Chapter 22

Kerrigan was wandering the halls of the venue in search of Cody.  The last show was over and all the guys were off to go get showers and changed for the big party they were having for the end of the concert.  All the Jive big wigs would be there, as well as Johnny and all the other “important people” involved with the concert.  It was basically a celebration of a successful tour.

However, that was the last thing on Kerrigan’s mind.  During the guy’s show Trace had informed Kerrigan about the incident with Cody earlier that afternoon.  That in itself pissed her off just to know that the guys had all chickened out and voted Trace the one to tell her about it, but not until they were on stage.  Good thing she hadn’t run into Cody earlier, because she would have been completely unprepared for that situation.

But now she was freaking out.  He apparently knew that Justin had kissed her and she was fairly positive he wasn’t going to take that lightly.  After all he was so jealous of Justin simply hugging her or kissing her on her cheek.  To know that he had actually full fledge kissed her on her lips.  To say he was going to be pissed, was putting it mildly.  Regardless of weather it was a dare or not.

Of course Trace hadn’t mentioned the other things that were said during that conversation, because he couldn’t be sure what Cody had overheard and what he didn’t.  Therefore he would leave that up to Cody.  He wasn’t about to nark himself and the guys out over nothing.  So Kerrigan was oblivious to the fact that Cody had overheard the guys teasing Justin about how he had supposedly enjoyed the kiss.

Rounding a  corner, Kerrigan stopped in her tracks when she seen Cody at the end of the hall talking to Jeremy.  He didn’t appear to be mad or anything.  But that didn’t prevent Kerrigan’s heart from racing a million miles a second.  She was really concerned about this.  She knew he was going to make a big deal out of it.  And it didn’t even mean anything.

Taking a deep breath Kerrigan braced herself for the worst before making her way down the hall towards him.  She walked up to him and Jeremy and waited on Cody to acknowledge her presence.  When he looked over at her he gave her somewhat of a glare, that was all Kerrigan needed to know that yeah, he was still upset about whatever he had overheard.

Figuring it was best to just get it over with Kerrigan cleared her throat and spoke.  “Sorry, to interrupt Jeremy, but Cody can I talk to you in private please?”

Jeremy smiled at her, apparently oblivious to any bad vibes being passed between the couple.  “No prob, Kerrigan.  I was just leaving anyway.  I’ll catch you guys later.” he said and then walked off.

Cody waited until Jeremy was gone before he finally gave Kerrigan his full attention.  “Yeah, we do have some things we need to talk about, huh.” he glared at her.

Kerrigan sighed.  “I know you overheard the guys talking earlier today.” she stated.

“Oh, yeah.  How’d you know that?” he eyed her.

“Apparently in your quick departure you knocked over a chair and they saw you stalking away.  They figured you heard what they were saying.” she paused.  “You know.  About Justin kissing me.” she added softly.

Cody’s eyes narrowed on her.  “Yeah, I know about that.” he growled and then looked up the hallway seeing some more crew members headed their way.  “Let’s take this somewhere more private.” he said grabbing her arm and pulling her along with him.

Cody walked down the hall a little ways, finding an empty room that was used for wardrobe.  Looking around to make sure no one was in the room, he pulled Kerrigan inside and closed the door behind them.

“So you wanna tell me about this kiss?” he questioned, his glare never softening for a minute.

“Cody, it’s really not what you think it is.  We were at the house last night, all the guys came over for like a pre-end of the tour celebration.  We were just hanging out, cause once everything’s over a lot of the guys will be going away for a while.  JC out to California.  Lance to Mississippi.  Chris down to Miami.  Joey up to New York.  So we just wanted to hang out before everyone went their separate ways.”

“What does that have to do with him kissing you?” he demanded.

Kerrigan’s shoulders slumped as she continued to explain.  “Well, like I said we were just hanging out.  We were drinking a little bit, but nothing extreme.  Just mostly watching movies and goofing off.  What we always do together pretty much.  Well, then Joey got the brilliant idea to play truth or dare.  And at first we were all hesitant about it, but it turned out to be really fun.”

