Ryan held tight onto her stomach. She couldn't bear to look up at Anne. She didn't want to see the look of disgust and deception on her kind face. Ryan exhaled sharply; hoping it would stop the room from spinning.
"Ryan…" Anne spoke in a whisper. "Y-you…you were the one?"
Ryan finally built up the courage to look into Anne's eyes. She wished she hadn't. The look on Anne's face was unscribable, She looked devastated.
"Anne…" Ryan finally choked out, "I-I never knew…I NEVER meant to take your job or your life away from you."
Ryan's eyes lowered and remained oh her hands. Anne never replied to Ryan's apology. She only walked away, with Lance in tow.
"Ryan?"
Ryan's weak eyes lifted up to JC's. He smiled sympathetically at her and got up from his chair, walking over to her.
"Come on…"
Ryan weakly got up from her chair and clung onto to JC for walking support.
"JC…" Ryan whimpered. "I never meant to hurt An-" "Ssshhh" JC rubbed her arm comfortably and tried to calm her down.
They reached her office minutes later. JC led her to her chair and gently lowered her down so she could sit. Ryan loosened her grip around him and sat down on the soft office chair. She sniffed, pushing back her emotions.
JC smiled down at her. "Forget about what happened back there."
Ryan shook her head slowly. There was NO way she could forgive her self for bring such pain to Anne. To someone that shown so much hospitality towards a stranger in the beginning and how did she repay her…by doing this. Ryan felt like she had stabbed Anne in the back.
"I shouldn't have came here…"
"What?" JC said, shocked by her comment. Ryan looked up at JC then back at her hands. "Don't ever…EVER say that Ryan! You know that isn't true!"
Ryan slowly nodded her head. She turned her gaze towards the window behind her. The weather matched her mood perfectly. The rain was falling gently, some drops splashing against the window. Ryan sighed and turned her chair back around to face JC.
"I'm sorry JC…" she said apologetically. "But I have a lot of catching up to do on my work…Thank you for everything…I mean it."
JC nodded his head and patted her shoulder lightly. When JC shut the door gently behind him, Ryan felt like she was losing her self. She sniffed again and forcefully turned on her laptop. She typed away, letting out all her frustration on her writing and making sure the web site was fixed.
(Back at Lunch)
"Wait to go Lance. I didn't know you had it in ya!"
Lance half smiled, not totally trilled with his performance.
"Explain to me again WHY we're doing this to Ryan…" Anne sighed frustrated.
"WE'RE doing this because we want her to quit her job, SO I can get my job back! I thought that you wanted we back as your co-journalist Lance?" Anne pouted her lips and pulled the all to familiar guilt trip on Lance.
Lance hesitated. "I…I do…"
"You must not think so…since you had to think about it before you answered the question James…"
"Anne…Please…Don't start, not now…"
Anne nodded and smiled sweetly at Lance. "Oh…"
Anne started, "Are you coming to the party that Johnny is hosting tonight?"
"Wait…" Lance, said not sounding so sure. Anne's smiled faded with the tone of his voice. "How did you know about it? You're not in his department anymore."
Anne's eyes searched around her surroundings, she had been caught. "Oh, I heard Justin talking about it…" 'Nice save Anne…You ALMOST blew it!'
"Oh, I see…"
Anne turned around and glanced at the clock. It was time for her to get back to work. Her mission was complete. At least the first round was. She had a
lot more planned out for Ryan to go through.
"Well Lancey. I think that we better get heading back. Where are you guys right now?"
Lance smiled and pushed himself up from the chair he was sitting on. "We're in the dance studio…The tours coming up you know, we need to practice..."
Anne nodded her head in agreement and walked with Lance out of the lunchroom.
"Yo Lance!" Lance turned around at the call of his name.
He smiled softly when Justin appeared in his view.
"Hey…"
"You headed over to the party tonight?"
"Yeah…" Lance responded, getting annoyed with everyone asking him.
"Oh OK, cool. Do you know if Ryan's comin'?" Lance spun around and glared at Justin.
The call of that name just made him boil. At least it was part of his act to be that way at the call of her name.
"Oh…sorry, wrong person to ask. Lance…can I ask you something?" Justin asked walking closer to Lance.
"Yea, sure man."
"What's up between you and Ryan? You never gave anyone an attitude like that before? Do you wanna talk about it?"
Lance had to smile at the young ones kindness. He had to give it to Justin that he was a persistant one.
"No, there's nothing going on…and I don't want to talk about it…sorry Justin…you wouldn't understand."
"Try me!" Justin said pushing the limit.
"No…" Lance said more sternly, walking away from Justin.
'This isn't part of the game. I'm giving them attitudes now too…This needs to stop.'
(At the office)
Ryan typed furiously, wanting to get her assignment done. A light knock on the door made Ryan stop typing and look up at the door.
"Come in." The door opened and Mr. Wright appeared through the door. "Hey Johnny…" Ryan looked back down at her laptop and continued to type.
"Watcha workin' on?" Johnny asked peering his head over her desk to try and get a glance of what was on the screen.
Ryan clicked on the save button and sighed with relief. "I WAS working on the welcome page to the web site, but I'm finished!"
"Good! Now you can come with me to the party, come on, I'll give you a ride!"
Ryan looked shocked; there was NO way that she was going to go! She'd be the laughing stock of the party!
"Oh, really, that's OK. I should go home anyway…"
"Oh NO you DON'T! You're going!" Mr. Wright grabbed Ryan's wrist and took off with her close behind.
"Mr. Wright…Please!" Ryan begged trying to walk at Johnny's speed. "I can walk by myself ya know!"
Johnny stopped and turned around. He giggled and let go of Ryan's arm.
