A/N: Hello, you sexy sporks. This right here is a one shot written for "Semi Official BTR One Shot Day" and it took me a while to figure it out. This started off as an original story I started long ago with Kendall as my muse, but I've turned it into a fanfic for all of you to enjoy. It's a mix of real-verse and show-verse, so be warned. Okay, bye!
Disclaimer: I do not own Big Time Rush, the band Heffron Drive, or the song "Time Wasting."
Misfits and Melodies
It continued to amaze me how the social circles moved and connected here in California. I had only been here a month and a half and I had already met more people than I had spoken to during my entire high school career. But then again, that wasn't much of a comparison as I had never talked to many people. I was lucky that I had managed to make the few friends I had so quickly during that first week at college. It was those same friends who had convinced me to break out of my shell a bit and had dragged me to the many parties and kickbacks all over Los Angeles and the surrounding cities.
After about the eighth one, I had gotten used to them enough that they no longer made me nervous. So as I walked through the door of yet another stranger's house behind my friends James, Camille and Jo, the only thing I felt was hope that I didn't detract from any of my friends' fun. I still had yet to do more than stand in the corner alone or sit and absorb the conversation around me, occasionally laughing or giving some other response but never really contributing, and I only danced if they absolutely forced me to. Camille led me to the kitchen while both James and Jo went straight to the heart of what appeared to be another kickback instead.
You would think with how nervous about every other aspect of parties I was that I would be paranoid about getting in trouble for teenage drinking, but when it came to alcohol, I was surprisingly calm about it. I've never had more than one drink at a time though, so I've never been drunk, which in my opinion, is a good thing. I'm positive it would affect me in all the wrong ways. We got our drinks before making our way back to the living room. Jo waved us over to where she had snagged us a few seats on the crowded beige sectional sofa. I immediately fell into my role of the quiet tag-along friend. In this role I was free to observe everyone.
People watching was a favorite pastime of mine. It was like collecting data for an experiment. Being the smart kid had made my parents worry that I would be bullied, but surprisingly no one ever did. Instead, I was basically ignored. I wasn't a complete outcast, as there were a few people I spoke to besides my best friend Carlos, – who stayed in Minnesota to play hockey – but it was usually confined to just the class I shared with them. Many times during the lunch hour in high school I had to eat alone because Carlos had tutoring or some other thing to attend. So on those days, I spent that hour sitting alone in the hallway or in the library with a physics or medical textbook in front of me as my only company. I had discovered that people spoke freely of their problems with no regard to my presence. So now, just as I had in high school, I watched and listened.
Jo had engaged some other girl in a conversation about their favorite places to shop, but I quickly skipped over that as I wasn't a guy particularly cared about what was the height of fashion for girls these days. I was a simple skinny jeans, v-necks and vests kind of guy. James had wandered out of my hearing range, though I don't think I really wanted to hear him anyway as he was currently giving a very flirty smirk to some girl in the corner. Then I noticed that Camille was leaning into my side a little forcefully and I turned my attention to her. From the looks of it, she was trying to ignore the advances of two guys that looked as if they spent too much time surfing. I listened as they invited her to come to their beach house in Malibu and dropped pickup lines that made me wonder if the accumulation of lots of water in your ears could cause the loss of brain cells. I would have to research that.
"Baby if you were a wave, I'd ride you all day long." Really?
"Hey boys, why don't you two go try chatting up the door over there? I'm sure it is much more your level of intelligence," I said rudely.
Sorry, but they were starting to annoy me. They both scowled and looked like they might say something, but I quickly grabbed Camille's hand and led her to a different location. No need to cause a scene.
"Thanks Logan, but I could have handled them myself. I've done it enough times before," she said as I brought us to sit in two unoccupied chairs against the wall that separated the dining room from the kitchen.
I only rolled my eyes, but I knew that she was telling the truth. Camille was gorgeous. She had a perfect complexion, beautiful brown eyes, and long, wavy hair that was nearly the same dark chocolate color as her eyes. She was the type of girl I could fall for. That is, if I actually liked girls.
