Chapter 36
Shannon and Jess walked into the kitchen. Shannon gave JC a playful slap on the shoulder. "Why didn’t you tell any of us?" JC jumped a bit, "I didn’t think it was important." Shannon chuckled, "Marriage is a pretty important thing you know." Jess and JC looked at Chris expectantly, but to no avail, Chris just sat there biting on his nails. Jess let out a sigh, "Jace, we better go sweetie. I’m getting kind of hungry and it is nearly lunch time." Shannon stopped them, "Wait! Why don’t you just stay here? Maybe we can call Joey, Lance, and Mandi and we can have lunch together. Maybe a little picnic thing." Chris shook his head, "You remember what happened LAST time we had a picnic?" JC laughed a bit, "Don’t worry so much. Nothing is going to happen."
Shannon went to the other room and called over to Lance’s house. She hadn’t seen nor heard from them since she got out of the hospital. She let the phone ring for a little bit as no one was answering. After about 8 rings, an out of breath Lance answered the phone. "He-hello?," he said breathlessly into the phone. Shannon cocked an eyebrow, "Um. . Lance?" Lance tried to slow his breathing, "Yeah, its me. What’s up?" Shannon twirled the phone cord around her finger, "Nothing much, what’s UP with you? You are awfully out of breath. Just what were YOU doing?" Lance laughed, "If I told you, I’d have to kill you." Shannon laughed as well, "Cute. Well, when you regain the ability to breathe normally, do you, Mandi, and Joey want to come over for a picnic-lunch?" He let out a deep breath, "Sure! I just hope nothing happens like last time." "Don’t worry, everything will be cool," she told him with a slight smile on her face. "Alright cool, we’ll be over in a bit."
Shannon walked back into the kitchen, greeted by everyone’s smiling faces. "Are they coming over?," Jess asked her. "Yeah, once Lance can breathe again." JC cocked a brow, "Huh? What do you mean?" Shannon had a smile on her face, "He was out of breath. Obviously him and Mandi were having some fun." Chris covered his ears, "I don’t need to be hearing that!" "You are just jealous because you haven’t been getting any," JC said to him with a goofy grin on his face. Chris crinkled his nose and stuck his tongue out at his friend, "I could get some anytime I wanted to, couldn’t I Shan?" Shannon looked around the room, "Who says?" Chris put his head down and playfully pouted. Jess and JC both laughed at them as the doorbell rang. Shannon stood up and went to get the door. She looked out the peephole and saw Joey looking down at the doormat. She opened the door for him, "Where’s Lance and Mandi?" Joey gave her a hug, "They are still getting ready. I didn’t feel like waiting for them. Who knows what they will decide to do." Shannon smiled and let him in.
They both walked into the kitchen and Joey sat down next to Chris. He leaned over and gave Chris a kiss on the cheek, "Hey baby, I missed you." Chris wiped his cheek and moved away from Joey, "Dude, don’t even go there." Joey had a stupid grin on his face, "I was kidding man, chill. What’s bothering you?" Chris shook his head, "I don’t really want to talk about it right now." Joey shrugged his shoulder, "Okay. So where’s the food?" Shannon was standing at the counter and threw him a package of Twinkies. Joey caught them, "Mmmm, snackey cakes. Yumm." JC laughed, "Speaking of food, what are we going to have?" Jess stood up, "I’ll order some pizza." JC, Jess, and Joey went into the living room while Chris stayed seated at the table. Shannon moved closer to Chris and rested a hand on his shoulder. "What’s wrong?" Chris closed his eyes and she saw a tear trickle down gently from his eye. She pulled a chair and sat close to him, "You know you can tell me anything." Chris shook his head, "No. I can’t." Shannon wiped the tears from his sparkling brown eyes, "Why not?" He looked up at her, "Because. Just because it will totally change the way you look at me." She rested her elbow on the table and took Chris’ hand and held it tight, "But it won’t change the way I feel about you. Nothing could ever change that. You have done so much for me."
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