About a month and a half has passed since Sebastian first started back into filming. Rylee was supposed to fly out to LA tonight for the weekend to see him, but an awful thunderstorm hovered over New York and grounded all flights in and out.

Rylee would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed. She hadn't seen Sebastian since he left and it was starting to make her heart ache.

She didn't want to seem like a pouty teenager, but fuck, did she miss him. She texted him, unsure if he was still on set.

❤️

Bad news..all the flights out of New York were cancelled. There's a crazy storm here

She was surprised to see him text back quickly.

😍

😞 what a bummer

❤️

I know 😞💔

😍

Well...at least filming is half over..

I'll be home soon enough

❤️

Doesn't make me miss you any less though.

😍

😔

Rylee had curled up into their bed, pulling Sebastian's pillow into her tight grasp. It somehow still had a hint of his cologne embedded into it.

There were bright flashes of light through the pouring rain outside. Bright enough to briefly set the whole room ablaze with blinding light. Rain pounding on the windows was usually comforting, almost relaxing, but not tonight.

The next thing Rylee knew, it was the next day, and she awoke still clutching Sebastian's pillow.

Her phone was laying next to her, battery dead.

She fell asleep so fast last night she didn't even get the chance to plug her phone in. She did so just now, but it still took a few minutes for her phone to turn on. When it did, a slew of messages pinged through.

😍

It'll be okay.

Ryles?

Baby?

I'm guessing you fell asleep. It's late.

Have a good night, I love you.

Rylee felt bad for falling asleep on him like that, but it overcame her so quickly. She looked at the clock to see it was 11 AM. Sheesh she slept late. She didn't know what to do with her day now, since she wasn't even supposed to be in the city this weekend.

She shot Sebastian back a text and decided to get dressed and kill some time at the gym. She changed into a loose teal tank top and a pair of black biking shorts.

When she walked outside she got extremely agitated. The sky had opened up to be a bright blue, no clouds in sight, as if the storms last night didn't even happen. She rolled her eyes and trudged down the street.

She decided to walk to the gym since the weather was beautifully mocking her. After about fifteen minutes, she walked into the gyms front door and — oh great. Jen was working the front desk. Fucking Jen. She has always been such a bitch to her and today was no exception.

"Hey Rylee! How's it goin' girl? Where's Sebastian today?" Jen said to her, as fake as could be, popping her gum.

Rylee threw on a fake smile as she scanned her gym key at the desk, "Hey, Jen! He's in LA for a bit, filming."

"Ah, well, there's an open spot with the kettle bells if you wanna, yah know, work on those glutes." Her eyes skimmed up and down Rylee's body before she turned and looked back to her computer.

Rylee was baffled by why this girl despised her so much. She constantly sent her jabs like this..for no reason. She chose to ignore her, dropped her things off in the locker room and went to the treadmills on the other side of the gym.

She put in her headphones and blasted her Spotify playlist as she began running. It was one Sebastian had put together for her, so it brightened her day a little. She lost track of how long she ran until she was surprised to feel a tap on her shoulder.

Rylee turned in the direction that the tap came from and took a misstep, falling off the treadmill, straight to the hard ground behind her.

"Oh my god! I am so sorry! Are you okay?" A man, she assumed the one who tapped her, knelt down beside her as she tried to get her bearings.

"Mm fine." Rylee said shortly as she stood up, ripping out her headphones. She stormed past the man and went to the locker room. She plopped down on the wooden bench, hands over her face as her elbows rested on her knees, though only briefly as she felt a dull pain in both of them.

She looked down to see both of her knees scuffed and bleeding from her fall. "Ugh, fuck."

She walked over to the showers and tried to rinse off the best she could focusing on her bloodied knees, and her palms which she now noticed were bloody as well.

"Hello? Is, uh, Rylee in here?"

Lord. Could this get any worse? Rylee thought as she heard Jen's voice echo through the empty locker room.

"Someone told me you ate shit and may need a first aid kit. So. I'll just leave it here or whatever."

Rylee heard a thud on one of the wooden benches outside the showers, that telltale Jen gum-pop, and heels retreating on the tile. God. Why does she wear fucking heels at the gym?