Camille and I talked for a few minutes before she got up to get another drink. I knew it would be a while before I saw her again because Camille was one of those people who liked to talk and made friends with everyone. No doubt she would talk to nearly every person she passed on the way back. I sipped the last dregs in my cup as I looked around, not bothering to get another one. As my eyes scanned the small crowd of people dancing, laughing and having a much better time than me, my ears detected the soft strumming of a guitar. At first, I thought someone had changed the music that had been playing lowly, but then I realized that the upbeat pop song was still playing, and no, the guitar wasn't a part of it. I looked around again, and caught sight of the guy, nearly hidden from my view on the other side of a china cabinet against the adjacent wall to my left. I stood up, curious. I had always wanted to play guitar, but I never felt I had the time to learn with all my school work and studying. Though, I did play the violin once upon a time for a few months in the fourth grade before I realized my dream of becoming doctor.
I set my empty cup on the dining table as I passed around it and took the lone chair that was pushed in from it. The guy didn't look up as I set the chair in front of him and sat down, his beanie clad head still bent over the cords he struck so fluidly. With this closer proximity, I could hear that he was singing along softly with his strumming and his voice was actually really good. I listened silently for a minute, enthralled by his music, and I was suddenly surprised when he struck a sour cord, letting out a quiet "Dang it!" before he finally looked up.
He gave me a startled stare, but he quickly smiled back at me as I flashed a grin. He had pale green eyes that held flecks of gold and brown, and I could see bits of dirty blonde hair sticking out from under his beanie to fall over his forehead. But what really got me were his eyebrows. How could eyebrows that thick be attractive?
"Um, hi?"
He said it like a question and I could tell that he was slightly embarrassed to find me listening.
"Hey. You're really good," I said, impressed.
He smiled again, this one more genuine than the first. And when he did, the cutest dimples poked out. This guy was gorgeous.
"Thanks. I've been working really hard on it," he told me, twiddling his guitar pick between his fingers.
"Wait, you wrote that?" I asked, even more awed.
"Um, yeah, me and my buddy Dustin. We've got this two-man band thing going on called Heffron Drive. We basically just named it after the street we live on. Oh, I'm Kendall by the way. Kendall Schmidt," he informed me, sticking a hand out, and I immediately grasped it.
"I'm Logan Mitchell. And I think that's pretty awesome. What's that song called?" I asked.
"I'm thinking of calling it 'Time Wasting' but it doesn't have an official name yet," he answered with a shrug.
"I think that's a great name. Are you guys working a record deal or something?"
"Well, that'd probably be the ideal thing, but for now we're just posting on MySpace and we're both actors too, so we've only been working on our music between auditions. I actually have this big audition for a TV show Nickelodeon coming up that I'm pretty excited for," he told me, that amazing smile in place.
Wow. I've always imagined that when I finally found a guy that I liked, he would be in medical school, or working towards medical school, and share a lot of my characteristics and interests. Not some hipster type aspiring actor/singer. But I'm definitely liking this one.
"That's really cool. I hope you get the part, Kendall," I said, probably grinning like an idiot.
"Thanks, me too. So what do you do?" he asked.
What if he thinks that I'm lame and doesn't want to talk to me anymore?
"Um, I'm a student at USC. I wanna be a doctor, you know… bleep blap bloop," I revealed, cheeks heating at those three words that always slip out when I'm nervous.
"Really? Awesome-sauce. You know, helping people and saving lives is probably one of the coolest things I think anyone could do for a living."
I'm pretty sure my heart just stopped for a moment there. He thinks I'm cool. But wait, Logan, don't get too excited. There's no way that he's gay. I'm just gonna have to content myself with just being a new friend. If this goes any further than a casual meeting at a party, that is. Damn, I hope so.
I was just about to speak up again when Jo turned up, obviously on her way to get a drink.
"Hey, Logan! Oh, wow, are my eyes deceiving me, or are you actually carrying a conversation with someone at a party? I thought you would never stop being a wallflower," she teased. My cheeks reddened. She turned to Kendall, taking in his appearance. "Hi, I'm Jo, Logan's friend," she introduced herself with a grin.
"Kendall. You two go to school together?" he inquired.
My heart sank a bit and I prepared myself, because I just knew he was going to flirt with her. How could he not? Jo had perfect golden blonde hair, beautiful tanned skin and had a stellar personality. Why did all of my friends have to be so attractive, while I'm so not?
