He was in ambedo. Complete ambedo, a melancholic trance where you're completely absorbed in vivid details. Right now, he was remembering tingles, and not just any tingles. The tingles that her whispers had produced down his spine during that night in Cape Town. Closing his eyes, he replayed the scene over in his mind. Her arms slithering over his own as he pulled her closer and swaying to soft drum beats in the distance. He remembered the feel of her thin shirt across his hand as he held her close, his forehead leaning on hers tenderly. He remembered the cool breezes passing them by and feeling so much happiness in one moment that he didn't think was possible. It was the moment he knew, he truly knew that he was heart over head in love with the crazy brunette that when he actually first met her, kind of scared him at just how outgoing she was.

In fact, he was actually doing the same thing that he was doing then, when he met her, right now. His guitar in his hands, fingers strumming randomly over the strings, and producing chords that didn't exactly flow together. He usually did this when he was stressed or overthinking something, at least according to his mom. It was true. He was overthinking everything as of three nights ago. Three nights ago, things changed. They changed.

He had been spending the past few nights at Rocky's place since their fight at the press conference...which hadn't gone that well after she told him about everything. He had three other interviews after that and he was distracted in each one. They had asked him questions about the movie and all he could give them was one word answers because he was too busy being mad at Laura for what she said. A part of him actually wished she had waited or even better, didn't say anything at all...but then that would go against their whole relationship. They both believed in being honest in everything they did - together and apart. Honesty and trust were the two things he definitely had with Laura that he hadn't had in any other relationship in his past. He loved that they had that...until this fight, of course.

Blowing out his frustration about the situation, he let his head fall back, not noticing his sister arrive back at her place. He had been over at Rydel and Ellington's to work on some base stuff with Ellington for a new album earlier. Ellington had to run a few errands, but Ross stayed behind, doing nothing instead of going back to Rocky's or even back to his own apartment. It was safer, he told himself, even though he was dying to be a part from Laura this long. Especially when she was just blocks away. A smirk creeped up on his face, imagining her doing something so incredibly adorkable that would just make him fall in love with her more, or her dragging him to do some kind of household chore that needed to get down and enticing him with something fun to get him to do it. She did stuff like that all the time and it always worked.

"You must be thinking of Laura."

Rydel's voice startled him, as he jerked a bit and his eyes shot open urgently. The guitar slipped in his arms, but he didn't make a move to let go of it.

"Did I scare you?" she started to laugh, throwing the real mail on the table after tossing the flyers and junk that she didn't need to keep.

"Scare me? No..."

Rydel scoffed and rolled her eyes, knowing very well he was lying. "Want to tell me what you're doing here and why you're not back at your place making up with Laura?"

Ross averted her gaze, readjusting his position from almost laying down to sitting straight up again. This was his avoidance stage. He knew he probably should be over there making up with her, but that anger was still with him, and he didn't want to be mad around her. He didn't want to fight with her and get even madder that he'd be saying things he'd regret the moment after. Ross knew couples had to fight, and Laura and him did, but not about this. They fought about the tiniest little things - like him actually doing a load of laundry or cleaning the shower or putting the seat down on the toilet.

"And don't tell me it's because you're working on songs or something stupid like that. I will kick you out so fast you will not know what happened," she warned him. "Seriously, talk to me." Rydel sat on the ottoman that she'd just cleaned off to face him head on. Of all his siblings, he'd always felt closest with Rydel when it came to just about everything. He and Rocky bonded mostly over music, with Riker it was sports and with Ryland it was pranking the former two because they always pranked them first. But with Rydel, being the only girl amongst them, it was different. There was no argument that she was his favorite.

"I was mad."

"Are you mad now?"

Ross shook his head. He honestly wasn't. The madness had faded and was now replaced with hurt. A hurt that went deep. "More...hurt." The guitar in his arms, slipped down and he placed it on the couch by his side. "I'm just struggling with it."

"I know. Which is why you've been at Rocky's and avoiding her at all costs...something you shouldn't do at all," Rydel told him.

He let out a deep breath he didn't know he was holding in. "How could she say that all though?" His thoughts overcame his words again and he found himself telling Rydel almost every thought that had come across his mind in the past 72 hours. All the doubts, all the what ifs, all the truly ugly things he felt - everything. "She said she was all in and I believed her. What if she really wasn't at all and all of this - the entire past year was just for this movie. What then?"

He kept going and Rydel kept letting him. He got up from the couch, and walked around the apartment, he got drinks (going through two waters and a beer), he walked around some more before flopping back on the same spot he was in. This time though, he was less stressed and less frustrated and more relieved, if you could say that. He felt better for talking about it instead of keeping it all inside, but he knew he still needed to deal with it all.

"Thanks for listening."

"That's what sisters do. Want to know something that sisters also do? They lecture and they give you advice even when you don't want it."

"I walked right into a trap, didn't I?"

"More talked your way into it. Just listen okay?" Rydel reached out to touch his hand before retracting them and pulling her legs up to sit on them, on top of the ottoman still. "I love you. You're my little brother and I will do everything in my power to keep you happy and healthy. That's what I told mom when you were born and I intend to keep that promise. So what I'm going to tell you, I need you to just listen."

