Disclaimer: I do not own Big Time Rush, anything recognizable in this chapter (like iTunes, which is property of Apple), or the chapter title, which comes form the song "Just Like Chocolate" by The Dollyrots.

Taylor Shine: Thank you! And I'm glad that it made your day a little bit better :) Thank you for taking the time to read and review, I really appreciate it!

Dia: Haha thanks! Those stories drive me nuts, especially when the characters don't know each other that well, so that's why my stories don't have those types of plots. But I hope you can handle them being relatively platonic for a little while and that it won't drive YOU nuts. :) Thank you for taking the time to read and review! It's much appreciated :)

jazzy: Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me :) Thank you! I'm so happy you're enjoying it! And thank you for reading and reviewing! I appreciate it so much :)

Thank you to everyone for the alerts and reviews! It makes me so happy to know that you guys are still enjoying this story :)

A/N: Okay, first of all, I think this is the first time I'm using lyrics, rather than a story name, for a chapter. I was originally going to name this chapter "Just Like Chocolate", but it didn't fit. The lyrics that I do use, however, work a little better.

I was debating about whether or not I wanted to post this tonight since it's Valentine's Day and I try not to update/post anything on holidays (Christmas Eve does not count apparently, since I've posted two one shots that night). However, this is one of my favorite chapters so far, and as long as I have stuff written for this story, I'm planning on posting on a fairly regular basis, as long as I know that people are reading it and liking it. And yes, for me this means posting once a week. If I did it more often than that, I would quickly run out of chapters, unless I suddenly had a whole bunch of free time on my hands, and a muse who sprinkles inspiration dust over me while I type. I totally need one of those. Anyway...

So, I think that's about it :)

Enjoy the chapter!


Chapter Seven – I Can't Say No to You

Katie's POV

Antonio's Pizzeria was about ten minutes away from the Diamonds' house, located in a strip mall and nudged neatly between a lingerie store and a dry cleaner's.

"Cool," I commented when James parked the pickup in front of the pizzeria. "People can stop in and grab a slice if they get hungry while bra shopping and having their delicates dry cleaned."

James grinned at me. "Exactly. We should do that sometime."

Shelby rolled her eyes and opened the passenger door. "If you two decide to go lingerie shopping, please make sure I'm nowhere near by."

"You have my word," James promised her. I scooted out after Shelby, and James climbed down. He locked the truck up and we headed towards the strip mall. We had just stepped up onto the curb when we were hailed by a group of three men: Kendall, Logan, and someone who I could only assume was Carlos.

I had met Logan several times at barbecues and birthday parties, but I had yet to meet Carlos.

My immediate impression of him was that he was a boundless ball of energy, bouncing along ahead of the other two guys.

He grinned at James. "Hey, dude. Hey, Shelb."

Shelby smiled at Carlos brightly and I had to fight back a giggle. She was already about an inch taller than him, but Carlos seemed to take it in stride, pulling her into a huge bear hug before pouting at her. "You need to stop growing, you're making me look short."

"You do that all by yourself," Logan quipped, and Carlos stuck his tongue out at him.

"She's almost as tall as you, Logie. Just another inch or so and she'll have caught up with you."

Logan shrugged. "I'm still not as short as you."

"And I'm not as short as you," Kendall grinned. "So just remember that. And James is the tallest."

Everyone turned to look at James, who seemed to tower over every single person in the vicinity.

Shelby grinned widely. "Yeah, he's a giant. But our mom's tall too."

"What about your dad?" Kendall wanted to know. "Is he pretty tall?"

The grin slipped slowly from her face. "Yeah, I guess," she replied, her tone turning clipped. "I don't really remember."

"Ah, okay." Kendall looked confused, but nevertheless he gestured towards the pizzeria. "Shall we head in?"

"Yeah, let's go," James nodded, leading the way inside. The second I stepped into the restaurant the scent of tomato sauce and garlic hit my senses, making my mouth water and my stomach rumble.

The host led us to a large table in a corner by the window. We had a fantastic view of the parking lot, and I could see James glancing out it towards his truck.

We took our seats, with me settling between James and Shelby, and Kendall sitting on Shelby's other side. I could see her glancing at him almost curiously, the tension from five minutes before completely forgotten. I quirked an eyebrow in amusement, before glancing over at James. He smiled at me as the waitress approached, setting glasses of water in front of us and asking if we would like anything else to drink.

We winded up getting different pitchers, one of iced tea and one of coke, before consulting our menus.

"So, should we just get a couple of large pies?" Kendall wanted to know.

"Or maybe just one?" Logan shot back. "We can get the monster size one, that way there's plenty for everyone."

