Ashlyn stepped out of LAX, dragging her suitcase behind her, and looked around. People were headed in every direction, all seemingly having a destination in mind. That was problem number one for her. In her rush to get away from everything she hadn’t thought any further than actually getting to LA. She now wished she’d planned a little better, it may have lessened the sense of panic she was experiencing at the moment.
She’d only been to LA twice before, when she’d been on the ‘N SYNC tour with Alanna. But Alanna wasn’t with her this time. She had to do this on her own.
She didn’t have a particular reason for choosing LA. It just seemed the ideal place to run away and get lost in the crowd, not to mention it was on the other side of the country. She’d tried to tell herself she wasn’t running away, just taking a break from everything. On the one hand she wanted to start over where nobody knew her. She could have a fresh start and nobody would have any expectations of her. But then she also wanted to be somebody, be important to somebody. Hell she didn’t know what she wanted, she just knew she had to get away.
The past few weeks in Europe she’d been having an identity crisis. Increasingly she was being referred to as “Alanna’s dancer” or “Alanna’s best friend”. She’d found herself wanting to scream at them all, “I have a name, use it!”. She hadn’t though. She’d just smiled politely. It wasn’t like anyone cared who she was anyway.
She was tired of standing in the shadow of Alanna. She needed to get out there and be Ashlyn Kent. It was as if the two had done a role reversal. Before she’d landed the singing gig Alanna had always been the one that would stand back while Ashlyn was the life and soul of the party. Somewhere along the line Ashlyn had lost all sense of herself and had become just a face in the crowd.
She didn’t blame Alanna for it all. Their argument had just been the last straw, the wake-up call for her to get out of the rut she was in and try and get what she’d lost back. What that was she wasn’t sure of yet, maybe her love of life. Whatever it was she hoped to regain it on this unknown journey.
She spotted someone getting out of a taxi through the crowd and pushed through the masses to try and claim a ride. She figured a place to stay should be first on her agenda. The hotel she’d stayed at before was way out of her league now. She hadn’t seen the prices of the rooms, she hadn’t needed to, but she knew without a doubt that it was out of her price range.
Ashlyn had a limited amount of money. She’d never been a great saver and with all the places they’d visited in the past few months it had dealt a serious blow to her bank balance. It had seemed only natural at the time to pick up a souvenir from each new city, state and country.
It was all going to have to change now though. Her number one priority was finding somewhere to stay for the night. After that she would have to look for a job. First things first she was getting this taxi before anyone else could. She ran for the awaiting vehicle once she’d managed to push her way through the bulk of the people. With an outstretched hand she managed to grab the door handle just as a stern-faced suited man approached. She smiled sweetly at him before yanking the door open.
The driver jumped out and put her luggage in the back as she flopped down in the backseat.
“Where to Miss?” he asked as he got back in the car.
That was $64,000 question. Where to? “A hotel, motel, whatever. Anywhere cheap…but liveable,” she added in for good measure.
“Sure thing,” he replied.
She settled back and leaned her head back on the seat, staring out the window as the car pulled into the monster traffic of the airport. There was no looking back now.
Justin, Joey and Chris watched as Lance and JC paced around the room. The meeting had been cut short after JC broke the news to Lance. They’d retreated to JC’s house where they had both spent the last 2 hours on the phone, taking it in turns to try and calm Alanna down.
Lance was frantically trying to get her to stay in Germany. She had 2 more important television appearances and a few major magazine interviews to do still. The last thing on his mind was Ashlyn’s departure. Alanna had no more performances left on her German trip. The other dancers had returned home already. There was no use in paying for hotel rooms when they weren’t needed. As much as he hated to admit it, Ashlyn was replaceable, Alanna wasn’t.
