It's in the accent (Chris's story pt1)

Hot tea and talking

I walked out onto the stage as it was being set up. William was standing with the sound engineer.

"Okay Chris let's see what we've got" I started to sing my throat hurt a little the strain all to obvious in the sound. I stopped and shook my head. "It's okay the doctor did say to take it easy for a few days" He walked over to the front of the stage. "you can either stay here or go rest up at the hotel.

"I'll stay here and try to..." I ran my hand through my hair.

"Go get some hot tea and see if it helps; the rest of you guys can still rehearse some of your songs" William walked back to the sound engineer as Alfie and the others started to play. I walked off the stage mouthing the words to the song as I went.

"Tea?" Dimitri was waiting at the foot of the steps with a steaming cup of tea.

"Thanks" I took it from him.

"Chris... can we please talk?" he asked.

"Fine..." I walked to the exit and out into the loading bay I leant against the side of one of the trucks and looked at him.

"Will you're voice be okay?"

"The doctor thinks so. I just need to rest it" I sipped the tea. "So Alfie tore you a new one, Niko and Xander fought with you..." I smiled

"They were trying to knock some sense into my I think" He rubbed his cast.

"I take it you're senior year playing football is done" I lifted his hand.

"That and basketball" he nodded. "But I don't care about the Jock thing it's not what's important to me"

"I really don't want to talk about Reba" I moved away from the truck.

"Chris... I'm talking about you dumbass not her"

"So she just happened to be on the bleachers with you after you walked out and left me on stage" I shrugged I was determined he was going to hear all the douche bag stuff he'd done to me before I let him back in to my life. "Does she like the thing you do with your thumb on the back of her neck?"

"I didn't call her she was driving home from dropping Abby off with the guy that knocked her up" he ran in front of me to stop me from walking. "She saw my truck and stopped"

"So you decided because you'd so sweetly dumped my ass you'd have a laugh and tell her about me crazy ex and what he did to me"

"I told no one... Клянусь, я ей ничего не сказал (I swear I didn't say anything)?" he held up his hands.

"I'm American, I can scrape by with minimal Spanish you need to stop with the Russian, it's not a turn on any more" I groaned. Dimitri took a breath and closed his eyes before opening them and stepping closer to me

"I swear to god, you need to listen to me" he almost whispered "Christine... I promised you that I wouldn't tell anyone and I didn't" He pulled me to the side as someone pushed a huge equipment case toward the arena. "She found out the same way Niko did when you were on the phone to Arron outside she'd followed you to try to wind you up over something and instead you give her the perfect ammunition" he let go of my arm. "I didn't tell her a thing and I lost it with her when Niko took you home" I drank the rest of my tea and threw the cup into the trash can next to me "I lost it with Niko for him taking you home when it should have been me" I sat down on the ground and tried to take in what he was saying about Reba, he sat down with me "I saw how hard it was for you to tell me what you did; Chris I never stopped loving you. I love you to the point where I can't sleep because of what I said and did to you" he stroked his fingers down the side of my face. I turned away. He dropped his hand to his lap

"So why did you do it?" I looked back at him "Why did you say the things you said to me?"

"I overheard what Chad Kroeger said to you about guys come and go only the true ones stick around" he looked down "It made me think that I wasn't good enough for you... that you needed a guy like Alfie or Pete; someone that you could talk to about music and stuff not some dumb Russian jock... that has a reputation for his temper and taking girls to bed"

"Are we talking you or Niko here" I rubbed my temples, Dimitri chuckled a little.

"Okay Maybe my brother's the bigger man whore" he nodded.

"Nikolai's a sweetheart to me anyway" I sighed.

"Yeah you've had a strange effect on him... he's a little over protective of you like his your big brother" Dimitri smiled. "But Chris I was wrong I was really wrong" Dimitri became serious again. "I can be there for you I can listen to you... I can love you and hold you at night when you're exhausted, I can be the guy to protect you"