Alive & Kicking (Stay Until Your Love Is)

1

Allison Reynolds busied herself making up the guest bed with clean sheets, in an attempt to ignore the feeling in the pit of her stomach. Some called it 'butterflies', though it felt more like a big knot of worms to her.

Chewing on her lower lip, she glanced out of the window into the driveway again, but there was still no sign of Andrew. She hadn't seen her boyfriend since Christmas, and Spring Break had taken forever to arrive.

And the funny thing was, this was never how either of them had planned it to be. In fact, not much had turned out the way the five of them had imagined last summer, when they'd set out on their little adventure to find her mother.

Things had turned sour pretty quickly between Bender and Claire that summer, and although she couldn't say she was surprised, Allison still thought it sad that things had ended the way they did.

The redhead had taken herself off to college in Florida, and aside from the odd postcard, Allison didn't hear much from her at all. Bender was even more of a mystery, and nobody quite knew where he was from one day to the next.

Brian, meanwhile, was living his dream at Harvard law school. As reliable as ever, he wrote to her at least once a month. He was top of his class of course, but Allison couldn't glean much else from his wordy letters.

And Andy was in NYC, where she should have been. But things didn't quite turn out that way.

A gentle knock on the door brought Allison from her thoughts, and she glanced up in time to see her mother pop her head in.

"Ally, I've gotta go to the office for a while. D'you need anything while I'm out?" Isobel Reynolds asked.

Allison shook her head, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"Are you alright? I've been calling up to you for the last 5 minutes," her mother said, going to sit beside her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she nodded. "Sorry."

"Are you worrying about Andy?" Isobel guessed. Her mother was far too perceptive of her some times, and Allison still hadn't gotten used to it.

"I just... I don't want things to be like they were at Christmas, that's all," Allison admitted. "The long distance stuff is bad enough without feeling like he hates me too."

"Sweetie, he doesn't hate you. He adores you," she said. "And I think that makes it even harder. For you both. But maybe now things are a little less raw, you guys can move forward, hmm?"

Allison exhaled deeply, "I hope so."

Kissing her head, Isobel stood up. "It'll be okay. See you later."

Once her mother had left, Allison went back to making the beds, wondering if she had been right about things being less raw this time around.

The truth was, she had surprised herself, so she could only imagine how Andy had felt.

When she stood in the parking lot last summer and said her goodbyes, she and Andy had agreed to see each other in NYC.

Except, she never got there.

Allison had battled with her decision for weeks before she was able to vocalize it. And even though she knew it was the right thing for her, explaining to her boyfriend why she was choosing to stay in Los Angeles with her mother was still one of the hardest things she had ever had to do.

He had reassured her that he understood - that it was okay. But she knew it wasn't, not really – and Christmas had proven that, when the elephant in the room almost fractured their relationship for good.

Things had settled down afterwards, and she had started to feel as though they were back on track. But the distance was tough on both of them and Allison missed him so much that it had begun to gnaw away at her, like a deep ache at the back of her chest.

"Hello?!" a familiar voice downstairs brought Allison to again, and reminded her that she had been so deep in thought that Andrew had had to let himself in. Good start.

Crossing the landing and navigating the stairway, Allison stopped at the bottom, seeing his familiar form in the doorway.

He hadn't changed much since high school, and although he had turned his back on wrestling, his muscular frame confirmed that he was still playing some form of sport on a regular basis.

Putting down the bag which had been slung over his shoulder, Andrew smiled at her.

Before either of them could say anything, Allison had covered the hallway and crashed against his chest. Andrew responded, wrapping his arms around her and running one hand through her hair.

It felt like a lifetime then before either of them spoke, and in that silence, Allison allowed herself to think that things might just be okay between them.

"Hey," he whispered eventually, pressing his lips against hers.

She smiled into the kiss, grabbing onto the collar of his jacket and stepping further back into the hallway, wondering how long they had before...

"What the fuck?" Andrew muttered, as the sound of a rattling engine right outside the door brought them both out of the moment.

The engine cut, and was swiftly followed by the sound of a door slamming before John Bender appeared in the doorway.

Allison just stared at him, feeling a little irritated about what he had just disturbed, but also wondering what on earth her mother was thinking, encouraging her to get all give of them together for Spring Break.

Folding his arms, Bender leant against the door frame with an all-too-familiar smirk on his face.

"Sporto. Klepto. Long time, no see."

This was going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

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