Cody scoffed cutting her off.  “Oh, yeah.  Making out with Justin is a lot of fun, huh?”

“IT WASN’T LIKE THAT!” Kerrigan argued.  “We were daring each other to do stupid shit.  Like Justin dared Lance to get up and walk around and cluck like a chicken.  And the truth questions were really stupid questions.  It was all for fun.  Nothing serious.  Then Chris thought he was being cute and dared Justin to kiss me.  Both me and Justin glared at him and didn’t want to do it, but Justin knew that the rules were if he didn’t fulfill a dare or to tell the truth then you had to shave your pubes.”

“Shave your pubes?” Cody questioned.

“Yeah, you know.  Your pelvic hair.  And Justin’s a man’s man or whatever and didn’t wanna have to do that, so he gave me a peck on the lips.”

Cody cut her off again.  “The kiss I heard them talking about was no peck on the lips, Kerrigan.  Don’t stand here and try to lie to me, when I heard what they were saying!”

“Well, if you would let me finish!” she glared at him.  “He did give me a peck on the lips, but Chris insisted that wasn’t good enough.  He told Justin to kiss me like he meant it, and Justin said how am I supposed to do that when I don’t and Chris told him that he was a performer to perform.  So Justin did it.  He kissed me and that’s it.  It was no big deal.  It was like kissing my brother!  If I had one.” she shrugged.

So ok, that wasn’t the full truth, but he didn’t need to know all of that.  She was trying to dig herself out of a hole here.  She couldn’t very well tell him what she had really felt when Justin had kissed her.  That would only dig her a deeper grave.

Cody eyed her, allowing her words to sink in.  He could tell there was more to it than she was telling him.  He’d heard the way the guys were ranting and raving about it when they thought no one was listening.  Obviously, Kerrigan hadn’t been informed about that.  And since no one else had bothered to tell her about the things Justin had said, he wasn’t going to either.  That would only hurt him in the long run.  Lance’s words replayed in his mind.

“Yeah right, JuJu!  You know if you wanted Kerrigan you could have her.  You obviously didn’t see the look on HER face AFTER you kissed her.”

Yeah, that confirmed it.  He definitely wasn’t mentioning that.  All he needed was to give Kerrigan a reason to leave him.  He knew that she had thought of Justin as more than a friend, and when she decided to start dating him it was because she didn’t think Justin looked at her in that way.  All she needed was to know that Justin’s views on Kerrigan were apparently changing.  She’d leave him for sure if Justin showed any interest in her.

He knew what he had to do.  “Yeah, well they made it sound a lot more like it was your idea than his.” he stated, lying through his teeth.

“My idea?” Kerrigan questioned.

“Kerrigan, how stupid do you think I am?  You think I didn’t realize before we started dating that you  had a thing for Justin.  And apparently still do!”

“I DO NOT have a thing for Justin!” Kerrigan insisted.

“The hell you don’t!  I see the way you look at him.  You talk about him all the time.  He gets brought up in like every conversation.  You run after him like he’s some God, forgetting all about me.  Whenever he calls, you’re there, to hell with me.   And if it wasn’t more then why the hell did you tell me about it?” he demanded.

“I didn’t want you to get upset.  I knew you’d be mad.  You’re so jealous of him anyways I didn’t want to add to that.  You don’t’ have anything to be jealous of!  There’s nothing going on between me and Justin.  Never has been, never will be!”

“Oh, trust me I know that much from his side at least.  Although, I’m not too sure about you.  He made it very clear when I heard them talking that he doesn’t see you like that.  He said you was his sister and he could never be with you like that.  He pretty much said the same thing you just said, about kissing you.  Said it was like kissing his sister.  Only I actually believe what he said by the disgusted look that was on his face when he said it.  YOU on the other hand, didn’t seem to mean it when you said it!” he growled, angrily.

Kerrigan was near tears.  Why did he have to say that to her?  Couldn’t he have kept that information to himself?  Did he have to rub it in her face like that?

“I swear to you Cody, it’s nothing!  Ok, so I used to like Justin.  That was before I met you.  You’re my boyfriend.  You’re the one I love!” she declared.

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it!” he angrily spat back at her.

“Why are you saying such hurtful things?  I do love you, Cody.  I wouldn’t be with you if I didn’t care about you.” Kerrigan pleaded.  Her world was crumbling right in front of her eyes.

“Then you need to prove it!  I’m sick of this shit!  How am I supposed to feel about this?  Knowing Justin kissed you and you were probably all beside yourself with giddiness thinking you actually had a chance with him!  He doesn’t look at you like that Kerrigan.  It was obvious before, and it’s even more obvious now.  He doesn’t want you.  Why are you willing to screw up a perfectly good relationship with me for him?”

“I’m not willing to do that!  I didn’t.  I told you it was a dare!  IT WASN‘T MY FAULT!” Kerrigan yelled, beside herself.  She didn’t know what else to do to make him see.

Cody grew angry when she raised her voice at him.  He grabbed her by her arms and forcefully jerked her to him.  “DON’T FUCKING LIE TO ME!” he yelled.

“I’m NOT lying!” Kerrigan pleaded, no longer able to hold her tears at bay, as they quickly began to roll down her cheeks.

“You think I’m stupid don’t you?” Cody said, jerking her as he said it.

Kerrigan winced in fear.  He’d never been this angry with her before.  He was scaring the shit out of her, yet she felt like it was all her fault and she deserved it.  He was right.  He knew how she felt about Justin’s kiss.  How she felt about Justin before himself.  He knew it all.  And he was throwing it in her face.

“ANSWER ME!” he yelled, when she didn’t reply.

“NO!  I don’t think you’re stupid.” she said, crying harder.

“Then quit treating me like I am!”

“I’m not.” she whimpered.

“YES YOU ARE!” he yelled again, gripping her arms tighter.

“Cody, please!  You’re hurting me!  Please let me go.” she pleaded.

“Not until you look me in the eyes and tell me that you feel nothing for him.  Kerrigan, I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me that he’s JUST a friend to you.”

Kerrigan didn’t know what to do.  She knew if she told him that he’d know she was lying.  Justin wasn’t just her friend.  He never had been and never would be.  At least not in her eyes.  Justin may not reciprocate her feelings, but she would always have a special place in her heart for him.  There was no way she could just make it go away.

“NOW, KERRIGAN!” he yelled, when she failed to say anything.

Terrified out of her mind at what was happening and still feeling incredibly guilty, Kerrigan looked him in the eyes as her body trembled.  “Justin is just a friend to me.  I feel nothing for him.  I love you.” she said as best she could through her tears.

An explosive anger built up in Cody from what he was seeing in her eyes.  She was lying through her teeth.  She was lying about everything.  He didn’t believe a word of it.  And even though she might believe that she really did love him, he could tell by the look in her eyes that she didn’t.

Exploding from the emotions raging through him, Cody yelled at her.  “YOU’RE FUCKING LYING, KERRIGAN!” as he pulled back and slapped her across her face, sending Kerrigan to the floor.

Chris was walking down one of the corridors.  Having already showered and changed into fresh clothing.  The hallway appeared to be deserted  there wasn’t a soul around.  Everyone had already apparently left for the after party.

As he continued to walk down the hall he heard shouting.  People were arguing somewhere.  Not really wanting to get involved with it he continued on his way trying to block out the angry voice.  But then he heard Kerrigan’s name muttered amongst whatever had been said and then a shrill scream.

Picking up his pace, Chris darted down the hall and quickly barged into the room he’d heard the scream come from, only to find Kerrigan slumped on the floor in tears, Cody standing over her.  Anger seeping from his every movement.

“What the hell’s going on in here?” Chris demanded.