Chapter Two – Who's The Hottest Rock Star I Know?
The crowd went wild with cheers and Chris Keller finished his last set. Waving to his well earned crowd of adoring fans, he set his guitar back into its beat old case covered with bumper stickers on he had collected over the years. "Thanks you! You guys were exceptional tonight!" He called out to his fans. The two blonde bimbos that he had invited on stage to dance next to him threw themselves against him. Showering him with hugs and kisses on the cheek, Chris politely pried off his future stalkers and bowed to his crowd before exiting on stage left. An over weight short woman practically dodged herself in front of Chris blocking his path.
Chris rolled his eyes and sighed. "We have to stop meeting like this Mary-Ann." He chuckled to himself and patted her on the shoulder as he brushed past her.
His passive blow off didn't stop Mary-Ann. She treaded fastly after Chris and pulled out her palm pilot out of her purse. "Great show Mr. Keller." She said preparing to read off the announcements she had written earlier that had just been updated.
"Thanks, Chris Keller is pleased himself." Chris retorted in the third person.
Usually this would have aggravated Mary-Ann, Chris' personal assistant, but she didn't have the time to even bother correcting him. "First off: A Miss Haley James called you –again might I add– while you were performing; she left a message asking for you to call her back when you have the time. She was wondering about-"
Chris cut her off. "I'll call her back tomorrow. Next."
Mary-Ann sighed. Half from frustration of being assigned to work with such an arrogant asshole, such as Chris Keller, and if she didn't need the money so bad she would have walked out years ago. And the other half of that sigh was for Miss James. Chris and Haley had been friends for a long time, but ever since he started dating the blonde girl with the funny name, he had been avoiding Haley's calls. Making her lie and say he was out when he was indeed in the same room. Infact, she have vowed to herself after hanging up with Haley earlier that night, she wasn't going to help him avoid her calls anymore. Chris Keller was going to have to face whatever problem he was having with Haley and as the motto goes: "sooner is always better, then later."
A few stage hands and crew members said their praises to Chris about his performance before she continued. "The new shipment of shirts you ordered last week came in earlier this morning." She gestured towards the black t-shirt she was wearing, but Chris didn't even glance over before giving his nod of approval. There are exactly three thousand t-shits in those boxes. Brad counted them and then I counted them myself, twice." She waited again for as much as a nod. But when it didn't come, she continued. "Your fan mail is all in your closet back at the hotel, and a letter from a Nathan Scott and Brooke Davis arrived for you."
The two names caught Chris' attention. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face Mary-Ann. "Do you have it on you?" Chris practically demanded.
Mary-Ann shook her head. "No. I'm sorry I wasn't thinking." She hung her head. "I placed it on top of your laptop back in the hotel. I could go-" Mary-Ann started but Chris cut her off.
"No. It's fine." Chris said positioning himself back in the direction he was originally headed. "Continue."
"And last a Miss…" Mary-Ann paused a minute to check her palm pilot before continuing. Mary-Ann opened her mouth to continue after checking her facts, but was cut off.
"Hey Keller." A voice came from behind the two.
Both Chris spun around in unison to face the person who had called out to Chris. Chris's body relaxed when he recognized a familiar blonde was the person behind the voice. "Hey Sawyer."
Mary-Ann, a little out of the loop didn't even bother to look back at Chris's visitor. She had a pretty good guess who the female behind that voice was. So instead, she out through the back door, and into the parking lot. Pulling a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, she lit on up and took in a deep breath. Letting the smokey air out of her lungs she read the note she was about to read Chris. Peyton Sawyer is here. The note read. Surprise, surprise. She thought to herself before deleting the message.
Chris walked up to Peyton with ease and gave her a hug. "You're here." He said with a confused smile.
"I'm here." Peyton answered with a chuckle. She gave Chris another hug. "Surprised?"
"This definitely is a surprise." Chris laughed to no one in particular. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think that you were coming until tomorrow."
"No. You're right." Peyton laughed. "It turns out Jenny only had the stomach flu, so Jake released me of my guardianship duties so I could come back early."
"Nice." Chris held out his arm, gesturing for her to grab on to his had. Catching the gesture, she laced her fingers with him comfortable. "Come on." He said illusively.
Peyton laughed. "Where are we going, Master?" she asked sarcastically.
"Master, huh? That's hot." He said putting in his own sarcastic opinion. "And to answer you question. We're going to the bar. Where else?"
"Where else?" Peyton laughed with enthusiasm.
About twenty minutes later, Chris Keller had managed to get past his stalker fans and now was sitting comfortably on a stool at the bar next to Peyton.
"Another round of doubles for me and Goldie Locks." Chris told the thin brunette bartender behind the counter.
"Coming right up." She said with a smile.
Chris turned his attention back to Peyton. "So how is Jake liking New York?" Chris, personally, really could careless about Jake or how he was liking the move to New York, but it mattered to Peyton, so he pretended to care.
"Thanks for the false enthusiasm." She said catching onto his lack of interest. "He's liking it. Jenny is loving first grade. And Nicki still hast caught up with them. Which is good, I guess."
The bartender put their drinks in front of Peyton and Chris. Chris downed another shot before responding to what Peyton had told him.
"You guess? Isn't Nicki that crazy bitch who keeps trying to steal his kid?" Chris asked. Peyton nodded. "I could hire someone to take care of her."
