Categories > Celebrities > Fall Out Boy > Go Ahead and Burn it Down.
Love Will Try To Fix You
She was still crying when he set her down on the bed. Chris tuned over and curled up on her side, her crying getting a little louder. Pete sat next to her and rubbed her back. “What’s wrong?”
She hiccupped and took a couple of deep breaths. “I-don’t know.”
“Shh. Everything is alright.”
A few minutes later, Chris had calmed down enough to form a sentence. “I hate being hurt. I feel so useless.”
“You’re not useless. You made meatloaf and helped Patrick with the song.”
“But I have to be carried everywhere. I can’t walk across a damn room.” There was frustration in
her voice.
“It happens. Everyone has to let themselves be taken care or every once in a while. Besides,
you’re pretty close to putting all your weight on your ankle. In a couple of days, I bet you’ll be walking with that boot.” She sat up and nodded. He took her face in his hands, wiped her tears and kissed her. “How’s your pain?”
“Awful,” she said, her eyes welling up again. “I hit my wrist on the counter. And my ankle hurts.”
“You can take some Advil. I think I took the bottle downstairs this morning.”
“I hate to say it, but I think I need the other stuff. Advil’s not cutting it.” She was looking down. It was obvious she didn’t want to take it, but had come to the realization that it was the only thing that would work.
“Are you sure?” When she nodded, he opened the bottle of Darvocet and handed her a pill and a half-full water bottle from the night before. After she swallowed the pill, he said, “We should probably go downstairs. They’ll be wondering if you’re alright. Do you want to walk? Or do you want me to carry you?”
“I’m gonna try to walk,” Chris said, standing up. She winced, but she continued to walk across the room and out the door, Pete at her side. They reached the stairs and Chris stopped. “Ya…I don’t think I can do this.”
“No problem.” Pete held open his arms. Chris wobbled closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He picked her up and carried downstairs. He brought her to the dining room table where Sara, Becca and Stacy were bringing out dinner. Someone brought Chris a Dr. Pepper and then Stacy called the boys to the table.
“This is delicious!” Patrick said.
“Tastes just like Grandma H’s,” Joe said.
“The highest compliment,” Chris replied grinning.
They continued to eat. Halfway through dinner Chris started giggling hysterically for no reason.
“What’s with her?” Becca asked.
“She took some Darvocet before dinner,” Pete explained smiling at Chris. “Hey, Chris, what’s so funny?”
In between bouts of laughter, she stammered, “My mashed potatoes-they have a face.”
When she collapsed back into a giggle fit, the others laughed with her. Her laughter got to the point where she wasn’t eating. Stacy and Sara talked to her soothingly trying to get her to eat. They even resorted to ‘flying’ her food into her mouth like an airplane. Eventually, they got her to finish her food. When Chris stood up, weight evenly distributed on both feet, and began to walk around like she wasn’t hurt, the others became concerned.
“Alright, killer,” Andy said, managing to catch her and hold her still. “This is a bad idea.”
“Andyyyyyyyyy,” she said grinning. “Andy I love you. I’m glad we’re friends.” She sagged into him.
“I’m glad we’re friends too.” Andy tightened his hold on Chris so she wouldn’t fall to the ground. “Want me to carry you into the couch?”
“Yes please.” He scooped her up and carried her to the other room while she told him, “Pleases and thank yous are always important. You should always be polite. Ok, Andy? OK?”
He chuckled, “Ok, Chris.”
She was settled on the couch and Andy stayed to watch and make sure she didn’t get up and do something ridiculous like jumping jacks or something while the others cleaned up dinner. Chris was educating Andy about the finer points of shoe shopping when they finished cleaning.
“I see that this is an interesting conversation for you,” Becca said, coming into the room. She sat on Andy’s lap where he was sitting next to Chris. When Andy raised his eyebrows at her, she said, innocently, “There’s nowhere else to sit next to Chris.”
Chris giggled some more, pulling her knees to her chest. She gleefully exclaimed, “I know a secret!”
“What’s your secret?” Becca asked.
“Well it isn’t my secret. It’s your secret. I just know it.”
“Oh, really?” Andy asked, suddenly interested when Becca’s face was turning red. “What is this secret?”
Chris put a finger to her lips and shook her head. “I shouldn’t tell.”
“You’re right, you shouldn’t,” Becca said quickly.
“Yes you should!” Andy pleaded, “Remember, Chris? You love me, we’re friends.”
“I do love you.” Chris was weighing her options in her head. “But I love Becca too.” She was confused and didn’t know what to do. In her addled state, it upset her and her eyes started to well up.
