**** hope y'all enjoy. I think this is a more upbeat chapter (at times), and then worse at others. Enjoy :) Ashley makes a five second appearance XD sorry I know I said he would be in this story more, but I flat out forgot. ****

Jacky and I sat silently, rather awkwardly, watching Ryan and Leah talk and flirt back and forth.

I leaned closer to Jacky, who looked a bit confused until I spoke. "This is beginning to feel like an awkward, forced double date" I whispered to him, flicking my eyes to his face to see his reaction.

He laughed and nodded, and I grinned, sitting back.

Leah went to grab drinks for us, and I was bombarded by Ryan, who seemed to finally notice that Leah wasn't the only one in the room.

He sat down on me and hugged me tightly. "How have you been? What've you been up to? What happened to your hands?" he shot out question after question, so fast I couldn't reply, nor keep up.

I looking down at my knuckles, which were bruised up from hitting James and his friends too many times. I shifted uncomfortably and shrugged, not wanting to talk about it.

Ryan nodded and smiled, patting my cheeks. And that's how Leah found us, Ryan in my lap, pulling my cheeks away from my face and then squishing them back to make a squelching sound.

"You're cheating on me?!!" She exclaimed, and Ryan stood up and turned to her, falling to his knees dramatically.

"It was a one time thing babe I promise, please don't divorce me!" he yelled theatrically, and Leah blushed-even I blushed at the sound of him calling her babe, internally fangirling-but walked past him, plopping down in my lap.

"I was talking to my wife" she said, winking and turning to me.

I put my hands behind my head and shrugged, looking ahead.

"You know me, I'm not the horse, I'm the saddle. I don't have one rider, everyone rides me" I said, before bursting into laughter at how stupid it all was.

Leah got off me and handed everyone drinks.

She tried to hand me an apple juice but I gave her a look until she rolled her eyes, but handed me my Mikes Hard Lemonade.

I drank occasionally. But never too much. I never got shitfaced, only a bit drunk, if any at all. Leah didn't like it though. I think she was scared I might relapse one night or do something bad and never recover again.

I didn't plan on getting drunk, especially with Ryan and Jacky giving me curious, almost patronizing looks.

They didn't trust me. Well, I can't blame them. The last two times they can remember me drinking, I wasn't in the best shape.

I just gave them a shrug and a half smile and slowly sipped my bottle.

Leah and I shared stories from the club, and just when I thought the excitement was dying down and we would go our separate ways, there was loud ringing of phones.

It almost seemed, timed......

I could practically hear the bed calling to me.

'Ryker'. 'Ryker, we're lonely. Come lay with us'

Okay, maybe I drank a little too much. If only I could blame strange thought processes on my drinking.

All the same, I put the bottle between my legs and lay back, yawning and smirking as I watched Ryan nudge Leah to annoy her.

Then he stopped and showed her something on his phone, and they smirked before turning to me.

I squirmed and shifted closer to Jacky, nervous. That was their plotting face, and I didn't know what to make of it.

What were they planning?

"Hey, a friend of Ryan's is coming over. So why don't you go change out of your pajamas" Leah said, giving me a fake one-over.

I looked down at my Pokemon shorts and Legend Of Zelda shirt, and shrugged.

"What's wrong with this? Im wearing a bra" I said, and Leah snorted and hid her mouth behind her hand.

Then the door was chiming and Ryan stood up, sending Leah a conspiring wink.

"No time now" Leah mumbled to herself, and I raised my eyebrows at her, taking my Mikes bottle and bringing it up to my lips.

Then, I heard shuffling and voices, and I sat frozen, the bottle hovering at my mouth.

I stared wide-eyed at the hallway, waiting for him to come into view.

It seemed he did the same, because as soon as he got to the living room, he froze and stared back at me.

Then he took in the bottle and he sighed angrily, rolling his eyes and turning away.

"What the hell guys? You're just letting her do this? What? She's fresh out of rehab and already an alcoholic again?" he snapped, glaring at everyone in turn.

I couldn't find it in me to fight him. I just dropped the bottle on the table and stood up to face him.

"W-what are you doing here?" I said softly, nearly a whisper.

But he heard.

He turned to face me, his hard, slitted eyes on mine, freezing me up again, and I held my arms around my body, suddenly freezing.

He was freezing me out. And I never expected it to actually feel cold, to be frozen out of someone's life. But it was.

"Ryan tricked me into coming here. I didn't know it was your apartment" he said, putting such emphasis on your, like he was disgusted just being in my home, that I fell back on the couch and couldn't move for quite a while after that.

Then I could, and somehow he was still there. It must not have been that long.

I rubbed my nose with my sleeve, finding it to be runny-I knew I was about to cry. Then I scratched my arm, as I always do when I'm anxious.

He saw me do it, and he read into it the wrong way.

He gave me a look of such disbelief and then stormed out, shaking his head and muttering to himself.

Stupid, stupid stupid!

Why had I done that?

I'm such an idiot!

A runny nose and itchy skin were symptoms of heroin use.

I'd bet anything that Ronnie thought I was still using.

I stood up and drank the rest of my drink before throwing it in the recycling bin.

I leaned against the counter for a while before pulling my phone out and dialing a number.

"Hey, what's up?" a voice said through the line.

The voice felt like it wrapped around me and engulfed my body in warmth, chasing away the cold from Ronnie's eyes, words, everything.

"Can we?" I said, and there was a pause before the voice replied.

"I'll be there in five" it said and then I hung up.

I grabbed a coat and my shoes and then I walked out, brushing past the others, who were still letting the whole Ronnie situation sink in.

I didn't say a word, but I'm sure Leah knew what I was doing.

I did it a lot, especially lately.

I closed to door and by the time I got to the main floor, I could see the motorcycle waiting right outside the building.

I ran out and hopped on, and we sped off before the police officer could run over and give us a ticket for parking in a no parking zone.

I wrapped my arms around the warm, leather-clad body and sighed, leaning my face into his back.

"Thanks Ashley" I mumbled, knowing it would get carried away with the wind and never heard.

**** do you guys think Ronnie was lying? Do you think he knew it was Leah and Ryker's apartment? Is there hope for them yet, or has the ship sailed it's last trip, and sunk to the bottom? Okay Ill stop now XD ****