Rylee couldn't decide if she wanted to burst into tears or just scream. She dried off and changed, keeping an extra towel to stave off the blood attempting to ooze from her knees.

She quickly snatched up the first aid kit and wrapped her knees and palms in gauze haphazardly. She slammed the case shut and grabbed her bag.

As she headed for the door, of course Jen was still at the desk. Of course she was. Rylee slammed the case down onto the counter and stalked out of the building onto the street without even looking at Jen.

As she walked down the block and rounded the corner she felt a drop of water on her face. And then another. And another. She looked up to see that the sky was no longer solid blue, but scattered with light grey clouds, now beginning to rain down over her head steadily.

Rylee stood there for a moment. Already getting soaked now. What's the difference. She slowly walked towards the subway, and sat on a bench there, waiting for the next train.

Rylee eventually made it home, soaked to the bone, and the gauze she had thrown on now soaked just the same, practically falling off.

She padded over to the bedroom to change from her drenched clothes into a t-shirt and some shorts and then headed for the bathroom to give her knees and palms a bit more love and care now that she was alone, using the first aid kit under the sink.

In the midst of cleaning her wounds, she could really hear the wind starting to pound outside, it sounded like the rain was too. And just as quickly as that thought crossed her mind, the lights flickered briefly, and then completely went out.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Rylee practically yelled across the apartment, throwing down the Neosporin that she had just been using.

She took a deep breath and picked up her phone, turned on the flashlight and laid it across the sink so the light shined down on her knees. She leaned over and picked up the bottle she threw and continued with her work, slowly and methodically.

She finished working on her knees and her right palm and was finishing her work on her left palm when her phones flashlight shut off suddenly. She sat up, looking at her phone, confused. She tried to tap the screen and realized that, yet again, for the second time today, her phone died.

She was beyond aggravated about it but as she thought about it it made sense. She hadn't had it on the charger for long before she left for the gym, and then she used Spotify, and now the flashlight. How did she expect it to be charged to full after all that.

And right. Of course the powers out. So I can't charge it. I could go sit in Seb's car and charge for a bit. But I've gotta get out there without getting soaked again.

She finished her left hand the best she could and then decided to just go for it and grabbed his key in the bowl by the door. She threw on shoes, grabbed an umbrella and headed for the lobby down the stairs.

"Hey, Rylee," someone said in the dark behind a flashlight in the lobby, scaring the utter shit out of her.

"Oh god. Hi Shawn," Rylee laughed at herself for a moment. Shawn, the doorman, was sitting behind the desk, fiddling with something.

"What're you up to?" Rylee asked, looking out at the rain outside. Though it was only like 4:00 PM, it looked far later outside with how dark it had gotten.

"I can't get into any of my drawers. They all power locked when the power went out and now they're jammed." Shawn said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oof. That sucks."

"Be careful if you're going out, it looks rough out there." Shawn commented as Rylee walked towards the door.

"I'm just going out to the car. My phones dead, figured I'd just go charge it out there."

"Smart, smart." Shawn complimented, "Good luck!"

Rylee waved as she attempted to head out the door and put up her umbrella, which immediately decided to blow every which way to Sunday as she ran down the block.

She made it to his car surprisingly fast and slid inside, closing her umbrella and shoving it onto the floor of the passenger seat. She pushed the start button on the car and found the charging cord, plugging her phone in.

She sat in the dark car, radio playing quietly as she waited for her phone to get enough charge to turn on. A few minutes later, it did just that, and a handful of messages pinged through.

💞

Hey, did your power go out? Or just ours?

Oh wait, you're in LA. Never mind.

😍

How're you feeling?

Hope you're having a good day

Love you

She answered each one as the radio continued playing quietly, buried beneath the sound of the rain on the cars roof.

🌻

I ended up not being able to go to LA. All the flights got cancelled because of the storm. But yes, our power is out.

❤️

Hey, sorry it's been a long day.

I'm doing okay. I hope you're having a good day

❤️❤️

Rylee tried to get comfortable as she waited for her phone to charge. Occasionally getting a returned text.

💞

Oh, that's such a bummer babe. I'm sorry. I know how excited you were about that trip.