“Chirs,” Becca said soothingly. “It’s ok. You can tell him.”
“Are you sure?” Chris’ eyes were hopeful, she really wanted someone to make this decision for her. Becca nodded. Chris lit up and excitedly said, “Becca likes Andy!”
Becca got up and left the room in a hurry.
“Where is she going?” Pete asked as she pushed past him and he came into the room.
“I’m not sure. I’ll go make sure she’s ok.” Andy got up and followed Becca out of the room.
Pete came to sit in Andy’s vacated seat.
“Peterrrrr,” Chris whined as she shifted so now her head was in his lap. “Becca went away.”
“Ya, why did that happen?” Pete looked in the direction that Becca and Andy left the room.
“She said she wouldn’t be mad. She said I could say it.”
Pete was getting a little worried now. “What did you say?”
“I just told the truth.” When Pete looked at her questioningly she continued in a whisper,
“Becca likes Andy.”
Pete’s face broke into a smile. “Oh, well, that’s adorable.”
“I know! That’s why I don’t understand where she went. I didn’t mean to make her sad.” Chris was crying again.
Pete was still smiling as he gathered her in his arms. “These drugs make you crazier than usual, huh?”
She nodded, still crying, but she laughed.
Becca had gone outside and was sitting on the curb next to the mailbox when Andy found her.
“Becca?”
She looked up, saw Andy, and quickly looked back down. She wasn’t crying or anything, but her
face was red with embarrassment.
“Can I sit down?” After a moment, she shrugged. He sat down about a foot away. “So, you know I knew that you liked me already, right? Because, I’m usually really bad at picking up on things like that, but even I figured it out. And I thought I made it clear that I felt the same…”
When he trailed off, Becca said, “I knew.”
“But then I don’t understand what’s wrong.”
Becca was quiet for a couple of moments, thinking. Then she spoke. “You leave soon. Like two days soon. You’re going back on tour and who knows when I’ll get to see you again. I was happy with the harmless flirting because as long as we didn’t talk about it, that’s all it was, flirting. And it would have hurt a lot less when you left if it was just flirting. But if it’s something more, it’s gonna suck when you go.”
“Why do you think it will be so bad?”
“I don’t know. I just know it’ll be hard.” For the first time since she sat on his lap, Becca looked over at Andy.
He was looking at her. In a flash of a second, he leaned over and kissed her. Becca was surprised, but she kissed him back. He pulled away and said softly, “I really like you Becca.
And I know it might be hard, but I’m willing to try.””
He was still leaning towards her and this time it was Becca who closed the gap between them.
“How could I possibly ask for more?”
Back inside, Chris was over her temporary upset about making Becca sad. Pete, Patrick, Joe, Stacy, and Sara were all sitting in the great room with Chris discussing ideas for the Dance, Dance video.
“You should do it like a high school dance,” Sara said. “And do all the stereotypes.”
“Oh I like that,” Stacy agreed. “You guys could be the nerds that you are!”
“Ouch,” Joe said. “I’m not a nerd.”
“You’re right,” Stacy said, “I remember you being a perv in high school.”
Everyone, even Joe, laughed because they knew it was true.
“But if we’re these nerds, how do we tie in us actually playing the music?” Pete asked.
They all thought for a minute. Then Joe suggested, “What if we were also the band playing the
dance?”
“Nerds wouldn’t exactly be the ones in the bad ass band, would they?” Stacy asked.
“Oh ya.” Again there was silence.
“What if,” Sara started, “you guys were the band and also the nerds? Like you guys played two
different people?”
“Ya, like Joe slicks his hair back and is this ridiculous perv, but in the next shot his hair is the normal Joe Fro and he’s ripping on the guitar,” Pete said.
“Exactly.” They continued to talk about it and they explained the concept to Andy and Becca when they came back in. They were enthusiastic about the idea and added their input.
They decided that Joe would be the perv they had discussed earlier, and Andy would be his weird, awkward best friend. Patrick was going to be ridiculously nerdy and be super self-conscious with girls. Pete was going to be the only one who was able to get the nerve up to ask a girl to the dance, which they decided would be homecoming.
“You should show Pete asking her,” Becca suggested, “Like at the beginning of the video.”
“It should be awesome though,” Andy put in.
“FIRE!” Chris exclaimed. They all looked at her with surprise, she hadn’t really said anything in the conversation thus far. She looked back at them, totally serious and said, “I know I’m high right now, but I’m serious.” To Joe she said, “Remember when Charlie asked Tori to prom my senior year?”
Joe thought a moment then his eyes widened in recognition and he nodded enthusiastically. “That was awesome.”
