Chapter 9
"Are you ready? This is the first time in like, ever, that there is a party at the Palmwoods. We have to get there before Bitters catches it." Justine said as she walked into June's room. June sighed.
"Almost. Just let me put on lipstick." June said. She picked up a bright red lipstick that matched her strapless dress that flared out after the waist and went down to a little longer than her mid thigh. She had red flats that matched. Her hair was in a pony tail and curled. June turned to Justine. She was wearing a brown, halter top dress that was green from the waist down. She had her blonde hair curled in her iconic loose ringlets.
"Okay let's go, and it's not like it's a far walk. The boys live down the hall." June said. The two girls walked the couple of door down the hall. The knocked on the door. Carlos and James answered, dressed in matching zebra stripped jackets. Both their jaw dropped.
"Hey guys, this where the party's at?" June said. The boys stared for a couple more seconds and then quickly closed their mouths.
"Yeah! Come in!" Carlos said. June and Justine walked past they guys, but James held June back.
"Hey, you look amazing." James said. June smiled.
"Thanks, I know." June said. She smiled and turned around and went back to her sister. They started to dance and mingle with the other guests, while James just stared. Finally Kendall came up.
"Dude. Why are they're so many people? 3 people each, remember?" Kendall said. Carlos and James looked at each other.
"I only invited 3." James said. They turned to Carlos. Who looked down.
"I couldn't pick so I did my first 3 contacts. Al Contact and-"
"Carlos that's all contacts!" Logan said. Carlos looked back at his phone.
"Oops." Carlos said guiltily. The party was getting bigger and bigger.
"What if Bitter's shows up? He'll know something's going on! And I'm supposed to be talking to Jo!" Kendall complained.
"And Mercedes and Camille are both here and they both are all over me!" Logan complained. Carlos and James looked at him.
"Dude that's not a problem. That's a gift. You have 2 hot girls after you. Go live it up." James said. Logan thought about it for a minute and then turned back to the guys. "Bye!" And he was off.
"What are we going to do about Bitters?" Kendall asked.
"June. He loves June. Go get her to help you get Bitters away and then come back to Jo." Carlos said. Kendall thought about it and nodded and left to find June and Jo.
"Now let's go party!" Carlos and James yelled.
-BREAK-
June had walked around and saw Jo sitting alone on a couch in a roped off area. She walked over and undid the rope.
"Hey Jo. Why are you alone over here?" June asked.
"Hey June! Kendall was with me, but now he's gone. He told me to wait here." Jo said.
"Oh, well I heard him and the other guys arguing so it was probably that. This is pretty fancy. Kendall must want to impress you." June said and nudged Jo with her elbow. Jo laughed.
"Yeah I guess so. He's so nice and everything. I really like him." Jo said. June leaned over and hugged her.
"Aww I'm so happy for you. He really likes you to." June said. Jo smiled and hugged back.
"Well you'll never guess what happened to me the other day." June said when they broke apart. "Dak Zevon asked me out." Jo's eyes widened.
"Teen idol singer Dak Zevon?" Jo asked. June nodded excitedly. "Oh my gosh."
"I know right! Can you believe it? Right after he asked me out, I was about to answer when James came up and put his arm around me and said that I was busy." June said. Jo's mouth dropped.
"Oh my gosh!" Jo said. June nodded.
"Then I said that I would go out with him. When Dak left, I yelled at James and he said that he knew that he screwed up and that he still cared about me, whether I want to believe him or now." June said. Jo gasped.
"What did you say?" Jo asked.
"I just stared at him. I didn't know what to say. After a minute I just said bye and left." June said. Jo shook her head.
"You should have said something!" Jo said.
"What was I supposed to say? I just accepted a date with Dak. I don't want to date James." June exclaimed.
"Do you still like James?" Jo asked curiously. June looked down.
"Yeah. He was my first love and we grew up together. I think that I'll always love him. I just love the old James, before he cheated." June said. She looked back up. "Don't you dare tell Kendall or you will never have a job in this town."
