“Hey you wanted to see me?” Katy asked walking up to Kim. Kim looked at her and then hung her head. Her throat became dry and her mind was racing. So Kim did what she usually did when she wasn’t sure about something, she choked.
“I just wanted to thank you, for going to look for JC and to say that I am sorry.” Kim lied. Katy just looked at her confused that had to be the dumbest line she had heard Kim come up with in awhile. But Katy did what she always did, She smiled and told her that is was fine, knowing that at some point Kim would work up the courage to return and actually say what was on her mind.
Katy watched Kim take off back into the house before going to see what Mandy was doing. As Kim passed the bar, she took the compass out of her pocket and set it on the bar. Maybe if Katy found it there then she would be forced to say something about it and Kim wouldn’t have to start the conversation herself. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“I am sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Chris apologized. Kim just pressed her hand to her chest and worked to regain a regular heart beat. “Are you okay?” He asked.
“Yeah, I am fine you just caught me off guard.” Kim explained. Chris just shook his head, that wasn’t what he had meant. She had seemed to be deep in thought when he approached her and he was concerned that she might still be thinking about JC or what had happened. “Oh…I am fine there too.” Kim lied.
“No guy is worth your tears. In fact I don’t know why girls even talk to guys. We never listen or learn anything.” Chris added with a smile. “Speaking of that though, I need to find Brandi before she realizes that and never wants to talk to me again.”
“I am pretty sure Brandi already knows that, so you should just run for it too.” Kim joked.
“Yeah well, as long as she still talks to me I’ll hang around. I am not smart enough to run.” Chris explained. “But all joking aside, if you need someone to talk to… I hear Lance is great at that stuff.”
“Lance huh? Well he does date guys so I might have to seek him out for a little advice.” Kim joked. It was good to see her smile again and Chris knew that he was the last person that should ever give out relationship advice. “I don’t know where Brandi is, but I just came in from the back yard and she wasn’t out there.” Kim added. Chris thanked her and then left to search Brandi out.
Kim smiled to herself and then headed down stairs, maybe Lance was the one that she needed to talk to. She just needed someone to talk to, if nothing else to distract her from her current thoughts.
Chris leaned up against the house and watched Brandi work feverishly with the shovel. She had released the guys awhile ago and then just disappeared on him. He didn’t get the feeling that she was mad at him or anything; she just seemed distracted or something. There was no doubt that she has a lot on her mind right now. Chris just wanted to hold her and tell her that everything would be okay, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it.
“What are you doing?” He finally asked. She looked up at him a little shocked to see him there. She had been so focused on what she was doing she hadn’t noticed him. She smiled despite herself, he looked so handsome.
“What does it look like I am doing?” Brandi joked pointing at the ground.
“Well you don’t strike me as much of a gardener.” Chris responded, still unsure why she was digging in the old flower box. She laughed; he really had her figured out. She was a horrible gardener and she had no business there. Nothing could have saved that garden any way, it was over grown with weeds and the box itself was falling apart just like everything else around there. Brandi moved a few more shovel fulls of dirt out of the way before sighing. Chris laughed at her, she had dirt smeared across her face and she was breathing heavy, clearly whatever she was doing was turning out to be more work than she thought it would be.
He walked over to her and took the shovel out of her hand before she could protest. Chris paused briefly to wipe the dirt from her cheek before leaning in to kiss her. Her blue eyes flashed a mixture of love and stress, the love he knew that was for him but he hoped the stress wasn’t related. He gently moved her over so that he could stand where she had been and he took over shoveling for her.
“So what exactly are we doing?” He asked. Brandi smiled; he was so sweet he just dove in to help her even though he still didn’t know what they were doing. Her eyes watered a little but she tried to play it off as allergies.
“We are looking for buried treasure.” Brandi beamed.
“And why would there be buried treasure in the flower box?” Chris asked.
“Because I put it there, I just can’t remember exactly where I put it though.” Brandi explained.
“Why would you bury something?” Chris questioned, making eye contact with her as he spoke. The ground was harder than he thought it would be, no wonder Brandi had been worn out.
“So Katy wouldn’t find it, Duh.” Brandi explained.
“So why are we digging it up now?” Chris asked.“Well, Katy has been acting really weird since she got back this morning so I thought I could knock her out of her funk by giving her the Katana back.” Brandi explained. She knew for a fact though that it was somewhere in the flower box.
“You buried her Katana? How could she get any weirder?” Chris questioned. There was some seriousness to his question, but he was trying to be considerate, this after all she was her friend. The thought of giving her back her weapon scared him a little but he hoped Brandi would protect him from the insane samurai warrior. Brandi put her hand on her hip and acted a little hurt by what he said. “You know what I mean.” He corrected.
“I know I am just playing, but I am concerned about her. She is actually acting normal which is completely abnormal for her. You know taking other peoples feeling into consideration, thinking about stuff … before she acts. She actually gave me advice that was helpful. It’s just not who she is.” Brandi explained as she watched the pop star perform manual labor. It was kind of a cute to see him trying so hard to make her happy.
