Crashed

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

                                After weeks of nothing but travel, the group on the Lethargic Memories/Daughtry tour was happy to get a moment of relief by having a day off to rest in Florida before their show the next day. Luna and Luke had decided to baby store hop through the city, picking out cute onesies and little shoes. Azalee, though jealous of them, bid them a happy farewell and decided to relax on the beach close to their hotel. Of course she could expect Mackenzie and Annie to be there. They loved the beach. Azalee caught a glimpse of them sunbathing next to Mackenzie’s boyfriend, Kenneth, whom everyone called Nixon. Azalee took a deep breath, laying back on her own towel, and soaked up the sun. They were supposed to be traveling to Washington after Florida and would then follow the upper west coast for a few weeks. Sunshine would be hard to come by, so Azalee figured she should probably soak up what she could now. She lay back on her towel, covering her eyes with sunglasses, and sighed out a breath. She’d just begun to drift off into a soft sleep when the sunlight over head was blocked out. She opened her eyes and blinked up at the person shadowing her.

                                “Hey,” Chris mumbled at her. She smiled.

                                “Hey you,” she said, “What’s going on?” He shrugged and looked up at the waves crashing into the shore.

                                “Just hanging out,” he told her, “Relaxing.” She watched him.

                                “Well, how about you pop a squat down here and stop blocking out my rays,” she smiled. He chuckled and flopped down in the sand next to her. She flipped over onto her stomach and lifted up onto her elbows to better see him.

                                “So, I was thinking about something that your tech told me the other night,” she said to him. He looked down at her, rubbing warm sand over his knees, burying them a bit.

                                “Hmm?” he asked. She watched his hands move.

                                “Well, he told me that we sounded good together,” she started, but then decided she should probably explain, “I was singing along with you that night I watched your show. He suggested that maybe we…do a duet.” Chris let a small smirk grace his features.

                                “Sounds like a fine idea to me.”  She grinned at him, satisfied that he was okay with the idea of REALLY singing with her.

                                “So, any ideas of a good song to do?” she asked and looked up at him again. The sun was baking her back. She knew she was going to regret laying here like this in the morning, but right now, it didn’t bother her. She was too caught up with sitting with Chris at a beautiful white sand beach.  He shrugged at her again. She took a deep breath and watched him for a moment. She licked her lips. He looked like there were a million things running through his mind. He was generally so carefree. This bothered her. She wanted to reach out and hold him and let him unload of his problems onto her; but she settled for second best.

                                “Is something wrong?” she asked. He didn’t answer her immediately, so she wasn’t sure he heard her. He just continued to strum his fingers through the ivory sand, dusting it onto his legs. Finally, he opened his mouth and paused for a moment, as if it was hard for him to get out what he wanted to say.