The picture is, of course, Alexander Ludwig, also known as MAX :) Very cute with Kendra, ain't he? xD
ANNDD! another one of those extra speshul warnin's.
Cliff Hanger. I mean, like dangling from your legs and the blood rolling to your brain kinda cliff hanger. THAT kind. O.o Scary stuff. :P
Enjoy! :)
P.S- THANK YOU FOR THE AWESOME RESPONSES! The votes, comments, fans, you have no idearr how much they mean to me. :)
Chapter 16- Phone Calls
“Liam Payne?” My voice cracked. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d heard his name before. I shuffled around the room, my eyes on full alert. My feet sunk deep into the carpet as I walked. “I’m sorry. You must have the wrong number,” I said, pulling the phone away from my ear to end the call.
“Wait!” The boy’s voice gasped. He was British. Maybe I was just imagining the familiarity because of my connection to Louis. Yes, that had to be it. I pulled the phone back and huffed. “You are Christa Haynes, right?” Again, he sounded worried and panicky about something; the image of my mom during work hours came to mind.
“Yes.” My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What do you want?” I tried to hide my hostility, but he was being very vague and uninviting. I couldn’t believe I was still on the call.
“Listen. You’re gonna get mad, but you have to hear me out.” Liam sighed and it seemed like forever before he would continue. Finally, with a much clearer voice, he did. “Louis… he didn’t mean to hurt you like he did. I promise. I mean, he was just… his head’s been in the clouds, and I know he means well for you.”
“He means well?” How could this complete stranger tell me this, and expect me to trust him? Obviously, if Louis meant well, he would have restrained himself from lying to me. “How do you know him?”
“I’m his friend… from the band.” With a huff of uncontrollable excitement, I realized that he was from One Direction. I stopped walking and turned to gaze through my bedroom window. The front yard seemed inviting; the neighborhood was quiet and peaceful. Despite myself, I couldn’t control my heart flutters and the amazing thought that I was speaking with a famous person. My voice was different, softer when I replied.
“Oh.” I paused. “Well, that changes things,” I said, still in heavy sarcasm. Liam didn’t catch on.
“Look. I know what its like. To be in love, I mean.” Liam’s voice sounded kind, much like my preacher at the end of one of his messages. God, I prayed, help me to be attentive. Help me to find out what he means by this. “Well, not in love, really,” Liam second-guessed himself. “What I’m saying is, I wouldn’t want things to be messed up between you two just because of the band.”
I sighed. “You really think I care about that?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Liam actually sounded shocked. “I mean, that’s a life changing thing…we’re on tour, you know. If you two were together, it would be kind of complicated.” He became stern, like he was speaking with a child. “I should know.”
“I take it you’ve been through that?”
“Yeah. But trust me, me and Lizzy made it through. You and Louis could as well.” I couldn’t stop myself from being moved with compassion for Liam and his girlfriend. But his situation didn’t apply here.
“I was never mad about you guys being famous. It’s Louis’ lie that infuriates me.”
“Right.” Liam was quiet for a moment. “Right,” he repeated, and I couldn’t help but smile in apology.
“Look, uh… Liam. I appreciate your call. But I just don’t think its going to work out between me and Louis. God… God’s got me put somewhere else.” I figured Liam wouldn’t know anything about God or his Will, so I saw no point in trying to explain it to him. I stopped there, waited on Liam’s reply, and prepared to hang up the phone.
“God’s got you put somewhere else,” he echoed. “Well, I hope you’ve prayed about that, Christa. Because I don’t think God has settled Louis’ heart quite yet.”
Two distinct emotions grappled for my attention. The first and most prevalent was guilt… I’d judged this guy whom I’d never met, and I’d just assumed that he knew nothing of God’s promises. Famous people were just like me, and I realized that Liam could very well be in the center of God’s Will. I’d completely judged his life without thinking it through. I remembered a verse from somewhere in the Bible that spoke of how Christians aren’t to judge others. Hopefully, Liam wouldn’t be too offended that I didn’t explain myself. I closed my eyes and mumbled an apology to the Lord.
The second emotion was hope.
There was a hope placed somewhere deep inside me, now rising to the surface. Louis still wanted me? Still missed me? Still longed for my company? I imagined Louis’ cute little creased forehead as he cracked jokes with his friends. He was probably doing that right now, his smile lighting the room. But in his eyes… something else lured. In my daydream I looked closer, close enough to see the true hurt there inside. Was that really how he was feeling? Did he actually talk Liam into calling me today? My heart pounded with excitement.
