It was around the third week when the boys had finally had enough. The sighing was driving them crazy, the anger was making them tense, and the moping around was just seriously not cool. Never before had they found Kendall in such a rotten funk, and they were not going to put up with it for any longer. Jo had broken up with him- they had all seen it as pretty final. They had all seen it as pretty expected. It was like the blonde boy was the only one who hadn't noticed her eyes wandering and her smiles lessening. When she broke the news to Kendall, Logan had even been in the room, and he had thought they were having a regular conversation until Kendall's fists tightened and his body stiffened.

Jo had gotten upset too when he had, but it was the sort of upset girls got when they didn't want to seem like the bad guy. It wasn't built out of sincerity, but rather a long internal monologue of don't blame me, please don't blame me. As minutes turned into hours, though, there was little the boys could do but see through her false act. The forcefulness of Kendall's smile screamed that what was wrong with him had been entirely her fault. None of the boys had known what to do to fix that.

Even though Logan had been in the room when the breakup happened, he wasn't the first person to confront Kendall. He simply didn't have the chance. The blonde had stormed right past him from the pool towards the lobby, and hadn't even given the smarter boy a second glance as he made his way to the elevators. Camille would claim she tried to stop him from mashing the button to the second floor so hard, but Kendall couldn't tell anyone how forceful he had actually been. His eyes had just been red and his hands had just been shaky, and the first person who had tried to calm him had been James.

When Kendall came bursting through the door to 2J like the rest of the hotel was on fire, the brunette boy didn't even have to ask what was wrong. He had just stood from his place on the couch and followed the boy through the apartment, tearing open the door to their shared room as Kendall slammed it in his face. Seeing Kendall curled up on his bed like a frightened child was probably more painful than nearly getting hit by the door.

"Kendall, talk to me," he had pleaded, going over and pulling himself up onto the blonde boy's bed. Kendall had just tugged himself away, balling up closer and closer to the wall. He hadn't wanted to be touched or talked to or seen by anyone. Jo had broken up with him, Jo, and it was something he had never seen coming, something he had never expected. He thought he loved her. He had told her he loved her. For Valentines Day, he had bought her not one but two boxes of heart-shaped chocolates, and enough flowers to fill almost an entire Palm Woods room without leaving any space for people or furniture. His love hadn't been enough, though. It's not you, it's me, she had said, but it had to be him. She wouldn't have broken up with him if it wasn't.

"Look, Kendall, you have to talk to me." James had tried again. He had reached out to console, because he knew he would never feel right if he didn't try. The moment his hand touched Kendall's shoulder, the boy's body had unraveled like a snake, snapping out to smack the boy away. A week later James' face still boasted a black eye from where Kendall had struck him by accident, and a bruise on his bottom from where he had tumbled backwards off the bed. The shock he had felt from the blow had been so strong that for once, the anger he felt wasn't directed at the discoloration he knew would occur on his face, but rather the discoloration he could feel in his heart. He had make-up to cover his battle wounds with. What he didn't have make-up to cover was the gaping wound left in his chest that Kendall had just punctured. He had just wanted to help, and it had been thrown back at him full-force.

Three days after the break up, Kendall had started talking to people again, and the first thing he had done was apologized for the injury. A week after the break up, he was fine to wallow around the apartment. Two weeks after the break up, he would let the boys drag him to practices, but there was no gusto. Even Gustavo noticed a change in Kendall. He couldn't see the fire- and that was not good. Big Time Rush needed their front man, and they needed him badly. When the third week rolled around, and the boys couldn't take it anymore, Gustavo finally agreed to let the boys follow through with their ultimate plan to get their leader back in shape.

It is this third week, where the story truly started.

x x x

"Gustavo isn't going to let us do this," Kendall spoke loudly, watching James move around the room from the perch of his bed. The taller boy was going around and stuffing all the clothes he could fit into two hockey bags, a third smaller bag for his own cosmetic needs. To Kendall's annoyance, the brunette was also piling Kendall's clothing into a bag, although this one was much, much smaller than all three of James'.

