Erchomai [Ricochet/Adam Cole]

chapter 8: definitely, nope

Even with the flood of attention the two are receiving on social media from critics and supporters alike, Trevor and Adam manage to strengthen their friendship in no time at all. They entertain each other in their texts with memes and random questions, get lunch together often, play video games at Adam's and watch TV at Trevor's. When they're not with their friends at the PC, they're together, running drills or lines or sitting in a corner talking amongst themselves.

It's strange how they've fallen into this rhythm, but Trevor's not complaining. Even though everything is changing, and it feels like he's stupidly falling in love with Adam all over again.

A few days after the leaked images of their kiss, Trevor is at the PC, running through drills and wrestling with Mia. He doesn't yet know that his life is about to change drastically. More or less.

Mia and Trevor lock arms with a collar and elbow tie-up, and Mia eventually gets the upper hand, wrenching Trevor into a headlock. He tries to wriggle himself free, but Mia's grip tightens. After another beat, he goes slack. "So, how's the family?"

"Good. They visited last weekend and we went out to eat with Keith, then came home and played Monopoly." She squeezes her arm tighter around his neck and Trevor winces, then digs his feet into the ground to move until Mia's back hits the ropes. "To no one's surprise, it's banned now."

"That bad, huh?" Mia releases him slowly after a few seconds pass and he backs away with a clean break. "I thought your competitive streak died with your brown hair."

"You funny." She pushes off the ropes and the two start circling each other. Mia holds up a hand and Trevor takes it, overpowering her to wrench her arm behind her back. "But it wasn't me, it was my mom. I think she damn near scared the monocle off the Monopoly guy when I bought the Boardwalk."

"Damn, remind me to never play Monopoly with her." Mia brings her free hand to the back of Trevor's head, dropping down to hit him with a jawbreaker. When he stands, he leans against the ropes, working his jaw. "I don't think he wears a monocle, though."

"I'm pretty sure he does." Mia charges for him and Trevor pulls down the ropes, sending her over them. She takes the brief respite to tighten her ponytail, turning around just in time to see Trevor running up the turnbuckles to hit a shooting star press to the outside. She doesn't move an inch as he lands effortlessly on his feet in front of her, just as he planned. Trevor smirks and Mia rolls her eyes, grabbing him around the back of the neck to whip him back into the ring. "Showoff."

Trevor stands and whirls around just as Mia slides in after him, she goes to kick him, and he catches her foot. "No, you're thinking about dude on the Pringles."

Mia scoffs, hopping around on the foot Trevor doesn't have a hold of. "What kind of Pringles are you eating? Because he sure as hell doesn't wear one."

Trevor furrows his eyebrows at that, because he just went grocery shopping recently and spent a good ten minutes on the snack aisle because he couldn't find the pistachios without the shells. He ended up having to ask a salesclerk for help. In that time, he remembers glancing up to see the Pringles guy mocking him because he made a remark about not beating up snacks with glasses. The clerk heard that and...it's a long, embarrassing story, but it doesn't matter. He saw a monocle on someone.

Taking advantage of his distracted state, Mia knocks him upside the head with an enziguri. He staggers backwards, rubbing a hand on the side of his face and staring at her with his mouth slightly agape. "Hey, I was thinking about things."

"Well, you can think on your own time, because I came to wrestle." Trevor smirks as she motions for him to bring it with one hand, so he wholeheartedly does. They know exactly what the other is capable of and each other's pain tolerance, so they hold nothing back because they know they can take it. And if Trevor goes home with a sore neck from the amount of times Mia plants her foot in it, he's not going to complain out loud. He knows she did it out of love.