – Girls Do What They Want

ASHLEY

"Move."

Even with the single command, Ashley nudged her best friend out of the mirror's view, and put herself into it. Twisting her lips, she offered a thoughtful look to her reflection as she examined her outfit choice for the evening.

"And just what look are you going for?" Mickie eyed her up and down.

"The I made all this effort to look disgusting just for you look. Perfect, isn't it?" The young adult grinned, ignoring the look on the girl's face.

With a look of approval, she turned back to the mirror. She was dressed in a pair of her scruffiest jeans, ones with careless holes in the knees, a bright red shirt that read in black block letters: If you can read this, you suck and, to top it off, a pair of her oldest sneakers. She only brought them to college with her as back-up shoes and, as she looked down at them admiringly, she caught the blue paint still spattered over them from when she first decorated her room.

She'd paid no attention to her face or hair whatsoever; with her longish hair tied back into a messy ponytail and no make-up on her features, she looked as though she had just woken up.

"I wouldn't exactly use perfect as the word to describe your attire," said Mickie, rolling her eyes as she grabbed her laptop from her dresser. "I mean, jeez, I know you want to repel the guy but there's no need to practically push him away."

"You're a fine one to talk," retorted Ashley. At the clueless look she received, she just had to laugh. "Oh please. I heard about your little scene at Starbucks—in fact, everyone heard. So do tell me...what are you going to do the next time Phil kisses you? Move back home?"

The brunette merely scowled. "I hate you."

"Aww, how sweet of you to say so." She smiled, just narrowly avoiding the compact mirror thrown her way a moment later. "Besides, like you have any right to hate me—you're the sucky friend for setting me up on a date with the jerk."

"He does have a name, you know."

"I know he does...quite a few actually. Jackass, jerk, egomaniac—"

"Oh shut up. I bet you'll end up having fun with him."

"I highly doubt it." The blonde scoffed.

"At least give him a chance."

"Hmm...let me think about that. No!"

Mickie opened her mouth to retort to her stubborn friend, only to be cut off by a few urgent knocks to the door. Her excited squeal was countered with a groan. "Go on, answer it!"

With last look of disdain for her friend, Ashley trudged over to the door. She opened it a short moment later, and would have found herself staring into Adam's eyes had it not been for one problem. Of course, being her, she had to point it out. "You're wearing sunglasses at night? God, you're such a tool."

"There you go using that God word for me again..."

"Picking out selective words huh? Okay. How about jerk or asshole? Do either of those take your fancy?"

"So finally you admit you fancy me."

She clenched her firsts, but was sure to remind herself not to lose her temper so easily. She turned to Mickie, shooting her a death glare and offering "Be back soon" before storming out.

Adam hurried to keep up with her. "I know what this is about...you're not nervous are you? Feeling sick?"

"Unfortunately not...unless you count the constant pain in my backside."

Smirking, he answered, "Good. Then we're ready to go."

"You know," she stopped and placed a hand on her hip dominantly, "I can keep this sarcasm thing going all night. You don't know what you've got yourself into."

"Please." He scoffed. "Sarcasm is my middle name."

"Really? I thought it was jackass." She laughed, walking ahead. "Oh, I could go on and on..."

Despite the negative attitude, Adam chuckled and caught up with her. "You look good by the way."

She tried not to grit her teeth as she took in his compliment. She'd made herself look especially bad for tonight, and this was what she got in return? "Yeah well...you don't."

Her lame comeback was also a lie.

Dressed in dark blue jeans and a white top with a particular design on it, Adam looked the epitome of cool and casual.

But she wasn't about to let him know that.

"So." Ashley began as they made it outside the dorm and into the cool night air. "Where's that awful killing machine of yours?"

"I take it you're talking about my car—we're not taking it. For a start, I don't think you'd like it, and secondly, the place we're going to is only five minutes away."

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Where are we going exactly?"

"You'll see."

"Just to be clear—and DON'T get cocky—I'm glad we're not driving to wherever we're going. It's quite clear that you're an insane driver."

"Oh yeah, sure. Or maybe you just decided to step out of nowhere and test my ability."

And so a squabbling contest began. She was so involved in it that she didn't realize, a mere four minutes into their walk that they had already arrived at their destination. Adam had to point out the small fact and she turned, preparing herself for the worst.

Gobsmacked wouldn't even begin to describe her mood.

Utterly surprised, her eyes swept over a familiar flickering light that read: ARCADE. This was where they were going? Not somewhere fancy, but here? Apparently so, she decided, as she stared at the yellow neon light.

