Chapter 14

“How did you find out that Kerrigan was down at the pool?” Trace asked, as he, Justin, JC and Joey made their way down the hallway of the hotel that would lead them to the indoor pool.

“Rob said she had come down a little bit ago with Stacy, Lance and Chris.” Justin replied, pulling the door open and holding it so the others could walk in ahead of him.

“Seems like Rob’s becoming the go to person on locating Kerrigan these days.” Trace stated.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.  I mean is it really so hard for her to pick up the phone and call one of us?” Justin asked, following the guys in.

JC looked at the two as if they were insane.  “You two don’t really expect her to check in with you like she’s a lil’ kid do you?”

Both were silent and Joey laughed.  “That would be your yes, JC.”

“You two need to quit treating her like a little kid and then maybe she would call you.  I know I wouldn’t bother calling anyone to check in with them or let them know I was going out if they were just going to give me some lecture and whine about it.”

“We don’t whine about it.” Trace defended, and JC gave him a disbelieving look.  “We don’t!” he restated.

“Whatever.  Just don’t go in here and start on her.  All you guys do anymore is argue and it’s starting to get on my nerves.  Kerrigan’s not a kid.  She’s a grown woman and old enough to make her own choices and decisions.  The sooner you two shape up and realize that, the better off you’ll be.” he said, walking off and going to join the others that were already seated around the pool.

Trace and Justin stood there and looked at each other, but neither said anything.  Joey merely looked at them, shook his head and laughed before he walked off to follow JC.  Trace and Justin quickly following as well.

As they were walking up to the pool, Justin noticed Chris and Kerrigan playing around in the pool while Stacy and Lance were sitting on some lawn chairs off to the side.  He and the others couldn’t help but to laugh at Chris and Kerrigan’s antics.

Chris was trying his hardest to dunk Kerrigan, but as usual she had the upper hand on him.  And was merely laughing in his face as she once again shoved his head under the water when he advanced towards her.

Justin admired their friendship.  They’d been close since he had first introduced them all those years ago.  Their senses of humor were a lot alike in many was, and he guessed that’s why they got along so well.  That and Kerrigan was always up for being Chris’ partner in crime.  Everyone thought that Chris and Justin were an awful team when it came to pranks, but really the ones you had to watch out for was Chris and Kerrigan.  They were the worst.

There was even one point in time where Justin had thought that perhaps Chris and Kerrigan were crushing on each other or something because they were so close.  Naturally Justin being the concerned, overprotective friend he was had gone to Chris and asked him about it.  Chris had laughed at the idea and assured Justin that Kerrigan was nothing more to him than another little sister.

It was times like right then that Justin was amazed their friendship had lasted as long as it did.  They bickered and argued so much about stupid things, yet their friendship was as strong as ever.  And he truly felt blessed to have her in his life.  Just watching her be so carefree and having a good time.  Hearing her laugh and seeing her incredible smile spread across her face.

He really wanted to kick himself for ignoring her the way he had been lately.  She’d always been there for him no matter what.  And he had failed to do the same for her.  She was going through some major changes in her life, and instead of being a friend by her side to help her through it.  He was giving her a hard time.

Well, that all stopped there.  He didn’t want to argue with her anymore.  Not about her clothing or her hair.  Things that didn’t really matter.  He just wanted things to get back to the way they used to be.  When they could just hang out and have a good time.  When she would come to him with any problems she had.  And he was going to make all of that happen.  The ball was in his hands now.

Justin walked over to the edge of the pool.  “Is she getting the best of ya old man?” he hollered at Chris.

Chris flipped Justin the bird, not taking his eyes off Kerrigan for a second.  He knew if he looked away she’d charge him and he’d be under water again.

“Do you give up yet?” she asked, with a cocky smile on her face.

“NEVER!” Chris yelled defiantly, ducking under the water.

Kerrigan looked around trying to see which direction Chris had gone.  Then she caught him coming her way.  But before she had a chance to react and swim away, he grabbed her by her legs and pulled her under the water.

Justin laughed as Kerrigan resurfaced, spluttering a variety of swear words at Chris, who was quickly swimming for the ladder to exit the pool.  He knew that was the only time he was going to catch Kerrigan slipping up and he was not sticking around for her to get her revenge.