“What did he do?” Pete asked, trying to get Chris to explain. She was looking away from him, eyes unfocused, a smile on her face. “Christina,” Pete said with a little laugh, “Can you explain please?”
She snapped her head back to look at him, “Huh? What are we talking about?”
“How did Charlie ask Tori to prom your senior year?” Pete prompted her.
“Oh ya!” She got really excited. “It was awesome. I was there! Tori and I were hanging out at her house pretending to do work, but really were listening to music when we heard a tapping at her window. Tori went to go look out and started freaking out. I went to go see what was going on and I looked out the window and in her front lawn, the word ‘prom’ was written. IN FIRE! Literally in fire. It was awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“It was pretty rad. I saw a video of it,” Joe said.
“Did she go with him?” Sara asked.
“Obviously. He lit her lawn on FIRE! Of course she went with him,” Joe replied.
They continued the conversation and Chris drifted out of the conversation. She was leaning against Pete and all she could think about were how awesome her fingers on her right hand were. She was wiggling them in front her face and saying, “My fingers are so cool.”
The others laughed at her outburst and Pete kissed her temple. Then they kept talking leaving Chris in her euphoric world. Eventually she fell asleep.
She woke up early the next morning, her head on Pete’s chest as usual. Chris reached over him to get the bottle of Advil and water off the nightstand, careful not to wake Pete. His arms instinctively tightened around her when she shifted. She swallowed the medicine and settled back into his embrace grinning and enjoying the moment. A few minutes later, Chris extracted herself from Pete’s arms. She swung her legs over the side of the bed looking for her boot. She quickly found it and put it on. Slowly, she limped to the bathroom by herself. She realized she needed how to figure out how to shower, but she decided to wait until the others were up. She was probably going to need help from the girls. No way was she asking Pete. She used the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Her hair looked like absolute shit. When she brushed it, it became obvious that her hair was too greasy to look any kind of cute, so she pulled it up in a ponytail on the top of her head, wrapping the length of it around into a bun.
When she hobbled back into the room Pete was awake, sitting up in bed looking around the room confused. He caught sight of her and smiled sleepily. “Hey starshine. How are you this morning?”
“Good,” Chris smiled back, but winced when she had to put weight on her right ankle. “Hurts a little.”
“But you’re walking, so that’s good.” He stretched as she closed the distance between herself and the bed. She sat down and unvelcroed her boot. Pete put his arms around her waist and began tugging her towards him on the bed. She laughed and let him drag her. She turned her head and her lips met his.
“Good morning,” Chris said with a smile.
“Morning.”
“It’s our last day here.” Chris’ face fell a little bit.
“Ya I know.” Pete tucked a piece of hair that Chris had missed behind her ear. “We’ll just have to make it extra awesome.”
Chris nodded the smile coming back to her face. “Where are you guys going after this?”
“We have like three weeks of tour left, I’m not sure where we’re going, exactly. Then back to Chicago for a while.”
“What I’m really asking,” Chris said, her hand resting on Pete’s chest, “is when I’m going to get to see you again?”
He kissed her, “I can fly back to Austin after tour if you want? Spend a couple of days here.”
“Or I could go home.” Chris was looking down. She had been thinking about this for a while. She hadn’t been home since she left. Holidays had been spent at her grandmother’s in Ohio and she had spent the summers in Austin working as a tour guide and orientation leader for the university.
Pete knew this. Stacy had heard this from Mrs. Henry and she had told the boys one time when
they were hanging out over what would have been Chris’ winter break a year or so ago. They were just going to go over to her house and knock until she answered. Stacy had told them that she wouldn’t be there. “You’re going to go home?”
Chris shrugged, still looking down. “I mean I haven’t been home for a long time. I should probably go. And by that point, my o-staff job will be over and it’s not like I have anything else going on.”
“It would be great for you to come home. First, your mom would love it. And we were talking last night. We want you, Stacy, Becca, and Sara in the Dance, Dance video. But we weren’t sure if you’d come back to Chicago to do it.”
“See, even more reason for me to come home.” Chris was smiling again looking up at him.
“I knew I could convince you.” Pete grinned and pulled her closer to him. “There’s something else I want to ask you.”
“Ya?”
“We have to go to this MTV Music Video Awards thing at the end of the summer. Do you wanna go?”
“Like, as your date?” Chris was smirking.
Pete turned a little red, “Well ya. You don’t have to if you don’t want…I just thought I’d ask…”
“Do I get to wear a pretty dress?”
“As pretty as you want.”
“I don’t know,” Chris hedged. “I have to think about it.”
