FicWad

So Much To Say But No Words To Convey

The next morning, Andy woke up and he was startled to find the girl in his arms. When he realized it was Becca, he hugged her and kissed the top of her head. Becca awoke and looked up at him.

“You’re here,” Andy said in disbelief.

“Don’t you remember me coming in last night?” She asked.

“I seriously thought you were a dream.”

Becca laughed then leaned up to kiss him. “Nope. I’m real life.”

“I’m so glad,” Andy replied and pulled her up to him.

In Chris’ room, Chris and Pete were woken up by Joe bouncing on their bed at eleven. “I’m hungry,” he whined. “But Sara said we couldn’t go eat until you two got up.”

“Get out, Joey!” Chris said, throwing a pillow at him. “We’ll be out soon.”

“Fine. But hurry up,” Joe huffed and left the room.

Chris let her head fall back to Pete’s chest. He kissed the top of her head and said, “Should we get up then?”

“Probably,” she murmured.

“They can wait a couple more minutes,” Pete said, running his fingers through her hair.

Chris nodded and let her eyes flutter closed. A few minutes later, someone pounded on the door.
Then Joe’s voice yelled, “Seriously. I’m starvingggg!”

Chris and Pete sighed. Chris yelled back, “Fine. We’re getting up.”

“Good. We’re leaving in ten minutes.” Joe’s footsteps walked away from the door.

Chris shoved off her covers and started to get out of bed. As usual, Pete’s arms tightened around her. She giggled and turned to face him. “Joe might actually kill us if we aren’t ready to go.”

“Let him try,” Pete said grinning. He pulled her even closer and their lips met.

After a few minutes of their usual activities, Chris pulled away. “While this very enjoyable, I am kinda hungry.”

He kissed her playfully on the nose and said, “Me too.”

Chris slid out of his grip and out of bed. She went to her closet to get some clothes and she went to change into denim cutoffs and a t-shirt. After bushing her teeth and fixing her hair, she went back out into her room to find Pete changed, waiting to use the bathroom. He was finishing brushing his teeth when Joe flung open the door to Chris’ bedroom.

“Time’s up bitches. Let’s go.”

“We’re ready, ass,” Chris said. As she walked out of the room and past Joe, she smacked him upside the head. Pete followed her out. They all walked into town and ate at the girl’s favorite diner.

“We should go hang out at Zilker,” Sara suggested, as they finished and paid.

“Sports time!” Becca said, brightly.

“I think I have a soccer ball in my closet somewhere,” Chris added.

“And Spring Pool?” Becca asked.

“Ya!” Chris said excitedly.

“What do y’all think?” Sara asked the boys.

“Sounds fun,” Patrick said. The others agreed.

They stopped by the apartment to change into swimsuits, collect Chris’ soccer ball and Becca dug out a baseball and a couple of gloves. Sara got together a cooler for their impending public intoxication, found a big blanket, and the speakers for her iPod. They loaded up Chris and Becca’s cars and drove out to Zilker. They parked and trekked out to the middle of a field near the spring pool where Sara set out the blanket, the music, and the cooler. Joe and Pete were already playing with the soccer ball. Becca and Chris were lathering each other with sunscreen. Patrick went through Sara’s iPod looking for music while Andy cracked open a beer. “Come play with us, Chris!” Joe pleaded.

“But it’s so nice here on the blanket,” Chris said from her reclined position on the blanket next to Becca and Sara.

“Boo,” Joe replied.

“It’s ok, Joe,” Pete said, slyly, “Chris probably isn’t good enough to play with us anymore. Our awesomeness is too extensive.”

She couldn’t pass up a challenge like that, she strapped on her ankle brace and got up to join them. But she did make a no slide tackling rule. She had only been out of her boot for a week, and while her ankle felt good, she did not want to have to put that stupid thing back on.

They spent the rest of the day mostly drinking and playing soccer and catch. They spent sometime in the Spring Pool, taking care to not get Chris’ cast wet. By the time Chris and Becca sobered up to drive home, the sun was setting. They drove through Taco Bell and spent the evening in the girls’ living room eating, watching movies, and playing a couple of games. The boys had to get on a plane at 9 AM, but, even so, they didn’t go to bed until two in the morning.

Sara and Becca were responsible for taking the boys to the airport in the morning. Chris had to be at work at eight, so before she left, she woke all the boys up to say goodbye and promised to see them soon.

*****

“It was really nice to meet y’all. If you have any questions, feel free to email or facebook me! I hope you love UT as much as I do.” Chris hugged a teenage girl and shook hand with her parents. Then she said bye to her very last orientation students. It was nine forty-two. She said quick goodbyes to the rest of o-staff and practically ran back to her apartment.

When she stepped out of the elevator, there were bags in the foyer, Becca and Sara were lying on
the couch. Sara called, “Ready to go?”

“I still have to pack.” Chris’ pace slowed. She was excited to go to Chicago. Really she was.
But she found as the day got closer she was unable to do anything to plan for the trip. All she had done was make up a list of what she needed to pack and she had done that the day after Pete left. She had found other things to do with her time over the last ten days. She had helped write the new program guide for the next year’s orientation staff. She got her cast removed. She did everything but pack for her trip.

“We did that for you,” Sara said.

“We stole your list,” Becca added.

“We thought it might be hard for you to do it and we didn’t want you to give yourself any excuses to not go,” Sara said, gently.

“You guys are the best.” Chris could feel the tears well up, but she managed to keep it together.

“Pretty much,” Becca said, getting up. She grabbed Chris’ laptop bag from the pile of luggage on the floor. “Here. Let’s go!”