Germany was a big market for music. Alanna staying for the remainder of her promotional trip was crucial to her career. People didn’t look kindly upon artists who cancelled engagements and would think twice in the future about working with her. Now all Lance had to do was convince Alanna of this. The only thing was, she didn’t seem to give a damn about her career at that moment in time. Other than her bodyguard and a couple of record company workers, she was alone in a foreign country and was reeling from a fight with her best friend. Now the best friend seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth and on top of that she was thousands of miles away from her family and boyfriend. This hadn’t been one of Lance’s easiest tasks to date.
“JC,” Lance sighed. He held the phone out to his friend. “She wants to talk to you.”
JC grabbed the phone from Lance’s hand and quickly brought it to his ear. “Alanna are you okay?” He moved into the kitchen for some privacy.
Lance flopped down into an armchair and rubbed his tired eyes.
“Well?” Justin asked.
“She’s staying. She’s coming home in 4 days as scheduled. Actually I tell a lie. She’s flying to New York in 4 days time so she can meet up with JC. That was part of the deal. If she stays she gets to come stay with him after. She’s supposed to be choosing some songs to record in Orlando but that’s out of the window now.” He rolled his neck, trying to get the crick out caused by spending so long on the phone.
“What about Ashlyn?” Justin inquired.
Lance looked up at him in amazement. “What about her?. I think I’ve got bigger problems on my hands than worrying about her. She decided to go AWOL, that was her choice. I just hope she doesn’t expect to have a job to come back to.”
“What if something’s happened to her Lance? You don’t know why she left, none of us do. She could be anywhere and she could be in trouble and all you give a SHIT about is your GOD DAMN BUSINESS,” Justin shouted angrily. He and Ashlyn had become quite close on tour. They were the only other people who knew what had really happened between Alanna and JC and they had spent a lot of time talking about it. They’d even been scheming between themselves to try and get Alanna and JC back together but they’d been beaten to it by the pair in question.
Justin also knew how close Ashlyn and Alanna were. Ashlyn was fiercely protective over her friend and had been nothing but supportive to her throughout her problems with JC.
They’d spent a fair amount of time together after the tour as well. They’d both been “dumped”, as they called it, by their respective friends and had hung out when JC and Alanna had wanted time alone.
They’d even kept in phone contact once the girls had gone off to Europe. Now that he looked back Ashlyn had never once let slip that she was having a hard time, that was what was worrying him now. She of course complained of being tired and about the foreign food but had only ever spoken of Alanna’s homesickness and troubles with her new found fame. She mustn’t have been coping. He knew she wouldn’t have done this otherwise. She must have kept everything bottled up until breaking point.
Justin knew Alanna must have been having similar thoughts. She wouldn’t have been making such a fuss about coming home otherwise. She’d relied heavily upon her friendship with Ashlyn when they were away and although she wasn’t the strongest person he knew, she could have coped without Ashlyn under different circumstances.
Lance had been worrying about Alanna’s career and even though he was her manager Justin knew he was also worrying about her as a friend. JC was worrying about her as his girlfriend first and foremost but he also tried to reason with her about staying in Germany, fearing she'd regret the decision to come home further down the line. Sure Justin was worried about Alanna but she had enough people fussing over her already. Nobody else was worried about Ashlyn other than him…and Alanna.
Justin jumped off the sofa, prompting confused looks from the others in the room, and ran into the kitchen. JC was leaned up against the counter talking quietly into the phone. Justin walked up behind him and snatched the phone out of his hand. He went to speak into the phone himself when JC tried to grab it back. Realising JC wasn’t going to let him talk without a fight he ran out of the room, back through the living room and up the stairs.
“JUSTIN! Come back here, what are you doing?” JC shouted.
He could hear Alanna faintly as he climbed the stairs. “JC…JC what’s going on?”
Out of breath Justin stepped into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him and swiftly locking it.
“It’s me,” he said breathlessly.
“Justin?” she asked cautiously.
He nodded, unknown to her. “Yeah,” he replied and settled himself on the floor, leaning up against the bathtub. Seconds later he heard pounding against the door.
“Justin you better get out of there now and give me that phone back,” JC warned.
“JC shut the hell up, I’m trying to talk to your girlfriend here. She says go away and leave her to talk to sexy Justin or you ain’t getting none when she gets home.”
