Author's Note - Okay, wow. I know it's been... three years... since this story was even published - but I wanted to give another go at it - and I swear it will not take me that long to update it again, because that's just embarrassing, haha
- Chapter Two -
Topsy-Turvy
A vacant sigh managed to pass through Velvet's bare lips, her dark eyes emptily staring into her own reflection. Last night had ended just as terribly as it had begun; instead of doing the responsible thing and calling up Angelina and Madison, she had instead opted to head home early and take her frustrations out on her liquor cabinet – a choice she was still regretting hours later. Reluctantly, the blonde tore her gaze away from herself, shifting in her seat inside the Knockouts' group locker room and raising a single hand up towards her temple, pressing her fingertips against the tanned skin there in an attempt to ease her pounding migraine.
"Evening, ladies!" The all-too notoriously high-pitched squeal emitted from Lacey's vocal cavity before anyone could stop it. Instantly the only other Knockout in the room, Taylor Wilde, mumbled some sort of complaint and made her disappearance, leaving the space open to the two reigning Beautiful People members. Upon noticing her partner's appearance, Lacey's face scrunched downwards, crinkling in disgust, "Uhm, ew. Vel – you look like shit."
For once Velvet found herself actually agreeing with the narcissistic woman. A lack of sleep and even more noticeable lack of makeup was all it took to really screw around with the seemingly perfect features of Velvet. Regardless, she let out a halfhearted laugh, raising her hand to dismiss Lacey's insult with a wave.
"Happens to the best of us sometimes." That soft smile playing across her mouth as if she were debating on revealing more of an excuse, Velvet took to finally standing up, deciding it was about damn time she focused on looking good for tonight's show instead of wallowing in her own pity party. Lacey quirked an eyebrow, instantly placing her form in the seat Velvet had just vacated. Her expression seemed to lean more towards doubt at the idea of herself ever looking that terrible, but thankfully she kept quiet for once, instead focusing on her new manicure.
Unfortunately the silence wasn't able to last for long, as just as Velvet managed to coat her face in her favorite bronzer, the remaining members of their little group wandered into the dressing room, both animatedly active in some conversation about last night's events. Once again, the headache found itself warming Velvet's head, disabling her from focusing on her makeup. Another sigh escaped as she dropped the brush back down to the counter, spinning around so that she could face the loud duo behind her.
"I'm gonna go grab a drink, anyone want anything?"
Almost as if they were running on the same system, both Angelina and Madison shook their heads at Velvet's offer, still very much so involved in their little trip down memory lane. Lacey, however, peeked back up with a wide grin.
"Oh! Get me an iced nonfat caramel Macchiatto, with extra caramel and sugar free vanilla." Even as she spoke, her tone raised an octave higher in delight at the mere thought of the drink. Velvet found herself blinking, staring at the leggy blonde in utter confusion as both Angelina and Madison stopped in their ramblings. It was Angelina who was the first to follow the silence, a snort of disgust escaping as she replied.
"She meant from the cafeteria, you dumbass." Angelina crossed her arms beneath her ample chest, quirking a eyebrow as if to dare Lacey into retorting. Lacey merely scowled back through the reflection in the mirror, gritting her teeth together. A moment passed before she reached up to flick her long, perfectly straightened locks of hair back over her thin shoulder.
"It was a joke, jeeze. You might want to remember that you're not in Canada anymore, so you don't have to be so cold to everybody anymore." Lacey let out a giggle at her corny joke, even as she continued to act completely enamored by her own appearance, fluffing up her hair and pouting her lips seductively. Angelina clenched her fists – an act that would've furthered, had Madison not smacked the blonde's hand in an attempt to persuade her from going through with a fist fight. Velvet shook her head and turned on her heel, assuming she was free to abandon the situation. My God she needed some Ibuprofen.
Reaching up to rub her sweaty palm against the back of her neck, Velvet chewed on the inside of her cheek, knowing what a bad habit it was, but also being unable to control herself. The cafeteria was probably one of the worst places she could've chosen to come for a multitude of reasons – on one end of the spectrum you had the whole noise and headache issue, and on the other end you had the possibility of an awkward encounter that she still wasn't entirely ready to deal with. After all, what was she supposed to be feeling right now? Shame - for pretty much accusing him of not caring about her? Betrayal - for the actions that had taken place prior to their meting? Maybe she should try feeling happy and grateful and pretend that last night never even occurred.
Ugh. The blonde finally opened her eyes, having closed them in some attempt to ease her stomach. She unscrewed the plastic cap upon her water bottle, raising the container up to her dry lips and tilting it so just the right amount of liquid poured into her mouth. As she swallowed, she lowered the water bottle back down, curiously allowing her eyes to sweep the room. It remained fairly empty, surprisingly, but still, every single person's conversation bounced off the old brick walls as if they were in some sort of never ending cave. Nonetheless, she supposed she should've found a friend to accompany her, as the whole flying-solo-loner idea never really appealed to her – and sitting alone at a table was über tacky.
