Normally, Chris thought out all the possibilities before he engaged in any given action. Sometimes he was too careful, because none of the potential consequences seemed to be good. There were a few people in life who seemed to short-circuit that response, and one of them was Vernon Johnson. When he'd elbowed the man, he fully expected to be punched or have his arm twisted nearly out of socket, or something else equally heinous. In this case, though, he didn't care. Any amount of pain would have been worth stopping the big jerk from pawing him about here on the sidewalk, just to be obnoxious.
Hesper's appearance was almost like divine intervention. Well, intervention anyway. Chris was a bit surprised how glad he was to see her. If nothing else, he didn't think Vernon would try to pound him with a lady present. A woman. Under the circumstances, he was fine with her drawing him away from the other man and even kissing his cheek, though normally it would have made him flush ten different shades of red and twitch. Right now, it was just perfect.
"Not long," he said to her, his own arm sliding around her; the sleeve of the sweater had fallen over his hand, and he surreptitiously closed his fingers around it to keep his skin from touching her jacket. Last thing he needed right now was a psychometric spell. "It's okay." He looked at her because he didn't want to look at Vernon, and it was only then that he flushed very slightly, probably the effects of meeting her gaze. Her sharp eyes missed nothing, and he was sure she'd realized that Vernon the musclebound lunkhead was no friend of his.
"It wadn't nothin'," Vernon said, insinuating himself into the conversation again. There was confusion on his face; the sight of a woman coming to pick up Chris had completely thrown him off. He'd figured the kid was gay, because he was damned pretty, wasn't he?