Ross nodded, feeling like he should hug her and then run for his life before she smacked sense into him - and that's what she did.

"You are an idiot. You don't run away from problems. You confront them. I know that this relationship, because it's going to be your last and forever one, is different, but you don't run away from problems, especially because it's your last and forever one," she paused but didn't give him any chance to retort. "She's not in this all for the movie, and you know that. She's in this relationship because you drive her crazy and she's boots over bonnet in love with you, just like you are with her. You need to go to her and talk to her. She's feeling just as miserable as you are. You haven't really been out of Rocky's place or here for days. She's been eating everything in your fridge."

"You saw her?"

"Not the point here. The point is that you two need to talk. I'm not about to let either of you throw away or avoid each other when it's clear you are meant to be with each other and be that one couple that makes every other couple roll their eyes at because they could never be as in love with each other as you are. Before this story got out, even before you were a damn couple, you told her everything - before you told any of us. You trusted her the most. You still do. Ross, do not throw what you have together with her away. Talk and fight and have hot makeup sex. If you ruin me telling people that Laura will be my sister-in-law, I will come after you, and also if I become Aunt Rydel out of this all, I will not be one bit angry about that."

"You tell people that?"

"Every chance I get," Rydel nodded and leaned towards him once again. "Don't let this block what you two are going to become. You love her, she loves you. You miss her, she misses you."

Ross raised his brow. "When did you see her?"

"This morning. I'm in my pathetic wedding workout stage and no one else wanted to come with me to spin class. I roped her into it."

He smirked, knowing that Laura hated spin classes, and leaned back into the couch again. Rydel was right, he needed to see her, but at the same time, he was still hurt and still a bit scared of what would happen. He didn't want to go to her only to fight and break up because the trust he had wasn't solid at the moment...but he did miss her. He missed her all the time. Living in Vancouver in the past months, he missed her like mad and was thankful to all the technology available to them to keep in touch and keep everything together. But even with all of the gadgets and ways to talk to her, missing her was more than that. It was having her right by his side and being able to hold her hand and poke her when she was knee deep in scripts coming at her just to see her smile.

"She ate everything in the house?"

"She claims she did. You're going to go see her right? I didn't just waste a perfectly good speech on deaf ears, did I?"

Ross smiled, as he got up and kissed Rydel on the top of her head. "Not wasted. Thank you."

"I have to make sure my favorite couple make it."

Despite telling Rydel that he was going to see Laura after that, he didn't. Instead, he headed to the gym and met with his agent before calling up his dad for coffee. He couldn't make it, but had invited him and Laura to dinner later that night. Ross didn't tell his dad he was at Rocky's place or about the fight that happened. That wouldn't help anything. Instead, he just declined and headed back to Rydel and Ellington's. Being around Rocky when he was already suspicious about everything was not what he needed either. He knew the first thing Rydel would do was actually smack him, but he was okay with that. He would go see Laura...just not today. Tomorrow. Tomorrow was good.

Keys in his pocket, he hopped up the stairs to their home and didn't bother to knock...which was ultimately a mistake because what he walked in on was not what he wanted to see at all. His sister was almost topless and he didn't know where she ended and Ellington started. "Sorry, sorry, sorry," he held his hands up and turned around. His face probably matched Rydel's as she retrieved her top and put it back on.

"Ross, what the hell?!"

"Sorry. I didn't know..."

"When you enter another person's home, you knock. Always. Even if we know you're coming, you knock!" Slowly turning back around, Ross uttered the sorry word again and Ellington grabbed a stool to sit down on. "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were..."

"I was, and then I didn't. I'm going tomorrow."

Rydel shook her head. "Nope. Not good enough."

"What?"

Ellington stopped her before she could lecture him even more. "You up for a movie?"

Confusion came over Ross's face then. How could they go from getting all intimate to yelling at him to then inviting him to be a third wheel on a date? "Um..."

"Yea," Rydel piped up. "Let's go to a movie."

"Okay..." Ross was still unsure what was happening and the telepathic conversation Rydel and Ellington were having at this moment was both creeping him out and making him very suspicious. He saw Rydel hop on her phone and Ellington do the same. Yep, something was up and he wouldn't find out until they got to wherever the two were taking him.

+++

Cary Grant. She had always loved Cary Grant. He was dashing and daring and just had this presence on screen that no one else since him has carried. He was dreamy and if anyone asked her a legendary actor that she would had loved to work with, his name would be the first coming out of her mouth. Laura couldn't even think of another that she would want...maybe Ann Miller. Her and Cary would be perfect. Wrapping her jacket around her tighter, Laura looked out for the girl who texted her to meet up at the cemetery for the Cary Grant marathon.

She had been with Rydel just hours before at spin class and even then didn't feel up to leaving the house, especially for a spin class of all things. The only reason she ultimately did was because she actually needed the workout and because she needed food in the house. After eating most of it, she needed to stock up on some things before leaving on the press tour. She didn't spend a lot at the store, but just enough for two...or one. It could just be for one, even though she didn't want it just for one. She had picked up certain items that only he would eat, the ones that she avoided with a ten foot pole but still managed to get new ice cream for tonight - just in case.

