A/N - So it's almost been like a whole freaking year since I last updated this lol. I can't believe it! Anyways, I hope somebody out there is still reading it. Please leave your comments to let me know! For the person asking for more Stephanie, don't worry, everybody will get their time. Right now the focus is just elsewhere. Not for too long though lol.
"Mmmmmmm, this shrimp is so damn good," John moaned appreciatively as he stuffed more of the seafood into his already full mouth.
"You've already told us twenty times, John," Randy huffed. He thought about ordering the shrimp but went for a burger instead and now he was regretting it. John rubbing it in his face every two seconds was starting to piss him off.
Paul took a swig of his beer before frowning. "Jeez man! What the hell crawled up your ass tonight?"
"Randy always has something in his ass because he's always a cranky bastard!"
There was a momentary silence at the table before the innuendo behind John's words set in and everybody started laughing, everybody except Randy.
"Shut up!"
"Is there something you want to tell us, Randy?" Trish teased, playfully bumping his shoulder. Her smile quickly disappeared when Melina glared at her though.
"He doesn't need to tell you anything. He's all man," Melina stated as she rubbed his bicep. Randy glared at John for a few seconds before turning to his girlfriend and pecking her lips. Somehow he always ended up the butt of their jokes and he was getting a bit sick of it.
Paul rolled his eyes dramatically making Stephanie laugh. She sighed as she looked around the table. John was sitting there trying to look innocent while still stuffing shrimp into his mouth, Randy and Melina were all caught up with each other, Paul was trying to get the attention of their waitress, probably for another beer, Chris was busy cutting his steak and Trish was...Trish was gazing at him with a look of...longing...on her face? What the hell! From out of nowhere these past few days Trish had been ogling Chris. She was absolutely convinced that she had a thing for him. Chris seemed oblivious though, his focus still on trying to cut through what seemed to be a tough piece of steak. Stephanie sipped her wine and watched Trish curiously for a minute or two until the other woman eventually broke her gawk fest and caught her eye.
Trish saw Stephanie looking at her with an amused expression on her face and she shot her friend a death glare. Was she that obvious? She didn't know what the hell was happening. Yeah, she had a huge crush on Chris when she first met him, but she didn't make a move and they had fallen into friend territory. Recently he was all she could think about though. The image of him in nothing but a towel from the other day plagued her mind. Her feelings were rekindling. And Stephanie knew it. She could never hide anything from her. God damn having attentive friends! She would just have to convince Steph that nothing was going on while making her promise not to tell anybody else. The second Paul or John caught wind of this she would never hear the end of it.
"Hey! Yeah, ummmm, can I have another beer please? Anybody else want one?"
Trish's thoughts were broken by the appearance of the waitress. She watched as her friends gave their orders for another round.
"Trish. Do you want something?"
Her eyes narrowed at Stephanie's question. The smirk on the other woman's face caused her to screw up her own in disgust. "No thanks, I'm fine."
Stephanie just shrugged her shoulders. Maybe now wasn't the best place to call her out on it. But come later tonight she would have an answer.
"Guys, are we partying later tonight or what's the deal?" Chris asked after finally cutting his piece of steak and chewing through it.
"Man, I don't know. Maybe Lina and I will just head back to the house," Randy answered.
John mock barfed. "Oh for fuck sakes! You can bang each other all you want when we are home. Don't waste your last night here inside. Come on!"
Melina's eyes widened before a slow smile crept across her face. Well, he was only telling the truth. She could never get enough of Randy and vice versa. "What do you think, baby? You want to go out on the town tonight?" Her hand squeezed his and she felt a shiver down her spine at his sexy smile.
"Alright. Where are we going, Cena?"
"Shit, I don't know! Ask Paul, he's the guy who sorts that crap out," was John's unhelpful reply.
Randy rolled his eyes. "Thank you. You're so fucking helpful."
"I try. By the way, did I tell you that this shrimp is soooooooooooo good?" John quickly ducked out of the way of Randy's approaching hand and laughed. His friend was too easy to wind up and it was a constant source of amusement for him. It was even better when Paul joined in.
"Guys!"
Everybody's attention turned to Paul. "Alright, so we have two options, well actually three. One, there is a huge beach party tonight at the house just a few spots down from ours. Two, an awesome bar in town has karaoke going on. Three, Randy and Melina bang each other's brains out back at the house while the rest of us vomit up this lovely meal."
John burst out laughing and high fived Paul while Randy scowled.
"Will the two of you fuck off with that! Just because you don't have a girlfriend. Jealous fuckers!"
"Dude! That was awesome," John chuckled. "I definitely don't vote for option three."
"As much as I love you guys," Stephanie chimed in with a shrug of her shoulders, "me neither. I vote number one."
Trish nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, I vote number one too."
Paul looked at her in confusion. "You vote number one two?"
"Ugh Paul! You know what I mean!"
He just smiled and took another sip of his beer.
"Ummmmm, I vote number two. Karaoke night? I'm so in!" Chris said excitedly. He loved Karaoke nights.
"Yeah, I vote Karaoke as well," Paul agreed with Chris.
John voted option two along Paul and Chris. The three of them loved Karaoke nights which usually consisted of Chris singing and getting tonnes of praise from everybody while Paul and John got hammered and screwed all their songs up.
Melina shook her head in disgust. If she never had to hear a Paul and John duet again it wouldn't be soon enough. "My ears are still bleeding from the last karaoke session. I vote option one!"
"So that leaves it down to me then, huh?" Randy smirked. He made a show of looking at John and Paul before clearing his throat and smiling a huge smile. "I vote option one, beach party."
As soon as he saw the smirk on his friend's face, Chris knew there would be no karaoke. Damn Paul and John for pissing him off. He slapped them both on the arm. "Look what you did! If you hadn't kept pissing him off all night we could have went to karaoke!"
"What! It's not my fault he can't sing!" John yelled defensively.
"You can't sing either," Stephanie chimed in innocently. She noticed the smirk on Paul's face and nudged him in his side. "I don't know what you're smiling about, neither can you."
"Hey!" They both proclaimed in outrage.
Trish vehemently nodded her head in agreement. "It's true. The only person that can sing is Chris."
"Thank you!" Chris smiled happily at Trish, almost making her insides melt in the process.
"That's because he's in a band so he doesn't count," John huffed. "Besides, I can rap. Paul can't do anything."
"Man shut up! I'm the driving force behind the two of us and you know it."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah really!"
As the pair continued to argue, the rest of the group sat back and watched in amusement. The two of them were always antagonising everybody else. It was nice to see them against each other for a change.
Stephanie looked at Randy and smiled. "They are arguing over being bad and awful. What's the point?"
"They are two idiots, that's what they are. Hey Chris, speaking of you being in a band, you never did finish telling me how the meeting went with the producer," Randy asked, ignoring the 'idiots' next to him.
"Yeah, Chris, how did it go?" Melina probed further.
Chris sighed heavily and raked a hand through his hair. "He said that he would call us. It's been a week now so..."
Trish saw the disappointment in his eyes and instinctively reached to rub his arm. "Oh Chris. Don't give up. There is somebody out there that will sign you, I'm sure of it."
He looked at her and couldn't help but like how she was rubbing his arm or how her eyes were gazing at him. Yeah she had consoled him before but it felt a little different this time and he had no idea why. "Thanks, Trish," he said softly as a small smile appeared on his face.
Stephanie watched the two of them. Good God! How was nobody else picking up on this! Were they blind? Her eyes travelled to Melina who was looking right back at her with the same curious expression. Thank God somebody besides her was observant. She nodded her head and was pleased to see her friend nod back. Oh they were so going to get to the bottom of this tonight!