"Take care of her?" Peyton asked sipping down her shot.
"Yeah. I could hire someone to kill her. Like a hit man." Chris informed his drunken girlfriend.
"That's a sweat idea, babe." Peyton said sincerely before breaking out into a fit of laughs. "But I don't think it will fly well with Jake." She patted Chris on the shoulder and stood up. "Ok soldier. Lets have that driver of yours take us back to what ever five star hotel your staying at."
"You want to see the guys?" He asked referring to his band members.
Peyton seemed to find the question hysterical. "I said the hotel, not the tour bus your band is stuck on." Peyton pulled Chris to his feet and gave him an over dramatic wink. "Let's go."
Chris put a hundred dollar bill on the counter for the bartender to pay for the drinks. It was clear the Chris that Peyton was way worse off then he was. Apparently it only took half the drinks to get her drunk, then it did to get him to the same stage she was at now. Picking her up and pulling her over his shoulder he laughed and called out to his driver. "Let's go! Chris Keller is getting laid!"
The driver excused himself politely from the game of pool he was in the middle of and followed Chris and his girlfriend out of the bar.
By the time the hour long drive through traffic back to the hotel was over, Peyton had sobered up some. She had passed out immediately after falling into the car and the speed bump in the road had awoken her.
"She's alive! She's alive!" Chris called out quoting a line from Young Frankenstein. "How was passing out?"
"I'm sorry. Were you planning on getting laid tonight or not?" Peyton shot back. It always amazed Chris how she could recover so quickly. Anyone else would look like crap at the moment, if they were in Peyton's shoes, but not Peyton. Her blonde curls actually looked better when they had been flattened a little. Only then did he really take notice to what Peyton was wearing. Looking at her over all appearance, he laughed. "Shut up!" She said smacking his arm.
"No. You look fine." He reassured her. "But what in the hell is that shirt about?"
"I should ask you. They wouldn't let me back stage unless I was wearing it." She said holding out her t-shirt and reading it. "Who's The Hottest Rock Star I Know?" She said reading the front of the shirt out loud.
Chris laughed. "I don't know, Blondie. You tell me."
As an answer she turned her back towards Chris for him to read. The back of the black shirt read: Chris Keller! Chris chuckled to himself. Nice Mary-Ann. Real Nice. He thought to himself.
"Who is this Chris Keller they speak of?" Chris asked Peyton who had readjusted herself comfortably in her seat.
"Just some loser guy I'm dating." Peyton said sarcastically with a smile.
"A loser, huh? Is he at least good in bed?" Chris chuckles to himself.
"He's decent." Peyton smiled.
"Decent, huh?" Chris leaned in and kissed Peyton. "Who's the better kisser?"
"Oh, definitely him." Peyton whispered into his ear.
"Oh, is that right?" Chris said tickling her side.
"Stop it!" Peyton called out between laughs.
"I'm sorry who's the better kisser?" Chris asked ignoring her pleas.
"I told you! He is!"
"Wrong answer!" Chris said continuing to make her squeal. "I'll ask you again: who's the better kisser! I am! Say it!"
"Fine! I'll say it!" Peyton snorted.
"What?" Chris asked ignoring her.
"I said fine. You're the better kisser." She told him. "Good answer?"
"Great answer." He said giving her quick peck on the cheek.
Settling himself back into his seat, Chris watched the buildings fly by outside his window. He loved being in California. Peyton scooted over next to her boy friend and whispered something discretely into his ear, before kissing his neck softly. Chris pushed a button on a small remote making the window that separated him and Peyton from the driver. "I want to be at the hotel in the next five minutes!" Chris called out to him and rolled back up the window and turned his attention back to Peyton.
An hour later Peyton climbed out of the king size hotel bed and wrapped a white linen sheet around herself. Pulling on Chris' boxers and her new 'Who's The Hottest Rock Star I Know?' t-shirt she smirked at Chris.
"Where do you think you're going?" Chris asked.
"Down to the Lobby. I saw a Coffee Bean on the way up." She informed her naked boyfriend."
"Girl. Get naked and back in bed." Chris told her.
Peyton put her hands on her hips and laughed. "You want me to get you something?"
"You know what I like." Chris said sitting up and pulling on his pants. Grabbing his laptop off the nightstand next to him he almost didn't notice the large square envelope on top of his lap top. "Paying me for my services?" Chris asked jokingly.
Peyton rolled her eyes, already knowing what was in the envelope. She had received hers last week. "Just open it."
Chris pulled open the envelope and read the card.
You're invited to the wedding of Nathan Scott and Brooke Davis.
Chris read the over the rest of the of the invitation, which basically consisted of the when, the where, the what to wear, the what to bring, and the time. "Brooke and Nathan are getting married?"
"You knew they were engaged. It was bound to happen sometime." Peyton said practically.
"True." Chris said thinking about it.
"So…Are you going?" Peyton asked Chris.
"Are you?"
"I'm the maid of honor. I have to go." Peyton laughed.
"Then count me in." Chris said setting the invitation back on the dresser and laying back down.
"Great. You can be my date." Peyton said truly excited. "We're leaving for Tree Hill tomorrow night." She informed him.
Chris sat back up. "What?"
"I have maid of honor duties. So pack your bags, Keller. We're going to North Carolina.
