Until I Met You

~aubree~

As I sat in the makeup room, waiting for Cody Runnels to show up, I drifted back to Matt and I’s kiss. God, it had been so incredible that I completely spaced out and forgot I had a hut curling iron in my hand and grabbed it. I immediately cried out in pain and dropped the curling iron. Susan looked up at me and chuckled.
“What’s with you today? I’ve never seen you this spacey, and believe me that’s saying something.” I bit my lip, trying to hold back my enormous grin. Susan caught on and walked over to me, no one was here yet, so we had time. “What happened? Is it Matt?” I just nodded. Susan raised her eyebrows, waiting for me to go on.
“He asked me out, and kissed me.” I couldn’t hold back my smile anymore as Susan beamed. She squeezed me, and we jumped around laughing like we were both in high school.
“I knew it would happen eventually!”
“It wouldn’t have if it weren’t for Raina! She asked him to come to dinner with us and he asked me out after that, I literally love that girl right now!”
“I’ve never seen you like this, you’re absolutely glowing.” Susan smiled. “And I couldn’t be happier for you.”
“Happy about what?” We both turned to see Mike Mizanin standing in the doorway.
“N-nothing…”
“Susan, do you mind if I speak to Mouse alone for a few minutes?”
“Not at all.” Susan said. I felt my stomach drop. Don’t leave me alone with him! I thought as she shut the door. The second he heard it click his whole demeanor changed and he pressed me into the wall.
“N-n-n-n… It’s not that hard to speak you know.” He snapped. I felt my face turn bright red. Mike was usually a little grumpy, but he’d never been this mean before.
“Mr. Mizanin...”
“Shut up. You’re going to call Raina right now and you’re going to tell her to go out with me tonight. Do you understand?” He glared at me. “Or do I need to speak more slowly?”I looked at the door, hoping Susan would come back, but Mike grabbed my jaw and made me look back at him. His eyes never left mine as he continued to glare at me. “She’s not going to come help you. This is between you and me, Mousey.” I noticed right about now that my phone started to vibrate in the back pocket of my jeans, but I was too scared to answer it.
“Mike… She likes Phil.” I finally blurted out. Mike didn’t flinch.
“What?”
“They went on a date together last night with me and… someone else.”
“That little worm.” He snarled. Then he looked back at me. “Give me your phone.”
“W-why-”
“Just do it.” He growled. I whimpered as I handed him my phone. He flipped it open and typed a quick text message. He hit the send button and waited before handing it back to me. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” I swallowed nervously. Mike continued to stare at me for a while. “Who did you go to dinner with?” He asked.
“Why?”
“Because, I can’t have my little informant having someone to come to her rescue, then she wouldn’t tell me everything she does.” I bit my lip. “Now tell me. Who was it?’ He asked, putting on his media face. “And don’t you dare lie to me, I’ll know.” No. I wasn’t going to let Mike push me around anymore. I just glared right back at him. “Not going to tell me, huh? He then grinned and grabbed my phone again, pulling up my text messages.
“Mike please, don’t-”
“Break a leg tonight! I’ll call you after the show. Can’t wait to see you again.” I felt my stomach drop into the floor as Mike looked back up at me. “Oh, so you’ve got a thing for champions now, huh miss little innocent. I mean, Matt, of all people? You’re pathetic. Besides, Eve is planning on sinking her claws into him already. You don’t stand a chance, she beautiful, and you’re just a little plain Jane techie. No one cares about you.”
“M-Matt does-” Mike laughed.
“He probably just knows you’re an easy lay.”
“No I’m not-”
“All a guy has to do is say you’re beautiful and you’re helpless. You disgust me.” I felt tears sting my eyes. “Oh, you’re going to cry now? You’re a joke. I’ll see you on Monday, I’ve got a woman to win.” Mike was almost out of the door before he stopped. “Oh, and Mousey.” He turned back to me. “If you so much as think about telling Raina or anyone else about this little conversation, I’ll tell Matt you slept with me.”
“He w-won’t believe you Mike.” Mike didn’t even flinch as he walked over and took an eyebrow pencil in his hands.
“You know, it’s so easy for something to go wrong in the ring. One second I’m doing a superplex off the top rope and the next second…” Mike snapped the pencil with ease and looked back at me. “Then Matt has a broken neck.”
“Please, don’t hurt him-”
“Oh, I won’t, you will. Break up with him.
“Mike, I…” I felt so helpless. “I can’t.”
Then say goodbye to his arms, legs, and career.” Mike started to leave.
“I won’t say anything. Please, don’t make me leave him, he’ll never know, I promise.”
“You better pray he doesn’t.” And then Mike was gone, taking my happiness with him.
Mike had been like this since I first got here. He was the biggest reason that I was so shy and so terrified of people getting close to me. He had never gotten this extreme before though, I was scared for Raina, once Mike wanted something he never stopped obsessing until he got it, or destroyed it. He had always pushed me around because everyone told me everything, he forced me to be his informant by threatening not only me, but the people I cared about. I slid down to the floor as Susan walked back in.
“What did he want?” She asked, clearly getting the wrong message.