🌻

Yeah...but that's life I guess.

At least it's only another month or so

before seb comes home.

💞

Yeah, that's not too long.

😍

I'm sorry you've had a long day. 😞

Wanna talk about it?

❤️

Eh, honestly just a lot of stupid stuff all piled up.

I'll be fine. Just blah about it at the moment.

😍

❤️

I love you

❤️

I love you more

😍

Mmm 🤔 not possible.

About 20 minutes later, Rylee got her phone charged up to about 85% when she decided she was done worrying about it. The power would turn back on eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

She hadn't noticed until now, but the rain had stopped almost altogether. She grabbed her umbrella just in case, seeing how her day had been going so far, she assumed it would just start to downpour on her as soon as she got out.

She walked to the front doors of the lobby and walked inside, Shawn was now joined by another man, still trying to get the drawers open. Rylee wasn't sure what was so important in those drawers that they wanted them open but it must've been sort of important at least.

She trekked up the four flights of stairs to their apartment, feeling slightly winded, which bothered her a bit. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the keys she had taken to the car and in an instant, laid her head against the apartment door.

She only grabbed the car key. Sebastian probably has his other set of keys in LA out of habit. And Rylee is now picturing her keys, laying on the side table in the bedroom.

She turned her back to the apartment door, sliding down it to sit on the floor under the dimly lit emergency lights of the hallway. She stayed there for a few moments, taking in this extra salt in the wound of her day.

She knew they kept emergency keys down in the lobby, so she sighed, picked herself back up and made her way back down the four flights of stairs to the lobby.

Shawn and the other man were still sitting on the ground contemplating what to do about their predicament when Rylee walked over.

"Hey Shawn, I'm sorry I know you're busy, but could I get the extra key for my place? I locked my keys inside."

"I would love to, but all the keys are in this drawer..." Shawn said sadly as he tugged on one of the drawers they had been trying to open for the last hour.

"Oh. Shit. Okay."

"We could try to pick it or something?" Shawn offered, feeling bad that he couldn't help.

"No, it's okay. Thanks though." Rylee said as she walked towards the lobby windows, looking outside.

Well now what. I can't go home. I don't have my wallet. I have no money. Oh wait! Alexa has a spare key!

🌻

Hey! Can I come steal your spare key for a hot minute? I got locked out.

💞

Sure thing girl. Are you coming now?

🌻

Yeah if that's alright

💞

Of course, you can hang for a bit if you want.

🌻

Okay I'll be there in like ten.

💞

👍👍

Rylee left the lobby and hopped back into the car and made her way to Alexa and Chris' place. She experienced her first truly lucky moment of the day, she got the closest spot to the front door.

Soon she had made it upstairs, which she was really, really tired of doing at this point and knocked on their door. Chris answered the door after a few beats, just wearing sweatpants, hung low around his waist.

"Hey, Ry Bread. Lex is getting changed but she should be out in a minute," Chris said as he padded over to the kitchen, grabbing a mug and the carafe of coffee.

"Thanks, Chris." Rylee carefully took in his slightly disheveled appearance, wondering if she interrupted something...Chris wasn't usually the type to walk around shirtless...she was about to shake off the thought until Alexa walked into the living room. She had on a pair of shorts and one of Chris t-shirts, not hiding the fact that she had on no bra.

Honestly not wearing a bra around each other was normal for them, but she was picking up the vibes now that she had definitely interrupted something.

"Yah know, I forgot I've actually gotta get back. I told Shawn I'd help him try and open a drawer."

"A drawer?"

"Yeah...it's the one with all this important stuff and just...it's stuck cause the powers out..."

"Oh, well that's nice of you to help, if you need any more help in jimmying it open let us know." Alexa said, none the wiser to Rylees slight embarrassment as she tossed her her key.

"Will do, and thanks again. I'll get this back to you asap." Rylee said as she made her way out the door.

"Okay! Bye! be safe." Chris and Alexa both called out in unison.

Rylee made it down to the car quickly and leaned her head on the steering wheel. First I start the day not in LA, then Jen happens, then the treadmill, then the power, now interrupting my friends having sex? What kind of day is this?

She tried to shake it off as she drove home.