She Won't Kiss and Tell

The tension on the bus could be cut with a knife. Pat had secluded himself in the bunks area for the remainder of the day, whilst everyone else sat awkwardly in the "living room" watching TV and making small talk.

Minutes after Cody left the bus, she was back, her expression unreadable. All four of the guys looked at her as she stomped her way back onto the bus. She let out a frustrated sigh as she sat down next to John, leaning her head on his shoulder,

"What the hell has gotten into her? It's like a switch was just flipped and she's a totally different person." she said as John wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He sighed, wishing he could tell someone the real reason as to why Holly was acting that way. Instead, he just shrugged,

"Who knows, honey." he felt pangs of guilt running throughout his body. Even though he'd promised Holly he'd break up with Cody, he just couldn't do it. Even though he knew he was falling for Holly more and more each day, he'd already fallen for Cody a long time ago. He couldn't just simply break up with her for no good reason; and he knew for a fact if Pat found out about him and Holly, even after Pat and Holly had now broken up, it would jeopardize the bands career. His mind was in complete over drive, and he could feel a headache coming on. Cody wrapped her arm around John's middle, pulling him out of his trance. She frowned at him,

"Are you okay? You seem a little quiet." she asked. John nodded, smiling at her and kissing her forehead,

"I'm fine. Just a little tired and headachy." he replied, still smiling. Cody smiled back, hugging his body tighter.

Minutes had passed when the group heard a soft patter come from the back of the bus. Pat sat down on the couch, smiling weakly at his friends as they just stared at him with sympathetic eyes.

"You okay, man?" Garrett asked, rubbing Pat's back soothingly.

"Yeah," He sighed. "What's happened has happened, right? Let's not dwell. What food have we got?"

The group laughed at Pat's sudden change in subject, but hey, they've got their old Pat back. Before the discussion about food could begin, the tour bus door slammed open making all heads snap to where Holly was stood.

Her nostrils flared when her eyes landed on John and Cody cuddled up on the couch. "You!" She seethed, pointing at John. His eyebrows raised and he got that sick feeling in his stomach, quite scared of what Holly was going to do, or say. Holly stormed her way across the small space, reaching John, her hand swiftly connecting with his cheek. A few small gasps erupted around the room, before John brought his hand up to his cheek, cradling his now red cheek in it. Cody stood up from beside John, standing right up in Holly's face,

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Cody yelled, pushing Holly back slightly, causing her to stumble. Holly ignored Cody the best she could, looking back at John, sending him daggers. If looks could kill, John would have been a dead man right there.

"You promised!" She said, once again her emotions getting the better of her.

"Promised what?" Jared asked, glancing between John and Holly. Holly folder her arms across her chest, raising an eyebrow at John.

"Go on, John. Tell Jared what you promised me." Holly said, her tone proving to be some what cocky. John frowned at her, shaking his head,

"Don't do this, Holly. Not here, not now." John said quietly. Holly let her arms fall by her sides, and sighed,

"Then when, John? You might as well say it now, everyone's gonna find out sooner or later." Holly stated. Everyone carried on looking between the pair of them, before Kennedy decided to say what was probably plaguing everyone's minds,

"Someone please explain what the flip you two are going on about?" He asked. Holly looked at him, no expression on her face,

"Well, unless Johny boy here tells you, I'm afraid you're all gonna have to stay in the dark about it!" She said, turning her gaze back on John. John stood up, shaking his head,

"Holly, you're drunk. How about you get some sleep, yeah? We'll talk this through and explain it to everyone tomorrow." John said, taking hold of Holly's arm, attempting to lead her towards the bunks. Holly snatched her arm away from his grasp quickly,

"Don't touch me!" She yelled. Cody moved and quickly stood in between Holly and John, tears clearly welling up in her eyes,

"Both of you, cut it out! Can one of you just please tell me what's going on? I have a feeling that I have a right to know." She said, tears starting to flow down her cheeks. Holly's expression softened slightly at the sight of her best friend crying. At that moment, Holly realized how much of a mistake she was making here. She'd broken up with the boy she truly loved, and for who? One of her childhood best friends, who no more than a week ago was merely a friend and nothing more to her.

"Codes," John used his thumb to wipe away the tears that were cascading down his girlfriend's cheeks.

"Don't, John," She snapped. "I just want to know what the fuck is going on," Cody stressed, hiding her face with both of her hands.

"I slept with him," Holly whispered. "I slept with your boyfriend. I'm so sorry,"

Cody stared at Holly and John in disbelief, as did the rest of the band.

Holly turned to look at Pat, who was sat wide-eyed, staring at both Holly and John. Holly walked over to Pat, whose expression changed to something of disgust,

"Pat, now you see why I broke up with you? I wanted to stop you from getting hurt..," She said, her tone sincere. She sighed, "But I guess I just made it worse, huh?"

"You wanted to stop me from getting hurt? If you didn't want me to get hurt, you never would have slept with John." His words were harsh, something Holly wasn't expecting from him, at all.

"Cody? Baby?" John reached out for his girlfriend, but in return received a glare.

"Don't you dare call me 'baby'. Not after this," She spat. Cody sat down on the couch and let more tears well up. "How could you do this to me?" She whispered, looking up at John. His heart broke to see her in that position, all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be alright. However, nothing was going to be alright after this.

