Face Your Fear
By: Riley
Summary –The boys are in Las Vegas and are taking advantage of everything their hotel has to offer. Too bad one of them can't get with the program. No slash. Requested by Parimalik.
The Stratosphere Hotel.
Conveniently located between Downtown and the Center trip. Close to shopping, the Las Vegas Monorail and the Convention center with free valet and self-parking. Hotel guests enjoy discounted access to one of the most iconic landmarks on the Las Vegas Strip, the 1,149-foot Stratosphere Tower. The tallest freestanding observation tower in the US.
And the location of Logan's death, apparently.
How was he to know that his fear of heights was ever going to come back to haunt him so quickly? It was something he kept hidden for so much of his life. But even when they were on their tour bus to Las Vegas from LA, Logan didn't think much of it. Ironically enough, he had looked over the brochure of their hotel, The Stratosphere, and looked over everything the hotel had to offer. What it had to offer for underage visitors, anyway.
They were only 20 years old, just shy of being able to get into the casino and the cool clubs. Not that they hadn't tried. James and Carlos used as much of their 'Party Kings of Hollywood' cred they could get to get into some of the parities that were going on and no dice. So he was appointed the one that would look up the different things they could do.
"As long as it's not educational," Kendall said when he appointed him the role. "No museums. No galleries. We're here for a show and we want to have fun outside of it."
Logan looked back at him with raised eyebrows and asked, "What do you think about a guided tour of Las Vegas?"
"I think I'd rather have Gustavo scream in my face for three hours. At least then I can have some fun pissing him off." Then he smirked as Logan laughed, knowing it was probably true. Kendall was the one who easily managed to push each and every one of Gustavo's buttons without much work. And he knew Kendall had a sense of enjoyment out of it.
And so Logan scoured brochures and the internet to find something to do. What he didn't know was that Carlos was looking over his shoulder as he researched—probably also reading his messages with Camille as they chatted—looking to see what they could do as well. It was Carlos who immediately grabbed Logan's computer and loudly declared, "We're doing this!"
"Doing what?" James pulled his phone from his ear, still trying to get into a party. "Did you get us into Megan Fox's birthday?"
"Do you really think Megan Fox even knows who we are?" Kendall asked with a skeptical eyebrow raise. He laughed and gave James a high-five when he said, "Maybe not, but after tonight she will."
"No, we're doing this!" Carlos turned his computer around and jabbed his finger into Logan's computer screen. Logan winced with each jab, knowing it was leaving fingerprints and potentially also creating small scratches in it as well. "The X-Scream. It's this really cool roller coaster that rocks you back and forth over the ground."
And Logan's heart dropped Almost as it currently was as he stood in line with his friends, waiting to get to the front of the line so they could get on the ride. Lucky him there were four seats on the ride. Just enough for each of them. He certainly did blame Carlos for it, had he not said anything about the X-Scream, they would've had their feet planted firmly on the ground and hanging out before their Vegas show the next day. Not planted on the rim of the tallest building in Vegas, getting ready to be flung towards the ground.
Logan held tightly onto the railing beside him, doing his best not to look out over the city. Had he been indoors admiring the view, it would've been fine. Not standing atop a deck that he could easily fall from. Nope. No. He was not okay.
"Are you okay?" James's voice asked from beside Logan.
"I'm fine," Logan managed to squeak out.
"Are you sure?" Even without looking at him, Logan could tell James was grinning. "You look kind of green."
"I'm good," Logan insisted. He took a deep breath and turned to face James, flashing a smile. "I'm great, actually. Can't wait until we go do this. Rollercoasters. Awesome!" He pumped his fist and let out a low 'whoo' before turning to look the other way. Great, another view of the city. That was perfect.
His stomach slowly started to rumble.
He was going to puke.
"We're next." Carlos rubbed his hands together as the line moved forward.
"This is going to be awesome," Kendall agreed. "How many people can say they were dangled off the side of a building and lived?"
About 1 in 5000 Logan thought, running through the statistics over his head. Though that was a quick thought. He could've been off. There weren't too many times he was wrong, but he probably wasn't very wrong about this one. About how the hydraulics on the roller coaster may fail, screws may become loose, the coaster may come off the tracks on a forward swing and they went falling below to their screaming death and—
"Logan! Go!" Kendall grasped Logan's shoulder and started to push him forward.
