Chapter 26

( 3 weeks later )

Over the last few weeks a lot of things had changed.  After Cody and Kerrigan had made up things seemed to go back to normal.  Or as normal as they could be considering that Justin hardly ever seen Kerrigan anymore.

She was back to her happy, spunky self.  However, she was always out and about somewhere with Cody.  Hardly ever home.

Although, tonight was going to be an exception.  Justin had called her earlier that afternoon and made her promise to be home that evening to spend time with him because he had some very important news to share with her.

Kerrigan had agreed willingly and with little argument, which had somewhat shocked Justin because lately it seemed like he had to practically beg and plead to spend any time with her, without Cody being around in some way, shape or form.  But he was far to excited and the news he had to share with her was far to important so he totally blew it off.

Pulling up to the house, Justin spotted Kerrigan’s car parked in the driveway.  A grand smile spread across his face.  She had kept her promise and was there.  He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he shared the wonderful news with her.

He made his way into the house and found Kerrigan sprawled out on the sofa watching MTV.  Throwing his bag down on the floor, he jumped over the back of the sofa landing on Kerrigan’s legs.

“What ya watchin’?” he asked, giving her a goofy smile when she glared at him for sitting on her.

“I WAS watching MTV, until some tall, goofy looking mofo decided to jump on me.”

“Since when am I goofy looking?  I’ll have you know that there are millions of girls worldwide that would argue with that statement.  Handsome, gorgeous, sexy, yes.  But goofy, no.” he said shaking his head at her.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Kerrigan stated, squirming to move out from under him.

“Something wrong?” Justin smirked at her attempts.

“Oh, no nothing at all.  Just some dumbass sitting on my legs.  Would you move?”

“Sure!” he said perkily, as he gave one last bounce before standing up so Kerrigan could remove her legs from under him.

“You’re entirely too giddy.  What’s up with you?” she asked, as she sat up on the sofa, tucking her legs beneath her.  Justin setting down as well.

“I have some really GREAT news, Kerr.  I woulda told you on the phone earlier but I wanted to tell you in person.  But not yet.  I want to take you out to dinner.  We need to celebrate.”

“Dinner?” Kerrigan questioned.

“YES, dinner!  Come on.  Run upstairs and change into something nice.  We’re going someplace special.  This is big news!” he urged.

Kerrigan was reluctant at first, but then figured what the hell.  She hadn’t really spent any real amount of time with Justin lately.  And whatever this news was that he wanted to share with her seemed important.  So she slowly got up from the sofa, looking back over at him.

“How nice?” she asked.

“How nice what?”

“How nice should I dress?  Like give me an idea of where we’re going.”

“OH!  Um, wear something nice.  A dress maybe.  I don’t know.  Just something nice for a first class restaurant.”

Kerrigan nodded as she started to retreat to her room, but then looked back over at Justin who was still sitting on the sofa.  Examining the clothing he was wearing she smirked at him.  “You better put something different on too, J.  If I gotta dress up, you’re surely not wearing THAT!” she said of his sweat pants and t-shirt.

“I planned on it smart ass.” he grumbled getting up from the sofa.

“Well, I’m only saying.  I mean we both know it takes you longer to get ready than it does me.  So really you should get up there and get to it.  I could actually stand to watch TV for another hour or so before I would even need to start getting ready.”

Justin walked over to where Kerrigan was standing and smiled at her adoringly.  “I love your sarcasm.  My life wouldn’t be complete without it.”

“Who’s being sarcastic?  You do take longer to get ready than I do!” Kerrigan scoffed.

Justin rolled his eyes, as he pushed past her to head upstairs.  “Not my fault I’m a gorgeous hunk of man.”

“Yeah, and that ego of yours isn’t your fault either!” Kerrigan called after him, laughing.

Two hours later Kerrigan and Justin were seated in one of Orlando’s swankiest restaurants.  They had just placed their orders with the waiter and were sitting quietly looking around the room.

Kerrigan had noticed how excited Justin was.  He was practically bouncing up and down in his seat, which put a smile on her face.  She loved seeing him that happy.  Obviously whatever news he had to share with her was really good news, which was enough to make her happy on it’s own.  Just as long as he was happy, that was all she cared about.  But to see him THAT happy, well she couldn’t help herself but to smile at him.

But when Justin locked eyes with her and smiled back.  His eagerness and joy reflected in his eyes, Kerrigan’s smile slowly fell from her face.  It had just struck her why she had agreed to meet up with him that evening in the first place.  She had news of her own to share with him.  News Kerrigan was sure Justin wouldn’t be happy about.  And knowing that whatever she was about to tell him, would more than likely ruin the mood put a damper on things.

However, she needed to tell him.  She had put it off long enough and she really couldn’t put it off any longer.  But she would wait until he got his good news out of the way before she spilt her news to him, fearing that if she told him what she needed to tell him first, he would never get around to sharing his.

Taking a quick sip of her wine, that Justin had ordered, Kerrigan cleared her throat and smiled at him.  “So are you going to tell me tonight?  Or are you going to make me wait until tomorrow?” she urged.

