“All right guys, we’re bouncing out of here,” Alyissa said heading towards the door.
“But...but...you just got here!” Joey protested.
“Yes...about and HOUR ago, it’s time for us to leave, we have other things to do you know,” Alyissa replied, motioning Kayla towards the door to leave.
“Like going shopping again?” Justin asked hopefully.
Alyissa laughed and Kayla blushed, “Maybe...if your a good boy.”
Justin grinned and wrapped his arms around Alyissa. “I’ll miss you,” he whispered.
Alyissa smiled, “I’m sure you will.”
Justin gave a hurt look and Alyissa pushed him playfully, “No puppy dog faces, I’ll see you tonight so quit whining, you act like we’re not seeing each other for months.”
Justin flashed a sly grin and kissed her.
“Enough mushy stuff here, we just ate,” Chris complained closing his eyes and swinging his arms in front of him aimlessly.
Justin pulled away and licked his lips. “Mmm.”
Alyissa let go of him and walked to the door. Kayla said her quick good-bye’s and followed Alyissa out the door. The guys stood in the middle of the empty studio and waved.
“Man it’s impossible to leave with just a quick ‘Good-bye I’ll see you later’ with those guys,” Alyissa said shaking her head.
“Admit it...you like the longer good-bye’s,” Kayla grinned.
A smile crept across her face and she shrugged her shoulders, “Sometimes.”
Kayla nodded her head and smiled to herself. Lunch had reassured her that Lance wouldn’t forget about her over the course of the next month and a half and that made her feel relieved. She was still a little unsure of his words, but decided to put complete trust in what he said. Saturday was rapidly approaching for her and it saddened her to think that everyone was going to stay for the rest of the tour and have fun, while she went back to her stressful world of work and home life. Though she didn’t want this vacation to end, she knew it was going to, she just hoped that they would all come back and not have forgotten her.
“Poofoo’s got a girlfriend, Poofoo’s got a girlfriend!” Joey chanted, bouncing around Lance.
Lance rolled his eyes, “She’s not my girlfriend, how many times am I gonna have to tell you?”
Joey stopped bouncing, “Did you KISS her?”
“That’s none of your business,” Lance said ignoring Joey’s goofy grins and knowing looks.
“Oooohhhhh! You DID!” he laughed.
“Sometimes I swear your a five year old trapped in a twenty three year old’s body,” Lance sighed.
Joey grinned again, “Me too.”
Lance laughed at that comment and shook his head. “Let’s just NOT talk about this topic for now ok?”
“Why? You don’t like her anymore or something?” Joey asked, expression getting serious.
“No! That’s the LAST thing I could ever feel for her, I just have a lot of things on my mind, that’s all,” he replied.
Joey tilted his head to the side, “You wanna talk about it?”
Lance thought about the offer for a second before shaking his head, “Not right now...maybe later.”
Joey shrugged his shoulders, “Whenever your ready to.”
Lance smiled, “Thanks man.”
Joey patted him on the back, “No problem.”
Chris walked in the studio and Joey ran over to harass him, leaving Lance wading in his own thoughts.
Lance’s mind drifted to lunch and the look Kayla had on her face when she had said she wouldn’t forget him. The way they were talking, it sounded like they weren’t going to see each other for eternity, but he had to admit, a month and a half WAS a long time. He hoped she wouldn’t go back home and start dating someone else, but then again she was free to do whatever she wanted to because she wasn’t his. He just really hoped that she wouldn’t. The next move was waiting to be made and that meant he needed to establish things between them and make it official, because she could be swept away any day.
(The Next Day)
Everyone was piled on the tour bus, busily amusing themselves. Justin was in the back room with Alyissa, playing video games, while JC was on the phone, catching up with family and friends. Lance was going over some paperwork he needed to finish and Kayla, Chris, and Joey were all playing a game of poker on the pull out table, using gold fish crackers as the money.
They were all occupied when Justin came up into the front area and looked into the cabinets. He searched some more, going through all the food, with a puzzled look on his face.
JC caught his look, “What are you looking for?”
“I could have sworn I put a new pack of goldfish crackers in the cabinets,” Justin said, narrowing his eye brows in thought.