Kerrigan spotted Chris as he reached the ladder and began to climb out of the pool and she was hot on his heals.  She swam quickly across the pool to the ladder and began to climb out, as Chris took off on foot.

Justin and the other guys were laughing hysterically at the two as Kerrigan chased Chris around the pool area, yelling at him.  Chris then headed their way and ducked in behind Justin for protection.

“Don’t let her kill me, JuJu!  You guys need me. Nobody can hit the high notes like I can.” Chris said, holding Justin in front of him for protection.

However, Kerrigan was not deterred.  She marched over to where Chris was hiding behind Justin and went to grab for him, but Chris quickly turned Justin’s body so she couldn’t reach him.  It was then, when Kerrigan was standing right in front of him, her body practically pressed up against his as she attempted to reach around him for Chris, that he realized what Kerrigan was wearing.  A two piece swim suit.

A tiny little black two piece swim suit to be more specific.

Justin froze.  He’d NEVER seen Kerrigan in anything that skimpy.  She’d always worn one piece suits before when they had gone swimming.  He was seeing more of her than he’d EVER seen before.  Her long lean legs, her toned stomach, her nearly bare chest.

Noticing Justin’s rigid stance, Kerrigan stepped back and looked at him oddly.  “You ok?”

His first thoughts were to grab a towel to cover her and ask her what the hell she was wearing, but he quickly bit his tongue before the words could escape his mouth.  He’d just stood there telling himself how he was going to stop giving her a hard time about stuff, and here he was ready to lay into her again.

Instead, he shook it off and shrugged at her.  “I’m fine.  You ok?”

Kerrigan eyed him suspiciously.  He was acting funny.  “I’m fine too.”

“Good.  We’re both fine.” he said, and then extracted himself from Chris’ clutches to go sit down on a lounge chair.  He needed to put as much distance between Kerrigan and himself as he could.

There was no denying she had a great body.  A very womanly body.  And him being a man, his body was trying desperately to respond to that.  But Justin wasn’t going to allow it.  This was Kerrigan, not some girl on the street he had just met.  He sat there silently chanting in his head, “It’s Kerrigan.  It’s Kerrigan.” over and over in hopes that it would help.

When Justin walked away, Kerrigan just shrugged it off.  She noticed Chris was standing there scowling at Justin’s back, not paying attention so she took advantage of her opportunity and gave him a swift push into the pool.  “How you like me now?” she smirked at him when he resurfaced.

Meanwhile, Justin was still sitting in his chair studying Kerrigan, as he continued to chant his little mantra in his head.  He watched her as she stood on the edge of the pool with her hands planted on her hips, looking down at Chris.

He couldn’t get over the swim suit.  It wasn’t as skimpy as some of the suits he’d seen, but it was little enough in his book.  The bottoms of the suit were like boy shorts, and the top reminded him an awful lot of a sports bra, in the way that the upper strap rapped around her neck.  Only this top plunged down deep, and showed her cleavage.  Kerrigan has cleavage, he thought.

And at that thought he again mentally started to repeat his mantra.  “It’s Kerrigan.  It’s Kerrigan.”

As if reading Justin’s mind, Trace looked over at him.  “You’re pissed about the suit aren’t you?”

Justin’s head snapped around to look at Trace.  “Huh?”

Trace eyed him.  “The suit.  You’re pissed about it, aren’t you?”

“I’m not pissed.” Justin defended.

“Suuuure, you aren’t.” Trace nodded.

“I’m not.  Just a lil’ shocked is all.” Justin shrugged, trying to play it off.  But Trace knew him too well.

“Well, she does have a hot lil’ body.” Trace smirked and Justin glared at him.  “Aw, don’t give me that look.  You were thinking the same damn thing.  I saw the way you was looking at her.  The way your eyes were wandering over her figure.  So don’t even try to play that.”

“Well, what else was I supposed to look at?  She’s not wearing any fucking clothes.” Justin grumbled quietly, in hopes that no one would hear him.

Trace laughed at Justin’s remark.  “I’m not even gonna touch that one.” he said, leaning back into his chair.  A huge devious grin on his face.

