Cross My Heart

Chapter Ten

Okay, so sorry for the wait. I kinda ran out of ideas, since this whole thing just kind of flew out of me. I had brainstorms at midnight and such, but then I ended up putting them all in. Right now, I'm trying to figure out where this thing is going. Anways, thank you so much to all who are reading this. I'm so happy with this and I hope you are too. xoxo

“How about you?” Shannon asks me. “How did you meet Dan?”

            I look away. “He was live on Ellen,” I say.

            “You watched him on TV? That doesn’t count,” Shannon says pointedly.

            “No, I was in the audience. I was there,” I explain, turning to look at her. “He stopped me outside the studio and invited me to their gig last Saturday. I, of course, went and… well, it was a great show,” I grin, reminiscing. “But then, as I was walking to my car, he stopped me again. He brought me backstage to meet the boys. Well,” I laugh, “I was kind of stuck after that.”

            She smiles, “Guess so.” I notice that her black hair seems to turn navy blue in the darkness. “Hey, what’s that?” She reaches over and lifts my hand. The words “CROSS MY HEART” are fading, but they’re still legible.

            “Oh,” I snatch my hand back. “Dan… h—he wrote that. When…” I trail off, nervous about telling her something so personal.

            Putting her hands up, Shannon turns forward again. “It’s fine, I don’t poke my nose where it’s not needed.”

            I cast a thankful smile at her and tuck my hands beneath me. Still, after a few moments I pull them out and look at them. “No, I’ll tell you,” I say. “Dan wrote that when he was dropping me off at my car a few days ago. I—I fell asleep backstage,” I admit, my stomach fluttering with nervous energy. “I ended up on the tour bus and, well, they kind of kidnapped me for a ways.” Shannon laughs at me, throwing her head back as I continue, “We were both pretty scared we wouldn’t see each other again. So he wrote that, saying he’d always come back. Cross his heart,” I finish with a soft smile.

            Shannon stops laughing and smiles over at me. “That’s cute,” she says. Suddenly leaning in, she blurts, “So have you kissed yet?”

            I blink in surprise, but the reply comes bursting out of me. “No! I mean, well… yes. Maybe?”

            Shannon laughs again. “Girl, there’s only two answers: yes or no. Here, I’ll tell you and you tell me. Kyle and me,” she says, pointing to herself and pausing. “Yes,” she finally admits.

            I raise an eyebrow and blow out a sigh. “Okay, Dan and me, yes.”

            She claps her hands, “There we go! Now we’re getting somewhere!”

            I gasp, laughing. “Woody said that,” I blurt before I can stop myself.

            Shannon looks at me, confused. “What do you mean?”

            “Well, when Woody was talking to me earlier, he said that too. When he… um, asked me that too.”

            Shannon’s eyes widen. “I,” she says, “am a genius.” I raise an eyebrow and she continues. “Well, obviously! Woody seriously said the same things?”

            I nod, unable to actually say anything. Shannon shakes her head in disbelief. “That’s awesome.”

            I open my mouth to respond when I hear a call from behind us. We spin around to see Kyle and Dan running down the hill. “There you are!” Kyle yells.