| Lance sighed, his head resting against the pillow. The phone dangled in his hand, pressed up to his ear. He knew Justin didn't understand, and he didn't have it in him to try to explain. There was a stony silence on the other end, and he didn't get why she was mad at him. "Can we work something out? Maybe you fly out and meet me in the next city? I really want to clear this all up." She stayed quiet, and it was making him crazy. "Katlyn!" he shouted, his patience starting to dissapate. "What?" she yelled back. "Why? Why do you want to see me again? It's not a good idea. Lance, let's just leave it at this. I gave you all your crap back. Toss mine out, whatever. I don't want to see you. It's just..." Lance sprang up, pissed off. "Look, you owe me this. I need closure, and I can't come to you. You fucking owe me." Silence again, then she sighed, a small, relenting sigh. "Fine, when do you want me there?" "I'll messenger you tickets. Until then." He hung up, wanting to have the last word, however petty it seemed. Leaning back, he glared at the beer Justin had brought in. His hand flew over, sending the bottle flying to the floor. "Peace offering my ass," he grumbled, rolling over onto his stomach. There was nothing he could do, and feeling helpless was not an emotion he cared for. Once he saw Kate this last time, he knew he'd never see her again. Closing his eyes, he drifted off, his dreams full of snakes and demons. Justin sat in his room, biting on his nails. He couldn't let his girlfriend find out. There was no way. Of course, he regretted hurting Lance like he had, but damn, how much temptation was he supposed to take? He'd been drunk, and horny, and she was there, so needy. They were friends, or at least had been. Throwing himself down on the small couch, he reached for his cellphone and put in a call to Katlyn. His anger was not just with himself, but with her. She could have stopped the limo scene as well as him. But Lance seemed to be talking to her with hopes of clearing things up while he was stuck in the doghouse. "Hey, it's me. I want to talk to you. Got a minute?" "Justin, God, what do you want?" Katlyn had it with him, with Lance, with everything. She was tired, and annoyed, and just plain fed up with the whole thing. "Well?" she asked impatiently. "Take it easy," Justin snapped. "I just want to make sure you're not actually comeing to see Lance, that's all." His own girlfriend was on her way to join them for the week, and he didn't want any little secrets slipping out. Chris, JC, Joey, and Lance knew, so did Katlyn. The count was high enough, and he didn't want it getting any higher. "Actually, Lance is sending me tickets. I'm coming out next week. I don't know why. It's not going to do any good." Justin tightened his grip on the phone. "No, you can't come out. You can't. Kate, it's no good. Why put yourself through this?" His heart pounded, and he was unsure of what to say to convince her. "Come on, let's try to put this past us. Lance and I are trying to work things out, and if you're here, well, it's going to be harder." "Oh stop your shit!" she chided. "Come off it! You're afraid of your gilrfriend. I know she's coming, Justin. Don't worry. She won't find out from me. It's safe." She paused. "You know, Lance left marks on my thighs, fucking marks from the bed covers holding me down so tightly. Bastard!" She easily forgot the reason he'd been holding her down, the frustration of not knowing what had happened that night. Justin was silent on his end. "That's not like him," he said quietly. "Then again, he punched me so..." "Well, if that's all, I gotta go. See you next week." Her voice was curt, and the click was firm as she hung up on him. Justin sat back thinking. He was not at all convinced that she would stay quiet. There was just too much hurt in her voice. He was screwed, he had a feeling. The following week, Lance sat anxiously in the limo at the airport. His palms were sweaty and he realized his will was wavering. The anger had it's time to subside a bit, and while the thougts of Katlyn with Justin were still embedded in his mind, he'd had time to ponder if he had indeed sent her into his arms. He remembered being rough with her, emotionally. He hadn't made attempts to cuddle of be intimate with her, and it semed like she'd found friendship and confidantes in everyone but him. Maybe JC was right, he did spend a lot of time on his management company. But that was his future, and he was nothing if not a well prepared person. His father had instilled it in him from a young age. So where and why had he gone wrong? He ran his fingers through his hair and peered out the window. He hoped he would soon find out. She