"It’s so good to see you." He whispered in my ear while giving me a huge hug.

" You just saw me three weeks ago." I said giggling, returning his hug.

"I know but I’ve missed you."

"Well, I’m here now, so you don’t have to miss me anymore." He shook his head ‘no’ and took my hand.

" Let’s go get your bags."

"Thanks helping me unpack." I said plopping down on my baby pink couch.

"No problem." Erik said sitting down in the baby pink chair near the couch. This apartment was much different than the one I had in Orlando. It was bigger and more open. It had large bay windows in the kitchen and sliding glass doors, which lead to the balcony, all along one wall in the living room, which was next to the kitchen. Erik had found this apartment for me and I was extremely happy with what he had chosen. The walls in the living room were a pale spring green. The couch and two chairs, were baby pink and the carpet was a cream color. There was a glass coffee table in between the couch and the TV cabinet. The kitchen was painted a bright cherry red on two opposing walls, and had cherry wallpaper, with a white background, on the other two. It had a bar, like my other apartment, which was facing the living room. There were two bedrooms and two bathrooms, like my other apartment. There was a master bedroom with a bathroom, which was upstairs, and the other bedroom and bathroom were down stairs. My bedroom here was completely different than the one in Orlando. I sold my furniture to pay for my plane ticket and for the shipping of all my clothes and general stuff. I had ordered a bed and had it sent to the apartment so that I would have it the night I moved in. It was a simple, rod iron, four poster bed, so to add to it, I draped white sheer material around the top four bars and then let several feet hang down the poles. I loved the whimsical feel of the room. It made me feel at home. The ceiling was painted a dark indigo blue, which faded into light lavender near the floor. The ceiling had tiny white dots, which looked like stars, all over it. They became fewer and farther between as they reached the floor. The comforter on my bed was the same color as my ceiling, minus the stars. Erik had helped me unpack my clothes. There was a big closet in my room so I didn’t need a dresser, infact the only other furniture in the room, besides my bed, were the two end tables, my old toy chest, and my grandmother’s vanity. After we’d finished that he helped me unpack the all of the other stuff.

"Well, I should probably get going." I nodded my head and we both stood up.

"Are you guys busy tomorrow?"

" Nope."

"Do you mind if I come see you guys."

"Nope."

"Will you come pick me up? I don’t know where you guys live and my car hasn’t been delivered yet." I said in reference of the bug that I had bought when I decided to move to Orlando.

"Sure, what time?"

"Uhm, how about noon."

"Ok." He gave me hug and a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

It was noon and Erik had just picked me up. We were on our way over to their new house.

"I’m really excited about seeing all of the guys again. I’ve really missed you guys. Especially Ashley."

" We’ve missed you a lot too. Things haven’t been the same without you around."

"Well, now things can go back to the way they were. I can’t wait to see your new house. What’s it like?"

" Well, we all have our own rooms and we decorated them to match our personalities. Jacob’s room is in the guesthouse, he had this huge octopus painted on the wall. All of our rooms are the same size this time, but Ash still has his own bathroom. It was the master bedroom. It has like 2 more square feet to it and it has its own bathroom. Since Ash takes the longest in the bathroom we just decided to give it him." I couldn’t help but laugh at his comment.

"How are the rest of the rooms decorated."

" Well mine has this American graffiti type theme. I have a large American flag behind my bed and some other American flag stuff in the room. It’s kind of tough to explain. You’d have to see it. Trevor has and old golf theme in his room, the walls are painted this golf green color. Dan decided to go with a Chinese Zen theme, he has a lot of Zen stuff around his room, he says that it ‘sets the mood.’"

"Oh boy!" I said laughing at Dan’s choice of theme.

"How is Ashley’s room decorated?"

"Do you even have to ask? He has a superman theme. Its actually pretty cool." He said turning into their driveway after entering the security code. I started bouncing my knee. It was my nervous trademark.

"If you keep bouncing your knee like that it’s going to fall off."

"Shut-up, I can’t help it if I’m nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

"Ashley." I answered simply. Although Erik seemed to know exactly what I had meant. He took my hand as I stepped out of the car and I shut my door. We walked up to the door and I held my breath in anticipation as he unlocked the door.

"Manda? Breathe." Erik said squeezing my hand comfortingly. I let out the breath I had been holding and poke my head in the door as Erik opened it.

"MANDA!!!" Trevor yelled. He ran over, picked me up, and spun me around.

"Hi Trev." I said hugging him, after he finally put me down.

"Manda’s here?" Jacob asked, walking into the foyer.

"Jake!" I said attacking him. I wrapped my arms and legs around him in a huge hug.

