Chapter Seventeen
Krista climbed on her bus later that
night followed by JC. Dan looked up
from his laptop to give her a questioning look. He didn’t have to say a word and she knew what exactly was going
on in his head. She rolled her eyes and
pushed the side of his head, “You’re an asshole.” She said playfully, “Tell that hamster in your head to lay off
the wheel.” She teased as they made
their way towards the back of the bus.
“Glad
to see you’re back to normal.” Dan
replied as he sat back in his seat.
Krista
rolled her eyes again and went into the back compartment with JC, shutting the
door behind them, “Ignore him.”
JC
shrugged and smiled, “Kay.” He glanced
around and noticed the quiet surroundings, “Where’s Pauley and James?”
She
flopped down onto a couch, “Probably fucking the wardrobe department.” She retorted, “They said that they weren’t
taking the bus to the next venue.”
JC
sat down next to her, “That doesn’t worry you?”
She
gave him a side glance before reaching for the TV remote, “I know it’s hard to
believe, but Pauley and James are adults and can handle their own lives.” She shrugged, “I’m sure they’ll make it to
the next venue in one piece.”
JC
ignored her sarcastic tone, “Is that normal for them not to take the bus?”
She
raised an eyebrow at him, “Why do you care?”
JC
shrugged, “Just didn’t know that it was normally you and Dan on the bus.”
Krista
rolled her eyes, “You should, you’re here enough.”
JC
grinned, “Yeah, I guess I should. Heck,
I should just take your bus all the time.”
He teased.
She
laughed, “Yeah, cuz that would go over well with your security.”
“I’m
here, aren’t I?”
Krista
smirked, “Yeah, lucky me.”
JC
leaned back on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table, “Now I
know why James and Pauley don’t take your bus, so they don’t have to deal with
you.”
“You’re
here with me.” She pointed out and got
up to put in a movie for them to watch.
JC
smirked as he tried to irritate Krista even more, “I get paid to entertain
you. You know by the guys, because I’m
your favorite Nsyncer.”
Krista
threw him a look over her shoulder, “You obviously don’t get paid enough, cuz I
know how much they make.”
“Eh.”
He shrugged, “I gave them a discount because I’m a sucker for punishment.”
“Yeah,
I bet you’re a freaky deaky, S & M type.”
She smirked, “The quiet ones are
always the freaks.” She winked and
turned around after she had started the movie, “You want something to drink?”
He
smiled, “A water would be great.”
“Kay.” She moved up towards the kitchen on the bus.
JC watched her pull out two waters
from the fridge. Dan called to her, but
he couldn’t hear because of the movie they had started. As much as he was joking before, it actually
bothered him that Dan and Krista spent time alone, especially after Dan
confessed his love for her earlier that day.
Dan and Krista had such an intertwined relationship it was difficult to
really tell what either of them felt about each other. Krista had talked about how she was over
Dan, but then she would go on and on about how wonderful he was and all the
great things he did for her. They knew
each other so well that they didn’t even have to say anything to know what the
other was thinking. Dan was definitely
a threat to JC and his chances of having a relationship with Krista.
Later that night, JC woke and noticed
that Krista wasn’t in her bunk with him.
He pushed away the curtain and noticed a light on in the front of the
bus. Sleepily he crawled out of the
bunk and made his way to the front. At
the kitchen table Krista was huddled over her journal, hurriedly writing
something.
JC didn’t want to scare her so he
knocked softly on the cabinet to grab her attention. She wrote a few more words before sitting up and looking at JC,
“Hey.” She pushed her hair out of her face and wiped her forehead.
JC
slid in across from her, “Everything alright?”
Krista
slumped back against her seat, “Yeah, I’m fine.” She played with the corner of her journal that had flipped
closed.
“You
always write in your journal at 4:30 in the morning?”
She
shrugged, “Sometimes. Depends on what
kind of night I’m having.”
JC
took the bait, “What kind of night are you having?”
“A
common one.” She replied evasively and
it was obvious to JC that Krista wasn’t into talking tonight.
“Okay.”
She
took a deep breath, “When there are a lot of things going on in me head I have
to write them down so that I can get to sleep.”
JC
reached across the table, “Do you want to talk about it?”
Krista
pulled away, “There’s nothing to talk about.
I wrote it all down and it’s out of my head.”
JC
frowned, “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“Because
there’s nothing to tell. I seriously
had to write down a few random things.
That’s all. It’s stuff I had to
do in the next few days. If I didn’t
write it down, I’d never get to sleep because I’d worry about forgetting it
all. So, I wrote it all down and now I
can get some sleep.” She huffed,
annoyed at his endless interrogation.
“Hey…”
JC backed up from the table, “It just looked like there was more going on than
you writing a to do list.”
She
shook her head, “There’s not, I’m fine.”
“As
you mentioned before.” JC said eyeing
her suspiciously.
“What?” She asked becoming more irritated at his
questioning,
“I
didn’t say anything.” He shrugged.
Krista
rolled her eyes, “Fine, I’m going to bed.”
She got up, taking her journal with her and went towards the back of the
bus.
JC watched her and noticed that she
disappeared into the back compartment of the bus. He got up and followed her into the back room, “Uh, Krissie?”
Krista
whipped around, “What?” She hissed,
“Don’t you have to get some sleep?”
It
took JC a moment to respond, “Yeah, but I was wondering why you were back here
instead of your bunk.” He asked
quietly,
“Because
I can’t take the closeness of the bunk tonight. I’m just going to sleep back here. I do it all the time.”
“Do
you want me to stay—”
“No.” She said shortly, “I need to be by myself.”
JC
began to protest, “But…”
“Jace,
take my bunk and go to sleep. Good
night.”
“Okay,
goodnight.” He said softly and went
back to her bunk to get some sleep.