Garrett, Jared and Kennedy didn't know what to say. They never expected this of their best friend - they thought he was too in love with Cody to ever consider sleeping with another girl, let alone Holly.

Cody shook her head, before standing up, walking quickly towards the door or the bus, before Garrett grabbed hold of her arm, stopping her. She looked at him,

"Let go." was all she said. Garrett shook his head,

"Where are you going?" He asked. Cody shrugged,

"Anywhere but here right now. I'll find someone else's bus to stay on tonight." She said. Garrett frowned at her, shaking his head,

"No, you won't! Cody, you've done nothing wrong."

"If I hadn't done anything wrong, why would John cheat on me?" With that, she slipped her arm out of Garrett's grasp and exited the bus without so much as a glance back to her friends. 

Flaring his nostrils, Garrett spun on his heel and faced the rest of his band mates, and Holly. "Did you just hear what your girlfriend, if I can still call her that, said, John? Did you?!" He yelled.

John stayed quiet, playing with the bracelets on his wrist to distract himself, instead. "Don't fucking ignore me, John. Your girlfriend has just left this bus and you haven't even gone after her. What does that show?!"

"She doesn't want me to go after her!" John shouted.

"Bullshit." Garrett simply replied. "Every girl wants the guy to go after her." Garrett stated. John looked at Holly for some kind of guidance, but she just shrugged at him,

"He's right." Holly said, sadly. John turned on his heel, walking out of the door after Cody.

"Holly, I think maybe you should leave." Garrett said, his tone harsh. Holly frowned at him,

"Why me? I'm not the only one who's done wrong here, you know." She retaliated. Garrett shrugged, looking about the room at the other four,

"We can't ask John to leave, Holly. He is the lead singer, after all," Jared piped up, earning a glare from the teenage girl stood before him.

"Kennedy can sing," She licked her lips. "He's swapped with John before. Why can't he cover?"

"That was it, we swapped. John played guitar while I sang." Kennedy shrugged and tried to lighten the mood with a very small smile.

"We're not making John leave, Holly." Pat snapped. Holly turned to look at Pat, shocked by how harsh his tone was, yet again. Holly had never, ever seen Pat act like this over all of the years she'd known him. She looked down at her shoes, nodding slightly, then looking back up at Pat,

"Okay, fine. But before I go, Pat, can we at least talk? Please." She asked, her tone softer than before. Pat looked back at her with a blank expression, before nodding reluctantly and standing up, walking into the bunks, Holly following behind closely.

"What do you want?" Pat bluntly asked, stopping in the small hallway of the bunk area.

Holly gulped and played with a couple of strands of hair before replying. "A chance to explain." was all she said. Pat laughed, looking away from her momentarily, then looking back at her,

"What is there to explain, Holly? You dumped me for one of my best friends. It's simple, surely even you can understand that one?" He replied, his tone bitter. Holly looked at him, frowning,

"I'm not here to be insulted, Pat. I don't have to do this, I don't have to try to apologize," She said, emphasizing the last three words. "So, are you gonna give me time to talk without insulting me anymore?" She asked. Pat nodded, sitting down on the edge of one of the bunks,

"Fire away." He said, no emotion evident in his voice. Holly took in a deep breath, before starting with what she was going to say to Pat.

"I don't want this to sound cliche, but the first time it happened, John and I were both drunk." Pat scoffed. "I hated myself and I hated John. There were times when I cried myself to sleep because that was all I could think of and I didn't want to hurt you. You didn't, and don't, deserve that, Pat." Holly paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "John kept pushing, telling me he was feeling things, and I wasn't. Not at the time, anyway," She mumbled, biting on her lower lip. "Then, I don't know, we just made amends. Somehow we started off with little pecks and then the whole shindig,"

"I really don't need to hear this, Holly." Pat said.

"Yes, you do, Pat. I want you to know what happened. This wasn't all my doing and I just want you to try and understand." Holly took Pat's silence as a cue to carry on, so she did. "John told me he was going to break up with Cody, and if I broke up with you, maybe we could be something..," She whispered. "That sounds really shitty of me, I know, but he messed with my emotions and I got caught up with his games."

"And you didn't mess with my emotions?" Pat asked. "You were being off with me, all the time. I kept asking you what was wrong and you just pushed me away, Holly. How do you think that made me feel?"

"Shit?"

"Ding, ding, ding." He replied, in a bored tone.

"I don't want us to end on bad terms, Pat." Holly sighed. "You're one of my best childhood friends and I don't want to lose you," Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence and Pat had definitely heard it.

His features softened and he reached out for Holly's hand. "I don't want things to end badly with us. No matter what, I will always love you."

Holly took hold of Pat's hand, lacing their fingers together. She nodded, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "See, Pat, this is why I was- no, am in love with you," She said, pausing for a second, sniffing, "I'm not gonna ask you to take me back, that would make me even more of a selfish bitch than I've already been. All I'm asking for is that maybe in the near future you can forgive me?"

"I can't promise anything, Holls," Her face brightened up as this was the first time, in a couple of hours, where someone had said her nickname. "We'll just see where it goes, yeah?" Pat embraced Holly in a warm hug and she buried her head into his neck, missing the comforting feeling of one of her good friends.