CHAPTER 21
(At the beach)
Kaitlyn turned her head and looked up at Justin in complete shock. He stood there in front of her looking so confident and so sure of himself, while she herself had a pale expression on her face. She immediatly turned away and focused her wide eyes on the sunrise.
"So why are YOU here?" Kaitlyn said looking blankly at the horizon.
"I don't know, I guess it is the perfect place to runaway to." Justin walking over to where she sat and sat down next to her.
"I don't understand you Justin."
"Me? Kaitlyn, it took me a long time to think of where you were and..." Justin's voice was abruptly cut off by Kaitlyn's angry voice.
"No Justin. That's not it. Ever since the two of us met, you've acted like a friend to me. So why all of a sudden do you kiss me?" Kaitlyn pushed her tears into the back of her eyes.
(Kaitlyn)
*The last thing I want to do is start crying in front of him.*
"I know I've been confusing you Kaitlyn, but I'm telling you the truth now. I don't know how it happened sweetness, but I think it was the moment you walked into that Disney building door and I bumped into you and I fell for you. But I never played on that until time went on and I spent more time with you on the tour. But last night, it all seemed right, just you there and everyhing just perfect. It was right....."
"No it wasn't Justin. Just stop it, stop it." Kaitlyn stood up and started walking off.
Justin ran up to her and turned her around to face him. "No I won't Kait. You mean the world to me. And I know you feel the same way. You wouldn't have runaway if you didn't feel what I felt in that kiss."
"No I won't listen to this."
"What is wrong Kaitlyn?"
"What is wrong? Wrong? Me? Justin, what's wrong is that I started working for Transcon and I made a binding contract to not fall for other employees. That meant you too. Justin, you're seventeen. This isn't and it never will work."
Justin held her hand firmly but gently in his and looked into her eyes. "Look at me Kaitlyn,", Kaitlyn fidgeted, "no, just stop it Justin." Justin held her in place, "no, look me straight in the eye and tell me you didn't feel anything when I kissed you. Do it Kaitlyn. Tell me you don't love me, tell me you ranaway for the hell of it. Tell me that you truly don't want to be with me."
"Why are you doing this to me?" Kaitlyn was now all choked up and wiping the tears from her eyes as they dripped down her cheek.
"Because I love you Kaitlyn. There, I said it, I love you. If you want me to I'll say it from now until the day I die, every second, every day, every week, every month, every year, from now until the end of eternity. Cause that's the honest truth." Justin had finally let her out of his grasp. But he was surprised to see that she didn't try to leave. A good sign, it may have not seemed like it, but it was.
Kaitlyn covered her face with her hands and sat back down on the white sand and Justin crouched next to her.
"I don't know what to say Justin. I don't." Kaitlyn had finally regained her composure and once again watched the now round sun over the ocean.
"Say what you feel about me." Justin said nervously.
Kaitlyn looked him straight in the eye finally and said, "it is all wrong Justin. But it does feel right. I won't lie about that. But this has all happen so fast. I do have feelings for you Justin, but I don't know to what extent. I need you to give me some time. If you really do love me, give me some time to figure this out. Please Justin."
Justin put the back of his hand to her cheek and touched her softly and gave a small smile. "Alright, take your time. But please don't take too long Kaitlyn. I miss you already."
Kaitlyn turned away from his face and closed her eyes. It all felt like a dream, like it wasn't reality at all.
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(Jennifer's hotel room)
A small knock sounded from the front door and Jennifer closed her suitcase and opened the door. Once she opened it, she was surprised to see Joey standing there.
"Joey, what are you doing here?"
"Well, I know it's kind of last minute and all, but would you like to join me for a farewell lunch with me? My treat." Joey said leaning against the doorway and smiling.
Jennifer turned around and started doing things to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. "Well, I dunno Joey, my plane is leaving in a couple hours, I'm not really done packing, I haven't even helped Cody with his things, and I'm still waiting for Kait to call me to see if she's alright," she let her voice trail off until Joey interrupted her.
"Come on, I promise, I'll have you back here in an hour." Joey said stepping up to her with a puppy dog face.
"Well, since your so cute, alright." Jennifer said smiling and touching the tip of his nose as if he really were a puppy.
Joey smiled and said, "you think I'm cute?"
Jennifer smiled and couldn't help but laugh at his little remark, "you are so full of yourself."
"What's wrong with that?" Joey said shrugging.
"Never mind." Jennifer said grabbing her purse.
The two of them headed for the door and just as Jennifer was about to open the door, Joey walked up in front of her and held it open for her.
"Why thank you." Jennifer said as she walked out.
"So, what about this whole cute thing?" Joey said as he closed the door.
"Drop it Joey!" Jennifer said seriously at one moment then laughing the next.
