The Great Escape

AN. Thank you to Grits0205, xHalosandwings, Chain Gang Princess, Cena-Wilson-Crazy, xTwistedxImperfectionx, HappySmiler, Michelle, rory21 & RKO.I.F for reviewing the last chapter.

Thanks very muchly :)

Chapter Twenty-Three – You & I Collide

MARIA

Opening the door to a teary-eyed Michelle McCool, Maria felt only a large amount of sympathy towards the girl as she took one long lingering look at her, and then ushered her inside. Tissues were at the ready, and picked up as soon as the door had creaked to a gentle close; this next tender moment, whether it was to be short and sad or long and significant, would not be an upbeat one for either party.

Eve, who had been hoping to study in peace that day, flicked back her hair and rolled her eyes at the back of her frenemy as she sat down on her friend's bed. Though she'd expected such a scene following the news, she hadn't wished to be present when it was played out.

"I'm so sorry about this," apologized the blonde straightaway as soon as she was joined by Maria, who placed a supportive hand on her shoulder. "I know the last thing you want is me coming around here and depressing you. I—I just didn't know where else to go."

"No – don't even worry about it! I'm here for you, Chelle. If you need to talk then just talk; I'm here to listen."

She caught a glimpse of her best friend's expression after glancing elsewhere, taking in the cross between a smirk and a sneer, and shot her a brief warning look as the girl beside her broke down into tears once more. She rubbed her back gently to soothe her, and simply waited for the moment to cease.

The poor girl. Having grown close to her over the past couple of months, she was saddened by her first sight of Michelle being truly upset. The image was heartbreaking to her, and an oddly fierce protective feeling ran deep through her as she thought of how much she was suffering right now. She didn't deserve the pain she was going through.

With a soft voice, she attempted to break the silence, in which the sobs had become too much to bear. "Whenever you're ready to talk..."

After gingerly picking up a tissue with her fingertips, the tall blonde looked up, straight into her caring eyes. A light shake of the head had her looking away again; it would be better to explain her grief properly without having to look at her. "I feel so stupid now. I can't believe how happy I was this morning—I was literally thanking God for how wonderful my life was going. Look where that's got me now."

"Oh Chelle, don't dwell on that. Sometimes these things happen unexpectedly...when you least expect it, too."

There was a short moment of silence in the room, with only the sound of Eve pressing pen to paper to fill it, before Michelle emitted another big sob. Sniffling, she said, "But I didn't think this would happen. I thought there would be some sort of sign, something to tell me things were not going so greatly. But it just...happened."

The element of surprise she felt couldn't possibly be argued with. Almost everyone on campus was amazed to hear about the latest news scandal—and Maria, counting two break-ups in the last week, was hit hard with the information of another one. It seemed like a strange dream, she remembered, when Mickie had come in to tell her the world's most perfect couple were no more.

At first she didn't know how to react to the subject of Randy and Michelle's split. Of course, she was devastated for her friend, and her heart went out to her just thinking about the shock she would be going through. But then, a few minutes later, she recognized a particular feeling she hadn't expected to feel: relief. The revelation was brief, but also significant.

"So...what exactly did he say to you?" She asked, not because she really wanted to know, but because she needed a distraction to the guilt flooding through her system.

"He said we'd grown apart recently. He said we didn't have the same fire in our relationship as we had years ago. Then," she sniffled again, "he went on to say he wasn't sure we ever had that spark."

Maria tucked a loose curl of red hair behind her ear, swallowing lightly. Why was it so hard to shake this feeling away? She wasn't known to be a vengeful person, not in the slightest, but here she was, questioning her bubbly nature and wondering why she wasn't able to stay in the right mindset.

"I'm so sorry—I really don't know what to say. When I saw you guys yesterday I didn't suspect a thing; you guys looked perfectly happy together."

As the blonde nodded and went on to talk some more, she forced herself to look like she was paying attention; in all actuality, she was focusing on the lie she'd just told her friend. She had seen the couple the previous day, but what she'd seen wasn't happiness.

The guarded look in Randy's eyes, the one that told her they had unfinished business to talk about, while his arm hung loosely around his girlfriend's shoulders, told her that something was amiss.

"...So that got me thinking," Michelle's voice brought her around from the memory, "that there has to be someone else in the picture."

Her eyes took in the sudden hardened expression in hers—the girl no longer looked heartbroken, but strangely determined. As she began to rip the tissue into little bits, the redhead risked a glance in her roommate's direction; even Eve had stopped writing in her pad to wait for an explanation.

Ignoring the hot flush that had quickly touched her cheeks, she pressed on. "What do you mean?"

