.:Chapter 10:.

Katie hugged her pillow to her chest, smiling to herself as she watched Kendall try to straighten himself on the camera he was holding. Or else he was working through de-tangling his headphones and shouting at the other guys to be quiet. Not that the humming of the bus in the background wasn't enough noise as it was.

"Are you okay?" Katie asked, when he finally got settled.

Kendall glanced at her and shook his head. "I'm tired, but I'm okay," he replied honestly. Then he coughed, bringing his arm up to cover his mouth. "I didn't think it'd be so hard to do so many radio shows. All you're doing is talking."

"You've done them before," Katie pointed out. However, she couldn't help but study her brother closely. He really did look tired. Too much partying on a tour bus, she suspected. There was much to be said about the way people acted when they were away from parental supervision and even Gustavo couldn't control them.

"Yeah, but that was one or two a day. Not every single radio station in every city you stop in."

Katie grinned. "Why not just have James do them all then?" She teased. "We all know he likes to talk about himself anyway."

Kendall laughed. "We did," he replied, voice suddenly croaking. "Now he's the only one who can't talk at all. Logan, Carlos, and I are a little raspy, but James can't speak!"

Katie laughed loudly. The idea of James not being able to talk was the biggest case of irony she'd ever heard. James Diamond loved to talk, especially about himself, especially about the band, especially about himself in the band. "That's, like, the best thing ever!"

"I know." Kendall laughed again, this time with Katie falling into the laughter with him. Their voices blended as if they were in the same room. Suddenly, Katie felt a pang of sadness in her chest, missing her brother more than she ever had before. "I guess I'm feeling okay, otherwise. My throat kind of hurts."

"Don't let mom hear you say that, then you'll be stuck with her constantly trying to figure out where you are and how sick you feel?" Katie wagged her finger back and forth. "She'll go to the ends of the earth to mama bear you when someone's sick. You especially." She grinned. "She'll probably end up at your next stop before you know it."

"But you're there now, she can put her attention on you," Kendall said with a roll of his eyes. "And you know she'd never leave you there by yourself. But nice try."

It was then Katie's turn to roll her eyes. "Oh come on, you're her baby boy. You know she only babies me when you're not around."

"You've never needed to be babied in your life. You knocked out Carlos when you were three!"

"I told him to leave me alone!" Katie defended herself, feeling her voice crack with the sudden shrill turn it took. "I didn't want to be play Barbies."

"You know how Carlos is, he loves Barbies."

"Are we sure he hasn't been hit one too many times in the head? I know his helmet was made for his own protection but…I don't think it's working anymore."

"I don't know, that's Stephanie's problem now, not mine."

Kendall smiled when Katie laughed once more. It made her realize, though, that she hadn't spoken to any of the girls in a little while. Hadn't talked to Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Riley, or Rhuben. With that realization, she couldn't help but frown. Was she not talking to them much because her brother and his friends were gone, and they weren't really friends? Were they just that busy with their own careers? Or was she just too busy with…other things?

"Are you okay, Baby Sister?" She should've known he would've noticed something was wrong with her. He was a good big brother in that way. But she didn't always like to talk to him about those things. Especially when he was insistent on helping her. "What's going on over there?"

"Not much…" Katie shrugged. There really wasn't much going on. She had gotten her first script for her show so she could get an idea of what her show was like. She was hanging out with her boyfriend and her friends. She was hanging out with her mom. She was talking to Regular. She was just being a teenage girl. What else was she supposed to be doing?

"Oh, come on. You've got a role on one of the biggest shows on TV and you're acting like nothing's happening," Kendall said with a roll of his eyes. "Riles was telling me about it." Katie smiled. "How come you didn't tell me anything?"

Katie shrugged. "I don't know." She didn't, honestly. There was more than enough reason for her to tell her brother, it was kinda cool. But things like that had never really interested her, had never really made her get to the point of freaking out like most other girls would have. She remembered hanging out with her friends at home, where one of them would get something they wanted, she would show as much enthusiasm as she could to be supportive but…could never get that enthusiastic.

