A/N: We are so sorry for taking so long. We both got busy with school, and then we had real-life boy problems, (ones we can't fix) so we didn't feel like writing for awhile. But now we're back--as long as you encourage us. Lady Fae, thank you so much for your review today. The "Update, dang it!" motivated us. Hope you all enjoy this new chapter, and that you can forgive us for taking so long!

CHAPTER 5

The next morning, Allie woke up smiling. It took her a moment to remember why she was so happy. Looking down at her finger, she sighed blissfully. She had half-expected it to have all been a dream. She looked over at her clock and gasped. It was almost nine! She leapt out of bed and hurriedly got dressed. Johnny had to leave for the airport at 11, which would give her two hours left to spend with him. She smiled once again and then thought of something she had to do before she left with Johnny. Allie ran into Liz's room, not even trying to be quiet. She ran over to Liz's bed and shook her friend awake.

"Liz! Wake up! Wake up!" Liz groaned.

"Are you going to make this an early morning habit?" she asked in annoyance. "Because if you are, I'm going to start locking my door before I go to bed!" Allie rolled her eyes.

"No. But you have to wake up! I need you to be fully awake and conscious for this!" Allie insisted, placing her left hand on Liz's arm. Liz sighed and slowly opened her eyes. Allie just sat there, taping her fingers on Liz's arm, waiting for her to notice the ring on her finger. After a few moments, Liz's eyes widened in surprise and her gaze snapped up to meet Allie's. At first, Liz could only stare at Allie in shock. Then she started squealing at the top of her lungs. Brooke jerked awake, and looked over at the two of them alarmed.

"What is going on?" she demanded. Allie hurried over to the other side of the room and showed Brooke her ring. "That's a reasonably good excuse to wake me up, but don't do it again." With that, Brooke rolled over and went back to sleep. Liz and Allie smiled at their friend's agitation. They both knew that Brooke had been studying really hard for finals. Brooke had to keep her grades up to keep her scholarship. Becky came running in at that point.

"What's wrong? Why are you screaming?" she asked. Allie grinned and simply held out her left hand. It took Becky a few seconds to see the ring, but when she did, she screamed twice as loud as Liz. "Oh my gosh! When did that happen?" Becky asked excitedly. Before Allie could answer, Brooke rolled back over and glared at them.

"Would you guys shut up? I'm trying to sleep here! I've got a huge test in a few hours." Allie started laughing, and motioned for Becky to follow her out of the room. Liz hopped out of bed, grabbed her robe and quickly joined her friends in the living room.

"So, are you gonna tell us how it happened or are you gonna make us beg!" Liz demanded as soon as they were out in the living room. Allie grinned, and told them the whole story, not omitting a single detail. When she was done, she reached over to the coffee table and grabbed the autograph that she had gotten for Liz. "I got this autograph for you last night," Allie explained as she handed it over to her friend. As Liz was thanking her, there was a knock on the door. Becky opened it, and Johnny stepped into the apartment. Allie's eyes lit up the moment she saw him.

"Ready to go?" Johnny asked. Allie nodded.

"Yep. Just let me grab something to eat and we'll get out of here," she said, already walking over to the fridge. She pulled out a Slim Fast and a small thing of yogurt. "Okay, let's go."

For the next hour and a half, the two of them simply walked around the campus and talked. Allie glanced at her watch and groaned.

"What is it?" Johnny wanted to know. Allie sighed.

"I've got class in 15 minutes, and you've got to get to the airport," she said regretfully, as they started heading back towards Johnny's car. When they got there, Johnny gave her a long hug.

"I'll call you every night," he promised. Allie nodded, trying to hold back tears.

"Okay," she said, pulling away slightly, then kissing him. After they pulled apart, she spoke again. "Don't forget your promise," she reminded him. His eyebrows furrowed.

"What promise?" Allie fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"To cut back on your intake of alcohol. You promised me that you would try to stay sober." He sighed.

"I have been," he told her. Allie shook her head. "No, you haven't, Johnny. Every time we go out, you order some type of alcoholic beverage," she said, sounding annoyed. Johnny rolled his eyes.

"The last time I checked, I was a grown man, capable of making my own decisions," he said, getting irritated as well.

"Oh yeah, what wonderful decisions you've been making, choosing to kill your liver by drinking yourself to death," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Johnny narrowed his eyes at her.