When Rydel had called her just an hour earlier, she was already in her pajamas and getting comfy with Netflix before the blonde ultimately yelled at her to brush her hair, brush her teeth, put on the cute jacket that she intended to borrow soon and get her butt down to the cemetery. She hadn't been to Cinespia in ages - the last time being with Henry once upon a time - and couldn't remember why. You could bring your own picnic and have fun with your friends and get lost in a movie that wasn't shown on television. Plus, it was a much needed distraction from getting lost in her feelings again. It was easier to get lost in Cary Grant's eyes.

She tucked her hands inside the pockets, turning around in a circle for the fifteenth time, looking out for platinum blonde hair sticking out from the crowd - but this was Hollywood. Everyone was either rainbow, super blonde or super blue, the hair color that was getting it's fifteen minutes of fame. When Rydel called her up, she could hear voices in the background and hoped that he would be third wheeling it...or did she? Yes, she wanted to see him, needed to see him but then again she was mad at him too for saying he only needed a night and extending it to three. Three nights. That was 24 hours of not having him beside her in bed and even more hours of not having him to horse around with and go grocery shopping with and dance with.

She loved dancing with him. She loved the way he held her close and made her twirl at unexpected places in whatever song was playing. She loved that he could place his chin on top of her head and her head could fit in the crook of his neck perfectly. She even loved when he tried to teach her some more dance moves. She wasn't the most coordinated person in the world, but with Ross Lynch as your significant other, people looked at you to at least know something more than just a box step. Thinking about their last dance, just nights ago when he tore her away from making the bed when an old Bob Seger song came on the radio, she was torn away by the buzzing of her phone in her pocket.

Pulling it out of her back jeans pocket, Rydel's text popped up on the notifications screen. Walk five feet up and two blankets to the left. You're welcome. Right. Nothing like a creepy Pretty Little Liars-esque text to get the night started. But she did as she was told, noting all the groups of friends that were already chatting about their hectic days and how much they needed a night out. The blankets were bright and had baskets upon baskets sitting on them and when she counted two blankets to the left, as she was told, there were no baskets. There was just him, looking like he was being punished for taking a cookie out of the cookie jar. His arms were crossed and he looked tense instead of relaxed and she really wanted to just wrap her arms around him and hug him tight. She didn't though.

Her boots took her to just the side of the blanket, a dark blue one with a weird design in gray on it. It looked like something one would get out of Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts and somehow she was okay with that (even though she thought herself a Gryffindor) and would be stealing it after the movies. She didn't have to wait long - seconds, really - before he looked up at her and it felt like they were in a movie. You know, those parts where you look at the person and flash into all your memories all at once before jumping into the future where everything is perfect. Their stare was like that and she was fighting the urge to smile at him, ultimately losing that game with herself. It wasn't a big smile, but it was a smile and she didn't know what to do with herself. Did she sit down? Did she walk away?

"Hi." His voice was soft, and he sounded surprised by her presence. Ross stood up and stared back at her. She could tell he was in the same boat as her. Did they kiss? Did they hug? She sure as hell wasn't going to just shake hands with him though. It was awkward now. Their silence was becoming long and she didn't know if he would like her just jumping into his arms and making a public spectacle.

"Hi. Where's Rydel?"

"That's a good question."

"Right here," the Lynch sister announced herself, carrying a basket and placing it down between them. "Dinner is served. Since you two didn't take the first step today, Ellington and I did it for you. You shall sit through at least two movies of the three, and in between enjoying each other's company and the yummy Chinese food inside the basket, you will sort out all this mess that you both created."

"And you'll be where? On the blanket behind us, watching our every move?" Ross spat at her.

"Nope. Ellington and I will be back at home, continuing what you interrupted this afternoon."

Ross cringed, shaking his head at a memory Laura didn't know what was about, but she had an inkling.

"Lindsay," Rydel pointed out on another blanket across the way, "is a friend from dance and will be keeping an eye on you. If you fail to stay here all night, I will hear about it."

Laura watched the brother and sister send each other evil glances and instead of putting in her two cents about it all, she sealed her lips and took a seat on the blanket below.

"You think you can just make us go on a date?"

"Yes," Rydel smiled big. "Yes, I can. Have fun." She waved bye and headed off towards where Ellington was standing off to the side.

Laura waved towards him and watched them leave hand in hand. Looking back up at Ross, she wasn't sure if he was going to leave and she didn't want him too. Even if Rydel had set them up like this, it was still a nice date idea and if it was going to get them back on the same page of life together, she was all for it. Watching him shift from side to side and run his hand through his messy hair - a tell sign - made her more nervous. She knew him too well and knew that he was definitely thinking of leaving. "Please stay."

Ross looked down at her the moment the words left her mouth. "I was going to," he assured her and she wasn't sure if he was lying at that point or not. "I'm just frustrated at her."

"I can see," a breath separated them. "I also know when you're thinking of running away. Please don't." The worry that he would washed over her body, her eyes becoming glassy almost immediately and she fought letting the tears fall in front of him at that moment.