"Of course!" Jo nodded quickly. June looked back down.
"Hey girls!" Kendall said as he walked up.
"Hey Kendall." Jo and June said in unison.
"So what are you talking about?" June sent Jo a death glare.
"Uh… you." Jo said, but it sounded more like a question. Kendall's eyes widened.
"What did you say?" Kendall asked. Jo and June glanced at each other. June answered.
"Oh calm down, nothing bad. I guess you two want to be alone, so I'll leave now." June said. She got up and started to walked away when Kendall grabbed her arm.
"Wait. I need you." Kendall said. Jo and June both looked at him in shock. "I need your help."
"With what?" June asked suspiciously. Kendall did a quick wave at Jo and then dragged June into the hall.
"What do you need? I wanna party." June asked and stomped her foot. Kendall rolled his eyes.
"Bitters can not find out about this party or we have to leave the Palmwoods. I need your help to stop him." Kendall said. June pouted.
"Why me? Why can't you have Jo or one of the guys help you?" June asked.
"Because you're the only person that Bitters likes and if you can distract him, then we can get him out of the way for the night." Kendall said. "Please." He said and put his hands in a prayer position. June sighed.
"You're lucky I like you boys." June said. Kendall hugged her.
"Thank you June." Kendall said.
"Yeah, yeah. Just tell me what to do." June said.
"Ok, we are going to go down to the front desk. You're going to see if Bitters knows about the party and we'll regroup and go from there." Kendall said. June nodded and they headed down to the lobby.
"So James was pretty angry about Dak." Kendall said. June sighed.
"I know." June said, feeling awkward talking about to James' best friend.
"You know he really likes you." Kendall continued. June looked down.
"Yeah I know." June said quietly.
"Do you like him?" Kendall asked. June stopped and turned to him.
"Did James put you up to this? Because if he did, I'm not answering anything else." June said. Kendall shook his head.
"No he didn't. He's just been kind of down lately and I want him to be happy. He's my best friend. He thinks you hate him." Kendall said. June started walking again and looked down.
"I don't hate him." June said softly. "Far from it." She said even softer, hoping Kendall didn't hear.
"Then why don't you give him a chance?" Kendall asked. June didn't know if he heard the last part or not. He did.
"Because I don't want to be heart broken again Kendall. It took me a long time to get over it. I can't go through that again. You know how he flirts with girls all the time. Last week he was flirting with Jo. And, you guys may be good, but who knows if you're going to stay here. And if you do, whose says he wants me? This is Hollywood. New people come by all the time. Why would he want to stay with someone he knew his whole life?" June said. Kendall looked at her in shock.
"June, you know he really-"
"Cares. I know. He cares now. He cares when other guys are going after me. Not when he's going after other girls." June cut him off.
"June, you know that's not true." Kendall said. June just shook her head.
"Just drop it Kendall. I don't want to talk about it. James and I are never ever getting back together. And don't you dare tell James that I like him." June said threateningly. Kendall nodded.
"Fine. I won't tell him you like him." I'll just tell him that you don't hate him. He added silently.
"Good. Now, lets find Bitters." June and Kendall walked around the lobby. He was standing by the front desk. June walked up.
"Hey Bitters." June said. Bitters looked at her and smiled.
"Hi June." He looked at her dress. "Dressed up for something?" He questioned.
"Yeah, I'm going to a party." June said. Kendall looked up from his hiding spot angrily. What was she doing?
"I knew I heard a party here!" Bitters exclaimed and started to leave to go look for the party. June stopped him.
"No not here, on campus. You know, for school? That's probably what you hear. The campus is pretty close. I can hear it from here." June said. Kendall breathed a sigh of relief. Bitters looked at her suspiciously.
"Hmm, alright." He said, still eyeing June. She gave a little wave and walked out of the front door. Kendall ran after her once Bitters looked away.
"So do you think that we're good?" June asked. Kendall nodded.
"Yeah, and if he realizes it, we'll send you back out." Kendall said. June rolled her eyes.