“Justin!” Alanna screamed.
The knocking immediately stopped.
Justin laughed lightly. “Wow I was only kidding but it worked. Damn Alanna you must be good,” Justin teased.
She laughed. “I’m gonna kill you when I see you and what’s this about you being sexy boy?”
Justin laughed along with her before smiling sadly. “I got you to laugh at least.”
She abruptly stopped. “I’m worried about her Justin,” she said quietly.
“I know you are,” he said softly.
She was silent for a few seconds. “I can talk to you about her right?” she asked hopefully, almost pleadingly. “JC and Lance are mad as hell with her, I can’t talk to them about her. She didn’t do this to hurt me Justin.” Her voice caught and she had to clear her throat before continuing. “I know she didn’t.”
Justn felt tears come to his eyes. “Yeah I know she didn’t Al. She wouldn’t do that.”
“Then why Justin?”
“I don’t know.” He wished he did, but he didn’t. “Have you talked to her parents?” he asked after a second.
“Now there’s a story. I didn’t want to worry them if they didn’t know where she was so I phoned them up and say I want to know how my parents are doing. Don’t laugh,” she warned. “I had to find an excuse quick and I told them I wanted to know how they were really doing. So then her mom just slips into the conversation that it’s a shame I couldn’t go travelling with her.”
“What?” Justin asked in confusion.
“Exactly what I thought. Apparently she stopped off in Orlando last night, picked up some more of her stuff and told her parents that she was going travelling with some friends from college. Oh and also that I’d told her not to pass up the opportunity to be able to actually see these places instead of just pass through them.”
“And they bought it?”
She laughed bitterly. “Apparently.”
“I tried her phone but she’s got it turned off.”
“I know, I’ve tried it about a hundred times. I figure even if she has got it on when she sees that it’s me she won’t answer anyway,” she said sadly.
“Don’t be like that Alanna, you know this isn’t your fault. I’m gonna keep trying her cell, I’ll let you know if I get through okay?”
“Okay.”
“You wanna talk to ‘C again?” he asked.
“Nah we’re just going over the same stuff over and over. I’ll stay here until I’m supposed to leave, there isn’t much I can do to find her anyway, and then I’ll see you in a few days. Tell him I’ll be okay.”
“You bet. See you then babe.”
“Don’t call be babe,” she warned.
“You can call me babe anytime you want,” he teased. He laughed when she didn’t reply straight away. He knew she was blushing.
“Bye Justin,” she said sternly.
“Bye Allie,” he replied playfully before hanging up.
He unlocked the door and stepped out of the bathroom into the hallway. He was met by a very unhappy JC who grabbed the phone from his hand.
“Erm…,” he tried to warn him.
JC looked at the phone and then up at Justin who had a nervous smile on his face.
“Damnit Justin I was talking to her!”
“Well she didn’t want to talk to you,” he defended.
JC shook his head. “What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“Justin,” JC warned.
“Nothing okay! Just go easier on her when it comes to Ashlyn, she’s worried about her.”
“Well I’m sorry if I’m not feeling too sympathetic towards someone who’s made my girlfriend hysterical.”
Justin rolled his eyes. And people thought he was dramatic. “She’s not hysterical, just worried and hurt.”
“Since when have you become the expert on Alanna, my girlfriend.”
“Since I listened to her.” And with that Justin walked past JC and down the stairs.
Ashlyn sat down on the bed, covered in your typical tacky floral-print bedspread. She turned her phone on. 32 missed calls. “Wow I’m popular,” she muttered to herself.
She quickly dialled the number before anyone managed to get through. She listened to the ringing 4 times over before somebody picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hi mom,” she forced cheerfully.
“Hi honey. Alanna called a little while ago, I guess she thought you’d still be in Orlando.”
Ashlyn froze. “She did?”
“Yeah. So did you get there?”
“Yep.” She walked over towards the window and took in the view. “I’m in Mexico.”
Chapter 2
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