.:CHAPTER SIX – You're a killjoy:.


Kendall tried not to smile as he walked over to Riley. Actually, he tried not to laugh. The way that she was pacing back and forth; one hand on her forehead, the other on her hip, and talking to herself as she stomped across the ground. It was always so comical to him, to see how annoyed she got and what she would do if you pushed her past the point of no return. To be honest, more than half of the time he annoyed her, he did it on purpose, just to get a source of entertainment out of it.

The other times he annoyed her it was purely by accident, he would get so frustrated that he couldn't tell her how he felt about her (it wasn't a secret to anyone else as he would try to get advice from them about it) that he would let the frustration get the better of him and do or say something stupid to make her mad. But then again, it was Riley, and the fact that it was raining when it was supposed to be sunny could make her mad.

"Hey," Kendall called, getting her attention as he lessened the gap between then. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and waved it around. "I got your message, what's up?"

"Was it your idea to come down to the studio?" Riley turned to him; her blue eyes now a shade of navy as she glared at him.

Kendall stopped, mid-stride, and blinked at her, his green eyes showing his confusion. "I'm fine, how are you?" He replied, moving his phone back into his pocket, trying to stall for time.

"I'm not joking, Hockey-Head," Riley snarled, obviously having trouble keeping her anger in check. "It's a simple yes-or-no question. Did you or did you not give the others the idea of coming down to the studio?" She said each word carefully and putting a bite on them.

"No," Kendall shook his head, his blonde fringe covering his face. "But I did agree with the idea." Riley made a sound as she stomped her foot on the ground, running her hand over her face. "I mean, I know that you guys don't want us around-"

"It's not that we don't want you around," Riley interrupted swiftly. "It's that you guys are distracting and we can't have distractions while we're working." Her hands slowly started to shake at her sides. Wow, this is harder to say that I thought it was going to be. She thought to herself as she rolled her eyes. He apparently isn't getting the hint, so I'm just going to have to be blunt like usual. "And since our concert is coming up so soon and we have so much other stuff that we have to get ready for, it would probably be a good idea if you guys didn't…" She blew her hair off of her forehead with an annoyed huff as she tried to think of the word to say.

"If we didn't," Kendall waved a hand, urging her to continue. At her silence, he let out a short laugh. "It's not like you're telling us to stay away from you guys or something." Riley looked over at him, staying silent, and he started to laugh again, this time out of nervousness. "You're joking right?"

"We're just going to be busy for a while," Riley started to rub her left arm, her eyes darting around before she looked at her watch.

"For whatever reason," Kendall licked his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest. "And it may just be because I know you," he scratched his forehead. "But for whatever reason, I'm not buying it." He then looked down as Riley started to rub her arm faster and made a face. "Aren't you a little warm in that jacket?"

"I'm fine!" Riley snapped back. She looked at her watch and gave a one-armed shrug. "I have to go." She turned to walk away.

"Wait, wait, wait," Kendall grabbed onto her arm and turned her back around, briefly noticing her wince as he did so. His heart was starting to beat faster. She can't mean any of this, I can tell. Something's wrong, I've seen her irrational before, but this is crazy. "Can't we talk about this?"

"I have to go home," Riley pulled her arm out of his grasp, lightly pushing the sleeves to her jackets up her arms as she started to walk away, not looking over her shoulder. "I need to make dinner."

"It's only 3:30." Kendall started to walk after her, lengthening his stride so he could keep up with her.

"It's an early dinner." Riley replied shortly, swinging her arms faster.

"I-I could walk you back," Kendall offered.

Riley stopped walking again and turned to face him. Kendall's eyes narrowed when he saw two different emotions flash over her face before it went stoic; fear and annoyance. "It's too far for you to go both ways," She took one step and then looked at him again. "Leave me alone, Kendall."

She turned back and left the Palm Woods Park, dialing her cell as she went. "Hey, Pat, did you tell them?" She asked, after he picked up.

"Yeah," Patrick replied, sounding a little subdued. "Katie and Lizzie understood, something about wanting to be managers to bands, bands being busy." He paused. "But Jo, Camille, and Steph sounded sad. The other guys sounded confused too."

"Yeah, they'll get over it soon." Riley replied.

"Riles, what'd you do?"

"Nothing!"

"You didn't yell at him did you?"

Riley couldn't help but laugh a little. "You know how people always say that you should leave your baggage at the door?"

"Yeah?"

"I should really start listening to that."


"Look into the crystal ball." Gustavo Rocque said in a deep voice as he sat at his desk, moving his hands over a fishbowl that was sitting on his desk. He was staring intently into it, but had looked up, speaking to his semi-friend Ronan McGuire

"That's just a fishbowl you turned upside down." Ronan point out as he loosened his tie. He turned to Gustavo's assistant, Kelly Wainright, and winked at her, letting her know that he was purposefully trying to get on his nerves. Kelly just laughed and went back to her palm pilot as she shook her head at the two grown men's antics.

