.:Chapter Ten:.

"Jo, we're going to brunch, not the front row of New York Fashion Week," Stephanie said as she kicked her long legs back and forth as they hung over the side of the bed. She watched as Jo changed out of a light sundress and into a pair of capris and a nice looking blouse.

"I just want to look good," Jo defended herself, turning back to the mirror and lightly tugging at her blouse to be sure it fell into place.

Stephanie and Camille exchanged a glance and Camille chuckled as she flipped her hair over her shoulders. "Yeah, you're not dating Kendall anymore, who do you need to impress?"

Rhuben, who was sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the room, smirked. "She's been spending wayyy too much time with James. Now all she cares about is how she looks at every given moment." She crossed her leg at the knee. "Why do you think she insisted on going to the mall before we left?"

"Uh, because there were about a hundred sales going on," Camille replied. "We couldn't pass that up."

"And yet, Jo managed to buy practically everything and still can't find anything to wear," Riley said. She was sitting at the head of the bed with Stephanie, slouched down, legs crossed at the knee. "God forbid there's a sudden shortage of cotton in the world." She laughed as the dress that Jo had on before was thrown onto her head.

Stephanie fell into laughter along with Camille and Rhuben before she let out a quiet sigh, bringing her knees up to her chest. "I'm starting to think that might not've been a good idea to come out here," she said. Jo's eyebrows rose. "I'm not saying that the hotel isn't nice, because it's cool. I just think…having Mr. Knight pay for everything is really weird. And not only that, but it's kind of awkward, watching him, Kendall, Katie, and Mrs. Knight try to work things out with all of us here."

"I get what you mean," Camille agreed. "I don't mind being able to see a place as fancy as this…but it's definitely not the way to go when it comes to getting back in the good graces with his family." She peered at the African-American girl. "That's not the only thing you're worried about though, is it?"

Stephanie shrugged.

With a sigh, Riley reached out and put her arm around her taller friend's shoulders. "Alright, Steph, what's going on?"

"It's just something Carlos said to me," Stephanie said. She then explained Carlos's worries about the guys not being friends anymore after they finished up their summer tour and went their separate ways. "Most of the time I would say that he was being a bit sensitive about the whole thing, but what if he's right?" Jo, Camille, Riley, and Rhuben all made noises of surprise and outrage. "No, think about it! After the guys are done with their stuff, what's keeping all of us together? Kendall's going back to Minnesota, James is going solo, Logan is going to study to become a doctor, Carlos is going to do…whatever,"—she waved a hand—"It's like…we're all graduating high school."

"Steph, we have graduated from high school," Jo pointed out.

"And we're all going our separate ways into whatever our version of 'college' is." Stephanie used air quotes around the words. "Soon enough time is going to go buy and everyone's going to be so busy that we won't stay in contact anymore."

"That's not going to happen," Rhuben insisted, shaking her head. "We've all been through too much to even think of it." Tilting her head to the side, she regarded Stephanie with a raised eyebrow. "Though, you do have a point."

"Rhu!" Jo protested.

Rhuben held up her hand. "I just mean that she had a point that we're all going on to do our separate things now. I mean, you and Camille are actresses, it's only a matter of time until you get a massive movie and go on to win Oscars and forget about us little people." She pretended to wipe away a tear and collapsed into laughter when Camille grabbed a pillow off the bed and whipped it at her.

"Don't worry about it, Steph," Riley said. "If we know the guys as well as we do, they'll do their best to make sure no one is left behind. Even if we go to different places, Christmas isn't going to be same without all of us together."

"I guess you're right." Stephanie picked up her video camera from the bedside table. "Besides, considering how much I've already gotten on tape,"—she swung the view finder over to Jo—"we can always watch this later and remember how long it took for Jo to get dressed for a stupid brunch."

"OK! OK! I get the point," Jo said. She finally turned from the mirror and stepped into her shoes before placing her hands on her hips. "Let's go before you guys keep making fun of me and I'll have to use my judo skills on you."

"I'm shaking in my boots," Riley said sarcastically. "A little blonde girl is going to kick my ass." She let out a shriek of surprise as the blonde girl reached out and lifted her up into her arms. "You better not body slam me. I've gotten enough of that from my brothers to last a lifetime."

"Don't mess with me and I won't."

Stephanie rolled off of the bed and followed her friends out of the room, Jo still carrying Riley as they went. She laughed along with them as she accidentally banged Riley's feet into the side of the elevator as the doors opened. And as much as she tried not to focus on the impending future hey wre all going to face as the summer tour got closer, Stephanie wondered if it really was her and Carlos that were the only ones that were scared about losing their friends.

