Chapter 10

( 1 week later )

Kerrigan was sitting in the back of the bus reading a magazine she had picked up at the last stop.  The only reason she had grabbed it was because Justin’s face was plastered all over the cover.  Yet, another article about Justin and Britney’s breakup, an the alleged reason it had happened.

She couldn’t believe the stuff that these people were coming up with.  Kerrigan had never heard such absurd things in her life.  If only they new the real reason why they had broken up.  And if Kerrigan ever got her hands on the blonde bimbo that had broken her best friend’s heart, she would rip the girl to shreds.

Luckily she hadn’t been there for that whole scene.  But she had been one of the first people Justin had called.  The boy had been in tears, Kerrigan could tell by his tone.  And as soon as she heard the cracking in his voice, she knew something was wrong.

Once, he had gone into details and explained everything to her, Kerrigan was ready to hop on the first flight to wherever Britney was to murder the girl.  And she would have too, if it hadn’t been for Trace who had locked her in her room until she calmed down enough to be let out.  The guys all liked to tease her about her temper at times, but they knew when she was serious, she was serious and she could hurt someone if she really wanted to.  So her anger over the whole Britney/Justin fiasco was not taken lightly and any time they were even in the same proximity as her, she was watched like a hawk.  And to think she had actually once liked the girl.

Kerrigan grumbled something under her breath and threw the magazine down, which earned her a few peculiar looks from Joey, Trace and Lance who were watching a movie in the back.

“Something wrong, Kerrigan?” Lance asked.

“Nothing but the bullshit these so called journalist keep writing.  I swear if they only knew the truth.”

“Kerr, don’t go getting yourself all upset and in defensive mode over some stupid article in a teeny magazine.  We all know what really happened, so there’s no point in getting upset.” Trace scolded her.

“But they’re blaming it on Justin.  He didn’t do anything wrong.  The only thing he ever did was love that girl with his whole heart and soul.  And what does she do.  She stabs him in the back.  I swear if I EVER get my hands on that girl, she’s not gonna have any of that bleached blonde shit she calls hair left!”

Joey couldn’t help himself but to chuckle slightly at Kerrigan’s outburst.  It wasn’t very often that she got upset like this and when she did she was down right feisty and it just tickled Joey to death to see her that way.

Lance glared at Joey.  “Do not encourage her, Joe!” he warned.

“All I did was laugh.  It’s funny.  The mental picture of Kerrigan ripping out Brit’s hair.  That’s some funny shit you gotta admit.”

Trace then laughed as well.  Joey’s words forming a mental picture in his head.  “He’s right Lance.  It would be fun to watch.”

Kerrigan rolled her eyes at the guys.  She wasn’t trying to entertain them.  She literally wanted to rip all the girls hair out.  After all the time she had spent over the years wishing Justin would look at her in that light.  Give her his heart in that way.  Instead he gave it to a low life bitch that only broke it and Kerrigan was determined to break that bitch eventually.

“What are y’all back here arguing about now?” Justin asked as he entered the back room of the bus.  Shirtless.

Kerrigan’s eyes locked onto Justin’s torso.  It wasn’t like she’d never seen him without a shirt, because she seen him that way all the time.  But that didn’t make it any less mesmerizing.  Puberty had done him good.  He was like a fine wine, it gets better with age.  And that was Justin in Kerrigan’s opinion.  The more time that went by, the more amazing he became.  Especially that body of his.

“Kerrigan?” Justin stated.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Kerrigan looked up to meet Justin’s questioning eyes.  “Huh?”

“Are you alright?”

Kerrigan shook it off.  “I’m fine.” she huffed.

“She’s pouting.” Trace supplied.

“Pouting about what?” Justin asked, turning his attention to Trace.

“About the magazines again.  She was just on another one of her little rants about Britney and how she’s the spawn of Satan.” Trace rolled his eyes.

Justin shrugged and threw himself down on the sofa next to Trace.  “Can’t say I disagree with her.”

“THANK YOU!” Kerrigan stated, glaring at Trace.

“Hey, I didn’t say I disagreed.  Just that it does you no good to rant and rave about it.” Trace defended.

“Ok, cool it you two.  Let’s just drop it ok.” Justin said, grabbing the magazine.  He briefly looked over the cover, snorted and then began fanning himself with it.  “I can’t wait till we get to the next city so they can either fix the fucking air conditioning or get us a new damn bus.”

