Celebrity Status

Chapter Four

(Ross's P.O.V.)

For the next couple of days after our run-in at the coffee house, I pretty much avoid human interactions of all kind. I spend a lot of my time, if not all of it, sitting up in my room strumming random mindless chords on my guitar. It's not the most inventive way to use my time, but it's what seems to get my mind off of... her the most.

I should have expected this from Laura. She'd always been a little dramatic and way too emotional when we were kids.

I know that this is mostly my fault because of my attitude before I left, but I gave her five years to get over it and move and yet, I come back and she's still upset over the whole ordeal.

She's the one that's choosing to throw away a fifteen year (give or take some years where all she wanted to do was throw me off a cliff) friendship because of five minutes of me being an asshole.

I was always an asshole and she forgave me anyway!

I sigh, running a hand through my hair and placing my guitar down on the floor beside my bed.

This was all my fault and I know it! None of its her's, no matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise.

It's my fault that the greatest person I've ever known (and really the only friend of ever had that I wasn't related to) no longer wants me in her life anymore.

I get up off my bed, deciding I've had enough of feeling sorry for myself for one day. My stomach aches with a dull pain and it keeps making the same dying whale noises over and over I again.

I glance at the clock. Five-thirty.

It's been a good measure of hours since I last had anything to eat. And even then, all I'd eaten was an apple.

I knew I was hungry, after all my stomach has been sending me that message for the past few hours now, but I wasn't in the mood to eat.

"Hey look," Rocky says when he sees me coming down the stairs, "Rapunzel decided to join us. Did it get kind of lonely up there in that tower of yours?"

"Really Rocky?" I glare at him. Normally I'd just ignore whatever smart-ass comment came out of his mouth, but today I was feeling more capable than usual. "Hair jokes? Coming from you?"

He rolls his eyes and slumps back down on the couch and I just walk away, into the kitchen.

I see my mom in there, scrubbing away at the dishes. She's smiling and looking out the window, but the smile doesn't quite reach her eyes. It makes me sad that she's not that cheerful person I remember her to be anymore.

'All in good time,' I think, a bittersweet smile plastered upon my face. At least for my mother's sake.

"Hey mom," I say and hug her from behind.

She places her hand on mine, not even minding that she's getting dish water on her shoulder, and gives it a squeeze. "Hi sweetie."

She doesn't look at me, but instead looks thoughtfully down at the plate in her hands, wiping the dish towel over it slowly.

"Mom, did you take your pill this morning?" I ask tenderly, but there's a stern undertone to it.

She looks up sadly, shaking her head. "I was hoping I could get through the day without them."

I sigh, placing my hands on my mother's shoulders and looking her in the eyes. She nods her head, silently telling me to go get them.

I obey, jogging to the bathroom and grabbing the bottle of anti-depressants from the medicine cabinet. I bring them back to my mom and she graciously accepts it, smiling briefly.

My mom exhales loudly, taking two pills and swallowing them dry.

The sight breaks my heart. If its even possible I can be broken anymore. She goes back to doing the dishes, this time not even fake smiling.

I hug her one last time, tightly gripping onto her.

"We'll all be okay again someday. Some day soon Ross," she whispers in my ear.

I back out of the hug and exit the room, leaving my mother to her own affairs.

I leave without even getting anything to eat. By now, my hunger is the furthest thing from my mind.

…

I find them in his coat pocket.

I hadn't been looking for them because believe me, they aren't the kind of things a kid wants to find in their dad's coat pocket.

He had asked me to get his car keys out of his jacket, and instead of keys I found papers.

Divorce papers.

"Ross," my dad says gently when he sees what I've found.

"You're really going through with this?" I say quietly. My voice is surprisingly calm for how pissed off I am right now.

"No, it's not... Your mom and I haven't finalized anything... They're just... a second option.." He answers, avoiding my gaze.

"So it wasn't just some sick joke, what you said in L.A., about you and mom possibly splitting up. You weren't just being a drunk bastard, you were serious?" I shake with anger.

"Ross!" He yells my name, placing a hand on my arm. "I don't think you understand."

"No, I don't think you understand!" I jerk away from his grip. "How can you leave us?! Our family's falling apart and all you wanna do is run away from your problems?!" I shout, choking out words as my throat lumps up and tears well up in my eyes.

"How can you leave mom?! In the condition she's in?! The woman you love is out there struggling to do the dishes without just bursting into tears and you don't even care! Your first instinct isn't to go out there and hug her, comfort her, tell her that everything's gonna be alright, but rather to get a divorce! Do you really think she needs that right now!"

My cheeks are tear-stained, eyes are red-rimmed, and my nose if running but I don't care. I couldn't hold back any longer.

My father looks taken aback. I am slightly surprised myself seeing as how I've never yelled at him before. I've honestly never yelled at anyone before.

My chest rises and falls rapidly in time with my ragged breathing.

"Ross, listen," he looks pained by my words, but I don't feel bad about saying the things I did, "I love you very much. I love you and your siblings very much. And I love your mother to death," he pauses, ripping the paper out of my hands and shoving them down into the pocket of his jeans, "but sometimes that's not enough.

"I'm not giving up on anyone, and I'm not running away from my problems! So don't you dare talk to my like I am! The thing is, is that, this family has some healing to do. Healing that's gonna take time. We can only try to work through our problems and pray for the best, but if all else fails..."

I shake my head. I turn away from my father and leave him, walking back up to my own room. Away from my dad and his divorce papers. Away from my mom and her medication. Away from my siblings who are screaming at each other because of something probably stupid and not worth the argument.

I walk back up to my room.

I look outside my window, which overlooks our side yard and the Marano's backyard.

Laura's out there with Velvet, throwing a ball for him to fetch, but he looks less than enthusiastic about retrieving it.

The sight brings a smile to my face. A real one.

That's when I realize that I can't give up. I can't be like my father. I have to fix my mistakes. Every single one of them.

And the first mistake I plan on fixing is one that has to do with a certain petite brunette.

No matter how much she objects, we will be friends again. I know that much. Someday she'll be a part of my life again.

'Someday,' I tell myself, 'things will be better than they are now.'

A/N

Um, a little but darker than I was hoping for, but oh well. That's the jist of Ross's home life. *And you thought Laura's was bad* There will be more of an insight in coming up chapters as to what happened in LA that made the Lynch's like this.

This chapter isn't my best work. Writing Ross was more of a challenge than I thought it was gonna be. And honestly it broke my heart a little to write this. It took all my will power not to just write a scene where Laura bursts through the door and hugs the crap out of him will he sobs because the mental image popped into my head and I could NOT control my feels!

All of my story's are getting really depressing and I don't really know what's up with that but yeah.

Flashback chapter coming up next and after that... a chapter you may or may not enjoy. *hint hint: you will enjoy it* so yes, look forward to that.

Oh, and heres something for you to think about, where's Vannessa? ;)

Thanks to all of you who review. Please keep it up guys, I want to know that you actually like this story and want to read more of it and that I'm not just wasting my time over here. So please review. It doesn't have to be a long review just a small one saying that you liked the chapter and you want me to update soon is fine.

Kthanxbai!

Morgan :)