"I'm just planning on getting a salad," I spoke up. "So…"

"Are you sure you don't want any pizza?" James asked, turning sideways to face me in the booth. "Not even a bite?" He pouted at me. "Or an entire slice?"

"I'm sure."

"Really?" He scooted closer to me, his arm brushing against mine. "Because I don't think you are. You're tempted."

I swallowed, before glaring at him. "I'm not tempted in the least. I'm perfectly happy with a salad."

"But why would you eat salad when you can have pizza? Nice and hot and gooey and greasy and messy…doesn't that sound so much better than a pile of lettuce?"

Yes.

"No."

James slid an arm around my shoulders as I continued to glower at him. "When was the last time you had pizza?"

"Yeah, Katie, what's it been, a year ago?" Kendall asked as he poured himself a glass of coke.

"Something like that," I said through gritted teeth.

James smirked widely and flipped my menu open to the pizza selections. "Pick your poison."

I let out a huffy breath, making it very clear that I was being peer-pressured into it, but nevertheless jabbed at the pepperoni, mushroom, olive, and green pepper choice. "This one."

James grinned at me. "Excellent choice."

"You're a manipulator."

"No, I was serious. That's my favorite."

"You're still a dirty rotten manipulator. That was low."

He shrugged and sipped on his lemonade. "Who the hell comes to a pizza place for a salad?"

"I do."

"Again, you're, like, ninety pounds wet. You need some pizza in you. Hot, greasy, gooey, messy – "

"Are you talking about pizza, or sex?" Carlos asked bluntly.

"Dude, not in front of my little sister!" James hissed.

"What? She's fourteen, she knows about sex."

"And she goes to public high school," I put in. "She probably knows more about it than I do."

"What do you know?" Kendall demanded.

I stared at him. "You do know I'm eighteen, right?"

"I don't care."

"Anyway," James interceded. "Carlos, I was not talking about sex, I really was talking about pizza."

"Oh." He pouted in disappointment. "I thought maybe that whole thing was code for something."

"You're going to ruin pizza for me," Shelby informed Carlos. "You know that, right? Now I'm forever going to connect it to my older brother's sex life."

"Yeah, dude. Nice going," Kendall added, smacking Carlos around the back of the head.

"Ow!" he whined. "It was just a question!"

I shook my head and turned back to James. "So, you come here a lot?"

He shrugged. "Often enough."

A familiar song blasted over the radio playing in the background, and I smiled a little, recognizing the singer at once.

"Hey," Carlos spoke up again as if he could read my mind. "Katie, you're friends with Lucy Stone, right?"

I blinked. Clearly he knew she sang this song. "Yeah, she's really cool. We're signed to the same label. Why?"

"Oh, it's just this song came on and I remembered that James listens to her sometimes. You know him and rock music."

I smiled a little. "Ah. Well, she's really cool. If you want, I can get you VIP to her next concert," I added to James.

"Nah, that's okay," he shrugged. "I don't need VIP. If I want to go I can just get tickets myself."

"Are you sure? Because I could probably get them for free for you – "

"I'm positive." He smiled at me. "Don't worry about it."

"I – okay – "

The waitress arrived and we ordered two pizzas – one with James' and my preferred ingredients, and one with everything on it.

James stretched out, and Shelby started a conversation up with Kendall. Logan and Carlos began chatting about one of their classes, so I glanced at James. "So, you play the guitar?"

He nodded, rolling his shoulders once. Not that I noticed. At all. I totally didn't stare at his muscles bulging under his thin t-shirt. Not in the least. "Yeah."

"What kind?"

"Acoustic and electric. My old amp blew out this summer, so I'm planning on getting a new one in a couple of days. There's a sale down at a music store near the campus."

"What kind of amplifier are you planning on getting?"

"Just a small ten watt. Since I'm in a dorm room, I can't get one too loud, otherwise the other people in the building will complain. The one I'm looking at has a place to plug in headphones, so I won't bother anyone when I play."

"How long have you been playing?"

He sipped on his lemonade, and I poured myself a glass while I waited for him to answer. "Since I was seven."

"Who taught you? Did you take lessons?" And whoa, since when was I so interested in guitars? I mean, I definitely had a weakness for musicians, particularly guitar players, but I was practically hammering him with questions. Maybe my blood sugar level was a little high…

"My dad," he said shortly. "He taught me. And then I taught myself. I can play by ear," he added in explanation when I looked at him curiously.

"Really?" I smiled. "That's pretty cool. So can you just pick up any instrument and play it?"

"Pretty close to it, yeah. I mean, it might take me a couple of days – "

"Or a couple of hours," Shelby interrupted. "He's good."