Feeling himself move, still locked in his mental image, Logan grabbed harder onto the railing and let out a squealing scream. His eyes slammed shut and his entire body started to shake. Kendall dropped his hand from Logan's shoulders and took a step back, exchanging a smirk with James. Carlos, on the other hand, popped up in front of Logan, all smiles and said, "That's the spirit, Logie! We're going to have fun!"
"If by 'having fun' you mean 'crapping his pants' then yeah," James said.
Carlos tilted his head to the side curiously. He took a look at Logan's face and his smile faded. "Logan, are you okay?"
"He's scared," Kendall and James chorused.
"Me? I'm fine." Logan opened his eyes and stood up straight, trying to play off as casual as possible. "Perfectly fine. Absolutely fine. This is going to be great right? Right." A high-pitched, nervous laugh escaped his lips. "I'm fine. Totally fine. I said I'm fine, right?"
"About one hundred times," Kendall said. His smile widened. "And, you're not 'fine'. You're scared."
"No, I'm not," Logan said. His voice was stuck in its high-pitched tone. So much so that James jerked his head back and wiggled his finger in his ear. Loga quickly cleared his throat. "Wow, where did that come from?" He lowered his voice to a comically deep baritone. "Weird, right?"
"You're so scared, man, just admit it," James said once he removed his finger from his ear. "I mean, it's okay. You're already terrified of bugs, Gustavo, bunnies—"
"Hey, that rabbit could've been rabid," Logan defended himself. And besides, it was James and Carlos who dared him to stick his finger into the cage of the class pet back when he first moved to Minnesota. How many times had they held that over his head? "When was the last time it had its shots?"
"Logan," Kendall said calmly. "Being afraid of height is fine. And normal. You know my mom is afraid of heights."
"But your mom was a cheerleader," Logan reminded him.
"Yeah and she made herself get to the top of the pyramid anyway. And her sky-high split-kick became a staple for the rest of the cheerleading team," Kendall said with an air of pride. "If you let your fears get in the way of things, then you won't get anywhere in life." He shrugged. "I was afraid that my music wouldn't be received very well. So I told Gustavo I didn't want to go to LA before getting you guys in it."
"Really?" Logan hadn't known that. Even James and Carlos looked surprised.
Other than James, Kendall was definitely one of the most talented of the group. Other than his voice, he also played a lot of the guitar. So much so that there was hardly a day where he didn't take even a half hour to practice. He sang to himself when he was working—no matter how much Kendall denied it—and took everything with Big Time Rush so seriously. How in the world could he have been afraid that he wouldn't be successful?
"Yeah, I thought I couldn't do it." Then Kendall grinned. "And you know I couldn't have done it without my best buds with me."
Carlos and James smiled and nodded.
"And cause we know James would've killed you had you given it up," Logan agreed.
"Exactly," James said.
"You guys were there for me and now we're going to be there for you," Kendall agreed. "The only difference being that there's safety measures in place to make sure we don't fall." He nodded towards the roller coaster and the ride agent, who looked annoyed as he waited for them. "And, the ride attendant looks like he's going to kill us so we need to make a decision now."
"Whether we live or die, we're Big Time Rush and we do things together, right?" Carlos asked.
James snorted. "I don't think it needs to be that extreme, but I get it."
Logan smiled and nodded. Okay. They were right. They were in this together and nothing was going to happen. Logan went with his friends onto the ride an strapped themselves in. His heart crammed into his throat when he saw how high up they were. But it was okay. They'd get through it. If Mrs. Knight and Kendall could face their fears…
"By the way," the ride attendant said gruffly after checking their safety belts. "We've only ever had one person fall off this ride before."
"What?!" Logan, Kendall, Carlos, and James all shrieked at once.
Only seconds before the roller coaster started up, tilting them forward over the edge of the building and over Las Vegas before sliding them backwards. Over and over, the roller coaster moved as they screamed at the tops of their lungs. Their voice echoed over Las Vegas, barely making it over the laughter of the crowd waiting behind them.
Then the ride ended and, finally quieting down, the boys climbed off the ride and shuffled away. They stopped at the kiosk that held the picture that had been taken of them and stared at the wide-eyed, open mouthed expressions of themselves. Logan felt himself flush the moment he saw his own pictures, eyes shut with tears streaming down his face. His friends didn't look any better.
"We're not telling anyone about this," James said in a low voice.
Wordlessly, Kendall, Logan, and Carlos all nodded.
It was their secret.
THE END
A/N: Hope you liked it!
Cheers,
-Riles