Because no matter how hard they all tried to fight it, changing friendships were inevitable.

"Katie, don't you think we should get going? We're going to miss brunch."

"No, thank you."

Katie ignored Lizzie's harsh stare into the side of her head as she stood up and walked over to the next tide pool, bending over to look into it. In front of her, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney were kneeling over another tide pool, watching as crabs scuttled back and forth through the water. "I'm not hungry anyway."

"You mean you don't want to see your Dad," Patrick contradicted his girlfriend. He sat back, brushing sand off his knees.

Katie scowled at him. "Don't you have a wave to go surf or something?" With that, she smoothed down the back of her shorts and sat down on a rock, stretching out her legs. She glanced at the purple nail polish that was starting to chip off. She was going to have to get them redone. Dad's paying for everything, why don't you just have him pay for this too? She crossed her arms, looking out at the water. It was still pretty early in the morning, about ten or so, but there were still those that dotted the water, taking on as many waves as they could, even though it was still relatively flat.

"If I wanted to, I wouldn't be here right now," Patrick replied. He didn't seem to mind the sudden hostility in her tone. Nudging his brothers, he stood up and dusted sand off of his hands before the three went over to join the two girls.

"Katie, if you didn't want to see him, then why did you come on this trip?" Noah asked gently, sitting on Lizzie's other side. He leaned forward, encircling his legs with his arms. Katie's scowl deepened. "I'm not attacking you, Kates, I'm just asking."

And still Katie wasn't even really sure why she decided to go. There was nothing but hesitation on her part when the plane had lifted off the runway and was in the air. She wanted to find some sort of excuse to turn around and go back to the apartment and continue packing so she could move out and get it all over with. Her brother was leaving, the guys were leaving, why did everything have to change all at once? Things were just fine when they would go to see her father every now and then when he wasn't too busy working on some sort of case. Things weren't awkward then, they went somewhere, hung out, talked a little, slowly worked out their relationship. But noooo, he just had to go and push his luck.

Now every piece of planning that she, Kendall, and the Jacksons did to try and put her mother and Ronan back together wasn't working. Not even stealing the necklace that Ronan was going to give her for her birthday and leaving it for her outside of the room had worked. Ronan easily took the blame for it, acting like he knew he had given it to her and still left as she was going to dinner with Kevin. It wasn't until earlier that morning, as Patrick, Noah, and Sydney explained it, that he had confronted his kids about it, demanding that they stay out of his business, no matter how hard they were trying to help him.

Of course that wasn't going to stop them. But they understood his worries.

"It's because she's trying to overcompensate for the relationship that she didn't have with him before," Sydney said before Katie could reply. He dropped his magnifying glass to the sand and shrugged when all eyes turned to him. "Think of it this way, who has Kevin been spending most of his attention on? Kendall. Who is the one that he's trying his hardest to get into the good graces of? Kendall. And Katie's starting to feel left out because it's like he can't seem to find anything that will incorporate her into his world as well."

Why does he have to be so smart? Katie scowled and got to her feet again, leaping off of the rock and stomping away from the group. She could hear Sydney's bewildered cry of "what did I say?" behind her as she continued up the beach. Better yet, why do I have to be so easy to read? She could feel her frustration start to swirl within her again. This was a vacation that she dreamed she could go on. As much as she hated the beach and the sand, she knew how many celebrities and entertainers liked to go to the resort to get some time to themselves and away from their fans. She would've been able to get a jump start on her career as a talent manager after that brief stint with Russell Brand. She needed more contacts and the Atlantis resort would've been perfect.

But no.

Everything had to be ruined.

"Katie! Stop!" Glancing behind her, Katie could see Patrick jogging towards her, coming to a stop, slightly out of breath, next to her. "You know he didn't mean to make you mad. Syd's just like a faucet sometimes, as soon as he figures out something, he has to tell everyone."

"It's not that," Katie grumbled, kicking up sand as she kept going. "It was that he was right."

"About?" Reaching out, he grabbed onto Katie's arm and jerked her to a stop. "Seriously, if you keep running hot like that, I'm sure you're going to leave diamonds in your wake." He gave her his famous lopsided smile. "Though knowing you, you'd use it to harvest and charge a fortune in re-selling."

Katie giggled lightly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Actually, the money would be in turning it into jewelry as opposed to the resale. Especially the percentages I'd get from that because it's almost time for holidays."

Patrick rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Katie. I'm sure you can draw up some sort of legal plan for it within the next few minutes but that's not my point." He moved his hand from her arm down to hers, lacing his fingers together with hers. In moments like that she normally would've turned a bright red or smiled lie a loon, always enjoying being able to hold her boyfriend's hand. But now it actually make her want to cry. It was comforting in a way that made her realize how badly things were going for her.