They gathered up their things and went to the airport. Becca and Sara did their best to keep Chris distracted and not thinking about where she was going. She only required a little nudge to get on the plane. Chris’ mom was there to pick them up at O’Hare. This was the part Chris thought would be difficult, but she was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get into her mother’s car. Probably because her mom had gotten a new one since the last time she had been home.

The problem came when they pulled to a stop in her driveway. Chris, who had been talking avidly when they left the airport, had gotten increasingly quiet once they started passing familiar landmarks like 24 and Streetside. When the car stopped, she wasn’t speaking at all. Not crying. Just staring. Becca, Sara, and Chris’ mom got out of the car and started unloading the luggage. When they had finished and Chris still hadn’t moved, they decided Sara would go talk to her.
Becca and Mrs. Henry stood on the porch, watching.

Sara opened Chris’ door. Jokingly she said, “Alright, you missed the hard work of unpacking, you can come out now.” Chris didn’t move. She didn’t even look at Sara. Sara crouched down. “Come on, Chris let’s go inside.”

She spent the next few minutes trying to convince her to get out of the car. Sara returned to the porch. Mrs. Henry put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s ok, sweetheart. I’ll just go call Peter.”

“No,” Becca and Sara said together.

Becca explained, “He doesn’t know we’re here. We’re surprising him at the show.”

“Patrick knows though,” Sara said. “I’ll call him.” They all stepped into the house. Mrs. Henry stood at the front window keeping an eye on Chris while Sara dialed Patrick’s number.

“Hello?” Patrick answered.

“Hey, Patrick. It’s Sara.”

“Where do I need to go? Is she still at the airport?” Patrick asked knowingly.

Sara smiled. “No. We actually got into the car without incident. She just won’t get out of it. We’re at her house and she’s just sitting there.”

“Ok. I’ve got a couple of hours before I actually have to be anywhere. I’ll be there in fifteenish minutes.”

“Thank you, Patrick.”

“No problem, Sara.”

He hung up. Sara said to the room, “He’ll be here soon.”

“Oh, good,” Mrs. Henry replied, still staring out the window. “I have you two in the guest room,
if you want to take your bags up and unpack. It’s the third door on the right at the top of the stairs. The bathroom is the second door, same side. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Chris.”

“Ok, Mrs. Henry,” Becca said.

“Thanks,” Sara replied. They picked up their bags and headed upstairs.

Mrs. Henry watched, heart-broken, as her daughter sat in the front seat. She followed Chris’ eyes to the second story and immediately knew what she was looking at. Matt’s bedroom. This was going to be more difficult than any of them anticipated. At one point, Chris moved like she was getting out, but then didn’t. It was a relief when Patrick’s car pulled up. He waved to Mrs. Henry in the window and walked towards the still open car door.

“Hey there Chris.” He put an arm around her and squeezed her to him. “So, I’m told you won’t get
out of the car.” She didn’t reply. “That’s ok. You made it here. That’s awesome.” He, too, followed Chris’ eyes to Matt’s window. “Maybe we should go somewhere else?” For the first time, she responded. It was just a shrug, but it was something. “Ok. Let’s go get in my car, ok?” She let Patrick pull her from the car and lead her to his. When she had sat down, he asked, “Want me to get Becca and Sara? Or do you wanna just hang out with me?”

“Just you,” she mumbled.

He squeezed her hand that he was still holding. “I’ll go tell them what’s going on, ok?” She nodded and he ran up to her house. Mrs. Henry opened the door for him. “Hi Mrs. H.”

“Hi, Patrick!” She hugged him.

“Patrick!” Becca and Sara shouted, catching him in another hug.

“Hi girls.” When they released him, he explained, “Chris and I are gonna go hang out for a bit.
I’ll have her back in a couple of hours, ok?”

“Are we going?” Sara asked.

Patrick looked apologetically at them. “Chris asked just for me.” The girls nodded
understandingly. “Alright, we’ll see you soon.” He got in his car and started it up. “So where
are we going?” When she didn’t answer, he started driving and said, “Alright then.”

They drove for a while. Chris wasn’t really paying attention. They pulled to a stop and she looked up. They were at 24-Hour. She smiled sadly and got out of the car when Patrick did and walked into the diner with him.

“Oh my stars,” a woman’s voice said as soon as they walked in. “Chris Henry!”

“Hi, Bunny,” Chris said, letting the woman hug her.

“It’s wonderful to see you, child. You too, Patrick. Where are the others?”

“They’re getting ready for the show tonight,” Patrick answered.

“Well that’s nice.” She continued to smile. “Let me go get your table ready.”

Chris and Patrick watched as she made other customers get up and move to a different table. When a customer said “This table doesn’t have their name on it,” Bunny replied, “Actually it does.” She pointed to the sharpie marks Chris had made her senior year of high school marking their territory. Bunny wiped down the table quickly and came back to them. “Table’s ready.” They followed her. She plunked down menus in front of them. “Nothing’s changed on those, I just thought you might need a reminder. Cokes?”

“Please,” Patrick answered and Chris nodded.

Bunny brought them drinks, then fries and hot ham and cheese sandwiches, and finally cherry pie. All without them actually ordering. First Chris and Patrick sat there in silence. Then Chris made a comment about how Bunny’s hairstyle hadn’t changed since the last time she was here, and slowly, Patrick was able to draw her into conversation. But soon, they had to leave. Patrick had to go to soundcheck. Bunny wouldn’t let them pay, citing Chris’ homecoming an occasion calling for free food. With another hug, Chris and Patrick got back into his car and drove to Chris’ house.