Chapter Eighteen
The
next day, Krista sat down quietly next to JC, “Hey.”
“Hey.” He replied, eyeing her quickly. He didn’t know what to expect from her
lately and especially after last night on the bus.
Krista
took a deep breath, “Look, I’m sorry about last night. I have times when I can’t handle being
around people. I get super claustrophobic and just being near people makes my
skin crawl. I can’t do anything about it until the feeling goes away. I didn’t
mean to be short with you last night. I
just needed to by myself. It had nothing to do with you.”
“You’re
okay now?”
She
grinned, “Am I, or am I not sitting next to you?”
“I
guess that answers my question.” He
shook his head, “I was pretty worried about you last night.”
She
twisted her smile to the side, “Yeah, guess, I’m just used to the guys knowing
when I need to be by myself. It’s been so long since I’ve had to explain things
like that, that I forget when new people enter my life. You’re not mad at me, are you?”
JC
shook his head, “No, no, I’m just glad that you told me what was up with you.”
“Okay,
well I have to catch up with the guys.
I’ve got a busy day ahead of me.”
“Kay
Krissie, but hey maybe I can catch up later and we can do something.”
“Yeah
totally.” She grinned, “Bye Josh.” She kissed his cheek and ran off.
JC
waited for the elevator and heard it ding at his floor. As he prepared to board, Krista popped off
the elevator almost running into him, “Oh hey!
I was just coming to see you!”
“Hey
Krissie! What a coincidence I was just
going to see you!” They both laughed,
“What
did you want?” She asked.
“I
got some new music and I wanted to know if you wanted to hear it.”
“Sure! I love listening to new music!” She said excitably and they turned towards
his room chit chatting a bit. “You know
sometimes I have to pinch myself when I’m around you guys.”
“Why?” He laughed,
“Because
I can’t believe that I’m here hanging out with you. Having you ask me to come over and listen to music or watch a
movie like you live down the street from me and we just got home from
school. It’s completely surreal.” She said and he laughed,
“You
sure hide it well.” He said and let her
into his room. He came in after her and
closed the door.
“Yeah,
well I might be getting used to it. The
first time I met you all I was totally freaking inside. I seriously thought I was going to
hyperventilate and break down in tears.”
She giggled.
“Don’t
you think we felt the same way?”
“What,
hyperventilating and breaking down in tears over meeting me?”
JC
slipped a CD into the stereo, “Well maybe without the hyperventilating and
tears but we were all pretty nervous.”
“Why? You guys are so much bigger than us.” She said and flipped back onto his bed. Soft jazz floated through the air and JC sat
down on the bed next to her,
“But
a guy always gets nervous when he meets a gorgeous woman for the first
time. Especially one who knows what she
wants and knows where she’s going.”
Krista
propped herself up on her elbows and stared at JC, “Are you talking about
me? You must be confused.”
“Hell
yeah,” JC said leaning back and laying next to her, “everyone knows that Krista
from the Klemmers is hot. But you know,
in my opinion Krissie is much better than Krista.”
Krista
looked at JC and he had his hand on her hip, “If I didn’t know any better, I
would say that you were trying to seduce me.”
She half teased,
“What
if I was, what would you do?” JC was
dead serious and Krista blinked at the question,
“What
do you mean?”
“What
if I kissed you?” He asked leaning in
towards her,
“What
are you doing?” She asked staring at
him.
“I
don’t know, something that I’ve been wanting to do ever since I met you,
something that just feels so right.” He
said sliding his hand up to the middle of her back pulling her close. Krista was frozen in place as JC moved with
in millimeters of her lips. She could
feel his breath as it swept across her lips.
“I
can’t.” She whispered.
JC’s
eyes flew open and he froze, “What?” He
pulled back a little,
“I
can’t get involved with you. Not like
that, please.” JC was all wide eyed,
“Oh Josh,” she said placing a hand on his cheek softly, “I want to, but I
can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to either of
us.”
JC
moved her hand up to his lips and kissed it, “Why?”
She
stared at his lips kissing her hands, “Because of me, because of you, because
of this crazy world we live in.” She
glanced up into his eyes, “I know how I am and I know that I can’t fit that
into my life, I’m sorry.” She said and
JC flopped onto his back. Krista leaned
in placed her chin on his chest, “I’m sorry, don’t be mad at me, please.”
JC
wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, “Don’t be sorry, I’m not mad,
just a little disappointed, but not mad.”
He said still staring at the ceiling.
“You
know, you don’t know how many times I’ve run this moment through my mind and
this is definitely not how I imagined it would end.”
JC
smiled and looked down at her, “How did it used to end?” He inquired playfully,
“You
declaring your love for me, saying that you couldn’t live your life without
me. Then throwing me on the bed where
we made passionate love till the sun rose.”
She said dramatically laying the back of her hand on her forehead and JC
chuckled,
“Interesting,
I definitely could do that last part.” He said wiggling his eyebrows at her and
she poked him,
“Horny
boy.” She joked,
“Hey,
I’ve got Krista Journey in my arms.
What else am I supposed to think about?”
“Cold
showers.” She replied laughing.
“Guess
I’m going to have to huh?”
“You’re
not mad at me?”
He
shook his head, “No, I respect your reasons, though I wish I could change
them.”
“Maybe
some day, okay?”
“Can
I hold you to that?”
“Yeah,
you can.” She grinned up at him,
“You’re too cool and persistent to give up for forever.”
“Nice to know.”
He whispered to her and caressed the side of his cheek, “Make me a
promise.”
“What?”
“That things won’t get weird between us.”
“Why would they?”
She inquired,
“I don’t know, I just like having you in my life,
even if it’s as a friend.”
“I like having you in my life too. I promise that things won’t get weird
between us.”
“Good.”