“Alright. I just thought it might be fun.”
Chris was quiet for a few seconds, then she spoke. “K, I thought about it. I want to go.”
Pete’s face morphed into a smile. “Excellent.”
Chris kissed him and then sat up. “Come on, let’s go. I want to go on the boat!”
Chris strapped on her boot and teetered out of the room, Pete close behind. She hobbled down the stairs by herself even though it hurt and took a long time. Sara brought her a bowl of cereal as Becca called up Carl. By the time Carl was in the lagoon, everyone had eaten. Chris decided to leave her boot at the house, so Joe carried her down the hill to the boat. They floated Chris to the boat on the tube so her cast wouldn’t get wet. They spent the day on the water, tubing, skiing, jumping off the cliff. After a few hours, Carl steered the boat back to the lagoon.
Chris convinced Stacy to help her take a shower. They giggled through the shower curtain as Chris clutched Stacy’s arm, trying to balance on one foot.
“If you don’t quit wriggling you’re going to fall and bring down the curtain. And that will be embarrassing for the both of us,” Stacy said, laughing after a particularly curse word filled stretch of hopping.
“Shut up.” Chris was laughing too.
It took a good forty-five minutes, but they managed to do it. Chris felt so much better as she sat in a chair and dried her hair. She was brushing her hair out when Pete walked in. He kissed the top of her head and said, “Hey there, starshine.”
“Hi.”
“How are you feeling”
“Clean,” Chris replied, grinning at him in the mirror.
“That’s good.” Pete ran his hands through her hair. “And your ankle and wrist?”
“They hurt.”
“Do you want something for it?” He asked starting to move away.
“No thanks. It’s our last night. I’m sure we’ll be drinking. If I take anything, drinking would be off limits.”
Pete laughed. “Sound reasoning.”
“Hey, there’s only like a month or so grace period after college graduation when you’re allowed to continue drinking like a college student before it becomes alcoholism. So if I can stand it, I’ll be participating in the evening’s festivities.”
“I will help you in this endeavor, m’lady,” Pete offered, bowing sarcastically.
“And how will you do that, good sir?” She asked laughing.
“I’ll carry you. If you don’t put any pressure on your ankle, it’ll hurt less, and it’ll be less likely to have to take your meds.”
“A true gentlemen. Helping his girlfriend get drunk.” Chris put on a mock dreamy face and sighed, “Just like a fairy tale.”
“I do what I can.”
“DINNER!” Becca shouted from downstairs.
“Ready?” Pete asked.
Chris ran her brush through her hair one more time and then said, “Yup. Let’s go.” Pete picked her up and carried her downstairs. He set her down at her usual spot. Someone had put a Dr. Pepper at her place. Chris cleared her throat and said, “I appreciate the thought, but I would really, really like a beer, if someone doesn’t mind getting one for me.”
“Always happy to contribute to your boozing,” Sara said walking into the kitchen.
“Does this mean you get to play with us tonight?” Becca asked, hopefully.
“As long as I can manage not to have to take my pain medicine.”
“Well here’s to hoping!” Sara said, handing Chris an open bottle of beer and clinking her own against it. “Cheers!”
“Cheers!” Chris pulled on her beer. “Delicious.”
They all ate dinner. Then after they finished cleaning up, they decided to celebrate their last night at the lake by playing drinking games. Chris and the others were drinking at a normal pace, but they didn’t notice that Pete only had two beers the whole night, only nursing them. This turned out to be a good thing, because by the time they all decided to go to bed, Chris had had too many beers to walk if she wasn’t half broken, let alone walk with her boot.
“How am I gonna get upstairs?” She asked despairingly, flopping back onto the now empty couch.
“Everyone’s drunkkkkkkkkk.”
“Not everyone. Come on, starshine,” Pete said, smiling as he stood up and held his arms out to
her. “I’ll take you upstairs to bed.”
“Awwwwwww, Peter, you’re the best.” Chris allowed herself to be picked up and carried upstairs. Pete helped her brush her teeth and had her drink a bottle of water while he flipped through the channels.
“The CSI marathon seems to be over,” Pete said, now looking through the guide rather than just channel surfing.
“Booooo!” Chris said rolling towards him on the bed. “What else is on?”
Eventually Pete found some Fresh Prince to watch. By the time he had gone to change, brush his own teeth, and returned to the bed, Chris was asleep on her stomach. Pete smiled and got into bed. He lay down on his side facing the sleeping girl and brushed the hair out of her face. She was out like a light.
