East High Drama Club

By angellwings

Chapter Thirteen: I Just Wanna Be With You

Despite Ryan's assurance that he could wait Kelsi still went out of her way to avoid him all week. She just couldn't decide what to do. Her brain kept telling her it wouldn't work and that she would just end up losing Ryan again, but her heart told her it was meant to be and that she and Ryan would last this time. She just didn't know who to listen to. They both made pretty good cases. Both sides were at a standstill. Neither appeared to be winning.

Her phone rang and Kelsi answered quickly. "Hello?"

"Hey, Kelsi. It's Mike. Just got out of my meeting with Disney," Mike said brightly.

"And?" She asked eagerly. "How'd it go? What'd they think?"

"They love your treatment," Mike told her. "Like I told you earlier, they're going to wait until they get the ratings, but I have a very good feeling about this, Kelsi. I'm almost certain there will be a third movie. So, don't make any plans for a while. You'll probably be writing the script after the movie airs in three months."

Kelsi finished her phone call with Mike and then glanced at her calendar. It was the last day of filming and as soon as they wrapped that day there would be a cast party. Jason said he had a surprise for everyone which they all knew would end up being the blooper reel, but for his sake they pretended they had no idea. It was going to be simple. They'd eat food, reminisce, and the production crew (herself, Ryan, Jason, and Martha) would pass out presents to both the cast and crew. The next day the set would be struck and packed up to go into one of Disney's storage warehouses, and Kelsi would ship anything she didn't need for Taylor and Chad's wedding back home to LA. She'd also have to relocate to a hotel as her lease that Disney was paying for would be up. Jason and Martha were going to house her dog, Gershwin, for her until she left for LA.

Kelsi wasn't needed on set today so she was going to stay home and get a jump on the EHDC 3 script since Mike seemed to think it was such a sure thing. The sooner she got started the better.

There was a knock on her door and Gershwin ran to answer it. Kelsi chuckled as her Great Dane eyed the door excitedly. "Chill, Gersh. I don't think it's for you."

Kelsi peeked through the peep hole and jumped away from the door. It was Ryan. What was he doing here? He said he'd give her time. She didn't have an answer for him yet! She opened the door just a crack and pushed Gershwin away with her foot. "Ryan?"

"Kelsi," Ryan said brightly. "You answered."

Kelsi bit her bottom lip. "What are you doing here?"

"You've been avoiding me," He said simply.

"I-I told you I needed time away," Kelsi said with a sigh. "What did you think that meant?"

"I thought we'd continue to at least be professional about this," Ryan told her. "But you're just…nowhere to be found. I told you I was patient, and I meant it but…I'm worried."

Kelsi sighed and opened the door wider for him. "Come on in. I can tell you're not going to leave any time soon."

Ryan stepped inside and immediately knelt down to pet Gershwin. Gershwin attempted to crawl into Ryan's lap but as he was a very large dog he only succeeded in knocking Ryan off balance. "Alright, I get it. You missed me."

Kelsi smiled warmly at Ryan as he interacted with Gershwin. She really had missed him. Ryan stood up and brushed himself off.

"Alright, I have a deal for you," He said confidently.

"A deal?" Kelsi asked skeptically.

"Be my date to Chad and Taylor's wedding," Ryan requested. "Just give me until after the reception to convince you to give us a second chance. If you're not completely convinced by then then I will leave you alone, and accept the fact that you want to move on. How does that sound?"

She stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. "One date? You think you can convince me to jump back into a relationship with you in one date?"

"Yes, I think I can," Ryan answered with a nod.

She took a deep breath and nodded nervously. "Then sure. You have from the beginning of the wedding to the end of the reception to convince me that we can successfully have a relationship this time around. Should we shake on it?"

Ryan smirked and winked. "I'd rather do something else honestly."

Kelsi blushed. "Ryan…"

He chuckled at her and stuck out his hand for her to shake. "I know, I know. Can't blame a guy for trying. A hand shake it is."

"Now," Kelsi said as she looked down at her watch. "I really need to get to work on this script, so…"

"Script?" He asked.

"I'm started the EHDC 3 script. Mike thinks a third movie is a sure thing now so I'm going to get a jump on it," Kelsi told him. "Or at least I will as soon as you leave and let me get to work."

"Fine," Ryan told her. "But I'm picking you up at the hotel Saturday afternoon for the wedding."

"Why couldn't I just ride with—"

"No, it's a date. I'm picking you up," Ryan insisted. "We're going to do this right, Kels. See you at the cast party tonight."

She nodded. "Yes. See you then."

"Bye, Kelsi," Ryan said as he opened her front door and hesitantly left.

Kelsi stared at her closed door and sighed worriedly. What had she just gotten herself into?

