Chapter 3
Annoying, that's the only word Bella could think of to describe her newest temporary roommate. JC was fine, as he spent most of his time with Keira, but Chris just wouldn't leave her alone. He was constantly asking her questions; "What kind of politics are your parents in?", "Why do you want to do broadway?", "What do you wanna do?", he reminded her of a little kid and he just wouldn't stop.
What you have to realize here is that Bella always keeps to herself, she's a very private person. The only friend she has is Keira. Yeah, she had people she'd talk to at school and her cast members and what not, but she wouldn't consider them to be real friends, they didn't know much about her, and she didn't know much about them.
A lot of it had to do with of who she was. Her parents were the parents the King and Queen of the small nation of Kidron and her immature older brother was the Crown Prince. She had to plead with everything she had to convince her parents to go to Julliard to study theatre. They didn't understand why she would want to do something so -- as they would say -- "meaningless with her life". They didn't understand why she didn't embrace her royalty like Nikolai did.
Nikolai, now there was a joke. Her brother was constantly doing something to get in the tabloids back in Kidron. He was one with the ladies, and he seemed to always be seen with a new skanky blonde with little clothes.
Bella's last straw had been when she had achieved a high honor and had an interview that was going to be the featured story, but after her brother crashed his car after drinking the night away, he made the front page. Bella bought the magazine and there he was, on the front cover yet again. She was barely even mentioned in the magazine. That night she went to her room and cried herself to sleep. In the morning, she left the palace and hadn't been back since.
She didn't use her parents money and she talked to them occasionally, but for the most part they weren't on speaking terms. To this day, they didn't know where she was and thats one of the reason she kept a low profile, she had even changed her last name when she'd registered at school.
"Earth to Bella." Chris said interrupting her thoughts.
"What?" she snapped turning her attention to him.
"It's your turn to order." Chris said nodding to the waitress.
"Right, I'll have a grilled chicken salad with light italian dressing and an ice water with lemon." Bella said then handed her the menu.
"Sure thing, I'll be back with your drinks in a few minutes." And with that she was off.
"Do you always eat like a bird?" Chris asked.
"Are you always rude?" Bella retorted.
"I'm not rude." Chris shook his head.
"Okay." Bella answered slouching in her seat.
"I'm not." Chris insisted.
"Whatever." Bella shrugged. She'd been dealing with Chris all day, and she really didn't want him asking any more questions.
The table was silent for a few minutes before Bella started getting restless. She started swinging her feet and ended up kicking someone in the shin.
"Ouch! What was that for." Keira said throwing a menacing look at Bella.
"Sorry, I got restless." Bella swallowed guiltily.
"At least kick one of them, they're right across from you. I'm right next to you, how does that work." Keira said smacking her lightly.
"I said I was sorry." Bella sighed.
"I know you are. I was just kidding. You and JC should switch places." Keira suggested.
"Why?" Bella asked looking at her.
"Because, he and I are sharing an appetizer." Keira said for the sake of the others, but gave Bella a look only she understood.
"Sure, that makes sense." Bella said sliding out of the booth.
Bella waited for Chris to get out then JC to get out then slid in where JC was sitting then Chris sat next to her.
When Chris slid in next to her, he put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, "Hey baby." he whispered.
Bella knew he was kidding, but that didn't stop the feeling of butterflies in her tummy. She couldn't believe it, what was happening. This was annoying Chris who asked a million questions. She looked at him and saw him smiling at her. Her heart started racing as she couldn't break away.
Keira sneezed breaking Bella's daze, and made her snap back to reality.
"Get your carcass off me." she said finding her voice.
"It's an arm, not a carcass." Chris reminded her.
"Yeah whatever, get it off me." Bella said pushing him away.
"Oh come on, you know you're attracted to the Kirkpatrick." Chris said playfully.
"Has anyone everyone told you that you're annoying?" Bella sighed.
"All the time." Chris nodded.
"Well, I'm glad you take their advice and stop." Bella snorted.
"What's with you two? You're always at each others throats. Or so it seems." JC said looking at the couple in front of him.
"Nothing." Bella shrugged.
"I'm not at her throat, she's always at mine. She's been tellin me to bug off all day. I don't know why you're friends with her Keira, she's so mean." Chris said defending himself, but said it in a playful way so they knew he was kidding.
"We connect on a deeper level than common interests. We can relate to each other where it really counts." Keira explained smiling at Bella.
"That's cool. That's the way it is with the five of us these days. Since we're not really together any more right now, we always seem to call each other at the same time. We all still hang out whenever we can. I think we'll be stronger than ever when we get back together." JC agreed.
"So you guys are going to get back together?" Bella asked interested.
"Yeah." Chris nodded.
"I thought I Justin said he wasn't going to get back in the group." Bella wondered.
"It's kind of a touchy subject with him. He's had such good success as a solo act, he's very leary to go back to the group. I know he will, but it won't be until he's ready." JC said with a tension in his voice.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories or bad blood or whatever." Bella said apologetically.