"He really is," Carlos agreed, bobbing his head. "He's like the future Mick Jagger."

We all stared at him.

"I think you mean Keith Richards," James said. "Mick Jagger is the Rolling Stone's front man."

"Oh. Well, I meant one of them," he said brightly.

Our pizza arrived along with plates, and we dug in hungrily. For a few minutes there was nothing but the sound of chewing and the occasional clink of cutlery on plates.

Kendall had just finished his first piece and was reaching for his second when he announced, "Oh, by the way, I'm not going to be able to make it to the show tomorrow. The coach called an extra hockey practice. He's getting worried since our first game of the year is next week and some of the guys aren't quite up to the level he thought they would be."

I blinked. "What show?"

"Oh, there's a show at my school," James told me, popping a stray olive into his mouth. "A concert, I should say. It's for this new band, Purple Giraffe. Have you heard of them?"

I shook my head.

"Okay. They're pop punk. Anyway, they're playing at LACPA tomorrow. Hey, since Kendall can't go, would you want to?"

I blinked again. Going to a rock show for a band I'd never heard of at a school I'd never been to…yeah, that really sounded like a good idea. But then I turned my head and found myself gazing into James' big hazel eyes and I immediately melted. "Yeah, sure, it might be fun," I smiled.

He grinned. "Awesome."

"Can I go?" Shelby immediately wanted to know.

"Sorry," James told her. "Mom would never let me bring you to a college show."

"Aww, why not?" she pouted.

"Because a lot of things happen at college concerts, like drinking and drugs."

She scowled.

"What about Erica and Alyssa?" James wanted to know. "Aren't you going to be hanging out with them?"

"Probably. But it'd be awesome to be able to tell them that I saw a college show."

"Ah. Well, it's not going to happen this year."

"Crap." Shelby sighed dramatically. "I guess we're just going to sit around and watch a stupid teen movie again."

"Good. Make sure it's a light PG13."

She threw him a disgusted look. "I'm fourteen, not ten."

"Do I look like I care?"

I interrupted them. "When does the show start?"

"Eight," James answered. "But if you want you can come by early and we can hang out."

"Sure," I smiled.

"Do you know where the school is?"

"Yeah, I have to pass by it sometimes. Do you just want to meet at your dorm room…?"

He nodded. "We can do that. I'm in the Paul McCartney dorm."

I blinked. "They named the dorms after the Beatles?"

"After famous singers and actors."

"Ah."

He nodded, helping himself to a second slice of pizza. "Do you know where the dorms are?"

"Roughly."

James gave me directions to his dorm room before adding, "If you have trouble finding it, we can just meet someplace. That might be better."

"Nah, it's cool. I want to see your dorm room. I've never been in one."

"It's nothing special. It's not as small as some are, but it's not exactly huge."

I shrugged. "Hey, it's college. What do you expect?"

He nodded. "Anyway, maybe we can grab dinner before the show? If you want healthy they do have some decent places to eat on campus. And if you want junk food, the place is teaming with pizza and cheeseburgers."

"And corndogs," Carlos grinned happily. "That place has some of the best corndogs I've ever eaten. I need to grab a couple when I'm there tomorrow."

We finished eating and paid the bill, splitting the check four ways. We refused to let Shelby chip in since she was only fourteen and, as James put it, should be saving her money for lip gloss. We were just heading out when Shelby got a text from her friend, Alyssa, begging her to come over and spend the night so that she could tell her all about her new boyfriend.

From what I could tell, Shelby responded gracefully enough but her mood noticeably soured.

"What's up?" I asked her, playfully bumping my shoulder against hers as best I could, given the height difference.

"Nothing," she sighed, staring down at the ground.

"I don't buy it. What's going on? You were fine until your friend texted you."

"It's just…" she sighed, and everyone paused to look at her. "Alyssa always has a boyfriend. Always. And I can't even get a hot guy to notice me. I've never even flirted with a boy before."

"There's nothing wrong with that," I said quietly. "I know a couple different women, both absolutely gorgeous and just amazing people, who didn't even start dating until they were in their twenties. With the one, guys never noticed her. With the other, she was too busy with school, college, and work to even look at boys. They both did end up getting boyfriends, it just took some time for them to find the right guy. And you're only fourteen, you're still pretty young."

"You've dated a couple of guys," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well…" I blew my bangs out of my eyes. "There were extenuating circumstances with those guys."

"Such as?" she pressed.

"Such as with my first boyfriend, we were quite literally set up. You know he was on These Days Are Ours, right?"

"Yeah."