Yet that was what she found herself doing – sitting alone, watching the rest of the world go on with their joyous lives. Crossing one thigh over the other, Velvet began smoothing out any imaginary crinkles in her skin-tight jeans, still very much so chewing on the inside of her cheek, leading to the entrance of a new sore sitting there. She should've stopped searching the room five minutes ago – she really should've – but the curiosity was too much to bear, even as the lone idea of even witnessing his presence brought about all sorts of symptoms that she was pretty sure coincided with an anxiety attack.
What the hell was with this craziness. Seriously, she shouldn't be the one fretting over petty emotions and finding herself as a hot mess over one boy. She made thousands of men fall for her without difficult every time she appeared on television – so why did this one person have to be so different? Why did he have to matter so much?
Almost as if she were in her own movie full of joyous coincidences and perfectly timed entrances, she found herself able to answer her own question as her eyes finally found his from across the room. Oh God, she hoped he hadn't been watching her this entire time. Instantly her heart found itself racing inside the cavity of her chest, beads of sweat forming out of the nerves within her. All at once her stomach felt heavy as if she were about to regurgitate, yet light as if she hadn't eaten in weeks.
It was a sad, twisted feeling that should not be happening to her. Unable to help herself, Velvet found herself staring directly into his gaze, frozen in time and place.
He was getting up. Oh, no. No, no, no, no – this wasn't good. Using the utmost strength she could muster, Velvet found herself prying her eyes from his, flickering her dark gaze towards the cheap, wooden table before her and staring holes through the surface. She knew it seemed childish and immature, but what else was she supposed to do? She still hadn't figured out where exactly she stood with him, but then again maybe that was her own fault for sticking around the cafeteria for so long. It wasn't like he didn't acknowledge her at all in public - they were friends, after all.
"Are you okay?" Before she even knew it, he was by her side, sitting directly next to her, talking to her. Despite the inner turmoil going on, the blonde managed to force a bright smile across her lips, turning to face him as if he were nothing more than a concerned friend – which, really, that was all he was.
"Oh, yeah. Just didn't catch much sleep, so I feel sort of out of whack. No big deal." She shrugged her thin shoulders emptily, even as a laugh wound its way into the conversation. He scrunched up his face, almost as if he were scrutinizing her, but didn't press any further. Instead, he frowned, still keeping his dark gaze locked upon her.
"Look, I just wanted to apologize for last night. I had no right to snap at you – whatever you think happened, it's over and I want to move on from it. You deserve better than that."
What? For the briefest of moments, Velvet found herself once again frozen, trying to understand the words she was hearing. He was sorry? That never happened; usually she was the one who had to apologize for being a 'raging bitch'. Confusion coursing through her veins, she merely waved him off with her fingertips, another laugh echoing.
"Don't worry about a thing – we're all good." Even as she spoke, she nodded with her words, almost as if she were trying to convince herself. Upon hearing this news, that bright grin once again worked its way across his mouth.
"Promise?" Those dark brown eyes stared directly into her soul – or at least that was the way it felt.
"Promise."
The situation and emotions supposedly all figured out, the man leaned in closer to her, his lips and unshaven face brushing against the perfectly smooth complexion of her cheek as he went to whisper in her ear, "I love you." As soon as the words had left his mouth he stood up, his fingertips grazing against the warm flesh of her shoulder before he ultimately disappeared back towards his group of friends. Velvet found herself shivering, although she wasn't entirely sure why. It wasn't the first time they had uttered those words, but still they always found a way to enact some sort of emotional response from within her.
Inhaling a deep breath of air, Velvet finally forced herself to stand up, figuring she'd been gone for entirely too long. She wrapped her fingers around the cold plastic of her water bottle, dragging it along for the journey back to the Knockouts' locker room, where hopefully she wouldn't find either Lacey or Angelina dead in a pool of their own blood – although she'd sort of prefer the former scenario. Okay, maybe not dead – but certainly knocked out for a few hours, perhaps.
Yet another taping of iMPACT! had gone off without a hitch – so long as you ignored the glaringly painful situation of Angelina being considered an arch-nemesis of The Beautiful People. Regardless, things could have been a whole lot worse and to be truthful, she was grateful to actually have someone who could work an angle as an opponent. Now all that was left to do for the evening was to relax and make up for lost time last night. Naturally, she had intentionally canceled plans with Angelina and Madison once again, feeding them some excuse that her hangover was actually some sort of twenty-four-hour-flu. She really didn't think Angelina believed her – an apparently on-going trend for the day – but the second she was given an out, Velvet found herself taking it, already en route to the very same hotel she had been in for a brief half hour last night.
