3. Maria and the Second Chance

Maria hummed to herself as she glided around the record store she had spent her entire adolescence in Connecticut frequenting. Many weekends had been spent dragging Eve, Kaitlyn, Alicia and Kelly around Call It Classic, as they would roll their eyes and groan as she raved about the new special edition Ramones record that had been brought in; not to mention the amount of allowance that had been deposited in Call It Classic.

"Ooh," she murmured to herself as she picked up a CD from the Rock section, scanning the price tag with a grin. She might have been unemployed and virtually penniless, but there was no way she would miss out on treating herself to this.

As she took the CD case and continued scanning the rows, she took a second to glance down at her watch again. It had only just turned four in the afternoon. Okay, so she had been out of her parents' house since around 11 in the morning, but it was far too early to go back. She had spent the past two months moping in her old bedroom to the point where, as Eve had pointed out during their Skype conversation the night before, it was just getting silly. So Maria had the idea to wander around the town she grew up in, visiting all the places that reminded her of her childhood. There was the mall where she and her girlfriends would meet up after school and on weekends to get smoothies at Jean's and spend far too much money; the gorgeous boutique that was way out of the price range of any of the teenagers, but that she and Alicia would go to every now and again to drool over the latest fashions and visualize the day where they would be dressed head to toe in all the designer gear; and of course, Call It Classic, her favourite record store.

This quite clearly had nothing to do with the fact that Phil Brooks, her teenage crush, worked at the store throughout high school, as her friends had quickly noticed and never failed to point out. She sighed as she gazed around the store, remembering all the times she had gazed just as dreamily as Punk would stand behind the cash register, playing with his lip ring and queuing up the songs that would blast throughout the store. Of course, Punk was now long gone. The last she heard he had moved to Chicago with Amy after college, after spending his entire adolescence promising the world he would make it out of Connecticut and take up residence somewhere filled with passion and promise; somewhere like Chicago. He was always a determined kind of guy, so Maria had no doubt that he had done so already. Meanwhile, she had been forced to leave LA straight after graduation and head back home to her parents after failing to find the job of her dreams in the City of Angels; which was, admittedly, her plan A, B and C.

"Idiot," she muttered to herself, heading over to the cash register to pay for her new find.

As her friends would often point out, Maria was a real dreamer. She was never really one for a back-up plan and would spend most of her time with her head in the clouds, devising all sorts of plans for herself. Back in high school, there wasn't really much to those plans outside of becoming a major fashion designer and marrying Phil Brooks, but during college she had become slightly more realistic; moving on from the idea of Punk altogether and applying for job after job and eventually internship after internship with all the biggest LA fashion institutes but to no avail. She couldn't even find someone who would give her a chance in fashion for free.

Now that she had left California and had returned to Connecticut empty-handed, Maria felt as if she had thrown away the one chance she had to make her dreams come true. She had run away when times got tough and now what? No job, definitely no future husband, and no more big California dreams and chances.

"Ma'am..." Her head shot up and she giggled, slightly embarrassed that she had just zoned out while trying to pay for her CD.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, handing over her cash. She ran a hand through her long, newly red hair – her big college self-reinvention – and sighed as she looked around the store while waiting for her change. She frowned as she glanced at the front door and saw a familiar face.

His long black hair was now cut short and had returned to a more natural dark brown colour. Age had given his face a more handsome, mature look and from what she could tell from where she stood, he was much more heavily tattooed than he was in high school.

Maria's breath hitched in her throat as she turned back around to collect her CD and her change from the cashier before bowing her head and racing out of the store. Phil Brooks wasn't in Chicago; he was right here in Hartford, Connecticut just like she was.

She continued trying to catch her breath as she rushed down the street, speeding up the twenty minute walk back to her house. What was he doing here? By what kind of luck had he ended up wandering back into the store she just so happened to have been in all of these years after high school? She had taken solace in the fact that she would probably never see him again, and thus had spent college getting over him. She had gotten over him through a whole range of men, from the cool bad boy Carlito Colon whom she had met at a party in freshman year; to the gorgeous older jock in John Cena.