James just scoffed over his work, turning to one of their drawers to pull out more clothes. "He already gave the okay, man," He said, holding up one of Kendall's shirts momentarily before chucking it in the direction of his bag. If Gustavo had given the okay, it meant Kendall had no choice but to go. The producer didn't exactly hand out vacation time like meal tickets to the homeless, and someone must have seriously pulled out the puppy dog eyes to get him to say yes. The idea made him feel like a bit of an asshole. Had he really been so out of it that the guys would beg for an entire month of practice off, and to drive around in a hippie van, no less?

Guitar Dude offering to let them use his van on their journey made no sense at all to Kendall. Yeah, they'd gone to some of his parties in the past, and it was no lie that when it came to weed, the guy always had the best stuff, but those facts didn't exactly make them close. Guitar Dude should have had no reason to let them use his transportation, and Kendall being skeptical should have been considered only natural. "And Guitar Dude seriously said we can use his van?" He asked again, for what must have been the fourth time.

Before James could open his mouth to answer, Logan was popping his head in, giving Kendall a mildly distressed look. "Yes, yes he has offered to let us use the van, and you are going to thank him bountifully. Just try and deflect him when he asks to tag along, yeah?" He said. That was something else Kendall didn't understand- Logan's aversion towards their stoned friend.

"Dude, we're using his van, isn't it only polite to ask him along?" James asked, finally standing up from where he had been crouched on the floor, going over the bags. Logan groaned in response, but didn't argue, stepping out to finish his own preparations.

James clapped his hands lightly against his thighs. All the bags were packed, and it was just the daunting task of bringing them downstairs that lay ahead of him. Not that he didn't have the strength to carry all four bags himself- he was sure he could easily lift that much stuff without even breaking a sweat. It was more a worry of how awkward it would be to try and juggle four sizable bags down the Palm Woods elevator alone. Even the strongest and most coordinated person, such as himself, would find difficulty with that task. "Grab two?" He said, picking up two of his bags, one of the hockey bags and the smaller cosmetic one.

Kendall shook his head, but stood anyway and grabbed the remaining bags. The brunette boy tried hard not to smile at the muttering and complaining he could hear coming from under the other boy's breath. The blonde would complain, but James knew he would help in the end. Together, they hobbled towards the elevator and then out towards the front entrance, James happy to see that Logan and Carlos were already standing at the back of the van, piling their own belongings in- as well as those of one of the Jenifers?

"Did you know Jenifer was coming?" Kendall asked, leaning to whisper into the boy's ear. James shook his head. He was equally, if not more so, confused than Kendall was over the appearance of the curly haired Jenifer. The girl looked nice with her little white sundress and white sunglasses, but James had thought the point of the trip was to get away from estrogen, not bring more along with them.

"Hey, Carlos," He said, stepping up to the van and dropping his bags. Kendall gave him a nod, saying he would put the bags in, to which James smiled. Nodding himself, he turned, dragging Carlos with him. "Uh, man, what's up with the Jenifer?" He asked, tact not proving to be his greatest gift.

Carlos looked sort of embarrassed for a moment, his teeth worrying his bottom lip. "Well, remember when I was one of the Jenifers?" He asked, and James nodded. "Well, it was really inclusive, you know? Wear specific things, walk specific ways, eat specific things… You aren't just a Jenifer in title when you're with the Jenifers. And they just told her she can't be one of them anymore. She won't tell me why, but… she needs this, okay?"

Looking towards Jenifer, James knew he couldn't say no. While the girl looked nice in her dress and shades, her hair was frizzier than usual and her tan skin seemed one shade too pale. If she took off her shades, he knew he would find dark bags under her eyes. It didn't sit right with him to know that she looked the same way Kendall had the week before. "Just don't let her use my concealer, okay? It won't match her skin tone," He muttered softly, and Carlos beamed.

x x x

"So, dude, can I come?" Weed wafted off him in waves. Logan had to pretend that it wasn't familiar.

"It's not that I don't want you to come but… don't you have things to do?" He tried, and Guitar Dude let out a slow, stoned laugh. It was like the ultimate joke, asking if Guitar Dude had anything he really had to do. He made his living off playing lagging guitar songs for peace-loving girls, and sleeping in the park on mats. All he had to do in life was keep up the image he had adopted from too many hits and too many lazy days. If Guitar Dude wanted, he could make a road trip into his career, and knowing that made Logan feel stupid for asking.