"You know what? I don't need this." He turned away and opened his car door. "I'll call you tonight," he said without looking at her as he got in. He slammed the door shut, started up the car, and drove away. Allie just stood there for a few minutes, thinking that at any moment Johnny would come back and apologize. When it didn't happen, she turned and slowly walked back to her apartment, not in the mood to go to class.

Over the next few weeks the girls didn't have much time to think about missing their fiancées. The semester was coming to an end and they both had to concentrate on their finals. (It had taken them awhile to get back into their old routines after returning from their remarkable voyage on the Pearl and extremely hard to remember what seemed like they learned a year ago in their classes.) With only three more days left in the school year, the girls were busy studying in the living room for their History final; they were in the same class.

"Allie do you remember learning about any of this?" Liz asked exasperated as she threw her book across the room. Becky ducked and laughed as the book whizzed past her head and hit the wall instead. She then picked it up and walked it back over to Liz.

"Just breathe, Liz. Don't start freaking out. You'll do fine," Becky said as she handed the book back over. Liz sighed and took it back. Then flipped it back to the chapter review her and Allie were studying.

"Easy for you to say, you're done for the year." Becky had finished her last test yesterday. Allie lifted her head from the textbook.

"Liz, concentrate. It's not too difficult. It's what Professor Limerick was talking about right before we..." Becky stared attentively at Allie waiting for her to finish the sentence. Liz's eyes were bugging out at what her friend almost informed Becky. Allie nervously continued. "We learned it right before Spring break. Remember?" Liz quickly shook her head yes. Becky looked curiously at her roommates and then left the room, but shortly came back in.

"Hey Allie. When are we gonna finalize that thing we all talked about last night?" Allie looked at Becky with a slight glare on her face.

"We'll finish up after my finals are over." Becky smiled at Liz and nodded her head.

"K." Liz's eyebrows arched high on her forehead and she looked at Allie inquisitively.

"What was that all about?" Allie shrugged her shoulders.

"Nothing much...Becky's just gonna help me with something that's all. Now let's get back to studying, we have to have this test taken by 3:00 this afternoon." Liz agreed and they began quizzing each other again.

Later that evening all of the girls were sitting at their kitchen table discussing how much they couldn't wait until the semester was over. Becky was finished with all of her finals and getting ready to start a summer job while they were on break. Brooke had two more tests that she would take tomorrow morning. Liz had a Shakespeare final that she would take the next afternoon, and Allie had a science final that she would take before breakfast.

"I can't wait until summer break. I'm starting to get burned out," Brooke said as she stretched out in her chair. They all nodded in agreement, Allie and Liz with less enthusiasm than the other two.

Becky blew raspberries at the engaged girls and Brooke threw Cheetos off of her plate at them and then said, "You two better not act like party poopers all summer long." Becky chipped in.

"Yeah...just because your men folk are gone doesn't mean we're not gonna have a great break." Liz smiled at her friends.

"Don't worry you two. I promise I'll be bearable. Besides Lando should be done shooting soon, so we'll start officially planning the wedding. I won't be moping around. But as for Allie," Liz said with a grin looking at Allie, "we can't be so sure." The three girls looked at Allie to hear her retort and laughed when they realized she had been in her own little world not paying attention to anything they were saying. When the laughter of her roommates penetrated Allie's thoughts she snapped out of her reverie.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," they said together causing them to laugh harder. Suddenly the phone rang and both Allie and Liz sprinted towards it. Fighting for the receiver the girls struggled for who would answer. In the end Liz was the one who put the phone up to her ear and said hello, a smile on her lips. Just as quickly as it appeared on her face it was gone.

"Yeah hold on." She said as she handed the phone to Allie. Allie laughed and stuck her tongue out at Liz. "Whatever...I'll be in my room if anybody needs me."

"Hello?" Allie asked, although she had a pretty good idea who it would be. A smile crossed her face as she realized she was right.

"Hey darlin', how's it going?" Johnny asked. Both of them had pretended that they didn't have the disagreement the morning Johnny went away.

"I still have a Biology final that I have to take tomorrow, so I'm stressing out about that, but other than that, I'm doing pretty good," she said as she carried the phone into the living room and flopped down onto the couch.

"I'm sure that you'll do just fine," Johnny assured her. "So," his tone turned slightly cocky, "how much do you miss me?" Allie grinned impishly.

"Well, I can't say. I really haven't had a lot of free time to miss you all that much what with school and all." Johnny made a sound of protest, and Allie laughed. "I'm just kidding. You know that I miss you tons. How's shooting going?"