"But with a little magic, I turned it into a crystal ball!" Gustavo declared.

"It still looks like a fishbowl." Ronan replied.

Gustavo sighed loudly and lifted his head, glaring at the other man. "You know McGuire, you're a killjoy."

Ronan sighed, debating whether or not he should continue this idiotic conversation, but Robert Jackson, his boss and the man that they were waiting for, was late and he was bored. Common sense went out the window. "How am I a killjoy?" Ronan asked dryly.

"You kill my joy."

"Obviously."

Gustavo turned the fishbowl right side up and held it in his hands, a cracking sound emitting from the glass bowl. "Whenever I do something epically awesome and insanely fun-"

"It's only epically awesome and insanely fun in your head Gustavo. In reality it's really stupid." Kelly cut in and looked at her palm pilot. She slapped it against her thigh as she turned to Ronan. "When's Robert going to get here, we need to have this meeting soon or I'm going to be late to my hair appointment."

"He knows that this is an important meeting," Ronan replied as calmly as he could, despite the irritation he was feeling. "And why he called it in Gustavo's office, I don't know, but he wouldn't have made it if it wasn't something that we all needed to know about."

"If you say so," Gustavo grunted. "I give him ten minutes, and then I'm going on a rampage." It was common knowledge that while Rona and Gustavo annoyed each other Robert and Gustavo absolutely hated each other. But no one really knew why, the two men wouldn't talk about it, all anyone knew was that basically as soon as they met, they hated each other and were constantly trying to outdo each other.

It might have been their power in the companies that they worked at, while Robert was the manager of the DarkElements, Gustavo was only a music producer for BTR and (more often than not) treated unfairly by his boss and CEO of Rocque Records Arthur Griffin. It was probably the same reason why Ronan and Gustavo, somewhat, got along, the fact that they both worked under men that intimidated them.

"I wouldn't put it past you," Kelly reasoned, trying to keep her assistant as calm as possible, lest there be another earthquake in the state that caused a panic as well as the fact that she would have to deal with his sky-rocketed blood pressure levels.

"Sorry I'm late," Robert stated in his gruff voice as he walked into the office. The leather jacket he was wearing just caused him to look even more intimidating and impatient as he did before. He looked at his watch. "Well, we don't have much time left before my reservation, so I might as well get to the point." He turned to Gustavo. "We, as in the DarkElements, are no longer going to help or need help from BTR. Thanks." He gave a peace sign and turned on his heel.

"What?" Gustavo and Kelly shouted in unison.

"Wait," Ronan jumped after Robert and grabbed onto his arm. "Wait, wait, wait, you're just going to stop something that's been working for Big Time Rush's first CD as well as the rise in popularity that you're band is getting?"

"They were fine on their own before and they're going to be fine now," Robert replied calmly, pushing Ronan's hand off of his arm. He turned and stared Ronan down, his grey eyes boring into Ronan's green ones with such intensity that Ronan had to look away. "My kids are getting distracted and I've had to deal with them more than I want to for the past couple of days and I know that it's because of the boys." He then raised his voice and looked at Gustavo and Kelly. "The three of us can still work together, but I don't want my kids to have any contact with your 'dogs'." He used air quotes. "For a while. They just need to focus all of their attention on their own thing instead of helping you all the time."

"Wait, you just can't-"Kelly immediately clammed up as Robert turned his cool gaze to her.

"Griffin agrees with me," Robert interrupted and then his lips curled into a sinister smile. "So if you have any problems, you should just ask him." He lifted the collar on his leather jacket. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be."

Gustavo, Ronan, and Kelly watched in stunned silence as Robert walked out of the office with heavy footsteps echoing down the hallway.

"Meany, Jerk-face, butt-head!" Gustavo shouted after a few moment of silence, causing Kelly and Ronan to jump.

Kelly turned and gave Gustavo the stink-eye, her palm pilot in her hand, small cracking sounds emitting from the machine that was now in danger of being thrown out the window or crushed in her fist. "Really? I figured you'd just say that he was a kill-joy." She tossed at him, sarcastically.

"That's what I was going to say," Ronan spoke up. "But I'm thinking something that's a lot less nice." He leaned over as he still listened. "But I'm still afraid of shouting it, just in case he can still hear me, and he's so scary, I wouldn't put it past him."

"So why do you put up with him?" Kelly asked, bringing up the same thing that many people asked him when they saw how Robert treated him.

"I get asked that question a lot Kelly," Ronan replied as he rubbed his forehead. "And I always give the same answer," He turned to Kelly and Gustavo. "I'm not sure." He looked away from the two of them. But I am sure that the real reason why, I can't tell you, or Riley and Rhuben will kill me…as long as Robert doesn't kill them first.


"So do you believe that Patrick and Noah don't want us hanging around anymore?" Lizzie asked as she took a bowl of popcorn and walked over to her bed, flopping down on it, jostling Katie in the process. She handed Katie the bowl.