"Fine. How am I supposed to get back in without Bitters saying anything?" June asked. Kendall thought about it, then his eyes lit up. He walked over to June and threw her over his shoulder.
"Kendall what are you doing? Put me down." June said. She hit his back once. "I'm wearing a dress!"
"Cool it. I'm holding your dress down, no one can see anything."
"Yeah, you're dangerously close to my ass there." June said.
"Well do you want everyone to see everything?" Kendall asked. June sighed.
"Fine. Just watch it." June said. "Now, why are you doing this?"
"Just play along." Kendall said, He walked back into the lobby.
"No! You can't go to that party. You promised you would study with us." Kendall said loudly. June got the hint and hit his back with her arms.
"Come on Kendall. I'm a teen! I need to party! I don't want to study on a Friday night!" June said just as loud.
"Too bad!" He said and took her into the elevator and closed the doors. "Hey, good job."
"Thanks. Will you put me down now?" June asked. Kendall turned one way, then another.
"There's not really enough room. I'll put you down in the room." Kendall said. June sighed and rolled her eyes. The doors opened and Kendall walked down the hall, back to their room. He opened the door and set June down. She fixed her dress and looked up to see an angry looking Jo on one side of the room and an angry James on the other. She looked at Kendall, who had noticed too.
"You take Jo, I'll take James, and then we'll switch." Kendall said. June nodded and walked over to Jo.
"What was that? Why was he carrying you? Did you see where his hand was?!" Jo yelled and June. June sighed.
"It's not what it looks like. He wasn't touching me so don't worry. And he was carrying me to get Bitters to believe that there wasn't a party here. He will tell you about it when he comes over here to tell you that he cares about you. He doesn't like me and I do not like him. Don't worry Jo." June said. She opened her arms for a hug. Jo looked at her for a second and sighed. She walked over and gave June a hug.
"You're lucky I like you." Jo said. June smiled.
"Now I need to go talk to James. I'll talk to you later." June said and started over to James. She passed Kendall, who had just talked to James. He still looked pissed.
"Uh hey James." June said. James was standing with Carlos.
"Why was Kendall touching your ass? You said you weren't going to date him!" James said.
"He wasn't touching my ass, he was holding my dress down so everyone didn't get a free show. And I'm not dating Kendall. Jo is. And you aren't dating me either, so it isn't your business." June snapped. James lifted his finger.
"Actually it is. Kendall is my best friend and it's part of the code that he can't date you." James said. June rolled her eyes.
"Well I'm not dating Kendall so you don't need to get angry at him." June said. James calmed down a little. So if that part of what Kendall said was true, James thought, maybe the rest was.
"So Kendall said that you didn't hate me." James said. June cursed under her breath.
"I'm gonna kill him. Well I guess the cats out of the bag. I don't hate you, James. We did grow up together." June said. James didn't say anything and neither did June. Carlos just stood there watching. Then a slower song came over the speakers.
"Hey June, do you want to dance?" Carlos asked. June looked at Carlos and smiled.
"Sure. Let's go." June took his hand and they walked out to the middle of the room and started dancing. James watched Carlos put his hands on her waist and June put his arms on his neck. He watched as they swayed back and forth as they talked and laughed. James was angry, jealous, but happy. He was angry that Carlos had asked June to dance, when he was going to. He was jealous of Carlos for holding her and of Kendall for practically holding her ass. He was happy though, because June didn't hate him. He was breaking through to her. Kendall said that June said that she didn't hate him, far from it. He just needed a little more work on her. Step one, dance. James stood their waiting for the song to end so he could ask her to dance. The song came to an end as another slow song started. Carlos and June hugged and he walked away. June just stood their looking around. James started walking over to her, but someone beat him to it.
Dak Zevon.
He walked up behind her and covered her eyes. She reached up and pulled them away and turned around. They hugged and he asked her a question. She nodded and he put his hands on her hips and she put his arms around his neck. They were talking and laughing and a lot closer than Carlos and June were. James watched for a couple more seconds and then sighed and turned away.
2 steps forward, 1 step back.