CHAPTER 16
The next morning Miranda woke up and got dressed quickly. The guys were heading back to Orlando today and she wanted to talk to Lance before they departed. It was only 7:00 now, they would be leaving at 12:30. No one was up but she didn’t bother to leave a note for the fact that she had told Tom her plan after talking it out with Justin. She kissed Austin goodbye and headed upstairs to leave. She called Justin and then plopped herself down on the couch. Five minutes later she heard a soft knock at the door. She threw on her jacket and opened it. She smiled at the sight of Justin, with his curls, baggy khaki’s and North Carolina jersey. He hugged her and she gently shut the door behind her as they walked to his car.
"I’m so tired." Justin replied.
"Me too, I wish I brought Austin with me. He really misses y’all," She cooed.
"Jon misses him too. Sometimes the kid worries me." Miranda looked at him with a concerned expression on her face. "We better get going. We don’t have all day." She nodded and buckled herself in. The rest of the way to the hotel, where the others were, was silent. Miranda was thinking about how sad she was going to be in a few hours when the guys left. She liked having them around. "Miranda…Miranda," Justin called.
"What? Oh I’m sorry I think I was off in my own world for a second there."
"Are you okay?"
"Absolutely. I was just thinking."
They got out of the car and headed up to the hotel room. Surprisingly there were few fans outside of the entrance, thus being the reason Justin didn’t have a bodyguard with him.
"I have to go get something real quick out of my room. Everyone is in Lance’s room, just knock, someone will let ya in," he smiled at her.
Thoughts were running through Miranda’s head about what she would do if Lance was the one to answer the door. She still had not figured out what to say to him. She knocked and sucked in her breath. Lance in fact, was the one to answer the door, mainly because he was the only one in the room. "Hi…umm…Justin…he told me that everyone was in here."
Lance stepped back and answered, "No such luck. You can come in if you like. They are all coming over later."
"Umm… all right," Miranda replied unsure of herself.
Miranda walked in the room and set her bag down near the door and walked over to the couch. She looked at Lance and noticed that he was staring at her. "Lance.." Miranda started.
"We need to talk," he finished.
"Yeah, that’s why they shoved us in here. So we would talk." She replied.
"Well, lemme just start by saying I’m sorry."
"What are you sorry for?"
"Acting like such a little kid."
"You didn’t act like a little kid. I ran away from all of you. Right now, that’s what’s normal. I’ve been running most of my life, from anyone. I’ve run and run and run but I’ve never faced my problems and tried to resolve them or fix them." By the end Miranda was in full sobbing mode.
Lance got out of the chair he was seated in and sat down on the couch next to Miranda. His arms slipped gently around her body and she willingly went at ease in his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder and just cried. For the next five minutes no words were spoken between the two. Lance held her and she cried.
"Miranda..." he paused while propping her up so that she was looking into his eyes.
"Yes?" she asked, wiping the remaining tears away from her eyes.
"We’re all here to help you. Think about it. Maybe this is your time to stop running. We’ll all help you through it. Whatever it takes. The only thing now is you need to want us to help you, because if you don’t it will be pointless on both ends."
She gave him a half smile, wrapped her arms around his neck tightly and whispered, "I need your help, and I want you to help me but this isn’t going to work if you’re in Florida and I’m here."
"I know. But, we have a surprise for you later. It should help us get past this problem."
"Thanks so much, I’ll go get the others." She leaned in slowly and gently applied her lips to his. It was short but sweet. She got up leaving Lance without word. She didn’t look back as she exited the room. Boy, were her emotions f**ked up now.
She went to Justin’s room and knocked on his door. Everyone was in there goofing off until she opened the door and everything went silent. "Umm, if you guys want, you can come into Lance’s room."
"Okay, is everything okay between you and him?" Justin asked.
"Sure it is…it’s all good," she replied smiling and thinking back to moments earlier.
"We’ll be right over," Chris answered. Miranda nodded and shut the door gently and went back to Lance’s room. Miranda walked in the room to hear the sounds of the shower running. He came out 2 minutes later wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist. Miranda’s mouth fell open and that was the time the other four decided to walk in. Chris immediately saw the situation and went over to Miranda and closed her mouth. "I...uhh…just gotta change real quick. I’ll be out in a second," Lance replied. He blushed slightly before entering the bathroom once again.
"OoOoOo…," Joey cooed. "What exactly happened when we weren’t in the room?"
"Nothing," she replied plainly, but also a bit too quickly.
"You sure?" Chris questioned.
"Sure, why not?" she blushed.
"LIAR!" Justin shouted jokingly.
Just then Lance came out of the bathroom(fully clothed) and Justin immediately got an idea. He walked over to Lance and said, "Is she a good kisser?"
Lance looked at Miranda and gave her the you told look. Miranda shook her head furiously. "What are you talking about Justin? I’ve never had the honor of kissing Miranda since…ummm well ya know." Lance replied, trying to play it off coolly.
"Okay whatever but…,"
Miranda interrupted, "What is my surprise?!" She asked, excitedly.
"Well, Miranda," JC started.
"What?"
"Justin’s mom,….you see, she decided to adopt you, and Austin of course. She misses you and she saw how much her boys missed you. She wanted you and Austin there permanently, so this was her solution," he told her.
Miranda looked into the eyes of the five men as she looked around the room and let a tear trickle down her cheek.
Justin walked over to her, wiped the tear off her face, and replied plainly, "Guess it looks like we're family now."
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