SURPRISE - LANCE

[admin!heather]

Kennedy hadn't imagined packing up her entire life in Jacksonville right after Christmas, but when she got a phone call from the house insurance company back home that said they'd be dropping her due to a vacant property she freaked out. They suggested putting the house on the market so someone would spend the money to fix it up, but the thought of losing the last piece of her mother scared her. It scared her so much that she was willing to leave her job, pack all of her belongings in a car, and head back to Florida to live in her family home. Of course she wouldn't get to move right in due to how long the place had been dormant, but after the repairs it was all hers. The insurance company picked the house right back up and Kennedy felt better and knew she was doing the right thing.

Unfortunately being a nurse did not pay much so most of her spare money was being sunk into the house, and although she still had her mothers inheritance it'd remained untouched this long and she didn't plan on digging into it until she was absolutely desperate. She couldn't afford a hotel without dipping into that other fund, and she wanted to show her mother who was looking down on her that she could handle herself. She knew it'd make her mom proud that she was living on her own two feet, or at least she would be when she could move into the house. For now she was relying on the kindness of Ryan's father to take them in for the couple of weeks it'd take to bring the old place up to the present. It wasn't until eleven that she pulled into Lance's driveway unexpectedly and all of a sudden she grew nervous. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea for her to just expect him to let them stay there....maybe she should have just gotten them a hotel room so she didn't have to bother him.

She heard Ryan stir in the backseat as she sighed looking in her rear view mirror to see him still sound asleep. She opened the car door and shut it as quietly as possible not to wake him before making her way up to his door. She looked back at the car and could see no movement in the backseat as she picked her hand up and rung the doorbell. She knew she should have called him, let him know she was coming up, but with the call from the insurance company and everything she had to do back in Jacksonville she just forgot. Once she was on the road calling him seemed pointless. When she heard movement from behind the door her nerves bunched up even more as she took a step back so he could see it'd been her if he looked through the peep hole. Yup, this was not one of her brightest ideas but it was too late to turn tail and run now so she just stood there nervously not knowing what to expect.

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[lance warren wright]

Lance stumbled around his apartment, looking for the bottle of whiskey he had managed to misplace within the last ten minutes. He tossed a few piles of clothes around, sifted through some boxes, but couldn't seem to find the damn thing. He just had it, which was why his fingers began to clench into fists as his irritation grew rapidly. His jaw clenched at the thought of not being to able to locate his booze. As he was about to give up and fall onto the couch, he tripped over a pile, that he had assumed were just a bunch of clothes he hadn't bothered to move. "Fuckin' Jesus Christ," his words slurred as they shot through the air in pain. He lowered himself onto the couch as he reached into the pile and obtained the bottle of liquor. Normally, he would pass out around this time, but he hadn't been able to sleep without some nightmare invading his mind. Instead he stayed up, watched some basketball games and continually kept the alcohol flowing into his system to keep his thoughts on his current situation at bay. He didn't foresee his life going this way, but now it had become such a part of his routine he didn't think twice about the way he spent his nights.

Lance's eyes were glazed over as he slowly lifted the bottle to his lips, taking another swig, while attempting to keep up with the game that currently occupied his TV. How had things gotten this bad? He knew it had to do with the fact that he felt so alone out here. He only got to see Ryan and Kennedy on weekends, which seemed to be all he could get himself to look forward to. Otherwise he was a frequent customer at the Orchid and the clubs around town. He was lucky he had managed to pull off making it to work on time and only slightly intoxicated. He had been doing a pretty good job, but he figured the only reason he could keep it together was the amount of basketball the man watched every night. His eyes began to slowly shut, but he forced them back open, afraid of what might come if he gave in to his tiredness.

Lance forced the rest of the liquor down his throat, hoping to silence his current thoughts. After tossing the bottle aside, hearing it thump against the pile of clothes that littered the floor, a cough escaped his lips as he forced down the burning sensation that attacked his insides. The sensation calmed as his eyes refocused on the TV in front of him. He was just about to drift off to sleep again, but was roused by a ringing of his doorbell. He forced himself into an upright position and thought about just ignoring the door, but who the hell would come around at this time of night? His curiosity got the best of him, as he forced himself up, almost losing his balance in doing so, and slowly began to make his way to the door. He found himself angered by the unknown person who had come to disturb him at this time of night. He let the anger build with each staggered step until he got to the door, which had felt like a journey considering his inebriated state. "You better have a really good reason for showin-...." He had angrily spewed out the words after he began to yank the door open, so the poor person on the other side could hear his anger. His words came to a complete halt as his jaw fell open when it registered in his mind who had showed up at his door step. He straightened up his slouched stature, leaving his hand on the door for support (otherwise his knees probably would have buckled beneath him), "Kennedy?" Her name finally passed his lips, he was still in disbelief that she was at his doorstep right now.