I could feel James' eyes burning into me as I continued. "Okay, so he was playing my character's first boyfriend. Well, first real boyfriend, anyway, since she was a little flirt once she hit her preteens. The producers of the show got together with our publicists and basically suggested that Jared and I go out. I was fourteen at the time, and he was sixteen, and neither of us were very happy about the idea of fake dating. I wanted an actual boyfriend, and Jared already had a girlfriend. He had to break it off with her very quietly, or at least that was what he was told to do."

"But he didn't," Shelby recalled. "I remember reading in Pop Tiger that he broke up with her to go out with you."

"Yeah. Well, the girlfriend threw a fit and all the publicists had to come up with something. So they chose that. And then later on, they 'revealed'," I held my fingers up in quotation marks, "that I hadn't been aware that he had had a girlfriend when we had begun dating. So Jared became a teenage bad boy who suddenly all the girls wanted – because, you know, who doesn't want a cheater? – and I became the sweetheart who had been wronged in her first relationship. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo."

"But it was good for both of your careers," James said once I had fallen silent. "Because Jared Echols became a huge action movie star. And they're trying to figure out if they can get him a record deal or not."

I groaned. "Of course they are."

"What happened to his girlfriend?" Shelby wanted to know.

"She's still singing. She's pretty famous now."

"Who is she?"

I smiled, a little bitterly. "Lucy Stone."

Her jaw dropped. "Oh my gosh, how did I not know that?"

"Probably because she wasn't famous at the time. She was doing some modeling and acting work to get a boost up into the world of rock and roll. Her first single basically consisted of her telling Jared where to go. It was a huge hit."

"Was it 'You Dumped Me for Her'?" Shelby asked eagerly.

"No, that one came a couple of years later. That really was her biggest hit. And she wrote it about my darling brother." I smirked at Kendall.

He groaned. "Okay, seriously?"

"Wait, what happened?" Shelby demanded.

"Okay, so first of all, Kendall and I have known Jo Taylor for a pretty long time. Jo and I guest starred on each other's shows and we became really close. Kendall and Jo started dating when they were sixteen, but broke up after a couple of years because Jo was moving to New Zealand for three years to film some movie about demigods. Total Percy Jackson rip-off. Anyway, while she was gone, I had started hanging out with Lucy. By this time she knew what had gone down with Jared and me, and she knew circumstances had been out of my control. In the meantime, she and Kendall were hanging out, getting to know each other, flirting, getting sucked into the huge, hot fiery ball of sexual tension. Basically they dated for all of five minutes, Jo came back, and Kendall chose Jo over Lucy. And Lucy got mad, wrote a whole album's worth of songs about him – "

"Which you helped with," Kendall grumbled.

" – and ended up cementing her name as the new pop punk princess. And she never told anyone who the song was about."

"I didn't know you were dating Jo Taylor," Shelby commented to Kendall, looking a little disappointed.

"We're off again right now."

"They're as bad as Logan and Camille Roberts," I rolled my eyes. "For some reason, you guys just can't seem to stay with the girls, or stay away from them."

"Oh, um, this is supposed to be all top secret," Logan said to Shelby. "So if you could not tell anyone, we would all really appreciate it."

"I won't breathe a word about it to a single person," she promised, nodding eagerly.

He smiled at her. "Thanks."

James checked the time on his phone before addressing Shelby. "We need to get going if you're going to have enough time to pack before Mom takes you over to Alyssa's."

She nodded. "Okay."

"Are you riding home with James?" Kendall asked me, and I paused, glancing up at James.

He nodded. "If you don't mind making a detour, then yeah, you're more than welcome to."

I turned to Kendall. "I guess I am. I'll see you soon."

"See you later, baby sister." He hugged me, and then I hugged Logan and Carlos as well, before heading towards James' pickup with him and Shelby. We climbed in, buckled up, and James got the truck started.

"Anyway," James said to Shelby as we sped down the road. "I'm totally cool with you not having any boyfriends. Boys only have – "

"One thing on their minds, and it's not studying." She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you've told me that about fifty billion times."

"And it never hurts to reiterate. Anyway, one of the reasons why the boys don't seem to notice you is because you're so smart and independent. They're intimidated."

I blinked. "Wait, that actually happens?"

James shrugged, flipping on his turn signal and switching lanes. "It can. Girls can be scary, especially when they're smart and independent and just happen to be insanely gorgeous. You're a little scary."

"I'm not entirely sure what to say to that…"

"Anyway," he continued on, glancing at Shelby for just a second. "Maybe boys do notice you and you just don't realize it. That also happens."

"Not to me."

"If you don't realize it, then of course you're not going to think it's happening."

We pulled up in front of the Diamonds' house once again, and Shelby got out. "See you later," she said to us.

