Time After Time || Chris Cornell

11. It's An All Night Thing

Seattle Washington, February 16 1988

(Andi is 18, Chris is 23)

ANDI: With the morning sunlight pouring through the windows of Chris's bedroom, I find myself sitting on the floor in his black button up shirt, quietly strumming his dark cherry burst Gibson Les Paul. Chris and I have spent the entire weekend together, hardly leaving his room at all except for the much needed necessities of you know, food, water, basic hygiene... you know the usual. We've talked about everything and anything that you could imagine that he doesn't already know by my time slipping experiences with him. It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact that he already knows so much about me, and that he's in love with me, but it doesn't scare me in the slightest. In fact, I welcome it. There's just something about him that I'm drawn to which makes me feel so comfortable with him, so safe with him.

I continue plucking away at the strings, playing some random riff. I close my eyes and just let my fingers play, not even noticing that Chris has appeared behind me, shirtless in just his blue checkered boxers. I feel him brush my dark curls from my shoulder and place his lips to that spot just under my earlobe.

"Do you know how incredibly beautiful you are, especially when you play my guitar like that?" He whispers in my ear. His lips brush across my skin with his words but I keep playing and he softly begins to hum along. His voice is low and husky at first, then higher as I continue to play. Suddenly my eyes flick open and I stop.

"What's wrong baby?" He says in my ear. I set his guitar aside and get to my feet, moving over to his chair where my leather jacket rested across the arm. I feel him study me as I reach into the pocket and pull out my little notepad that I carry with me everywhere. I walk back over to Chris and sit cross legged in front of him, flipping to one of the last pages that I wrote. Lying the notepad down in front of me, his eyes watch me as I pick his guitar back up and lay it across my lap.

"Do that same hum, you were just doing... but with this," I say, flipping my curls out of my face as I push the notepad towards him. He gives me a cute smirk and looks down at the notepad.

"Did you write this?" He asks with a smile.

"Yea... but just, do the thing you were doing," I say as I start to play the same riff I was just playing. I just didn't want to lose the moment.

"Heaven forgive me, will I pay for my sins?
As I do not know where to begin....
Have I fallen so far, too far to be saved?
Hell be damned, time slips away..."

Chris sings it in the exact way that he was humming before, soulful and bluesy as if he wrote it himself. As soon as he stopped but hanging on to the last note, I suddenly felt this overwhelming sensation that I couldn't quite put my finger on. It wasn't the same feeling like I have just before I time slip, it was something else entirely.

"Yes! Holy shit yes!" I say so excitedly, setting his guitar aside and practically leaping into his lap wrapping my arms around his neck as he laughs.

"Andi?" He chuckles as I look into his eyes, his hands now on my hips as I straddle him.

"That is exactly how I heard it in my head. You sang it exactly... exactly how I heard it..." I trail off, trying not to become emotional but I just couldn't help it. He reaches up and brushes my curls from my eyes as we just gaze at each other, locked in the moment. He touches his forehead to mine and I eagerly press my lips to his. This is it. I am totally completely in love with him.

*****

Seattle Washington, July 28 1984

(Chris is 20, Andi is 20)