The next day Kelsi shipped all of her stuff to her house in LA, dropped Gershwin off at Jason and Martha's, and then checked into her hotel. She spent the day working on the script until the time came to get ready for the wedding rehearsal and Chad and Taylor's rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal itself wasn't so bad. There wasn't much time to talk as they practiced the processional for the wedding, but the dinner was a different story. Ryan had made sure that she couldn't avoid them. If he wasn't talking to her or someone close to her then he at least made sure to be in her line of sight at all times.

And it appeared to be working. She was remembering how much fun she'd had with him at things like this. It had been a long time since she'd had that. Randall had been a bit of a stiff. He was always very composed at parties. He was the very definition of cool, calm, and collected. Ryan, on the other hand, was practically the life of the party. Where Kelsi tended to go inward Ryan made every effort to stand out.

And it reminded her of how much more fun she was when he was around. He helped her relax, and she'd always loved him for that. Troy and Gabriella were staying at the same hotel as Kelsi and drove her home from the rehearsal dinner that night. The ride back to the hotel was far from silent.

"So, Playmaker," Troy said with a smirk as he watched for Kelsi's reaction in his rear view mirror. "Ryan seemed to be watching you pretty closely tonight. Any idea why?"

Kelsi sighed and nodded. "He, um, well…"

"Oh! Let me guess!" Gabriella said as Kelsi's sentence trailed off. "He wants to get back together with you. Right?"

Kelsi nodded again. "Right."

"I knew it!" Gabriella exclaimed. "I knew the two of you would get back together eventually. You just had to."

"But I don't know if that's what I want, Gabby," Kelsi told her with a huff. "I'm still trying to figure that out."

"What's to figure out, Kelsi?" Troy asked. "He clearly loves you, and I know you love him. What more do you need?"

"I cannot date him and have it fall apart again, Troy," Kelsi said softly. "I won't survive it if it happens again."

"But you don't know that it will happen again," Troy told her. "Not everybody gets a second chance, Kels. You two deserve a second chance. Takeit."

"Think about it," Gabriella said as she turned to face the tiny composer. "You tried to walk away from Ryan once right? Where did that get you? Right back here. Where you started. You won't be able to move on and be truly happy until you see this thing with Ryan through. For your peace of mind, at least, you need to give it one more real shot. You know you do."

"It's just something to think about, Kels," Troy told her as they finally pulled up to the hotel.

"Believe me, I've been thinking about it. It's almost all I think about," Kelsi mumbled as she got out of the car and headed up to her room. Tomorrow was the day. The wedding that would determine the fate of her relationship with Ryan.

To say that she was terrified was truly an understatement.

The morning of the wedding Kelsi got up and got everything she needed together. She took a shower and dried her hair, and then got dressed in a button up flannel shirt (to make it easier to get changed once the hairdresser had styled her hair and to keep from getting make up on anything), and jeans. She had her garment bag with her dress in it hanging on the door and her shoes were in a duffel bag with her cosmetic bag, a shawl, her purse, and a clutch. Taylor had hired a hair stylist and a make up artist to make it easy for them to all get ready together at the church. Now she was just waiting for Ryan.

He should be picking her up any minute.

There was a knock at her door and Kelsi jumped. That had to be Ryan. She reluctantly got up and answered the door. She was greeted with a bright smile from Ryan.

"Hey, Kels. You ready?"

She nodded and grabbed her garment bag and her duffel bag. Ryan quickly took the garment bag from her and carried it carefully to his car. He hung it up in the back seat and then held the passenger side door open for Kelsi to step inside.

Kelsi smiled politely at him. "Thank you."

Once they were on the road Ryan turned to her with a pleasant smile. "So I heard EHDC 3 is all but officially on."

Kelsi nodded excitedly. "Yes, I finally have a reason to use all of our music from senior year for something professional."

Ryan's eyes widened and his smile brightened. "You're going to use the songs from our senior production?"

She nodded. "I just need to add a few more songs but that shouldn't be too difficult. It's going to be weird going through the creative phases without someone to keep me from going too far though. I tend to get caught up in the writing and forget about what can and can't be done on our budget."

Ryan chuckled. "That does sound like you."

"It's going to be even worse with this one, though. It's their senior year and I kind of feel like this should be the biggest and grandest movie it can be, you know?"

Ryan nodded. "It's their grand finale. That's understandable."

"Yes, but we won't know how much Disney will be willing to spend until we see the ratings," Kelsi said with a sigh. "Which won't be for twelve more weeks."

"How long do you think it will take you to write it?" Ryan asked.

"Not very long," She told him. "I mean most of what takes me so long is already done."

"Ah, well whenever you have some time off you should come to New York," Ryan said with a small smile. "How long has it been since you saw a Broadway show anyway?"

