Chapter 12 - Plain text!

The two men exchanged confused looks with each other for a while, as Kate did slide in the backseat of the car. A couple minutes went by before Kate did see the two men slowly approaching the car and the opening the doors, to climb in their seats also.

"And where to go to, now?" Johnny asked from the driver's seat, looking in the rearview mirror.

Kate stared at him in disbelief.

"Hm. How about back to the studio?" Asked JC and continued.

"Kate could then call her mom from there and I could work on the song with her."

"No way! I do not call my Mom." Kate only replied.

"And that song I won't work on either!"

Johnny and JC exchanged some uncertain looks for a few seconds. Until JC only briefly nodded toward John, who started the car and drove off next.

They drove back to the studio. During the car ride Kate stared most of the time only outside her window, she did not dare to talk with the two men for fear that Johnny would appeal to her conscience. She did not even notice that she was being watched by him most of the time during the rearview mirror. Neither she cared for it that the tears were running down her face. And so it happened that she winced a little at some point, when she was approached directly by Johnny. She had completely forgotten that he and JC also were in the car. Although, Johnny was driving obviously.

"Kate, what is it? Shall I turn around? Would you rather go back again?”

She sighed softly and looked at Johnny's brown eyes, which still looked through the rearview mirror at her. Kate just shakes her head. Suddenly Joshua turned in his seat as far as possible to her around. And he just looked inquiring at her for a moment, while more tears run down her cheeks.

"Johnny! Can we stop for a moment perhaps? Please!" asked JC to him.

He said, "We are there already. Why? What's wrong with her?"

The car drove onto a large parking lot, Kate was already very familiar with. When Johnny had parked the car and had turned off the engine, JC had already opened the passenger door and was ready to open the back passenger one, on which side Kate also was sitting. As he did so he said to Kate.

"Move over! We're now talking!"

Kate rolled her eyes. But slipped behind Johnny's seat so JC could take place on her former one.

"And what are we talking about?" Kate asked, as he sat him in the car again.

"There is nothing which I want to talk about."

Johnny then turned around and replied to her also.

"Oh, please! You know exactly what JC wants to talk to you about."

And he looked at her sternly, while he opened the driver's door and wanted to leave the car.

"I'll leave you two alone then. I'll go and see what Alex has for you in store, Kate."

"Hmpf." this one only makes and rolled her eyes.

Scarcely Johnny had just shut the driver's car door that Kate wanted to protest, because of what Johnny had just indicated that she still should participate a little more in the studio. But JC had raised his hand, to silence her down.

"Please stop, it Kate! You know very well that Johnny really would like to take you under contract and for that you have to finish singing the song first. But first: What are your true feelings for me?"

Kate was slightly pink in the face. Although she knew that she loved him, she also had some difficulties in telling him personally to his face. Fearing that he did not would feel the same for her. Therefore, she did look at him only briefly and back toward her own hands again. But JC, who looked very closely, noticed that she was embarrassed and moved a little bit closer towards her. He took her chin in his hand and looked at her seriously.

"And? What is it now?" He asked her.

Kate swallowed hard and looked into his beautiful blue-gray eyes, into which she had fallen in love already many years ago. Only by looking at one of it's posters. But were so much brighter in reality even. And yet she still couldn't tell, that she was in love with him. At least not until she was sure that he could love her also.

"Why do you find my feelings so important?" Kate replied slowly.

JC frowns at her and pulled his head back a bit.

"I just wonder why you seem to be by my side, since we met and even kiss me in the presence of your boyfriend?"

Now Kate was completely confused. And also thought to be pretty stupid that she even seemed to imagined that JC also likes her, if not even loves. She looked at him in shock. That did not escape JC and he knew he had just received his answer to his question.

"What about Dean? Are you two still an idiom, Kate?" He asked next.

She blinked away her tears and said.

"I don't know. And a part of me surely does not bother."

"Kate!"

"But it's true. I mean, I really like Dean and do not want to hurt him, but then I really did fall in love with somebody else! I can not help my feelings, can I?"

"Oh, Katie." Sighed JC.

"But you have to know that it is not very fair of you, to begin something with another man, don't you?"

"Ugh! DON'T CALL ME KATIE!" She said in disgust, and continued.

"But is it just as bad, if that somebody is you even?"

"Exactly if I am the one. It's not fair when you're selecting me, though you're still with Dean even!" JC told her, but in his soft voice.

"But I love you, JC!" Kate finally told him now out loud.

JC sighed again.

"Kate! You're a nice girl, but you can't be in love with me. You don't know me. Except for two, nearly three days."

"So, what? I knew you already before then!"

"It's not the same! It's not fair to compare Dean with me!" JC said in a more serious tone.

He put one of his strong arms around her shoulders and squeezed it gently but firmly against his, when he saw that Kate has tears in her eyes again. Kate closed her eyes and just breathed his wonderful scent in deeply. Then she opened her eyes and looked at him with her head raised and a sad look.