"So what is your point?" She asked.

Patrick looked confused for a moment then looked down at his feet before scratching the back of his head with his free hand. "Actually, I don't remember what it is now."

Katie giggled again. He always made her laugh even when she didn't want to. "Thanks, but that didn't make me feel better," she said. The two stood in silence for a while then Katie took a deep breath. "Pat…when you look at my Dad, what do you see?"

"A guy that's just as upset about money as you are," Patrick said almost immediately.

Well, I guess that's something I have in common with him. Though he's more likely to spend it than I am, Katie thought. "No, I mean. When it comes to looking at him, what do you see?" Patrick shifted his feet as he thought about it. "Kendall, right?" He shrugged. "Do you see anything about him in me? His eyes or his smile or something?"

Patrick blinked. "Is that what you're worried about?"

Dropping his hand from hers, Katie turned away from him. He was a good listener and very perceptive, and could be very understanding. But this was one thing he couldn't understand. "Why doesn't he want to have a relationship with me too? Does he even notice that I'm not at brunch? The only time he really wants to spend time with me is when Kendall's around. It's like he doesn't like me or something. So why should I bother to put in the time if he's not going to try and do it for me?"

"He cares, Katie, just…not in the way you think," Patrick said gently, following after her once more.

"Well that makes me feel a whole lot better," Katie grumbled. There was a sudden gust of wind that blew sand into Katie's face. "Gah! I hate the beach! Why did he have to come here?!" She frantically tried to wipe the grains of sand away from her eyes as they teared up. Patrick stepped up in front of her and used the bottom of his shirt to brush the sand from her eyes. "Thanks," she grumbled. She wished she could tell him why she was so upset by everything. That she was as afraid for Kendall and her mother as she was for her own relationship with her father. That, realistically, it probably wouldn't take long for Kevin to revert back to the way he had been before.

But she couldn't.

Not when Kendall made her promise not to and not when it would shake things up to the point where it might ruin everything between everyone before they all went their separate ways.

"Honestly, I think you're going to regret it if you don't go to brunch," Patrick said, lowering his shirt. He moved his hands up to cup her cheeks. "You want to have a relationship with your father, but if you don't make an effort, or at least don't try and meet him half way, then it's not going to happen."

Katie gave him a wry smile. "You just want to eat," she accused him.

Patrick grinned. "What do you expect? I was woken up early this morning by you and skipped breakfast. Unless you want to see me turn into some sort of monster, you'd give me something to eat."

"I don't know, you without your hair gel is pretty scary. I'd hate to see how much worse you can get." Her eyes moved over the shoulder length black hair that dusted his shoulders, moving into his face when the wind blew again. She let out a sigh. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better, Pat. But…I don't know, with him…I don't think it's possible."

"Or that you're dwelling too much on the past."

Katie gave him a funny look.

"I know, I know, coming from me, that's like, a slap in the face," Patrick said. He paused. "But think of it this way, the last time he saw you, you were three or so, right?" She nodded. "So he only remembers you as a three year old. He doesn't know you as the girl you are now. So let him see that." Katie nodded and Patrick leaned in, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Now, can we get some food, please?"

"Fine." Katie laughed. "We wouldn't want you to pass out." Patrick beamed and let out a cheer causing Katie to laugh for real this time. He then put his arm around her shoulders and the two started to walk back over to their friends, who were waiting for them.

Katie thought about what he said. Let her father see the girl that she had turned out to be, not the girl he remembered.

Easy for him to say, she thought. He doesn't know the whole story. "Shouldn't Julius and Brittany be here by now?" She asked, speaking of his eldest sibling and his wife.

"Yes ,actually," Patrick replied, glancing at his watch. He had to pull Katie closer to him to see the face and she was sure he had done it on purpose, which made her blush. "I think their plane got in last night, or early this morning depending on how you want to look at it."

"How's marriage life going for them?" She pressed.

"So good that it's actually disgusting. We're all really happy for them." His voice was lighthearted and held excitement, the same way it always was when he got to see his big brother, but his eyes didn't hold the same light. "Lucky him."

What does that mean? Katie wondered, but didn't ask.

There was already enough drama starting to brew, she didn't want to add to it.

A/N: Ronan's POV has been moved to the next chapter. You're going to see more of the other characters (Sydney, Noah, Julius, Brittany, Lizzie, Gustavo, Kelly, Dak, and WayneWayne) as the story goes on. I just wanted to get a few things out of the way first.

Cheers,

-Riles