Best Two Out of Three

Part 1

Friday, May 22, 2020
Jacksonville, Florida

"Are you sure it's cool if I come hang out with you guys?"

Alex sent Kris a look like she'd grown a second head. "Of course it's cool. I adore Chuck, Trent, and James, but sometimes I need to hang out with another girl."

They walked into the hotel elevator and Alex hit the button for the fifth floor. It was the night before AEW Double or Nothing 2020, and the Best Friends were having a little get-together in their rooms. It was a much-needed opportunity to cut loose and experience a little normalcy in the midst of the pandemic, and Alex in particular could use a few cold ones to take the edge off. She was still annoyed with Kenny for giving the match against Kris tomorrow night to Penelope Ford instead of her. She rolled her eyes as the elevator doors slid open with a ding. If he wasn't over at the arena pre-filming the Stadium Stampede match with the rest of The Elite and The Inner Circle, she might have marched up to his room and given him a piece of her mind.

"So who all's gonna be there?" Kris asked as they stepped off the elevator.

"The usual suspects," Alex answered. "My knucklehead stablemates, Scorpio, Frankie, Jack, Austin, and you and me."

"No Maxwell?"

She smirked. "I told him he could only come if he brought Michael, and then we'd be over the 10-person limit for social gatherings."

She let out a loud laugh. "So you totally invited Michael behind his back, right?"

"I did," she confirmed. "But he politely declined."

They arrived at Alex and Chuck's room, and she slid her key into the electronic lock. "I'm back with an alien and beer!" she proclaimed as she opened the door—but she got no response. Chuck and James were embroiled in a heated debate; well, about as heated as James, a.k.a. the one and only Orange Cassidy, could get.

"Dude! Why would she come out with you for the ladder match?" Chuck charged.

James's face remained as stoic as ever. "Because she's my friend."

Chuck's eyebrows arched high onto his forehead. "She's literally my best friend!"

Ever so slightly, James cocked his head. "Penelope's probably coming out with Kip for it," he coolly pointed out.

"Penelope is Kip's girlfriend!"

"And Alex is my friend who's a girl."

"Hey!" Alex interjected as she set the case of beer on the floor. Everyone turned to look at her. "I'm right here."

"Oh, thank God," Trent breathed. "You need to settle this. They've been arguing since you left."

Her face contorted with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. "About what?"

"About whether you should accompany Chuck and Trent to the ring for their match or Freshly Squeezed for his match tomorrow night," Jack answered.

Alex blinked. "And why wouldn't I just do both?"

"It's the principle of the matter," Chuck argued.

James didn't so much as blink. "What he said."

Kris snorted under her breath. Alex sent her a look. "Do you see what I have to deal with?"

"Seriously, please put us all out of our misery," Frankie groaned. "And can I get one of those?" He didn't wait for permission as he eagerly picked up the beer case and tore into it. But Alex couldn't care less; the wheels in her brain were turning.