As the pulled into the driveway Katy noticed right away that all the lights in the house were on, so much for setting the mood, Katy thought at first. Upon a closer look it became clear that something had happened while they were gone. The door had been ripped from its hinges and was now lying in the bushes. Mandy rushed into the house with the guys close behind her while Katy paused outside to survey the damage. This wasn’t what she had expected to come home to.
Once inside Mandy stood in shock, the house was wrecked. Tables were knocked over, the sofa was moved, and the door to the basement had taken a hit. It looked like a war zone; Mandy’s first thought was about Brandi, had the date really gone that badly. Images of Chris lying on the floor with a knife in his back popped into her mind and it scared her, but Chris and Brandi both were nowhere to be found.
“What happened?” Mandy finally asked loudly hoping someone would hear her and answer her. Brandi came running up from the basement at the sound of her voice.
“Kim and JC kind of got into a fight.” Brandi said softly. “I am not sure how it happened, Kim had gone to bed. I don’t even know how it started.” Brandi brushed her hair out of her face; she was so pissed off and confused.
“Kind of had a fight, this looks like they had a brawl. So where is everyone?” Mandy asked.
“Justin and Chris are down stairs; Justin kind of took a hit so Chris is tending to him. Kim ran upstairs crying and JC…” Brandi trailed off her eyes fixed on the doorway where Katy was now standing. Katy crossed her arms and flashed a look that said it all, her anger couldn’t be contained. JC was gone. Kim was crying and no one was doing anything about it.
Joey and Lance exchanged looks before excusing themselves to the basement, it was clear by the tension in the air that things were just heating up between the girls and they didn’t want any part of it. They had just barely cleared the door frame with Brandi spoke up.
“What the hell is that look for? This isn’t my fault.” Brandi snapped. She had just been enjoying a nice evening with Chris when all hell broke loose, she couldn’t have know what was taking place in the basement, she thought everyone was asleep, or at least they were supposed to be.
“What the hell were you doing in the basement; Kim should have been your first priority.” Katy fired back getting closer to Brandi. Mandy remain in between them, though she wasn’t sure it was exactly the best place for her to be at this point. It’s not that she could have stopped the two of them from going at it even if she wanted to.
“I am sorry but your boy toy was bleeding so I thought he needed me more. Kim is the one that went down there, she started this whole mess. I can’t be in two places at once and I though Justin’s broken nose was a more urgent matter than Kim’s broken heart.” Brandi responded.
“No, we agreed from the get go that nothing, and no one, would come between us. And how did she even get in the basement, she was upstairs when we left. What were you doing that you didn’t notice her?” Katy questioned.
“We weren’t having sex, if that is what you are thinking. We were just cuddling. Maybe Kim is stealthier than you give her credit for.” Brandi said. Brandi was known for her honesty if they had in fact been doing that she would have fessed up, but they weren’t. She was innocent, not that she could say that very often but in this case she was.
“Come on guys this isn’t helping. We have to work together remember?” Mandy begged. Katy and Brandi both stepped down and took a few deep breaths.
“What the hell did you even tell her any way? You were the last one to talk to her right? Why would she think talking to JC about her feelings would even be a good idea?” Brandi asked, now turning her attention to Mandy.
“What like you guys were helping her at all. Of course they should have talked about their feelings, they both like each other. If you weren’t too busy chasing after Chris maybe you would have noticed. And you are the one that took those stupid pictures.” Mandy fired back at both of them. She was racking her brain though to figure out what she had said to Kim that might make her even want to talk to JC.
“Well clearly he didn’t feel the same about her. God, you are so stupid.” Brandi sighed.
“Me? What about you? You were here. How could you let this happen?” Mandy explained. Brandi huffed and folded her arms, this was not her fault. She didn’t realize that there was a problem until JC busted out of the basement. She had tripped on Chris and numerous tables to get to him but it had all happened so fast, her head was spinning just thinking about it. There were several more rounds of insults tossed around between them, each trying to talk over the other and none of them really hearing anything.
“You guys please.” Kim said softly coming down from the stairs. They all paused and look at her. “This is all my fault, if you want to blame someone then blame me. I screwed up.” Mandy closed her eyes; it was those words that hurt more than any of the others. It was tugging at her heart strings; you could see the pain in Kim’s eyes. The others must have felt it too because on one responded. After a series of long breaths Katy made the first move.
“It’s not your fault. We’ll fix this together. I’ll go after JC, he couldn’t have gotten far. If you guys want to clean this mess up, oh and someone chain the guys back up for now, let’s not have any more escapes tonight.” Katy offered. She waited for one of them to protest or offer another solution, but no one did.
“What about Justin?” Brandi asked.
“The others are down there now; they can take care of him. For now we need to worry about us, we’re the ones that are broken.” Katy explained. She paused only briefly to grab a flashlight, and then headed into the dark woods. The others thought about what she had just said. It wasn’t like Katy to be so deep. When the air settled again they got to work cleaning up, but more importantly piecing together the pieces in order to figure out what had really happened.
Brandi and Mandy decided to divide and concur, there were two people in the house that knew what had taken place in the basement just before JC stormed out. As Mandy stayed with Kim as they cleaned up the mess and Brandi went back down into the basement to question Justin and secure the rest of the guys.