Had he fallen asleep on the couch? Was he for once having a dream, instead of the constant assault of nightmares he had been used to? He squinted his eyes, as if that would actually help him discern if this was a dream, or in fact reality that she was standing in front of him right now. His eyes trailed down her body taking it all in, unable to stop the grin from forming on his lips. He started to consider it was a dream because a rational Kennedy wouldn't come back to their hometown just for him. She had a great stable job back in Jacksonville, Ryan had friends there, and there was nothing for her here anymore. He did what he had wanted to do for the longest time and since it was a dream no harm could come of this right? He lifted his hand from the door, letting it slowly swing open behind him, as he stepped forward and cupped her cheeks in his hand. His eyes searched hers for a moment, before he leaned in and planted his lips against hers. It wasn't the most elegant kiss, in fact it was probably awful, but hell it was a dream, and all he wanted was to remember this one good moment when he woke up with another awful hangover in the morning. Although, he noticed her lips hadn't moved with his. He removed his lips from hers, a frown appearing at the realization that this wasn't a dream and was in fact as real as it got.

That's when he began to sober up a bit. He felt the cold air bite at his skin as his hands slipped from her face, "Yup, definitely not a dream." He said definitively answering his own question of real, or not real. If he hadn't been so sloshed he might actually be embarrassed, but the redness in his cheeks was from all the whiskey and the new coldness that surrounded his body. "What are you doing here?" His words were abrupt and demanding, although he hadn't meant them to come off that way. He bit the inside of his cheek, a way of reminding himself this was real and scolding himself for letting his words spew out angrily. He tried fixing it by making light of the situation, "Miss me too much?" A sly grin appeared on his lips as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. He began to feel like he was losing a grip and the room was starting to spin. He found himself wishing he had just stayed leaning against the door. And with that thought he turned and walked back into his mess of a place, stumbling over the clutter on the floor, until he threw himself on the couch. He had left the door wide open, which he figured she'd take as an invitation to come in.

[admin!heather]

Kennedy's eyes widened as she could hear him behind the door, and of course she knew that anger all too well when he swung the door open demanding a response. Luckily she didn't have to give him one as she watched every facial expression of his shift before her. She could smell the whiskey still on his breath which was disappointing considering it's not like they were right face to face. She could tell just by looking at him that he'd been drunk, but she didn't know how bad it actually was because she hadn't seen too far into the house yet. For all she knew he was just celebrating the holidays alone, that'd be reason enough for anyone to drink, but even then she couldn't remember a time when he'd been this far gone.

She would have spoke up and said something had he not cupped her cheeks in his hands leaving her guessing what his intentions had been. When he leaned in for the kiss, sloppy with the stench of whiskey now lingering on her lips, she had no idea what to do as she stood frozen. When he pulled away Kennedy was already taking her sleeve and trying to rid her lips of the whiskey spit he'd left. "You couldn't have realized that before?" She sighed, shaking her head as she just watched Lance. His next question, again a tone that demanded an answer, had her searching for an answering that his drunk mind would understand. She wasn't going to get into everything with him in this state, that'd just be ridiculous, but before she could come up with a good enough response he'd went and asked if she'd missed him too much. "Only in your dreams," she returned the smirk returning to previously when he'd planted one on her thinking he'd been asleep.

Kennedy watched as he stumbled away towards his living room and she just groaned as she took in the place from the door step where she stood. His place was an absolute mess. There were clothes on the floor, boxes thrown all around, and other odds and ends that she couldn't believe hadn't been put away. "Lance-" she sighed as she glanced back to the car and she could see a shimmer of a head laying against the seat that signified Ryan was passed out still. She took a few steps into the house, took one more glance in Ryan's direction, and walked into the living room. "I don't think you understand," she saw him sprawled out on the couch and shook her head, "I knew this was a bad idea. I should have just gotten a hotel room for the both of us," she probably should have specified that she'd meant Ryan because she wasn't sure how he'd take what she said in his drunken state.

She looked around and there was no way that she wanted her son to see his fathers house like this. "Look," Kennedy turned back to the couch and took a deep breath, "Ryan and I have been in the car all day and after all the uprooting I did back in Jacksonville I thought it'd be nice for him to have a little sense of normality," she wasn't even sure if Lance could understand or not but she sure hoped that by bringing up Ryan she could at least sober him up a little more than he did back at the door. "We're staying in Point Pleasant Lance," she came right out and said it as she reached down and grabbed a thing of clothes that'd been on the floor and tossed them into the corner. "It was either see if we could crash with you or get a hotel for a couple of weeks, and I just can't afford that right now..." Kennedy looked down at him with pleading eyes hoping he'd start to understand the predicament she was in. "Will you help us or not?"

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