"It’s good to see you too." He said laughing.

"MANDERS!!" Dan yelled coming into the foyer.

"DANNY!!" I mimicked, jumping down from Jacob’s hug, quickly being enveloped in Dan’s hug. When he let go he took my hand in his and led me towards the living room, the rest of the guys in tow.

"What are you doing here?" Trevor, Jacob, and Dan asked in unison.

"I live here."

"Care to explain?" Jacob asked.

"Well, after sitting around for two weeks, completely bored out of my mind. I decided to move to LA so that I could be with you guys."

"You mean Ashley." Dan added.

"Yeah, he had a major something to do with my decision to move here, but I missed you guys, all of you, a lot."

"Well, we missed you too, a lot." Trevor said.

"Where’s Ashley?" I asked noticing that he was the only one not present in the living room.

"Oh, he’s upstairs." Trevor said, this got him a swift elbow in the ribs from Dan.

"O...k, erm yeah. Well, I’m gonna say hi to him." I said getting up.

"No, stay down here. Talk to Ashley later." Dan said standing up, attempting to keep me from the stairs.

"Dan, move. I want to go see Ashley."

" No, stay down here, talk with us. Talk to him later."

"Dan, you’re walking on thin ice here buddy, now move!" Dan sighed in defeat and moved aside. I quickly bounced up the stairs. Once I was up there I remembered that I didn’t know which room was his. I shrugged to myself and decided to check every room till I found in him. The first room I looked in was Dan’s. I laughed at the theme of his room, remembering what Erik had said earlier. The next room was Erik’s room. Nope. I closed the door and went to the one across from it. Nope. That was Trevor’s room.

"I guess it’s that one." I muttered to myself, looking in the direction of the last door in the hall. I held my breath as I knocked on the door. Nobody answered. I heard a giggle, as I knocked again. When nobody answered I decided to just go ahead and poke my head in there. I slowly opened the door, then I stuck my head in.

"OH MY- how could you?" I asked letting go of the door. Ashley was in his bed with some giggling blonde. Neither were dressed. I quickly turned on my heel and ran down the stairs, my heart breaking with every step. I stopped when I saw the other four guys.

"How could you let this happen and not tell me? Danny, I asked you to watch him for me, why didn’t you tell me?"

"Manders?" I heard Ashley whisper from behind me. I turned around slowly, trying in vane to wipe away the tears that were streaming down my face.

"How could you do that to me? After Jacob, how could you? I-I thought you loved me."

"Manda, I do. I-"

"Can it Ash. I don’t want to hear it. If you were able to hop in bed with some giggling blonde after only being away from me for three weeks, then there is no way that you love me. Erik, will you please take me home?" he nodded his head and grabbed his keys off the table.

As Amanda walked out the door I sat on the bottom stair. I felt tears coming down my face, knowing that she wouldn’t come back through that door for a long time.

"I lost her. I lost over one stupid night that I don’t even remember." I muttered to myself. As if on cue, the giggling blonde bounded down the stairs in her clothes from last night.

"Give me a call Ashy."

"Don’t call me that." I said as she bounced out the front door.

"Dude, who was that? What happened last night." Dan asked.

" I don’t know who that was, and I don’t remember what happened last night." I said getting up to go sit on the couch.

" You were that drunk? What’s the last thing you remember?" Trevor asked.

"The last thing I remember is sitting at a table in the club. I was sad because I missed Manders a lot and I was drinking. The next thing after that that I remember is waking up with a horrible headache and some nameless girl beside me."

"Did you sleep with her?" Dan asked, worry written across his face

"I don’t think so. I know Manda thinks so, but I’m pretty sure that I didn’t . I still had my pants on and she was still completely dressed."

" Well, then there you go." Jacob said from his spot on the floor.

" What are you gonna do?"

" Try every way possible to get her back. I’ve already lost her twice. I don’t want to lose her again. Any suggestions?"

"Not yet, but if we think of something, we’ll tell you."

"Thanks. I ‘m going to go back to sleep."

"Why would he do that to me Erik, I just don’t understand. I thought he loved me. I thought that he wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with him."

" I don’t think he did to intentionally hurt you. Knowing Ashley, he probably has a very good reason for all of. Ok, well, maybe not a good reason, but a reason for it anyways. We did go to a club last night, maybe he just got super drunk, he probably doesn’t even remember what happened. Ashley loves you. I know he does."

"Then why did he hurt me?"

" I don’t know Amanda. Ashley knows though, why don’t you ask him?"

"I don’t want to have anything to do with him right now and maybe not ever."

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Chapter 13- Forever

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