"Man, you're too up tight," Guitar Dude said, pushing his large sunglasses farther up his nose. His other hand was resting on the hood of his van, and Logan didn't want to think about how close it was to him. "Just let me along, right? I pack light, just me, some clothes, my guitar, and some stuff. And I know how to keep my baby rolling. Maybe I'm not so hot with directions, but that's where you come in, right?" His grin was slow but his teeth were white, and Logan wanted to tell him that he wasn't as good with directions as everyone seemed to think he was.

"I have a GPS and a map?" He offered, and Guitar Dude let out another low laugh.

"Technology, man, but if it's what works."

Logan cringed. Yeah, technology. If it really worked, it would give him the position of the boy in front of him at all times. It would work as an anti-tracking device, allowing him to stay as far away as humanly possible.

"Hey, dude. Why so tense? Just chill. This will be fun. You remember fun?" The stoner asked with a frown, and Logon nodded because while he remembered fun, he also remembered blankets under the stars and hands to hold he didn't want to.

"Let's just hit the road." The dark haired boy mumbled, and that slow smile worked its way back.

x x x

"Are we there yet?"

"No, Carlos, we are not there yet."

"Are we there yet?"

"Carlos, there is no physical way we could be there yet."

"Are we there yet?"

"I swear, if your questions stress out my hair…"

"Are we there ye-"

"Nawh, dude, we aren't even out of LA. Chill. Relax. I'm trying to drive here."

And if anything in the world could make Carlos shut up, it was Guitar Dude telling him to do so. They'd been on the road for maybe two hours, and already sitting in one place was starting to drive everyone crazy. Somehow, Carlos and Jenifer had ended up in the back seat, with Jenifer's head in Carlos' lap. Neither of them seemed to see or care about the raised eyebrow Logan would shoot them when he turned around. No care was given to the space between Kendall and James either, though, which was about ten miles wide.

Ever distracted Carlos could even tell that there was a distance between the two, although he said nothing on the matter, more content to run his fingers through Jenifer's hair as she lay disconcert. She would smile at him, and giggle, but he knew it was just her trying her hardest to stay strong. Even if he wasn't the most observant boy alive, he knew the pain she felt was pain she would not let consume her.

Logan, on the other hand, was a very observant boy, and still he found himself stuck in situations that he should have easily seen coming. For example, if he had been paying attention to their conversation, he would have known that Guitar Dude would want him to sit up front with him. A navigator would be no good if he wasn't close enough to the driver to navigate, and he had so proudly boasted his GPS that there was no way he could be anything but temporary direction-finder.

"Is your friend usually so… persistent?" Guitar Dude asked him, and Logon shook his head. Persistent was one word to describe Carlos, but it wasn't the one Logan would use while trapped in a van for hours on end. Boredom was more likely, especially with Guitar Dude at the helm. Thrill wasn't exactly a high factor when a hippie was driving. The most exciting turn the trip had taken was a brief fight over the radio, in which Guitar Dude had wanted to play Bob Marley, Kendall and Logan had wanted classic rock, and James and Jenifer had been preferential to the new Britney Spears album Jenifer had on her person. Carlos had suggested rap, but everyone in the car had shot him down. After that, they had just decided to leave the radio off. The decision has started to weigh down on Logan. The silence was making him wish he'd just let the driver pick.

"Not really, just easily bored," He muttered, turning to look out the window. The GPS pinged and Guitar Dude changed lanes, heading off towards the unknown. Logan didn't even know why they had the device turned on. The nearest direction they'd picked was just 'Minnesota' and beyond that they had no clue. The idea was to just stop and pick things to do along the way as they saw them, a month of freedom to just roam wild and free as they pleased. So far, wild and free had been cramped and awkward, and the lack of plan had Logan's stomach gnawing at his insides. He wanted to have a plan to follow, or for someone to at least make a plan they could carry out. Not knowing was driving him mad, and staying put in his chair was doing no favors for his anxiety.

