Back to the Dream Page
Chapter 1
Ring! Ring!
Kathryn rushed to open the door to her apartment, fumbling with the keys in her hand. The phone rang again and she threw the door open, dropping her stuff on a couch nearby on her way to the phone. Breathlessly, she picked up. "Hello?"
"About time someone answered!"
Kat broke into a huge smile when she heard his voice. "Chris! How are you?"
He laughed. "I'm great actually. What's with you? You sound out of breath."
"I just got back. I was at the door when the phone started ringing."
"Okay, okay. Stop whining!"
"I'm not whining!"
"Yes, you are!" Chris laughed.
"Oh, stop it! Why are you calling anyway? I just talked to you the other day!"
"What? I can't call my best friend when I want?"
"You know it's not that. Is something wrong?"
"Of course not. Does something have to be wrong?"
"Please, Chris. What do you want?"
He dropped his voice, speaking quietly into the receiver. "Are you alone?"
"What?" Kat burst out laughing at his attempt to be scary, but she decided to play along. "Yeah, I'm alone right now."
"You sure?"
Kat looked around the room quickly. "Yeah, I am. Why?" A click followed and the dial tone rung in her ear. "What the… Hello?" She frowned slightly, hanging up the phone and jumped when a knock came on the door. Opening it, she let out a gasp. There stood Chris, a bouquet in hand and a smile on his face. "Chris! What are you doing here?"
"Well hello to you, too! That's a nice welcome for someone you haven't seen in a year."
She held the door open, letting him into the apartment as he handed her the bunch of daisies. "Thank you," she said, going around to put them in a free vase. As he settled down, she continued to talk to him, completely oblivious to the look he was giving her and missing how closely he watched her. "Oh geez, it's been so long since we've last seen each other. Could it already have been a year? It can't be! So much has happened since then. Details? Let's see… The group is still going strong and we still talk a lot, or as much as we can these days. Have you heard from them lately? So yeah, they're doing their stuff and I'm still here in school. It sucks being the baby of the group, looking up to all of you and being behind, but oh well. I finally graduate this year and I've already looked into some possible job openings. If those don't work out though, I may just go back home and work at the hospital there." She paused to take in a breath and caught Chris looking at her strangely. "What?" She finally placed the vase down in front of her on the table and took a seat next to him. "You okay?" She placed a cool hand on his forehead to check if he was ill.
Quickly, Chris drew himself back into the present and pushed his daydreams away. "Of course I'm fine." He saw her give a doubtful look and tried to get her to feel better. "Really, I'm okay."
"If you say so… So anyway, what have you been up to? I see you finally cut your hair!"
"What!? Has it really been that long? How can you not know about my new look? Someone hasn't been paying attention to the news lately," he joked.
"Well unfortunately, I'm too busy to keep track of things such as what you currently look like," she smiled.
"Ouch! Can't keep track of me now? I'm hurt!"
They laughed when the door suddenly flew open once more. "Kat? Can you help me here?"
Kathryn drew herself up, now laughing at her roommate. "What in the world did you do, Dee? Buy out the entire mall?"
"Very funny Kat. Will you just give me a hand already?" But before Kat could take another step, one of the bags her roommate held fell from the pile she carried. And then another… And another… Everyone froze, seeing the mess on the floor, but Kat couldn't keep herself from giggling. "What?" Dee demanded.
"I'm just thinking how everyone says I'm the clumsy one."
Dee threw her friend a glare as they all bent down to start picking everything up. As she reached over to pick up a magazine, she saw a hand snatch it away from her before she could reach it. She looked up and saw a stranger grinning down at the magazine cover.
"A teeny bopper magazine?" He laughed.
"Who are you?" Dee questioned back.
"Pardon my manners," he replied, smiling easily. "I'm Chris."
"Ahh… Finally, I get to meet the famous Chris Kat always talks about."
"And you are…"
"Dee." She reached out a hand and took Chris's hand.
"So…" Dee gave him a puzzled look. "You going to answer me?"
"Answer what?"
