Ashlyn had only been working a few days but she had swiftly been transported into the real world. She had lived in the pop bubble for far too long it seemed. She was going to have to start learning to be told what to do. When she had been a dancer she had never really answered to anyone, sure she had a boss but he didn’t seem like a boss. Her new boss liked to let it be known who was in charge though and it was a learning experience for her to accept orders from him and carry them through, no questions asked.
In a way it was like being back at school again, but now, she had to remember, it was about survival. If she was late for work they weren’t going to give her a detention, no she would get her butt fired and if she got fired she would have no money, taking her straight back to mommy and daddy. She was determined to at least give this a go.
For as long as she could remember she had always been dependant on people. Most would have thought Alanna would be the one to rely on others but it was the other way around. When Alanna had her big break she had immediately jumped on for the ride.
Ashlyn was outgoing but that was often a front for some major insecurities. As a child she would stand in the middle of the room demanding attention. She needed to be noticed because she was afraid that she would fade into the background and nobody would care otherwise.
Things had been tough for her the past few days but she was also having a lot of fun with her new-found independence. Christy had even helped her out with a potential apartment. There was an apartment upstairs in her complex and they were going to check it out that afternoon. The motel was no longer practical money-wise and if she was going to stick around she needed to sort out something long-term. The only problem was she wasn’t sure how long she would be sticking around for, that was why the monthly leasing option was appealing.
“Just let me get Sean cleaned up and we can go check this apartment out.”
Ashlyn looked at Sean, his lunch smeared across his mouth and cheeks, and laughed. “Sure, take your time,” she said. The chance of a couple of minutes doing nothing sounded quite appealing right then.
Christy took Sean through to the bathroom as Ashlyn’s cell rang. She picked it up and answered it without thinking. “Hello?”
“About damn time!”
Her eyes widened in shock. She had been screening her calls since she’d been gone and a momentary lapse in concentration had dropped her right in it. “Justin…”
“Don’t Justin me, where the hell are you?” he shouted.
She winced at the anger in his voice. “It doesn’t matter.”
“What the hell makes you think you’re so special that you can just run off and turn peoples lives upside down huh?”
“I’m not you Justin, why would anyone care?” She knew that wasn’t true but she had been caught off guard.
“Oh so you’re feeling sorry for yourself,” he said bitterly. “That’s just great Ashlyn. Do you have any idea how worried Alanna was?”
“I’m sorry, I told her that myself,” she said quietly.
“Yeah well it came a little late didn’t it. Perhaps next time you could let someone know before you vanish.”
“Look Justin I said I’m sorry okay?”
The line was silent for a second but when Justin finally spoke it made her heart ache. “I thought we were friends Ash.” He was obviously hurt; the tone of his voice conveyed that clearly.
She closed her eyes and leant back on the sofa. “We are Justin and I’m sorry, I was going to get in touch with you and soon as I got settled, I promise.”
“Settled where?”
She almost blurted it out right there and then but caught herself just in time; she wasn’t ready yet. “I can’t tell you Justin, I know what you guys are like and you’d have me home in next to no time and right now I haven’t got the energy to fight you. Goodbye,” she said softly.
Justin’s protests were cut off as she hit the ‘end’ button.
“You ready to go?” Christy asked as she re-entered the room.
“Yeah let’s go.”
Justin had been happy to see that Alanna was now coping well with Ashlyn’s disappearance. When he’d talked to her on the phone she had been a mess and he’d been fully prepared to expect anything upon her arrival.
It didn’t seem as though he should have worried though; Alanna had received a voicemail from her, which had put her mind at ease. Over dinner she had told Justin about it.
”I just wanted to know that she was safe and now I know she’s not mad or upset with me I’m just going to giver her time to do what she has to do.”
Well Justin wasn’t going to let it slide that easily. He’d thought that they were friends too but none of his calls had been answered, she hadn’t bothered to let him know how she was.
It had started out with them spending time together because the others had all been off doing their own thing. JC and Alanna - well in the beginning when they’d just been friends they had spent a lot of time together separate from the others and during their time apart they had both been miserable, holing themselves up in their rooms, no amount of coaxing from their friends could budge them.