“Have you spoken with him?” I tried to hide my rising heart, sheltering the emotions inside. I didn’t want Liam telling Louis anything.
“Who? Louis? No.” No? What did he mean by ‘no’?
“Then how do you know…?” My voice trailed off, and Liam caught on to my question.
“I mean, I spoke to him last week. He said that you were really upset with him. That I should probably give you a call.” My heart fell to my knees. He didn’t miss me after all. I’d known it was too good to be true. That’s why, I told myself. That’s why you don’t even have feelings for him.
“Oh. I get it.” The sadness in my voice was enough to move mountains; a cold suppressed groan was held back as I finished. “Well, I’ll definitely pray about it. Thanks, Liam. Good luck with Lizzy.” Without waiting for a reply, I hung up.
After a while of down time in my room, in which I read my Bible and fervently prayed about His Will, I headed down stairs to speak with my parents. My dad sat by the television, watching a hunting show of some sort, and my mom milled about in the room, ironing clothes and straightening picture frames and sorting through old magazines. I knew the scene well. At times, they both reminded me of grandparents… probably because of all the time they spent with each other in the house. They seemed like the perfect couple, too. I knew what kind of rock they might be for my children someday.
Mom stopped walking when I entered the living room. Dad shuffled around in his leather chair and sat up straighter, probably sensing that I was in the mood to visit. I sat on the edge of the couch, letting them know that I meant a little business. They knew me well, and they could tell that I was troubled about something.
“So, Christa.” Dad scanned the room, his eyes finally landing on me. “You’ve got something to talk about?”
I laughed. “Yeah, I guess I do.” I didn’t usually come down from my room during the daytime hours, something that had probably hurt my parents before. Now, though, I felt I was of age to seek advice from them. On top of that, I knew that my parents were going through their own issues about seeking God’s Will for their life. They might be able to help me in my situation.
Of course, their issues were of a larger scale than mine. I felt sheepish, childish even to think they would care about my measly little problems. But I couldn’t stop myself from spilling my story and finally telling them about the phone conversation with Liam. Dad muted the TV and Mom carefully edged onto the arm of my Dad’s chair as I spoke. When I finished, my dad glanced at Mom, giving her the go ahead to reply.
“Well, we’ve been praying about God’s Will for your life, too, Christa.” My mom looked like she would start to cry any minute. “To be honest, I’m not sure that coming here, no matter how much we missed you, was such a good idea.”
My Dad picked up the conversation. “Christa, we know your hurt by this young man, but there’s a lot to be said about forgiveness.” My mom crossed the room to get a Bible. Meanwhile, my Dad was still musing about what to say. After a moment of thought, he gathered his words, swallowed, and spoke. “You’ve gotta forgive him, and even if things don’t work out, God will reward you for it.”
Forgive him? Even if things don’t work out, I didn’t want to see him again. Besides, he was already gone from Kure Beach, and he probably wouldn’t be back. There was no chance now, no chance to see him. And if I did, I most certainly would go crawling back into his arms. Now did God want that for me? Probably not. Louis and his band, despite how Christian Liam seemed to be, they weren’t good. He wasn’t good for me. I closed my eyes tightly and frowned. “If I see him… If…” I stopped and looked up.
My Dad was flipping through the pages of his Bible. Mom looked at me, waiting for me to finish. When I didn’t, she sighed. “This isn’t about you seeing him.”
“It’s not?”
“No. It’s about how he feels about you.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “If he knows that he’s forgiven, then things can either stop or move forward between you two. But that has to happen first.”
My mind flashed back to the other day in my apartment. Louis was already forgiven. Or, at least, I’d told him that. But if I’d kicked him out of my life completely, that wasn’t complete forgiveness. Dad sighed. “The Bible says here in Luke 17, verse three, ‘…If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying I repent; thou shalt forgive him.’”
I let out a breath slowly. “Thanks, Dad. I’ve forgiven Louis. I told him that right after he apologized.”
“Well, then things should be settled in your heart, Christa.” Mom’s eyes were bright now, and I could tell she believed me and the lie that I just told. Truth be told, I was having a rough time with finding the answers. In every situation, people told me to read the Bible. Only… I wasn’t sure how the Bible was helping me. I couldn’t dwell on the subject anymore, so I shook my head to clear it.
“So… what about you guys? Did you make your decision about missions, Dad?”