Chris, Joey, and Kayla jerked their heads up from their poker game. JC looked over at them and grinned.
“I’m sure if you just look around you’ll find them,” JC said laughing.
Justin gave him a weird look and went back to retracing his steps. He re-adjusted his hat and looked around some more.
The three of them were making a mad attempt to hide the bag and all the goldfish they had used. Kayla was scooping them off the table and into her shirt, which only held about two of them. Joey and Chris took off their hats and scooped their goldfishes into them, placing their hats carefully back onto their heads. Kayla watched them, trying not to laugh as Justin turned around to find her with all the goldfish crackers in her lap and hands.
“KAYLA!” he exclaimed, pointing his finger at her.
She looked down at her lap and the place in front of her, that was covered in goldfish. “It’s not what it looks like!”
Justin raised an eyebrow and looked down at the pile of fishes she had in front of her, then back up at her again, waiting for an explanation.
“I-I-I can ex-ex-explain...” Kayla stuttered.
She looked over at Joey and Chris who were looking at her with an interested look on their faces. She realized they didn’t plan on helping her and they were going to let her take all the blame.
Kayla glared at them before turning back up to Justin, “Never mind, I can’t.”
Justin found the bag with the rest of the goldfishes, on the other side of her and opened it, taking a few out and popping them into his mouth.
“No one touches my goldfishes!” he said in a huff, looking down at her.
Joey and Chris slipped out of their seats and sat on the couch with JC, “Yeah everyone knows that,” they agreed.
JC shook his head, knowing the prank and went on in his phone conversation.
Kayla got up and walked over to the couch, squirming into the seat between Chris and Joey saying, “Your absolutely right.”
They both looked at her suspiciously, while she smiled innocently.
“I’ll let you go this time, but don’t let it happen again,” Justin said throwing more fishes into his mouth and chomping on them.
Justin leaned down to get two bottled sodas out of the small fridge, when Kayla caught his attention, “You know what?” she asked.
Justin looked up, “What?”
“I love you guys,” she said smiling.
Justin, Lance, and JC looked at her curiously, while Chris and Joey looked at her cautiously. Kayla placed her hands on both Chris’s and Joey’s head at the same time and rubbed their heads roughly. You could hear the crunch of all the goldfishes under their hats as they smiled sarcastically, trying not to say anything. When she was finished crushing the fishes as much as she could, Kayla got up quickly and made a mad dive to where Lance was sitting. Lance looked up surprised as she jumped over his lap to hide behind him.
“Kayla have you had caffeine today?” Justin asked, confused at her unusual antics.
“Um, yeah!” she agreed quickly, still watching Joey and Chris.
Justin shrugged his shoulders and walked back into the back room again with two sodas and the remaining goldfishes. When he shut the door behind him, Chris and Joey automatically bent over to take their hats off. Crumbs fell from their spiky looking hair and they shook their heads roughly to get access crumbs out.
They stood up to go after her when Lonnie stepped in-between them, “Let her go.”
“But...” Chris started to protest.
Lonnie just gave him a look and Chris finally nodded in agreement, sitting back down again, “This isn’t over,” he threatened playfully.
Kayla smiled sweetly at him and nodded in agreement. Chris and Joey finally decided to go into the back room and join Alyissa and Justin in playing video games. They left the door open and you could hear the volume increase.
“I gotta admit....that was good,” Lance whispered.
Kayla didn’t realize how close she really was sitting, next to Lance until he had spoken, his deep voice seemed to rumble into her ears and echo around her head. She then realized she was clutching his arm and shirt so she let go.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to...” she trailed off.
“No problem,” he smiled.
Kayla smiled shyly and dropped her legs under the table so she was sitting AT the table, instead of scrunched up in a little ball, clinging to Lance. Though she had to admit, she didn’t mind being that close to him.
“What exactly are you doing?” she asked curiously, peering over his shoulder at the paperwork in front of him.
“Work,” he replied, staring at her.
She looked up and smiled, “What kind of work? I didn’t think singers had to fill out all this paperwork, especially after as long as you guys have been successful.”
He broke his gaze and looked back down at his papers, “No no, this is for my management company.”
