HOLA FANFICTION READERS. Okay, okay, it's been a while since I've been around, I'm easily distracted, dropping storylines left and right. I've had a million ideas and barely chugged out a sentence for a single one. The chances of Stuck making it any further are slim, unless I get some random burst of inspiration one day, but this new idea popped into my head around midnight last night and for some reason my mind flowed with it. This is my first attempt at anything even slightly slash related, this is new territory for me. Therefore, I'm easing myself into this. I write OC fics, this is a little bit of that AND a little bit of (probably more of) slash. We'll see how it goes. Also, before we move on, I think you should know that the setting and really the country air of this fic is inspired by my childhood, and the town I grew up in. They say to write what you know and while I really don't know what it's like to be a closet gay or a girl in love with her best friend, I do know what it's like to grow up in a small country town, one where everyone knows everyone and everyone knows everyone's business. You can't breathe without Mr. Mumby down the street seeing you and telling his wife who tells her bingo pals who tell everyone and their mother. Make sense? Okay, I ramble, you really don't need to know about my childhood, so without further ado, I present my latest attempt at fanfiction.
Disclaimer: Okay, I lied, there is a little thing to just get out of the way. I'm only going to do this once, because that's really all that should be necessary. I don't own the boys of Big Time Rush. I bow to Scott Fellows and his almighty powers of boy band, I really do. Also, I feel I should mention that while Mapleton, Minnesota is indeed a real place, I have no clue what it's really like. I liked the name, went with it, and based it off of my hometown, Marmora, Ontario. If you know where that is then kudos, you must take up travelling to butt fuck middle of nowhere places. Unless you're like me and raised there. Alright, any other similarities in names and places are non-intentional, and if I do happen to use some sort of similar thing on purpose, I'll mention it. Good? Good.
Chapter One : The Problem
It was a muggy, warm July afternoon in Mapleton, Minnesota. Phoenix leaned back in her chair, balancing her mechanical pencil between her nose and upper lip. Logan was rambling on about functions and their graphs, but the brown haired girl had honestly zoned out the second the word parabola left her smart friend's mouth. This was July, the middle of summer. A time for street hockey and bridge jumping, not studying and learning. Unfortunately, the Minnesota board of education had different ideas, since she'd failed her sophomore year of math, which was a mandatory credit.
"Are you even listening?" Phoenix snapped out of her revelry and sat up abruptly, sending her pencil falling to the ground under the Mitchell's sun porch table, which she was currently seated at. She quickly bent down to retrieve the writing utensil, and then snapped back up to look at Logan's expectant expression. Of course, he already knew the answer to his question just by the glazed over look of Phoenix's eyes as she sat there, staring into space, but he asked anyway.
"I, uh," Phoenix stammered a little and Logan cocked his eyebrow at her. At that point she knew it was useless even attempting to lie to him, he was pretty good at seeing through her charades "no, I wasn't."
"Didn't think so" Logan said calmly, grabbing his water bottle and taking a sip, "You know, it doesn't matter to me whether you pass summer school or not, it's your decision." Logan shrugged, replacing the cap on his bottle and setting it back in its place. Phoenix crossed her arms over her chest, giving him a disbelieving and amused grin.
"Oh, really?" She of all people knew that Logan was a helper, a fixer, a perfectionist. He could never let one of his friends make the wrong choice; he would feel responsible for not stopping them. But phoenix would play his game, letting him eventually goad her into putting forth some effort in her school work, if only enough to pass.
Logan blinked twice quickly, he was really hoping that Phoenix would cave after just that little blip of backwards psychology. He was hot, bored, and he really just wanted to be finished with their little tutoring session so they could join Kendall, James, and Carlos at Beaver Creek for an afternoon swim. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep his blasé façade up, but he pressed on for the time being.
"Yep, I mean, it's entirely your choice if you wanna fail again and not be able to play for the team this season, I mean, I'm sure there are tons of big burly boys just waiting to replace you on the starting forward line. I heard Hartford was after your left wing position"
Phoenix nodded slowly, like she was weighing her options. Logan's comment on her being a girl who could be easily replaced by a bigger, better boy might have made her blood boil if she didn't know it was all an act. She looked to see his face fall in disappointment that she wasn't caving yet, and decided she was done anyway.