It was just a TV show.

Just like her brother was just in a band…but that part really was cool.

"It's just not a big deal," she finally replied, knowing Kendall was waiting for a response. "There are still a lot of things that we need to figure out before I even start shooting. And that's not for another couple of weeks."

"But it's exciting." Kendall scrubbed his hands over his face, appearing more tired as the seconds passed. "You can't act like you don't care!"

"It's just…it's not something that I really freak out about, you know? My brother being in a successful band? That's exciting. My mom wanting to start her own business? That's exciting. Moving up in the ranks of being a world poker player? That's exciting."

Katie grinned as Kendall laughed. He tilted his head back to rest against the back of the couch, folding his arms over his chest. Katie could see his eyes starting to flutter. She smiled softly. Poor Kendall, he loved the band so much, wanted things to work out so badly, he didn't know when to quit. As she watched, he slowly fell asleep, his snores coming through the speakers.

Reaching up her hand, Katie pulled the lid to her laptop closed and set her computer aside. Patrick looked up from where he sat next to her, face buried in his phone. "Everything going okay with them?"

"They haven't blown up the bus yet, if that's what you're wondering," Katie teased.

Patrick grinned back. "We only did that one. And besides, Ronan made us promise not to teach the guys how to do that so…" He trailed off when Katie gave him an indignant look. "Sorry, Kates, you're not getting that out of us, yeah?"

"What's the point of having a schemer as a boyfriend if he's not going to teach me anything?" Katie protested. She squeaked in surprise when he leaned in and gave her a peck on the lips. Then he reached up and grasped her cheek, pressing his thumb into the corner of her mouth, making her open her mouth so that he could wiggle his tongue inside on their next kiss. Katie's cheeks burned when he pulled back but she smiled widely.

"I can teach you that," he teased. Then he shrugged and backed away, saying, "But your mum would kill me if I tried."

"She wouldn't kill you," Katie said, pretending to think. She bobbed her head back and forth. "Pull you out by the ear maybe, but not kill you. At least Kendall's not here, you don't have to worry about him." She laughed when he rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, I wouldn't let him hurt you."

"No, you'd set up a fight and sell tickets for people to watch the show." Patrick rolled his eyes and started to move off the bed. Katie frowned, watching him. He had to go to work again. Not that she had any room to talk, once she started work on the show, she was going to be as busy as he was. May as well spend as much time together as we can, I don't want to fight again. Then Patrick stopped and pointed his chin toward her side. "Your phone's lighting up."

"Oh." Katie twisted around and picked up her phone. She knew she had messages from Regular without even having to look. She left her phone on silent so she and Patrick could hang out, but seeing how many notifications slid across her screen made her stomach squirm.

Regular: Are you there?

Regular: Hello?

Regular: I can see you're online

Regular: You haven't messaged me in days but when I need you you're not here

Regular: I've always been there for you

Regular: ?

She'd never seen Regular get so upset before. They'd always gotten along. What did she do wrong? No, they hadn't messaged each other recently, they'd both been busy. She'd told him that after they talked about how excited she was to get the part on the show. How excited he was that she got the part. Then a few days went in-between where they didn't talk. But to get that upset?

Katie quickly responded.

Katie: I'm here, what's going on?

Regular: Sure, now you care

Katie: *Rolls eyes* Don't be weird, dude

Regular: Now I'm weird? I'm just trying to talk to you, Katie and you've been blowing me off.

Katie: I haven't been blowing you off. I've been busy.

Regular: Uh-huh

Regular: Are you with your boyfriend?

Katie felt herself bristle, felt her cheeks enflame with annoyance. Now he was bringing Patrick into it when he already knew there was a good chance she was hanging out with him or Lizzie. Or even with her dad, as the times had recently shown.

