Chapter 50

( November 4th )

“Are you excited about tomorrow?” Kerrigan asked, as she, Justin, Trace and Becca road in Justin’s Escalade.  They were on their way to the mall.  The girls wanted to go pick up a new outfit for the Release party the following night and the guys had decided to tag along with them.

“Excited isn’t the word for it.” Justin said, stopping at a red light.  He looked over at Kerrigan in the passenger seat.  “There are NO words for it.” he grinned.

Kerrigan smiled back at him then looked off out the window.  “It’s a shame your album was leaked on the internet though.”

“Oh, yeah BIG shame.” Trace mocked from the backseat, knowing full well that Justin had been behind that.

“Would you shut up about that.” Justin said from his seat as the light turned green and he took off again.

“You just couldn’t wait could you.” Trace continued.

Kerrigan laughed as Justin groaned and started mumbling things under his breath.  “It’s ok, J.  We understand.  You were excited and couldn’t wait any longer.”

They’d been teasing him relentlessly for days since the album had been leaked.  They all knew Justin had done it.  Even though he hadn’t meant to.  He wasn’t the most computer savvy person out there and he was only trying to leak a couple of the songs and had accidentally ended up leaking the whole damn CD.  They weren’t sure how he’d managed that, but in the end it was funny as hell.

“I didn’t mean to do it and y’all know that.  Why do you have to keep going on about it?” he groaned, as he turned into the parking lot of the mall.

Becca, who’d had the most fun antagonizing him about it spoke up from her place beside Trace in the backseat.  “Because we love to watch you squirm.”

Justin sighed as he pulled into a parking spot.  “Whatever.  Let’s just get this over with.”

“Hey, don’t act annoyed.  You said you wanted to come!” Kerrigan glared at him before getting out of the truck.

“I didn’t wanna sit at the house all day.  I needed to do something.” Justin defended as he climbed out as well, followed by Trace and Becca.

“Well, I’m sure we could have found something else to do.” Trace stated.  He wasn’t exactly thrilled about going shopping with the girls.  He knew they’d end up being there all day.  Especially, since Justin was with them.  Shopping was not Trace’s forte.

“Yeah, you coulda went and hung out with Alyssa.” Kerrigan pointed out.  Justin and Alyssa Milano had been spending a lot of time together over the last few weeks.  It had been another topic of teasing.

“She was busy today.” Justin stated, walking ahead of the other three hoping they would not start on that again.

“Awwww…she didn’t have time for her Justy Wusty?” Becca teased.

Justin glared at her.  “She called me that ONE TIME and she was playin’ around.  She doesn’t call me that.  And besides, me and Alyssa are just friends.”

Kerrigan, Becca and Trace all three burst into laughter simultaneously.

Justin glared at the his three friends.  Their constant teasing was getting really annoying.  If they weren’t teasing him about his flub leaking the album, they were teasing him about Alyssa.  And if it weren’t Alyssa they’d surely find something else to tease him about.  “Are ya’ll done yet?” he questioned, continuing to glare at them.  Sending them a silent message to shut the hell up.

Kerrigan’s hand covered her mouth as she attempted to regain her composure.  “Sorry, J.  But who do we look like?  We’re not stupid, we know ya’ll are more than friends weather you want to admit it or not.”

“Well, I guess that goes to show how much you three really know.” he sneered, walking off into the mall without them.

Kerrigan turned to Becca and the two girls chuckled at Justin’s annoyance.

Trace laughed and grabbed both girls by their arms to drag them into the store.  He didn’t want Justin going too far on his own, he was likely to get mobbed.  “Let’s catch up with him.” he instructed once they were inside the confines of the mall.

“The boy really can’t take a joke, can he?” Becca asked, as the trio walked quickly to catch up with Justin’s long, quick strides.

“Not when it’s directed at him he can’t.” Kerrigan mused.

“He understands we’re just playing right?” Becca questioned.  “I mean we all know they’re just friends but it’s just too damn much fun NOT to tease him about it.”

“That’s J, for ya.  He can dish it out but he can’t take it in return.” Trace spoke up as they closed in on Justin.

Kerrigan sent Becca a goofy grin then skipped off to catch up with Justin, jumping up on his back.

Justin stumbled to regain his balance at the new weight he was now carrying.  “Damn girl, you trying to kill me or something?” he half laughed at Kerrigan’s behavior.

“Awww….Justy Wusty can’t carry lil’ ole me?” she chuckled.

“Kerrigan….” Justin growled in warning.

“Alright, alright.” she said, hopping off his back.  “I’ll stop.  Geez, you can’t even take a joke.” she scoffed, taking stance beside him as they walked down the hall.

“I can take a joke just fine, the first few times.  But ya’ll just won’t quit!” he objected.  “You just keep going and going and going and…..”

Kerrigan cut him off.  “I get it.  We’re like the Energizer Bunny.”

Justin rolled his eyes.  “Just lay off.  I’m stressed and while I appreciate the banter at times, it’s getting a little old.”

“Yeah, that tends to happen when you’re always the brunt of the joke.” Becca chimed in, as she and Trace joined Kerrigan and Justin.