"Does that mean you do not love me?" She asked him.

"Love? Ah, Kismet! We barely know each other. None of us can speak of love, or what do you mean?"

"Yes. I can do that." Disagreed Kate with him.

"I love you! And I know it can only be true love, because for Dean I've never felt such a strong love."

JC sighed. Then he took her face in both hands and looked deep into her eyes.

"What's up?"

Kate asked at once impatiently, as if to say anything and she just continued to stare into his eyes.

"Did I say something wrong? Or are you mad?"

"Ha-Ha! Why should I be mad at you? I don't know you that good even." JC responded.

"No, don't worry. I'm not. I was just thinking."

And he kissed her tenderly on the forehead.

"Hmpf!"

Kate made just and JC looked at her questioningly. She knew that it was completely wrong now to kiss him properly, but she had to do it, in order to show him that she was serious with him. But JC wouldn't let her do not.

"Kismet! Stop! Stop it!" He said.

Kate looked sadly at him and replied only.

"What is it? You may kiss me, but I can not? And what is that for a nickname, you just gave me, anyway?"

"I'm just kissing you on to the forehead, nothing more. But you try me to betray your boyfriend and go behind his back with you. That name comes only because I can't call you Katie, but I don't want to call you just like your Mom does."

"That's not true, JC! You don't go behind Dean's back, that's me." Kate protested.

"Exactly."

JC told her in a tone that showed her that he just wanted to hear these words from her all the time. She looked at him horrified and wanted to contradict him only again. Oh, how she loved to argue with him. She knew that because of the age difference between them, they had very different views of life and even love. But because their discussions, they were both like the same age. Did this even make sense?

"You're mean. Besides, Dean knows now about us anyway. And if he or I end it doesn't really matter, does it?" Kate told him hopeful.

"Then you really want out? After how many years of being with Dean?"

Joshua tried everything to change her mind, so she could forget him and yet was able to stay together with Dean. But Kate knew what he was up to, of course. But couldn't let this happen. She has to try, at least!

"Yes, I want that." she told him.

"And you know what I'm doing now?"

JC shook his head slightly, but at the same time was afraid of the answer he would get from her.

"I'll call Dean now and tell him it's over! That's right!" Kate said, and pulled her cell phone out of her jeans pocket, while JC is initially too shocked and stared at her. When Kate had gotten her cell phone out, she began to search for Dean's number, in her contacts. However, JC interrupted her and took her phone out of her hand.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Kate protested, trying to get back her cell phone, but without success.

"You can not want to do that to Dean, can you? Via phone call? You want to break up with him?" Asked JC.

"That may so not be your concern! Don't you see, when I break up with Dean right now, we can both be together. Like this minute." Kate replied.

"Oh, and what makes you so sure that I'm playing this game with? And does it not matter to you that Dean thinks you're still in the bathroom of his house and not even get out, to tell him that it is over? What he will think about you then? Come on, do it! But I want to hear what he says, okay?" JC said, and handed Kate her phone back and waited.

But Kate had understood his concern now, and stared at her cell phone in his hand only. She had completely forgotten that she did climb out of the bathroom window to run after Johnny and JC then. Now she wondered if Dean and the others had already noticed that she was no longer there or was Dean still at the door and hammered on to the bathroom door, to lure her out? Kate's stomach tightened a little at the thought and she buried her face in her hands to hide the tears.

JC, who was still holding the phone in his hand, putting it on the front seat of the car to hug Kate with both arms then, to comfort.

"Am I evil? Or why are the feelings of my fellow people of no matter to me as long as I can assert only my will. And I am happy!" Kate asked JC, after a while of silence and his comfort.

"You're not evil, Kate!", Disagreed JC.

She looked up at him in disbelief, as if to contradict him again. Instead, she smiled for once only and laid her head back at his shoulder. She wished they could secretly sit forever in this car like this now, but sooner or later Johnny would come out of the studio and bring her back to her mother and still boyfriend. And Goodness knows, how much she feared what awaited herself there to encounter. No sooner had she even thought this thought, JC gave her a gentle nudge and motioned for her with a nod toward the windshield that Johnny had just stepped out of the building and headed for the car. Oh great! Kate thought only. Just great! I hope he just wants to get me back in the recording room, so I can sing that song. Was Kate's last thought before Johnny opened the driver's door and looked inside.

"And what's going on? Is everything alright with you?" He asked, his look remained on Kate as her tears still were visibly running down her cheeks earlier.

She just nodded slightly and waited for Johnny to invite her to may continue to sing inside the studio. But Johnny sat on his seat on the driver's seat after he had taken down the phone from there.

"Whose phone belongs this to then?" He asked only and laid it, on the passenger seat.

"Kate." JC retorted just as an explanation.

Johnny turned to them, looking at Kate intently.

"And what now? Want to go home now?" He asked her.