“So you think giving her a deadly weapon will make her careless and fun again?” Chris asked just as his shovel made light contact with something. “Why did you bury it?” he added again as he used his hand to brush the dirt aside so that he could verify that he had found what he was looking for.
“Well she tore the whole house apart looking for it and I didn’t think she would look out here or notice that the ground had been disturbed in that mess of weeds. I wrapped it in bags so it’s not like anything could hurt it. But just so you know if it is damaged on it, I am going to blame you.” Brandi joked. Chris smirked at her as he continued to clear the item so that he could pull it out of the ground. Once he had a good grip on it he tugged until it came lose, nearly falling over in the process.
He took his buried treasure over to his lady. Brandi reached for it but Chris pulled it back, gesturing to her that he wanted something in return for his hard work. She rolled her eyes and then leaned toward him. He was careful not to make too much contact with her and his now dirt covered hands. But he kissed her sweetly then handed her the trash bag and its contents. Brandi unwrapped the Katana; she wanted to make sure it was okay before returning it. Katy would kill her if she returned it damaged.
“You know, it’s not like…” Chris said, taking a minute to think about what he was about to say. “It’s not that easy to fix a friendship. Emotions aren’t like colds; you can’t just give someone something and hope that they get better.” Brandi nodded, she knew Chris was right but she didn’t know what else to do and it wasn’t like this would hurt anyone. The Katana technically belonged to Katy, so Brandi had no real right to keep it from her. Chris wasn’t even sure why he suddenly cared; it would only make his life easier if Brandi and Katy weren’t friends any more. Even after everything that they had been through Katy still scared the crap out of him.
Brandi looked at the Katana in her hand; she fought back the urge to hit him with it. It wasn’t that she was mad at him but he was right, damn it why did he have to be right? She just wanted everything to go back to the way it was. Chris took a chance and wrapped his arms around her pulling her in for a hug.
“Is that why ‘N Sync broke up?” Brandi asked. Her breath was hot against his neck and it caused him to moan slightly. He pulled away a little and just shook his head.
“No, well kind of. I mean people change, things change. Sometimes you just have to grow up and move on. Maybe that is what Katy is going through right now. You just have to be supportive and they’ll call if they need you.” Chris explained. He knew that ‘N Sync as it was had just run its course, it didn’t mean that it was over forever, they just need to break and to try other things. “Maybe this is just the start of your ‘Hiatus’ from each other.”
Brandi fell against him and let a few tears out. She knew what he was saying was true but that didn’t make it feel any better, she didn’t want a hiatus. Maybe it was time for the girls to grow up but that didn’t mean they had to grow apart.
“I don’t want to grow up.” Brandi sighed.
“I didn’t either. Come stay with me and let’s just not grow up together.” Chris joked. He was pleased to see her smile. She became lost his is sexy eyes as she studied his features. He had to have some good genes, because damn he was getting cuter with age.
“You know, the bedroom is available.” Brandi moaned, running her finger along his bottom lip. Chris closed his eyes and tried to suppress the urge to take her up on her offer. Every fiber of his body wanted nothing more than to have some kind of contact with her.
“I thought we were going to get to know each other a little better first?” He asked.
“And that sounds like a very grown up thing to do.” Brandi teased. Chris opened his eyes and ran his hand through her hair, not longer caring about the dirt. He just needed to touch her. A playful smile dance across her lips and she seemed happy again. It wasn’t that she had forgotten about Katy or the others but maybe Chris was right and it was just time to expand her horizon. And she couldn’t think of a better new friend than the one she had in her arms right now. Chris could be a lot of fun to be around.
“Damn it you’re right!” He said with a sexy grin. Chris scooped Brandi up into his arms and took off with her into the house. They nearly ran over Mandy on their way through the house.
“What the hell?” Mandy asked. Katy just laughed and set the sticks they had gathered down on the bar so they could clean and sharpen them a little.
“You don’t even want to know.” Katy laughed. Mandy just brushed it off and headed into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Katy noticed the compass on the bar and picked it up right away. She thought for a minute and looked around nervously. She knew that he had given it to JC the night before but there was no sign of him in the house, and surely someone would have said something if they had seen him.
“What’s that?” Mandy asked taking a sip from her glass.
“A compass. You know I would be careful if I was you. I think there might be something in the water.” Katy joked nodding toward the stairs; romance was defiantly in the air around the house. Everyone seemed to be feeling it. “Have you kissed Joey yet?” Katy blurted out, no longer able to filter herself. Mandy nearly choked on the water.
“No, why?” Mandy asked in shock. Katy had been good all day was she finally getting back into the swing of things?
“You know you are going to kick yourself if you leave here not knowing how his lips feel pressed against yours. “ Katy said with the evil grin of hers spread across her lips.
“So have you kissed Justin yet?” Mandy fired back. Katy spun around and got up to look for a knife so she could work on the sticks.
“Of course, I am not a chicken shit like you.” Katy joked. As she passed Mandy she paused and whispered in her ear. “And it was amazing, like gummy bears… by the way do we have any gummy bears?”