John was well known on campus as simply a cool guy. He was the star quarterback of their college's football team and was the kind of guy a girl would want to take home to her parents. He and Maria had met at a frat party when she was in her sophomore year and he was a senior, and their relationship went on until his last few weeks of senior year when he had broken up the relationship after admitting that while she was fun for a college romance, she was nowhere near serious or mature enough for him to be able to see a post-college future for the two of them. She had bumped into him again a year after he had graduated, as he returned to his alma mater to give a speech to the latest graduating class. As her luck would have it, soon after graduation he had become a star player in the NFL, playing for a team back in his home state of Massachusetts. On his arm was a gorgeous woman named Torrie Wilson, who, as he had explained to Maria, had been his high school sweetheart. In his words, John and Torrie had broken up just after high school ended, deciding to go away to college separately with the promise that if their love was really meant to be, they would be able to pick up where they left off after graduation.

Maria had recounted the tale to her friends on Skype that same night, working her way through a bottle of wine as she tearfully repeated, almost verbatim, John's emotional confirmation of the existence of true love and destiny.

"Oh for crying out loud!" She had muttered to herself as Torrie showed off the diamond ring on her finger.

"He's such a romantic," she gushed as her fiancée grinned back at her. She looked back at Maria with a sincere smile on her face. "I just want to thank you, Maria. John has said so many great things about you and by the sound of things, your relationship with him helped him realize how ready he is to settle down. It's so great that you two could end things so amicably and still be friends."

Maria had almost crushed her wine glass in her hand as she muttered Torrie's words back to her four friends through a computer screen. They had all struggled to hold back giggles at the absurdity of the situation.

"Just my luck!" Maria grumbled, taking another gulp of wine. "Just my damn luck."

"Honestly," John had continued. "A part of me thought it was completely done with me and Torrie. We both got through college and got into it with different people, but I don't think we ever really believed that it would work out like this. And then we bumped into each other at this store back home a couple of months after graduation and the sparks just flew all over again."

"Life is weird like that, you know?" Torrie sighed. "Sometimes second chances just come out of the blue. You've just got to know when to grab them."

Eve, Kelly, Alicia and Kaitlyn exchanged 'awws' as Maria came to the end of her story. The redhead frowned at her empty glass of wine and rolled her eyes.

"I swear to god I'm cursed. It's like high school all over again!"

"Maria..." her four friends had called in unison. They had all made a pact never to let Maria dwell on Punk again, and they all knew that that was exactly where this conversation was headed.

"Sorry guys," she sighed. "I guess I'd just like destiny to come give me a chance, for once."

"Come on, Maria," Kelly said soothingly. "We haven't even started senior year yet. Plus, whatever happened to the Maria from a few years ago who would spend all day bouncing around and talking non-stop about how fantastic adulthood is going to be?"

Maria shrugged.

"Exactly. There's still time. So put that wine down, wash those mascara stains off your face, put some cute clothes on and go out and hit the town like the Maria Kanellis we all know and love!"

The other three girls nodded and cheered in agreement, as a smile spread across Maria's face.

"You know what Kells? You're right. This is ridiculous. I'll talk to you guys later; love you all!"

And with that, Maria had followed each one of Kelly's instructions and within an hour had called up some college friends and was out in the midst of LA's nightlife; dancing on tables and flirting with cute Cali boys like only she knew how.

After a while, Maria had managed to get over John Cena. She eventually came to agree with him that there simply was no future for them; the things they wanted were far too different. Maria planned on hitting the big city and conquering the world, while John was ready to head back to his small town with a wife and kids. Maria had been aware of these... artistic differences throughout their relationship, but her dreamer instinct had her hooked on the idea of being with this gorgeous, All-American football player; ironically enough the exact opposite of her usual type. She and John eventually went on to develop a genuine friendship, and she had met him and Torrie – who Maria also admitted was one of the nicest people on the planet – for lunch whenever they were in town.

Maria was the dreamer of her friendship group and as such was usually the one with the positive and can-do attitude. Like Torrie and John she believed strongly in true love and remained determined that he was out there... somewhere.

"If only Kells could see me now," Maria muttered to herself as she kicked off her shoes and flopped onto her bed. She looked around her room, still adorned with the posters and decorations she had carefully selected and put up during her teen years. I have got to get out of here.

As she lay on her bed, groaning into her pillow, her mind suddenly returned to the words of Torrie Wilson from about a year earlier.

"Sometimes second chances just come out of the blue. You've just got to know when to grab them."

Her mind then jumped to the image of Phil Brooks in Call It Classic that afternoon.

"Sorry girls," she beamed as she quickly sat up in bed. "I think this time I'm gonna have to follow Torrie Wilson's advice."