Lifeline

August

A/N: this is the last chapter before the concert we saw at the beginning of the book! I can't believe you guys have made it this far, I am very proud of you. I'm proud of you readers, and I'm proud of my characters for sticking it out. Almost done!

"Hey Bella! Are you busy today?" Christie put her phone on speaker and then flopped on her stomach across her bed. It was just after ten and Christie was bored. The remainder of the money she had gotten from 'graduation' (she was just going into senior year, but if her family wanted to give her money she was fine with that) was burning a hole in her pocket and she was getting excited about the concert already. Why shouldn't she? She was about to be in the same room as her favorite band.

"Hey Chris," Bella replied. She sounded like she had just woken up; Christie glanced at the clock. Whoops. "I'm not busy today, and I'm awake now," she joked halfheartedly, yawning audibly and blowing into the phone.

"Sorry for waking you up," Christie apologized, rolling onto her back and picking up the phone, "but I wanted to go over to the mall today and get some stuff at Hot Topic. I doubt they'll have Lifeline stuff but they'll probably have cute shorts to wear or something like that." Bella made noise like she was sitting up, and when she replied she sounded a lot more awake.

"Yeah! Definitely, I just have to eat breakfast and get dressed and then I'll have Dylan drive us to the mall."

"Is Dylan home? I thought he was-"

"Nope, he's home for the summer. He came back to visit, or at least that's what he said. I think he came back because he was hoping Marie was home too. That's the only reason he just agreed to drive us," Bella laughed, fumbling with the phone and yelling to her brother. "We have to pick up Christie before we go to the mall though."

"Cool, I'll see you in a few?"

"See ya!"

Fifteen minutes later, Christie slid into the back seat of Dylan's little car, followed out the door by Marie, who was also visiting for the month. She talked to Dylan for a while as Bella and Christie contemplated what they would buy, and then Marie waved as they drove off.

"When you gonna ask her out?" Bella asked him, leaning over to turn on the radio then wink at Christie, who was sitting in the back seat. Dylan ignored the question, although his ears turned pink and a flush crept up his neck. Christie grinned back at her friend but didn't press him for answers.

"You can move all the junk back there, get it out of your way," Dylan told Christie, running a hand through his hair and turning up the volume on the radio. He had it on a rock station and Green Day started to play, to the delight of all.

The mall wasn't far from the neighborhood where Christie lived, but they had to drive a few minutes and they spent the time singing along to the radio and chatting about the upcoming concert as well as Nick's birthday; he would be turning eighteen in a few weeks. They had teased Devin about being just a dolt and not earning the 'a' yet (a-dolt, get it?), and the joke was now being thrown around in preparation for Nick's celebration. He was being good-natured about the whole thing, but the girls still got plenty of amusement out of it. When they pulled up to the mall, Dylan let them out in front of the doors and told them to meet him in an hour by the food court. They said goodbye quickly and then jogged out of the street, towards the air conditioned buildings ahead of them. It was a hot summer, and already Christie could feel beads of sweat forming on her forehead as they made a beeline for the doors.

"How come Anna couldn't come?" Bella asked her, yanking the doors open and darting into the cool air. She shook her hair out of its band, fixing her part and combing it back out of her face. Christie linked arms with her friend and pulled her towards the Hot Topic, dodging a man trying to sell hand cream to unsuspecting passer-bys.