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(JC and Justin's hotel room)
"Lance, what are we going to do? Lou is going to step over that threshold any minute now and then he's going to ask where is Justin. What are we going to do?" JC said scrathing his head trying to think.
"Aww man JC, I'm sorry you got stuck with the job of telling Lou." Lance said patting him on the back reassuringly.
"So will you help me tell him?" JC asked desperatley.
Lance immediatly put his hands up in the air and answered, "hey man, I'm not that sorry."
Lance smiled and was about to walk out when Lou came in busting through the door in a fit of rage. "Where is he JC?" Lou asked in a loud boisterous tone.
"Where's who?" JC asked kind of frightened.
"Don't act stupid with me boy! Where is Justin. Tony said he never saw Justin after he went outside by the pool. And explain this!" Lou held up the signed letter of resignation from Kaitlyn.
"Lou, calm down, if you do, we'll tell you the story......" Lance said.
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(At the beach)
"Do you want me to take you home? My car is right up on the curb." Justin asked as the two of them walked up the hill of sand leading to the street.
"Well, as much as I would like to avoid you, I can't so I'm just going to have to take a ride from you aren't I? I don't think I have much of a choice." Kaitlyn said with a little smile.
"See, I knew if I gave you time, you'd show me a smile." Justin said as he opened the car door for her.
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The car ride was dead silent the whole way. Justin tried to break it by turning up the radio. It didn't help much. They arrived at Kaitlyn's apartment by 8am and both of them were practically sleep walking. Justin ran around the car and opened the door for Kaitlyn.
"Thanks for the ride. I'll call you." Kaitlyn said giving him a small fake smile.
"Ok. You sure you will be alright?" Justin asked. He could feel his pulse racing.
"Yeah. I'll see you later." Kaitlyn said and turned around and walked into the apartment complex.
Justin watched Kaitlyn walk up the staircase and then got back into his car and decided to call his mom.
"Hello?" Lynn said picking up the hotel room phone.
"Hey mom, it's me." Justin answered.
"Justin, where are you? Lou's having a huge fit and he's taking it out on JC and Lance as we speak." Lynn said as nicely as possible. But she was a little dissapointed that Justin had left without at least telling her.
"He is? Well, I'm here in Orlando. I thought about what you said mom and I came here to find Kaitlyn."
"So did you find her?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"And...well, I told her how I felt. but she said that it was all happening so fast, and she doesn't want to decided all of a sudden without thinking it through, and-"
"Justin sweety, calm down. Breathe for a minute." Lynn said giggling at his childish antics.
"I'm sorry mom. I know you hate it when I babble. It's just all so stressful." Justin said.
"Oh no honey, it's fine. You have a good reason anyway."
"Thanks for understanding mom. I love you."
"Anytime sweety. Love you too."
"Well, tell JC and Lance I'm sorry about everything, by the way...where is Joey and Chris?" Justin asked.
"Chris is god knows where and Joey went out to lunch with Jennifer."
"HOLD UP! Woah....Jennifer as in Jennifer Davis? Kaitlyn's younger sister?"
"Yes dear."
"Wow, when Kaitlyn finds out...I don't want to even think about what's going to happen to Joey!"
"You said it. Well, look Justin, your father and I have to get ready to leave. Our flight leaves tonight."
"Alright. Look, I'm sorry I couldn't make this weekend better for you."
"It's perfectly alright."
"Love you mom."
"Love you too sweetheart. Bye."
"Bye."
(click)
Justin turned off his cell phone and looked up at Kaitlyn's window. There was no movement in sight coming from her bedroom. Justin finally turned the key and started the engine. His Benz exited the parking lot and Kaitlyn watched. She slump to the ground and put her head in her hands. She didn't want to cry, she just wanted to get everything out, somehow. She decided to pick up the phone and call Cheyenne. no matter how much time went bye, they could always talk like they've always been talking 24/7.
One ring
Two rings
"Hello?" Cheyenne answered.
"Hey Chey, it's me Kaitlyn."
"Ohmygod Kaitlyn, hey....haven't heard from you for awhile. So how has tour life been? Let me guess...a bunch of fun?"
"Well...it's been interesting."
"Ok, what's wrong?"
"Well, it's not exactly my idea of fun."
"Spill it!"
"Well...it goes like this..." Kaitlyn began telling Cheyenne the whole story. Up until that very moment. She then poured her heart out to her and told her what she felt then and what she was feeling at that very moment.
"Wow! What a story."
"Please help me Chey. I don't know what to do."
"Well the best thing I think would be for you to tell him you need some space."
"Like?"
"Ugh...are you that lazy to think on your own? Never mind, don't answer that. Ok, just tell him that as much as you like him, you don't want to get into things too quickly and hurt anyone. So you want him to give you a little time out to sort things out."
