Chapter Two
Chris slowed down and looked for a place to park. He spotted Justin's car and pulled up next to it. He turned off the car and sat there for a few minutes, then got out and headed up to the door. Since he and the rest of the guys were like brothers, none of them ever bothered knocking. Chris let himself in and looked around.
"Hey Chris!" Justin greeted, walking up to him and handing him a drink.
Chris took the drink and smiled, feeling a bit better then he had felt earlier that day.
"Hi, Just."
"Lookin good, Chris. Plan on takin' someone home tonight?" Joey asked.
"Yeah," Chris said, taking a sip of his drink. "myself."
Joey shook his head.
"Have fun tonight."
Chris just nodded, and branched off to talk to the few people that had gotten there early. By nine O'clock, the house was packed. Chris was talking to different people, but they would go off after a few minutes to dance.
He found a seat off to the side and sat down, looking around the room for his bandmates. Joey had a couple girls he was dancing with, Jc and his girlfriend Jenny were dancing together, Lance and his girlfriend Becki dancing next to them. Justin was surrounded by girls, as usual. Chris sighed and picked at the arm of the chair he was sitting in.
"I knew this was going to happen.." He mumbled to himself.
It was still early, but Chris figured he might as well go home. At least he showed up like he said he would. He stood up and headed for the closet to get his jacket when someone bumped into him.
"Ow..." the woman said, then she looked up, seeing she had spilt her drink all over Chris's shirt.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry..." she said, looking around for something to help him clean up.
"No, it's alright. It was my fault, I wasn't watching..." he looked up at her and trailed off.
She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Bright brown eyes, beautiful hair, still it's natural copper color, looked about 5'5". She wasn't dressed Sluty like most of the girls at the party, and she had such a soft, kind voice. Chris didn't even realize that he was holding his breath.
"Hey, you okay?" the girl asked.
Chris shook his head and blushed slightly.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Do you have another shirt to wear or something?" she asked, motioning to his still soaking wet shirt.
Chris looked down and blushed even more, looking around the room for Joey. Joey noticed him and walked over.
"What happened?" he asked, looking at Chris's shirt.
"I bumped into him and spilt my drink," the girl said.
"I take it you need something else to wear," Joey said, looking at Chris.
Chris couldn't find his voice again, so he just nodded.
"Alright, follow me," Joey said, smiling slightly. He turned and went upstairs, Chris following behind him.
"So Chris, who's the girl?" Joey asked, digging through his closet for something Chris could wear.
"Uhh... I don't know," Chris answered.
"She's pretty."
"Yeah..."
"So where were you going?" Joey asked, finally finding one of Chris's shirts that he had left there last time he was over.
"I was going home," Chris said, taking off the wet shirt and pulling on the one Joey handed to him.
"Why?" Joey asked.
"I... I'm just getting tired," Chris said.
"Alright, man," Joey said, walking downstairs with Chris.
The girl was sitting in the chair Chris had been sitting in earlier. She looked up when they came down and stood up. Joey nudged him and nodded towards the girl, then walked away. Chris watched him go and then turned, the girl was right in front of him.
"We didn't get off to a great start..." she said, looking up at him.
"I'm Michelle."
Chris shifted nervously.
"Hi, Michelle... I'm Chris," he said, immediately feeling like a dork.
Michelle smiled.
"Nice to meet you, Chris," Chris looked up at her and smiled.
"So where were you going in such a rush?" she asked.
"I was heading home..." Chris answered.
"Oh. Well, would you stay just a little while longer and dance with me?"
Chris bit his lip, and after a moment nodded.
"Yeah," Chris took her hand and moved her to where everyone else was dancing.
A new song had started playing, and Chris recognized it immediately as the song he had written. Falling. He looked around the room, spotting Joey standing with the guys, all of them grinning.
Chris shook his head, and turned back to Michelle. She moved closer to him and rested her head on his chest. Chris looked down at her and watched her for a moment. He started to relax more and more as they started dancing, and towards the middle of the song it felt to Chris like he and Michelle were the only people in the room.
Before either of them knew it it was eleven thirty, and some of the people had left to go home. Chris and Michelle were lost in conversation, and didn't even notice the time, until Lance walked in.
"Hey Chris, you guys having fun?" Lance asked, grabbing a drink from the fridge.
"Yeah, Lance."
"Thought so. You two have been talking for a couple hours, now."
"A couple hours?" Michelle asked, looking up at Lance.
"Yeah. It's almost midnight."
"Oh man... I need to get home and get some sleep. I have to work in the morning," Michelle said, standing up and looking around.
"And it looks like my ride left me here."
"I'll take you home." Chris offered.
"Are you sure? I don't want to be a pain..."
"You won't be, it's my pleasure."
"Alright," Michelle smiled.
Chris walked over to the closet, pulling out his jacket. Michelle grabbed hers and put it on. Chris looked around and saw the guys sitting around the kitchen table now, starting up a game of poker.
"See ya, guys," Chris waved.
"Bye Chris," the guys said together.
Chris opened the door and held it for Michelle to go out first. He walked with her to his car and opened the door for her, then got in himself.
"Okay, where do you live?" he asked, starting up the car.
"Fifty four Oak Grove."
"Okay," Chris pulled out of the driveway and headed for Michelle's house.
The drive was in silence, and even as they pulled up and Chris walked her up to the door there was silence. Michelle seemed to know that something was starting to bother Chris, but she couldn't quite pin it down. As they got to the porch, she turned to him and smiled.
"Thank you for the ride home."
"No problem."
They stood quiet for a moment, then Chris shifted and backed away.
"Well, I'm gonna go now," he said, backing down the walkway. "goodnight."
"Goodnight," Michelle said.
She walked into her house and locked the door, then went to the window and watched with a sigh as Chris got in his car and drove away.
| Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine |
