~*~ Chapter 66 ~*~
NEW YORK CITY, NY – TOM’S LOFT – APR.12th, 2002 – FRIDAY
It was 9 p.m. when Kirstin arrived at Tom’s loft. It was actually packed with faces Kirstin had never seen before.
She scanned the place looking for a familiar face. She found one near the stereo.
“Hey, you.” Kirstin greeted with a huge smile.
“K, I can’t believe it!” Grace hugged Kirstin really tight.
“Oh, I missed you so much, G.” Kirstin said almost crying, but she held the tears back.
“I know…” Grace backed away from the hug “I missed you, too.”
“So… who are all these people?” Kirstin asked, looking around.
“They are pretty much all Mark’s friends.”
“Yeah… I can see that, due to the amount of muscles we can see here.” Kirstin giggled.
“I know! But can you complain?” Grace smiled.
“Do you hear me complaining?” Kirstin giggled again “Where’s Tom?” Kirstin asked, again, scanning the place.
“He’s here somewhere. Just gotta find him.”
“Ok. I’ll do that.”
“Ok. Good luck finding him.” Grace said when Kirstin was leaving to search for Tom.
During Kirstin’s search for Tom, she found some familiar faces from college. She would often stop and have some small talk, and keep searching for Tom. When she was getting to Tom’s room, she felt someone grab her from behind.
“The love of my life!” Tom hugged her from behind and kissed her on the cheek.
“Silly!” Kirstin playfully hit him on the arm “You look good! That’s a new shirt!”
“This old thing?” Tom looked down at his shirt. He was wearing a yellow shirt with navy blue 3/4 sleeves.
“It’s not old!”
“Yes, it is! It’s just that I felt like dressing up in a baseball kind of style. You know? For Mark.” Tom chuckled “But who are you to say? You look hot!”
“Shut up.” Kirstin didn’t pay any attention to him.
“You do. I mean, you always look hot, but tonight, you’re especially hot.” Tom looked Kirstin up and down. Kirstin was wearing a low cut dark blue jeans with some glitter on one side and a dark green one sleeve shirt.
“Yeah, right.” Kirstin giggled “I missed you, Tommy.” Kirstin hugged him.
“Oh, I missed you, too.” Tom hugged her. They stayed like that for a while. Tom inhaled Kirstin’s perfume and smelled her hair. Kirstin picked up on that and decided to break the hug.
“So…” Kirstin felt awkward.
“So.” Tom felt the same way, so he looked down. When he did that, he noticed the huge diamond ring on her finger. He just looked suddenly up at her and didn’t need to say anything. Kirstin knew what it was just by the look on his face.
“I really don’t wanna talk about it.” Kirstin didn’t sound too happy.
“Oh, I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to.” Tom took her by the wrist and led her to his room. Kirstin got in first and Tom closed the door behind him “Talk.” He ordered.
“What do you wanna know?” Kirstin sat on his bed.
“Everything!”
“Everything what?” Kirstin decided to play dumb.
“Everything! When? Where? How? Why?” Tom sounded nervous. He was acting weird. Why was he nervous?
“Tuesday. Redding. I asked him first and then he asked me.” Kirstin went right to the point.
“But…” Tom frowned “What do you mean you asked him first?”
“I asked him to marry me and then, after my proposal, he asked me to marry him. He had the ring right there with him.”
“And where is he now?” Tom asked, curious.
“You tell me.” Kirstin felt her eyes burn. She didn’t wanna let the tears fall.
“Keekee...” Tom sat beside her on the bed “Look at me.” Tom lifted her chin up “What happened, baby?”
“I screwed up. Like I always do. I kissed another guy in Redding.”
“What?” Tom asked calmly.
“I kissed another guy for no reason. I felt nothing for him, but he is so cool and so nice and he was the only one besides Ashley that was my friend during highschool, so we spent some time together and I don’t know why, but I kissed him. But it was nothing. I swear, Tom. It meant nothing. But then Ashley found out through the worst way possible and that fucked everything up and he said goodbye to me and we haven’t talked since then and I…” Kirstin started to sob.
“Sh… It’s alright, baby. Come here.” Tom hugged her and caressed her back to try to calm her down.