We waved at her and James stayed parked in the driveway until she had gotten inside safely. I slid into her vacated seat, stretching my legs out.

"So," I grinned wickedly once we were on the road again. "Let's talk about boys and how they only have one thing on their minds."

"Well, Katie," he smirked. "Boys are terrible people and I don't think you should go out with them."

"You're right. I should really go out with a man." My grin widened when his cheeks flamed red hot.

"Oh really?" he asked as he pulled up to a stop sign.

"Yes, really."

"You have anyone in mind?"

"I do as a matter of fact. He's about twenty, a little over six feet tall, and has dark hair and these amazingly gorgeous hazel eyes. I could get lost in them all day. Am I scary now?"

His breath caught and he turned his head to look at me, our eyes meeting. Our gazes locked and my heart hammered violently against my ribcage as my breath seemed to catch in my throat, and then there was a honking behind us and James muttered "fuck". He stepped on the accelerator and I leaned back against the seat, trying to remember how to breathe properly again.

Fuck was right. What the hell had just happened there?

At a red light, James reached behind the seat and pulled out his backpack. He rummaged through it until he found his iPod and a connector for the car. "Go ahead and plug this in if you want," he said, passing it to me.

"You don't like the radio?" I asked as I connected the two and scrolled through the MP3 Player.

"No, I do. It's just it gets repetitive after awhile."

"True," I agreed, pausing as I reached the Gs. "Garbage?"

He grinned. "You listen to them?"

"I think Kendall might. I've never heard any of their stuff. Are they good?"

"Very good. Their newer stuff's different, but in a good way."

I shrugged and got into their albums, before playing one of their singles, Automatic Systematic.

Something that reminded me of a mixture of electronic music and rock blasted from the speakers and I smiled a little. There was a pop edge to the song that I liked, but the song was still rock, which I figured was why James listened to it.

"Have you always been into rock?" I asked him over the song.

"Pretty much, yeah. Bands like The Beatles and Rolling Stones and Van Halen and Duran Duran were always playing in the house when I was growing up. My dad would drive me to kindergarten and Iron Butterfly would be blasting out of the car speakers. My mom wasn't too thrilled, and she tried to introduce me to more pop-y stuff, but it didn't take. I used to go through my dad's old LP records and play my favorites over and over while doing my homework. Once I got a CD player my dad got me the CD versions of the albums I'd been listening to. I'd listen to the LA rock stations and see if I could find any new bands, and I did. And once I discovered iTunes, I was gone. It drives my mom crazy, and a lot of people are really surprised when they find out that one of my favorite bands is Halestorm, or that I listen to Mötley Crüe on a regular basis. They always think I'm going to be more into pop and show tunes."

I slowly nodded. In all honesty, I could understand why people would think that. James had almost a surfer look about him, the kind that made you think of pop music blaring from speakers as he ran down the beach with his friends, gazing out at the ocean. But clearly that wasn't an accurate representation of him. It was true – never judge a book by its cover.

"How about you?" he asked me. "Have you always listened to pop?"

"Pretty much," I laughed. "My first CD was a Britney Spears one. I've always leaned more towards the bubblegum pop style for some reason. Kendall teases me because my music taste isn't exactly edgy, but I like it. It's upbeat, and it doesn't make my head hurt."

"But you do listen to rock."

"Yeah. I mean, you listen to some pop, right? So it goes both ways. We probably even have some singers and bands in common. Speaking of bands, does Purple Giraffe have any songs up on iTunes?"

"They have a couple," James nodded. "They also have a Facebook page, which has most of their songs."

"Okay, I'll check them out tonight. Hey, don't you need to get the ticket for the show from Kendall?"

"Nope." He popped the P. "I'm holding onto everyone's tickets until tomorrow night."

"Ah, okay."

Before long we were at the gates to the neighborhood, and I waved at the security guard to let us through. Once the gates had swung open, James pulled through and a couple of minutes later we were parked in front of my house.

I smiled at him as I unbuckled my seatbelt. "So I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, definitely. Just feel free to stop by any time. Since it's Saturday, I don't have class."

"Sounds good." My smile widened and I opened the door, climbing out. "Have a good night."

"Thanks. You too."

I headed towards the front door and unlocked it, before waving at James. I slid in and closed the door, letting out a deep breath and ignoring the disappointment curdling in my stomach when I heard him drive away.


So, James and Katie are going to a concert...and they're going to be spending some time with each other. This should be interesting...Anyway, what'd you guys think? What do you think is going to happen? Any thoughts? Opinions? Feelings? I'd love to hear them.

Thank you for reading, and please review! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!