“Ohhhh, I see.”
“Yes, contracts and paperwork are never ending in this business, the public doesn’t know that because everyone BEHIND the pretty faces does all the work,” he explained.
“Like president of big companies secretaries?”
Lance smiled, “Yes, the important people.”
“Nice save,” she giggled.
“I try.”
Kayla snuggled closer to Lance and leaned her head on his shoulder cautiously. She was usually very shy around guys and her sudden and spontaneous acts were surprising not only Lance, but also herself. She couldn’t really explain why she was acting so openly affectionate towards this blonde cutie, but she didn’t really want to explain it. She was just following her gut feeling and making herself happy. She hoped Lance didn’t mind.
Lance looked down at the top of Kayla’s head, a little surprised from her sudden urge and move to cuddle with him, but didn’t want to argue. The closer he got to her the happier he was. He could smell her shampoo and hear her breathing softly. He carefully placed his arms around her and finally rested his hand comfortably on her arm. He smiled to himself and went on looking through his papers.
JC was talking on the phone with his girlfriend when he caught Lance and Kayla sitting close together, Lance’s arm wrapped gently around Kayla. He smiled at the sight and nodded his head in approval, he knew those two were meant for each other.
“Justin give me the control, your turn is OVER,” Chris said, standing in front of the TV.
“No come on man, I still have two lives left,” Justin argued, trying to peek around Chris’ body.
“WRONG...you have one life now,” Chris smirked, looking at the TV screen without moving from his spot.
“Chris...MOVE!!!” Justin said, pushing him to the side.
“Don’t tell me what to do Curly, I’ll whoop your ass!” Chris said locking his legs in place so Justin couldn’t move him.
“Bring is shorty,” Justin challenged.
“Oh now you done did it!” Chris said, jumping onto Justin.
Justin threw the remote out of his hand and caught Chris in time to roll him over, off of himself. Chris jumped right back and they continued to roll around the floor, wrestling.
“Hey Joe, wanna play?” Alyissa asked, picking up a remote for herself and handing the other one to Joey.
Joey nodded his head and took the remote, while Alyissa started the game. They started to play and laugh while Justin and Chris rolled around for a little longer.
Both guys stopped at the same time to realize Joey and Alyissa had taken their remote’s and were playing happily. They sat up and brushed themselves off, staring at the two laughing over something.
“’Liss? What are you doing?” Justin asked.
Alyissa paused the game and turned around to look at him. “What does it LOOK like I’m doing? Playing a video game.”
“WE we’re playing that game,” Chris jumped in, standing up.
“Well you two stopped so we thought we’d play,” Joey said casually.
“No no, it’s still our turn,” Justin said standing up beside Chris.
“Don’t start this ‘I’m gonna try and prove my manhood by standing in front of the TV’ shit,” Alyissa said, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” Chris threatened.
“I’d like to see you try,” Alyissa replied, brushing his threat off her shoulder.
“What!? Woman you don’t know who your messing with!” Chris exclaimed.
“Oh but I do, why do you think I’m not moving? I have no reason to even TRY and defend myself, because I don’t need to,” she said turning the game back on.
“Yeah that’s because you know you’d lose,” Chris said smugly.
“NO, because I know it’s just YOU and that’s no challenge,” Alyissa shot back, not taking her eyes off the TV screen.
“You know what ‘Liss? I’m sick of your little cocky attitude,” Chris said bobbing his head back and forth from side to side.
“I’m glad, now wait until your turn is over and quit whining about it,” Alyissa replied.
Chris turned around and looked at Justin who was now sitting down on the couch with a grin on his face.
“What are you grinning about?” Chris asked, narrowing his eyebrows.
“Nothing...nothing at all,” Justin replied casually.
Chris mumbled something under his breath and sat down beside Justin. Justin stared at him and Chris looked over, flashing Justin a dirty look. Justin burst into laughter and Chris rolled his eyes, mumbling something else under his breath.
JC walked into the back room and saw Alyissa and Joey happily playing video games while Justin was laughing and Chris sat on the couch with his arms crossed and lips tightly sealed together.
“Are we fighting over the video game again?” JC asked, shutting the door behind him.
