-4 days later-
Oh man I am so excited! I get to see Sydney today! Over our tour I ended up telling Rocky about Sydney. It is hard to keep stuff from him even when you want to. Right now our plane is landing in LA. My mom took my phone away while we were on tour because I was constantly on it. So I haven’t been able to talk to Sydney for three days now. Hopefully she isn’t mad at me.
“Here”
I look up and see my mom holding out my phone.
“Yay! Love you mommy!” I smile jokingly.
“Yeah yeah, just try to not be on it 24/7 okay?”
“Of course” I reply.
*Ross POV*
Well since we will be home today I figured that before I settle in I will go over to Candy’s and see if Sydney is over there, hopefully she is because I am going loco… I still don’t know what happened to her a week ago. I really hope she hasn’t forgotten about me.
*Sydney POV*
Right now I’m at Candy’s, I’m not working today but I thought I would hang out and maybe help a little, just to get my mind off things. I had texted Riker a couple times but he never texted me back, he is probably too busy with the tour, luckily he is supposed to come home to—, I was cut off by my phone vibrating. I take it out and take a look at the caller. I pick it up.
“Speak of the Devil” I say to my phone.
“Haaha just thinking of me?” Riker replies.
“Yes, were your ears burning?” I jokingly ask.
“Actually they had just burst into flames, I figured you would know something about it.” He sarcastically replied.
“Oh my, well I think you should have a doctor check that out hahhaha, so what’s up?”
“Oh nothing, we are just leaving the airport now I was wondering if you wanna hang out later?”
“Yeah sounds legit, what time?”
“How’s six?”
“Great wanna pick me up at Candy’s?”
“Yeah of course!”
“Cool can’t wait! See ya bestie!”
“Bye bestfrannnn” *Click*
I smile as I begin to put away some coffee mugs. I keep myself doing busy work till I hear a bell an the door signaling a customer has walked in.
“Sydney! Can you get that? I’m mopping the floor!” Tiffany, my curly brunette haired coworker yells.
“Yeah! No worries I got it—“ I start to reply as I walk out of the back room to the counter to find that tall blond boy with big brown eyes in my lobby once more. “Oh my god…”
*Ross POV*
I run into Candy’s and the bell rings, I walk up to the counter and hear some people talking in the back, one of the voices is getting closer when I hear, “Oh my god, Ross!” Sydney runs around the counter bumping into the corner of it which then, consequently, knocks a drink over and it spills on me, “AHH no! Not again! You must be a drink magnet.” She jokes while drying me off.
“I think it’s just you really like to ruin my outfit for the day.” I reply to her. Once I am all dried off she stands onto her tippy toes and reaches her arms around my neck, I feel a spark. I then reciprocate by grabbing her waist and we hug each other. “Ah! I’m so excited, you must be back from your tour?” I notice the cast on her arm.
“Yeah, but um…what happened?” I say holding her wrist carefully.
“Oh,” She looks down, embarrassed “I’d rather not talk about it, I mean we barely know each other right now, in time I will tell you.”
Disappointed I look down holding her yellow cast “Well, can I sign it then?” I say hopefully.
“Yeah of course.”
I write something down on her cast and tell her not to read it till I leave. We take a seat and begin to talk again. She asked me about the tour, I asked her how many times in the past week she has spilt a drink on someone, she answer with just the two times it was me.
“So where do you live at?” I ask her
“Oh I live by myself in an apartment complex in Pendleton circle. What about you?”
“I live with my family like a mile down the road.” I reply, I glanced for a second over at the clock and noticed the time “Oh dang! I still have to go unpack, I told my mom I’d be gone for an hour…turns out it’s been three, she is gunna be pissed” I get up and start running out the door but I stop myself as I open it, I won’t forget her number this time. I turn back and stand next to Sydney “Can I get your number?”
“Hehe yeah,” She blushed and wrote the number on a piece of paper “Here, promise me you won’t lose it?” She holds up the paper to me.
I grab the piece of paper and I lean down and kiss her quickly before she has the chance to react, “I wouldn’t dream of it” I smile back, trying to hold out on my excitement so she doesn’t know how long I’ve been wanting to do that. I run outside to the bus waiting for me.
*Sydney POV*
As I watched Ross leave the shop I feel my face begin to heat up to a bright red color again, the boy I was afraid I may never see again just kissed me, I wasn’t even using any of my moves! I giggle. I remember he signed my cast; I look down to read it.
‘So the other day I met this gorgeous girl, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking of her since. She’s short, blonde, has the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen oh and I can’t forget how clumsy she is, she tends to spill drinks on me. Anyway, if you think you know her let her know I’d love to go out with her sometime if she wouldn’t mind? –ROSS SHOR LYNCH’
“Eeeekkk!” I jump up out of my seat and do a little dance, then I run to the back room where I find Tiffany I run over to her, forgetting she had recently mopped and the floor was still a little wet I slide across the floor knocking into her, I help her back up and give her a giant hug, I was so darn excited.