Kate just looked at him and then looked expectantly up at JC, as if she wanted that he asked Johnny for her to do the recording now. So that she could stay a little longer with him. But as JC already knew that Kate rather for all time would stay with him, he thought it not long through and told Johnny instead.

"Yup! I think this is a good idea or Kate? Home! To your boyfriend!"

"Hmpf!"

"Well then, we better get you back there now, or Kate?" Replied Johnny, ignoring simply Kate's last comment.

Kate wondered frantically if she should ask him herself, if she could not even stay a little while longer. And continue on the song. But Johnny had already started the engine and called them now to put on their seat belts.

"Er. Mr. Wright?" Kate just changed her mind.

"Yes. What is it, Kate? Why so formal suddenly?"

"Well, I just want to know, if I still can maybe work on that song now?"

JC and Johnny looked at her surprised and puzzled. They stared at her so intently that Kate began to feel very uneasy and began to slide in her seat, side to side.

"JC! What were you two talking about, even? And why did your opinion suddenly over singing in a receiving space changed, Kate?” Johnny asked, and turned off the engine again.

JC laughed softly.

"We have not spoken about the singing part. Hey Kate! Tell Johnny, why you really want to stay here instead of going to your boyfriend."

Johnny turned to her and waited with raised eyebrows on her respond. But Kate was embarrassed and stared at her hands, which lay in her lap.

"Kate?" Asked Johnny, after a while.

She looked up at him, was slightly pink in the face and stared only at her hands again.

"JC? Do you know then, why she suddenly would like to sing in the recording room?" Johnny asked him instead.

JC smiled his crooked smile and just nodded slightly.

"Yep. And it has not to do with that it would gives her more pleasure to do. No. No. She is just too afraid to face her boyfriend and tell him that she no longer is in love him. Ha-Ha!"

Kate gave him therefore her most angry look and folded her arms across her chest. Johnny, however, did not say anything, but simply shake his head and turned in his seat. Then the ignition key turned in the lock and opened the throttle. They drove down the street. When they come to a crossroads that Kate got a sudden panic, shouting.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! "

Johnny slowed the car slightly, looking at her through the rearview mirror and was about to ask what was going on. As JC ask this before he could.

"Kate, what is it? What's it with you?"

Kate's eyes were wide and her breathing was fast and shallow. She opened her mouth again, as if she wanted to say something. But words failed her and she closed it again and again and again.

"Kate? Are you okay?" Johnny asked her when JC didn't get a reply to his questions.

"No. I am not!" Said Kate suddenly in tears and sniffling.

"I have to get out of here!"

JC wanted to put his arm around her to comfort her. But Kate evaded him and moved closer to the side window. Johnny had meanwhile parked the car at the side of the road and turned off the engine and turned to face her, to see her better.

"Do you want to sit up front, for a moment?" He asked her.

And before he had finished asking the question even, Kate was already unbuckled while passing between the driver and passenger seats to climb in to the passenger seat.

Before Kate sat down, Johnny takes her cell phone from the seat and put it on the dashboard in front of him. Kate sat down and stared out the windshield.

"Everything all right with you, Kate?" Johnny asked again.

She shakes her head and sniffed. Johnny put his hand protectively on her head and strokes it.

"You do not want to go home, do you?" He asked.

"No!"

"And what is the problem, Kate?" He asked her.

"Dean." She replied shortly. And continued on, more toward JC though.

"Don't rub it in. It is too early!"

"But the longer you wait, the harder it will get." Says JC, from behind her now.

"I don't give a damn!", Kate just said. "Please! Please! Can we go back to the studio again? Please!"

"Ah, Kate." Sighed Johnny.

"I don't know. Your Mom does certainly worry already, about you."

He looked at her with an expression of knowledge and paternal affection. Kate was curious where this knowing part could only come from. She frowns slightly and looked at him, when she asked him directly.

"How do you know that?"

Johnny stroked her cheek with his hand just.

"I did call her as I was in the studio with Alex. And do not worry she's not mad because you did just run away. On the contrary. She sounded very relieved that you're with us." He told her.

Kate swallowed hard.

"Great. But I can think of who is probably mad at me, waiting until he gets his hands on me." Kate added sadly.

"Now, you're talking sense. It will come out all right in the end." JC said.

"I think he hates me for what I do to him! Or he will definitely, when I have broken up with him." Kate replied.

"Okay! Have it your will then, Ms. Kate! We go back to the studio, but you have to call your Mom when we get there and tell her that everything is fine and you're okay, understand?" Johnny said again and started the engine of the car.

Kate, who is still fighting back the tears just nodded her head and wiped with the back of her hand over her eyes, to dry them.

"And then I will sing that song of yours?" She asked JC.

This one leaned toward her forward against the head rest and spoke so softly and gently as possible in to her ear.

"If you really want to, I can't keep you from it, can I? And lucky I got it still in my pocket also."

And Kate just has to smile to this.