“NO!” Chris said.
“Oh...ok...” JC said backing up a step and walking over to the other side of Justin cautiously.
“Hey JC...where’s Kayla and Lance?” Alyissa asked, eyes still glued to the TV screen.
“Out in the front,” JC replied casually. “Why?”
“Who’s out there with them?” Alyissa asked, pausing the game and taking her eyes away from the screen for the first time.
“No one, it’s just them,” JC said, giving her a curious look.
Alyissa looked at Justin and Chris, they all exchanged looks and jumped for the door all at once. They ended up tripping over each other and tumbled to the floor, caught in each other’s arms and legs.
They heard someone call from the front, “Are you guys ok in there?”
“Ummm....YEAH! We’re fine, Chris and Justin are just wrestling again, if we need an ambulance we’ll call you!” Alyissa yelled back, pushing Chris and Justin down to the floor, reaching the door first.
“Ok,” was the reply.
Silence from the front.
“Someone give me a glass,” Alyissa instructed, pressing her ear to the door and snapping her fingers. “NOW!”
They all looked around each other and shrugged empty handed. Alyissa looked up frustrated and looked around at the faces giving her helpless looks.
Her eyes scanned the room and spotted a drink, “Who’s drink is that?”
Joey looked up and raised his hand halfway.
“Well what the hell are you waiting for? CHUG BOY CHUG!” Alyissa exclaimed.
Joey jumped and nodded his head, picking up the huge glass of soda and starting to gulp the liquid down.
“GO JOEY! GO JOEY!” Chris and Justin chanted.
Joey tried to hold back his laughter and prevent spitting his drink around the room. He closed his eyes tightly and continued drinking at a rapid pace. He finished his drink and let out a big burp.
“EW man!” Chris said, scrunching up his nose in distaste.
Joey handed the glass to Alyissa weakly and fell to the floor, holding his stomach. “Too...much...carbon...ation...at...once...” he choked out.
Alyissa picked up a small shot glass from a nearby bag and studied it, “Who’s is this?”
“Oh...that’s Lance’s birthday present for his twenty first birthday, we forgot to wrap it so we haven’t given it to him yet,” Chris explained.
“Oh...this will work, never mind Joey,” Alyissa said, placing the opening of the small cup against the door and pressing her ear at the other end, to try and listen.
All the guys looked back at Joey who was on the floor groaning from slight pain in his stomach. They laughed lightly and turned back to Alyissa.
“What are they saying?” Justin asked in a whisper.
“Why are you whispering? Their gonna suspect something if it all the sudden gets quiet, someone turn up the TV,” Alyissa instructed. “Not TOO loud I have to hear you know!”
The TV volume went down a few notches and Alyissa pressed her ear back on the small glass. She listened intently and after a few moments of silence, heard faint voices talking.
“Are you looking forward to going back home?” Lance asked, breaking the silence.
Kayla sighed, “No...not really.”
Lance smiled to himself, he didn’t like to be selfish, but he didn’t want Kayla to leave yet and if she didn’t want to go home, that meant she wanted to stay too. He had to stop getting happy over such minor things.
“Do you miss your room mates?” he asked.
Kayla paused for a second and thought about Bryce and Casey. She thought about Casey’s smiling face and her cute curls that fell around her face gently.
She finally answered, “Yes.”
“You had to think about that?” Lance asked softly in a joking manner.
“No,” Kayla said immediately. “I was just thinking about them and I forgot you had asked a question.”
“Oh,” was all Lance could say.
“I didn’t mean that hostily,” she said quickly, trying to take back her last comment.
“It’s ok,” he mumbled.
“No...no it’s not,” Kayla insisted.
Lance shrugged his shoulders and looked around the bus as if looking for something interesting.
“So...” he trailed off, trying to think of something to say.
“Lance...” Kayla started.
“Yes?”
“Did you feel something the other night?”
“Excuse me?” he asked confused.
“The other night...when we...you know...kissed,” she said shyly. “Did you feel something when that happened?”
Lance’s face softened and he smiled, remembering the rush of emotions he had when he kissed her. The exhilaration and confidence, the happiness, the excitement, all at once, rushing through his body.