strolled from the doors, bag in hand. Lance blinked, forgetting just how beautiful she was. He slid over and when the driver opened the door, she stepped in. "Lance," she said thinly. "Hi," he replied, uneasily. "Thanks for coming." He noticed she didn't look at him, only stared down at her hands, which trembled slightly. "You okay?" he asked, resisting the urge to twist his ring around, a nervous habit of his own. "Fine," she answered, causing him to frown. One word sentences were not going to help the situation, not at all. WIth her being in the limo, he couldn't help but think back to that night, Justin and her in a similiar limo, betraying his trust. His jaw clentched as images danced in his mind. Katlyn stole a glance at him, knowing full well what he was thinking. She softened, just a bit. "I'm sorry," she said softly. He was so damn handsome and she knew they could have been really great together if only.... Yeah, if only. But there was no going back. She'd done something that would never go away. She saw it in his eyes, once so full of admiration for her, now just filled with disgust. "So, why do you want me here? Really?" She harbored resentment towards him for the way he treated her. She hadn't been the only one to do wrong here. Lance relaxed his face, which was so tense it hurt him. "Just to have some closure. You can leave tonight if you want. I just want to talk things over with you. See what I did wrong. I want to know." He paused to look at her. "It's important I know what specifically I did to make you cheat on me." Her temper flared at his words. He seemed to be accusing her in a roundabout way, humouring her. "You want to know?" she shouted. "You didn't love me. You never held me close anymore, only yelled at me and made me feel unimportant. You showed me zero affection, and I'm not a machine. I needed that. Justin gave it to me. He showed me all those things in just the few hours we were alone that night." The words spilled harshly from her lips, and she could do nothing to stop them. "Is that what you needed to hear? Is it?" Lance shrank back, letting her statement sink into him. For a moment, his face held the expression of a wounded bird. Then his eyes glowered with hate, that same hate and resentment that plagued him for two weeks. "Get out!" he yelled, banging on the privacy window. "Stop the car," he directed the driver. "You get out! I've had it. You're nothing but a bitch!" Her mouth dropped. "You are not leaving me here in the middle of no where when you were the one begging me to come see you. Oh hell no. Take me back to the airport. I'll be out of your life forever." He nodded, moving as far away from her as possible. "Back to the airport," he instructed the driver, who promptly turned about and headed back. Lance bit on his lip, so frustrated. This was not what he wanted, not at all. He'd wanted to try to heal from this. Now it was a mute point. She was just too far away for that. Once back where they started, Katlyn didn't wait for the driver. She pushed open the door and glared at Lance, the man she once proclaimed her love for. Tears pricked her eyes and she pressed her lips together. "You are a sorry excuse for a man," she hissed, glaring at him. So why did he feel so sad when she was gone? That he didn't know. His anger had gotten the better of him. By the time he'd gotten back to the hotel, JC was waiting for him, a deep frown etched into his face. "Bad news," he sighed, "She's going to press. We are official fucked." Lance blinked hard, focusing. "What? Who's going where with what?" Chris popped his head out of his room, having waited for Lance to get back. "I take it you pissed her off to make her do this," he snorted. "I don't understand. What's she going to press with?" Lance followed JC into Chris' room and they sat down. Now he twisted his ring, fearful of what Katlyn was up to. JC grimaced, staring at his friend. He knew it wasn't Lance's fault. This chick was going to cause the hugest of porblems, and Justin was on the phone, in his room, preparing to come clean with his girlfriend before it broke. "Kate is going to press with the story of her and Justin." He watched as Lance cradled his head in his hands. "Dude, it gets worse. She's claiming you were physically and emotionally abusive to her. I think that's going to be the whopper." He jumped up, unsure if he'd heard right. "I never laid a hand on her, ever," he insisted, looking at his friends for support. "But I guess it won't matter what the truth is since the press will make me look like a monster!" Joey strolled in, a fax paper in his hands from their publicist. "And so it begins," he stated, tossing it down. last menu next |