No Control (Chris Motionless)

Chapter 6 - What Follows

"So, what really made you want to meet up with me?" He asked with a grin and in a voice that made it hard to tell if he was joking.

We had decided to go to a small touristy restaurant and I was too scared of most of the stuff I saw on the menu. I ended up just ordered some fish and chips, as fries are called here. I twirled the fried chip on my plate as I considered my answer.

I decided to tell him a small bit of my reasoning, "I just really wanted to get away from my roommates."

His playful demeanor dropped as he questioned, "Did you all have an argument?"

I shrugged, "You could say that. Lea just didn't like the fact that I had your number. She's afraid of me finding a way to get hurt here in England."

He let out a short laugh, "Trust me, I'm more of a danger to myself than anyone else. Is she like a neurotic type of person or something?"

"Sometimes I swear that she is, but her concerns aren't entirely misguided."

"What makes you say that?"

"I had some bad stuff happen back in Kentucky and I don't think any of us have fully gotten over it yet."

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

"Let's just say my ex is an asshole."

"I can relate to that." He mutters to himself. He caught the look of confusion and interest that flashed across my features, and continued, "We were engaged and she cheated on me with a friend of mine."

My jaw dropped, not just from what he told me, but also because he had felt comfortable enough to confess something so personal.

"Oh god, Chris, I'm so sorry."

He took a sip of his water and he waved off my words. He gave me a sad sort of smile as he shrugged, "It's alright, all I can do now is move on."

I could understand that. It's strange to think that you can miss someone, even after they've done something terrible to you. That's why I still find myself missing Matt from time to time.

"So, how about we talk about a less depressing topic?" Chris suggests with a perked-up eyebrow.

I'm starting to wonder if he does his eyebrow thing out of habit or because he's aware of how attractive it makes him.

I chuckled, "Sounds good to me."

He seemed to ponder over his words for a long moment and then a smirk curled his lips. "There's actually something I've been meaning to ask you about."

"What's that?"

"When we ran into each other at the Motionless show, you had said something about meeting me in the Whipping House, what were you doing there in the first place?"

"I was invited."

"Are you into that sort of thing?"

I thought back to what he had said to me that night in the Whipping House, he must really not remember what happened.

"I didn't know what kind of place it was when I went."

"But why did you stay?"

I don't know what possessed me to allow the words that came out of my mouth, but none the less I confess, "Because of you."

His amused grin morphed into something more wicked as he speaks, "That sounds like a good enough reason to me. Do you want to get out of here now?"

I glanced down at our plates, seeing that they were basically empty and the restaurant only seemed to have a handful of people lingering behind in the booths, like we were.