Hope

Kristel woke up the next morning to see the Great Dane, Majesty, was sleeping on the floor next to her bed. Kristel gave a soft groan, she wasn’t ready to deal with the dogs yet. Majesty perked up when the front door closed, making her get up. Kristel followed suit, following Majesty to see that the living room was empty. “Zack?” Kristel whispered, peering into his room to see an unmade bed, but no Zack. She wandered around the house looking for Zack, but didn’t find him. Confused she sat at the dining room table to see a piece of paper laying on it.

went out to studio with the guys

will be there most of the day

make yourself comfy.

Zack

“Wonderful,” Kristel muttered to herself. Glancing at the two dogs that were sitting on the floor, watching her. Icky gave a gruff bark, making Kristel wish Zack had asked her to join him. She got up, to get a bottle ready, the previous night gnawing at her. She felt that she had been rude to everyone when she got up and ran to her room.

Chewing on her lip, Kristel imagined where the conversation would have went if she had stayed in the room. It most likely would have gone to ‘Where’s your ex from?’, or maybe veered towards ‘Where did you grow up?’. She wasn’t sure how far into everything she wanted to get into…yet. But at the same time she knew that she’d have to start telling them about herself eventually.

Kristel listened to the house for a couple seconds…Amber still wasn’t up. Taking advantage of the alone time Kristel made her own breakfast. Some scrambled eggs. Icky whined near the stove, making Kristel glance toward him to see him sitting on his back feet. Kristel cut off a little of her eggs and placed it on the counter to cool. A couple seconds later she tossed him the piece, which he caught in his mouth. Kristel smiled a little, when Icky started to beg for more. “Silly, you can’t have a lot of people food,” Kristel shook her head, plating up her food as Amber woke up. Kristel sat the plate down on the table as she rushed to the room. She got Amber ready for the day.

Kristel came back out with Amber dressed in a new outfit and sat her on the ground to get her food. As she got Ambers food ready she went by the table to pick up her empty plate. By the time she got to the sink she realized that something was wrong. She looked at the plate then back to the table, then the plate once more. Finally her eyes darted to the small black dog, who sat on the floor licking his chops. “You little thief,” Kristel muttered, setting the plate in the sink, as she cracked open a couple more eggs.

Icky walked up to the stove, then began to beg for more eggs. “I don’t think so,” Kristel sang, as she scrambled her second set of eggs. Then put it on a new plate, and began to eat it, sharing a few cooler pieces with Amber. Once Kristel got down to the end of her breakfast, she gave the last piece to Icky. “Now you listen here, Ichabod,” Kristel crouched down, reaching a careful hand out to the dog. “It appears that I might be here a while. So we need to get along.” she touched the dogs ear, half expecting him to take a bite out of her hand. Instead he sniffed her hand, waiting to see what she’d do. Kristel pet the dogs head, then slowly pet his back. “My daughter’s here with me. I know she’s little, and doesn’t understand everything about petting. But I’d appreciate it if you’d have a little patience with her as she learns.” Icky began to wag his tail, then licked Kristel’s hand, making her smile. “Friends then.” Kristel smiled, giving him a firm pet, then stood up. “Now to clean up my mess,” Kristel muttered, as she searched for a dishrag so she could wash up the dishes she had used.

The guys were busy at the studio recording songs, but they were mostly goofing around. “So how’s Kristel doing?” Brian asked Zack, as they took a break from one of their songs.

Zack shrugged, “She wasn’t up yet when I left. Why?”

“Michelle chewed me out last night, saying that I had upset her and that’s why she ran out of the room,” Brian explained.

“Val got on me about it too,” Matt added sitting down next to Brian. “She said all the guys were to blame for her running out of the room, and that we should back off, until Kristel’s ready to talk.”

“She does cry a lot,” Johnny pointed out.

“She’s probably stressed,” Zack suggested. “The first night I met her she was crying, because she didn’t have anything to feed Amber.”

“She did go through a lot,” Jimmy added in, plopping down next to Johnny. “Hearing what her ex put her through.” Jimmy shook his head, not finishing his thought. The guys were silent, as they thought about what Kristel had been through. Soon getting interrupted by the producer to finish recording. The guys spent the rest of the day finishing up their recordings, then went to Zack’s house.

The dogs ran to the door as Zack and the guys walked in. “Kristel?” Zack called, not seeing her, making him worry that she had run out again.

“Right here,” Kristel replied, appearing in the kitchen doorway, Amber not far from her. “What?” she gave a small laugh, upon seeing Zack give a small sigh of relief.

Zack shook his head, as everyone settled into the house. A couple minutes later Val and Michelle walked in, carrying shopping bags.

“Ever consider giving those cards a rest?” Matt joked, as Val came over and gave him a kiss.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Michelle responded, bringing a couple bags over to Kristel.

“What’s this for?” Kristel asked, surprised, peering at the bag sitting at her feet.

“Well, you hardly bought anything yesterday,” Val explained. “So, we felt we should help “up” your wardrobe.”