“No, it is not. I don’t even know where we stand, Tom!” Kirstin and Tom were still hugging “I don’t know if we’re still engaged, I don’t know if I’m his girlfriend, heck, I don’t even know if he’ll ever talk to me again.”
“Kirstin…” Tom backed away from the hug “I don’t wanna be the mean person here, but I guess someone’s gotta say this to you. Remember that I’m your friend, I love you, and I’m just trying to help you out here, alright?” Kirstin nodded, so Tom continued “You clearly have problems keeping love relationships. You have no idea who you want, K. Like… when you were with Ashley, you wanted to be with me. Then you had me, but you wanted Ashley back. And now that you got Ashley back, you kiss another guy. But then you want Ashley back again? What is that? Something is clearly wrong, K. I really don’t know what your problem is, but I know for a fact that there is a problem. This is not a normal behavior. You claim to love the one you’re with, but then you just go and mess things up, knowing that what you’re doing will mess things up. You gotta seek some help, baby. And I mean like… a therapist or something. Because I really doubt someone else can help you out on this issue.”
Kirstin stopped for a second and looked deeply into Tom’s crystal green eyes. He was right. He was kinda tough on her, but he was absolutely right. He had to be tough so Kirstin could see plainly that she indeed needed help. And urgently.
“Thank you.” she hugged him tight.
“Oh…” Tom was taken off guard “I wasn’t actually expecting this sort of behavior. I thought you were gonna slap me or something.” he chuckled and Kirstin giggled.
“No way. You were totally upfront about the whole situation and I know you’re absolutely right. I had thought about it before, but when you put that into your own words, it didn’t sound as bad as it did in my mind. I thought I was just going insane, thinking of getting a therapist or something. But I just need help, because, seriously, I can’t handle it anymore, Tom. It hurts too much. Especially because I know I’m hurting people’s feelings as well when I do stuff like that.”
“Yeah…” Tom looked down.
“I’m so sorry.” Kirstin took his hand on hers.
“Don’t worry about me. You gotta work things out with Ashley.”
“You’re right.” Kirstin smiled weakly at him and hugged him again “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention.” Tom broke the hug and pulled her off the bed “Let’s go party for now, alright?”
“Ok. Let’s.” Kirstin let Tom lead her out of the room.
“I’ll go get us something to drink.” Tom informed when they got out of the room “What do you want?”
“A soda is fine.”
“Ok. Be right back.” Tom said and headed to the kitchen.
Kirstin was scanning the place, looking for another familiar face when suddenly someone popped up in front of her.
“Well, well, well… if it isn’t Mrs. Addams.”
“Get away from me.” Kirstin warned and tried to leave the spot, but Barry Zito’s grip was faster than her.
“Not so fast, little Kirstin. We haven’t talked in such a long time! I missed you! Why don’t we go somewhere quiet to catch up?”
“Leave me alone.” Kirstin said through her teeth.
“I don’t think so.” Barry did an evil smile.
“Leave me alone, or else…”
“Or else what?” Barry cut her off “Who’s gonna save you tonight, huh? I don’t see Mr. Boyband anywhere around here tonight.”
“Get away from me.” Kirstin was able to get herself out of Barry’s grip, but after two steps, she felt Barry’s grip on her hand.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Barry frowned when he felt something and took her hand closer to his eyes “What a beautiful ring! It almost looks like an engagement ring.”
“It is.” Kirstin said.
“No, that’s impossible.”
“It is.” Kirstin got rid of his grip once again.
“No, it is not. Who would marry a little slutt like yourself, huh?” he rubbed his finger on her face and she turned her face around, disgusted by his touch.
“Don’t you touch me!” Kirstin warned.
“Oh, now you’re all so sure of yourself, huh? Well, where’s your future husband, huh? Is it Mr. Boyband? Where is he? Or is it the other looser? The tall one?”
“I don’t owe you any explanation. I’m out of here.” Kirstin turned and, again, felt Barry’s grip.
“I already told you you’re not going anywhere.” Barry tightened his grip and Kirstin fringed.
“Let her go.” Kirstin and Barry turned their heads to the right “I said… let her go.” Ashley released Kirstin’s hand from Barry’s grip.
* Thanx Stacie, Taryn and Shauna for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 65 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 67 ~*~
Feedback: [email protected]