Justin smiled at her in return.  “I don’t know.  Maybe I should make you guess.  That might be more fun.”

Kerrigan rolled her eyes.  “Just tell me, J.  Whatever it is, it’s got you bouncing in your seat so just spill it already.  I know you want to.”

“You take all the fun out of it.” he groaned, shifting in his seat.

“Well, you got me all anxious with the way you’ve been fidgeting.  I wanna know what this good news is, so just tell me already.”

“Fine.  Fine.” he sighed.  “Well, you know how I was talking to Jive over the last few weeks about possibly doing a solo album?”

“Yeah.” Kerrigan said eagerly.  She was already smiling, because all he had to do was mention that and she knew what all the fuss was about.  And rightly so.  This was great news.

“Well, I got the call today while I was out with Trace.  I got my solo deal!” he beamed.

“Oh my God, Justin.  That’s GREAT!” Kerrigan smiled.  “I’m so happy for you!”

“This is gonna be so great, Kerr.  I’ve got like soul creative freedom with this record.  They’re gonna let me do my own thing.  Write all my own stuff and everything.  It’s gonna be amazing!”

“Well, do you know when you’re gonna start recording?  Have you written anything yet?  I mean give me details!” Kerrigan urged, she was so excited for him.  Justin had been wanting this for a long time, and Kerrigan couldn’t be prouder if she wanted to.

“Well, I know I’m gonna be working with Pharrell and Chad a lot.  And I’ve been keeping some lyrics written down for a while now.  Messing around with stuff.  The only thing I know that’s definite right now, is that I’m going to be heading over to Virginia Beach to record.  You know somewhere different and unexpected.  Plus, that’s where Pharrell and Chad are.”

“Wow.  Virginia Beach, huh?  That’s cool.  Not what I expected, but I think that would probably work out better in the long run.”

“Yeah, it’ll give me some privacy.  No one would expect me to go there, and we’re gonna keep this whole solo thing low key for a while.  Not ready for it to go public yet.”

“Understandable.  Gosh, I can’t believe this.  You’re doing a solo album.” Kerrigan smiled to herself.  Again overwhelmed with proud ness.

“Yeah, I’m kinda still in shock too.  When I got the call, Kerr I literally started crying.  I mean I’ve been wanting this for so long.  You know!”

“Yeah, I know.” she nodded.  “So um, when does recording or whatever start?  You know when you supposed to meet up with Pharrell and Chad?”

Justin noticeably sunk into his seat.  “That’s the thing.  We’re kinda jumping on this fast.  I’m flying over to Virginia in three days to meet up with the guys and we’re gonna go from there.”

“Three days?” Kerrigan questioned, shocked.

“Yeah, I know that’s quick.  But I really want to get to work on this.  I’m so excited, I just want to get into the studio.  And Pharrell and Chad are free, so there’s no time like the present.”

“Well, hey you gotta do what ya gotta do, right.” Kerrigan shrugged.

“Right.” Justin smiled, glad to see she was as excited as he was about the whole thing.

“Does your Mom know?” Kerrigan asked, and then internally scolded herself for even asking.  Of course his Mom would know.  She was undoubtedly the first person he called after getting the news.

“Yeah, she knows.  I called her first.” Justin nodded.

“Yeah, I should have known that.”

Justin smirked at her.  “Yeah, you should have.  But listen.  So we leave in three days.  We’re gonna fly over to Virginia and we’ll be there for at least a week sorting everything out.  Then once we have the game plan down we can come back and get some things to take over there with us.  I figured since we’re gonna be there for a while I’ll rent like a pent house suite or something.  You know so we don’t have to deal with regular hotel rooms.”

Kerrigan sunk into her seat.  “We?” she questioned.

Justin eyed her wearily.  “Yeah, we.  Me, you and Trace.”

“Oh.”

Justin studied Kerrigan’s demeanor.  It had suddenly changed from being overly excited for him and his good news to completely withdrawn.  There was something going on that she hadn’t told him about.  “You don’t seem to happy about that news.” he stated.

“It’s not that I’m not happy, J it’s just…”

“Just what?” he urged, when she didn’t continue.

Kerrigan sighed.  “Justin, I got something I need to tell you.  I know you’re not going to like this, but I need to tell you.”

Justin sat up in his chair, his heart sinking.  He did not like the sound of that.  She was already telling him he wasn’t going to like it.  That right there told him he REALLY wasn’t going to like it.  “What’s wrong, Kerrigan?” he asked.

“Nothing’s wrong.  It’s just…well….shit.” she muttered, trying to find the words.

“Kerr, just spit it out.  You’re kinda worrying me here.”

“It’s nothing to be worried, about J.  Nothing is wrong.  It’s just well, I’m not gonna be able to go to Virginia with you.”

“Why?” he questioned.

“Well, there’s some things going on and I kinda need to be here right now.” she stated.

“What kind of things?  What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m moving out into my own apartment for one.”