“Yes,” he finally replied, nodding his head slowly.
“Are you sure? You look like your kind of doubtful,” Kayla said, studying his face.
“No, I’m sure I felt something,” he assured her. “Did you?” he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
Kayla sat up and brushed her hair out of her face. She sighed and seemed like she was deeply concentrating on what she was going to say.
“Well, that’s why I want to talk about this, I mean I’m leaving this Saturday and we won’t see each other for almost two months,” Kayla said staring at her hands. “I’m not really sure how I feel about that kiss the other night and I don’t know what my next move should be.”
Lance stared at her, still not sure how she felt about the kiss.
“I mean that sounds kind of stupid talking about my next move, but I mean if that kiss was pointless to you then I’ll just move on. Then again if it wasn’t, I have to consider a lot more things,” she continued.
“Like what?” Lance asked, voice slightly raspy. He cleared his throat and repeated himself, “Like what.”
“Like...like...umm...” Kayla trailed off.
She shifted her sitting position and continued to have a deep in thought look on her face, as if trying to decide something. Lance studied her carefully and wondered what was going through her mind at that moment. He thought she had feelings for him, in fact he was almost positive she did, but from the look and comments she was making, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
Kayla’s thoughts raced through her head. All she wanted to do was kiss him again and fall into his arms and let him hold her. It had taken all her will power and strength to sit up and look at him, she felt so secure in his arms she didn’t want to pull away. She was struggling with what she wanted to say because revealing too much could do a lot of damage to their not-yet-exsisting relationship. Bryce and Casey kept popping up in her head and she couldn’t seem to push their faces away.
She had fallen for this guy sitting in front of her and she had fallen hard, but she couldn’t let herself stay fallen for him. She had to pick herself up from her flight and make her way back up, back into reality, back into her world. Sadly, as much as she wanted him to, Lance just couldn’t come with her.
She wanted to cry and tell him all her deep dark secrets, she wanted to spend long nights talking about each other’s live’s. She wanted to kiss him and hold him, let him take care of her. She wanted to know what made him hurt him in the past and what made him happy, she wanted to know what made him cry so she could make him smile. She wanted to be with him.
“Like a lot of things,” she finally replied after a long, driven out silence.
Lance gave her a curious look, “I don’t quite understand.”
“I know...and I can’t explain it all,” Kayla said helplessly.
“Maybe I can help,” Lance offered immediately.
“No...you can’t help me with this,” Kayla said sadly.
“Well tell me what it is, maybe I can do more than you think,” Lance said softly.
Kayla smiled softly and shook her head, “You can’t...trust me.”
“I do trust you,” he said gently. “I thought you trusted me.”
Kayla looked up surprised, slightly thrown off guard, “I do trust you.”
Lance nodded his head and looked down at the table.
“What did you mean by that last comment?” Kayla asked, curious now.
Lance shrugged, “Well sometimes I wonder if you really trust me and I wish I could prove to you somehow that you can.”
Kayla narrowed her eyebrows, “I’ve never told anyone about my parents, NO ONE. Your the only one who knows, for me, that’s a big step with trusting someone I hardly know.”
“I didn’t know you didn’t tell anyone else,” Lance replied softly. “Thank you...for trusting me with that.”
Kayla crossed her arms and continued to stare at him. “But?”
Lance looked up, “But? There’s no but.”
“Yes there is, I can see it in your eyes, you don’t hide much with those crystal greens.”
“No really, there’s no but,” he protested.
“Well if you want me to trust you so much, then don’t you think you should dish out just as much? I mean you haven’t really told me much about yourself,” Kayla said, getting heated now.
Lance noticed her hastiness and kicked himself for getting so pushy. “Well...there’s not that much...to tell.”
“You don’t sound so sure about that Lance,” Kayla said raising an eyebrow.
“I mean...”
“What. What do you mean? You mean that there have been things that hurt you, but their not important enough to tell me? Or do you just not TRUST me?” Kayla said, starting to get worked up.
“Kayla your assuming things,” Lance said calmly.
