Chapter 9

Justin’s eyes slowly opened at the sound of someone knocking on the door.  He sighed and sat up in the bed looking around.  For a moment he was confused as to why he was in Kerrigan’s room.  Sleeping next to her in her bed.  But then the night before came rushing back to him.

She had came back to the hotel drunk off her ass, after being out with Cody and some of his friends.  He remembered how he wanted to go and kill the guy right away, but after being persuaded by the other guys that killing him wasn’t a good idea, he had retired to Kerrigan’s room with her to look after her and make sure that she was going to be ok.

He ended up being up half the night with her while she was her heaving her guts out.  But then she had finally passed out and he had finally been able to get some sleep.  And now someone was knocking on her door.

Justin looked over at the clock to see what time it was.  6:08AM.  He hadn’t even been to sleep that long.  It was going to be a long day, he decided as he climbed out of the bed on the third knock.  He hadn’t had nearly enough sleep and they had a show to do that night.

Staggering to the door, Justin scratched the back of his head with one hand, while the other fiddled with the lock on the door, and then pulled it open.  And when his eyes landed on the man that was on the other side, Justin was near exploding.  “Can I help you?” he asked with every bit of anger he held inside showing through in his words.  And the glare he was giving helped too.

Cody had been expecting a disheveled, most definitely hung over Kerrigan to answer to the door, and so he had been sporting a smile on his face.  Until of course he looked up and seen Justin standing there instead of Kerrigan.  Suddenly Cody’s facial expression changed from a smile to confusion.  “Am I at the right room?” he asked.

Justin’s glare on him strengthened.  “Depends on who you’re looking for.”

“No offense man, but I’m definitely not looking for you.  I’m looking for Kerrigan.  I could of sworn she told me last night she was in room 1820.”

“She is.” Justin stated.  It was everything he could do to prevent from reaching out and grabbing Cody by his neck.  The fury that was building inside of him as he attempted to fight it was unbelievable.

Cody looked at the numbers on the door and then back to Justin, who was standing in between the partially open door and door jam.  In his boxers no less.  “Do you two room together often?” Cody asked in a tone that stated clearly that he wasn’t happy to find Justin in Kerrigan’s room.

Justin raised an eyebrow at Cody.  He looked down at himself and realized he was in only his boxers and then looked back up at the expression on Cody’s face.  He was clearly jealous and Justin could be a real prick and make it out to be something it wasn’t, but he wouldn’t do that to Kerrigan.  She wasn’t just some girl, she was his Kerr and it was the guys fault in front of him that he was standing in her doorway at this time of the morning in the first place.

“First let me say this.  I crashed here last night because I was taking care of a VERY drunk friend.  A very drunken friend that isn’t even twenty one and certain people had no right to give her anything to drink in the first place!  And second everything about me and Kerrigan’s relationship is private, between us and close friends in which case you’re not, so it’s none of your business.”

Cody eyed Justin.  He could tell the guy was really pissed off.  He was surprised he was still standing in the doorway, because from the look in his eyes, it was clear he wanted to murder him.  But yet he stood in the doorway, refusing to move.  As if he was protecting Kerrigan from him.  “Well, I’m not here to argue with you man.  Kerrigan’s nearly twenty one, so I say she has the right to decide if she wants to drink or not.  But like I said I’m not here to argue.  I’m here to drop off her things before I head over to the venue.  When Chris and that other guy took Kerrigan last night, they didn’t take her stuff.  She got this at the park yesterday.” he said, holding out a large bag.

Justin looked down at the bag, and quickly snatched it from Cody’s grasp.  “I’ll make sure she gets it.”

“Thanks.” Cody said as he started to step away, then he stopped and turned to look at Justin.  “Just so you know I understand the whole protective vibe you’re giving me.  But I want you to know that I really like Kerrigan, and I’m pretty sure she likes me too.”

“So?” Justin gave him a bored look when he didn’t elaborate further.

“So…you’ll be seeing more of me around.  Weather you like it or not.” Cody shrugged, and then turned his back to Justin and walked down the hall to the elevator.

Justin stood there in disbelief.  He couldn’t believe the guy had the balls to say that to him.  A million things he could say back to Cody were running through his head.  Namely how he wasn’t about to let the low life prick anywhere near Kerrigan, but he was too stunned to utter one word.

Justin looked over to one of the body guards that was standing in the hall a few feet away, and had obviously over heard the conversation.  “Do you believe that guy?” Justin asked him incredulously.

The bodyguard merely shook his head in pity.  This Cody guy didn’t know who he was going up against, challenging Justin that way.  “The guys got balls, J.  But he’s obviously not a smart one.”

“Thank You!” Justin said, and then retreated back into the room.

His eyes scanned over to the bed where Kerrigan was still passed out cold.  His heart went out to her.  He’d had nights like that before and they were never fun.  But as far as he knew Kerrigan had never been that drunk before.  At least not that he could remember hearing about.

Since Justin knew he’d have to be getting up shortly anyways, he didn’t bother trying to go back to sleep.  He also decided he wasn’t going to bother waking Kerrigan up either, he knew she would need her sleep.

Instead he took a seat in one of the chairs, deciding to watch some TV and see what was on.  Which there wasn’t at that hour of the morning.  The only thing he could find was the News.

Sitting there, completely uninterested in what they were talking about, Justin began just looking around the room.  He somewhat chuckled to himself at how different he and Kerrigan were.  He was a complete slob.  His room looked like a tornado had been through it, but Kerrigan’s was as neat as could be.

Any clothing she had out, was neatly folded and placed on top of her suitcase.  And if it weren’t for her suitcase you wouldn’t even be able to tell anyone was staying in the room.  She didn’t have anything laying around the room at all.  That was the total opposite of Justin’s room.

