Pentatonix... Touring and Finding Love

Chapter Eight

She stepped back slowly and the man let go of the door and took a step towards her.  “You look familiar to me.  Have I seen you before?”

She swallowed and said, “No.”

“Yes I have, you are Kirstie from the group Pentatonix.  Where’s all of your protectors?” the man said with a wide smile.

Kirstie looked back towards the road where the park was and was hoping that Scott was on his way.  It’s about a five minute walk, she thought to herself.  She could run.  But, she had heels on.  She was thinking of her plan.  Maybe, she should try and go into the Waffle House with the staff.  She peeked into the windows over the man’s shoulders.  It looked like there was one cook, one waitress, and one small group of people in a corner booth.  The man took another step towards her.

“Can I have a picture?” he asked.

“Not tonight, I’m sorry.  It’s getting late.” Kirstie said nervously.

“You are so pretty,” the man said as he took one more step. 

For each step he took towards Kirstie, she took two slow steps back towards the road.  She was really getting freaked out now.  She turned towards the road and nothing.   She turned back around towards the man, and said, “Well, good night. I’m going to go now.”

“I thought that you were waiting on a friend?” the man asked.

“I guess they are running late.” Kirstie said as she turned and started walking as quickly as she could towards the direction of the tour bus.  In her head, she was giving herself directions, go to stop sign, turn left, go to end of street, turn right.

“I’ll walk with you.  A young girl should not be out alone at night,” the man said as he was now just a few feet away from Kirstie. 

She said, “It’s okay.  I’m good.”

The man reached out and grabbed her arm and said, “Hey, I’m trying to be nice.  You should be nice to me.  I just wanted a picture.”

Kirstie felt her arm sting where the man had a vice grip and she said, “Let me go!”

“That’s no way to talk to me.  I’ve been very nice to you.” The man said grabbing her arm tighter.

“Let me go now!!” she screamed. 

The man grabbed Kirstie’s other arm now and had her facing him.  Kirstie was scared and wanted to scream.  She had tears in her eyes.  She started to scream to get someone’s attention in the Waffle House.  They were on the far edge of the parking lot now, but maybe someone would hear her.  She started screaming as loud as she could.  She screamed anything she could think of.  The man let go of one of her arms and slapped her across the face hard.  His plan worked because it startled her to stop screaming for an instant.  She prayed that someone heard her. 

At the tour bus…

Mitch and Scott were talking about the next show and singing songs.  They lost track of time and Scott said, “I wonder where Kirstie is at? It’s getting really late now.”

“Yea, it’s weird that we haven’t heard from her.  Have you gotten any messages?” Mitch said pulling out his phone.

Scott looked at his phone and realized that he had it on silent. 

“Yes, I have one. It’s from Kirstie. He looked at the message and stood up.  “I’ll be back.  I’m going to go pick her up.”

Scott tried to call her back, it had been almost an hour since she texted him and he felt bad that he didn’t check his phone.  No answer.  He didn’t have to wait for long when he looked up and saw a county sheriff pulling onto the road.  He walked towards the car and saw Kirstie was in the back seat. 

“Kirstie, you okay?  What happened, officer?” Scott asked quickly.

“Sir, please step back.  I need to talk to Scott.  Are you Scott Hoying?” the officer asked.

“Yes, what’s wrong?  What happened?” Scott asked while he was handing his ID over to the police officer for verification.  Mitch was now standing by Scott.

“There’s been an incident tonight.  The girl is okay.  She asked that I speak to you.  She’s in a great deal of shock, but she insisted on coming back here.  She said that you all were her family.  A man attacked her tonight outside of a waffle house about a hour ago.  She screamed and some locals heard her.  They were able to get to her in time before anything to bad happened.  Looks like she got a nasty mark on her face and some marks on her arms.  A little ice and she’ll be good as new.  We took a police report, but the man is gone.  He ran off.  We asked that Kirstie come to the station tomorrow to see if we can get a police drawing of the man.  Remember, she’s in shock right now.  So, just watch her.”  The police handed back Scott’s ID and handed him his card and a copy of the report.   Scott and Mitch watched as the police walked over to the car and opened the door.  Kirstie got out of the car slowly and looked up at Scott and Mitch with tears still in her eyes.  She was so relieved to see people she knew.  She went over to Scott and Mitch and hugged them.

Scott hugged her back as well as Mitch. They walked her inside and Scott asked her, “Are you okay, Kirstie. I’m so sorry I didn’t get your message sooner.”

“It’s okay, I’m glad to be back home.” Kirstie said as she walked in and went straight to the bathroom. 

Scott and Mitch looked at each other and Mitch said, “Oh my god!”

Scott said, “I know!  I can’t believe this.  I’m going to tell David now.  David was the group’s body guard. Scott went to talk to David.  Mitch tapped lightly on the bathroom door.  “Kirstie, you ok, honey?”

Kirstie opened the door and let Mitch in.  She went back to the small chair in front of the vanity and sat down.  She was wiping her makeup off her face. 

Mitch looked at her arms and then saw her face.  “Kirstie, oh my gosh, your face.”

Kirstie looked in the mirror, and then started crying.  The whole thing was coming back to her.  She started really crying now.  Mitch went to her and hugged her and just let her cry.  He grabbed a cold wash cloth and held it gently to her face.  He cried too.  After a little bit, there was another tap on the door, “It’s probably Scott; he was going to talk to David.”

Kirstie straightened up as Mitch opened the door.  It was Scott, Avi, and Kevin. 

She couldn’t help but feel love at this moment.  They all cared for her so much and she felt safe.  She stood up and that’s when Scott saw her face and arms for the first time.  He stepped quickly over to her and gently touched her arms where the red marks were and then he touched her face with his fingertip.  “I’m so sorry, Kirstie.  You are safe now.” He hugged her and didn’t let go.  He didn’t care who saw. 

She mumbled something and Scott leaned back and said, “What?”

“I want to go to bed now.” Kirstie said. 

Scott let her go and she headed out the bathroom past Avi who looked devastated and Kevin who looked like such a protective big brother.  She got up into her bunk and pulled the curtain closed and curled up into a little ball and snobbed quietly into her pillow. 

It was about a couple of hours later, now in the middle of the night.  You could hear the low roar of the heat and the soft snoring from Kevin and Avi.  Kirstie woke up and didn’t want to be alone.  She got out of her bunk and walked softly up to Scott’s bunk and pulled his curtain back.  He was sleeping.  She softly said, “Scott.”

He stirred and she said his name again, “Scott”.  This time she shook his arm a little bit. 

He stirred again and opened his eyes slowly and this quickly seeing that it was Kirstie.  “Kirstie, you okay?”

“I’m scared.” Kirstie said.

“Come here, Kirstie.  It’s okay.” Scott said as he helped her up into his bunk.  It was a little bit tight, but they were able to fit.  He held her close and said, “I’m here for you.  You don’t have to be scared.”

Kirstie felt so safe in his arms that she almost forgot that this was just her best friend.  She closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep.  Scott softly hummed into her ears and she drifted off to sleep eventually.