"No, it's okay. We're all doing our own thing right now anyway. I had my album come out, Lance has the managment company and his space thing, Joey's got his family, and Chris here of course well he doesnt do much of anything." JC said smirking.
"Hey, I'll have you know I do plenty." Chris defended himself.
"What do you do?" Bella asked turning her gaze to him.
"I have my own clothing company, and I'm working to release a CD with my band The Little Red Monsters." he smiled.
"Well, that sounds fun." Bella shrugged.
In truth, she admired him for having his own clothing label. If she wasn't into theatre, her next choice would have been fashion. But because of the publicity in the market, she didn't want to be involved in it.
"So what are you going to do after you graduate?" JC asked Bella.
"Well, I'll be auditioning for Broadway, and hopefully I'll get a job." Bella shrugged.
"What kind of show would you like to be in?" JC questioned.
"A musical preferably, I love singing. Chicago, Caberet, Sound of Music--any of those would be awesome to be in. Sound of Music especially, because Julie Andrews is my all time favorite actress and I love her." She answered with stars in her eyes.
They could see how passionate she was about her art. It literally made her glow, she was totally blissful when talking about her theatre.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters here in New York ?" JC asked.
"No, my brother lives with my parents in Kidron." Bella shook her head.
"What does he do?"
"He'll be taking over the family business." Bella said starting to get nervous with the questions.
Keira could sense Bella's uncomfortableness with the conversation so she blurted the first thing that came to her mind, "So Chris, do you have a girlfriend back home?"
"Nope, I'm as the youngin would say back in the day 'I'm single and ready to mingle'. Why, you wanna apply for the position?" Chris smirked wiggling his eyebrows up and down suggestively at her.
"No thanks, I've got my sites elsewhere." she said, while stealing a glance at JC.
"Fine, I see how it is. I thought we were friends." Chris said pouting.
"Try Bella, maybe she'll feel sorry for you." Keira winked.
"Keep that lip away from me, I'm not a sucker." Bella said turning him down.
"I see how it is, I get no love." Chris said slumping in his chair.
For some reason, Bella felt bad for him for a moment and she patted his shoulder.
"Does that mean you'll go out with me?" Chris asked looking up.
"What?" Bella said removing her hand.
"Don't just do the 'pat pat, there there' thing. Go out with me. We can all four go on a double date. JC and Keira, and me and you." Chris suggested.
"Isn't that pretty much what we're doing now?" Bella pointed out.
"No. This is just four friends hanging out having dinner." Chris shook his head.
"Oh."
"You don't have to say yes now, you can think about it for a while. Then the next time we come to town, we'll go out."
"Aren't you a lot older than I am?" Bella asked desperate to find a way out.
"I don't know, how old are you ?"
"I asked first." Bella retorted.
"I'm 33."
Bella gaped at him with her mouth wide open. She expected twenty-something, but definatly not thirty.
"He doesn't act it does he?" JC laughed.
"Not at all." Bella slowly shook her head, her eyes never leaving Chris.
"It's not polite to stare." Chris said pushing up her jaw.
That touch shot a wave of electricity down Bella and she pulled back as if she'd been shocked. What was wrong with her, this was just Chris. Annoying Chris who was really buggy, Chris who was about twelve years her senior.
"Food." Chris exclaimed as the waitress set down their food.
They said a blessing for the food and started eating, nobody really saying much as they ate.
Bella interrupted the silence with a question, "So what are you guys going to be doing when you get back?"
"I'll be going on tour for a month." JC answered.
"I'll be missing you." Chris said smiling.
Then the unbelievable happened. He broke out singing his own rendition of "I'll Be Missing You". And who should join to sing the girls part, Bella. She loved the song, she had it memorized. So there they sat singing, really getting into it, forgetting they were in a restaurant.
"That was really good." Keira said when they'd finished.
Bella blushed and shrugged her shoulders, not wanting the attention.
"You have a beautiful voice." JC smiled.
"Thanks." she said blushing.
"You guys sing good together. Your voices blend well." Keira agreed.
Bella's blush only increased when she realized that the other people in the restaurant were clapping. "Stop it." she said hiding her face.
"Come on Bella, it's all right. You did amazing. You're an actress remember, you should be used to attention." Chris said pulling her hands away from her face.
"I'll never be used to it, I hate attention." Bella said shyly.
"It's okay hun." Chris assured her, not letting go of her hand.
"I like being on the stage acting, but I don't like all the attention. I don't know how you guys can constantly be in the spotlight all the time." Bella shuddered.
"You get used to it after a while." JC shrugged.
"I guess." Bella nodded.
"But hey, why are we talking about this depressing subject. Let's get back to this double date we were talking about. Will you go?" Chris asked her.
Bella looked into his eyes and knew it would be a bad idea, but for some reason she couldn't say no. "I'll think about it."
"That works for me." Chris smiled.
And with that the subject was dropped. To her dismay, Bella found Chris more interesting the more she spent time around him when he wasn't asking her a million questions. He seemed to be a really sweet guy. He definatly didn't act like he was thirty plus years old. He intrigued her, she'd never met anyone quite like him.