Justin didn’t say anything at Trace’s remark.  He instead decided to busy himself with a different conversation.  Turning to Stacy who was seated on the other side of him, he said.  “So, Stace.  How’ve you been lately?”

A couple hours later Justin stirred from his sleep.  After talking briefly to Stacy he’d gotten in the pool for a little bit and horsed around with Chris and Kerrigan.  He was desperately trying to act like there was nothing unusual about Kerrigan wearing a suit like that.  And even more desperately trying to forget that she was wearing a suit like that.

After a short time in the pool, he had excused himself and gone back to his lawn chair to rest.  At some point while he was laying there going over everything that had happened lately in his head, he had fallen asleep.

And now he was waking up to Joey and Chris’ loud laughter and the sound of someone splashing around in the pool.

Justin turned his head to the left where Trace had been sitting earlier, but his chair was empty.  So then he looked to his right, to where Stacy had been earlier, again empty.  He sighed to himself wondering where everyone was and finally sat up and looked around the pool.

Trace, Lance and Stacy were no where to be found, so Justin figured they must of left and headed back into the hotel.  Looking to the one end of the pool that was in front of him, he saw Joey, Chris and JC in the shallow end laughing and messing around.  It seemed that both Chris and Joey were teaming up on a defenseless JC and splashing the hell out of him.  That brought a smile to Justin’s face.

Then Justin’s eyes traveled to the other end of the pool in search of Kerrigan, and there she was.  Sitting on the edge of the pool, her legs dangling into the water talking to someone.

Justin didn’t recognize who it was.  It couldn’t be one of the guys, because all the guys with brown hair were at the other end of the pool.  And he knew it wasn’t Trace, he could tell by the hair.  But when Kerrigan laughed and splashed water at the person, the guy quickly turning to block his face Justin seen that it was Cody.

A feeling of anger creped up inside of him.  He did not like this guy at all, and it seemed like every time he turned around anymore the guy was there either talking to Kerrigan or watching her from afar.

He’d seen them talking at the club the night before.  And he’d been about to go over to see what was going on, but Cody hadn’t stayed very long so he didn’t bother.  But he was really getting tired of the guy just hovering around Kerrigan.  He was beginning to think he was going to have to fire the guy to keep him away from her.  He didn’t want to have to do that, but he would if not given any other choice.  He just had a feeling that the guy was trouble and he didn’t want Kerrigan getting mixed up with that and getting hurt.

Getting up Justin made his way slowly around to the side of the pool Kerrigan was seated on.  He approached her from behind, and locked eyes with Cody who obviously seen him approaching.  Justin grabbed Kerrigan by her shoulders, acting as if he was going to shove her into the pool.  “Don’t fall in.” he told her with a smirk.

Kerrigan looked up at him with a smile on her face.  “Then don’t push me in dumbass.”

Justin gave her a hurt look as he sat down beside her on the edge of the pool.  “Why I gotta be a dumbass?”

“Because you act like one?” Kerrigan shrugged.

“Kerr, you break my heart.” he said sarcastically, giving her a pout.

Kerrigan rolled her eyes at him.  She hated when he gave her the pout and he knew it.  “Fine. You’re not a dumbass.”

“Awww…thanks Kerr.” he said, laying his head on her shoulder like a little kid.

Kerrigan looked over at him and gave him a funny look, as Justin grinned up at her from her shoulder.  “So you finally woke up?” she asked.

Justin sighed.  “Yeah.  I was more tired than I thought.  You and Chris wore me out earlier with your antics.”

Kerrigan grinned at Justin’s statement.  “You’re such a big baby.”

“Well, will you be my mommy then?” Justin whined.

Kerrigan rolled her eyes at Justin’s childness.  It was annoying as hell when he acted like that but she’d be lying if she tried to claim that she didn’t find it cute as well.  “You’re on crack, Justin.”

Justin jerked his head up from her shoulder, wearing an offended/shocked face.  “You’re just full of insults today.”

Kerrigan smirked at him.  “I learned it from you.”

This time Justin rolled his eyes at Kerrigan.  He loved when they played around like this.  He’d even forgotten that Cody was there.  Until of course Cody spoke up.