"Yep. Logan here is kinda shy, but he's great when you get to know him," Jo informed him and I smiled.
If it had been Camille, she would've been in full flirt mode by now, but Jo had to warm up to a guy before she threw anything the slightest bit suggestive his way.
"Is that so?" Kendall turned his attention back to me, amusement in his eyes. "He doesn't seem shy at all to me."
If it was possible for me to blush any darker, I'm sure I just did. It hadn't even occurred to me how uncharacteristic it was of me to approach him first. I guess curiosity overruled my usual behavior.
"Well, I have to admit, I'm kinda jealous. It took me two days of forced conversation to get him to open up to me, and here you are getting him to act like a normal social being in what couldn't have been more than 20 minutes. Logan, I'm starting to think that maybe you like girls a lot less than you think."
Oh my God. Why? Now he's really not gonna want to be friends after this. The horror I was feeling must've been apparent on my face because Jo winced in sympathetic apology. I didn't dare look at Kendall. I heard him laugh lightly and I probably would've melted at the cuteness of it if I wasn't so mortified.
"I can't tell if you were joking about Logan possibly being gay, or if you were saying he might be gayer than he realized," he admitted, and I just wanted to die.
I know that if he and I were to actually become friends in the future that he would have to find out eventually, but not right now. I was afraid that he would judge me based on being gay and not me as a person. But I guess it was too late and there was no point in lying. Well, it was a nice conversation while it lasted.
"Uh, well I'm gay, so I'm guessing it was the latter," I said slowly, cautiously.
"Oh. Then in that case, I'm no longer offended," he informed us with a quirk of his lips.
Now I was confused. Why would he be offended? I was just about to ask when he continued speaking.
"I'm actually gay, too."
Holy balls. I definitely didn't expect that. I could feel my mouth drop open and I tried my hardest to correct it in a timely manner. My heart pounded in excitement. What were the odds of this flawless human being having the same sexual preferences as me?
"Oh, cool. And I'm glad we cleared that up because I really would hate to offend you. I have absolutely no problem with boys liking boys or girls liking girls. You love who you love, right?" Jo reasoned with a shrug while giving Kendall a reassuring smile.
"Absolutely right. And Logan, you don't know how glad I am to hear that you're gay, because I would've been so embarrassed when I asked you out and it turned out you didn't like guys," Kendall grinned at me.
When? Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but did he actually mean 'when' and not 'if?' Because that would mean he planned on asking me out and it wasn't just a possibility in the future. If this wasn't the greatest moment of my life…
"Um, I don't know Kendall, I think maybe it's the other way around," I said, a bit of shakiness in my voice.
"I'm just gonna go…" Jo trailed off before she walked away, but I kept my attention on Kendall.
"So you wanted to ask me out?"
The grin on his face and those adorable dimples were too much. Ugh.
"Of course, I mean have you seen those dimples? But I most likely wouldn't actually do it," I confessed.
"I could ask you the same question, Logan. You've got some pretty impressive cheek dents yourself. And aw, c'mon, you've gotta have more confidence in yourself. Even if I didn't like guys, I would probably consider saying yes if you did, just because you're so hot," he said.
Is this real life? Did this angel just call me hot? I must be dreaming. I guess, as long as it's a dream, I might as well be bold.
"So how about it then? Would you go on a date with me?" I asked him.
He sat there a moment, adjusting the forgotten guitar on his lap and tapped the guitar pick against the smooth wooden surface.
"Yeah. I could see myself with a guy like you, Logan."
He really was trying to kill me with all these comments. Stop it, please. Thank you, kindly.
"Well that's good. Would you maybe wanna go on it now? It's only like 9:30 so I think we still have plenty of options," I offered.
"Why not? Let me just go find my friend Dustin and let him know I'm leaving, and then we'll go," he said, putting his guitar away in a case that laid on the floor beside his chair.
"I should probably do the same thing. Meet me at the door?" I asked, standing up.
"See ya there, sweetheart," he told me with a grin.
I turned and entered the kitchen in search for one of my friends, a stupid grin on my face. This was definitely the best day of my life, and it would only get better.
A/N: So I hope you liked it. I'm not sure how good I am at one-shots, because I just want to keep writing more of the story, but hopefully this came out okay. Please review, and tell me what you think! (:
