FicWad

Take the Time

The next morning, they all packed up and left the lake house. Back in Austin, they went out to lunch to celebrate their last couple of hours together. That afternoon, it was time for the boys to get on their bus and go back on tour. The bus pulled up in front of the girls’ building and their tour manager called Patrick.

“We’ve got ten minutes,” he announced, hanging up the phone.

“Booooo.” Chris said from her spot between Joe and Pete on the couch.

“They’ve gotta go,” Stacy said from the floor in front of her. She jested, “All the little fangirls will be soooooo upset if they don’t show in the next city.”

“We can’t let them disappoint the fangirls,” Becca added.

“Come on. Let’s get these over with,” Sara said standing up.

Everyone went around the room saying goodbye. Chris, who had given up an hour ago and taken some of her medication, was getting progressively more upset as she said goodbye to the boys; first Andy, then Patrick. She couldn’t even speak when she had to say goodbye to Joe. Then it was time to say goodbye to Pete.

She had been hanging onto him for five minutes when Pete said, “It’s ok. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.” She nodded into his shoulder and Pete squeezed her in a hug. He then held her by her shoulders out in front of him. She looked up at him. “Smile and say goodbye to me?”

She grinned through her tears and said, “Goodbye, Peter.” She threw her arms back around his neck and said in his ear. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, starshine.”

She pulled away a little so she could kiss him, then she buried her head back in the crook of his neck. Pete held her tightly and rested his head on hers. He whispered, “Love you, Christina.”

“Love you too,” she murmured back. He held her as the others finished their goodbyes.

“Alright, guys,” Patrick said, “We gotta go.”

“Bye, starshine,” Pete said, giving her a final squeeze and kissing the top of her head.

“Bye, Pete,” Chris said, reluctantly letting go of him. She put a smile on her face and waved to
the boys as they gathered their bags and went to the elevator, trying not to cry. As they got in, she yelled out, “Hey, Fall Out Boy, I love you!”

There were smiles all around and the boys answered back, “We love you back.”

The elevator doors slid shut and Chris lost her composure. Stacy was by her side, “Oh,
sweetheart,” she soothed, “It’ll be ok.”

Eventually, Chris calmed down and was cajoled out to dinner when Sara reminded her it was Stacy’s last night with them. After they came home, they settled in Chris’ room with popcorn and watched movies and braided each other’s hair. The next morning there was another tearful goodbye between Chris and Stacy, then Becca drove Stacy to the airport.

It took a couple of days, but the girls soon settled back into their normal routine. Within a few days, Chris had begun to walk normally, still with her boot, but she was only taking Advil for the pain. The next week, she began working her summer orientation leader job, being responsible for a new group of twenty kids for two days with one day off in between, showing them the campus, getting them registered for classes, and making sure they weren’t misbehaving when they had free time. Becca spent the next couple of weeks having final interviews with Teach For America so she could be placed in a school and then she was busy with training. Sara still had the summer off before her advertising job started.

It had been two weeks and Chris was finally out of her boot. She was on her second day of session six and she was sitting with the kids in the main quad playing some icebreaker game. A group of girls across the circle from Chris were giggling, looking at something over her head. Before she could ask them about it, the girls stopped, and their attention went back to the game they were playing. “Odd,” Chris thought to herself. Once everyone had their turn, Chris checked her watch and said, “Alright everyone, it’s time for lunch. Who remembers how to get to the dining hall?”

She stood and a voice behind her said, “Sorry, could you help us find the Starbucks?”

“Hold on a sec, guys,” she said to her group. Turning to the people behind her, she started to say, “Sure, you go-NO WAY!”

It was them. Pete, Patrick, Joe, and Andy stood in front of her. She squealed and launched herself in to Pete’s open arms. She hugged the rest of them while her orientation group was talking excitedly behind her. “What are you guys doing here?!”

“We had a couple of days off,” Pete said grinning and shrugging like it was no big deal.

Chris hugged him again. One of her students spoke, “Um Chris?”

Chris spun around to face her group, their expressions ranging from confusion to extreme excitement. “Sorry, y’all. I’ve been rude. Remember how I told you I’m originally from Chicago? These are some of my friends from home. This is Pete, Joe, Andy, and Patrick. Say hi, boys.” The boys obliged and Chris continued, “So let’s go onto lunch. Who remembers where the dining hall is?”

One of the boys who didn’t seem to care about the new arrivals pointed and said, “It’s that way, right?”

“Right, Ben. Want to lead the way?”

“Sure,” he shrugged and began to walk in that direction.

The others followed, throwing glances back at Chris and the boys as they walked along. One of the girls that had been giggling across the circle from Chris dropped back.

“Aren’t you guys in Fall Out Boy?” She asked with hope in her voice.

Chris started giggling; she had forgotten that to other people, the boys were famous. Patrick answered, “Ya. That’s us.”

“Really?!”

“Really, really,” Joe answered.

The girl turned to Chris with disbelief in her eyes, “You know them?!”

Chris laughed and replied, “Sure do. We all grew up together.”

“That’s so cool!” The girl started prattling on and telling them how much she loved their music
and stuff. Eventually, others from the group had gathered around and were asking questions. After a few minutes, they reached the dining hall.

“Hold on, you guys,” Chris called. “Gather round.” They obliged and Chris stood up on a short stone wall. “So you guys are gonna go in and have lunch, then the last thing is games with everyone on the lawn where you’ll meet up with your parents. Cheryl and Bobby are going to make sure you all get there ok. I’ll be there at the end of the games to talk to your parents and help you guys move out. So enjoy lunch and I’ll see you in a little bit!”

Many of the kids gathered back around the boys to ask for autographs. They signed something for everyone who asked and then Chris managed to shepherd the kids into the cafeteria, reminding them that if they didn’t hurry, they would run out of fries. Once they were gone, Chris squealed again and hugged all the boys.

“I can’t believe you guys are here!” She said, as Pete wound his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “Where are you supposed to be?”

“We had a show in DC last night and we have today and tomorrow off before the New York show,” Andy answered.

“So we came to visit you!” Joe said joyfully.

“I feel so loved,” she said smiling. “Are you guys hungry? We can’t go in there, it’ll be pandemonium, but we can go get food somewhere else if you want. I have the next two hours off.”

“I’m starving!” Joe answered.

“Pizza?” Chris asked. The boys agreed. “Awesome.” She led them to the pizza place that they had ordered from on the night of their Austin show. They sat and waited for their order. “So how’s tour?”

“It’s going well. We’ve been sold out at the last couple of shows,” Andy said.

“The crowds have been awesome,” Patrick added.

“That’s great. How many more shows do you have?”

“New York, Philly, Boston, Columbus, then the Chicago show not this Thursday, but the next,” Andy answered.

“And then a break, finally,” Joe added.

The waitress brought their food and they ate and continued to talk. When they were finished,
Chris checked her watch. “I have to be back in an hour. Do you guys want to go hang out in the apartment while I finish at work? Sara should be around and I’ll be back by four.”

“Sounds good.”

They got up and started walking towards Chris’ apartment. Andy asked, “Is Becca home? You said Sara would be around…”

Chris looked at her friend and shook her head, “She’s at her placement. Finishing her training and looking for a place to live. I’m not sure when she’ll be back.”

“Oh well,” Andy said, disappointed, but smiling anyway.

“You’re so cute,” Chris teased.

“Shut it.”

Chris just laughed. They came to her building, Chris opened the door, and they rode the elevator up. “You four, keep quiet,” she said as the elevator car came to a stop. “Sara,” she called as she walked in, “I have a surprise for you.”

“I just got out of the shower,” she called back. “Is it a ‘it can wait for me to put on some actual clothes’ kind of surprise, or a ‘I need to run out in my underwear’ kind of surprise?”

Joe couldn’t stay quiet any longer. He shouted, “UNDERWEAR!!”

Chris also called back, “I don’t know you decide.”

Sara had recognized the voice and came running. She must have been in the middle of drying her hair, because only half of it was wet as she sprinted through the living room in athletic shorts and a bra. “Joe!”

He caught her in a hug and spun her around. “Hey.”

Once he put her down, Sara went to the rest of the boys and hugged them too, all the while
gushing about how she was so excited to see them.

While Sara had them distracted, Pete pulled Chris towards him and kissed her like he hadn’t seen
her in two weeks. When they parted, Pete held her close and whispered, “I missed you like whoa. I didn’t think you’d appreciated if I made out with you in front of a group of twenty kids.”

She giggled and looked up at him. “So thoughtful,” she teased. She stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “I missed you too.”

“Ugh, get a room,” Joe said.

“Pot calling the kettle black,” Patrick muttered.

Chris just said, “Luckily I have one of those here.”

“Gross,” Joe replied sticking his tongue out at her.

Chris was in the middle of a witty reply when her phone started to ring. She held up a finger to tell Joe to hold on a second and she answered her phone, “Hello? Hey Bobby, what’s up? Umm, ya, I guess. I’m at my apartment. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Ok. Ya, no problem. See ya soon.” She hung up the phone and said to the room apologetically, “I gotta go into work now. Cheryl got sick or something. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“Boooo,” Patrick said.

“I know. Jobs. They suck,” Chris answered with a smile. “Too bad they pay me and stuff.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine here, Sara can take care of us,” Andy said.

“Truth,” Sara interjected.

“Alright, I gotta peace.” She went around to hug the boys. “I’m so glad y’all are here,” she
said. She kissed Pete quickly after she pushed the call button for the elevator. “Mmk, bye.”

A/N: Hope that'll hold you over for a bit =)