Lance and Chris spent a lot of their free time working on their personal projects and Joey, well Justin wasn’t sure what he did but he always seemed to be off doing something.
So that had left Justin and Ashlyn. He’d thought that they’d grown to be friends regardless of what was happening with the others. Her calls while in Europe had seemed to confirm that. Perhaps he had just been convenient at the time.
No, his decision was made; he was going to get to the bottom of this.
“Oh shoot I’ve forgotten his drink cup, here hold him a sec while I grab it.” Christy passed Sean over to Ashlyn.
“Hey Sean, who’s the best looking boy in town huh?”
Christy laughed as she unlocked the door to her apartment. “Hey watch it, we don’t want him getting a big head before he reaches the age of three.”
“He’s gonna be a heartbreaker Christy,” she told her new friend, “aren’t you Sean?” she said ruffling the child’s soft blonde locks.
The boy laughed. “Silly.”
“Oh I am, am I?” she said, tickling his ribs playfully, sending him into a fit of childish giggles.
“Hey Christy, we’ll head on up okay?”
“Okay I’ll meet you there,” she said as she entered the apartment once again. She grabbed the baby cup filled with juice and was walking back to the door when she heard a phone ringing. It wasn’t her phone; the tone was totally different. She then spotted the small black object lying on the sofa.
“Ashlyn,” she ran to the door and called out. No reply though.
She debated what to do before reaching for the phone. “Hello?” she answered hesitantly.
“Ashlyn?” the caller asked uncertainly.
“Um no, this is Christy but this is Ashlyn’s phone, she just popped out for a second. Do you want me to pass a message on or get her to call you back?”
The caller didn’t reply straight away. “Actually you could help me out.”
“I could?” she said cautiously.
“Yeah, I was going to come out and visit Ash, that’s actually why I was phoning, to get her new address. With your help I could surprise her.”
Christy noted the excitement in the caller’s voice but was unsure as to what to do. She didn’t know this person and Ashlyn might want nothing to do with him. “I’m not sure I should just hand out her address like that, she hasn’t even got a permanent address right now, that’s actually what she’s trying to sort out right now.”
“She mentioned that,” the caller lied.
“She did?” Christy said. He was convincing her by the second but she still had reservations.
“Listen it would mean a lot, I haven’t seen her in a while, not since she quit her job in Florida. I’m gonna be in town in a few days,” wherever that may be, he thought, “and it would make her, and my, day if you could make this happen.” He closed his eyes, crossed his fingers and hoped.
“You worked with her too?”
So she had a job already. “Yeah I did, so you’re the,” he fumbled for the name she had given, “err Christy she works with? She mentioned you.”
“She did?” she asked, surprised.
“She sure did.” When she didn’t say anything he could sense her reluctance. “Listen if you don’t want to give me her address perhaps you could suggest some other place where I could surprise her, that way I can prove to you that I know her.” Ashlyn may cause a commotion once she saw him but he could deal with that then and there. Right now he just needed a way to find her and at that moment Christy was his only source of information.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you…it’s just there’s a lot of weirdos around these days, not that I’m suggesting you are or anything,” she added quickly.
He forced a laugh, although at that moment he was so busy trying to form a plan in his head and trying to fight the urge to strangle Ashlyn when he finally saw her that it was hard to keep the act up.
“I’m glad she’s got someone looking out for her. So is there somewhere you have in mind?” he prompted, he was wasting precious time and he needed to sort a lot of things out.
“Well I guess you could meet her at work, that’s public enough.”
He let out a sigh of relief. “Okay that’s good, if you could just tell me when and give me an address.”
She reeled off an address and they sorted out the date and time. “Thank you Christy, you’re a sweetheart.”
She laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far…”
“Justin,” he told her.
“I guess I’ll see you in a few days then Justin.”
“Yeah I’m looking forward to meeting Ashlyn’s new friends.” And getting her back to her old ones, he thought.
He bid her farewell and hung up the phone. “LA? What the hell are you playing at Ashlyn?”
Sign up for updates on the main page.
Chapter 5
Chapter Index
Stories Page
Main Page