“Yes.” My dad’s eyes sparkled and I knew that he had found his purpose. Howbeit a little late in their lives, my parents were ready to embrace the decision for their future. “I’ve decided to surrender to the mission field. We don’t know where yet. But…” Dad gazed into Mom’s eyes. “We’re going to be taking a few survey trips to decide where the Lord would have us.”
I gulped. If only I had it that easy. “That’s… great, Dad.” I stood and crossed the room to hug them both. In a careful embrace I promised them that I would support them in their decisions.
After the moment was gone, I sighed. “What’s the plan for dinner?” As if on cue, my stomach growled, making all three of us laugh. “I guess I’m kind of hungry.”
“Right,” Dad said. “Well, we invited Holden, Emma, Max, and Kendra over for dinner. Your mother’s making lasagna.” Max was Holden’s friend from Bible College; I’d never met him, but I’d seen a few pictures. I guessed he was in town for the summer.
“Why all the company?” Mom padded into the kitchen to start dinner as I spoke.
“Well, you’re home now, Christa. We’re having a celebration.”
A celebration it was. All four of our guests spoke vehemently about all that I’d missed. Mainly, the topic of Emma and Holden’s wedding preparations took place over our wonderful home-made lasagna and warm spiced bread. Emma thoughtlessly bantered about her theme, which of course, was the same as their engagement party theme. Purplish-blue and white flowers and décor were to be spaced around our home church’s sanctuary.
“Before our engagement party, the main colors were more of a heavenly blue. Like sky colored,” Holden explained. “But Emma here…” He poked her nose playfully. “She’s got her mind set on like a deep blue, almost purple.”
“Like the flowers at the party?” I asked, my interest piquing.
“Right.”
“The flowers are very interesting, Holden.” Emma rolled her eyes. “But what I really want to talk about is… Well, I can’t talk about the dress,” She sighed, her eyes looking pointedly at Holden.
“Go ahead, dear,” Holden replied lovingly. “I’m talking to Max. I think we’d better head into the living room anyway.” All of our plates were pretty much clean, and I knew that the baseball game was on in the other room. Max, Holden, and Dad rose from their seats to head into the other room. This left us four girls with some time to ourselves.
As soon as the guys left, Kendra squealed. “Did you see… the way Max looked at me?” I laughed, surprised that I’d paid very little attention to Max. I peeked into the other room. Across from the TV he sat, looking quite handsome. He wore a loose-fitting blue and black print shirt and dark blue jeans. His eyes were a dark brown and his hair was spiked a bit in the front. A careful studious glance came over him as he studied the game. On top of that… he had some serious muscle.
I smiled at Kendra. “Someone’s got a little crush.”
“Really? Who? Cause I’ll kill ‘em!” Kendra made a murderous looking face, then calmed and started laughing. “Really, when we were eating, he was looking at me… a lot.”
Emma and my mother smiled. Mom leaned around the table to peer into the family room. “He is a bit of a... hunk,” she said, making me flush with embarrassment.
“No one says that anymore, Mom.”
“Right.” She pulled back to her seat and smiled sheepishly. “Got it.” Kendra and Emma busted with laughter.
“My dress!” Emma beamed. “I haven’t decided for sure, but I think I’ve got it narrowed down.” She reached into her huge flowered purse and pulled out a few wallet sized pictures. The first she held up was a floor-length floral printed white dress. It fit Emma tightly around the ribs and waist, and flowed out from the hips down. The top was spaghetti strapped, and the veil had bits of fabric hanging from the head piece. “The woman said I could get blue fabric exchanged in the veil. Isn’t it beautiful?”
We ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ over the dress. There were a few more pictures of Emma trying on other dresses. All three dresses were so different that it was hard to choose. The final was a shorter, knee-length strapless with a blue cardigan. “I don’t like this one. Who’s ever worn a cardigan over a wedding dress?” Kendra giggled. It was kind of absurd.
“Well, the back of it… it’s a bit too revealing. I had to make adjustments.” Emma always had reasons for everything as far as her clothing went. I guessed that she’d been a bit disappointed about it too, at the time. But now, she clearly couldn’t choose.
“I vote for the first one,” I said, raising a hand.
“I’ll second that,” Mom said. “It’s beautiful.”
Kendra just shrugged; she wasn’t much of a fashion fanatic. All was said and done, and Emma put away her pictures, just in time for Max to come back into the dining room. “Uhh…” He paused in the doorway. We all gazed at him, making him look a tad nervous. “Kendra? Do you want to… go outside for a few minutes?”