"Really well. In fact, right now we're ahead of schedule by a few days. They're talking about giving us a few days off so that we can have a long weekend coming up sometime soon." Allie gasped.

"That's great!" she said. "What would you do with a few extra days off?" she asked. Johnny chuckled.

"Come and visit me bonnie lass, of course," he told her. "Although, it's still just talk at the moment. It might not happen," he told her. Allie sighed.

"Yeah, I know. It would be awesome if it did, though," she said. They continued to talk for the next hour or so, before Allie looked at the clock and sighed. "I hate to say this, but I've got to go," she said regretfully. "It's getting late, and I want to be at least partially awake when I take my test tomorrow. Plus, I think Liz is waiting for a call from Lando, and I don't want her to miss that." She heard Johnny sigh as well.

"Alright. Good luck on your test. I'll call you again tomorrow, okay?" Allie smiled.

"Okay. Have a good night. I love you," she said.

"Love you too," Johnny said before hanging up. Allie hung up the phone, only to have it ring almost immediately.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Finally! It's been busy for over an hour!" Orlando exclaimed. Allie laughed.

"Yeah, that would be my fault. Johnny called. I'll go get Liz." Walking down the hall with the phone still in her hand, Allie opened the door to Liz's room. "Hey Liz," she called. "It's Elf Boy." Liz glared at her and snatched the phone away.

"Don't call him that! " she said to Allie and then into the phone, "Hey baby." Liz lit up at the sound of her fiancée's voice.

"Hello Princess. I'm sorry I don't have much time to talk, but I'm really tired. I've been shooting pretty hard lately to make up for lost time." Liz's smile faltered a little when she realized he meant the time he had spent with her had put him behind schedule. Orlando continued, "Anyways, I just wanted to tell you good night and good luck with your final tomorrow."

"You waited all that time for the phone line to be cleared up, when unquestionably you sound like you are ready to pass out, just to tell me that?" Liz said knowing he sounded exhausted. There was a slight pause on the phone.

"Well that, and I love you!" Liz beamed knowing that somehow she had the best man in the entire world.

"I love you too, Lando. Now get some sleep before you fall over. It's gotta be almost 3:00 AM there." She heard him let out a long breath.

"I'm gonna try. I'll call you tomorrow. Hopefully I can beat Johnny this time. I miss you and good night again. I love you. Bye."

"If it gets too late don't worry about calling me tomorrow. Don't stay up all night! I don't want you to get sick from lack of sleep. Plus, the time difference makes it hard on you. After tomorrow you can call earlier and I won't be in class. Love you too, night." Liz heard a click signaling that he had hung up the phone. She sighed dreamily and fell back onto the bed.

The next day Liz walked into the apartment a smile on her face. Immediately, her three roommates stopped talking, but Liz was too happy to notice the abrupt silence or her friends huddled in the middle of the room as she entered.

"I'm finally done!" Liz exclaimed giddily as she fell back on to the couch. Becky walked over and sat down next to her.

"That's great! How did your last test go?"

Liz's smile grew wider as she jumped up and threw her arms up over her head and yelled out, "95!" And she started dancing around the living room. Becky, Allie and Brooke laughed at their friend.

"You're silly, Liz," Brooke simply said. Liz stopped twirling around to look at Brooke. She smiled a wide cheeky grin and then skipped up to Brooke, grabbed her hands and started doing the tango up and down the living room.

"That's why you agreed to room with me." Brooke laughed as the dance turned into an old-fashioned jig. Soon Becky and Allie joined in and the four girls were all dancing around the room. They kept waltzing and laughing until they heard a knock on the door. Still giggling Brooke opened the door and saw a young man standing on the step. He was in a red polo and black slacks. He had a nametag on that said 'Brent.'

"Can I help you?" Brooke asked the tall lanky male. The man just held out a neatly wrapped box.

"We were told to deliver this at 3:00 on the dot." Brooke looked a little confused. "Is this the residence of Elizabeth Carter?" Brooke just nodded her head. Brent looked a little more at ease. "Good. Well then can you please make sure she gets this." After saying this he shoved the package into her hands, then turned around and left. Puzzled, Brooke closed the door and looked at her waiting roommates.

"Who was that?" Allie asked. "He was kinda cute."

"Some guy who dropped off a package for Liz." Brooke walked over and gave the box to Liz.

Liz held it up examining what was just given to her. "For me?"