From the back Carlos groaned, bumping his head on the window and causing Jenifer to giggle. "Can't we take a pit stop or something?" He asked, "It's not like we're in a rush to get anywhere. Besides, my legs are cramping up." And to that statement, Jenifer sat up, poking Carlos' leg in the process. The boy hissed at his slumbering limb, sending the girl into another fit of humor.

"Just shake it out, man." James suggested, turning around. "There is nowhere around here that we would want to stop." Nowhere being the nice word to describe the desert they were in the middle of. All they could see in every direction was dirt, and occasionally heat radiating off the messily paved road. James was sure that if he got out of the car the sun and the heat would ruin his hair, and not in a nice, Palm Woods pool sort of way. At least there he could get away with claiming the slight frizziness to be some kind of surfer look. Out in the middle of the desert, with no beaches for miles, he was sure it would just look like sweat and disaster.

"Dude, you don't understand, I think it's going to get seriously stuck like this forever," Carlos whined, hitting his head against the back of James' and Kendall's conjoined seat.

"I'm not sure it works like that," Logan piped up, also rotating his body to get a better view of his friends.

"I don't care if it works like that or not," James said, trying to keep his distaste from his voice. "Can't you just stretch your feet out in Jenifer's lap or something?"

"With his shoes on?" Jenifer asked, and looked at James like he was stupid for even suggesting it. The brunette boy shot her the same look right back, his asking whether she understood the connection between awful dry heat and the condition of hair. Jenifer apparently spoke James' eye language, as she simply scoffed and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and looking out the window. "Just take your shoes off first," She muttered, and James internally danced, knowing he had won a small victory.

Carlos wasn't so pleased with the feat, but complied anyway, slipping off his beaten skate shoes before sliding and twisting to shimmy his feet onto the girl's lap. The brunette girl's nose scrunched up as the boy stretched, but if it was from the smell or the feet in general, no one could tell.

Logan was also not impressed with the decision to continue onward. The air in the car was getting unbearable with questions floating in the air. Where were they going? Why was James so adamant to not bump his best friend? Why couldn't Guitar Dude just leave him alone? His finger's started to fidget on the dash as he wondered, knowing none of the answers would come to him by simply thinking them over. Where they were going would be determined with talking, James' issue would be answered with time, and Guitar Dude… Logan wasn't even sure if he wanted to know that one. In fact, he was certain he didn't want to know it.

"Hey, what time is it?" James asked, peering out to where the sun was slowly making its way across the sky.

A quick glance at the clock on the dash said eleven twenty-six, but Logan knew that had to be wrong. They had left at noon, and time didn't travel backwards. "I think it's about two thirty?" He offered, his own internal clock only slightly less finicky than the one in the car. He'd have to find out what time it actually was when they hit a hotel, so he could set the car one to match. They'd never get anywhere if they didn't know what time it was, and Logan hadn't been premeditative enough to remember to bring a watch.

"Dude, we've only been out here for two hours?" The pretty boy moaned.

"Three," Kendall muttered, holding up his watch to show that it was in fact three oh two, rather than two thirty. This in itself did nothing to please James, although it did seem to make Logan a little bit happier, his fingers going to figure out the workings of the clock. A good twenty minutes passed before anyone bothered to speak again, and this time it was Jenifer, asking if Carlos had spread his stinky feet around long enough.

x x x

It was six when the hippiemobile finally pulled up in front of a rundown motel, its sign proudly boasting the most bed-bug free sheets in all of Nevada. James doubted the validity of the sign. Jenifer agreed.

"Are you sure we can't drive a little longer to find somewhere better?" She asked, turning her nose up at the squat lines of doors.

"No can do, man," Guitar Dude said, starting in the direction of the registry, "The little lady needs gas, and we might as well fuel up while we're at it." Logan had to agree that they all needed some rest. They didn't need to burn themselves out on the first day, even if Guitar Dude had been the only one exerting himself to drive.

"I can drive for a bit tomorrow," he offered, catching up to the long haired brunette and keeping in stride. Out of the four boys he was the only one with a license, and he was sure the fates had done their aging on purpose to keep all of them alive. He was originally going to drive the whole trip with just him behind the wheel, and as nice as it was to not have to drive, he also felt sort of bad making Guitar Dude drive the whole thing- especially since he didn't want Guitar Dude to be there in the first place.