"Sorry…" Ryan rubbed her wrist in pain and started to walk along with Johnny.
(At the party)
"Justin, jeez will you take a break from the pop?" Justin looked up from sipping down a cup of refreshments.
"Yes Mommy!"
"Oh…err, you make everything SO difficult!"
"Settle down Kylie, you're starting to act like Chris…" Kylie's mouth dropped from the sudden comment.
"That's a LITTLE harsh!" she replied, sounding offended.
"Hey! I heard that!"
Kylie giggled to her self and smiled innocently at Chris.
"Yo Lance! Over here man!" Justin called, his hands flying up in the air so Lance could spot
him.
"So, you decided to show huh?" Kylie said leaning against the nearby wall.
"Yeah…it wouldn't be a party with out little-o boring me!" Lance said with a sarcastic tone.
Kylie smiled and patted his shoulder lightly. Lance and Justin turned around to see Joey and Ryan aughing, walking towards them. Ryan looked up from Joey's gaze and looked dead smack at Lance. She exhaled softly and returned her eyes to Joey.
"Hey guys! What's hanging?" Joey raised his hand up and Justin smacked it, giving him a high five. "So Ryan…did Johnny have to drag you here?"
Ryan blushed at the comment and started to laugh, seeing the visual in her head.
"Well, actually…yeah, he did…and I mean it literally."
The guys smiled, all except for Lance, but that didn't surprise Ryan. Ryan brushed her hair that was in her eyes out of the way and smiled at Kylie.
"So, Ryan, are you going on tour with the guys?" Ryan looked at Kylie blankly.
"No, there's no need for me to go. Are you going?"
Ryan asked crossing her arms in deep concentration.
"No…they won't let me because if I was seen with any of these guys that people would start thinking things. Which that's where rumors come from…and-"
"Who said Ryan wasn't going on tour with us?"
Everyone turned to see JC walking up to the group. "What? What did I say?"
"I'm not going on tour with you guys!" Ryan protested. "Am I?" Her voice cracking.
JC shrugged his shoulders. "I only heard Johnny thinking about taking you, but I'm not sure why he would. He said something about Melinda being gone."
"No way!" Lance said coming into the conversation. He sounded shocked by the news. Lance shook his head and walked away, without saying another word.
Ryan's shoulders lowered, along with her head, "Why does he hate me?" Ryan mumbled.
"What?" Kylie asked, not hearing the question clearly.
Ryan looked up and saw Kylie's worried expression.
"Nothing…" she sighed.
"Come with me!" Kylie grabbed Ryan's arm and took her with her outside.
They sat on the patio. Kylie looked at Ryan and waited for her to open up. When it didn't seem like she was going to talk, Kylie decided to take things
into her own hands.
"What was it you said inside there?"
Ryan looked up from her hands, the sad look on her face made Kylie want to take whatever was hurting her out of her body. "I wanna know why Lance seems
to hate me…"
"Oh…I wish I knew what to tell you…he's NEVER acted like this before to anyone. I would like to know how put that pole up his butt…it wouldn't surprise me if it was Anne Jamison."
"ANNE?"
"Well, it looks as if I hit a spark in you." Kylie scooted over closer to Ryan and tilted her head to the left. "Lance…well…he hasn't seemed the same since he met Anne…They use to be a couple you know."
"A couple?" Ryan asked, becoming more interested in what Kylie was saying.
"Yeah…I think they dated for like…I'd say about nine months."
Ryan nodded. She couldn't believe this. So…Anne and Lance were a couple. Great! No wonder he hates me. I took his girl away from him.
"Why'd they break up?" Ryan asked, wanting more information.
"I think it was because Anne was too controlling. Being controlled isn't something Lance likes and-"
"Look, if you guys are gonna talk about me, why don't you do it while I'm around?" Ryan and Kylie slowly turned around and saw fire in Lance's green
eyes.
"I-I-I'm sor-"
"Save your breath! Mr. Wright is making an announcement and he would like everyone in the living room," Lance said, interrupting Ryan's apology.
Ryan got up and didn't look up from the floor. She hated this. She wanted to go back to USA today, at least there were people there that cared about her and gave her chance.
"Ah! Ms Joleigh! I have some news for you!" Ryan looked up at the call of her name.
"You'll be going on tour with us…" Ryan looked at Johnny with a pale look of fright on her face. "It will be just for two weeks…Melinda is having some
family problems and needs to be there for them. We would like for you to take her place for the time being."
Ryan sat down on a nearby couch and put her head in her hands. She didn't want this. She knew that this was going to be hell. Being stuck on a bus with someone that hates her. 'Maybe you won't see him that much! Yeah, that's it! You won't see much of Lance.'
Ryan looked up at Mr. Wright, and contained herself.
"I-I be…honored to go on tour…"
It was a lie, but Ryan didn't want to disappoint anyone. She forced a smile on her face as people walked up to her and congratulated her.
"Woo hoo! Welcome aboard Ryan!" Joey said, gulping her in a hug.
"Uh...Joey…can…can't breathe..." Joey let go of Ryan's embrace and smiled warmly at her.
Ryan turned her attention to Lance. She sighed and walked over to him, hoping that she would hear her out.
"Lance?"
Lance turned to face the person that was acknowledging him. He rolled his eyes and started
to walk away. Ryan grabbed his arm. Lance stared at his arm, being held by Ryan's arms.
"Please, hear me out…I know that this isn't going to be the most pleasant two weeks of our lives…but can we just make the most of it?"
Lance looked up from his arm and made eye contact with Ryan. There was no expression on his face at all.
"Let go of me…" Ryan's eyes closed and let her grip loosen around his arm.
Lance walked away, tearing Ryan's heart in two.
"I want this to end…I want to end NOW."