In the basement Chris was seated next to Justin who was still applying a cold rag to his face. He looked up when he saw Brandi and then approached her slowly. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, he wasn’t sure how he knew, but he just knew that she was upset.
“This isn’t your fault sweet heart and Justin is going to be fine. I am sure JC will be too.” Chris offered. Brandi felt her eyes starts to tear up and she buried her face in his chest. But she wasn’t crying for all the reason that he thought she was, sure what had happened was bad, but she had just yelled at her friends and they had yelled back at her, Katy was right they were broken. Sure they picked on and teased each other relentlessly but this wasn’t like that, this was real.
“I need to know what happened. Katy has gone after JC and if anyone can find him then she can.” Brandi pulled away from him and took a seat next to Justin on the sofa. Justin glanced at her and a waited her questions, though he wasn’t sure how much help he would be. “Justin, tell me what you saw.”
“Kim snuck down here, it was kind of late. I was writing some lyrics, when I saw her I could tell that she wasn’t there to talk to me, so I went into the other room and left her and JC alone. She seemed nervous; I guess I should have stayed out here. I know JC can be kind of closed minded some times. I left the door cracked though. They were talking about the love scene when suddenly JC just flipped out. I ran out here to see what was going on but JC had broken free and was on his way out. He shoved Kim and I tried to catch her but ended up taking a header into the book shelf.” Justin pointed to his face as if to indicate that is how he broken his nose. It had after all been an accident; JC would never hit him on purpose. Brandi sighed, that was helpful but more details would have to come from Kim or so it seemed.
“Why do you think JC took off?” Brandi asked. She knew the guys would have more insight into how JC thought.
“Honestly, I think he was just running away from his feelings. I still think he likes her and I think she might have broken down and told him that she liked him.” Justin explained. JC wasn’t exactly known for being easy to work with, but he was always the perfectionist. Even now with ‘N Sync broken up he was always the one shooting down rumors of a reunion, though it didn’t hurt anything to give the fans a little hope from time to time. JC was honest and logical. He didn’t just give people what they wanted to hear and having feelings for Kim would seem illogical for him.
“Why did you guys break up?” Brandi asked out of nowhere. It wasn’t even relevant to what they were talking about. The guys looked at each other, most of them didn’t even know why they had done it.
“I guess it was me, I wanted to see if I could make it on my own.” Justin offered.
“No, it was me. I wanted to do that space thing.” Lance said.
“I could have been me, I mean fatherhood changed me.” Joey offered.
“I don’t think it was any one of us, I know I had stuff going on too, at the time. It was all of us, we were just moving in different directions. These things just happen.” Chris said, though deep down inside he remember just how sad he was after they broke up. But it was all of their faults; they should have tried harder to get back together. Chris pulled Brandi close to him again; he knew what this was all about now. “Friendships are a lot like relationships. You have to work at them. It takes understanding and care. But I think you girls are going to be fine.” Chris explained.
Brandi took a deep breath; maybe Chris was right they would be fine. They were like them; they could work through their differences and make changes as needed. She knew that the other day things that they wanted to do in life that would pull them apart but keeping in touch and taking time out of each other would keep their friendship alive.
Brandi worked to bind the guys that were lose and they didn’t fight her, with all that had happened tonight things were up in the air more so than usual and no one wanted to test the girls any further. Chris was nervous, what if JC went to the cops. Would JC betray him like that? He could take Brandi away from him forever or would he simply go home and forget all this even happened. Brandi gave Justin a kiss on the cheek to make him feel better and Chris a passionate kiss on the lips before heading back up stairs.
Upstairs the other two aren’t getting much done in the way of psychical clean up but emotionally they are making head way. Kim was seated on the sofa while Mandy was trying to get the front door back on at least, so they could keep the wilderness out. Kim was talking Mandy through what had happened and what she was feeling.
“I am sorry I ruined your date.” Kim sobbed, that was probably the worst feeling of all. JC could have slapped her and it still wouldn’t have been worse. Brandi faked a smiled and took a seat next to her.
“You didn’t ruin my date; it was basically over any way. We were just hanging out. You could have said something, you know, told me what was going on. I wouldn’t have stopped you from going down there but I could have been a little more prepared.” Brandi explained.
“But you guys just looked so cute cuddling on the sofa; I really didn’t want to bother you. I didn’t foresee things going the way that they did. He just freaked out.” Kim said. Brandi blushed a little she wasn’t used to her friend referring to her as being cute in any way.
“That maybe the case, but we have to have each other’s back.” Mandy added. The door kind of into place now, at least it would do for now. She took her place on the other side of Kim comforting her as best she could. “What exactly did you tell JC?”
“I told him that I was nervous about the video, because I really kind of had a crush on him. I just didn’t want him to kiss me and not really mean it. He looked confused at first then his eyes turned dark and he just snapped. I think he was scared too, maybe it’s a guy thing, I don’t know you tell me.” Kim said softly, after all she really didn’t know much about guys and the way that they think. Mandy and Brandi just nodded, defiantly a guy thing.
“Not to change the subject, because you are important to me, Kim. But when Katy gets back we need to talk about what happened. I didn’t mean to go off like that.” Brandi explained.
“I am sure there will be more to talk about than just that. But we defiantly have to talk.” Mandy glanced nervously at the basement door, JC flying to coop really changed things for them. Their plans were quickly going up in smoke.