"Yeah...he said that he was told to deliver it at 3:00 on the dot." The girls huddled over the box. It was wrapped in white paper with a red bow on it. There was no tag or card. Liz shook it slightly and they heard nothing.

"Were you expecting anything Liz?" Allie wanted to know. Liz shook her head no. Becky eyed the thing suspiciously.

"Maybe it's a bomb or something." Liz, Allie, and Brooke looked up at Becky's paranoid face and rolled their eyes, trying not to laugh at the face Becky was giving the small box.

"Becky shut-up. You might scare Liz. It's probably just something incredibly sappy from Lando." Allie said then turned to Liz, "Open it up before we all die of curiosity."

"Okay." Liz said as she took the bow off and began removing the paper. She opened the box and pulled out a glob of tissue paper. She unwrapped it and found a small pink cell phone. Liz burst into a huge grin and sighed. It almost instantly rang when she turned it on. "I love him so much." She said to no one in particular. The other girls made mock gagging noises and went into the kitchen. Liz smiled again and flipped the phone up as it rang for a third time.

"Hello?" Liz answered.

"Do you like it?" Orlando asked from the other end. Liz grinned and eagerly nodded, even though he couldn't see her. Realizing this she made her approval verbal.

"Yeah," she said. "What's the special occasion? It's not my birthday."

"Well, Princess," Orlando said with a smile, "I didn't want to have to share your phone with your roommates anymore."

"Is that all?"

"And I didn't want to have to compete with Johnny for phone time. So I got a hold of a company who would deliver a phone right to your door. For the right price of course." he said with a small laugh. "Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that you got this during my break so I could call you." Liz was about to speak when she heard someone shouting his name in the background. Next, she waited for what was undoubtedly coming. She listened as Orlando spoke to someone in the studio, then with a sigh his comments where directed back to her, "I've got to go back to filming now, Princess. I'm really sorry, but I'll call you later, okay?" Knowing that he couldn't see her, Liz frowned, the life of an actor, she thought to herself.

"Okay. I love you," she told him trying to sound happy.

"Love you too," Orlando replied quickly, then hung up.

Two weeks had gone by since the cell phone incident and the end of their semester. The girls created many ways to make use of their new found freedom from classes. Plus, they knew that they only had a few months all together as roomies. Liz was going to be leaving them soon for a new roommate. They went out for a walk to the local park enjoying what was left of the day's sunshine. Spring was finally in full bloom and they wanted to take advantage of the warmer weather. The small college town they lived in was slightly behind the rest of the world when it came to the climate. So it was still cool for late April, but the grass was a lovely shade of green and the tulips were finally starting to poke out of the ground. Everywhere you looked you saw signs of mother nature's new beginning. Especially at Porter Park, where the girls were swinging. It was great for all of them not having the pressure of school and just being able to treasure the simple things that you forget as an adult.

After an hour, the sun started to set and the temperature began to drop, so they decided that they had better head back to their apartment. They jumped off of the swings like they were kids again and then headed back in the direction of their home, casually chatting.

"So, Liz, what are your plans for this weekend?" Brooke asked, nudging her in the side.

"Nothing," she said dismally looking at the side walk. Becky smiled inwardly,

"Nothing?" Liz sighed looking this time to the passing cars.

"Nothing. Unless you consider waiting around all day for your boyfriend to call you, something?" Liz said as she absently felt for the cell phone that was now always in her pocket. They other girls laughed as they approached the intersection before their apartment. Liz stopped at the cross-walk and hit the button, the others following close behind her. While waiting for their turn to go across the street, Allie continued the conversation,

"Aw, cheer up, Liz!" she said, slinging an arm around her friend's shoulders. "You never know what might happen."

At that moment, an unmarked windowless black van pulled up to the stop-light. Allie looked down at her watch and grinned. Liz thought nothing of it, and began to talk to Becky, who was standing next to her about her new waitressing job. When Liz saw that the opposite direction of traffic's light had turned yellow she inched closer to the street ready to cross. Without warning, the van's side door quickly slid open and a skinny man dressed entirely in black with a matching ski mask jumped out, threw Liz over his shoulder, and then rapidly returned to the back of the van slamming the door behind him. The light turned green and they sped away. Allie, Brooke, and Becky stood in silence and then erupted with fits of laughter.

"C'mon. Let's go home. We've got lots of work to do." Brooke instructed and the girls barely made it across the street in time before the blinking hand stopped.