“Shit, would you just GROW UP, Justin?” Kate exploded, throwing her papers down on the kitchen table. “Just finish signing these damn papers and then I’ll go and you won’t have to see me for three more days.”

Justin rolled his eyes as he grabbed the pen from her and began to scrawl down his signature. “Good.”

“It is good.” She waited impatiently as he signed his name and then snatched the papers back. “I can’t wait until Brenna gets back. I don’t know how she deals with you everyday.”

He ignored her comment. “I thought you were leaving when I signed the papers,” he said flatly, giving her a pointed look.

Glaring at him, Kate gave him the finger and then stalked out of the kitchen. A minute later he heard the front door slam and then there was silence. He sighed and sat down in a chair.

He hadn’t been in this bad of a mood for a while. He knew he was being unfair to Kate by being this difficult but he just didn’t care.

Brenna had been gone for over a week now and he hadn’t talked to her in six days. Every time he called her house he either got the answering machine or on a rare occasion, her mom. She wasn’t picked up her cell phone either. He didn’t know what was going on. He missed her and he wanted her back in LA. He had nothing to do and he was lonely.

Checking his watch, he sighed. It was only noon and he had the rest of the day as well as the next three days off.

Realizing Kate would probably hang out with him, he stood up to get the phone so he could cal her and apologize for being an ass and also see what she was doing for the rest of the day. He had just picked up the phone when it rang. A little surprised, he checked the caller ID. A smile curved his lips when he recognized the displayed number as the Michaels’ house phone number.

Finally.

“Hello?” he asked with a smile.

“Hi…Justin?”

His eyebrows drew together when the voice wasn’t Brenna’s. “Yeah.”

“It’s Elizabeth Michaels.”

He placed the voice. “Oh, hi. Sorry, I was expecting Brenna.”

“She’s actually not here right now.”

“Oh. Okay,” he said, a little confused.

“I actually wanted to talk to you about her.”

“Is she okay? She won’t return my calls.”

“I know.” Elizabeth was quiet for a minute. “She’s not doing good, Justin.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ever since the funeral she’s just been…depressed. She’s not eating, she always crying and she won’t hardly come out of her room.”

“Were she and her aunt that close?”

“No and that’s what has me worried. Ellie wasn’t even part of our immediate family, really. She was married to Jim, my husband’s, brother but they got divorced when Brenna was five or six. Ellie stayed in Memphis but we never really kept in touch with her. Her two girls are from a previous marriage so there really was no blood relation. Brenna did keep in touch but I’m sure she never emailed her more than once ever few months. She’s probably only seen Ellie once or twice over the past ten years.”

“So why is she so upset?”

“I don’t think it has to do with Ellie at this point. I think it’s brought back memories of her father’s death. She goes to his grave everyday and she stays there longer and longer each time. I don’t believe she ever truly had closure on his death and Ellie dying has brought all that back.”

Justin leaned against he counter and rubbed his hand over his face. “I had no idea.”

“The real reason I called, Justin, is because I want you to come and get her and take her back to LA.”

He raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“Shelby Forest is the worst place for her right now. She has too many bad memories from this place and it’s just pushing her further into depression. I’ve tried to tell her this but she just shuts me out. I don’t know what else to do at this point.”

“Does Brenna know you want me to come?”

“No. She’s not going to want to go, Justin. But if you come here maybe that will change her mind. She’ll be upset if I tell her I called you though.”

“You want me to come right now?”

“As soon as you can. I don’t know how busy your schedule is but-”

“I can come now,” he said quickly. “I’ll get the first flight out.”

“Thank you so much, Justin.”

“No problem. I’ll get a flight and then call you right back, okay?”

“Sure.”

Once he had hung up the phone, he immediately called Kate to let her know he was leaving and then called the airline service to get a ticket to Tennessee.

Brenna listlessly stared up at the ceiling as she laid on her bed. She had been laying there for probably close to an hour but had no desire to get up. If she got up she wasn’t going to have anything to do anyways so what was the point

She shut her eyes briefly, relieving the stinging in them. She was tired, but didn’t want to sleep. It was only four in the afternoon and if she slept now, she’d never sleep that night.

Her mind felt completely numb and it seemed like the more days that passed, the harder it was becoming to think of anything outside of her own world. It was getting to the point where she didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning and once she did, she didn’t know what to do with herself.

Her eyes snapped open to see the ceiling as someone knocked on her bedroom door. She thought about simply ignoring her mother but realized she would most likely not go away until she answered. That had been happening a lot over the past few days.

Slowly standing up, Brenna stood still for a moment as the blood rushed from her head and made her a little lightheaded. Once she had her bearings, she went over to her door and opened.

