Like Nobody's Around
By: Rhuben
Summary-Carlos Garcia never really made it a top priority to pay attention to what others thought about him. He made it his personal mission to help his friend be the same way. What better way then by randomly dancing in the middle of a crowded mall? Carlos/OC friendship.
"Why are you purposely embarrassing me?"
Carlos Garcia grinned as he waved his hands in the air, bouncing along to the music that played over the loud speakers of the mall. He did an odd shuffle over to Rhuben Jackson-McGuire who was sitting on a bench, eating a container of Dip-N-Dots looking at him as if he had grown a second head.
"Turn up the radio. So what if we lose control? Get a little bit rock and roll, oh whoa oh."
"This music is great don't you think?" Carlos asked, doing a Charlie Brown-like dance. "It's from this hot band called Big Tim Rush. Have you heard of 'em?" Rhuben chuckled, shaking her head back and forth. "They're pretty great. And cute, too, if you're into that sort of thing."
"Considering James isn't here, I don't really need to answer that question," Rhuben replied with an even smile. Carlos stopped dancing and pouted.
"Ouch," he commented. Then his smile reappeared a split second later and he continued to dance again. He was aware that a whole bunch of mall shoppers were watching him, but he didn't care. "So throw your hands in the air. Come on and make this count. It's only you and me, never mind this crowd. Do the way you do it, do it like nobody's around, whoa ."
"This is a shameless plug of your own song and it's actually quite pathetic, mate," Rhuben commented.
"What's pathetic, is that you won't dance with me," Carlos replied, sitting down beside her, taking her cup of ice cream to start eating it, ignoring her screech of protest. "This is really good." He leaned out of the way of Rhuben's hand as she tried to get her food back. "I mean, you love to dance and your pretty bad ass at it."
"I don't like embarrassing myself," Rhuben replied and Carlos made a show of rolling his eyes.
"You care too much about what other people think of you," he said, tapping her nose with the spit covered spoon. He laughed at the grossed out look on her face as she lifted the sleeve of her Green Bay Packers jersey to wipe her nose. It wasn't actually hers it was her boyfriend Dak's; she didn't know a thing about football. While he was off performing in musicals with a touring company, she was behind in California working on her music.
They both needed this day to have fun. While she was missing her boyfriend, he was missing his girlfriend; Stephanie King. But, she wasn't off in another state, she was still in the Palm Woods with him, but her father thought he an Stephanie were getting too serious too fast, and wanted them to break up. It hurt Carlos as he had never felt this way about anybody before, but he was happy to know that she was still near him, and they could still hang out in big groups. It just sucked that he couldn't hold her or kiss her.
But, Carlos was proud of Stephanie, and since Stephanie was friends with the DarkElements, Rhuben's band with her brothers and sister, who he had previously worked closely with for the past three years, he knew things were looking up for her. The DarkElements were helping Stephanie with her resume by having her film a lot of their youtube videos and some backstage things. Plus, she had been hired as one of their new back up dancers when their friends from Australia got stuck behind in the land Down Under.
"If you can't dance like nobody is watching, when in fact nobody is watching, then you're a miserable person, and your life sucks." Carlos shrugged as if he was apologizing. Rhuben gave him a shocked look and he reached over to pat her knee. "I still love you, though, and you're always invited to my dance party."
"You're crazy," Rhuben said with a shake of her head as she started to laugh. "Like, you're one sheep short of the heard, crazy." Carlos grinned when he heard her accent slide into her voice.
"I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane," he replied, twisting his mouth to the side. Rhuben raised her eyebrows, tilting her head back and forth as she considered what it was that he was saying. "You need to learn to laugh at yourself. I've been trying for three, now four, years to get you to break out of your shell."
In fact, Carlos basically made it his mission to get Rhuben and her twin sister, Riley, to open up and be themselves; teenagers, and to have fun without thinking that someone or something was out to get them. And the only reason they felt like that was due to their years of being victims of child abuse. But, with Big Time Rush's help, they were able to get rid of their ex-father, and Carlos and his friends were there to help them all out.
James helped them with their self-confidence and self-esteem, and Carlos was there to help them learn how to have fun and to not be afraid to be crazy. Logan, being the family's friend since they were kids, he was always there for them to give, what he would consider, a professional opinion if they asked him for advice. But, most importantly, he was just there if they needed someone to listen. Kendall, one could argue, had all of that wrapped up in one as he knew what they were going through. As a kid, before his parent's divorce, his dad beat him. For the longest time, he didn't remember as he had blocked out the memories, and his mom waited until he was old enough to understand what happened before she explained it to him.
"Turn up the radio, so what if we lose control, get a little bit rock and roll. So throw your hands in the air."
Carlos started waving his hands into the air, humming the rest of chorus as he did an odd dance-like wiggle in his seat. He quickly finished Rhuben's ice cream before getting to his feet, doing a "raise the roof" motion as he spun in a circle. "Doesn't really matter if it's wrong or right. Do the way you do it, do it like nobody's around. We can do it like nobody's around."
"Come on, dance with me," Carlos said, reaching over to grab her hands. Her arms flopped around as he danced this way and that, but she continued to sit on the bench. "You know the moves." He grabbed the abandoned spoon in one hand and started to mouth along to James's part of the song. "Someday when you're alone and feeling whatever, you're gonna remember the times."
He then held the microphone in front of her mouth and grinned when she started to sing. "When we were dancing alone at home and fake microphones. I hope those memories can make you feel oh, alright."
"See? Fun, right?" Carlos asked, continuing to dance along to the music, despite it slowing down to a slower part of the song. As soon as the chorus came back in, Carlos gave Rhuben's hands a hard tug, practically pulling her onto the floor of the mall. "So put your hands in the air—come on sing with me."
Rhuben made a face before starting to dance along with Carlos, doing spins and throwing her arms into the air. Carlos let out a loud laugh as she took his hands and the two of them did an odd skip, run, and spin in a circle as they sang, "do the way you do it, do it like nobody's around. We can do it like nobody's around."
"You know," Carlos said as he gave her a hug, breathing a little hard, "when you smile, really smile, your whole face lights up." He took a step back, putting a hand on her head, looking down at her. "You should do it more often."
"I would if I had reason to at times like this," Rhuben replied, although she had a small smile on her face. But, Carlos knew what she was talking about. She was always depressed a little bit right before and right after Dak left for another show.
"You can't wait around for happiness," he pointed out. "You shouldn't rely on other people to make you smile; you should do it yourself." He then thumped himself on the chest. "And I'm going to make myself happy by getting some more ice cream. Would you care to join me? Cookie Dough?"
"Boofhead," Rhuben said with a laugh before moving to get her bag of purchases. "Sure. That sounds bonzer."
A/N: So, I was thinking about this as a one-shot after listening to the whole song. And I always thought Carlos would be the type to dance crazily in the middle of a mall. So, this is set during season 4, the first fic I've done for it. We've updated our BTR timeline (it's on our tumblr which you can find the link to it in our profile) to include season 4 and will be posting fanfics for it soon. We just have to get through more of Season 4 first to figure out how some our fics could work with its plotlines.
Hope you guys liked it. I've got some more one-shots coming your way real soon.
Cheers,
-Rhubes