"Well why not? We were fine until college started. I suppose I was a fool to think we'd be together forever, but I didn't think we would break up over another girl." She looked over. "I mean, what other explanation could there be?"

"Plenty, I'm sure. Sometimes you're so content with how things are going that you don't stop to think about how the other person is feeling." A frown crossed her features, as if she was only now just paying attention to what she was saying. "Michelle, I think—in time—you'll understand why this happened. Even if you don't, I'm sure you'll cope...which I know sounds harsh, but you're a strong girl. You'll get through this."

Michelle simply nodded in response. A beat later, she took Maria's hand in hers and stared back into her eyes. "There are so many students that I'm friends with who I don't really know—they wouldn't treat me like you just have. They'd probably suspect Randy was cheating too...and sadly enough, I would probably think they were doing it with him." A small sigh passed through her lips, followed by a sweet smile. "Call it paranoia but...I can trust you, can't I?"

The comforting words that would usually come so naturally to her seemed to be stuck elsewhere and she found herself wanting to refrain from being so civil towards her friend. Would it be so challenging to tell her about the feelings she had for Randy? Wouldn't it be a relief to get the weight of her secret off of her shoulders, despite the consequences?

Wouldn't it be the worst mistake to make to such a good friend?

Maria gave a light smile. "Of course you can. Yes, you can trust me."

She hadn't once suspected the demise of her friends' relationship to be due to Randy having feelings for someone else.

As she sat stiffly at a vacant table in the library, Maria simply stared into space as she considered the option; if this was true, if her friend wasn't just being overly paranoid, then what could she make of it? She didn't know if it were possible to analyze the situation without becoming more unlike her friendly self—she had already rejected the offer of studying with Jeff to be by herself, which was a move she'd never made before.

And could she even dare to cause her heart even more distress by suggesting the feelings he had were...for her? Could she be foolish enough to believe that could be true?

No, of course not.

She'd seen the look in his eyes at the Halloween party when the truth about the nature of her feelings came out. There was a varied amount of confusion and surprise, something that suggested, at least to her, that he hadn't even considered her as a romantic interest before then.

And why would he? Every time she saw he and Michelle together, it broke her heart just a little bit more knowing she would never be in her shoes, but she felt settled enough knowing he was happy with her. That was all she wanted him to be—as cliché as it sounded, for him to be happy would allow her to move on from her crush.

But now she just didn't know what to think. Absentmindedly playing with a curl of her red fringe, she simply thought and thought. She'd never been so focused on one sole subject before. It was strange to devote so much of her time into the subject of Randy when really, if she was honest with herself, she knew she should have been focusing on something far more important.

Like schoolwork, for instance. The student shook her head lightly as she forced herself to look away from the blur of book aisles, and down to the work laid out in front of her instead. She had come up to the library for some peace and quiet, to study for a test she had coming up after the Christmas holidays were over.

So why couldn't she stop thinking about Randy?

"Hi, Maria." A timid voice greeted her ears suddenly, and she had to look up again to greet her visitor. Though she shouldn't have been, she was surprised by the girl standing over her. Candice offered the smallest of smiles. "Do you mind if I talk to you for a minute or two? I promise it won't take long."

"I'd rather we didn't chat." She answered sharply, though her naturally nice behaviour had her feeling bad for the way she was treating her friend. "You hurt Jeff," she pointed out dutifully. "You cheated on him just for sex and I can't forgive that. So no, we can't talk."

Any trace of a smile disappeared from the dark-haired beauty's face, and she nodded lightly. "Right," she muttered. "Well then can I just say one thing?"

Maria appeared to hesitate for a moment. Just looking at her now, all she really wanted to do was have a long chat with her—ask her what could have been going so wrong for her to want to cheat on her friend. But, as it happened, she could still feel pricks of irritation in the pit of her stomach as she faced her, and thought it would be better not to confront her. Not when she knew she was in a bad mood, and unlikely to be friendly towards her.

"Fine." She sighed. "What is it?"

Candice looked down briefly. "I don't like Adam, it's true. Us sleeping together...it just kind of happened. Jeff and I weren't happy together, and he was having trouble with his feelings for someone else. It was just sex; I wanted to feel better about myself because I knew Jeff would never make me feel like I was special again. Our relationship was dead and we both knew it. We just didn't want to admit it."

She continued to stare at her. She had no idea of what to say in response to this.

It didn't appear to matter as her friend continued. "So I am truly sorry that it ended this way, but I'm glad it did end. And have you seen Jeff? He looks a lot happier without me."

This was true. Hanging out with him earlier in the week, she'd noticed his own friendly nature, an aspect of his personality she hadn't seen for quite some time. It'd made her smile to see him so happy...she was surprised, of course, but content to know he wasn't upset over the break-up.

