Ryan rolled over in her bed, listening carefully to the faint sound of the light rain outside her window. The storm had settled, leaving only a soft mist through the air. Tucking her hands beneath her head, the watched as the tiny drops of rain hit her window, sliding down the pane and out of sight.
She felt a strange sense of comfort being back at her parents house. In her old room, in her old bed. She left like a child again, sleeping with the comfort of knowing that her parents were just down the hall, watching over her.
When she had arrived at their home late that afternoon, they had seemed wary as to why she had just shown up out of the blue. They seemed even more curious as to why she would be staying for a few days, considering everything that had been going on with Justin.
They were not aware of the way he had been acting. They didn't know about the fights, or the fact that he was not taking care of himself as he should. All they knew was that in a time like this, he would need her. And here she was, hiding from him.
But they were always supportive of whatever decisions Ryan made, no matter if they agreed with them or not. They did not question her about her reasons for coming home, and never once asked about Justin more than a simple 'How is he?' to which Ryan simply replied, 'Fine'.
Katie had been ecstatic to have her sister home for a few days. They had not seen much of each other since the accident, and Katie was going to take full advantage of having Ryan home. She made her paint with her, told her stories of school, and how a boy named Brian Rennylds had tried to kiss her. Ryan was laughing hysterically when Katie told her that she had smacked Brian, and threatened to beat him up if he tried to kiss her again. She even threatened to have her big sisters boyfriends bodyguard come to school with her to keep Brian away. Ryan could hardly contain herself at her sisters logic. She could just picture her tiny little sister walking around school with a 300 pound, 6'4" bodyguard to keep boys from kissing her.
"But don't tell Lance, okay." Katie said, as she laid out the finger paints on the floor of the rec room. "I don't want him to think I'm cheatin' on him."
"I promise" Ryan agreed, trying desperately to control her laughter.
After a few hours of playing with Katie, Ryan went upstairs to the living room to chat with her parents. She fully expected them to give her the third degree, asking why she was there and didn't want to see or talk to Justin. She hadn't told them that's what she was doing, avoiding him, but knowing them, they would figure it out.
But she had been pleasantly surprised when they simply talked to her about her work, how things were going with the tour preparation, and something about Joey calling them to ask if he could borrow their car because Lois had hidden his keys.
During dinner, the majority of the conversation was Katie yammering on about show and tell the week after. Katie asked Ryan if she could take Justin to school for show and tell, but Ryan said that probably wouldn't be such a good idea.
"Fine." Katie pouted. "Ill take Chris. He'll go."
Ryan laughed out loud. "Yeah, of course he would. He would feel right at home in a room full of third graders." She could just picture Chris sitting at one of the small tables, fighting with a child over the last piece of play dough.
Ryan tired to explain to her sister that taking the guys to school wouldn't be safe for them, but Katie was determined. After about an hour, she finally had her sister convinced, and Katie settled on taking one of their tour jackets in to school instead.
After helping her mother with the dishes, it was almost eight o'clock. She hadn't done much that day, and she had slept in rather late, but she was still tired. Mostly from all the talking with Lois on whether or not this was a good plan.
Lois was not happy at the idea of Ryan leaving Justin for a while, but knew that there was nothing she could say or do to change her mind. And honestly, she didn't have any better ideas.
Lois hoped that this would be the wake up call that Justin needed, and that things would go the way they were hoping. If not, it would cause a lot more trouble than any of this was worth.
After watching a movie with Katie, she sent her sister to bed before saying goodnight to her parents and climbing the stairs towards her old room.
Stepping inside, she smiled as she looked around at the familiar setting. Nothing had changed. Well, almost nothing. All her old dolls still sat on the selves surrounding the room. Her My Little Pony collection filled one dresser. Everything that she didn't really want cluttering her apartment had stayed here, and her parents hadn't moved a thing.
Stepping further into the room, she set her bag on the floor at the foot of the bed, before sitting on its edge to look around.
She remembered when she had moved out. She had been sad the whole day, but also excited at the thought of starting a new life. She was going to start her new job with Jive two weeks later, and had no idea what her life would end up like.
Ryan smiled when she thought back to that time. If someone had told her back then that she would be dating Justin Timberlake of NSync, she would have thought they were crazy.
But here she was. Three years, and a whole lot of memories later.
After getting ready for bed, Ryan had spent about an hour or so, just sitting on the bay window in her room, overlooking the back yard. The rain was still falling hard, but it was slowly letting up. The soothing sounds of the drops falling outside calmed her nerves and eased her thoughts. She smiled as she remembered how she used to spend hours sitting there, watching the birds fly by.
That was one of the things she loved most about Justins house. His room had a balcony, and she would spend hours out there, just as she used to in her room at home, watching the world around her.
Before she knew it, it was past ten. Stretching her tired back, she climbed into bed.
