Alright ladies and gents, put down the pitch fork. And also thank Miranda for invoking the wrath of my Charlie muse so I could write!

CH 44

"That's a wha—Charlie!" Punk whirled around and spotted me where I froze, eyes blow wide and clinging the duvet to my chest. "Does 'stay here' not mean anything to you or—"

"I heard John, I panicked!"

"So panic means you get up and get us both into shit?"

"Panic means…" I waved one hand in the air wildly, "I don't know! I was going to go hide in the bathroom!"

Both men blinked at me for a long few moments and Punk opened his mouth to retort but John beat him to it.

"You had sex."

The dark haired man turned back to him and stared, no doubt fixing him with a gaze much like the one he'd just given me. "Thank you for pointing that out, John, I'd have never guess that's what happened. I thought I was just stabbing her repeatedly in the vagina with my dick."

I yelped, feeling my cheeks burn deep red at his words and scurried my way to the bathroom, locking myself inside.

If I'd have been a smarter woman, I might have paid attention to the conversation happening on the other side of the door, but… Well, come on. It's me. Instead I busied myself taking a shower quickly, stepping out with my hair plastered to my face and staring in the mirror in almost horror.

I had a bruise –okay, it was a hickey, but DAMN- decorating a good portion of my neck. That would be fun to cover up. Not. And honestly, I don't even remember him giving it to me but there was the proof, standing out against my skin in a deep red patch.

The knock on the bathroom door made me jump a bit, but I went to open it, holding the towel up around my chest and dragging the duvet out with me. "Can I help you?" I asked, pushing past Punk to get dressed.

He gave me an appraising sort of look that had me rolling my eyes but I couldn't help but smile. Cheeky bastard. "I was just checking on you. I expected you to come out and interject at least 3 times."

"I was in the shower."

"I can see that."

I turned around as he threw the blanket back onto the bed and stuck my tongue out at him. "Could have seen more if you hadn't been having a bromance with our resident Super Man."

The quip made him laugh as he moved to his own suitcase, grabbing a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt, "Well, I hope you left me some hot water seeing as you were so rude and couldn't wait to conserve the earth's precious resources." With that he moved into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

That left me in the room alone and for the first time since last night really I had a chance to stop and process the whirlwind that had been my life for the past two-three days. And may I just way. WOW. Because that's a lot to process.

For a few moments I simply sat on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands, trying to make sure that the pieces all fit together correctly. They did, but that didn't make them any less insane in my mind. The only thing I knew for certain was that I needed to tell Eve and AJ before someone else did.

"You WHAT?!"

AJ was perched on the edge of my bed. Well… Punk's bed. Why was I even calling it my bed? Maybe because I'd spent last night in it… Speaking of which, maybe AJ shouldn't be sitting on those sheets…

Clearing my throat, I ran a hand through my hair, wrinkling my nose. "Budge up." I settled for making her scoot even closer to the corner. Away from the center of the bed. It was worth a shot anyway.

She was still looking at me, completely incredulous, absolutely expectant, like I owed her something. On the other side of the room sat Eve, legs crossed as she peered at me from the two seater table. She had a bit more of a… Well, I think it was a disapproving look. Probably because of the way Mike and I had ended.

Eve had been the one to point out that "wasn't this considered cheating"? I'd then had to explain the awkward conversation in his hotel room. The one where he'd called me a slut.

AJ had made an affronted noise at that. Eve just kept looking at me… And it was making me incredibly uncomfortable. There was something about her stare that had me thinking she wasn't entirely pleased with my current 'relations' with Punk for whatever reason.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Funny. It seemed to be a theme for the day. I huffed a breath as I stood, tucking my hair behind my ear as I moved to the door to open it. Only to stand face to face with Layla.

Layla El was another of the Diva's. Petite, gorgeous, and British, with dark hair and tan skin. She was a sweetheart on most occasions. And also wasn't normally one to seek me out. We talked, but never a whole lot. I wouldn't generally consider myself as her friend, but here she was. "Uh. Hi?"

Layla peeked in, waving to AJ, "I was looking for you—"

It was Eve who cut her off, nudging me out of the way with a short, "I've got somewhere to be."

That left me a little jarred to be honest, but I let it go, simply letting the smaller woman in. When I closed to the door and turned back around, AJ was practically sneering. This caused me to raise a brow. "Okay did I miss something…?"

"Probably nothing you want to know about." AJ said, still glaring at the door.

Layla and I exchanged a glance. At least I wasn't the only person in the room to be confused. I for one was starting to wonder if it had something to do with the conversation we'd had on the phone earlier.

It had started simple enough, me calling AJ and Eve, telling them that I wanted to have a chat with them, that I had news for them. AJ had been worried, Eve had been too, at least for the first part. As I'd given them a brief rundown of "I'm alright, Mike and I aren't together and I may or may not have slept with Punk last night," AJ had gotten more and more excited. Eve, on the other hand, had grown more annoyed as time went on. It hadn't been any better when the two of them had showed up and I'd actually explained it all to them.

Maybe she thought I was a slut too.

I hadn't realized I'd started frowning until Layla pointed it out. "You alright, Charlie?"

The smile I gave her was forced and probably not too convincing, "I'm fine. Just uh. That was weird." With a shrug, I landed back on the bed, laying back and sighing. AJ patted my stomach lightly with a sympathetic smile.

"On the bright side, at least now Mike has shown his true colors," She reassured me.

"No joke." I made a face at the ceiling, lifting my head to look at Layla. "Sorry. You've kind of come in at a… not a bad time but at a time that's sort of, confusing? I guess?"

She shook her head, curls falling around her shoulders. "You're fine, sweetheart. AJ and I were talking about doing lunch today so I'd been looking for her. Punk said she was up here in his room?" She tilted her head just a bit.

My cheeks were a bit red as I smiled. "Uh… Yeah." Scratching my head, I nodded. "My room. Technically. Well, sorta." I turned to AJ for help.

She simply smiled. More like grinned, or smirked, actually. "Charlie and Punk are together now."

"We are not together!" I nearly fell off the bed trying to scramble for a defense. "It was a one-time thing, I'm sure. Like comfort sex or—"

"You and Punk did the nasty?" Layla was, to my surprise, smiling.

I nodded now, nearly glaring at AJ. Granted, she hadn't been the one to say it, but she'd made me panic. Which had made me say it. So it was technically her fault. She responded for me. "They did. And Charlie was just about to give me all the dirty details. Weren't you, Charlie?"

"I most certainly was not!"

"Oh come on!" Layla surprised me by scooting up on the other side of me on the bed. Honestly I should have the sheets changed… "We've been waiting for you two to get together for ages!"

AJ gave her an almost reproachful look, "Layla!"

"What?! We have! It's like watching a romance novel come to life." The Brit said, her voice entirely too excited.

I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about that. People had been expecting me to get together with Punk? Did that mean he liked me more than I thought he did? Or that we were flirting and I hadn't ever realized it? Or maybe that we just looked good together? Or that we were better friends than I'd imagined? Or—

AJ elbowed me in the ribs, grinning, "Spill."

I huffed at her, rubbing at the 'injury' before sighing. Honestly, it was kind of exciting, getting to talk to them about everything going on. At least the good parts anyway. I could probably go the rest of my life without ever re-hashing the details of the night Mike had dumped me –literally—ever again.

At any rate, the next two hours would have the three of us laying on the bed and floor respectively, talking about the "dirty little details" of last night and laughing like teenagers.