"If you're driving, who is navigating?" Guitar Dude asked, eyebrow raised, and Logan gave him a look. He was smart enough to drive, and he was smart enough to read a GPS, but he couldn't do both at the same time?

"You are aware that the GPS can talk to tell me where to go, right?"

"But where would the fun be in that?" Guitar Dude grinned, opening the door to the registry and holding it open for his genius companion. The fun would be in not having to sit beside a weed-scented hippie, but the brunette didn't have the heart to say that out loud. "Anyway, tonight before tomorrow, dude," Guitar Dude said, going up to the front desk and asking the stuffy motel keep if he could have three rooms for a night, man. Financially, Logan knew he should have interjected and told the motel keep to make that two rooms, but he was far too exhausted to fight. They'd just have to be more frugal in other locations, he told himself, watching as the old lady handed the hippie three room keys, six, seven, eight.

He took the keys off Guitar Dude as soon as he could get them, heading out to pair off his squabbling friends. It seemed like James wanted to take more bags with him than Kendall though truly necessary, And Carlos and Jenifer were talking heatedly about something.

"She's a bitch," Carlos muttered angrily, his hands thrown over his head.

"Don't say that, you don't know her!" Jenifer hissed back, her own hands bunched at her sides.

"She kicked you out, Jen. What else would that make her?"

"Closer to me than you!" She seethed, her small body seeming to grow larger under her anger. "Logan," She suddenly snapped, whirling on him. "I am not staying in the same room as this guy." And Logan nodded, like it was completely understandable. He himself was going to ask if he could room with Carlos, if the opportunity hadn't been brought up by someone else.

"You can bunk with Guitar Dude," He said, tossing her the key. Guitar Dude gave Logan a frown, but went along with it anyway, pulling a backpack out of the back of his vehicle and trudging towards door eight with Jenifer stomping away in front of him.

Logan tossed the second key to James, who held it like a prize above his head before picking his two bags up, Kendall shaking his head and picking up one of his own. "Hey, Carlos," James asked, strutting over to him. "Do you think we could bunk?" And a strangled noise left Logan's lips.

"Actually, I was thinking you could go with Kendall?" He said, his face scrunching up with unease. James just blinked a few times, his eyes trailing from Carlos, to Kendall, to Logan, to Carlos. It was strange- it was almost like he didn't want to bunk with his best friend, who he had seemed so keen to help before.

"I'm cool with that," Kendall said, giving James little wiggle room to argue in. His face still read that he felt like he should have been given more options, but he managed to keep his opinions to himself, starting towards door six.

With the last key in hand, room seven, Logan quickly grabbed his bag and shut the van's trunk, hoping it had automatic locks because he had no form of key. With his luck, Guitar Dude probably didn't believe in locks, and everything in the van would be gone by morning. He shook his head at the thought. He was supposed to be on vacation, not wondering where all his stuff had gotten to.

Carlos and he had just made it over to their door when a scream split the air and James came bursting from his room, his bags still sitting in the doorway. "There is only one bed in that room. I can't do that, Logan, I'm not doing that." Logan's eyebrows shot into up his forehead, his hands quickly messing with the doorknob to find that inside his room he too only had one bed. Stepping around his bags, he made his way to Guitar Dude's door, knocking swiftly once and waiting for an answer.

"You got single bed rooms?" He asked as soon as the door opened, clearly peeved at the man standing over Jenifer's shoulder.

"They only had them, man," the stoner replied, brushing some hair from his face and stepping around Jenifer. "I'd have gotten two bed rooms if I could have, man. Just chill, it ain't so bad. Like sharing a mat, yeah?" Except sharing a bed wasn't like sharing a mat, and the last time he had done that he had woken up wondering why the fuck he was outside.

Groaning, Logan rubbed his temples, trying to calm himself. "Fine, whatever," he said, and Guitar dude smiled his slow stoner smile. The shorter brunette was not pleased with his pearly whites. "James," he said, turning back and walking towards his own room, "Man, you're going to just have to suck it up. Like when we had sleepovers as kids."

James' face read that this was no sleepover, but he turned his back on Logan anyway, stomping towards his shared room and closing the door behind him.

Why was this vacation starting to feel like a bad idea?