A/N: Updates may be slower this weekend. I've got a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow and saturday including a shit ton of driving, so you'll have to wait a bit. I hear anticipation makes it better =)
She was still crying when he set her down on the bed. Chris tuned over and curled up on her side, her crying getting a little louder. Pete sat next to her and rubbed her back. “What’s wrong?”
She hiccupped and took a couple of deep breaths. “I-don’t know.”
“Shh. Everything is alright.”
A few minutes later, Chris had calmed down enough to form a sentence. “I hate being hurt. I feel so useless.”
“You’re not useless. You made meatloaf and helped Patrick with the song.”
“But I have to be carried everywhere. I can’t walk across a damn room.” There was frustration in
her voice.
“It happens. Everyone has to let themselves be taken care or every once in a while. Besides,
you’re pretty close to putting all your weight on your ankle. In a couple of days, I bet you’ll be walking with that boot.” She sat up and nodded. He took her face in his hands, wiped her tears and kissed her. “How’s your pain?”
“Awful,” she said, her eyes welling up again. “I hit my wrist on the counter. And my ankle hurts.”
“You can take some Advil. I think I took the bottle downstairs this morning.”
“I hate to say it, but I think I need the other stuff. Advil’s not cutting it.” She was looking down. It was obvious she didn’t want to take it, but had come to the realization that it was the only thing that would work.
“Are you sure?” When she nodded, he opened the bottle of Darvocet and handed her a pill and a half-full water bottle from the night before. After she swallowed the pill, he said, “We should probably go downstairs. They’ll be wondering if you’re alright. Do you want to walk? Or do you want me to carry you?”
“I’m gonna try to walk,” Chris said, standing up. She winced, but she continued to walk across the room and out the door, Pete at her side. They reached the stairs and Chris stopped. “Ya…I don’t think I can do this.”
“No problem.” Pete held open his arms. Chris wobbled closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He picked her up and carried downstairs. He brought her to the dining room table where Sara, Becca and Stacy were bringing out dinner. Someone brought Chris a Dr. Pepper and then Stacy called the boys to the table.
“This is delicious!” Patrick said.
“Tastes just like Grandma H’s,” Joe said.
“The highest compliment,” Chris replied grinning.
They continued to eat. Halfway through dinner Chris started giggling hysterically for no reason.
“What’s with her?” Becca asked.
“She took some Darvocet before dinner,” Pete explained smiling at Chris. “Hey, Chris, what’s so funny?”
In between bouts of laughter, she stammered, “My mashed potatoes-they have a face.”
When she collapsed back into a giggle fit, the others laughed with her. Her laughter got to the point where she wasn’t eating. Stacy and Sara talked to her soothingly trying to get her to eat. They even resorted to ‘flying’ her food into her mouth like an airplane. Eventually, they got her to finish her food. When Chris stood up, weight evenly distributed on both feet, and began to walk around like she wasn’t hurt, the others became concerned.
“Alright, killer,” Andy said, managing to catch her and hold her still. “This is a bad idea.”
“Andyyyyyyyyy,” she said grinning. “Andy I love you. I’m glad we’re friends.” She sagged into him.
“I’m glad we’re friends too.” Andy tightened his hold on Chris so she wouldn’t fall to the ground. “Want me to carry you into the couch?”
“Yes please.” He scooped her up and carried her to the other room while she told him, “Pleases and thank yous are always important. You should always be polite. Ok, Andy? OK?”
He chuckled, “Ok, Chris.”
She was settled on the couch and Andy stayed to watch and make sure she didn’t get up and do something ridiculous like jumping jacks or something while the others cleaned up dinner. Chris was educating Andy about the finer points of shoe shopping when they finished cleaning.
“I see that this is an interesting conversation for you,” Becca said, coming into the room. She sat on Andy’s lap where he was sitting next to Chris. When Andy raised his eyebrows at her, she said, innocently, “There’s nowhere else to sit next to Chris.”
Chris giggled some more, pulling her knees to her chest. She gleefully exclaimed, “I know a secret!”
“What’s your secret?” Becca asked.
“Well it isn’t my secret. It’s your secret. I just know it.”
“Oh, really?” Andy asked, suddenly interested when Becca’s face was turning red. “What is this secret?”
Chris put a finger to her lips and shook her head. “I shouldn’t tell.”
“You’re right, you shouldn’t,” Becca said quickly.
“Yes you should!” Andy pleaded, “Remember, Chris? You love me, we’re friends.”
“I do love you.” Chris was weighing her options in her head. “But I love Becca too.” She was confused and didn’t know what to do. In her addled state, it upset her and her eyes started to well up.
“Chirs,” Becca said soothingly. “It’s ok. You can tell him.”
