Chapter Nine

Dazed and Confused

"I still don't see why you guys decided to come out here so early." Dak said with a short sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest. He turned his head to the side and looked over at Rhuben, who gave him a hard stare, and smiled a little. "Not that I'm not happy that you guys are here," he added quickly. "Because I really am, I just think that you're overreacting a little bit." He looked to his other side and glanced at WayneWayne, who looked like he wasn't sure whether or not to agree.

"Overreacting?" Lizzie asked with a slight snarl. "Overreacting?" She planted her hands on her hips as she looked at the two boys, slowly shaking her head. "Do the words Stalker Sarah mean anything to you?"

"Who?" WayneWayne blinked in confusion.

"Long story," Sydney said quickly. "Anyway, you think that we're overreacting about Melissa, that's ok," he shrugged as he started to pace the room. "That's perfectly fine actually. But when you see all of this proof stacked against her, you'll start to notice that there's something wrong with this chick!" He snapped, now crossing his arms over his chest. He waved a hand at his siblings and Lizzie. "Now, we've talked this over and we all think that there is more to this girl than meets the eye. We think she's dangerous."

"You think a 5'1", 90 pound girl is dangerous?" Dak snorted.

"You can't possibly tell me that you don't think there's something odd about her?" Riley said. "I told you ever since you got the first letter that you have to look out for fans." She paused and slowly brought a hand up to her chin. "You don't think…"she paused as she turned to Rhuben, who looked back at her.

Dak groaned as he tilted his head back, noticing that they were having another silent conversation. "I hate it when they do that." He murmured.

"Only because you don't know if they're talking about you," WayneWayne replied.

He turned back to his friends in front of him and studied each of them. He was starting to get as nervous as they were when he was still on set in Vancouver; Lissa seemed to appear everywhere that he was. And when she appeared at his hotel room one day, saying that he had forgotten his script, he quickly locked the door and told his family not to open it if they ever looked through the peephole and saw her. Jaycee and Natalie, of course, jumped at the chance to tease him about it, saying that he was a player and that he would have to be careful of juggling more than one girl at the same time. But they could sense his seriousness and greed to it. His father even went as far as to keep her busy with her internship jobs so WayneWayne could finish his scenes and get on a flight to go to Denver. His worry went away, thinking that he was overreacting, but that was until he found out that the Jacksons were going to Denver early as well.

His anxiety spiked even more when he had seen the looks on their faces when they had met up. Now they were all in Dak's dressing room after one of his rehearsals, trying to talk to them about it. But Dak seemed to be the only one that wasn't paying any attention to the anxiety that all of their friends were feeling. He didn't want to give into it, knowing that there was a chance that they could be wrong. But he hadn't ever seen them wrong before so…

"What is it?" Dak urged.

"Well, it's like she said before," Rhuben shrugged. "Rugby doesn't bark at something unless there's something there." She trailed off.

"So what you're telling me is that you think that this chick could have possibly been hiding in the bushes at my house?" Dak asked.

"It's possible!" Sydney insisted, slapping the papers down onto the coffee table in the center of the room.

Noah nodded as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together in front of her. "We found her tumblr and her ScuttButt page. Both of them are dedicated to you two." He looked back and forth between Dak and WayneWayne. "Not that that's anything to worry about," he added with a hint of sarcasm.

"What you have to worry about is our two pieces of evidence," Patrick jumped in, moving to the floor as he rested his knees on the ground. He pointed to the left one. "Her flight itineraries to Denver and Vancouver. Just by watching your guys' ScuttleButters' or MyFaces she could easily find out where you guys were going to go. And after that, it couldn't be that hard to figure out where you guys were going to be staying. Which is how she could have found you here and WayneWayne in Vancouver."

"Which is fucking psychotic if you ask me." Lizzie muttered.

"Liz." Dak admonished, causing his little sister to fall silent.

"And then there're the restraining orders that she got from Ryan, Jacoby, and Davin." Rhuben said slowly. "All of them are, fairly attractive in their own way; they're young, and their successful. It's not hard for her to immediately, for lack of a better term, glomp on one and wants to get as much attention from them as possible.

Dak and WayneWayne nodded. They knew what that was like. Being friends with Big Time Rush and the DarkElements, they had seen just how psyched people got over a little bit of acknowledgement. A reply or a re-Buttle on ScuttleButter from one of them could send fans into hysterics. Just by looking at them during a song could create them to go into tears. Even a hug during a meet and greet had caused fans to pass out, so they now had at least two ambulances on call when a new one was scheduled. They've seen it before.