"Oh please, Mitch, like you would let me fail any day, even if I wanted to" she scoffed. Logan breathed out a sigh of relief, placing his hand on her bare shoulder.
"You're right, I couldn't do that, I care too much about my friends." He gave a quick squeeze and a warm smile and Phoenix suddenly felt the already too-hot-for-comfort temperature increase by twenty degrees. What-what was this? Why did she all of a sudden feel like the space between her and Logan was getting smaller and smaller? Nothing had changed, yet something had, something inside her. His calloused hand was rough and soft on her shoulder all at the same time, and she liked it. So much so that when he finally let it fall, turning back to the textbook a moment later, she felt a disappointment. But… why? Everything was strange and it made her feel nauseated to the nth degree.
Logan watched in perplexity as Phoenix bolted from her seat, her mouth pressed into a tight line, and her blue eyes wide.
"What are you doing?"
"I, uh, I have to go"
"Nix-"
"I'm not procrastinating, I swear I'll make up my lost time next session, but I remembered I have to do something for my mom" Phoenix said, knowing Logan would see through the lie, but hoping he wouldn't press any further and just let her go.
"Alright then" he finally said. Of course he knew she was lying, but there was no point in arguing with her, she would win out. Phoenix scooped up her books and dropped them in her bag along with her pencil. She slung one strap over her shoulder, giving Logan one last look, without meeting his eyes.
"I'll meet you and the guys down at the creek in like an hour." Logan nodded.
And with that, she was gone out the porch door, walking briskly down the street toward her own home two blocks away. As soon as she was away from Logan, relief washed over her. Her stomach stopped turning and her mind stopped buzzing, although, she was far from at ease. Maybe it was the heat amplifying things, but something had just changed between she and the boy she had affectionately (in a friendly way) been calling by his last name all these years. She could still feel the place where his soft hand had rested on her shoulder, and her mind easily slipped in to thoughts of where else those hands could be. She shook her head as soon as the images formed, trying to get rid of them, to no avail. But where were these thoughts ever coming from all of a sudden?
Phoenix ran her hand down her face as she crossed the street to her house. She didn't know the answer to any of these questions, a rare occurrence. It was like the math final all over again.
Kendall laughed and pushed Carlos over the railing and the smaller boy hooted and hollered as he tumbled through the air, eventually reaching the cool water beneath and plummeting into its depths. Kendall and James watched from far above as Carlos resurfaced, giving his hair a quick shake, and sticking his tongue out at them. He grinned from ear to ear as he swam to the shore, and clambered back up the steep little dirt path beside the bridge, padded down by generations of kids having similar fun.
"I think we need a bigger bridge" James said nonchalantly as he climbed over the railing, resting his feet on the little ledge that ran along the bridge's side and leaning back against the railing, arms crossed.
"Well most bigger bridges involve being in sight of the cops, I think we should probably just be thankful that after so many years they've chosen to overlook this one. That and the fact that none of these fancy schmancy-" Kendall gestured to all the shiny, newly built cottages around them, set into the shore of the creek, "cidiots, have ever complained about kids jumping here, which would force the cops to give us hell"
James shrugged lightly as Carlos made his way back over to them, nearly tripping over his feet as he went.
"Hey, guys!" All three boys turned their heads to see Logan approaching from the mouth of the dirt road that split off just before the bridge, his usual crooked smile in place. The dirt road was a dead end, just a road so all the city dwellers, or cidiots as most Mapleton natives would offhandedly refer to them as when they weren't listening, could get their shiny SUVs and trailers full of expensive new motor boats to their cozy, cut-out-from-a-magazine cottages. It wasn't necessarily that all of the city people were bad, in fact, they had met some pretty cool kids from the city over the years of spending summers at the bridge. Heck, James was a cidiot once (although he swore it didn't count because he was six when he moved to Mapleton). Unfortunately it was those few that were nasty, and stuck up that earned the entire outside population their nickname.
So Logan padded toward them off the dirt road, one that had a trail splitting off near the end that was a fast shortcut back into town. Or at least to the end of Logan and Phoenix's road, which was actually just past the edge of the cozy more suburban area where the other three boys lived. Kendall was jealous sometimes of how Logan and Phoenix had grown up with the forest in their back yard, when he had been stuck in town with a little fenced in yard and a maple tree. Not that it really mattered, considering they would spend a lot of time at Logan's anyway.
