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Chapter 3

The girlfriend Act

A few minutes later and Amu was still standing there in shock, her mouth was wide open and her eyes were moving back and forth between Ryan and the Flowers. Flowers to Ryan, flowers, Ryan, flowers, Ryan.

Meanwhile, behind her there was the sound of swishing curtains, "Yo, Rosie, everything alright? I heard you scream…" Ikuto declared putting a hand on her shoulder.

She turned slowly still in a daze, it was weird hearing him call her by that name, but at the same time she knew it was necessary to blend in. Her focus shifted back to the crisis at hand. Her eyes went back to their roving, Ryan, flowers, Ryan,

"Rose!" Ikuto said louder this time as he shook her softly. She snapped out of it. "Oh Hey Ik-J-Jake. Umm…y,yeah, everything's great. I just screamed cause…" she paused a moment and concentrated hard, Come on Amu, think Cool and Spicy, Cool and Spicy! "I just screamed cause I was SO happy that he remembered our anniversary!" she declared confidently as she walked towards Ryan and embraced him tightly, she held the pose for a moment then pulled back with a huge grin on her face, "You really are the greatest boyfriend of all time!" She groaned internally This is NOT my character at ALL!

"Boyfriend…?" Ikuto murmured quietly under his breath.

"You say something?" Ryan asked slinging his arm around Amu, she focused on Ikuto to keep from pursuing her urge shrug his arm off her shoulder.

Ikuto shook his head, "No, just thinking out loud that's all, anyhow, I've got to get back to rehearsal."

"Right, C ya later Jake." Amu declared waving merrily. Once again she groaned on the inside. I wish he'd stay, now I have to spend the rest of the hour back stage with this guy. She cast a sideways glance at Ryan who still had his arm around her. Yep, it was going to be a long hour alright.

For Amu the minutes slowly ticked by and seemed to take an eternity, Ryan did eventually take his arm off of Amu, however that didn't stop him from giving her these weird looks that she felt were trouble, nor did it put an end to the general awkwardness of the situation. For Ikuto on the other hand the hour passed rather quickly he threw himself even more intensely into the acting than before, allowing himself to be fully absorbed into the character from the play known as Westely. Before he had been imitating Westely, but now, he was becoming Westely.

At last the hour came to an end and Amu breathed easier knowing that in a few short minutes she would be free of Ryan and able to spend some time talking to Ikuto. The Actors were finished with rehearsing and the curtain parted ways as Ikuto poked his head through, he saw Amu sitting there on the prop table and walked over. Amu grinned, genuinely, and smiled as she jumped down, "Hey!" she called.

"hey," he waved apathetically.

She opened her mouth to ask him about lunch when suddenly she was stopped by Ryan.

"Hey hun, come with me to the loft I have something for you," he told her casually sliding his hand into hers.

She bit her lip and forced her downright objection to the idea away and mustered forth another smile, "Sounds great!" with that she let Ryan lead the way as he tugged her down the hallway, except he didn't go in the direction of the normal exit they always used, this time they went the opposite way to a smaller door that was off to the side that Amu had secretly wondered about since arriving. Ryan pushed the door open and walked through, Amu still in tow. She paused a moment and threw a look over her shoulder and saw Ikuto standing there, alone, watching them. She mouthed the words I'm sorry and had an apologetic look in her eyes before turning her focus back to Ryan. Once they were through the door she saw a flight of stairs leading upward. They began to ascend together and Amu wondered what Ikuto would do by himself, it's not like he had anyone else he could hang out with during break, she felt bad but knew there was nothing she could do about it now. For the moment she was roped into being this guys girlfriend. She gagged, not that she didn't like him, or that he wasn't attractive, he was actually very attractive and that Irish accent, she loved it, she melted every time he opened his mouth. What? It's not her fault she has a weak point for guys with accents; but even so the concept of having to be all lovey-dovey around this guy wasn't exactly the most appealing thing ever, in fact the concept of being lovey-dovey around anyone really didn't sound fun, it just wasn't her thing. But then again…she wouldn't mind being all lovey-dovey with Tadase-kun. She blushed at the thought, and quickly shoved aside the thoughts knowing they would only serve to distract and refocused on the current situation. They had reached the top of the stairs and Amu's eyes widened as she looked around. It was wonderful, they were above the stage and could see almost the whole theatre below, she studied the wall that wrapped the theatre; there was a beautiful mural of the night sky, it was so peaceful feeling. Ryan watched her reaction and chuckled, "You act as if you've never seen it before."

That's because I haven't. she said to herself, aloud she said, "You know, it's just so great, that sometimes I forget and have to take the time to stop and remember that's all."

"Riiiiiiight…." He shook his head. "anyway, now for the surprise," he turned around and reached behind the railing and pulled out a picnic basket, "If we could I woulda made it so we had a picnic outside, but seeing as how that's not allowed, I figured we could have it up here. I talked to all the other actors, they know we're up here so they won't come and disturb us."