"She also says that she's constantly getting flack from her parents for being so into these people," Rhuben continued. "And she's apparently had a restraining order been put against her by the three of them."

"I've seen a fan get a restraining order from ScuttButting someone too much," Dak denied, looking at his fingernails. "Their management thought that they could potentially be threatening, and in the end, he put up a restraining order, so that could have happened there."

"He has a point." Riley admitted after a second.

"Ok," Patrick licked his lips, slightly stumped. "Then how do you explain her seeing you here and then her seeing WayneWayne in Vancouver?"

"Easy," Dak shrugged. "Mel's family could possibly be rich and-"

"Wait," WayneWayne held up a hand, effectively cutting Dak off. "Did you say that her name was Mel?" Dak nodded and WayneWayne frowned. That doesn't make any sense. He thought to himself, slowly starting to realize what sort of trouble they could be in. Unless she had a reason to hide her true identity, and she was able to find my hotel room when I was back in Vancouver. He shook his head again. "The girl I met, she said her name was Lissa."

That stumped everyone in the room. How would she be able to get to two places at once? The idea that Dak was surely getting at, that her family was rich enough to let her use a private jet was plausible. There were many people out there that were spoiled rotten by their parents and could get away with just about anything. And, they didn't know how far apart the visits had been since there was the time difference and everything that could easily screw everything up.

But then why would she spell her name weirdly? Sydney raised his hand to his chin as he thought hard, squeezing his eyes shut. They then flew open and he let out a quiet gasp. That's it!

"And if you're so worried," Dak broke in. "Why haven't you told Ronan or anyone that this is going on? 'Cause if I were even remotely worried, then I would have told my agent and my manager by now."

"Oh, for fucks sake, Dak, would you just listen?" Riley snapped, clearly losing her temper.

It was obvious as to why they didn't tell Ronan, because of the media. If they told him, he would immediately call the police, and having Dak's, WayneWayne's, and the Jacksons' names plastered all over what was going on, it would just cause problems for everyone. As well as more rumors than they could possibly stand. After Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had told their sisters what they thought was going on, the first thing they agreed on was that as long as they could handle it, they weren't going to tell anyone. The less anyone knew the better.

It might have seemed a bit selfish, but it was for the best.

"I don't have to listen to something if I don't think that it's true." Dak replied firmly.

Riley's eyebrows raised and she looked at him for a moment before shrugging. She turned on her heel and left the dressing room. Patrick gathered the sheets of paper that were on the coffee table and folded them back up, shoving them into one of the wide pockets on his shorts before following her. Lizzie, Noah, and Sydney quickly left after him and WayneWayne hesitated before following them. Rhuben closed the door behind them and waited for Dak to say something, watching him silently as he moved about the room, as if he was stalling for time.

He ran a hand over his mouth and pointed to the door behind. "I have to go meet with the director to-"

"So why won't you listen to anyone when they say that this chick is dangerous?" Rhuben confronted Dak, moving in front of him so he couldn't leave the room. Dak looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he turned away, staying silent. "You do know that she is, don't you?"

"Even though she hasn't actually physically hurt anyone?" Dak replied, keeping his back to her.

Rhuben let out an annoyed sigh. "But don't you think that it's possible for her to get there?" She shook her head. "Looks can be deceiving, you know."

"Trust me, I know that," Dak said cynically. "I'm friends with Big Time Rush; I think I know that proverb by now."

"Then what's the problem?" Rhuben walked over to Dak and grabbed onto his arm, turning him around. "Listen," she grabbed onto the sides of his face, forcing him to look directly at her. "It's just me that you're talking to, and I know that you wouldn't want to worry Lizzie about this. But even though I'm your girlfriend…" she paused. "I guess," she quickly shook her head. "I'm your friend first, and you can talk to me."

Dak swallowed. "I know." He replied with a nod.

"So why is it that you're acting like there's no threat when you know there is?" Rhuben asked.

"Because I don't want to have to admit that, just like everyone else," Dak clenched his hands into fists. "I'm scared."

"What are we going to do now?" Lizzie asked as she hurried to keep up with Riley, who was walking down the street with an open stride, obviously letting out her anger that way instead of yelling at people. "We have to convince him somehow."