"Where's Phoenix?" Carlos asked from Kendall's side. The taller boy jumped a little. He had been so lost in thought that he had forgotten the Latino and quite frankly James too were at his side. He also hadn't noticed that their female friend wasn't trudging along beside Logan as he reached them, pulling his shirt over his head and tossing into the little pile on the sidewalk with the others'.
"She said she had to do something for her mom, but she should be here in like twenty minutes or something" he said, kicking off his shoes. Kendall froze up a little, this is where it got problematic. You see, Kendall wasn't like his other guy friends, who spent their days chasing after girls and drooling over bikini models. He would rather watch the football team in the locker room than the cheerleaders. To put it quite bluntly, Kendall was gay. He had known since he was fifteen, but he never told anyone. Well, except Katie, who had practically figured it out on her own when she caught him popping a boner watching the men's beach volley ball during the summer Olympics.
But it wasn't just being gay that was the problem here; for the past six months, Kendall had also known that he liked Logan, and having his shorter friend standing there in all his shirtless glory really wasn't helping the situation. Kendall cleared his throat and he felt his swim trunks tightening.
"Are you.. okay?" Logan asked carefully. Kendall was shifting on his feet and kind of crossing his legs over one another.
"Yep, just fine, I think I'm gonna jump now" the blond said hurriedly, practically hopping over the railing, and pushing himself off. He fell quietly, nothing like Carlos, and he soon enough felt the water engulfing his body, relieving his situation almost immediately.
"He probably had to pee" Carlos said with a shrug as the other three boys watched Kendall resurface. James scrunched his face up.
"Nasty, I'm not jumping into piss water!" he said, climbing back over the railing and onto the sidewalk. Logan snorted.
"Do you know how many people have peed in that water before now, James?" he asked his pretty boy friend. James' expression turned to a frown.
"That's fucking gross." Logan shrugged and went back along with Carlos to watching Kendall approach the shore. He was being slow, of course they had no idea it was deliberate.
Kendall got to shore, standing up. It really sucked that he had to avoid his best friend like this, but, what other choice did he have? Logan wasn't gay, in fact, Logan had a girlfriend, Logan had a… Camille. She was pretty and clever and a little over the top at times, but she was good for Logan, helping him live a little more on the edge. Of course, Kendall could help him live on the edge too; he spent half his life devoted to getting his friends to do stupid shit.
What was he even thinking? It didn't matter if he could help him live on the edge or not, because again, LOGAN WASN'T GAY! The green eyed boy trudged halfheartedly up the little dirt path, eventually emerging back at the sidewalk. Luckily, Logan was over the railing with James, about to jump as well. Kendall wondered how long they could keep that cycle up; him jumping, and then Logan jumping, so they never really had to make contact with each other. He guessed not long since Logan was already in the water and nearly to the shore, hot on Kendall's heels.
"Are you gonna jump again, or just stand there blocking the path?" Kendall turned his attention to the female voice that was addressing him from the middle of the road. There was Phoenix, hand on hip, a smirk on her face.
"She's right, you are actually in the way" James said, pushing past Kendall. Logan wasn't far behind, doing the same. Kendall felt his stomach jump into his throat as the brunette's damp skin brushed against Kendall's own, and he swallowed hard, hoping- praying –that the action hadn't done anything to bring back his… problem.
He snuck a gaze downward, disguising it with the action of shaking out his hair, and breathed a sigh of relief. He finally stepped back onto the pavement, feeling the dirt and grit under his bare feet.
"Why are you just getting here?" Phoenix shrugged as she unbuttoned her shorts, stepping out of them and walking over to add them to the pile of shirts. Her own t-shirt remained on her body as usual.
"I just had to do some shit around the house" she said evenly, climbing over the railing. Logan climbed over next to her, so did Carlos. Kendall had been friends with Phoenix for a long time, long enough to see through her lame lies and excuses. He narrowed his gaze but decided to drop the issue, for now. They both had work at Sherwood's tomorrow, he would ask her then.
Little did either of them know that they both had the same problem; Logan.