“Your right, your absolutely right. Please forgive me for ASSUMING that if I told you one of my deep dark secrets that I haven’t talked about for two straight years, that oh, maybe, JUST MAYBE, you could tell me one fractional part of YOUR life.”
“Kayla what’s wrong? What did I do to get you so worked up?” Lance asked, watching her.
“Nothing...nothing at all Lance, you’ve been just perfect, forget I ever said anything,” Kayla mumbled in low tone.
“No, now your lying to me what’s wrong? Did I say something wrong?”
“Yes you said something wrong, do you think I just get this worked up over NOTHING?” she asked.
“No but--”
“But WHAT.”
“But...I didn’t think I said anything to offend you,” he said quietly.
“Well you did,” she said flatly.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what? Don’t say your sorry unless you really mean it,” she said, fighting back tears.
“I do mean it.”
“How can you if you don’t even know what your sorry ABOUT?”
“Kayla your confusing me,” he said, putting his hands out in a exasperated manner.
“I’m sorry, I’ll just stop talking and maybe everything will clear up sooner or later,” she said coldly. She was blocked by him in the small booth they were both sitting in, or else she would have left after that comment. “Excuse me.”
“What?” he asked.
“I want to get out, please move out of the way,” Kayla said politely with a twinge of hostility in her voice.
“No wait,” he began. “Can we please talk about this?”
Kayla sat back and crossed her arms again, “Talk about what.”
“About this whole discussion,” Lance said, relieved she agreed to stay for a little longer.
“Well what about it.”
“Ok, first we started off talking about that kiss and now your mad at me but I’m not sure why,” he said, trying to sum up the conversation.
“Your doing good so far,” she said, fixing her stare on him.
“I think we got into this other part of the discussion because of trust issues,” he continued.
Kayla nodded her head and waited for him to go on.
“I trust you, you trust me, stop me if I’m wrong here...”
Kayla didn’t move.
“But your upset because I don’t tell you anything?” he said.
“That’s not JUST why I’m upset.”
“Then what else is there? I want to get through this, I don’t like knowing your mad and I’m the person responsible for that.”
“Lance...when we kissed the other night...” she started, completely changing the subject.
Her mind started to fly back to Bryce and Casey. She was getting too close too quickly to Lance and she had to pull away. So she made a decision.
“It didn’t mean anything,” she finally said.
Lance’s face fell and his expression changed, “Oh.”
“Yeah,” she said, fighting back all of her emotions rushing into her mind, body, and heart. “Nothing at all. I don’t know what came over me and I apologize for my actions.”
It’s...no problem,” Lance said, looking down.
Kayla sat up again, “Excuse me.”
This time Lance stood up. He refused to make eye contact with her because he couldn’t bear to. Just fifteen minutes ago, he had been on cloud nine and now he had just been rapidly pulled down to the ground. It felt like someone had knocked the wind out of him.
“I don’t understand,” he mumbled.
“What was that?” Kayla asked, pausing.
Lance was about to brush it off but decided HE deserved some answers, “I said I don’t understand.”
“Don’t understand what?” she asked.
“I don’t understand what brought this on. YOU kissed ME the other day...and now your saying your taking it back.”
“So?”
“So...that kiss meant something to ME. If you can remember I’m a human being too, I have feelings and I don’t think you even considered that. I’ll tell you the truth, I LIKED that kiss, it felt right and I want to do it again. I THOUGHT you did too, but I guess my choice of judgment was wrong and I’m sorry about that, I thought we could have had something,” he said, eyes traveling up hers.
She stayed silent for a moment and stared. She just wanted to run over and hug him and kiss him. She hated herself for making him feel this way and putting that look on his face.
She swallowed hard, “Well I’m sorry if I mislead you.”
Lance couldn’t believe his ears. “Talk to me. Please. Tell me what your hiding.”
“What are you talking about?” Kayla asked, starting to get nervous.
“Kayla there’s something about you, something your hiding and I want to know what it is. Not to be nosy, but to be HERE for you, it’s tearing you apart inside. I can see it somehow, I’m not really sure how, but I can.”
“You don’t know anything,” she muttered, turning back around. “I don’t know what your talking about, but what you see is what you get and there’s nothing more to me.”
With that she stormed out of the front room towards the back.
