As Alanna made her way back to her room after the first day of shooting she was exhausted. The early hour the shoot had started had been bad enough but then she had all the waiting around between shoots and last but not least had been the incident with JC. It had drained her emotionally. All the pent up anger had been released from her. She should have felt relieved but what had followed had shaken her up big time. For a moment she had let herself get lost in the kiss, after all it was what she had wanted wasn't it? What had happened before had tainted it though. She just didn't understand where he was coming from anymore. One moment he couldn't get far enough away from her and then he had this whole jealous streak running through him and not forgetting his drunken behaviour the night before. Men complained about not understanding women but if anything Alanna believed it should have been the other way around.
"So I'll see you in the morning okay," Alex said as they reached her door.
"Huh?" she said distractedly. "Oh yeah tomorrow. Thanks Alex."
"No problem,” he shrugged. “Just doing my job."
She smiled at the man before entering her room.
Alanna had just flopped down on the bed when there was a knock at the door. Groaning in exhaustion she pulled herself up and walked over to see who was disturbing her relaxation time. Opening the door she found Ashlyn. "Hey Ash," she said sleepily before returning to the bed.
"So how did today go?" she asked excitedly.
"Just be happy that your scenes were delayed until tomorrow and you got the day off."
Ashlyn scrunched up her nose. "That bad huh?"
Alanna sighed and rolled over onto her back, covering her eyes with her arm. "Nah the video shoot was fine, it was just what else happened that wasn't so great."
Ashlyn walked over to the bed and flopped down next to Alanna. "What do you mean?"
"JC."
"JC what?" she asked confused.
"He turned up."
"He WHAT? What is he even doing here?"
"He’s working with some groups in a couple of days so there was no point in him leaving...or so he says."
"You don't believe him?" Ashlyn asked.
"I don't know. He just totally confuses me. I don't think I've ever been so clueless about a person my entire life. Not even Nathan!"
"He didn't cause trouble today did he?"
"Depends what you mean by trouble," she muttered.
"ALANNA!" Ashlyn cried. "Will you just tell me what's going on already?"
"He freaked out about some scenes I was doing with Dylan, you know the guy in the video. He said that I was all over him."
"Sounds jealous to me."
"That's what Dylan said."
"Wait he did this in FRONT of Dylan?"
"No he dragged me into a room. Dylan just saw him shooting dirty looks. He assumed he was my boyfriend."
"If he only knew huh."
"Ashlyn shut up, I don't want to talk about that."
"Sorry. So JC didn't like yours and Dylan's love scenes huh?"
"Ashlyn they weren't love scenes. All we were doing was sitting on a sofa laughing. So I was in shorts and a tank and he was just in pyjama pants, but the most we did was hug. It was all an act. He has a girlfriend anyway," she rambled.
"Hey you don't need to defend yourself to me. I'm not JC and I'm not jealous...well I'm jealous that you got to fool around with a guy but that's not the point."
"ASHLYN!"
"What?" she laughed. "I'm just kidding."
"You're not helping here."
"Sorry."
The 2 girls sat lay in silence for a moment. "So what else happened?"
"Damn it Ashlyn why do you always have to know every little detail and how do you always know there is more to it?"
"I'm your best friend, so tell me."
"He kissed me."
"JC?"
"YES JC, who else? Do you think I just go around kissing anyone?"
"Well it could've been that Dylan guy, would've explained why JC was so upset...okay I'll shut up," she said noticing Alanna's angry look.
We were arguing and the next thing I know he's kissing me...and damn, I let him."
"So you responded?"
Alanna groaned in frustration. "Yes okay, I did. I finally came to my senses and pushed him away though."
"Why?"
"What do you mean WHY?"
"It's becoming more and more obvious that you like this guy...A LOT."
"And?"
Ashlyn sighed, feeling like strangling her friend for getting herself into these things. "The way I see it, you both need to sit down and have a serious talk and the sooner the better, before you both drive each other crazy.
"Are you on his side now or something?"
"Of course not. I just think you need to get things worked out because if you don't you are going to end up destroying yourself."
"I can't talk to him, I'm too mad."
"Well get over it Alanna because if you want him out of your life it seems as if you need to do some serious talking. JC doesn't look like he's going anywhere to me and if we're being truthful here I'm not so sure you want him to go. I'm going to bed now. Don't think too much about this tonight but I mean it Alanna, when this video shoot is over you need to sort things out one way or another. Goodnight, see you in the morning."
She watched the door shut and was once again left alone.
"Yeah I'm sure I'm gonna have a real good night's sleep," she muttered sarcastically.
~*~
Alanna walked out of the arrival gate and looked around for her family.
"Alanna!"
She immediately recognised her brother's voice and smiled searching the crowd for his face. She saw the boy running towards her and she scooped him up in a hug.
"Ugh Alanna get off me," he cried.
Alanna laughed, loving the normalcy of the situation. "Hey Ryan."
"Did you get me a present?" he asked excitedly while breaking away from the embrace.
"Oh I love you too Ry," she joked wiping away an imaginary tear.
"Don't be such a dork Alanna. So where's my present?"
Alanna sighed. "You can get it when we get home. Where's mom and dad?"
"Over there."
She looked over to where he pointed and saw her parents politely excusing themselves past people, rather than pushing through as Ryan had. "Mom, dad," she called.
They both look up and smiled. When they reached her they both took turns in hugging her.
"Let's go home," she announced. She turned and saw Ashlyn greeting her family as well. "I'll see you later Ash, I'm going HOME," she smiled.
"See ya," Ashlyn called before turning back to her own family.
Home - that was one of the best words in the English language to Alanna at that moment. She had never been away from home for that length of time before. Everything that had happened while on tour had taken her mind off the homesickness she had expected but now that she was back in Orlando with her family she realised just how much she had missed them. For the next week or so she planned to relax totally and spend time with her mom, dad and Ryan. JC would be put to the back of her mind, for now at least.
~*~
(6 Days later)
Alanna was pulled from the depths of sleep by a ringing. She rolled over trying to escape the noise but it continued. Suddenly she realised it was her cell phone and reached out blindly for the object next to her bed. The last thing she wanted was to wake her parents. Hitting the button on the phone she growled, "if you're not already dying be prepared."
"Alanna?"
She could hear loud music in the background and someone, whose voice she didn't recognise, was yelling to her above the noise.
"Who is this?"
"Alanna, it's Joey."
"Joey?" She looked at the glowing numbers on her alarm clock. "What are you doing calling me at 1 am?"
"I need your help girl. You're in Orlando right?"
"Yeah but why?" she asked slowly waking up a little.
"It's JC."
As soon as she heard his name and that Joey needed help she felt her heartbeat increase...maybe with fear. "What about JC?"
"He's so damn drunk Allie and I can't get him out of the club. He keeps asking for you."
"Shit," she whispered. "Not again."
"Alanna are you still there?" Joey shouted.
"Yeah I'm still here Joey, I don't see how I can help though."
"Alanna he's gonna cause a big scene in here soon and I can't get him out of here on my own."
"Where's your security?"
"We didn't bring any."
"Are you guys stupid?"
"JC definitely is," Joey snorted. "Alanna I need you to come down here and help me. For some reason he won't leave until he sees you."
"Joey I'm in bed!"
"Please Alanna, we can't afford to get this in the papers. Can you imagine the headlines? Please I need your help...JC needs your help."
Alanna sighed in defeat. "Where are you?"
Chapter 26
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