Lucky 13

I nearly dropped the blow dryer when I saw that he had in fact knocked the lamp off of night stand. I froze in place for a moment my hair still half way damp and my heart pounding. How was I going to explain this to him after he already had me in the back of his mind as a suspect because of the framed developer?

Criss drew in a deep breath and attempted to stable the lamp back onto its base.

"I'm not even going to ask why or how that got in there…" He shut his eyes for a brief moment as he struggled with the lamp shade.

I walked out of the bathroom and next to the edge of the bed. "It's not what you think, honestly. I found that in your mailbox."

Criss rubbed his temples giving up on trying to get the shade straight. "Oh? It just fucking magically appeared in there? You're the only one with the key!"

Great, keep digging the hole deeper…

"Why would I want to kill you!" I yelled.

Criss narrowed his eyes into mine and I felt awkwardly intimidated.

"You tell me!"

"This is ridiculous! You should know me better than this!" I shook my head.

"What am I supposed to think?!" He tossed his hands up in the air.

I shrugged. "Look at the note, it's not my handwriting…"

Criss ripped open the draw the again and pulled out the yellow sticky note.

"Anyone could have written this… it's in plain all capital letters." He sighed and tossed the note back into the drawer.

Well, that was true, so much for that proclaiming my innocence.

"Someone is framing me… I swear it. I found that note in your mailbox last night and I just didn't have time to show it to you, I found it along with the pick or whatever that thing is." I rambled.

He bit his bottom lip and appeared to think for a moment.

"What volume or strength… or whatever it is called… of developer do you use on my hair?" He asked out of the blue.

My eyebrows stitched. "40, why?"

"That's what was sitting by the coffee and if someone was going to "frame" you, how would they know that unless they were involved in hair?" He pointed out.

I pondered. He was right, they wouldn't. That wasn't helping my case any at all either.

"They probably wouldn't." I answered honestly.

Criss nodded. "And no one is in that room with us when you do my hair besides me and you… so who would know but you. And with my pick… I don't know how you figured that one out…"

He looked calm, too calm. I was waiting for him to snap.

"Criss… you need to sleep. Seriously, I DID NOT do any of this!" I replied as I folded my arms.

He brushed past me and walked towards my side of closet.

"What are you doing?" I questioned as I watched him sort through my clothes.

"Where the hell is your suitcase?!" He yelled.

"My suitcase! What?!" I ran over to him and forcefully tugged on his arm.

"I want you to leave…" He replied still remaining so composed I thought I was going to pull my hair out.

"I'm NOT leaving until you KNOW I'm not the one who is trying to fucking kill you! This is bullshit!" I attempted to close the closet on him but my suitcase jammed the door.

"I am serious right now Sarah, I want you to leave… I don't care where you go even if it's just next door to Elaine's for the night and then home, I need to think. This is getting way too fucked up right now." He tossed my luggage onto the bed and began to toss random clothes and objects of mine inside of it.

I sat on the bed growing numb, this couldn't be happening… this was insane. I didn't know what to do or say to stop him from blaming me for what was going on. Even I knew that the situation at hand made me look like the guilty one. I just didn't want the next move from this psychopath to be fatal and for Criss to be kicking himself in the ass that he thought it was me.

"Can't this wait until tomorrow…" I finally broke out of my silence as he zipped my suitcase.

"No. If you don't leave I'll call security." He muttered as he starred down at the floor.

"What the hell are they going to do? Say hello to me?" I laughed.

Criss didn't find that amusing and just stood there anxiously tapping his foot.

I stood up and faced him trying to catch his eyes in mine.

"You really do want me to leave don't you?" I choked.

He nodded still staring at the floor. "I-I think it's best if you do."

I went to reach out for his hand but he pulled away causing the lump in my throat to smooth out into tears.

"You're making a huge mistake… I hope you know that." I wiped my cheek.

Criss blinked a bit and I heard him sniff. "I hope I'm not… but right now I'm too confused to make any other choice, rational or irrational."

I grabbed my suitcase from the bed and wheeled it to the bedroom door. "This is completely irrational. You'll figure that out soon enough."

~*~

Elaine was back from Ohio, thank God. She let me in with welcoming arms and the rest of the night we stayed up crying both about Matt and Criss. It was one of those disgusting girl nights that you see portrayed on T.V. where both boxes of Kleenex and ice cream are empty. I wasn't too sure what was going to happen with my job. I didn't know if I was fired but from the sound of Criss it sure seemed like I was.

When I woke up the next morning Elaine said that Kristy had called her to inform me that Criss had in fact fired me. Great, now I was jobless. Kristy actually came up to Elaine's room with the papers instead of me going down to the theater. I thought that was a little much. He was taking this to the extreme. After I had signed the papers Elaine got a phone call from the Luxor management that we needed to be out of the hotel by that afternoon due to security requests. I thought the whole situation was bullshit. When I headed over to Criss's room to gather the rest of my belongs he answered the door with Sully at his side.

"Hey 13!" Sully greeted.

"Hey…" I muttered as I headed straight for the bathroom avoid Criss who had given me nothing but a head bob as an acknowledgement.

"Where are my sunglasses?" I searched through the living room in hurry feeling like I was being timed.

"I don't know, did you check your purse?" Criss sighed.

"Yeah, they're not in there…" I replied as I looked between the couch cushions.

Sully searched through the kitchen and Criss scanned the bedroom both returning empty handed.

"Whatever… I'll just another a damned pair." I headed for the door and Criss nodded slightly.

"Oh, hey… I set up a plane ticket for you back home. It leaves tomorrow at noon." He pointed out.

"Oh, thanks a million! So happy… you know, dump me, pack my suitcase, fire me and HOLYSHIT buy me a plane ticket home, you're a great guy!" I snapped.

Sully disappeared back into the kitchen and focused his attention on Hammy.

Criss leaned his head against the wall of the foyer and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry but what am I supposed to do?"

"Maybe trust me that I'm not trying to murder my own boyfriend!" I replied.

He glanced around the room and then back at me.

"But all the facts are obvious…" He reached for the door to assist me out.

"I thought you were trained to look beyond facts." I mumbled as I headed out the door.