"Besides, I think he'd moved on way before I did."

She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow in surprise. "What do you mean?" She asked, twiddling her pen in-between her fingers.

Candice only shook her head. "See you around, Maria."

With eyes full of intrigue, she watched the girl walk away, right up until she disappeared out of the library. Then she stared back down at her paper, unsure of what to do in the meanwhile. That conversation had been...strange at the very least, and she now didn't know how to feel towards her once close friend.

Okay. Concentrate, Maria, you really need to study. This is an important paper and you can't afford to waste your time on—

"Hey, Maria," said a voice to interrupt her, one that was so familiar that she couldn't help but to pause all thoughts that told her to ignore the outside world. "Do you mind if I interrupt your study session for a minute so we can talk?"

A light swallow later, she glanced up, straight into the blue eyes of Randy Orton. "I, erm...I hadn't really started to be honest." She gave a nervous laugh. "So yeah, sure."

"Can we go somewhere private?"

"Private?" She couldn't help the squeak in her voice as she repeated the word. A flicker of a smile touched his lips as he glanced around, and she took that time to straighten herself out. It took her only half a minute—a real miracle—to stand to her feet and escort him to a small section behind the book aisle she was closest to. "Is this okay?"

"Sure." He nodded. A laugh escaped his lips as he stared down at her. "This seems strange, doesn't it?"

More than. She began to laugh along with him, but then realized it was probably better not to—anything she could do not to fall in love with him all over again, and painfully remember he was off-limits.

His chuckle settled into a warm smile and then, eventually, he simply came to stare at her. The mood between them seemed to change altogether, and she found herself being reminded of the last conversation they had. He'd looked at her this way when she'd accidently told him she had a crush on him.

But it wasn't just a crush now; though she had hoped spending time away from him and leaving him all to Michelle would pull her away from the attraction, it hadn't done that at all. She was certain her feelings were stronger than ever.

Stop thinking like that. He'll never be yours. The sooner you accept that, the better.

A sad smile played on her own lips as she realized this once more. "So," she began dejectedly, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

This was it, wasn't it? The part where he told her that he simply wanted to be friends. That he appreciated her company, but it would be nicer if they remained friends because he didn't feel the same way about her. The conversation was planned out in her head already, and she saw herself as pathetic in her own mind.

"You told me you had feelings for me..." He trailed off for a moment, glancing down briefly before he found the courage to stare into her innocent eyes again. "And then you ran away before I could say anything. You've been avoiding me ever since, and I have too because I was always with Michelle whenever you were near. So that made it pretty hard for me to say what I wanted to—"

"It's okay." The redhead interrupted, closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at him. A weary sigh spilled through her red painted lips. "I understand, Randy. You don't want to be with me and I can accept that. It hurts, but I know I'll move on. Yes, I do have feelings for you—I didn't lie about that—but I'm sure they'll fade in time. I'm sorry for bringing all this drama on you in the first place. I know it must be—"

Her open mouth was caught unawares when a pair of warm lips pressed against hers, forcing her to cut her planned speech off with surprise. More than anything she knew she should have opened her eyes, just to see if this moment was real....but she couldn't bring herself to do so. Instead, she melted into the kiss, her shoulders slumping as an invisible weight was hauled off of them; when Randy pressed a firm hand against the back of her neck, pulling her closer into the embrace, she relaxed further.

She hadn't known it was possible to be kissed like this. Sure, she'd read about it in romance novels all the time—but, naturally, she hadn't imagined it to be like this. The way their lips meshed together, a perfect fit as they forgot all about the oxygen they would need, felt so wonderfully right.

Rejoicing, she could hardly stomach it when he pulled away slowly. Now she was left to contend with the quick race of her heart as he smiled against her lips. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that for," he mumbled quietly.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted you to do that." She allowed herself to smile back.

Together, she felt like everything was simply perfect.

...

"There are so many students that I'm friends with who I don't really know—they wouldn't treat me like you just have. They'd probably suspect Randy was cheating too...and sadly enough, I would probably think they were doing it with him. Call it paranoia but...I can trust you, can't I?"

...

But was perfection real? She'd been brought up not to believe in it, and could now see why that was.

Maria suddenly pulled away from him, taking into account the curious look in his eyes at what she assumed to be her shocked expression. Her smile had frozen, then dropped off of her face completely. "I, erm...I'm really sorry. I have to go."

"Wait!" He called as she slipped away, back to the table to gather her belongings together quickly. "...Maria?"

She didn't look back, merely stuffed all she could into her arms and hurried out of the library. She wasn't running away from Randy for the second time; in this moment, she was running away from the sweet look on Michelle's face in her thoughts.

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

Up next is Mickie's chapter.