“Well, I think I’m gonna head back up to my room.” he said, shifting in the water as he kicked to stay afloat.

Kerrigan’s attention quickly shifted from Justin to Cody.  “Oh, ok.”

“It’s just I’m kind of tired from all the lifting and stuff this morning.  I figured I’d lay down for a bit and grab a quick nap before we head out tonight.”

Justin sat there annoyed.  He was no longer getting Kerrigan’s attention and this guy was going on and on about being tired.  He wished he’d hurry up and leave already.

“Ok, well I’ll talk to you later then.” Kerrigan smiled.

“Ok.” Cody smiled back at her, then turning to swim over to the latter.  He climbed out of the pool and grabbed a towel to quickly dry himself off.

Justin glanced at him and then looked over at Kerrigan to see her blatantly staring at Cody as he dried himself off.  Smiling appreciatively.

Justin groaned inwardly.  Cody had been right, she did like him.  He turned and scowled at Cody’s back.  “Bye, Cody.” he said flatly.

Cody turned and looked at Justin.  He didn’t miss the angry glare he was shooting his way, but instead of retorting what his mind was telling him too, he smiled at Justin and said “Later, Justin” and then turned his attention to Kerrigan.  “I’ll see YOU tonight.” he smiled, as he walked off.

“See ya.” Kerrigan said, with a little wave.

Justin’s jaw dropped.  See her tonight?  Did they have plans or something?  When Cody had said he wanted to get a nap before heading out later that night, he thought he meant that the crew was heading out early.  Sometimes they would leave ahead of the guys, but apparently Justin had been wrong on that assumption.

“Tonight?  What’s going on tonight?” he asked, turning to Kerrigan.  And Kerrigan blushed.  She actually blushed and Justin couldn’t believe it.

“Oh, um…we kinda…well, we have a date.” she stuttered.

Justin’s eyes grew big.  “A date?”

“Yeah, he’s taking me to dinner and a movie.” she shrugged, getting up from the side of the pool.

Justin was quick to get to his feet as well.  “You mean he actually asked you out?” he asked in astonishment.

Kerrigan glared at him, obviously offended by his statement.  “Why wouldn’t he ask me out?” she demanded.

Justin shook his head, running his hand over his face and through his hair.  “I didn’t mean it like that, Kerr.  I just meant, like he asked you out.  When did this happen?  Where the hell was I?”

“He asked me last night at the club.” she said, as she walked over to the chair where her stuff was folded neatly.

“And you’re going to go out with him?” he asked incredulously, as he watched her slip her yoga pants on over her swim suit bottoms.

“Yeah, I am.  Why?”

Justin stood there for a moment trying to think of a valid reason why she shouldn't.  “Well, you don’t really know him that well.”

Kerrigan paused as she was about to pull her t-shirt over her head.  “Well, that’s how you get to know people, right?  You spend time with them?” she said, then proceeding to pull the shirt over her head.  Completely missing the frustrated look that passed over Justin’s face.

“I guess.” Justin said, mentally telling himself that he was not going to freak out over this and throw a fit.  He had sworn he wasn’t going to say anything.  That he was going to keep his mouth shut.

Kerrigan smiled at Justin.  She knew he was just being his overprotective self and she appreciated it, but it wasn’t necessary.  “Well, Justin I’m gonna head back up to my room.  I need to get a shower and stuff.  He’s picking me up at six, and this is my first official date so I need to figure out what I’m going to wear and stuff like that.”

“You wear clothes.” Justin deadpanned.

“I knew that much.  But like what do girls wear to dinner and a movie?” she asked more to herself than to him.

“Clothes.” Justin repeated, fighting an inner battle within himself.

“You’re a lot of help, J.” Kerrigan rolled her eyes at him, as she picked up her other belongings.  “I’ll just go ask Stacy.  I think she’s up in Lance’s room.  She’ll know what to do.”

And that was it.  Justin couldn’t take it anymore.  To hell with not throwing a fit.  This was fit necessary.  But before he even got the chance to start to tell her just how much he didn’t approve of her going out with Cody, or how much he didn’t like the guy.  Kerrigan smiled at him, gave him a quick hug and skipped off, calling a “See ya later, J.” over her shoulder.