"And we might have to do that without him," Riley remarked as she slowed to a stop, looking up at the sky. "We might just have to catch her ourselves." She looked over her shoulder and her hardened expression softened as she looked at her brothers. "I wish you guys weren't caught up in this."

"But there's no way that you're getting us out of it now," Patrick said stubbornly. "Not after everything that we've found out."

"I was afraid that you were going to say that," Riley said with a chuckle. She reached out and gently rubbed the back of Lizzie's head, pushing her forehead. "Walk her back to the hotel please? I want to talk to WayneWayne about something."

Noah nodded and looked up at the moon before waiting for Lizzie to walk over to him and his brothers before they walked off down the sidewalk. WayneWayne waited for them to turn the corner before turning to Riley. He wrung his hands together nervously as he walked over to her, stopping when he was standing in front of her and had to look down to look directly into her face.

"I…think I know what you wanted to talk about." He said slowly and rushed to finish as Riley opened her mouth to speak. "I'm sorry that everyone knows about you and me, but I swear I didn't say anything. I was really confused when Lissa told me that she found out about it from the magazines that are always talking about us. But I didn't say anything and I know that my family didn't, so I don't know how they found out. I just hope you haven't been bombarded by questions and that your publicist and Ronan aren't mad. I don't blame you if you hate me, but I hope you don't." He finally stopped to take a breath when he noticed that Riley was looking at him funny. "So…say something." He directed.

Riley gave a half smile as she chuckled. "Well for one thing, I could never hate you." She said to reassure him. "I could strongly dislike you, but it's not in my nature to hate people." She rolled her eyes as if to say 'isn't that perfect' and then continued. "But for another thing, WayneWayne," she tilted her head to the side. "I don't know what the hell you're babbling about."

"The…the magazines," WayneWayne replied. "They know about you and me dating…"

Riley squinted her eyes as she righted her head. "I've been looking at the tabloids and magazines ever since I got into the music industry and there's nothing there that has to do with you and me." She shook her head. "No one besides our families, Dak, Lizzie, and our publicists know that we're dating."

"You…" WayneWayne looked dumbstruck. "You're sure?" he asked.

"Yes," Riley nodded, her eyes widening. "But," she then looked suspicious. "If you never told anyone about us and I sure as hell haven't," she added quickly. "How did Lissa know that you were dating me and why would she say that she found out from the magazines if it wasn't true?"

For once, WayneWayne had no answer.

"I don't get why Dak is shutting us out about this," Lizzie said as she wiped tears away from her cheeks. "He talks to me about everything, and I know that he knows that we're right." She shoved her hands into her jeans pockets. "Why won't he listen to me?"

"Probably because he doesn't want to scare you?" Noah shrugged. "I don't know, but if anyone can convince him about what's really going on, then it's Rhu."

"So, for now, we're on our own about this," Patrick rubbed his hands together. "I still don't get how she was able to visit Dak and WayneWayne." He shook his head. "And why would she change her name to do it?"

"Maybe she didn't," Sydney reasoned, coming to a stop. He stopped so suddenly that Patrick walked into him and almost flipped over his significantly shorter brother and fell to the ground. He turned around to look at them. "What if she didn't change her name?" The three of them looked at him oddly. He sighed in exasperation. "Think about it, how would she be able to be in two places at once and why would she change her name? If she wanted them to know it was her, she could keep her name. And even WayneWayne looked confused when Dak said her name was Mel." He continued.

"So?" Noah urged him to continue.

"So," Sydney stressed the word. "Do you think it's possible that-"

Sydney was cut off as a rope with a lasso on the end flew out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around the four of them. He let out a cry as he was pulled off his feet, the lasso wrapping tightly around him and he was suckered against Patrick, Lizzie, and Noah, who also let out cries of surprise. Sydney struggled, trying to move his arms so he could reach his phone, but they were pinned to his dies by Patrick and Lizzie. He kicked his feet back and forth, trying to get them on the ground, but if he did that, then his brothers and his friend would have to bend at odd angles just to stand up or to compensate to him standing on the ground.

They were stuck.

A/N: So I decided that BTR isn't going to appear in this story and the rest of the story will be set in Denver. I don't know why these chapters are now becoming more dialogue driven, but I'm working on it. There's going to be drama galore in the next few chapters until the end, as the story ends in 6 chapters. I know that you guys might want to see more Della and Wiley in the story, but it'll basically only be hints/small scenes of it, as it's not the main point of the story. I hope you guys liked the chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles and Rhubes