*Riker POV*
I have finally finished unpacking and I took a shower now I’m packing food for Sydney and I, I figured I’d grab the leftover steaks, broccoli, and potatoes from last night, she said she liked steak in any condition. I put it all in a picnic basket and wrap the containers in a blanket trying to preserve the heat. I head over to the door and look at the clock saying it was 5:50. Good timing, I grab the keys to the van and head over to Candy’s. I pull up and I park and lock the car, I head into Candy’s and I see Sydney in there talking to a curly haired girl, with a lot of freckles, behind the counter. Sydney hasn’t seen me yet so I sneak up behind her and cover her eyes “Guess whooo?”
“Hmm, is there any chance this is my best friend Riker?”
“Wow, you are fantastic at that game haha” She turned around and I gave her a hello hug.
“So Commander Riker where is it you are taking me on this fine evening?”
“Well Lieutenant Sydney, I was thinking we could take a walk and then stop for a picnic in the park, does that sound satisfactory?”
“Indeed it does.” Sydney said as we headed out the door.
“Let me run and get the picnic basket, it’s in the van” The sun was beginning to set.
“No! I mean, wait, I will go with you”
“What? Uhm I uh guess you can if you really want to” I say kind of confused. We start walking over to the van. “So why is it you wanted to come with me? I was only gunna be a sec” I tell her as I grab the basket.
“I….um…was scared”
“Um what? Of what?”
“Well… I’ll tell you later when we are sitting down.”
“Okay…” We start on our walk. It doesn’t take us long to get to the park, there is still some light out and I figure there will be for another hour or so, we walk around the park a few times until we decide to sit down and eat. I pull out the food, starting with the steak.
“Ohh yess” Sydney says “I would marry that steak right now, but I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to eat your spouse”
I laugh at her response “I won’t tell anyone haha” I reply to her strangeness “So…now that we are sitting, you wanna tell me why you were so scared of me leaving you alone for a second?”
“oh… yeah… well you see it has to do with what happened to my wrist. You see I have a douche bag ex boyfriend, but he isn’t just a douche he is also…” She pauses and she starts to cry.
“Sydney?” I go over to her and let her cry on my shoulder “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to”
“No, no” She sniffles “I was gunna tell you today anyway.” She tells me, “So his name is Derek and he is very abusive toward me,” She pauses, taking a deep breath “Physically. And the day you and I met Riker I had just been discharged from the hospital I checked myself into the night before. Because that night I had finished my shift at Candy’s and I was waiting at the bus stop when he came and tried to convince me to get back together with him, naturally I refused that’s when he grabbed me, hard. I struggled but he just tightened his grip on my wrist. That’s when he told me that I will get back together with him whether I like it or not. I don’t take his shit so I firmly said no, and me being headstrong doesn’t help with the fact that I’m pretty weak. So he threw me against the bus bench, and that is when the bus turned the corner to save me, then he ran away like the coward he is.” She had finished, and I was in shock, I had no idea what to say or tell her.
“Wow…” is all I could say, Riker why are you such an idiot, I was mentally slapping myself.
“Yeah I know, it’s a lot to take in. Take your time and let it sink in, I’m not in any rush.” She nonchalantly takes another bite of steak while I sit there stupidly with an open jaw.
“I uh but um I just d—don’t know how such a great girl like you gets into that situation.”
“Oh well it’s pretty simple, we got together when I was going to high school up in northern California. He seemed like a great guy at first. He was a little bossy and rude I guess… but most guys at my school were…. So I settled and we were together for probably a month before he started abusing me verbally, calling me terrible names saying I’m no good and I’ll never do better than him…That he was doing me a favor. That’s when I called it off. A week later I moved down here to pursue my acting career, that was two years ago, my freshman year of high school. I was surprisingly mature for my age; otherwise my mother never would have let me come live down here by myself. Anyway, a few months later Derek showed up at my door saying a bunch of bullshit that he had changed and he wanted me back. And of course I fell for it… maybe because he moved all the way down here for me, I figured he must’ve changed. Well it got out of hand quickly, the physical abuse got worse and worse, I would tell him we were done but he refused to let me end it, I had no way out of the relationship. I was too afraid to call the cops, afraid of what he might do, he had no limits. I have been to the hospital around a hundred times, because of that jack ass. One day my mother called the cops because I was put in the ICU and I hadn’t seen him for about a year…then last week happened and I realized he is back.” She told me this whole story in her fast high pitched voice the entire time she had tears running down her cheek bones. That was when I noticed I was also crying.
“Sydney,” I say sternly “Look at me” I tilted her chin up so her watery blue eyes were staring into mine. “I swear to god, if this happens again, you tell me, immediately.”
“I will, because you are my best friend” She winks at me and chuckles.
I am flabbergasted “It is crazy how you can still make yourself laugh after all this” I tell her.
“It gives me the illusion that I’m strong enough to make it through this.” She replies hopefully.