"What are you doing with a teenybopper magazine?"
"Don't ask me. I don't know anything about that stuff. I got the magazine for Kat over here."
Kat's roommate threw her the magazine and she blushed. "Dee!" she whined.
Chris's eyes sparkled with laughter but with one look from his best friend, he wisely kept his mouth shut.
Once everything had been gathered back into their bags, Dee escaped to her room while Kat went to put the groceries away. Chris tagged along, watching her as he sat at the counter. "So where were we?" Chris asked.
"Beats me," Kat shrugged.
"Well in that case…"
"Yes?"
"Why do you get those magazines?"
Kat whirled around, laughter escaping her mouth. "Chris! What in the world do you think? Of course I have to keep up with how you're doing somehow! You don't tell me anything these days!"
"Yes, I do!" Chris protested.
"Sure, Chris. I'll let you believe that one."
"Thank you."
Kat rolled her eyes before turning back to continue filling the cupboards. "So how long are you here for?"
"Unfortunately, only a day. We leave tomorrow night."
"Typical," Kat muttered under her breath. Thank goodness she had her back toward him to hide the unhappy look she had on her face.
"What's that?" Chris questioned.
She glanced over her shoulder and forced a smile onto her face. "Nothing," she said a little too quickly.
"No way. You're hiding something from me. What's wrong?" He rose from his seat and walked over to her, forcing her to turn around and face him. "Now, what's wrong?"
Despite her hold of control, the tears formed in her eyes quickly and started to spill. She lowered her face in an attempt to hide them, but it was too late. Gently, he tipped her face up and she saw how concern had flooded his features. "You know how much I hate it when you have to leave so soon! It's no fair to any of you at all, or to any of us left behind when you leave! I don't know what's worse, seeing you once every few weeks for a day only to realize how much I miss you and then have that time stolen away or to never see you at all and then letting the pain just grow to a dull ache."
Chris gave her a sad smile. "I know. Don't think for one minute that I don't feel the same way. It's terribly lonely on the road and although I love the guys unconditionally, I sometimes wish things were different. You don't know how much I long to have a normal kind of life."
Kat closed her eyes, letting it all sink into her yet another time and understanding him.
"I chose to live this hell, though. Despite all its setbacks, I wouldn't trade what I have now for anything in the world, at least nothing comes to mind right now. This is my life and I've got to live it. Kat? You okay?"
Kat blinked her eyes open and gave him a small smile. "Yeah, I'm all right. Just got a little emotional there. Oh, Chris, I missed you so much."
She came close for a hug and awkwardly, Chris returned it. If only you knew how much I missed you, Kathryn…
He broke away first. "Hey, would you want to come to a little get together the guys and I are having tomorrow? After the radio show and autograph signing that is."
"Do you have to ask?"
"I'll pick you up around noon then. We'll have some lunch, all right? Oh, and bring Dee along too if she wants to come."
"No problem. You gotta get going, huh?"
"Yeah. We had a long drive over here and I'm beat. I would ask if I could crash here but the guys would get into a hissy fit if I didn't get back at the hotel."
"All right then. So until tomorrow."
"Yeah." He gave her a brotherly kiss on the forehead before stepping out into the hallway. As soon as he heard the door click shut behind him, he let out a mixed sigh of relief and frustration. Damn it, Chris! You were supposed to tell her tonight! Why didn't you? He knew the answer. He didn't want to jeopardize their closeness, their friendship for a try at something more. But he had to try. That was why they'd come here in the first place!
An idea sprung into his mind and he knew what to do then. Whistling on his way down the stairs, he found he couldn't wipe the stupid grin off his face. His bodyguard eyed him curiously as they got into the cab that took them back to the hotel. Once there, JC was the first to notice the change in Chris's attitude. "Hey! How'd it go? You tell Kat yet?"
"Nope."
"Then why-"
"Night, JC." Chris said as he walked into his room and shut the door behind him.
JC and the others in the room gave each other puzzled looks but let it go. Once their friend was ready, he'd come to them. Until then…