“Are you sure?” Chris’ eyes were hopeful, she really wanted someone to make this decision for her. Becca nodded. Chris lit up and excitedly said, “Becca likes Andy!”
Becca got up and left the room in a hurry.
“Where is she going?” Pete asked as she pushed past him and he came into the room.
“I’m not sure. I’ll go make sure she’s ok.” Andy got up and followed Becca out of the room.
Pete came to sit in Andy’s vacated seat.
“Peterrrrr,” Chris whined as she shifted so now her head was in his lap. “Becca went away.”
“Ya, why did that happen?” Pete looked in the direction that Becca and Andy left the room.
“She said she wouldn’t be mad. She said I could say it.”
Pete was getting a little worried now. “What did you say?”
“I just told the truth.” When Pete looked at her questioningly she continued in a whisper,
“Becca likes Andy.”
Pete’s face broke into a smile. “Oh, well, that’s adorable.”
“I know! That’s why I don’t understand where she went. I didn’t mean to make her sad.” Chris was crying again.
Pete was still smiling as he gathered her in his arms. “These drugs make you crazier than usual, huh?”
She nodded, still crying, but she laughed.
Becca had gone outside and was sitting on the curb next to the mailbox when Andy found her.
“Becca?”
She looked up, saw Andy, and quickly looked back down. She wasn’t crying or anything, but her
face was red with embarrassment.
“Can I sit down?” After a moment, she shrugged. He sat down about a foot away. “So, you know I knew that you liked me already, right? Because, I’m usually really bad at picking up on things like that, but even I figured it out. And I thought I made it clear that I felt the same…”
When he trailed off, Becca said, “I knew.”
“But then I don’t understand what’s wrong.”
Becca was quiet for a couple of moments, thinking. Then she spoke. “You leave soon. Like two days soon. You’re going back on tour and who knows when I’ll get to see you again. I was happy with the harmless flirting because as long as we didn’t talk about it, that’s all it was, flirting. And it would have hurt a lot less when you left if it was just flirting. But if it’s something more, it’s gonna suck when you go.”
“Why do you think it will be so bad?”
“I don’t know. I just know it’ll be hard.” For the first time since she sat on his lap, Becca looked over at Andy.
He was looking at her. In a flash of a second, he leaned over and kissed her. Becca was surprised, but she kissed him back. He pulled away and said softly, “I really like you Becca.
And I know it might be hard, but I’m willing to try.””
He was still leaning towards her and this time it was Becca who closed the gap between them.
“How could I possibly ask for more?”
Back inside, Chris was over her temporary upset about making Becca sad. Pete, Patrick, Joe, Stacy, and Sara were all sitting in the great room with Chris discussing ideas for the Dance, Dance video.
“You should do it like a high school dance,” Sara said. “And do all the stereotypes.”
“Oh I like that,” Stacy agreed. “You guys could be the nerds that you are!”
“Ouch,” Joe said. “I’m not a nerd.”
“You’re right,” Stacy said, “I remember you being a perv in high school.”
Everyone, even Joe, laughed because they knew it was true.
“But if we’re these nerds, how do we tie in us actually playing the music?” Pete asked.
They all thought for a minute. Then Joe suggested, “What if we were also the band playing the
dance?”
“Nerds wouldn’t exactly be the ones in the bad ass band, would they?” Stacy asked.
“Oh ya.” Again there was silence.
“What if,” Sara started, “you guys were the band and also the nerds? Like you guys played two
different people?”
“Ya, like Joe slicks his hair back and is this ridiculous perv, but in the next shot his hair is the normal Joe Fro and he’s ripping on the guitar,” Pete said.
“Exactly.” They continued to talk about it and they explained the concept to Andy and Becca when they came back in. They were enthusiastic about the idea and added their input.
They decided that Joe would be the perv they had discussed earlier, and Andy would be his weird, awkward best friend. Patrick was going to be ridiculously nerdy and be super self-conscious with girls. Pete was going to be the only one who was able to get the nerve up to ask a girl to the dance, which they decided would be homecoming.
“You should show Pete asking her,” Becca suggested, “Like at the beginning of the video.”
“It should be awesome though,” Andy put in.
“FIRE!” Chris exclaimed. They all looked at her with surprise, she hadn’t really said anything in the conversation thus far. She looked back at them, totally serious and said, “I know I’m high right now, but I’m serious.” To Joe she said, “Remember when Charlie asked Tori to prom my senior year?”
Joe thought a moment then his eyes widened in recognition and he nodded enthusiastically. “That was awesome.”