The arcade was, in fact, one of her few favourite places she'd discovered upon moving to this new city. But how had he known? He mustn't have...unless...

"Alright." She snapped, trying to ignore his knowing smirk at her reaction. "Who told you I liked to come here? Was it Eve? Maria? Mickie? I wouldn't be surprised actually, that little—"

"No-one." He shrugged.

"No-one?"

"I do have a life, you know—I like to come here too."

"I doubt you have a life but whatever."

"All insults aside, let's just go in, okay?" As she had nothing more to say, he followed her into the place, taking in their company for the evening.

Entertainment of all sorts—dance machines, driving games, sport centres—made the place come alive, its colourful display giving a dangerously fun effect to the evening.

Even Ashley couldn't hide her glee as she spotted the Guitar Hero game in the far corner. Whenever she came here, she would always go to that one first. Single player or kicking someone's ass, she had fun.

And apparently someone knew of her desire too.

"I bet I can beat you at that," smirked Adam, taking off his sunglasses with one hand and pointing to the machine with the other.

Folding her arms across her chest, she turned to him. "I know what you're trying to do."

"What's that?"

"You're trying to make this seem like a date, but let me tell you something. This is not a date; this is merely me being blackmailed into accompanying you for this evening." She didn't stop for breath, even when he opened his mouth to retort. "And now you think you can just pull me into competition with you knowing what I'm like? Well, no, it's not going to work."

"So?" He shrugged. "Okay. I'm better than you at Guitar Hero; you're accepting that and that's good."

She twitched.

"Hey, it's okay. Sometimes you can't be the best at everything—of course, I wouldn't know because I'm just made of pure awesome."

...

Breathing heavily, Ashley broke her silence. "Okay, that's it. I'm gonna beat your smug ass!"

She was fairly sure, as she stalked over to the machine, that Adam had a smirk on his face as he followed her. For now she didn't care; when the game was over, his smirk would be no longer, and would be instead replaced with a scowl as he realized how hard she rocked.

After both had grabbed their guitars, she flicked through the song choices. It was with a twist of the lips that she wondered which one to go for. A hard one to prove her strength at rocking out? A weak one just to go easy on him?

"You know, if I didn't know any better," said Adam from behind her. She felt his breath on her neck as he added, "I'd say you were stalling for time."

She felt somewhat tingly at their close proximity, but all too instantly put it down to violation of personal space. With a frown, she finally picked Paramore's Misery Business. She knew this one too well; there was no way she wouldn't win.

"Interesting choice."

"Yeah." She raised an eyebrow at him as the game began. "Ready to swallow down your words?"

Adam didn't answer.

For the first minute or so they were both so involved in hitting the right buttons and notes that it was impossible for them to break concentration. But it was after that—when he happened to catch a glance at her—that he allowed himself to relax.

Because Ashley was smiling.

It was such a rare visual for his eyes to rest upon when it came to her that it made him lose his focus for a moment. Even if it was for just a few split seconds, the smile he saw would forever stay in his memory as the first time he'd seen her happy.

"Losing your touch a bit, aren't you?" She commented smugly as her game rival missed a couple of notes. "You're such a tool, honestly."

But she wasn't saying that a couple of minutes later when not only did he catch up, but he managed to finish as the winner.

Shocked, she stared at the screen in disbelief. "What?" Eventually she turned to him, only to find his arms raised high in the air and his eyes closed, as if enjoying a silent celebration. "No way..."

When he didn't stop his pose, she hit him in the stomach, and that brought him crashing back into reality. His smirk seemed even cockier as he turned to her, and she couldn't help but to narrow her eyes in anger.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game."

"That's it. We're playing again—you must have cheated or something. That's got to be the only way you won the game."

"You're only going to give yourself more heartbreak this way..."

She shook her head at his comment, but he caught the tiny smile on her lips as she turned to pick another song.

It was about two hours later when they finally stepped back onto the sidewalk and into the cold night air.

While Adam had beaten her fair and square in Guitar Hero, she had levelled his success with most of the other games, and it had been decided that they were now tied in their scores. Neither would let the issue drop but were strangely content even with their competitive spirits.

Now walking side by side, Ashley tried not to get too excited. They were heading back in the direction of her dorm and that would mean the date was over. All would be perfect if she didn't have that weird feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Was it odd for her to hate the guy but not to have entirely hated the evening?

