Title: Picture Perfect
Author: Emily (emilyfractured-heart.org)
Rating: PG 13
Pairings: Ryan/Theresa
Summary: "She doesn't know how to get it back"
Spoilers/Timeline: Set post "The Nana".

It was way back when money wasn't so tight.

Theresa and Ryan had a few extra dollars and all the time in the world to waste. They caught a bus to a part of town they didn't know and Theresa giggled the whole way. Ryan whispered in her ear and the other passengers shook their heads disapprovingly. She felt light headed and foolish and all of those things a fifteen year old feels.

Ryan bought her a soda and slung his arm low around her waist. They wandered down unfamiliar streets as though they were discovering a new world. Eventually they headed towards the beach but there was glass in the sand and litter spilling out of the bins. Instead Theresa put her last few dollars in a photobooth and sat on Ryan's lap. He tugged her closer and she pulled his head towards her own and kissed him. The camera flashed and it would have been picture perfect if Ryan hadn't cracked up and Theresa hadn't subsequently smacked him hard on the arm. He said it hurt and made as if to pull her hair. She shrieked and smacked him again. The pictures came out all blurred and so she made him put his last few dollars into the machine.

She dug her elbow into his side to keep him from laughing and smiled so widely that it hurt. Ryan was on the verge of laughter when the camera flashed a second time but Theresa treasured the pictures all the same. She kept one in her purse and one on her wall. They broke up a couple of times inbetween being fifteen and sixteen but she kept the picture up, knowing that the week after next they'd be a couple all over again.

Theresa didn't take it down until a couple of months after Ryan left without so much as a goodbye.

She figured that by then he wasn't coming back.

Now money's so tight that Theresa's working in Newport Beach.

She wonders if she would have taken the job if Ryan hadn't been there but decides not to dwell on it. She and Ryan used to imagine what it would be like to live someplace like Newport, back in Chino they played anywhere but here a lot. They always said that it would be perfect and Ryan has that now. Theresa doesn't want to screw it up.

She sees pictures of Ryan and Marissa on a noticeboard in Marissa's room. They are smiling, heads bent close and Theresa supposes it's a good picture. She's not exactly objective. Ryan and Marissa have broken up now though and Theresa would think thoughts about the fact that Marissa still has the pictures up if she hadn't done exactly the same thing herself. Theresa and Ryan hang out now and it's almost like old times. She feels old though, old and worn and heavy hearted. They go to the beach and it's picture perfect, no glass in the sand. There's something disquieting about that. Theresa drags him half heartedly into a photobooth because she thinks she should. She doesn't sit on his lap, she's oddly nervous around him these days. He hesitantly puts an arm around her shoulder and their mouths strain into smiles.

Theresa hands him two of the photos and tells him to not lose them this time. Ryan promises, just like he promised to come watch a movie with her the night he disappeared. Theresa smiles sadly.

Later, she decides that marrying Eddie is the best thing to do, and she tells Ryan to go back to Marissa. She tells Marissa she has realised she wants to be with Eddie and encourages Marissa to go back to Ryan.

Marissa wears Theresa's dress and talks shyly to Ryan. Theresa watches them out of the corner of her eye for a second or two.

Be good to him, she thinks. Because if you're not I'll kick your ass. I am a Chino girl and you are a Newport girl and I could, she thinks fiercely. I would.

Theresa carefully hangs up the clothes Marissa borrowed after she has left with Ryan. She looks regretfully at the new photos of them with their smiles strained and their faces anxious. She doesn't know how to get it back. She'll make do though, she always does. She puts the pictures into a drawer where they will collect dust.

She is sure that they would be picture perfect if only her and Ryan hadn't changed.