Clearing her throat, the blonde brushed stray tendrils of hair out of her heavily made-up eyes, pressing her glossy lips together as she stopped just outside the overly familiar door. As was only natural, she glanced up and down the winding hallway for any suspicious eyes before rapping her knuckles against the door but only once – her signature move, as she'd like to believe.
Mere seconds later the door found itself swinging open, revealing that very same man as last time. Only difference was that now there was no awkward fight to be started – there was just her and him and this perfect evening. Wearing that same grin upon his face as earlier, the man pulled her into a tight embrace, easily lifting her off the carpeted ground and spinning her around, kicking the door closed with his foot. Velvet let out an excited giggle at his actions, her arms firmly wrapped around his neck as she nuzzled her face into the crook of his shoulder and throat. Without warning he had led them back towards the bed, using his body weight to tumble them onto the cushioned surface, careful not to absolutely flatten the petite Knockout.
"You're late." He whispered into her ear, his hot breath tickling her skin. Velvet let out another giggle, squirming around so that he was now on his back, enabling her to cuddle up under his arm and place a soft kiss against his scratchy face.
"I got held up, I'm sorry." She draped her free arm across his chest, her razor sharp nails scratching at the soft material of his tee shirt. The man chuckled warmly, rolling his eyes up towards the ceiling before focusing his attention back on her, that smile still evident.
"Sorry's not good enough – I'm going to have to take the time I missed out of your work schedule." The lighthearted joke managed to make Velvet's mouth pop open in mock surprise and offense, and she raised a hand to lightly tap against his face as if she were slapping him. He found himself repeating her actions, even as another laugh escaped, the duo finally managing to appreciate the lighthearted moment encompassing them. Affectionately, he pulled her into a tighter hug, releasing a relaxed sigh and glancing at her facial features.
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, merely enjoying the atmosphere and being together. Velvet found herself unable to tear that grin from her lips - it had been such a shitty day that it truly felt amazing to be able to smile without a care in the world, especially now that everything found itself all sorted out once again. She buried her face in his shoulder once more, inhaling the sweet aroma of his cologne and allowing the scent to waft throughout her form. It was childish to say, but he smelt like happiness. Almost as if he were waiting for a cue, the man raised a hand to lightly lay on the back of her head, running his fingers through her two-toned hair calmly.
"Come on, I picked out a great movie for us to watch tonight, don't go falling asleep on me just yet." He shrugged a shoulder in an attempt to pique her interest, his signature smirk radiating from his mouth. Velvet peeked her head back up, staring into his dark eyes hopefully.
"Is it a good movie?"
"Duh!" Was all he replied with, as if that were supposed to clarify every burning question Velvet could muster up. Rolling her eyes, the blonde allowed herself to fall over off of him as he slid off the bed, presumably to retrieve said movie. She lifted her legs up to herself, crossing them at the ankles so that she was sitting 'criss-cross-applesauce'-style. Just as she was about to find something else to say, he had returned, DVD in hand. Velvet squinted, straining her eyes to see the title that he was trying to hide from her.
"No way! We've watched this a hundred times!" Instantaneously, that pout of hers appeared, allowing her to droop her entire face in an ultimate act of looking depressed over the choice he had picked. The man mock gasped in offense, but waved the DVD in her face a moment later.
"Dude, this is like our movie, so relax - it's perfect!" He shook his head at her as if she were a child and continued setting up the film. Velvet stopped pouting, instead glaring a hole through his back. When he had finished setting everything up, he returned to her side, eagerly bouncing on the bed and setting up his own perfect viewing spot by the pillows. Begrudgingly, Velvet followed suit, once again finding her place below his arm, wrapped safely by his warm body.
It was at that moment that he leaned down to plant a soft kiss upon her forehead, almost as if to reassure her of his love for her. Again, Velvet found that stupid grin reappearing, even as she snuggled closer to him. Sure, they had their rough patches, but what two people didn't? They had managed to solve every dilemma that had come their way - and all without having to put a label on what they had - although ninety percent of the time, the whole label issue was the problem. As the thought crossed her mind, Velvet found that smile fading. She wanted to be with him so bad, but no matter how many times she tried to persuade him into making them 'official', he never once actually considered the idea. Was there something wrong with her?
Of course not - there wasn't anything wrong with her. She was essentially perfect - or at least that was what she fed herself. Quietly, the blonde shook her head but once, trying her best to jam the intruding thoughts out of her mind so she could focus on the movie. There was no point in ruining this fantastic evening by depressing herself, that was for damn sure. Besides, regardless of where he stood on the whole 'relationship' issue, she knew exactly how she felt and that was never going to change.
She was, and would always be, head over heels in love with Alex Shelley.
Ending Note - There you go! I know nothing much really happened in this chapter, but I was kind of just testing out the waters to see if anyone was actually still interested, haha So please review. :]