Ryan awoke with a jolt, his heart was racing and his breath was short. A small bead of sweat trickled down his temple as his eyes quickly darted around the dark room. He collapsed back onto his soft pillow as he realized that he had awoken from nothing more than a bad dream. Still, the dream was none-the-less odd. He recalled the shrill images of being lost in the woods, hunted, with no way out.
Ryan pushed the images out of his head, after all, it was only a dream. Sighing, he rolled onto his side, and reached to grab for his second pillow. Much to his shock, instead of a pillow, his hand met a mass of hair. "What the fuck?"he thought in his head. He snapped on his bedside lamp and whipped back his blanket. Tori was lying beside him. "Shit! Holy shit!"His eyes darted to his alarm clock; 1:47 A.M. "Fuck!" Ryan thought again as he realized how much shit they were going to be in. "Tori, wake up," he said as he tried to gently shake her awake. "Tori, babe get up."
Tori groaned slightly as she struggled to stay asleep. She was tired dammit, and she wasn't about to let anyone wake her up. Then she realized the voice which was calling her name. Tori almost instantly snapped her eyes open to see if it was true. She looked over, and Ryan was staring back at her. "Oh shit," she said.
"Yeah, exactly what I was thinking," he said. "We gotta get you out of here, or else we're both going to be in so deep."
"What time is it?" she asked as she sat up.
"It's almost two," Ryan replied. "What time did your mom want you home?"
He got out of bed and started searching for his shoes, Tori did the same, as well as looking for her ponytail holder.
"I think an hour ago, she's been easy on me lately," she said. She stopped searching for a second. "Maybe I'll be lucky and she won't notice."
"Oh yeah, you think your mom won't notice that her daughter is missing?" Ryan questioned. "Yeah, that'll be the day. You must still be asleep girl, cuz you're dreamin'."
"My freakin' god Ry, where the hell have you been coming up with the things you've been sayin' lately?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "Just some stuff that's been coming to me lately."
"Well you know," Tori said as she crossed the room to where Ryan was standing,"I could just tell my mom that I spent the night at Melissa's. She'd never know the difference. And I've done it before, so I'm sure she wouldn't think twice." She snuck a quick kiss.
"Is that so?" Ryan replied as his arms encircled her waist. "And what exactly do you have going on in that little Tori mind of yours?"
Tori giggled and a smile crept across her lips. "Uh-uh, that's for me to know, and you just might find out," she said as she tapped his lips with her fingers. Ryan grabbed her hand before she pulled it away and placed a soft kiss on each of her fingers. "You are so cute when you try to be romantic."
Ryan gave her a look. "Try? I don't need to try, I am romantic," he said. "I'm the king of romance baby." With that, he held her closer and dipped her, ala the 1920's film noir, and planted a Hollywood-style kiss on her.
"I'm not so sure what's come over you, although I am pretty sure that I don't care!" she said as she allowed him to kiss her again.
"Baby you're so cute at two in the morning," he said.
"Oh shut up Ryan," Tori replied. "You can be so retarded sometimes. But I still love you anyways."
"Do you want to lose your Serial Joe privileges again?" Ryan asked. "If not, I would highly recommend not calling me retarded."
"Ry! I know you know I'm just kidding. Didn't you hear that 'I still love you' part?" she said with a smile. "I love you baby." She got on her tip toes and pecked his nose, grinning from ear to ear. A small smile found it's way across Ryan's lips as well.
"I guess I'll let it slide this time," he said. "But only because I love you."
"It's a deal then, and only because you're a rock star," Tori laughed.
Stever sat outside the window to his bedroom balcony. He liked to sit outside when something was bugging him, or when he just felt like he needed to be away from life for a while. Granted, it was just through the sliding glass doors that "life" existed, but he liked to imagine that it was much further. There used to be a place in the woods that he would go to, but that was all over when they bulldozed the area and turned it into a shopping center. He had been spending a great deal of time out on the balcony lately. He thought about a lot of things, but one thing in particular.
He knew that he shouldn't, that there was no reason, but he couldn't help but think about Nicci. He knew that she was no good. . .but something about her kept his attention. After all those months, he was still under her spell. He couldn't stand the fact that he wasn't over her, especially since he knew all the devious things she was capable of. It wasn't just Nicci herself that was causing it though. It was the rest of the band also. Ryan had Tori, and everyone knew how much they loved each other. Dan had Melissa, and although it almost didn't end up that way, it was evident that they would be together for a long time. Now there was Jon and Jodi. Jon found love while not even looking for it, and in the most unlikely place, online. Stever wasn't normally the kind to let such little things such as romantic relationships get to him. . .but it seemed as if everyone had someone, and he didn't have anyone. Perhaps he was too picky. . .or perhaps it was as simple as nobody liking him.
He sighed, as he glanced out over the neighboorhood, he wished that life could just be simpler. Everyone felt the same way, everyone wants life to be easy. . .but that's what makes life interesting. If it were all smooth sailing, then there would be no challenge, and perhaps things would be drastically different than the way they already were. Stever knew this, and still he had to wonder, would he ever find someone new? Could he move past Nicci?