“It’s is rather hot in here.” Kerrigan stated, although she was sure that her thoughts of the reason it was hot and Justin’s were totally different.

“Well, if you’re so hot why’d you come back here?  At least you can open the windows up front.” Lance asked.

“Because JC was boring the shit out of me.  Watching some documentary or something.  I couldn’t take it any longer.” Justin said, continuing to fan himself with the magazine.

“I don’t get why you’re so hot.  It’s only the beginning of April.” Joey stated.

“It may only be the beginning of April, but we’re heading to Mississippi.  And it’s stuffy in here.  It’s like the fucking heat is on or something.”

“Did you check to see it if it is?  You know Chris gets those hot and cold flashes.  Old age is not being too kind to him.” Trace snickered.

“I heard that shorty!” Chris yelled back from his bunk.

“You’re calling me shorty?  Looked in the mirror lately?” Trace called back.

“I’m taller than you!” Chris retorted.

“You…” Trace started his rebuttal, but was cut off by Justin.

“ENOUGH!  Would you two shut up?  I have a fucking headache!” he growled.

Silence.

“Thank you.” Justin said, now more calm.

Meanwhile, Kerrigan had been sitting on her sofa quietly, lost in thought.  An idea had sprung in her head, but she was trying to build the courage within herself to go through with it.  It probably wasn’t the best idea in the world, but she really wanted to see what kind of reaction she would get out of the guys.  Or more pointedly, Justin.

Taking a deep breath, Kerrigan glanced back over at the guys again.  Joey, Lance and Trace all had their eyes glued to the TV, lost in the movie that was playing.  While Justin had finally stopped fanning himself with the magazine and had his head laid back on the back of the sofa with his eyes closed.

Figuring there was no time like the present, Kerrigan leaned forward slightly and pulled her shirt up and over her head, laying it down beside her on the sofa.

The motion coming from Kerrigan’s direction caught Joey’s eye, he glanced over and when he saw Kerrigan sitting there on the sofa in her jeans and bra.  A lacy white bra, he nearly choked.  He quickly diverted his eyes and nudged Trace who was sitting next to him.  Trace looked over to Joey, giving him an annoyed look for elbowing him, but when he saw Joey nodding his head towards Kerrigan he merely scowled at Joey, gave her a quick glance and then looked back at the TV.

It took a moment but then it suddenly struck him that Kerrigan was sitting there in her bra and his head turned back quickly to gawk at her.  “Kerrigan, what the hell are you doing now?” he demanded.

Before Kerrigan could even respond Justin spoke without looking up.  “Trace, leave her alone.”

“Leave her alone?” Trace asked astonished, turning to look at Justin.  “She just took her fucking shirt off!”

Justin opened his eyes and looked at Trace’s face.  “Funny.” he said.

“I’m not fucking kidding.  Look at her!” Trace demanded.

Justin shook his head at Trace as he turned to glance at Kerrigan.  And there she sat.  Jeans and bra.

Justin shot up off the sofa.  “What the hell, Kerrigan?” he yelled, racing the short distance across the back of the bus to where she was sitting.  He quickly grabbed her shirt and held it to her chest.  “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

“I was hot!” Kerrigan defended.

“So you took your fucking shirt off?” Justin asked angrily.

Kerrigan glared at him.  “You’re not wearing a shirt!”

“I’m a GUY!” Justin yelled, while fighting Kerrigan.  She was attempting to push the shirt away, while he was trying to hold it against her.

“SO?” Kerrigan yelled back.

“SO?” Justin repeated.  “You’re not a guy, Kerr.  You’re a girl in case you forgot and you can’t just go walking around on a bus FULL OF GUYS in only a fucking BRA!”

Kerrigan, angry because of the way Justin was yelling at her, shoved him away and stood up.  “If you can walk around without a shirt so can I.  I have a bra on, Justin.  It’s not like I’m walking around without one!” she huffed.

“It’s nothing but lace Kerrigan.  It barely covers anything!”

“You can’t see anything!” she defended looking down at her chest and then back to him with a glare.  A small portion of herself was pleased with his reaction.  He had said she was a girl.  That’s all she had really been looking for.  But that happiness she felt inside, quickly dissipated when he made his next statement.

“I can see more than I want to!” Justin exclaimed, and once again advanced towards her with the shirt, quickly holding it up to cover her.

And for a moment Justin thought he had won the battle.  She was just standing there staring at him, with this blank expression on her face.  Justin took that blank expression as she had realized what she was doing and that he was right.  WRONG.

