To Stand By Him
I woke up with a horrible headache and my stomach was in knots, the light shining through Chris' window was blinding to me it stung my eyes and I had to shut them right when I opened them. I would have just curled back up into the blankets but some kind of demon from hell was clanking pots and pans around. I groggily stood from the bed and out to the kitchen squinting and grumbling.
"Hey morning Lightweight." Chris smiled brightly, his smile held amusement and complete arrogance that I wanted to slap right off his face.
"Shut up." I groaned dragging myself to the counter and onto the chair sitting there.
"Oh, not very friendly this morning." his smile didn't falter as he dropped a spoon into the sink with a loud clank, I cringed at the noise. "Your head hurt?"
Unlike most stories I heard and very much unlike my dad, I remembered pretty much everything that happened last night, I remembered being given drinks by Jimmy, I remembered being assaulted, I remembered Chris taking me back to his place and us falling asleep.
"I feel like shit."
"yeah you look it too, here." he placed a plate of eggs in front of me but my stomach turned again at the sight.
"Ugh, I don't want to eat anything."
"Well you need to eat something if you want to feel at least a little better."
Looking down at the food miserably I picked up the fork and began to eat. "Remember much?"
"Actually yeah."
"Really? I'm surprised considering how bad you were." He said, I looked up at him, he looked really good, clean and fresh while I was sure I looked like I had been dragged through a gutter.
"I wasn't that bad." I said, Chris looked at me raising an eyebrow.
"You're kidding right?" at the look on my face Chris changed his approach. "Anna, you were a freaking mess, sorry to tell ya." I stared at him.
"I was talking fine."
He paused and stared at me with an odd look, like I was insane. "Anna you slurred every single word you said, I barely understood ya. You couldn't walk home you laughed at a bunch of random things, you were really drunk."
"You're lying." I said, he was, I knew he was, I remembered it, I was speaking fine and walking and everything was fine from how I remembered it.
Chris laughed, "I wish I was, geez you were a mess. You don't remember?"
"What I remember was being able to talk okay and walk after I puked." I grimaced at the memory.
"I think you were worse after that." Chris placed some eggs in the fridge I couldn't tell if he was making fun of me by lying but something told me he wasn't.
"What time is it?"
"Uh," he glanced back at the clock on the wall "two."
"In the afternoon?!"
"Yeah, so get dressed because we need to go talk to Nick." I groaned, the last thing I wanted was to go outside. "Stop it it's your own fault for getting drunk." he smiled.
"It was not my fault.'
"I know, it was "Shfimmy." he said chuckling. "Least that's what you told me last night."
"You're an asshole." I mumbled dragging myself to the small bathroom to take a shower.
The water was warm, not hot it wouldn't go to hot, and I showered quickly so that it wouldn't be stuck on cold in case Chris wanted to shower later.
I shut off the water, feeling a thousand times better then I had when I woke up, still hung over and my head was pounding but I didn't feel so disgusting anymore.
I heard a knock at the door, "Clean shirt, I'll leave it outside the door." Chris' voice said.
"Okay." I responded, I ran my fingers through my hair and looked myself over in the mirror. I really did look like I had been dragged through hell, my eyes were bloodshot and tired, I looked worn and my skin dry even though I had just come out of the shower.
I dried myself off best I could with the towel and then grabbed the pants I had been wearing and opened the door a crack to grab the shirt. It was one of Chris' a gray cotton one, over sized but clean.
I came out my hair still dripping, Chris was already at the door in his shoes.
"Well hurry up." he smiled. I joined him and we walked out to his truck.
Once inside Chris grabbed something off the dash and handed it to me.
A hat and inside were some sunglasses.
"You're lucky no one saw you drunk, but you don't want people to see you hung over either." He said starting up the truck.
"Why?" I pulled the had on and then the glasses.
"Becuse you don't want to give them any other reason to think less of you."
"I wasn't the only one drinking" I told him, we pulled out of the driveway and headed down the street.
"Don't matter, they'll have something to say."
I looked at him, but his gaze was firmly on the road. "I'll have something to say back."
he smirked "You know you can't say anything back, it'll just worsen everything." I huffed and sat back in my seat he was right. They would say anything to get a rise out of me, just because I was Anna Winston. Same with Chris, they teased him and insulted, and judged him just because he was a chambers.
We arrived at the pub and I groggily got out of the truck, Chris came over to me and slung his arm over my shoulder.
"Come on." he smiled down at me and kissed my temple before leading me inside.
We found Nick in the back smoking, with Autumn under his arm.
"Hey." Chris said, Nick didn't bother to say hi back he took one look at me and turned on Chris.