“What did he do?” Pete asked, trying to get Chris to explain. She was looking away from him, eyes unfocused, a smile on her face. “Christina,” Pete said with a little laugh, “Can you explain please?”
She snapped her head back to look at him, “Huh? What are we talking about?”
“How did Charlie ask Tori to prom your senior year?” Pete prompted her.
“Oh ya!” She got really excited. “It was awesome. I was there! Tori and I were hanging out at her house pretending to do work, but really were listening to music when we heard a tapping at her window. Tori went to go look out and started freaking out. I went to go see what was going on and I looked out the window and in her front lawn, the word ‘prom’ was written. IN FIRE! Literally in fire. It was awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“It was pretty rad. I saw a video of it,” Joe said.
“Did she go with him?” Sara asked.
“Obviously. He lit her lawn on FIRE! Of course she went with him,” Joe replied.
They continued the conversation and Chris drifted out of the conversation. She was leaning against Pete and all she could think about were how awesome her fingers on her right hand were. She was wiggling them in front her face and saying, “My fingers are so cool.”
The others laughed at her outburst and Pete kissed her temple. Then they kept talking leaving Chris in her euphoric world. Eventually she fell asleep.
She woke up early the next morning, her head on Pete’s chest as usual. Chris reached over him to get the bottle of Advil and water off the nightstand, careful not to wake Pete. His arms instinctively tightened around her when she shifted. She swallowed the medicine and settled back into his embrace grinning and enjoying the moment. A few minutes later, Chris extracted herself from Pete’s arms. She swung her legs over the side of the bed looking for her boot. She quickly found it and put it on. Slowly, she limped to the bathroom by herself. She realized she needed how to figure out how to shower, but she decided to wait until the others were up. She was probably going to need help from the girls. No way was she asking Pete. She used the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Her hair looked like absolute shit. When she brushed it, it became obvious that her hair was too greasy to look any kind of cute, so she pulled it up in a ponytail on the top of her head, wrapping the length of it around into a bun.
When she hobbled back into the room Pete was awake, sitting up in bed looking around the room confused. He caught sight of her and smiled sleepily. “Hey starshine. How are you this morning?”
“Good,” Chris smiled back, but winced when she had to put weight on her right ankle. “Hurts a little.”
“But you’re walking, so that’s good.” He stretched as she closed the distance between herself and the bed. She sat down and unvelcroed her boot. Pete put his arms around her waist and began tugging her towards him on the bed. She laughed and let him drag her. She turned her head and her lips met his.
“Good morning,” Chris said with a smile.
“Morning.”
“It’s our last day here.” Chris’ face fell a little bit.
“Ya I know.” Pete tucked a piece of hair that Chris had missed behind her ear. “We’ll just have to make it extra awesome.”
Chris nodded the smile coming back to her face. “Where are you guys going after this?”
“We have like three weeks of tour left, I’m not sure where we’re going, exactly. Then back to Chicago for a while.”
“What I’m really asking,” Chris said, her hand resting on Pete’s chest, “is when I’m going to get to see you again?”
He kissed her, “I can fly back to Austin after tour if you want? Spend a couple of days here.”
“Or I could go home.” Chris was looking down. She had been thinking about this for a while. She hadn’t been home since she left. Holidays had been spent at her grandmother’s in Ohio and she had spent the summers in Austin working as a tour guide and orientation leader for the university.
Pete knew this. Stacy had heard this from Mrs. Henry and she had told the boys one time when
they were hanging out over what would have been Chris’ winter break a year or so ago. They were just going to go over to her house and knock until she answered. Stacy had told them that she wouldn’t be there. “You’re going to go home?”
Chris shrugged, still looking down. “I mean I haven’t been home for a long time. I should probably go. And by that point, my o-staff job will be over and it’s not like I have anything else going on.”
“It would be great for you to come home. First, your mom would love it. And we were talking last night. We want you, Stacy, Becca, and Sara in the Dance, Dance video. But we weren’t sure if you’d come back to Chicago to do it.”
“See, even more reason for me to come home.” Chris was smiling again looking up at him.
“I knew I could convince you.” Pete grinned and pulled her closer to him. “There’s something else I want to ask you.”
“Ya?”
“We have to go to this MTV Music Video Awards thing at the end of the summer. Do you wanna go?”
“Like, as your date?” Chris was smirking.
Pete turned a little red, “Well ya. You don’t have to if you don’t want…I just thought I’d ask…”
“Do I get to wear a pretty dress?”
“As pretty as you want.”
“I don’t know,” Chris hedged. “I have to think about it.”
“Alright. I just thought it might be fun.”