Kerrigan shoved Justin backwards again, the shirt falling to the floor in the process.  She turned angrily and headed out of the room towards the bunks.

“What’s going on back here?“ JC asked entering the room, Kerrigan running directly into him.  JC grabbed her by her arms to steady her.  “Nice to see you too, Kerr.” he said and then glanced down seeing she was only in her bra. “Ahem….all of you.” he then added.

Kerrigan studied JC’s flushed face and raised an eyebrow at him.  “Like what you see?” she asked.

“Um…well…um…” JC stuttered.

Justin glared at him.  He was staring directly at her chest, not even looking at her face.  He grabbed Kerrigan’s shirt off the floor and stormed over to the two, shoving JC away from Kerrigan and planting himself in front of her, as if to shield her from JC‘s eyes.  “DO YOU FUCKING MIND?”

“Sorry man.  I…” JC started.

But Justin cut him off.  “Don’t wanna hear it.” he said pushing past JC, dragging Kerrigan along with him.  “C’mon.  We need to have a little talk.”

JC turned his head and looked at the other three baffled guys sitting on the sofa.  “What the hell just happened here?”

Joey quickly diverted his eyes back to the TV, Trace began rubbing his temples, and Lance shrugged.

JC nodded.  “Good to know.”

Meanwhile, Justin had drug Kerrigan into the hallway where the bunks were located, closing the door to the back room behind him.

“What the hell was that about?” he whispered harshly.  “Are you trying to prove something?”

“I’m not trying to prove anything.  I was hot so I took my shirt off.  I didn’t think anyone would mind.”

“Well I’m sure the other guys didn’t mind at all, Kerr.  But damn it, you’re not a little girl anymore.  It would be different if we were still kids, but we’re not.  You’re a woman now, and you can’t just go around in a bra.”

And there it was.  The recognition Kerrigan had been searching for.  Sure her means of getting it were irrational, but it got the job done and that’s all she cared about.

“Fine.  I’ll put my shirt back on.” she relented softly.

“Thank you.” Justin said, handing her the shirt.

“You’re welcome.” she said as she quickly pulled the shirt back over her head.  She looked back up at Justin, who was watching her.  “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable, it’s just…” he paused.  “You caught me off guard.  You’ve never done anything like that before.”

“I was…”

“Hot. Yeah, so you said.  Just don’t do that again Kerr.  Not in front of the guys and me.  OK?”

“Ok, I won't.” she said, looking to the floor.

Justin felt bad when he seen the hurt on her face.  Of course he didn’t know the real meaning behind it, he took it as he had hurt her feelings by yelling at her like he had.  “Kerr, I’m sorry I yelled.  It’s just I…”

“No, don’t worry about it.  I understand.” she looked up at him.  “I think I’m gonna lay down for a while.  I’ll talk to you later.”  And without another word she climbed into her bunk, closing the curtain behind her.

Justin stood there for a moment trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.  Kerrigan had never done anything like that.  She had always been so modest and shy about her body, it just wasn’t like her to go pulling articles of clothing off.  Especially, in front of people.  Something was up with her, and he was yet to figure out just what.

Sighing he turned and headed back into the back room.  When he entered all of the guys looked up at him with questioning eyes.  Justin merely shook his head and waved them off.  That was his way of telling them not to ask, because he had no clue.

Meanwhile, Chris laid silently staring into the darkness of his bunk.  He had heard everything.  And he could even hear Kerrigan as she was now crying silently in her bunk.

Maybe the other guys were too blind to figure out what was going on, but this was Kerrigan’s way of crying out for attention.  He’d known for a while that Kerrigan’s feelings for Justin had changed.  And he had kind of gathered that she was feeling left out amongst the guys, and this was all the proof he needed that he had been correct in that assumption.  This was her desperate attempt to get them to realize she wasn’t just a little girl anymore.  That she wasn’t just one of the guys, but a living, breathing woman.

And it pained him to hear her crying in her bunk, because that showed him just how badly the whole thing was bothering her.  Hurting her.  But Chris didn’t know what to do, or what to say.  He knew nothing he could say would make the situation different.  The guys all had minds of their own, and were going to think whatever they wanted to think.

He only hoped that Kerrigan wouldn’t get carried away and do something drastic.  Something that in the end would cause her more pain than what she was currently enduring.  But again there was nothing he could do.  His only option was to sit and wait.  To see what would happen next.