The first thought that entered her mind when she saw Justin standing on the other side of the door was a question of what he was doing there. She blinked once, thinking maybe she was just seeing things. “Hey,” he said, smiling. He stepped forward and she stood still as he hugged her, still confused. “I’ve missed you.”

She pulled away. “What are you doing here?”

His smile fell a notch as he came further into the room. “Your mom called me.”

She moved her eyes to her mother who was in the doorway and stared at her silently, waiting for things to be explained to her.

“Brenna,” Elizabeth said. “I called Justin yesterday so he would come here and you two could go back to LA together.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “I don’t want to go back to LA right now,” she said quietly.

“I think it’s time to go back, Honey.”

Brenna felt her eyes watering up. “You don’t want me here anymore?”

“It’s not that, Honey. I love having you here. But this is the worst place for you right now.”

“What does that mean-right now?”

“There’s too many memories for you in this town. This isn’t about Ellie anymore. This is about Dad.”

“No it’s not,” she said evenly. “I can’t believe you’re telling me to go back to LA. I can’t believe you got him to come and tell me.” She gestured to Justin, who was standing there silently. A tear fell from her eye and slid down her cheek.

“Brenna,” Elizabeth said softly. “I’ve tried to talk to you over the past few days but you won’t listen to me at all. Don’t you see what you’re doing to yourself?”

“Well I’m so sorry that I’m sad about Ellie dying, Mom! I didn’t realize that would be such a problem!”

Elizabeth sighed. “You and Ellie weren’t that close, Honey. This is about something more. You know that.”

Brenna stared at her for a minute and then looked at Justin. “This is stupid. This is just like some kind of…stupid intervention or something.”

“I didn’t know what else to do, Brenna. If you stay here you’re just going to get more and more depressed. You need to go back to LA with Justin.”

A few more tears fell. “You can’t tell me what to do. This is my house too. I can stay if I want.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes tightly for a moment. “I pay for this house, Brenna,” she said when she opened her eyes. “And I want you to go back to LA.”

“You’re horrible,” Brenna whispered, wiping her eyes. “Get out of my room!”

Elizabeth shook her head silently as she turned and left. Brenna listened to the sound of her mother going upstairs.

“That was a little cold, Bren.”

She looked over at Justin at the sound of his quiet voice and let out the breath that had been hitched in her throat. She sniffed and grabbed a Kleenex to blow her nose. Instead of answering him, she crawled into her bed, pulling the blankets over her. She turned on her side, facing away from him. A minute later the bed sagged a bit as he sat on the edge of it. She felt his hand on her back.

“Come on, Bren,” he said softly. “You know she’s just trying to look out for you. Sometimes a mom just knows what’s best.”

Brenna squeezed her eyes shut, but not before a few tears fell down her cheeks.

“A lot of times my mom’s given me advice and it usually turns out that she’s right,” he continued. “What your mom said kind of sounds harsh but I’m sure she didn’t mean it to be. She’s really worried about you, Bren. She wouldn’t have called me if she wasn’t.”

“I’m staying here,” she finally said, her voice cracking a bit.

“I already bought two tickets back to LA for tonight.”

“I don’t care.”

He was silent for a minute and then he leaned down closer to her and pushed some hair away from her face. “I’ve missed you, Bren. It was really hard to not hear form you all week. I want you to come back to LA too. I miss my girlfriend.”

She swallowed hard and said nothing.

“Besides, Kate’s a really lousy PA,” he said with a laugh but she refused to crack a smile. “She has no patience for me. We just end up yelling at each other all the time. She’s not even nice about waking me up when I sleep in. Yesterday she dumped a glass of cold water on my face cause I was still in bed.” He paused and kissed her temple. “Not even gonna smile?”

She sniffed once more and kept her lips together, not wanting to say anything. She heard Justin sigh and then the bed shifted as he got up. Her eyes opened when there was a couple thumps and the sound of her closet door opening. She half sat up and looked over at him.

“What are you doing?”

He turned from her closet with a couple shirts. “Packing,” he said simply, stuffing the shirts into her suitcase. “Either help or I’ll probably forget something.”

“Justin…” she protested weakly.

“Brenna, we’re going back to LA. I have these tickets and we’re gonna be on the plane. I’m sorry, but I really agree with your mom on this one.”

Her tears began to fall again as she laid back down in bed and stared up at the ceiling. Justin packed her suitcase in silence and after five minutes, he zipped it up.

“Our flight leaves in just over two hours. We should go soon so we’re there on time,” he said. “Do you need to have a quick shower or what?”

