Something to Believe In

CH 6: Creative Differences

Despite saying she was hungry, Michelle barely eats. We end up cutting brunch short when I get a phone call back from Creative. They want us to come in and discuss the straightedge storyline with them. I pay for the food, despite Michelle's protests, and we head over to the arena to talk to the writers. I don't pitch ideas all that often; in fact, the whole straightedge society was pitched to me since they were looking for a way to expand my heel influence. I was glad to do it at first, but now? I'm not so sure.

"Here's the thing," Bob the writer tells us. "We have the draft coming up. We're still not entirely sure who's going to end up where, but we'd planned to break up the straightedge society. You and Gallows will probably be on opposing brands."

"Punk?" Michelle says. "I'll do the storyline, but not if I'm on the same brand as Gallows when it splits."

"Fine," I say. "Let Gallows and Serena stay on Smackdown and move Michelle and I to Raw."

"What about team Lay-Cool?" Bob asks. "We had no plans to move anyone from Lay-Cool."

Michelle looks torn. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to," I tell her.

"We were going to put her in a storyline with Matt Hardy," Bob continues, oblivious to the fact that he's just said the worst thing in the world.

"If Matt's staying on Smackdown, then I want to go to Raw," she says quietly. "Because I am not going to do a storyline with Matt Hardy."

Bob looks perplexed. Not that I blame him, poor guy. "But..."

"You want me to have an onscreen boyfriend? Fine." She smiles at Bob and grabs my hand. "Punk can be my onscreen boyfriend."

"Uh, whoa," I say. "Maybe you ought to run that by Punk first, huh?"

Michelle looks up at me. "I didn't think you'd mind too much."

"Yeah, well, I'd rather you not assume," I mutter, disentangling myself. I can see the hurt look on her face, before she covers it up. I feel like I just kicked a puppy. A dying puppy.

"Fine," she says. "I don't need an onscreen boyfriend. Play it out however you want, so long as Hardy's not involved."

"I thought you guys were dating?" Bob asks.

"Not anymore," Michelle says. "And good riddance to him."

Bob looks confused, so I tell him, "It's complicated. Suffice it to say, she'd rather do a stint in the straightedge society than play Hardy's girlfriend."

"Right," Bob says, making a note of it. "I'll run it by the rest of the team, and we'll see what we can come up with."

"Thanks," I say.

When he's gone, Michelle turns to me. "What was that?"

"What?"

"You'd rather I not assume?"

Oh, good. She's come back to that. "It's not that I necessarily object to the storyline," I say, "but I think it would be good to ask me first before volunteering something like that."

"Okay, sure. But you did seem to be objecting."

"Look, it's nothing personal. You've been out of your relationship with Hardy for all of two days. I think it's understandable that I want to take things slow."

"What things? An onscreen relationship?"

"McCool," I sigh, "we're friends."

"Every time you say that, it spells trouble," she grumbles.

"I want to stay friends. I do not want to cross lines that should not be crossed. You're still in love with Hardy."

"I am not!" she says.

I roll my eyes. "Sure you're not. Anyway, I don't want you to jump into something- even an onscreen something- and muddy the waters for both of us."

She squints at me, like she hasn't been seeing me clearly until now. "Muddy the waters," she repeats. "Sorry, I didn't realize we were in a creek."

"Well, we are, and it has a shallow bottom." I feel like an idiot. Can I just say that? "And I don't want to make things more complicated than they already are. I've got to deal with this Gallows thing..."

"Right. Sorry."

"That's the only reason I'm hesitant about this. We have to sell the storyline, and if you jump from Hardy to me in an instant, no one is going to buy it. Especially if you guys don't do some promos for closure."

"Ugh!" Michelle says. "That's the last thing I want to do!"

"Right. So let's not try and sell a relationship between us until you can kill off the one you and Hardy have already sold, okay?"

"You're lucky I like you, Punk."

"Oh?"

Michelle nods. "Yep. Otherwise, I would probably think you're an insufferable pain in the ass, like everyone else around here does."

I grin. "We wouldn't want that, sunshine."

"Definitely not," she says.

When Bob returns, Michelle and I are making faces at one another. What? She started it. Bob gives me a perplexed look, then says to both of us, "It's going to take some work, and we're still figuring out the draft, but we should be able to work something out."

"That's awesome," Michelle says in her most sarcastic voice. "I'm really looking forward to working with you on this straightedge storyline, Mr. Punk."

"Oh, of course you are, Ms. McCool," I say, smirking at her. "Because I'm better than you, so I'll be a joy to work with."

"I never understood that," she says. "How can you be better than me if I'm flawless?"

"Oh, you have flaws."

Michelle grins. "Oh yeah? Prove it."

"I will, but not here." I glance toward Bob, who is staring at us. "After all, we don't want the mere mortals to be a part of our epic battles, do we?"

"Good point," she says, trying very hard to be serious. "We'll have to discuss this at a later time, then."

"Yes. What a pity." And then I can't hold it in any more. The look on Bob's face is priceless. I laugh, and Michelle joins me. It feels good to share that moment with her; times like this have been few and far between ever since we got back from Hardy's house all those weeks ago. I wish I could say that everything was cool after that, but I'm no fool. She's still got a long road ahead of her.