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Ashley Massaro swore softly to herself as she tried to maneuver the mouse. It certainly was no easy task, and she knew she would never get used to it. She was a righty, damn it, not a lefty.
Moving slowly, the blonde finally positioned the pointer to the exact link she'd been attempting to click. Ah, it worked! She was now on her MySpace page.
She smiled as she checked some messages her friends and fans had left for her. Of particular interest, she noted that Kyle, a super sweet young man who ran a popular fansite for her, had left her an email.
Ashley felt a sense of dread as she took a quick glance down at her hands. Her left was perfectly fine and normal. Her right was covered by a pink cast to support the wrist she had fractured on the night of her big comeback on RAW. It had been just her bum luck that she'd somehow landed wrong as she'd delivered that Starstruck to Jillian.
Reading Kyle's message had her smiling from ear-to-ear - until she was nearly at the end of it. He'd included something he thought she should see, a blog written earlier that day by an ex-boyfriend of hers, Matt Hardy.
It was short, very cryptic, and it caused the blonde's jaw to drop.
"What the hell...?" Ashley grew angry at what she read. Matt hadn't actually named names - that was the whole point of his "cryptic" blogs - but judging by what he'd said about the two people he was talking about, it was obvious who they were.
He was talking about his own brother, Jeff, and herself!
She sat there and re-read the blog. As she absorbed each word, the vague comments, she literally started to shake with anger. What the hell was his problem? For the most part, even after their breakup, Matt had been quite cordial. He hadn't even given her any problems after she'd started dating Paul London two months later. But what in hell was this?
Ashley scowled and clicked a link, clumsily typing a quick reply, thanking her friend for the heads-up. When she was done with that, she posted her own new blog entitled, "Don't believe everything you hear."
After that was taken care of, the blonde sat there seething in silence. The line "they're both playing around in the deep water and can't swim. I can swim," really bothered her in particular and stuck out in her mind. Matt applying that phrase to Jeff made sense, but to her? What was he implying?
She let out a furious snarl and jumped up from the computer chair. The truth was, she couldn't remember the last time she'd been so mad. Fuck this... She had been in a perfectly good mood until reading that blog. Maybe she would pick up the phone and call Matt to give him a piece of her mind.
Ashley marched over to the phone across the room and snatched up the receiver. However, as she started dialing, it wasn't her ex-boyfriend's number she punched in.
"Hello?" a southern accent spoke from the other end.
"Hi, Jeff... It's Ashley."
She heard the younger Hardy brother make a small sigh before he replied.
"Oh... Hi, Ashley. What's up?"
"I just wanted to..." She paused, knowing she should say something nice to him before letting him know about the blog. The last thing he needed right now was aggravation. He already had a lot of shit going on, what with the suspension and all the rumors circulating the internet about him. "... How are you?"
"I'm okay," he said, then sighed again. "Actually, that was a lie... Life really sucks at the moment."
Ashley felt a twinge of sympathy and winced. She felt for the young man. He'd been on top of the world one minute, and then in the next, it had all been yanked from him like a rug being pulled from under his feet. She bit her doubly pierced lip.
"I'm sorry, Jeff." Jeez, how was she going to tell him what Matt had done? It would only add to his misery. But he had a right to know. A sudden thought struck her. "Hey... Would you like some company? I'm stuck home with my broken wrist, but I'll swing by if it's okay with you." She fully expected the man to turn down the request, but then again, Jeff Hardy was full of surprises.
"Sure... Why not?" he said. "I think I'd like some company."
"Great." Ashley felt herself smiling in spite of the situation.
They hung up shortly after, and she soon left, her purse slung over her shoulder. Fortunately, it was only a fifteen minute drive. Since she and Paul had broken up little more than a month earlier, she'd moved back to North Carolina.
She parked her car in front of the driveway and exited, heading up the walk and to the door. As she rang the bell, she couldnt' help but wonder about how the young man was going to take the news.
She heard barking, and a moment later, the door was opened and Jeff peered out at her.
"Hi," he said softly, gesturing for her to come inside.
Ashley entered the house and felt worry course through her. The man's face seemed drawn, ashen, and his green eyes definitely lacked their usual spark. Then again...
"Well, hello there!" she quipped as she bent down to greet his dog, a Jack Russell terrier aptly named Jack. The little dog jumped up just a bit, his tail happily wagging.
"You want somethin' to drink?" Jeff asked. He gestured to her to follow him, and they went into the living room.
"Um... A glass of water would be fine," the blonde replied.
"Sure thing."
Ashley seated herself on the sofa as he disappeared into the kitchen. She folded her hands in her lap and was able to hear the sound of water running. A moment later, the rainbow-haired man returned with a glass and handed it to her.
"Thank you." She took a long, deep swallow of the ice water and met his green eyes, which seemed to be watching her so intently, she actually thought she could read suspicion in them.
Then, almost as though on cue with her thoughts, Jeff spoke.
"Okay, it's not every day one of my brother's ex-girlfriends wants to pay me a visit... What's all this about, Ashley?"
She winced, and she wasn't sure if it was because of the reason she was here or his question. She sighed and eyed him squarely.
"Jeff, have you been online at all yet today?"
"Nah, I'm really not in the mood to read all that stuff about me on IWC sites," he said.
The pretty blonde diva bit her lip.
"Well, there's something I think you need to see," she said. "And it's not on one of those sites. Go on your brother's MySpace and read his new blog.
This caused the young man to raise an eyebrow in question.
"Matt?" He couldn't imagine what his older brother could have posted that was so important that Ashley deemed it necessary to come by. However, he intended to find out, anyway.
He rose from the chair in which he'd been sitting and made his way to the computer situated on a small table in a corner of the room. In moments, he logged onto MySpace and read the blog in question. And he felt his ire rise.
"What's the meaning of this?" he asked, shaking his head. He turned to see Ashley standing directly at his right side, and she squarely met his eyes as she spoke.
"Your brother is at it again... It's us he's talking about in that blog."