A/N: Shorter than the last, but of decent length. TriXter… I did not know Tawny was going to do this… it seems a tad odd to me. But hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, no? And she could get a hell of lot more desperate… she could be like Frantic!Ren! Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to review! It is very appreciated! You are loved!

Chapter Thirty-Six

Tawny sat motionless staring out at the sea until the sun rose. After awhile, Twitty and Amy came out and joined her.

They stopped a few feet behind her.

"Should we do something?" Twitty whispered, nudging Amy.

She shrugged, glancing at her watch. 7 AM.

There was a stream of images running through Tawny's mind, a stream of moments, thoughts, questions, answers, reasons. Reasons. All the reasons why this had to happen… it did have to happen, after all, didn't it? The tears began to sting her eyes once more…

"Tawny?" Amy tried, taking a step closer to the broken girl. "Tawny, come on, let's go inside. You're frozen."

"It's August," Tawny mumbled. "I'll be warm in an hour." And in an hour, Ren would be leaving for the airport… checking her baggage, getting her seating assignment, probably having some airport coffee and a doughnut with her parents… and then, at 10:30, her plane would take off. And then those near 3,000 miles would finally come into play.

"Do you want to talk?" Amy sat down beside her.

Twitty made his way over and took a seat on Tawny's other side.

"No," Tawny mumbled. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Tawny…" Twitty tried.

"No," she cut him off. "It's over. That's it. It had to be and it is."

"It had to be?" Twitty asked.

"Yeah?" Amy chimed in again.

"Yes," Tawny nodded. "It did."

"Why?" they both pressed.

"Because… I can't… I just can't do this. Long-distance… it wouldn't have worked."

"So, you didn't even care enough to try?"

"Twitty!" Amy snapped.

"It has nothing to do with that!" Tawny barked at him. "How could you think that I didn't--"

"Well, that's how Ren seemed to take it," he said, getting to his feet. "And I would think she'd no better if it wasn't the case."

"She was just upset, Ren was upset," Amy insisted.

"She said I was a waste of her time," Tawny muttered, her voice barely audible.

"You know she didn't mean that, Tawny," Amy said, rubbing her hand on Tawny's back.

Tawny sighed and focused her attention back on the sea.

"This is ridiculous," Twitty shook his head. "This didn't have to happen, Tawny. You chose for it to happen."

"She's going to the other side of the country, Twitty!"

"For a few months, and then you'll see her again," he shrugged, her voice raised.

"And then she'll leave again," Tawny countered.

"And then she'll come back, leave again, come back for the summer and then you will go to the east coast too. You wanted to go to NYU, remember? Or somewhere else, I don't know… there's plenty of schools over there for you. You just have to make it through this one year. One school year. You told me you were in love with her. You told me you'd never felt this way about anyone. But now, suddenly, you don't love her enough to do that—to make it through 9 months of long-distance?"

Tawny parted her lips as if to speak but no words left her mouth.

"That's what I thought," Twitty replied, turning and retreating into the house.

"Long-distance is hard," Amy said, though she didn't seem to believe herself as she spoke. "We get it, Tawny. We do. He's just… he understands where you're coming from. You probably made the right decision in the long-run. It'll hurt for awhile but then you'll move on, you'll--"

"No," Tawny shook her head. "No, I won't. I don't know how. Am I supposed to go back to sleeping around? I can't do that now… can I? I just…maybe… he's right. I'm being ridiculous."

"Tawny," Amy protested.

"No," Tawny didn't let her get started. She rose to her feet. "I don't want to end this. I don't want to. If I love her, I can do this for her. Right? I mean, if I really love her I can do it. And I do. I really, really love her, Amy."

"I know you do," Amy nodded, looking up at Tawny. "Well, what are you going to do then?"

Tawny slammed the cab door and raced into the bustling airport. She glanced at her watch: it was 10:00.

Frantically she raced around trying to find the right departure screen, unable to reach Louis or anyone who would know Ren's flight information. Ren herself was adamantly refusing to take any calls at this point, especially from Tawny. And even after she found the gate, security wouldn't let her past the carry-on check without a ticket.

"Can't security go with me? They can escort me to the plane, onto the plane… I really need to talk to someone before they go."

"Do you know how often we get this?" one of the airport employees, an older man with brown eyes, grumbled.

"What?"

"Not that often…" the baggage lady shrugged, interrupting. "But it happens enough in the movies you'd think you idiot lovers would learn not to let people get on planes before you tell them all the important stuff."

"Either way," the man growled. "You need to leave, young lady."

"No, I have to--"

"Miss, please," the lady spoke up again.

Tawny sighed and turned to leave, but suddenly she turned swiftly on her heels and ran as fast as she could through the check.

However, this proved in vain as the security ran her down in no time and she was promptly escorted out of the airport.

Out in front, she noticed the Steve Stevens and Louis walking across the parking lot toward their car. She managed to get Louis' attention but he just shook his head.

Tawny's shoulder's dropped and she inhaled deeply. She pulled out her cell and tried to call Ren again, before realizing that Ren couldn't have answered her phone then if she wanted to: it was 10:30, the plane was taking off.

Defeated, Tawny called another cab and returned home.

"What the matter, sweetheart?" Joanne Dean greeted her daughter in the entry way.

"Nothing," Tawny grumbled, glaring at her mother as she hurried past, rushing up to her room.

Joanne sighed, drawing conclusions of her own.

Upstairs, Tawny sat down on her bed and pulled her cell phone from her bag. She scrolled to Ren's number and pushed the green button.

No answer.

She tried once more, no answer. She didn't want to leave a voicemail. She wanted to talk to Ren.

"I'll wait until this evening," she mumbled to herself.

But when evening rolled around she found that Ren still would not answer her phone. She sighed. Maybe this was best. Maybe she should leave it like this and just set about moving on.

She hesitated a moment and tried to call again.

Still no answer.

Ren glanced down at the illuminated screen on her cell phone. She hesitated a moment before holding down the red button and turning the phone off.

She sighed and glanced around her room. All her bags on the floor, no sheets on the mattress.

"We'll buy some sheets and a matress pad tomorrow, honey," Eileen said as she entered the room. "Let's go to the hotel now. I am exhausted."

"Ok, mom," she nodded, grabbing one of her bags and her new keys.

"You're going to have sucha great time here, Ren," Eileen said, her face beaming. "You'll meet new people, make new friends, and have so much fun!" She gave her daughter a quick squeeze. "You'll be so busy these next few months you won't have time to think, but you'll love it!"

Ren nodded and forced a smile.

She locked the door behind them and they headed to their hotel, leaving the cold dorm room, and the cell phone, behind.