“Go AWAY!” he told Becca.

“Awww….you know you love me, J.  What would you do without me?” she asked sarcastically.

“I’d make it through a day with less humiliation.” he retorted.

“WRONG!” Becca said in a sing song voice.  “You still have Trace and Kerrigan for that.” she smiled.

Justin rolled his eyes at her.  “Can we just shop and get this over with?”

“You mean you actually want to rush your shopping?” Trace questioned in mock disbelief.

“Don’t you start too Trace.” Justin warned.

“Hey, if you can’t beat ‘em.  Join ‘em!” he smiled, taking his girlfriends hand and pulling her ahead of Justin and Kerrigan.

“What did I do to deserve this?” Justin asked himself aloud.

Kerrigan chuckled and smirked at him.  “You were born.”
 

A few hours later the group had successfully completely their shopping, but were still wandering aimlessly around the mall.  Just going in and out of shops looking around for a lack of anything better to do.

No one seemed to mind other than Trace.  He was thoroughly annoyed and ready to leave, but every time they even headed in the direction of the exit something else would catch Becca, Kerrigan or Justin’s eye and he would then be pulled into yet another store.  It seemed to him the tables had been turned from earlier, because they were no longer teasing Justin.  Now they were teasing him about his patience, or lack there of.

The group wandered around the newest store Becca had decided to go into and after not seeing anything that interested her Kerrigan motioned to the others that she was going to wait outside.  There were benches in the hall and her feet were starting to hurt a little from all the walking they had done, so she was going to take this opportunity to sit and relax for a minute.

Walking out of the store Kerrigan looked up and down the halls of the mall.  There really weren’t too many people there considering it was a Monday afternoon.  Kerrigan assumed everyone was still at work or something and that was why the halls were so vacant.

Spotting a bench about fifty feet from her, Kerrigan began to make her way towards it, her heart set on relaxing.  If even only for a brief moment.

As she walked towards the bench she continued to scan the halls of the mall, she’d always been a people watcher.  She just liked to watch the people around her, she wasn’t sure what she found so interesting about it, but she did none the less.

She was watching a mother with her small child when something else caught her attention.  A man, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball cap standing just a few feet off to the mother and child’s left.  He appeared to be looking directly at her.

Kerrigan strained her eyes to see who the man was, perhaps it was someone she and Justin knew.  Or maybe even one of the other guys of Nsync, as the guy appeared to be trying to hide his identity with the way his ball cap was pulled down over his face.

Then he looked up at her and she froze in mid step.  “Cody?” she questioned to herself.  It couldn’t be him.  What the hell was he doing in California?  How had he found her?

Fear was racing through Kerrigan’s body.  She couldn’t even move at the mere sight of him.  Nor could she tear her eyes away.  She was watching him, trying to figure out what he was going to do.  If he even headed in her direction she was going to haul ass away from him.  She didn’t want anything to do with him.  She never wanted to see him again, even though she knew she would have to at least see him at the trial.

Kerrigan jumped, letting off a shriek when she felt a hand on her shoulder.  Stumbling away from whoever had touched her, Kerrigan looked back to see Justin staring at her oddly.  “What the hell, Kerr?” he questioned.

“You scared me.” she sighed, trying to regain her composure.

Justin walked over to her, looking her over.  “What’s wrong?” He could tell by the pale expression on her face that something was definitely wrong.  She looked as if she’d seen a ghost.

“Cody.” she whispered.

“Cody?” Justin questioned, completely confused.  “What are you talking about?”

“He’s over there, Justin.” Kerrigan said, nodding in the direction she’d seen him.

Justin’s eyes shot up quickly, scanning the area Kerrigan had nodded to, as one arm protectively pulled Kerrigan closer to him.  “Where?” he asked when he didn’t see anything.

“Over there.  In the blue t-shirt and black baseball cap.” she pointed.

Justin studied the man Kerrigan thought to be Cody.  He was walking off towards the other end of the mall, so Justin hadn’t been able to get a good look at him, but he was fairly positive it wasn’t Cody. “Kerr, that isn’t Cody.  He’s in Florida remember.  It can’t be him.”

Kerrigan sighed.  “You’re right.  It’s gotta be the fact that the trial is approaching.”

“Is this the first time you thought you’ve seen him?” Justin questioned, looking back down the hall to see that the man was now gone.

Kerrigan shrugged.  “When me and Becca were out the other day I thought I saw him, but when I looked back no one was there.  I think my imagination is just on overdrive or something.”

“I’m sure that’s it, Kerr.  You’re probably just getting nervous about the trial and that’s somehow manifesting itself into seeing Cody everywhere you go.  That kinda happened to me after me and Brit broke up.  I coulda sworn I seen her everywhere.” Justin said, trying to reassure his friend.

“Yeah, I know.  You’re right.  I’m just losing my mind.” she laughed.

“Well, we all do that at some point or another I think.” he smiled, leading her from the spot she’d be frozen in.  “C’mon.  Let’s finish our shopping and get out of here.”

“Ok.” Kerrigan nodded and allowed Justin to lead her away.