She forced herself to look adoringly into his eyes, "Oh Ryan that's so sweet of you."

He grinned, "It was nothing baby," he told her leaning forward and gently tucking a stray strand of hair behind ear, "I'd gladly do it again and so much more so long as I got to see your pretty face at the end of it."

Amu didn't know what to say so she simply smiled.

"Well, what are you waiting for, lets eat." He told her grabbing the basket and pulling it close to them. He reached inside and brought out a large black and red checkered blanket and carefully placed two plates with sandwiches on them. With that they began to eat their lunch and Amu forced herself to act happy as Ryan continued to make comments on how much he loved her and kept giving her goo goo eyes; ironically enough she found that in her desperate attempt to drown Ryan out she found herself thinking once more of Ikuto. If she thought about it he probably had decided to go all emo and eat alone in their room, that was another matter, why was it that the two of them were allowed to share a room together? As far as she knew none of the other actors of opposite genders were able to share a room together it was kind of weird, but then again the whole situation was weird. Her attention shifted back to Ikuto solely. She still hadn't made any progress on figuring out what it was that could make him happy, she frowned internally, she wasn't sure how long they would be here or how long she had to figure it out. With her focus on that the time seemed to go by a lot quicker. She was glad when the half hour break had ended and they were headed backstage once more. This time she opted to stand beside the table instead of sit on it and let Ryan sit on it by himself. She watched Ikuto act once more and was taken in by the sight, he seemed to be acting with more passion than normal, watching him, it was like he was begging someone to watch, to be drawn into the story, to join him on the journey, once she started watching she couldn't take her eyes off of the scene. It was like she was being pulled into another world, Ikuto's world. She was suddenly and roughly snatched from that world however by an Irish accent,

"Rosie, make sure you don't go anywhere after rehearsal is over today, k?"

"wha? Oh…uh, sure okay….why?"

He flashed her a winning smile, "Cause it's our anniversary and I still have another surprise for you."

"Really? That's great," she told him, Just…great. She muttered to herself. She hadn't had a chance to talk with Ikuto the entire day and now it looked like she wasn't even going to be able to do so after she was done stagehanding. This whole pretending to be Ryan's girlfriend thing was exhausting and she had no idea how long she would be able to keep it up.

The rest of the day passed as a complete blur for her, between watching Ikuto act, handing props to crazy sleep deprived actors, and keeping up with her girlfriend duties she didn't have any more time to think about the situation she was in. She hardly had time to breathe let alone think about Ikuto and his special something. Suddenly the day was over and Amu was exhausted she was ready for a break. She started heading for the her and Ikuto's room when suddenly she was stopped as Ryan grabbed hold of her hand, "Don't forget I've got a surprise for you honey."

"Oh that's right, silly me…." She held back a groan, she just wanted to be done.

"Why don't we head back up to the loft…" he told her.

"Uh…okay." She began wondering what it was he had planned.

Once more they headed through the door and up the stairs. Amu gasped as they reached the loft; the whole place was alight with scented white candles; the whole place smelled of vanilla.

Ryan turned to her, "Do you like it?"

"I…love it," she answered sincerely.

"I'm glad, I thought it would be the perfect atmosphere."

"For what?" she asked.

"For a dance." He told her drawing him close to her.

For the first time Amu noticed the gentle sound of violin and piano floating through the room, her eyes widened as Ryan started waltzing, taking her with him. He took her right hand in his and slid his other hand around her waist. Amu shuddered involuntarily as fear gripped her. She couldn't explain it but she just didn't like the situation as a whole, she had no idea where this night would end, but at the same time it was wonderful. The whole thing was like a dream, she felt like she was floating.

From above, amongst the rafters was a certain blue haired boy, he watched the pair intently with a serious scowl on his face.

Ryan spun Amu tenderly and pulled her back in spinning her in even closer to him. Suddenly he paused and stared deeply into her eyes, Amu suddenly got a bad feeling, Ryan started leaning closer and closer to her, she started to panic, he, he was going to kiss her! Her heart pounded inside her chest and she was paralyzed with fear, she didn't know what to do. She was terrified she didn't know how to react, she had been in this situation countless times with Ikuto but somehow this was different. Was it because she could actually trust Ikuto not to do anything she wasn't ready for? No of course not, he's the biggest pervert I know! She cried internally. Then why was this feeling so different, why was she afraid of Ryan kissing her and not Ikuto? Why was her mind screaming for Ikuto to magically appear and stop Ryan? She stared at Ryan's quickly approaching lips and pulled her head back slightly, she felt his grip on her waist tighten, he wasn't letting her get out of this. She bit her lip, determined not to let this stranger gain access to her, he didn't let that stop him however as she suddenly pressed his lips to hers. Amu's eyes widened and she started to tremble her whole body shaking, this wasn't right, she didn't want this, but she didn't know how to stop it.