~*Crista's Hope*~

Chapter 10

"Jesse? What th-" she tried to say. "Hold on let me talk," he said. "I havn't been sending the gifts. Chris has," he said. "Then why isn't he here?" she asked. "He was scared of what you would say. He thinks your mad at him," he explained. "Me mad at him? Why? Shouldn't he be the one mad?" she asked. "I dont know, why don't you ask him yourself," he said. Chris popped out of nowhere. He looked at Jesse and Jesse walked off. "Chris I-" she started. "I think I should talk first," he said. "Okay, I know I blew up on you back in NY without even hearing your side. Even though it looked pretty obvious. But...I dunno I just dont get it I cant stay mad at you," he said. "Well let me explain anyway," Crista said. They both sat down on a bench. "While you were gone, an old friend appeared. Let's just say I was once madly in love with him. He broke my heart and when he came back he thought he could just start things up from where we started. I didn't kiss him he kissed me. I resisted," she said. Chris sat looking at his feet for a moment and looked up. "I think I should explain something...the girl," he began. He swallowed hard and went on. "The girl on the phone was a roadie's daughter and we had something a long time ago. I went to visit her dad to talk about what I saw and he wasn't home so I decided to talk to Erin. She seemed so sorry and concerned. Guess I have bad judge of charcter," he said raising his eyebrows. "I guess so. Must have to pick me as your girlfriend," Crista said putting herself down. "No, I think you were the only I wasn't bad with...your okay," he said laughing. "Oh wow, I feel special," she said snickering herself. "No, make that wonderful, there aren't words to describe you," he said as his voice got low and soft. "Soo, what happens now," Crista said breaking the moment of silence. "Well I dont know. I forgive you," he said. "Yeah I'm not mad, I loved the gifts," she smiled. "I'm glad," he said. "Okay, you live in New York. I live in Colorado plus we're working all the time. How is this gonna work?" she asked. "Well. I could ask a few people. And when you go on tour, you can come with us," he said. "I would really like that," she said. "You think you can get me on in time, I start touring this Friday, it is Wednesday Chris," Crista said laughing a little. "I can work it out, you just go to sleep and I'll call you tomorrow," he said sounding mature. She began to giggle. "What?" he asked seriously but he couldnt hold in his smile. "Nothing," she said. She kissed him tenderly and walked away.

Finally, it was time for the tour. And as promised, Chris worked things out and got her on. "Alright I'm ready to go," Crista said happily putting her stuff on the carrage holder of the bus. "This is so not fair, she gets her own bus. Its only her! All 5 of us have to share," Jesse said a little frustrated. "Well what to you suppose I do Jesse, let her stay on your bus and crowd us more?" their tour manager Noah asked. Noah was only about 20 years old with bleached blonde messy/spikey hair with electric baby blue eyes. "Well no, I don't want that either," Jesse said confused. "Well thats all I can do," he said shrugging and walking away. "Ha!" Crista said sticking her tongue out at Jesse and walking on the bus. Jesse just rolled his eyes while laughing. Crista got inside her bus and looked around contently. Just then her cell rang just as Chris came up the bus stairs. She looked at Chris and put her finger up as to mean wait a second and picked up her phone. He stood patiently on the stairs as she put the phone to her ear. "Hello?" she said. She sat listening for a moment. "Uh, yes he is, is there a problem?" she said. Chris looked concerned when Crista's expression turned worried. "Uhh--ye-yeah go ahead," she said as her voice stuttered and cracked and she ran to get a piece of paper and a pencil, she quickly jotted something down. "Alright, are you sure that's what he said? Okay thank you," she hung up and the phone and stared at it. "Is everything okay?" Chris asked. "Uh yeah sure," she said smiling and she grabbed the piece of paper and stuck it in her pocket. "Everything's perfect, so what did you want?" she asked. Chris could tell she was fighting back tears, he knew her body language all too well. She couldn't hide anything from Chris. He watched her too carefully and she knew it. "Uh, oh yeah Noah said we're leaving and that we're not getting a hotel tonite. We're just gonna keep driving until it gets too late and park the buses, then continue tomorrow," he explained. "Okay thanks," she said. Chris was about to walk down the stairs when he turned back around "Are you SURE you're okay?" he asked again. She gave a nervous laugh. "Never better," she said kissing him. "I'll see you tomorrow," she added. "Alright," Chris said walking off the bus and they were off.