She looked over at his set expression and realized there was no convincing him to see her point of view. With resignation, she pushed back the blankets over here and slowly trudged to the bathroom down the hall. She stayed in the shower for ten minutes before Justin knocked on the door to ask her how much longer she would be. She reluctantly got out of the shower and put the pajamas she had previously been wearing back on.

Justin wasn’t in her room when she exited the bathroom but she could hear his voice from the main level, talking to her mother. She shut the door behind her and leaned against it, sighing heavily. She really, really didn’t want to go back to LA. She wasn’t ready for it.

With another sigh, she straightened and went to her closet to find some clothes. She barely had them on when there was a knock at her door.

“Brenna?”

“What.”

Her door cracked open and Justin stuck his head in. “Ready to go?”

She sat down on her bed and pulled her wet hair back into a ponytail. “I guess,” she mumbled.

“Cool.” He grabbed her suitcase and then stood to the side, waiting for her to go ahead of him. She slowly walked out of her room, silently vowing to now say another word to him or her mother.

Justin glanced over at Brenna as he drove down the highway towards his house and he sighed. She was still staring out the window with her hands clenched on her lap.

She hadn’t said a word the entire drive from Shelby Forest to Memphis and had slept for the whole duration of the flight to LA. When he had woken her up as they were landing, his heart had ached as he watched her expression go from one of disorientation to one of sadness. He was hoping once they got back to the house her mood would change.

“Kate’s gonna be happy to see you,” he said, reaching his hand over to rest on her leg. “She keeps trying to make me listen to her and Tyler’s drama and give her advice on everything. I swear she thinks I’m some sort of relationship guru or something.”

Brenna said nothing and leaned her head against the back of the seat, squeezing her eyes shut.

He looked over at her again. “It’s gonna be okay, Bren. You know that, right?”

She didn’t respond but a couple tears slipped out from under her closed eyelids. He sighed and looked back at the road.

The rest of the drive was in silence and it felt like it took longer than usual to get from the airport to his house. When he pulled into the driveway, he spotted Kate’s car.

“Oh look, Kate’s here,” he said as he turned off the engine. “I wonder what she wants.” He jumped out of the car and got Brenna’s bag from the trunk. Brenna followed him into the house.

“Kate?” he called, dropping the suitcase.

“Yeah!” She came out of the entertainment room. “Hey, Brenna! I was wondering when you’d…” she trailed off as Brenna went straight for the stairs without saying a word. “Uh…”

Justin slid off his shoes and jacket as Kate turned to look at him with raised eyebrows.

“She’s not exactly happy about being here,” he said, answering her silent question.

“Has she been crying?”

“Yeah. Off and on since I saw her.”

“Just because of her aunt?”

“No, it’s something more. Her mom thinks it’s about her dad but Brenna says it isn’t. Her mom was really sure coming back to LA would help her so…” He shrugged. “I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do about it. But I think I’m gonna need you to be my PA for a bit longer.”

“Sure. No problem.”

“So why are you here?”

“I was going to see if Brenna wanted to go out to a movie with me and Tyler and Drew. I’m guessing she’s not going to though.”

“Nope.”

“Alright, well I gotta go and meet them at the theatre. Give Brenna a hug for me, okay?”

“Sure.” He watched her slip on her shoes. “Talk to you later.”

“Yep. Bye.”

He shut the door behind her and then went into the kitchen. There was a message waiting from both his mom and Brenna’s, but it was already nearing ten o’clock LA time so it was too late to call Tennessee.

After getting something to eat, he went back into the hallway and got Brenna’s suitcase.

The upstairs lights were all off and Brenna’s bedroom door was shut. He went over to it and knocked on it quietly. After receiving no answer, he knocked again, this time calling her name. He waited for another minute and then eased open her door.

“Bren?”

When his eyes adjusted to the dark of her room, he saw that she was laying in bed. He went into the room and set her suitcase on the floor.

“Are you awake?” he asked softly, going over to the bed.

Her back was to him and she wasn’t making any noise but he could tell by her uneven breathing that she was still awake. He went over to the other side of the bed and knelt down on the floor up where her head was.

“Hey,” he whispered, reaching out to hold her hand. Her eyes were wet as she stared at him. “Kate’s gone. She was here to see if you wanted to go to a movie with her and Tyler and Drew.”

One tear fell down her cheek at his words and hit the pillow. He sighed as she turned her face a little more into the pillow and closed her eyes.

“Please don’t be mad at me, Bren. I’m not trying to tell you what to do with coming out here. I’m sorry if you think I am.” He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “But doesn’t it feel nice to be back in LA? In your own bed?”

She didn’t respond.

He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “Can I sleep in here tonight, Bren? With you?”

She then spoke the first words she had uttered since they left her house in Shelby Forest. And as she said the quiet, “No”, he wished she hadn’t said anything at all.