"What did you say to her this time?" Justin asked, breaking the silence that had stretched far too long.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you yelled at her this morning, and you said something to her at the beach after Joey got hit. What did you say?"
Chris glanced at him, suddenly very uncomfortable. He decided on the lesser of the two evils. "I asked her why she'd used that tone with you."
Justin stared at him. "What, and you wouldn't have?" he demanded.
"I'm your friend," Chris muttered.
"So is she," Justin said. "Would you stop making a complete idiot of yourself and just admit you like her?"
"I do not!" Chris protested almost immediately.
"She's not Tamara, you know," Justin went on as if he hadn't said anything. "You're not being fair."
"That's what she said," Chris said softly.
"She's right! Chris, you are driving us all insane. Why don't you just apologize and... I don't know, start over!"
Chris let out an ugly laugh. "No, I don't think so."
Just stared at him. "Why not?"
"I think I went too far."
"How."
Chris glanced at him, surprised to see his friend with such intensity in his eyes. He turned his attention back to the road, gripping the wheel tighter. "I've just... said things I shouldn't have."
"And you can't take back words, I know." Justin slumped in his seat. "You really weren't thinking, were you?"
Chris let out a sigh of relief that he'd deflected his friend, and realized a moment too late that the sigh had been too obvious. Justin straightened and looked at him. "What else did you do?"
Justin had never actually seen Chris squirm before; it was the most interesting sight he could remember seeing. His face flushed a dull red, and he gripped the wheel even tighter than he had a moment before. He mumbled something, and Justin scowled at him. "Say it louder, I didn't hear you."
Chris took a deep breath. "I kissed her. This morning."
Justin just stared at him. "Is that why you ran out of the house like that?" he asked. Chris nodded. "So, what did she say when you saw her again at the beach?"
"She talked about how much Anika likes JC."
"Oh. That's a relief. She didn't say anything else?"
Chris shook his head. "Not really."
"Not really?" Justin asked.
Chris sighed. "I told her Anika had better not break his heart. She threw it back in my face; she told me he'd better not break hers." He sounded miserable.
"You haven't talked to her between that phone conversation and this morning, have you.
Chris shook his head. "I didn't think she'd want to. And I didn't want to," he added.
Justin nodded. "Right. You reading your psychology textbooks is always a bad thing, Chris, and you've been doing that since just after Christmas. Just apologize to her."
Chris snorted. "Just like that?"
"And why not?" Justin challenged.
"I don't know, I just don't think it will work."
"Chris. She'd like to be your friend. She likes you, so far." He paused. "I guess she said she'd like to like you."
"When?"
"Right after you went ballistic on her. She was on the phone when JC came to get Lance and me. She called us off."
Chris was silent. "Why?" he asked after a minute.
He shrugged. "She probably thought you felt bad enough and didn't need us adding to it."
Chris sighed. Everything he did to drive her away only produced actions from her that were more endearing than ever. "Figures." He didn't need anymore reasons to get caught up in this girl, and her consideration made her more attractive. He didn't want to be attracted to her.
"What?" There was way too much curiosity in Justin's voice.
Chris shook his head. "Nothing."
"But...."
"Never mind, Justin." He shot a glare at the younger man, and Justin settled down, a very stubborn look on his face. Chris was grateful for the silence.
They arrived at Joey's house fairly quickly after that, and Chris pulled up to the front walk. Justin started to get out and realized the car was still running. He settled back into his seat and folded his arms. "You're coming in."
"No, Justin, I'm not." He couldn't think of anything he wanted to do more than keep far away from Marissa until his thoughts were straightened out.
Justin opened his mouth to protest, then stopped. This was part of what Marissa had meant, not to ‘let some weird pseudo fan' come between him and Chris. He sighed. "All right," he conceded grudgingly. "But I think you're making a mistake." He got out of the car and started up the front walk. Before he'd even reached the door, Chris turned his car off. Justin refrained, if barely, from a cheer.
The house was quiet when Chris stepped in the front door, and he stood in the entry way, not entirely sure where to go. Or where not to go, for that matter, since he really didn't want to talk to Marissa again. From the game room came the sounds of a video game, probably Justin, so he turned the other direction and went to find everyone else.
He found JC asleep in one of the guestrooms, predictably. He'd gotten burned a little. Joey was in the next room, just as gone, looking a little better than he had on the beach. Anika was on the couch in the living room, also asleep. Lance was draped across the love seat, looking very uncomfortable. He sat up abruptly, and Chris jumped. "Hey," he said with a grin. "We totally wore them out. Dunno if they'll be up to the club tonight. Joe, either." He chuckled. "Where's Justin?"
Chris gave him a sick looking grin. "Down in the playroom. Where else?"
"Great. He owes me a game." Lance got up and left, but not without a confused glance at Chris as he went by.
Oh, great, Chris thought as he turned to wander a little, he thinks I've lost my mind. He gave a short laugh and shoved his hands in his pockets.
His feet brought him to a stop at the doorway to the den, and he looked inside. His breath caught. Marissa was curled on the couch. A book was in one hand; she'd apparently tried to read it and had fallen asleep. It looked uncomfortable, and he wondered blankly if her hand would be cramped when she woke up. Then he thought about moving the book, and realized he didn't dare step in the room.
His traitorous mind brought up the kiss again from that morning, as it had all day. He struggled to stop thinking about it, about her hands warm on his chest, her lips.... He groaned softly and banged his forehead on the door. Then, with strength he wouldn't have credited himself for, he turned and walked away to find out if one of the two younger men would let him play the thoughts out of his mind.
Go on to Next Chapter | Chance