Chris was quiet for a few seconds, then she spoke. “K, I thought about it. I want to go.”
Pete’s face morphed into a smile. “Excellent.”
Chris kissed him and then sat up. “Come on, let’s go. I want to go on the boat!”
Chris strapped on her boot and teetered out of the room, Pete close behind. She hobbled down the stairs by herself even though it hurt and took a long time. Sara brought her a bowl of cereal as Becca called up Carl. By the time Carl was in the lagoon, everyone had eaten. Chris decided to leave her boot at the house, so Joe carried her down the hill to the boat. They floated Chris to the boat on the tube so her cast wouldn’t get wet. They spent the day on the water, tubing, skiing, jumping off the cliff. After a few hours, Carl steered the boat back to the lagoon.
Chris convinced Stacy to help her take a shower. They giggled through the shower curtain as Chris clutched Stacy’s arm, trying to balance on one foot.
“If you don’t quit wriggling you’re going to fall and bring down the curtain. And that will be embarrassing for the both of us,” Stacy said, laughing after a particularly curse word filled stretch of hopping.
“Shut up.” Chris was laughing too.
It took a good forty-five minutes, but they managed to do it. Chris felt so much better as she sat in a chair and dried her hair. She was brushing her hair out when Pete walked in. He kissed the top of her head and said, “Hey there, starshine.”
“Hi.”
“How are you feeling”
“Clean,” Chris replied, grinning at him in the mirror.
“That’s good.” Pete ran his hands through her hair. “And your ankle and wrist?”
“They hurt.”
“Do you want something for it?” He asked starting to move away.
“No thanks. It’s our last night. I’m sure we’ll be drinking. If I take anything, drinking would be off limits.”
Pete laughed. “Sound reasoning.”
“Hey, there’s only like a month or so grace period after college graduation when you’re allowed to continue drinking like a college student before it becomes alcoholism. So if I can stand it, I’ll be participating in the evening’s festivities.”
“I will help you in this endeavor, m’lady,” Pete offered, bowing sarcastically.
“And how will you do that, good sir?” She asked laughing.
“I’ll carry you. If you don’t put any pressure on your ankle, it’ll hurt less, and it’ll be less likely to have to take your meds.”
“A true gentlemen. Helping his girlfriend get drunk.” Chris put on a mock dreamy face and sighed, “Just like a fairy tale.”
“I do what I can.”
“DINNER!” Becca shouted from downstairs.
“Ready?” Pete asked.
Chris ran her brush through her hair one more time and then said, “Yup. Let’s go.” Pete picked her up and carried her downstairs. He set her down at her usual spot. Someone had put a Dr. Pepper at her place. Chris cleared her throat and said, “I appreciate the thought, but I would really, really like a beer, if someone doesn’t mind getting one for me.”
“Always happy to contribute to your boozing,” Sara said walking into the kitchen.
“Does this mean you get to play with us tonight?” Becca asked, hopefully.
“As long as I can manage not to have to take my pain medicine.”
“Well here’s to hoping!” Sara said, handing Chris an open bottle of beer and clinking her own against it. “Cheers!”
“Cheers!” Chris pulled on her beer. “Delicious.”
They all ate dinner. Then after they finished cleaning up, they decided to celebrate their last night at the lake by playing drinking games. Chris and the others were drinking at a normal pace, but they didn’t notice that Pete only had two beers the whole night, only nursing them. This turned out to be a good thing, because by the time they all decided to go to bed, Chris had had too many beers to walk if she wasn’t half broken, let alone walk with her boot.
“How am I gonna get upstairs?” She asked despairingly, flopping back onto the now empty couch.
“Everyone’s drunkkkkkkkkk.”
“Not everyone. Come on, starshine,” Pete said, smiling as he stood up and held his arms out to
her. “I’ll take you upstairs to bed.”
“Awwwwwww, Peter, you’re the best.” Chris allowed herself to be picked up and carried upstairs. Pete helped her brush her teeth and had her drink a bottle of water while he flipped through the channels.
“The CSI marathon seems to be over,” Pete said, now looking through the guide rather than just channel surfing.
“Booooo!” Chris said rolling towards him on the bed. “What else is on?”
Eventually Pete found some Fresh Prince to watch. By the time he had gone to change, brush his own teeth, and returned to the bed, Chris was asleep on her stomach. Pete smiled and got into bed. He lay down on his side facing the sleeping girl and brushed the hair out of her face. She was out like a light.
A/N: Updates may be slower this weekend. I've got a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow and saturday including a shit ton of driving, so you'll have to wait a bit. I hear anticipation makes it better =)
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