Webs of the Heart

chapter four

Tom POV

As the days passed, my filming came to a close, and Crystal had gone on to her tour with One Direction, after which she was going on tour with 5 Seconds of Summer, then after a short break for Christmas, she was performing at a New Year's concert and returning to touring with Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, and lastly Meghan Trainor.

She and I talked a lot, finding out that we had a lot more in common than some might think, and I was quickly seeing more and more videos/pictures of her on the Internet, and it seemed like she was quickly coming out of her shell. She was acting more and more confident onstage, as well as learning how to command the stage, and how to get the crowd to work with her, which was admirable considering there were some thousands at every concert. In interviews she was a lot more weird and funny, and her personality was coming out a lot stronger.

It was now late November, and I was back home. I had off for the rest of the year, which I was very grateful for.

One day, I was outside raking up leaves with Harry, who had returned home for a week while Crystal had another photographer with her, in the very cold backyard, which quickly developed into a leaf fight, which Tessa took a very active part in, succeeding in knocking me down.

Dad called us inside to warm up, and we went inside, laughing as Tessa charged past us, galloping into the living room with a purpose.

"Guess she's as cold as we are." I joked, taking my jacket and gloves off. Then a sweet and clear voice said,

"Think maybe she's happy to see me?" I looked up at the doorway quickly in surprise, and saw Crystal standing in the doorway, smiling. Tessa stood by her boot clad ankles, staring up at the silver haired girl with clear love.

"Crystal, you made it!" Harry exclaimed, and that jolted me out of my standing coma of surprise. I quickly moved forward and hugged her tightly, inhaling her scent. She had always smelled like clean snow and lilac when we were little, and she still did, except with a hint of some odd but not unpleasant fragrance I couldn't name.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to be on tour with One Direction until December 18th." I asked, stepping back and taking in her new appearance. She wasn't wearing the usual tacky pants and baggy shirt she used to wear as a little girl, but instead she wore a knee length, dark red, full wool skirt, black tights covering her legs down to her black leather boots, and a loose short red sweater over a black, fitted long sleeved shirt with sleeves that went over her knuckles. Her normally black hair was, as I have said, a beautiful silver, and in her nose was a small hoop nose ring, and I saw she was wearing minimal make up.

"There was a family emergency, so the rest of the tour until January got cancelled. When I told your mum, she insisted I come and, well, stay with your family." Crystal explained, petting Tessa as she did, smiling down at the dog. Mum stepped closer behind Crystal and hugged her from behind, making my friend smile.

"And I'm very glad you said yes. It gets intolerable sometimes with only boys here." Mum said.

"Mum I'm not just a boy anymore!" I protested, making Crystal giggle softly.

"Oh hush, you'll always be my little boys." Dad pushed me into a group hug with Harry, Paddy and myself surrounding, or rather crushing Crystal and my mum into a compacted position that could be considered a group hug. Crystal couldn't stop giggling, and soon my mum was laughing too, causing my brothers to start laughing, myself included. We started laughing so hard that we kids tripped and fell down on the floor in a mess of limbs and hair, the hair mostly supplied by Crystal and Tessa, who jumped on Crystal as soon as she was on the floor. Harry and Paddy jumped up quickly, pushing Crystal on top of me. She tried to get up and put her hands by my sides to try and push herself up, but Tessa barked and climbed onto her back, then lay down, quite content, as Crystal's arms gave out and she fell onto my chest, laughing still.

Dad got Tessa off Crystal's back after he finished laughing at us, and Crystal helped me up, surprising me with her strength.

"You got strong!" I exclaimed, rubbing Tessa's ears as she jumped on my leg. Crystal smiled and replied,

"I decided to be as healthy as I could while on tour, and Taylor suggested I start training every day I can, so I did."

My dad asked Crystal to tell him about touring, so we sat on the couch, Tessa sitting next to me at first. Then Crystal held her hand out towards Tessa, and the traitorous hound jumped over to her, lying next to Crystal's thigh with her head resting on Crystal's lap.

"You traitor." I accused the gray dog. Tessa did nothing, just stared at me innocently. Crystal laughed and scratched Tessa in her favorite place that I thought only I knew about, then told us about what touring life was like.

As she talked, I listened, but I also looked at her, at her face and how she expressed herself. It was amazing to me how much she had changed, and only in two months. When we were younger, she wouldn't really talk much, only answered questions that were asked of her. But now, her eyes seemed to have a light in them as she described the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and she spoke freely. The words seemed to flow from her lips, and I could imagine whatever it was she was described. I decided that I liked how different she was, and how comfortable she was with herself and her surroundings now.

Then a thought occurred to me; could I have a crush on her?