Regular: You are, aren't you? Are you turning into one of those girls? Where you have to be around your boyfriend all the time? Where you can't be by yourself and you find your self-worth through how much you follow him around? I thought you were different than that.

Katie: I am different! I don't follow him around!

Regular: So what are you doing?

Katie paused for a fraction of a second.

Katie: I'm by myself

Regular: Really?

Katie: Really!

Regular: Liar, he's with you at the PalmWoods!

Katie swallowed hard, feeling her heart start to hammer harder and harder in her chest as the seconds passed. She tightened her grasp on her phone. How would he have known that they were both at the PalmWoods? How would he know they were together.

Regular: He's always with you at the PalmWoods

Katie: So? All our friends are here! And, again, he's my boyfriend.

Regular: He's a shitty boyfriend if he got mad at you talking to me. I'd be a better one for you, I wouldn't stop talking to you just because you were talking to someone else and tell you to stop talking to me.

Katie: He didn't tell me to stop talking to you. I've been busy

Regular: Doing what?

Katie: Stuff

Regular: Stuff like what?

Katie: Hanging out with my friends, talking to my mom, talking to my brother, going out with my boyfriend

Regular: So he's more important to you than me? Boyfriends shouldn't be more important than friends

Katie: Are you jealous?

Regular: Yes! You basically admitted you admit that you settle for me! I've been having so bad times lately, I've been sick and my mom and I have been fighting and you don't even care!

Katie: *rolls eyes* Poor baby

Regular: Are you making fun of me?

Katie: Yes

Regular: I could've used a nurse

Katie: In your dreams!

Regular: How'd you know?

Regular: What did you do with him? Your boyfriend?

Katie: Hang out

Regular: I mean, what did you do? Did you hug?

Katie: Yes

Regular: Did you kiss?

Katie hesitated for only a minute. It wasn't his business at all. But she was starting to become annoyed by how much he was pressing into her personal life. Like he had some sort of claim he was staking on her. And, it was sort of nice to know she was pissing him off so much when he was the one who had been driving her crazy lately.

Katie: Yes

Regular: Did he feel your tits?

Regular: Did he fuck you?

Katie turned off her phone and set it aside, letting out a loud huff. She knew she looked like her brother then, with her lower jaw jutting out and hazel eyes flashing. It seemed to be a Knight trait, she saw it in her mom, saw it in her dad, saw it in her brother. Could tell Patrick could see it in her for he immediately looked concerned.

"What? What's wrong?"

So Katie let out a low breath and explained to Patrick what'd been going on with Regular…but didn't tell him everything. He didn't need to know about the most recent messages, didn't need to freak out anymore than she knew he would. Just told him how Regular was starting to act mean.

Patrick lifted an eyebrow. "And you like talking to this bloke?"

"I did. Before he started to…I don't know, act weird. Before he started to demand my time."

"Katie, he's acting like he's your boyfriend."

"No, he's just mad that I haven't been there for him." Katie shook her head as quickly as she could, tried to deflect the guilt that settled in her gut. It said it right there...in the message she wouldn't show him. "He's a good friend of mine."

"Someone on the internet is a good friend of yours?" Patrick snorted. "He's not your friend, he's your fan. You don't know these people, you can be friendly, but unless you meet they're not actually part of your life." He shook his head. "Do you not remember the media training Kendall and the guys went through? This was a big part of it. You can be friendly but you shouldn't give all of yourself to people online, they'll take it and run with it and…" he trailed off. "I just want you to be safe."

"I am being safe! I'm not telling him things that people don't already know about me. He's just becoming demanding."

"Fans can do that." He shrugged. "And it's not fair. But you can't feed into that, Katie. It's not a real relationship, you have to keep yourself at a good degree of separation, yeah?"

"Yeah," Katie agreed.

She was starting to figure that out.

A/N: Chapters will get longer as the story comes to a close and starts to wind down. Thank you guys for sticking around with this one. I know it's been a while since I updated, but thank you all for being so patient with me! :)

Cheers,

-Riles