"Thank you so much Cheyenne, you are my angel."
"Anytime girlie. Well, hey...as much as I would like to sit and chat about my own personal yucky love life, I gotta go. I swear, if I miss anymore notes, I'm gonna be toast on the mid-term."
"Alrighty. Talk to you later."
"Ok, bye."
"Bye Chey."
(Click)
Kaitlyn put the phone down and rested comfortably on the bed. She was so exhausted from the whole night's fiasco that she barely slept. She thought once more about what Cheyenne had told her and what she was planning on doing. She felt her eyelids start ti flicker close and she fell into a deep sleep.
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(At the resturaunt)
Tony pulled up to a little quaint Italian resturaunt named Alessio's. He watched to make sure Joey and Jennifer both got in safely. Jennifer turned to look at Joey once they were inside.
"Italian food...you read my mind." Jennifer said. Honestly she loved Italian food.
"Good, cause I love Italian food....maybe because I'm Italian." Joey said with an evil grin.
"Oh yeah, that's probably a good reason why you love it."
The two of them followed the hostess to a nice table for two by a warm fireplace. It was anyway, a cold November afternoon in Chicago. They both quickly scanned the menu and waited for the waitor to come over to them.
Jennifer noticed Joey so ingrossed with the menu selections that it made her giggle.
"What's so funny?" Joey asked looking up at her.
"Nothing." Jennifer said pausing to answer him.
Joey gave her a look that showed that he really wanted to know what she thinking.
"I was just thinking about all those times Kait warned me about your flirty charm. But this...this is totally different from what she told me. It's so...surprising." Jennifer said smiling at him.
"Well, I like being surprising for someone so special." Joey said giving her a wink.
Jennifer was about to die of embarrassment. She was blushing so much that she felt her cheeks on fire. Luckily the waitor broke the silence between them.
"I'll take a dish of lasagna, a medium size five cheese pizza, and a cup of coffee." Jennifer said satisfied with her order.
The waitor went off and Jennifer turned to see a wide eyed Joey.
"What?" Jennifer said.
"I've never known a girl who eats as much as you do." joey said in awe.
"Well, now you have." Jennifer said charmingly.
She felt herself become comfortable being around Joey. Of course he was a huge flirt, but whoever said she wasn't too?
"So, your Italian...got any sisters or brothers?" Jennifer really couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Yeah, I got an older sister, Janine, and an older brother named Steve. There pretty cool. I'm sure you probably saw him at the party last night."
"Probably, but with all the drama that went on last night, I doubt I saw anything other than hearts being broken. But I'm used to it."
Joey saw a loss of sparkle of Jennifer's eye after she said she was used to seeing heart being broken. It made him curious as to why.
"What do you mean you're used to it?"
Jennifer felt the awkward feeling swim right back into her stomach.
"Oh nothing." She shook her head as she looked at her hands.
"Come on, what happened?"
"Nothing big. I just haven't had the types of relationships anyone would call a relationship. I mean, I dated guys in high school and all, but right when things got good, I'd get dumped. It's silly really. I'm probably just paranoid." Jennifer said in a small quiet voice.
Joey felt concern towards Jennifer's hurt feelings and he had an urge to just take her in his arms and give her a big bear hug and tell her that everything would be alright.
"No your not paranoid. You just haven't found the right guy. Hey, if your paranoid, then so am I. I've had good relationships and all, but I can't say that I've found the right girl. But hey, I've never, for once doubted fate would bring me the right person. You never know, your soul mate might just be an Italian lover." Joey said adding emphasis to his last sentance.
Jennifer couldn't help but laugh at his last remark. "Isn't it suppose to be...a Latin lover?"
"Well, it would be...if I were Latin." Joey said smiling.
Jennifer shook her head as she laughed and smiled at Joey's cute little facial expression. He was definitly a great guy.
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(Back at the hotel)
Lou paced the room back and forth as Lance and JC explained the events of last night. Lou really didn't know what to make of everything he was being told. He was both angry and disapointed.
"We hope you understand Lou." JC said quietly.
"Understand? JC...do you know what's going to happen now because of Justin's stupid puppy dog crush? Shows are going to be cancelled, fans are going to go crazy, reporters are going to find out why then their going to dig deep and find out and then you're ruined." Lou said rasing his voice with each word that left his lips.
"Look Lou, I'm sure we can hide it from the public." Lance suggested trying to keep Lou from practically having a heart attack.
"Your right Lance, we can hide it, but when the media finds out, your fans are just going to hate you for lying to them. I don't care what you have to do, I want you to get Justin back in Chicago by tomorrow morning!" Lou stomped out of the room and off to the elevators.
JC and Lance just turned to look at each other and immediatly knew that they had to get Justin back.
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