"They said that they're busy," Katie replied with a shrug before digging her hand into the bowl and bringing out a handful of the junk food. "I believe it," she stuck a piece in her mouth. "I mean, Kendall and the guys are busy all the time because of their music, but Pat, No and them, they're famous back in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, they have a lot of stuff to do."

"I think you're missing the big picture here, Kates," Lizzie stated as she stared hard at her friend. "They're hiding something."

"They're guys," Katie pointed out with a small eye roll. "They can't hide much that we girls can't figure out just by looking at them." She stuck another piece of popcorn into her mouth and looked thoughtful. "Well, that's not really true; ever since I met them they've always seemed to have this other life that I don't know about."

"Uh, that's kind of the point girlfriend," Lizzie rolled off of her bed and walked over to her closet, pulling open the door. "Even though we're best friends we don't tell each other everything, for example," she reached into the closet and pulled out a purple tank-top. "I didn't tell you that I took your shirt." She tossed it over to Katie, who stared at her in bewilderment. Lizzie laughed as she turned back to her friend. "I also haven't told you that sometimes I wish I wasn't at the dance academy." She shrugged. "Then again, I haven't told Dak or mom or dad that either."

"So why tell me?" Katie asked, bunching up her shirt and lightly tossing it aside.

"Duh," Lizzie jumped onto her bed again. "Because you're my best friend."

"Oh really," Katie chuckled to herself, making herself comfortable as she leaned back against the headboard of Lizzie's bed. "What else haven't you told me, best friend?"

"Hmmm," Lizzie tapped her chin as she thought about it. "Well, I haven't told you that I've gone on a semi-date with Patrick and Noah last week." She said as she pulled out her phone and started to look through it, missing Katie's expression of shock, jealousy, and hurt. "We didn't really do much, Patrick and I just hung out at the park one day and Noah and I hung out at the beach another day." She flipped her brown hair out of her eyes. "I don't really know which one I like better though."

"Uh-huh," Katie replied, running her tongue along her teeth, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Lizzie noticed the odd tension in the air and then looked up at Katie with wide eyes. "That doesn't bother you does it? I mean," she sat up, moving the popcorn bowl to the floor. "I know that the two of them are your best friends and everything."

"Nah," Katie shook her head. "It doesn't bother me at all."

"Really?" Lizzie asked to make sure.

"Really," Katie tried to sound convincing. "Its fine, I don't mind."

Lizzie eyed Katie carefully. "You're not still hung up on my brother are you?" She asked. "I mean, it's cool if you are," she rolled her eyes. "I'm used to almost every girls falling all over him," she put a hand beside her mouth. "But between you and me, he doesn't look at any of them the same way that he looks at Rhuben. I swear he'd even jump in front of a bus for her."

"No," Katie shook her head so fast that her ponytail hit her in the face. "No, I don't still like Dak." She wrinkled her nose. "That's gross anyway, me and the best-friend's brother."

"You weren't so grossed out by it before we met." Lizzie reminded her.

"But it's like you said," Katie defended herself. "That was before we met." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, you don't want Logan to hear you say that, he's so protective and defensive towards Riley and Rhuben, it's like he's their brother rather than best friend."

"Cool beans," Lizzie popped to her feet and started to jump up and down. "So what do you want to do besides gorge on popcorn and other fattening food?" She gasped loudly and then on the next jump, dropped to her knees. "I know, let's do each other's nails and then go play soccer on the beach."

Katie couldn't help but tilt her head back and laugh out loud at her friend. "How can you like being clean one minute and want to roll around the mud the next?"

"That's what you get for being best friends with a girl who is girly and can be a tomboy." Lizzie replied with a wink. "Best part is that the guys can't resist it."

Katie slowly nodded in reply. I guess so.


A/N: And there you go, a longer chapter and the drama has started. I hope that you guys liked it and I will update again soon. I finally got my idea for Katie and I've shown a little bit about it in this chapter. The part that I wrote between Ronan and Gustavo cracked me up as well as the part with Robert creeped me out. Now, the only thing I'm having a lot of trouble with is deciding on Lella, Della, or Jella as a pairing for this story, because in any case we have done all three pairs, I just don't know which one to stick with for this one, so your guys' feedback will be helpful.

Alright, so I wanted to get the main point of the story started, and now the next chapters will have to do more with the others and the other pairs for this story. In the next chapter, you still see more of everyone else as well as the Carphanie pairing and the pairing that you guys want Rhuben with. (If you guys can't help me decide, then I'll ultimately pick one).

Cheers,

-Riles

kileysuperfan - I'm still trying to decide whether or not to keep it as a PatKatNo love-triangle or which boy to ultimately make Katie end up with. But if there are any ideas you want us to write for another Kiley story, either e-mail then to us or let us know and we'll keep a note of it