"What the hell Chris?" Nick demanded.
"Okay what did I do now?"
"I thought when I said I wanted to talk to you, it was clear not to bring her!" Nick said he was frustrated.
"Why can't I be here?" I asked, but he ignored me.
"Look what ever you tell me I'm gonna tell her." Chris argued.
"Sit." Nick muttered, he sat up straight and leaned across the table as we sat.
"Look, last night we were walking around town, we caught Ace at the end of that alley, we chased him out of there, thats why we were there. That little maggot Jimmy was there to get Anna to follow him outside where they were planning on jumping her, guess getting her drunk was the only way." I shared a look with Chris. "This is serious shit, they ain't backing down."
"what about Eyeball?" I asked.
"What about him?" Autumn asked, I rolled my eyes.
"I Know I saw him there last night, he helped me!"
"I was hoping you forgot about that." Nick muttered Chris looked from him to me to him.
"What about my brother?" Nick sighed.
"Look, your brother, he tipped us off to what Ace was doing." there was a silence between us. I looked towards Autumn who didn't say anything.
"He did what?"
"He helped us Chris, I don't know why, and I don't really give a shit why, but he did."
"There is no way my brother helped." Chris said, I understood his confusion, this was his brother, the one that tormented him to no end all day and night, his brother was a jerk, and he didn't help people.
"Again I don't know why he did but he did." Nick argued back.
'But-"
'Chris." Autumn interrupted. "Your brother is an asshole, but for some reason, he doesn't want Anna hurt, he told me he doesn't agree with it."
"This just doesn't make any damn sense to me.' Chris snapped.
"Look it doesn't have to. . . the court date is in a week, Keep Anna safe."
"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do?" Chris demanded.
"well you ain't been doing too good of a job, she almost got her ass beat again last night." Chris stood up, knocking over his chair and headed for the door.
I glared at Nick although he couldn't see from my sunglasses and I ran after Chris.
'Chris come on wait!" I called, I reached him and grabbed his shoulder he whirled around on me yanking himself out of my grasp.
"What the hell is wrong now?" I demanded. He looked at me for a moment, just staring at me, I was about to demand what his problem was but then he kissed me. He just kissed me, his hands holding onto my face to him. Despite the passion and spontaneous nature of his kiss, it was soft and gentle.
"Whoa Chambers! Getting some ass with Winston, whoo Chambers!" Chris broke away laughing.
"screw off Vern!" he yelled to him flipping him off. I laughed hiding my face in Chris' shirt then raised my head to look at him.
"Whats wrong?"
"It kills me that I wasn't there last night, my own fucking Brother saved you." he whispered.
"It wasn't your fault." I whispered pecking his lips again. "And isn't better that he helped me rather then beating me?"
He sighed and nodded. "I just don't trust him. Whats his angle for this?" I shrugged.
"I don't know, all I know is if I have two Chambers looking out for me then I'm the safest girl in the world."
"I'm not leaving your side, until he is locked up." his whispered, then kissed me again slowly pulling my bottom lips between his teeth and nipped lightly. "Come on I need to get you home." he said suddenly pulling away.
"Wait a minute you just said you're not leaving my side and now you're taking me home where you know you can't stay?" I demanded as he pulled me towards his truck.
"I know weird right?" he asked I rolled my eyes, and followed him towards his truck.
"Hey Chris?" I asked, this question had been on my mind since I woke up, but I was terrified to ask.
"Yeah?" he asked climbing into the truck and slamming the door.
"Uhm, last night I. . . I didn't say anything bad or anything right?"
"Bad? no." he said I bit my lip and looked away from him. That's not the answer I wanted.
"I didn't say. . . anything important?" I wanted to know if he had heard me, when I murmured I loved him.
He was silent for a few seconds, and those few seconds were killing me slowly. "Well right before you fell asleep, you said that you were thinking about taking Teddy up on his offer and having his kid." He said, it took a moment for me to register what he said.
Relief washed through me, he hadn't heard me, or he didn't understand what I said.
"Screw you." I said shaking my head, he laughed.
"Don't worry, you didn't say anything." he started up the truck, and I watched him as he pulled away and drove down the street.
Someday I would tell him, I knew I would have to, but for now it was out of the question, not until I was sure he felt the same way. And until I did I vowed not to get drunk, cause all I did was spit out the truth when I was drunk.
Really freaking sorry, I had surgery and I've been nothing but tired and I was awake for like an hour a day :p
anyway thank you so much for the reviews and comments they're amazing you're all amazing and I hope your march break has been amazing!
And my birthday is on Friday so if anyone has the same birthday as me then YAY! We were both born on Pi day!
byeee 33
-Lexi