That’s when Justin’s eyes came across the bag that Cody had dropped off.  He had laid it down on the table just inside the door, after coming back into the room.  Having nothing else to do, Justin got up from the chair and made his way over to the table.

He picked up the stuffed bag and carried it back over to the chair he’d been sitting in and began to take it’s contents out.  He knew Kerrigan wouldn’t care.  And he was kind of curious as to what all she had in the bag, considering it was completely full.

He pulled out a couple small stuffed animals which he assumed she had won at the game stands.  Justin smiled to himself remembering how Kerrigan had always been so good at all the games.  She could clean a vendor out if she really wanted to.

He then pulled out some small souvenirs with the Six Flags logo on them.  There was a couple different key chains, one of those miniature spoon souvenir things you always seen at those types of places, and then a couple other small trinkets.

Justin then came across a small bag inside of the large bag and pulled it out.  Pulling out the contents he found several different pictures.  Pictures from the different rides.  There was one of her on what he knew to be a roller coaster, her face full of excitement as they descended the hill.  Going through the pictures it appeared she had road all of the roller coasters and had collected the pictures from every one.  But that didn’t surprise Justin in the least.  Kerrigan had always been sentimental like that.  She had pictures of everything.

Then he came across some other pictures he assumed were from one of those places that almost all parks had, where you could have the old time photographs taken.  The first one was of Cody and one of the other crew members.  He was pretty sure the guys name was Jeremy.  Justin couldn’t help but chuckle at the way they were dressed.  They were wearing funny clothing and obviously had some sort of wigs on because their hair was much longer than it normally was.  Justin assumed they were supposed to be pirates or something of the sort based on the way Jeremy was dressed and the swords and things they were holding.

Flipping to the next picture Justin could only stare.  It was a picture of Cody, Kerrigan, and Jeremy.  The guys were wearing the same clothing, but Kerrigan was wearing a beautiful white gown.  It was one of those dresses that women always wore in those old movies.  Her long brown hair was piled on top of her head in a classic fashion, with wispy spiral tendrils framing her face.  Holding a hand held lace fan in front of her.

Justin couldn’t believe that was Kerrigan in the picture.  She looked like a full fledge woman.  Like a true classic lady.  He’d seen her in dresses, although he couldn’t remember when the last time was, but this was different.  Her hair was done, and she even looked to be wearing a bit of makeup.  Although it was kind of hard to tell for sure because the picture wasn’t in full color.  It had been given the aged look and was almost black and white.

Justin quickly flipped to the next picture and the smile fell from his face, his heart rising into his throat.  A little bit of anger welling inside of him.  This picture consisted of Cody holding Kerrigan in his arms in front of him, her back to his chest.  Her arms holding on to his, their faces next to each other, as Jeremy leaned his back to Cody‘s.  Justin didn’t like this picture at all.  The thought of Cody touching Kerrigan in any way made his stomach turn and his anger rise.

Then came the next picture, and it was this picture that nearly did him in.  Kerrigan was in a different dress, her long brown locks were hanging down over her shoulders in long spirals.  The new dress was a beautiful red gown trimmed in what looked to be black and white lace.  It plunged down deep in the bust area, showing a hint of cleavage.  Justin couldn’t believe they had even gotten that dress on Kerrigan, but he had to admit she looked amazing.

And then there was Cody.  Standing behind her with his arms once again wrapped around her, resting on her stomach.  Kerrigan’s hands placed over top of his.  Her head was turned slightly into his, although she was looking at the camera and she had this somewhat seductive innocent expression upon her face.  And this time there was no Jeremy in the photograph.  This one was only of Kerrigan and Cody.

Justin stared at the photographs for a few more minutes before stuffing them haphazardly back into the small sack, and then stuffing it back into the bag.  Thoughts of what Jeremy had said as he was walking off racing through Justin’s mind.

“I really like Kerrigan, and I’m pretty sure she likes me too.”

Did Kerrigan really like this guy?  She hadn’t mentioned anything about it to him.  Surely if she liked this guy she would have said something to him about it.  Right?  Justin was mentally going over every conversation they had had about Cody in the last week or so.  He couldn’t remember her saying anything that would cause him to believe she liked this guy.  But what if she really did?

Justin wasn’t sure what he was going to do if that were the case.  He’d always been protective over Kerrigan.  He didn’t want to see her getting mixed up with some crew member.  Not that there was anything wrong with being a crew member, but he just knew from being around them so much that most of the guys weren’t really Kerrigan material.  At least not in his book.  And this guy was already rubbing him the wrong way.

He didn’t like his attitude and he especially didn’t like the way he had noticed him looking and staring at Kerrigan lately.

Kerrigan probably hadn’t noticed the way the guy watched her.  She seemed to be oblivious to that sort of thing, but Justin had noticed.  And so had some of the other guys as well.  They had pointed it out to him.  And this was just not acceptable in his book.

There was just something about the guy that didn’t settle well with Justin.  Something in his gut that told him not to let Kerrigan get involved with him.  And if Justin had to have the guy fired to keep him away from her, then that was exactly what he would do.

He would do whatever he had to do to make sure that Kerrigan was taken care of and protected.  She was one of his best friends in the whole world and he cared too much about her to watch some guy walk into her life and tear it apart.  And there was no way in hell that Cody was going to be that person.  Not as long as he was around he wouldn’t.

Justin sat back in the chair and sighed.  Saying a silent prayer for God to give him the strength to deal with whatever this thing with Cody could be, on top of all the stresses of the tour.  And also for God to protect his friend, because Justin didn’t know what he would do if anything ever happened to her.