Emma and I gave Kendra a pointed look, and she blushed. “Sure,” she said, her voice sounding shaky. As Max led her through the entryway, she turned around and mouthed at us. ‘He’s so cute!’ She gave a huge thumbs up as she exited.
I smiled. “I smell a couple,” Emma said, craning her head to look at them.
I saw the two of them through the kitchen storm door. Max rested his elbows on the banister of the porch, and Kendra carefully stood close to him. As Emma and my mother talked about her dress, I kept watching them. After a few moments of conversation, Kendra moved really close to Max, so close that their arms were touching.
They were so cute. I wondered if I would ever find that kind of a relationship, but with a second thought, I realized that I already had. I prayed that the Lord would bless Kendra and Max, and that their relationship would work out, even if mine didn’t.
Louis-
“You what?” My mind was going crazy with thoughts of her. Thoughts of the concert. Thoughts of my plans to win Christa back. Thoughts of how I would announce my arrival to our fans. Thoughts of life in general. God, faith, church. And that only led me back to Christa. Liam still hadn’t said anything. “You what?” I repeated, my eyes glaring into his.
“Nothing, Lou.” Liam ruffled his hair, something he did when he was nervous. “I talked to her for like two seconds. You know, that’s nothing.”
Niall smiled sheepishly, munching on his Chex Mix. “Doesn’t sound like nothing to me,” he said, his mouth full.
“Shut. Up.” Liam growled.
“You know what? I don’t care. Just don’t call her again. She clearly doesn’t want me. So I’m moving past it. Okay?” Liam, Niall, and Zayn just stared at me. “Got it?”
They all grumbled, obviously not used to my seriousness. Harry was absent, probably out with some girl for the evening. I could live without them for a while. I needed some time to myself, actually. Maybe I could try some much needed prayer to pass the time, if nothing else. I left the main venue of our suite and crossed into the computer room. I closed the door and leaned against it for a moment. Of course, that only reminded me of when Christa had leaned against her bedroom door and glared at me. Her messed up hair and blue eyes as they practically screamed at me. God, I’d messed up.
God, I prayed. I’ve messed up.
No answer. A few rumbling noises from the TV were heard, but nothing else. I gave up on praying and tried to remember a happy time. Finally I was able to focus on a memory from just a few days ago.
“Harry, Niall, Zayn, Liam!” I yelled cheerily. Zayn and Liam had arrived that morning, along with our other body guard, Jim. No one knew of my impending announcement, but I was ready to spill the great news.
The four of them crowded through the door. Zayn first, then Liam. Niall and Harry seemed content to plow through the door at the same time, causing them to grumble and laugh and rub their arms after entering. I motioned to the couch and they crashed there. Suddenly I was reminded of our video diaries, with all of us crowded onto a couch, goofing off and answering questions for the whole world to see. I was ready. I was so ready to get back to that. And now I could; I had nothing, no one holding me back.
“I’m…” I looked each of my friends in the eyes before I spoke. “I’m done with vacation. I’m ready to come back on tour with you guys. Next week we’re here, in Raleigh, right?”
I’d dropped the bomb, expecting them to be tremendously excited. And they were, all… three of them. Liam looked worried. But Harry, Niall and Zayn took in a big breath and started cheering. They stood and hugged my neck and told me how much they’d missed me. Niall starting worrying about how they could fit me into the concert, how the new choreography would work. Harry became preoccupied with his phone. Zayn kept cheering and patting me on the back for a moment. When he realized that the rest of the band was calm, he crashed back on the couch.
Liam hadn’t moved.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Liam took a long-hearted glance around the room and then let his eyes land on me. “I’m glad you’re back.”
Now, as the memory gripped me, I hung my head. I knew in my heart that it was the right decision to come back. I knew that I would be blessed from it, from letting my feelings go and being tough about everything. I just didn’t know if Liam felt the same way.
I finally gained the peace of mind to start working on my plan. I knew how I would win Christa over, but I didn’t know how to launch the ordeal. I did, however, know someone who would. That person had to be contacted, and fast.
I rolled the swivel chair closer to the desk and wiggled the mouse to wake the computer. The screen buzzed to life, and I quickly typed my search in the Google search box. I found the city and the person I was looking for. Thankfully, there was a Facebook link with a picture on it, letting me know that I had the right person. I grabbed my phone and dialed the phone number, tapping my foot impatiently on the floor-boards.
Finally, after three rings, someone picked up. “Hello?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Kendra?”