“He wanted to know if Raina’s said anything about him.” I said, it was the truth… sort of… “Is it okay if I call her really quick?”
“Of course.” Susan said, smiling. I grabbed my phone and walked outside the makeup room. The phone kept ringing until I finally heard her voice.
“Aubree! It’s about time!” She teased. “How was your date?”
“F-fantastic. Listen, I totally think you should go out with Mike tonight, y-you need to cut loose, you know?” I tried to hide the shakiness in my voice.
“Yeah, I got your text, so Mike’s a nice guy?”
“Oh yeah.” I lied.
“Excellent. Hey, why don’t you come with Matt so it won’t be just him and I? You know, just in case I get sick of Mr. Awesome.”
“I-I Don’t think t-that’s a good idea.” I said.
“Why not? Do you and Matt have something else planned?”
“N-no.”
“Then come on, it’ll be fun! Please?” I let out a long sigh. The last thing I wanted Mike to think was that I was trying to keep him away from Raina, he would hurt Matt and…
But after all Raina had done for me I couldn’t leave her alone with him. What if something happened? I could never forgive myself. “I don’t have anything to wear.” I said.
“No problem! I’ve been wanting to take you shopping since I met you. We’ll knock Matt’s socks off, then you can show him that little nightgown.” I could see her mischievous grin through the phone.
“Raina” I whined.
“Oh hush. It’ll be fun. Besides, I’m sure Matt would love to spend more time with you.” I let out a long sigh.
“I’ll catch a taxi back to the hotel after I’m done.”
“No need, I’ll pick you up.”
“Okay, I-I’ll call Matt.”
“See you soon!”
“Bye.” I hung up and wanted to just disappear into the taupe walls.
All my appointments went way too quickly. And just as I finished up with AJ, my last person, I felt my heart sink. I waved goodbye to Susan and walked out the door, dialing Matt’s number.
“How’s my favorite techie?” His voice was like music to my ears.
“Um, R-Raina and Mike and I are g-going to go dancing a-and Raina asked if you w-wanted to come.”
“Hell yes! I’ll woo you with my mad fist pumping skills!” Matt noticed that I didn’t chuckle and was quiet for a while. “Aubree, something wrong?”
“No, what makes you think that?”
“Because I’m hilarious and you always laugh at my jokes.” Matt teased and I chuckled. “There we go. So am I meeting you guys at the hotel?”
“Yeah, I’ll let you know when I do.”
“Excellent. Phil coming?”
“No, Mike sort of asked Raina and she invited us in case of emergency.”
“I see, I don’t really like that guy, seems kind of controlling. You have no idea. I thought. “Well, I’ll see you tonight babe.”
“B-bye.”
“See you.” In the midst of all this I still blushed. Matt had called me babe… I couldn’t help but smile as I saw Raina’s rental car and hoped in. “Where are we going?” I asked.
“Trust me, I know this great little boutique. You’re going to turn some heads.” Raina was so nice, I couldn’t let Mike…
“Raina…” She glanced over at me.
“Yes?” I thought of Mike snapping the pencil and thought of Matt being hurt because of me.
“N-nothing.”
When we got to the store Raina immediately dragged me to the club wear section that I would usually never go near. She just had me try thing after thing on until I walked out in one outfit and she squealed. “Matt will be seeing that nightgown in no time!” She promised. I blushed as I got the clothes and we got back in the car. Raina noticed something was wrong and looked over at me. “You okay Aubree? You’ve been really quiet today.”
“I’m fine.” I promised.
“Did something happen with Matt? You haven’t told me a word about your date.” I flushed as I remembered how passionately Matt had kissed me inside my hotel room.
“W-W-W….” Raina saw how red I was and giggled.
“Way to be Aubree! Did he kiss you? Did you kiss him? What happened?”
“We were in the elevator and it got stuck, we were going to kiss but then it started moving and I landed on top of him and then I was getting up and he p-pulled me back down and…”
“AND..?!” I looked over at her and smiled sheepishly.
“He kissed me.”
“YES!” Raina cheered. “I’ll turn you into a player yet!” I kept blushing as we got back to the hotel. I did my own hair and makeup this time and changed. Raina met me outside my room and we walked down to the lobby together. Mike and Matt here standing side by side and both their mouths dropped. As I was about to run into Matt’s arms I heard a voice that was getting a little too familiar.
“Mattie! Mike! Raina! Hey!” I turned to see Eve, grinning from ear to ear with her little snake face. “Are you guys going clubbing?”
“Well, it was just going to be just me and Raina but…” Mike started and then he glared at me.
“Well, the more the merrier right? Mind if I come?” Mike saw at how I seethed at the sight of Eve and grinned.
“Of course you can come, can you grab a guy for Mouse though?”
“She’s got a guy.” Matt said as he slung his arm around me. “Hey Eve, maybe you can grab Glenn!” Matt wasn’t being mean, that was just his type of humor, and Eve did not appreciate it.
“I’m sure I can find someone, where are you guys going? I can just meet you there.”
“Trinity.”
“Nice! I’ll catch up, okay?”
“See you then.” Mike said, smiling. As we walked out the door I felt like the world was crumbling around me.
Could this get any worse?