“Next, we need to go shoe shopping,” Michelle bounced on her toes.

“But, I already have a pair of shoes,” Kristel replied, confused.

“Pfft,” Val retorted. “We’ll get you new shoes to go with your new clothes.”

“Five or six pairs should be good,” Michelle finished.

Kristel gaped at the girls in shock, “I’ve never had that many pairs of shoes in my life!”

“Well, you’ve never lived,” Val smiled.

“But, why would I need more than two pairs of shoes? Three pairs max,” Kristel asked, still confused, glancing at the clothes in the bags.

Val and Michelle gasped in shock, before grabbing Kristel’s arms, pulling her towards the door, “Come on, we’re going shopping.”

Kristel gave an audible groan, as she attempted to stay in the house, “I don’t need to go shopping, but thank you.”

“Come on,” Michelle strained, not realizing just how strong Kristel was. “What are you? Some type of country bumpkin?”

“Yes, actually,” Kristel replied, making Val and Michelle release her, making her stumble a couple steps, before catching herself, right before she ran into Zack.

“You grew up in the country?” Matt asked. Recovering from the laughing fit the guys had been having during the girls’ whole ordeal.

Kristel smiled, “A farm, actually.”

“Did you have horses?” Val asked, instantly intrigued.

Kristel gave a small laugh, “Towards the end, we had Shetland Ponies.”

“What do you mean 'towards the end'?” Brian asked.

Kristel’s smile vanished, “My parents started having issues with my dad’s parents, who owned the farm, when I was sixteen. So, we moved off the farm, my grandparents sold all the animals, and my family moved into town.”

“You didn’t like the move?” Jimmy asked, sensing Kristel's sadness.

“I didn’t adjust well at first,” Kristel shrugged. “Going from a lot of space to roam around to next to nothing, was a huge adjustment for me. But, I got over it.” The room fell quiet for a few moments before Kristel’s stomach rumbled hungrily. “I, uh, may have missed eating something for lunch,” Kristel admitted, her face getting red.

“Well, it’s a Friday night, where should we all eat?” Zack asked, receiving shrugs.

“What’s Kristel hungry for?” Johnny asked.

“Fish,” Kristel stated, surprised that she had been asked. “I haven't had a good fish fry in forever.”

Everyone agreed, then started to get ready to go. Before Kristel knew it, they were all sitting at a table, waiting on food. Kristel sucked down an ice tea before anyone else had even started their drinks, making her blush as they looked at her amazed. “What?” she asked. “It’s fucking hot outside.”

“It’s barely seventy,” Val laughed.

“That may be so, but that's getting warm where I'm from,” Kristel laughed.

“So what’s the weather like where you’re from?” Matt asked.

Kristel thought for a second before answering. “Well,” she started slowly. “The winters are cold, with a ton of snow.” Kristel laughed a little, remembering one of the winters. “There was one winter when I had a friend over, and all of a sudden, snow just starts falling down. So we go out to shovel,” Kristel laughed again. “We’d finish a couple feet, turn around and have to do the part we just did again, except it was deeper than the first time.”

“Couldn’t you just wait until the storm’s done?” Johnny asked.

Kristel shook her head, “If we would’ve waited, the snow would’ve been too heavy to move.” Kristel laughed once more at the memory. “Our neighbors across the street couldn’t’ even use their snow blower it was so deep.”

“Where the hell are you from?...Alaska?” Val asked, teasing Kristel.

Kristel laughed some more, “Hell no! Alaska’s too cold.”

Once the food came, the conversation paused for a few moments, before turning back to Kristel. They listened intently to Kristel, as she talked about the farm she grew up on, asking question periodically. Before Kristel knew it, she was back at Zack’s house. After Kristel put Amber to bed, she came back out to the living room to see that Zack was the only one who had come into the house.

“Where is everyone?” Kristel asked, making Zack look towards her.

“Everyone was getting tired, so they all went home,” Zack explained, motioning Kristel to sit down.

Kristel sat in a chair, looking towards the TV that Zack had turned on while she put Amber to bed.

“Thank you for dinner,” Kristel finally said, after staring at the TV for a few moments.

“No problem,” Zack smiled, making Kristel give a small smile back.

“Would you be able to help me look for a job, tomorrow?” Kristel asked, not looking at Zack.

“Sure.”

“Thank you,” Kristel looked up briefly, before looking back at her hands.

A couple minutes of silence fell between them, before Zack got Kristel’s attention. “Hey, did you clean today?”

Kristel gave a small laugh, before replying, “Just for future reference…I may be slightly OCD.”

Zack chuckled, “That explains why the tall cups were in the back of the cupboard and the short ones were in front.”

Kristel gave a small smile, “Sorry for moving your stuff around.”

Zack shook his head, brushing the apology off, “Don’t worry about it.”

Kristel nodded her head, before the two fell into silence once more. “I’m gonna go to bed,” Kristel yawned, standing up, after a couple minutes.

“See you in the morning,” Zack replied, as Kristel left the room.