That was over five hours ago, and she had still not fallen asleep. She had been so tired sitting at the window, but it seemed like the moment her head hit the pillow, she was wide awake. Her thoughts would not stop racing, and her mind wouldn't shut off.
She had thought of things she had been through with Justin in the past. The touring, the craziness of their lifestyle, and the difficulties of having a relationship with someone in Justins position. But they had made it work, and she wasn't about to let him go just yet. She just needed a little time away to get her thoughts together and work out a way to help him.
Rolling over, Ryan sighed loudly. She couldn't sleep. She hated it when she couldn't sleep. The more she thought about how she couldn't sleep, the more she couldn't sleep.
Damn it, even her thoughts were going retarded at this time of night!
Groaning, she reached up and flicked on the small lamp on her night table. It wasn't much light, just enough to cast a dull glow on the room.
Rubbing her hand over her face, she let her eyes adjust to the light before she reached over and picked up the phone from the table.
She knew this probably wasn't the best idea, and felt bad about doing it, but she couldn't sleep and needed someone to talk to.
She couldn't very well talk to her parents about this, because she had already told them that everything was fine. Knowing them, they would just worry.
Talking to Katie was pointless, because even though she would listen completely, she wouldn't be able to help with any advice. Except maybe to beat Justin up, which even though was a lovely idea to Ryan at the moment, wasn't exactly what she had in mind.
Dialing the number she needed, Ryan laid back in her bed as she placed the phone to her ear.
On the fifth ring, a groggy voice answered.
"For the love of God, what is the matter with you!" the voice called. "I already said I was kidding about rubbing the cream on your ass, now get over it!"
"What?" Ryan asked, as she furrowed her brow at the ceiling.
The voice was silent for a moment, as it registered that the person on the phone was not the person they had thought it was.
"Oops, sorry. I thought you were someone else."
"Obviously."
"What do you need, Ry?"
"Lois, I'm so sorry for waking you up, but I cant sleep."
Lois sighed into the phone, rubbing her forehead. "That seems to be going around, I see."
"Huh?"
"Nothing." Lois smiled into the phone.
She had only been able to get Justin off the phone about thirty minutes before Ryans call. They had set out a little plan to help him fix the problems between himself and Ryan, but then started rambling away about anything else that entered his curly little mind.
Finally after about twenty minutes, Lois threatened to dress him in all pink with sequence for the tour if he didn't shut the hell up and let her go back to sleep.
"What's wrong?" Lois asked.
"What's always wrong? Justin." Ryan answered, pointing her finger at her ceiling as it cast a dull shadow above her.
"Well, we all know that there is NOTHING right about that boy. I'm just glad you've finally come to realize it." Lois teased.
Ryan smiled, but didn't laugh. She was too depressed to laugh. "What should I do? I mean, did I do the right thing by leaving and coming here?"
Lois smiled bigger at the phone. She didn't want to tell Ryan that she had talked to Justin that night and that he knew that she was gone and at her parents. That would only ruin their plan. But the fact that Ryan had called her just now had presented a wonderful opportunity to set their little plan in motion.
"Actually, I know I kinda gave you a hard time about your idea before, but I think it was a very good plan." Lois nodded. "I think it is just the thing to give Justin the kick in the ass that he needs. And even though I would LOVE to be the one to kick that ass, this works too."
"What makes you so sure? I mean, this afternoon you were begging me to reconsider. You were like Chris on a sugar high, rambling away crazy ideas that you were sure would work better than this. Why the change of heart?"
"I don't know. Maybe I just thought about it a little more and see what you mean. He cares about you too much to let you just walk away, Ry. Trust me on that." Lois stated, her voice serious.
"I hope your right." Ryan replied, watching the shadow her finger made across the ceiling.
"Listen, I have an idea." Lois said, rolling onto her side. "Why don't you meet me somewhere tomorrow. We'll just hang out and talk and stuff like he did today, but this time I promise Ill be more supportive of your idea. We'll go out for lunch and maybe see a movie or something? Say, around three?"
Ryan found it a little odd that Lois wanted to go out and talk, even though that's all they had spent the last twenty four hours doing. But she knew she couldn't sit around the house sulking, waiting for Justin to come banging on the door admitting he was wrong. She knew better than that.
"I guess." she agreed. "Where do you wanna meet?"
Lois smiled so wide she thought her face was going to crack. This couldn't have worked out better. She and Justin weren't sure how to get Ryan where they needed her for their plan to work, but this was going to make everything just perfect. Lois could already see Justin face when she would call him back to tell him the new developments. And of course, she couldn't wait to be the one to wake him up for a change.
Looking at a photo of Joey on her night stand, Lois sighed happily.
"I know just the place. And I promise, everything will work out better than you ever hoped."