"Hey Dan," said a very meek looking girl as she approached him at his locker.
Dan turned and looked at whoever it was that was greeting him. His eyes met with a pair of pale green orbs shining back at him. She wasn't much of a sight, although she wasn't too hard on the eyes either. She was a fairly pretty girl, but didn't try very hard to make an impression, as displayed by her clothing. She was wearing a pair of loose fitting jeans, dirty with a grass stain or two and complete with small holes in the knees, and an oversized and extremely faded green T-shirt. Her chestnut hair was pulled into a sloppy ponytail with loose ends sticking out here and there. As for make-up, it was scarce. . .actually, non-existant. But nonetheless, she could be fairly attractive.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"I don't think you remember me. . ." she trailed off. "We had biology together earlier this year. . ."
Dan tried to think back to the beginning of the school year, apparantly this girl was in his class, but he couldn't remember very well. "Oh yeah," he said as a vague memory popped into his head. "Yeah, we were lab partners for a few days, right?"
"Yeah," she smiled, happy to know that he was finally remembering. "Well, I transferred a little while after that. But that's not really what I wanted to talk about."
"Okay," he said, a little intrigued.
"Look, I know it sounds weird and all. . .but, well. .um. Well my friend kinda has this thing for your friend Ryan. . .and I was--she was wondering if you could give me any kind of info. that I could give her, about what kind of girl that he would like to date. . .you know, standards or whatever. . .i-if you don't mind," she stuttered.
Dan tried to stifle a small laugh. "Um, your friend does know that Ryan is. .how to put it?. .Off the market?"
"What?" she asked, a little confused.
"He has a girlfriend, a pretty serious girlfriend," Dan clarified. "I'm sorry, I wish I could help, but you're friend's about six months too late."
"What?" she repeated. She understood what Dan was saying, but she was still confused. "She didn't tell me he had a girlfriend. She actually told me that he was single. . . .she was positive."
Dan started to understand what the possible cause of her confusion was. "Did she tell you what his last name was? It wasn't Ryan Dennis, right?"
The girl thought for a moment. "Right. . .it was Ryan. .Stever?"
Dan once again tried to stifle a laugh, causing yet even more confusion to wash over the girl's face. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to confuse you or anything. It's just so rare that Stever ever really gets girls."
"Well my friend has kinda had a small thing for him for a while. . .and I don't know why, but she picked me to ask you," she said while blushing.
"Uh-huh. . ." Dan said as he bit his lower lip pensively. "Who's your friend?"
"I'd rather not say. She asked me not to tell," the girl said rather shyly. "Could you just do me this favor so I could pass something. .anything along to my friend?"
"Yeah. . .sure. No problem," he agreed after he thought about it for a second more. He figured that it took a lot of guts for someone to find out about a guy for her friend, even though Dan had his doubts about this "friends" existance. "Just write down your name and number here," he said as he grabbed his lyric book and flipped to a blank page,"and I'll call you later with some info."
"Y-you want my number?" the girl stuttered. Even if it was just for information, no guy had ever asked for her phone number. She was rather in shock, and Dan could tell by the terrified look in her pale green eyes.
"Yeah, you know, so I can call you. How else am I supposed to slip you the information?"
"Oh. . .right," she said. "Um. .sure." She grabbed the pen that she had stuck in her ponytail for safe-keeping and quickly jot down her number in Dan's notebook. "Thanks!" she said as she quickly rammed the pen back into her ponytail and took off down the hall, leaving Dan baffeled.
Dan read the name which was now scrawled in big letters across the page in his notebook, and called after the girl. "I'll call you later Maureen!"
Melissa sat down in front of the large metal can in front of her. In her hands, she held everything that she had ever kept from her relationship with Derek. For a long time she had a difficult time letting go of her past with him. The pain had stayed with her for a great deal of time, but she wasn't quite yet ready to let go. Now with her reinstated commitment to Dan, she felt like it was time to let go. One by one, she dropped the momentos into the can.
She sighed heavily, and stared at the picture she was holding. It was from the first dance they ever went to together. . .she remembered it being so magical. Frusterated and angry, she dropped it into the can with the other items. Ticket stubs, cards, pictures, notes, and letters. The letter she wrote him when she told him she was pregnant. . .and the letter he returned breaking it off. She poured a small amount of lighter fluid on it, and struck a match. She stared into the flame for a brief moment, and dropped the match into the can. She watched as her past life burst into flames in front of her, and she felt a certain indescribable amount of satisfaction. It was her final way of saying it was all over. The pain, the confusion, the frusteration, the angst, the anger. . .everything. It was all over now.
The flames died out a few minutes later, and then Melissa poured water over it just to be safe, and then she buried the ashes in the yard. She took a deep breath and pulled two flower bulbs from her large pockets. She found a nice spot in the yard to plant them, and did so. They were sunflowers, her favorite. To her, it symbolized new beginnings, a chance to start over, a new life. . .new awakenings.