Shaking herself out of the moment, she focused on Adam, only to find he had already stopped a few feet back. Rolling her eyes, she reached him. "What is it?"

"I'm feeling kinda tired...you know, from being so awesome..." He feigned a loss of breath and pointed to a bench. "Mind if I take a breather?"

"Uh, yes!"

As she should have predicted, he ignored her.

The blonde nearly stomped over to where he was sat and placed herself beside him. Trying not to let her frustration get the better of her, she stared up at the night sky. She couldn't help but to think how peaceful the evening was—even if the company was not.

The glimmer of the sparkling stars caught her attention and for a long while she was captivated.

Adam softly nudged her shoulder. "You seem to have a lot on your mind."

She sighed, forgetting for just a moment of the guy sitting beside her. "It's hard not to."

"Why's that?"

Her eyes flickering from the stars to Adam, she recoiled. She'd lost herself, and even though it was only for a moment, it wasn't what she wanted. Her soft expression hardening, she replied, "Are you ready to go now? You've had your breather right?"

He failed to answer and instead stared at her. It was in such a way that she couldn't help but to be mesmerized. No guy had ever looked at her like that...like her thoughts actually mattered. It was nice, but at the same time, completely inappropriate of the company.

So she changed the pace of things.

Tearing his sunglasses away from his face, she rolled her eyes. "What did I tell you about these? You don't look cool wearing these...not in the day, and especially not at night. Okay? Now let's go. It's getting late and I would like to kill Mickie before I fall asleep."

He watched her for a moment longer, but finally conceded to her wish.

She twirled the sunglasses around her finger as they walked in silence. Things between them weren't exactly awkward, but neither could think of something to say in the peaceful moment.

Ashley was relieved as she spotted the dorm in the near distance. "Well this is me."

"That sounded horribly cliché."

"It did, didn't it?" She paused for a moment, and then let out a small laugh. "Ugh, how disgusting of me."

"So where's the part where you tell me that you had a nice time tonight?"

"You're never going to get it," said the blonde, shaking her head.

"So you hated tonight? You've never had a worse time in your life? This was utter hell for you?"

"Well I wouldn't say that exactly..."

"I just got the part now." He smiled. As she rolled her eyes, he continued. "And you know what happens next right?"

She didn't actually.

At least she didn't until his knowing smirk caught her eyes.

"This isn't a real date, buddy. You're not getting a goodnight kiss from me!" She exclaimed confidently, and stalked forwards. "In fact, I'll see you around—hopefully not."

She left him outside as she swung the door open and stepped inside.

"Well done, Ash," she smiled to herself, "You avoided a major no-no moment."

But as she reached her room and opened the door, her good mood dropped.

Waiting for her was Mickie, Eve and Maria. They all sat on her bed, open magazines surrounding them, but when they noticed her, they shot from their positions with wide eyes.

"So how was it?"

"You actually had fun, didn't you?"

"Did you...kill him?"

She turned to Eve, who had made the last comment, and shook her head. "No. By some weird coincidence, I did not."

"So you had fun?"

"I wouldn't go that far..."

"Aww, you like him! You like him!" Maria bounced towards her, taking a hand in hers. She would have taken both if not for her discovery. "Aww, did he give you his sunglasses? That's so sweet."

Ashley didn't even want to know why that would be "sweet", but did curse herself as she glanced down at the accessory in her hand. She'd forgotten about his sunglasses.

"I forgot I had them actually, but I'm sure he'll remember to get them back."

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. With a knowing smile towards the girls she went to answer it. Finding Adam, as expected, she lifted the sunglasses. "I knew it would only be a matter of time before you came back for your precious—"

Without warning, the Canadian swooped down and pressed his lips against hers. It was so sudden that she forgot, for a moment, to push him away. Instead she responded. Their competitive sides were not lost as they both battled for possession.

It was Ashley who gave up though, widening her eyes as she pushed him away. "What the hell?!"

"I knew you liked me." He winked, took his sunglasses and then walked away.

In disbelief, she slammed the door shut. She could hear the soft squeals of her friends from behind her, and tried to block them out.

It wasn't until a certain girl stopped her squealing and instead began to sing that she stopped staring at the door.

"You want to hug him, you want to kiss him, you want to love him..."

"Right!" Ashley snapped as she turned around and zeroed in on Eve. The brunette was already backing away and for good reason. Much to Maria and Mickie's amusement, the blonde lunged forwards. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

So there's the next chapter. Please review :)

Up next is Eve's chapter.