| Chapter Four |
| Two weeks later "What do you mean you didn?t talk to her?" Chris Kirkpatrick said. He was seated on the counter top, shoveling cereal into his mouth, causing the milk to dribble down his chin and onto his shirt. It was obvious that he couldn?t have cared less. "Just what I said," Justin replied nonchalantly as he channel surfed. "I didn?t talk to her." "Dude?you?re a freaking asshole." Chris said seriously and went back to eating his corn pops, which made Justin turn off the T.V. Chris was a lot of things, but he was never serious, and when he was it was usually because he was pissed off, and it took a lot to get Chris Kirkpatrick pissed off. And he never called his best friend an asshole either. Justin glanced over at his friend, a quizzical look spread across his face. "What are you talking about? Who the hell are you to say that?" "You were in love with the girl, something terrible happens, everyone says she?s dead and then one day someone calls you and says that she?s not. So you go there and don?t say a word to her? Did you even stop to think about how that made her feel? The girl went through hell J?and of all the people that she needed there, she probably needed you the most." Chris blurted in between mouthfuls, causing droplets of milk to fly from his lips. "Whatever Chris, you couldn?t understand. She?s?she?s different now. We both are. Things cant be the way they used to be. Besides, she has her girlfriends, she?ll get by without me." Justin flipped the TV back on quickly and stared at it angrily, pretending to concentrate on the TV program. But as much as he didn?t want to listen to his friend, he had to admit Chris was right, he was being an asshole. That?s what happens when you?re whole world gets turned upside down and you have to start over. Those things just don?t go away. Just as long as he stayed away from her, he would be fine. And the group would be fine. Everything was going to be just fine. "How would you know what she feels if you didnt talk to her J?" Chris replied. But Justin pretended not to hear him. Chris Kirkpatrick stared at his best friend. He didn?t exactly know what to say. Justin had changed so much after Crystal had disappeared, and now that she was found alive, Justin had changed even more...for the worse. He had turned into a conceded, self-absorbed pop prince. He didn?t care about anyone but himself and shut himself out from everyone that cared or tried to care about him. Even the guys were getting a little tired of it. They of course didn?t say anything to Justin yet, but Chris was getting a feeling that they were getting close. If he pushed himself one more time with them, Chris felt that Justin would literally tear their group apart. He knew what he had to do. He just had to find a way to do it with out Justin finding out. ******************** "Dickwad!" Nick Carter yelled as his warrior exploded all over the screen. Him and Brian had been having and all out playstation-a-thon and this was the tenth time Brian Littrell had "slaughtered" his best friend at the battle game they were playing. "Haha, I am the champion!" Brian triumphed. "No way dude, I?m just tired today that?s all." Nick replied. He was such a sore loser, and everyone knew it. "I need a break." "Yea, yea, yea." Brian smiled. "What-ev-er." Nick mouthed, unplugging the playstation. He threw himself on the couch, and yanked the bag of chips that were resting on the coffee table onto his lap. He stuck on hand in the bag and started quickly flipping through the channels with his other hand, looking for something good to watch. If he hadn?t of been paying such close attention at that moment he would have missed the familiar face that quickly flashed across the screen as he skimmed the channels. He quickly went back, and his jaw hung open in shock. It was her. He couldn?t believe it but it was. He never found out if she had made it, but she had. He hadn?t told anybody about that day. He didn?t need the press finding out. He smiled quietly to himself. He didn?t feel comfortable blurting out what he had done to Brian and the other guys. He didn?t know why. Maybe it was the suspense of it all. Suspense? Come on Nick do you work for the CIA? She has a right to know. You owe it to her to contact her. The little voice in his head yelled at him. "I?m still looking for the person that saved my life," she was telling the reporter. "Whoever it was didn?t give their name to the police, I would really like to know who it was. I owe you a lot. So if you?re out there? please?let me know." They cut her off and flashed information across the screen about who to contact. Then they flashed another message. It was a picture of the guy that had kidnapped her. "This is Todd Langstone. His last known whereabouts were somewhere in the Tampa Bay area. He is armed and extremely dangerous. Do not approach this individual by yourself. Contact your local police or the Florida State Police." Nick stared at the screen wide eyed until they cut the picture off and went to a commercial. He couldn?t believe this. Crystal McKay wanted to meet him. But what was he supposed to do? Call that number and say "Hi I?m Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys and I?m your hero?" They would probably laugh in his face. No, he had to think of another way to get to her. He would have to find her himself. But with a huge European tour ahead, that didn?t seem very likely. He sighed. One day I?ll find her, he thought. I have to. |