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It was the next day and they had been driving practically all day. Chris was uneasy the whole time. "Chris, are you okay? You've been staring into space ever since you woke up," Frankie asked. "Yeah, I'm just tired. I'm not used to waking up early yet I guess," he said. "Um okay" frankie said shrugigng. Chris was too anxious to see Crista. Chris was staring out the window when he saw a convience store. "TRUCK STOP!" he screamed as everyone looked at him. "Noah please, let's pull over we've been driving since 10 AM," Chris begged. "Why?" noah asked. "Uh I'm hungry, and thirsty, and a lot of other things," Chris said nervously saying anything that popped in his head. "He just wants to see Crriisssstaaa," matt said in a teasing voice pushing Chris. Noah smiled. "Oh fine truck stop," he said as the bus driver pulled over. "Thank you!" he screamed. He jumped off the bus and waited for Crista's to stop. It did but Crista didn't come out, wich made him worry more. The doors opened but only to Chris' let down it was the bus driver. "Oh yea, Crista's in her bunk. I think she's asleep," he said. Chris ran onto the bus and started searching through bunks quickly. "Crista?" he said. He opened a curtain and Crista jumped out obviously frightened. She began to wipe her face wich was moist and red and her eyes were blood shot and waterey. "Are you okay?" he asked putting his arms out to embrace her. "I'm fine," she said roughly pushing his hands back. "Crista you're crying," he said in a dramatic tone, he didn't like seeing her hurt no matter what it was for. He wanted to hold her everytime he did. "I'm fine I promise, it's a cold I swear. She said pushing past him hiding her face and running out of the bus. Naturally Chris followed and grabbed her arm to pull her back. He looked down at her wrist which had blood stained gause on it wrapped in medical tape. He held her hand and looked at it for a moment and back up at her face which she was obviously trying to turn so he couldn't see her tears. "Did you do that?" he asked as his voice got almost to a whisper. "No! I told you, I have a cold. And, and I just cut it by accident last night okay?" she said wiping the tears. He knew she was trying to hide that she had done it. He pulled up her sleeve to her elbow and saw more cuts wrapped in gause and medical tape. He took her other arm and saw the same amout of cuts from her palm to where her elbow began. If she would have cut the main veins in that area she would have bled to death. "I know this wasn't an accident," he said trying to look into her eyes but she resisted by putting her head down with her chin touching her chest. She sobbed harder and he also knew she was in fact crying, extremely hard now. But she insisted on keeping her head down and letting the tears hit the ground and run down her cheeks. He was going to say something else but the guys came out of the convience store. "Hey Chris we're ready to leave," Noah called from afar. "Hey man can I ride with Crista for a while, I really need to settle something," he said with pleading in his eyes. "Alright," Noah said. The guys got on the bus and so did Crista's driver. Crista pulled her arms away from Chris and ran on to the bus. Chris slowly followed. He got on and knew Crista had thrown herself into one of the bunks. He opened the curtain to see her crying just as hard. "Will you please come out and talk to me," he said almost in a begging voice. He heard her sigh and and rolled out of the bunk. She walked into the back room and sat on the couch waiting for him. Chris walked in cautiously and shut the door behind him. She sat with her back slouched and her arms crossed. "Okay, you got a phone call yesterday, I knew something was wrong. Now I find you crying in your bunk with slashes all the way up your arm. You HAVE to tell me what's going on," Chris said in a sympathetic voice. The emotions flowing almost made him want to cry which was weird. She took in a deep breath, wiped her eyes on her sleeve and sat up. "The call I got yesterday was Littleton Sospital. My dad's heart is acting up again, this time it was really bad and ended him up there. The nurse told me my dad said to just go on the tour and he would call me," she said almost unable to control herself. "Chris do you have any idea how much I love him? Before any of this..." she said looking around at the expensive bus. "Before you, before Brandon and the streets he was all I had. After he left, I had nothing until I met you, which I'm also grateful for but I don't know if you're always gonna be here Chris and he's the only thing I have left after that. If I lost him I couldn't live myself. Which is when it came to this," she said pulling up her sleeves and showing him the aided cuts again. "I dont know what got into me, I've done it before. I just got some weird idea he wasn't going to make it this time and I thought...I just thought if he had to go then I was going with him," she said as tears began to fall again. Chris sat and looked into Crista's eyes. It was almost like he could feel her pain, all of it. The emotions, the tears, the cuts. Just from looking at her. "Crista your dad's a strong person I know as well as you he's going to be around for a lot longer. But you know he is going to have to go someday. I found that out for myself," Chris said looking at his feet. "What do you mean?" she asked. "Well I bet you wondered why you hadn't met my dad...now you know," he said not even wanting to remember it, seeing Crista going through this was like taking him back in time and all those foul emotions were returning. But it could be different. Chris felt he had no one to talk to when it happened to him, even though Crista's dad was alive he knew what she was going through and he was going to help her. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's alright, lemme help you," he said taking out the first aid kit and taking a hold of her left arm gentally. He easily peeled the tape off and removed to gause revealing the grusome cut. "Eh, what's the press gonna say when they see these huge scars on my arms?" Crista said trying to laugh a litte. "Well, if they say anything bad about it, I'll kick their ass," Chris said cleaning her wounds for her as she laughed a little. Later on as the sun began to go down crista was all cleaned up and falling asleep quick. Chris grabbed a blanket and laid down next to her.

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"Pull over Richey, I think we should park for the night, I better check on Crista and Chris too," Noah said to the bus driver. They pulled over and Noah looked back at the guys sleeping. Then quietly crept into Crista's bus and into the back only to see them sleeping, Crista in Chris' arms, safely. He smiled to himself and left.

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