Kelsi smiled wistfully. That used to be her and Ryan's thing. They'd go to see every new show as it opened, but since they broke up Kelsi had only seen a handful of shows. "A couple of years, I guess."

"That's a shame. You've missed some great shows," Ryan told her. "We should find a way to fix that."

Ryan pulled into the church and parked. He helped Kelsi carry her things to the room where the girls were getting ready and the left to get himself ready. The girls had their hair and makeup done, got dressed, and then reported to the sanctuary for pictures with the bride and the bridesmaids. Once they were done with that they went back to the bridal room to wait for the guests to arrive. It didn't take long and the next thing Kelsi knew the wedding was over and they were all headed over to the Lava Springs for Chad and Taylor's reception. Everything had been beautiful so far, but the reception would be where things would get tricky. At the reception Ryan would talk to her and want to dance with her and he'd work really hard at making her want them back.

And she wasn't sure she was at all prepared for it.

Ryan sat down beside of her at the bridal party's table, and set a drink down in front of her.

She smiled at him. "Sangria?"

"Your favorite-or it was while we were dating," Ryan told her with a wink.

She chuckled and nodded. "It still is. Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Thank Taylor's parents. They're the ones that sprung for the open bar," Ryan said with a grin.

Ryan stared at Kelsi thoughtfully for several moments before he spoke up again.

"Kelsi, I need to ask you something, and I need you to know that I mean no offense," Ryan said hesitantly.

"Um, okay," Kelsi said with a nervous gulp.

"These EHDC movies are cute, really," He told her. "But what happened to your original dream, Kels?"

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Broadway. You wanted to see your shows on The Great White Way, remember? Don't you think you should get back to that?" Ryan asked.

"Are you saying what I've accomplished so far isn't good enough?" Kelsi asked with a hostile edge to her voice.

"No!" Ryan said with a sigh. "I told you not to take offense. Everything you've done with these movies is amazing, Kelsi. I just…I remember how we were at Julliard and the dreams that we talked about. I don't want you to forget them. This whole time I've been here I've seen more of the Kelsi I knew before Gabriella came around, and as much as I liked her I miss the woman she became."

Kelsi gulped and looked away from him.

"That Kelsi was unstoppable," Ryan said. "And I don't want you to forget her."

"I haven't forgotten her," Kelsi said quietly.

Ryan smiled softly and nodded. "I'm happy to hear that."

"And I haven't forgotten about the things that I want, Ryan. I'll get there eventually," Kelsi told him. "I just need to finish what I started here first."

"What about what we started, Kels?" He asked. "Are we ever gonna finish that?"

"Ryan…" Kelsi started. She cut herself off with a sigh.

"Dance with me," Ryan said pleadingly. He aimed a charming smile at her and Kelsi crumbled. She couldn't refuse.

"Sure," Kelsi said as she accepted the hand he held out to her. They both stood and made their way to the dance floor.

Ryan pulled her close once they reached the dance floor and smiled softly at her. "I gave up too soon, Kelsi. I just let you walk away. I shouldn't have done that, and I won't make the same mistake twice. And I won't let you feel neglected or forgotten. I know better than that now. I see now that you're the most important thing in my life and to let you feel otherwise was my greatest mistake. I still love you, and I know you still love me. We owe it to ourselves to try again. You know we do."

She said nothing as they continued to dance and Ryan led her over to a secluded corner.

"We started something our senior yeah of high school, and we can't let it go unfinished."

"Ryan—"

He cut her off with a kiss and Kelsi made a surprised noise against his lips. She relaxed in his arms for a moment before her arms wrapped around his neck and she moved her hands up into the hair at the nape of his neck. She pulled him closer and deepened the kiss. God, she had missed kissing him. She'd forgotten how wonderful of a kisser he was.

He pulled away and smirked at her. "Sorry, what were you going to say?"

She chuckled and shook her head at him. "You're evil."

"Only on occasion," He said with a wink. "So, what do you say Kelsi? Do we finish this or what?"

"You won't forget me?" Kelsi asked hesitantly. "You promise?"

"I didn't forget you then, and there's no way I could forget you now," Ryan told her.

Kelsi bit her bottom lip. What was the point of denying it like she had been? It didn't make her happy, and if she never found out how things would really go with Ryan then she'd never be able to move on. He was right. She did love him, but she was living with the fear that love wasn't enough. In high school she let fear rule her world and that's exactly what she was doing now. She couldn't do that.

"Okay," Kelsi said with a smile. "We get another chance, but let's not screw it up this time, okay?"

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am," Ryan said with a bright smile and a nod.

"I'm serious, Ryan," Kelsi said. "We do this right, and we make it last."

"Won't be a problem," Ryan said as he dipped his head down toward hers. "I plan on making this last as long as I possibly can."

He lowered his mouth to hers and she smiled against his lips before kissing him. She'd put this off for far too long.