Chapter 1 Midnight phone calls

It's the middle of the night and everyone in apartment 2J is sound asleep. Suddenly a phone rings in the distance. Jennifer Knight is the first to wake up from the sound. She gets out of bed, puts on her robe and hurries down the stairs. She picks up the cordless phone.

In another bedroom are four more sleeping figures, all sprawled out over their beds. Soft snoring can be heard from two of the figures. Slowly their door creeps open.

Jennifer Knight walks towards one of the beds, gently shaking the sleeping figure.

"No, mommy, I don't want to go to sleep.." Jennifer tries not to chuckle at the mumbling coming from the helmet-wearing boy.

"Carlos, sweetie, wake up." She tries again and gently shakes him again. He moans slightly before turning towards her and squinting his eyes open.

"Was going on?" He slurs, sitting up a little.

"Honey, you're mom is on the phone for you." He looks confused, but grabs the phone out of her hands.

"Maybe you should take it in the living room." He looks around, realizing everyone is still asleep and walks out.

"Hey mom, what's going on?" His voice fades into the background as Jennifer stays sitting on his bed. She takes deep breath and eyes the living room with great concern.

"Mom? What are you doing here?" She looks up to see her son looking down at her form the top bunk.

"Nothing, sweetie, just go to sleep."

"Where's Carlos?"

"He's on the phone with his mother."

"His mother? But it's like 3AM right now. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, it's just the time difference. I think she may have just forgotten."

"Mom? What's going on?"

"Nothing, Kendall. Just go back to sleep." She says as she tries not to cry. Kendall has noticed however and rushes off his bunk.

"Mom?" He asks again. She looks at him, realizing he won't let it go.

"Carlos' dad got shot tonight." His eyes go wide.

"Is he okay?" Jennifer just shakes her head.

"No, sweetie. He didn't make it…"

"Oh my god… Poor Carlos…"

"What about Carlos?" James yawns from his bunk a little too loudly, making Logan shoot up and hit his head on the ceiling.

"Ouch."

"Whoops, sorry Logan. But seriously, what's wrong with Carlos?"

"His dad got shot."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, he's on the phone with his mom right now."

"But he's okay, right?"

"He didn't make it, guys." Everyone is silent for a moment.

"Wow… poor Carlos… I hope he's okay..."

Just at that moment Carlos walks back into the bedroom. Everyone stares at him in silence, not really knowing what to say. He walks towards his bed and hands the phone back to Mrs. Knight.

"Thanks for the phone, Mrs. Knight." He quietly says.

"Honey, I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you."

"Carlos? Do you want to talk about it?" Kendall asks.

"What's there to talk about? My dad died, the funeral will be held in a week."

"Carlos.." Logan starts.

"I'm fine, alright? Now can I just go back to sleep?" He asks, an angry tone in his voice.

"Uh, yeah, of course. I'll just be in my room if you need anything. I mean it Carlos, if there's anything, just come and find me, alright?"

"Thanks, Mrs. Knight, but that won't be necessary." He tells her as he lies back down in his bed, his back facing the room.

Mrs. Knight opens her mouth to say something else, but she decides against it and walks out.

"We're really sorry about your dad, Carlos. He was a good guy." James says, but Carlos doesn't respond. "Carlos? Are you still awake?" But he is met by silence again. He gives up and lies back down himself. The other guys follow his example, but the exchange a worried look with each other. Tomorrow they'll sort this out.

Carlos just lies there, staring at the wall, his arms crossed. He waits until soft snores take over the silence, before sitting up a little. He reaches for his helmet and takes it off his head slowly. He looks at it for a second, before dropping it into the trashcan next to his bed. He lies back down, back to facing the wall once again.

Silence fills the room once again, but now all his friends lie awake as well. Their minds filled with worry as they all witnessed their best friend let go of the one thing he never seemed to go without.

The next morning the three boys find carlos' bed empty. They share worried glances and run inside the apartment. Then they stop suddenly, seeing Carlos happily eating at their dining table. Kendall shares a glance with his mother, who just shrugs. Katie sits at the table, eating some cereal, but is really staring at Carlos as well.

The guys head towards the table and sit down as well.

"Hey, Carlos. You're up early."

"I'm always up early." He just announces and continues to eat.

"Sure, no, that's true. We just thought, maybe you'd want to sleep a little longer today." James tells him.

"Why would I want to do that? Look outside. It's sunny and amazing, I just want to go and stay outside all day long." He says with a big smile.

The boys share another look.

"So, what are we going to do today?" James asks to change the subject.

"We're going to the studio for rehearsal, remember?" Kendall tells him.

"Seriously? Today?" James replies, shooting a look towards Carlos.

"You know what? You're right. We should just call Gustavo and tell him we can't we be there today. I'm sure he'll understand."

"Why wouldn't we be able to be there?" Carlos suddenly asks.

"Uh, because… because we could use a day off. I mean, we've all been pretty tired lately, so… a day off might work." Logan suggests. The others nod while smiling.

"Hm. Okay." Carlos says with a shrug. "Oeh, that means I can go hang out at the pool today!" He says with a big smile.

"Uh, I was thinking maybe we could just watch a movie together and you know, hang out." James suggests.

"But the weather is so nice today. I am heading to the pool." Carlos says again as he gets up and puts his bowl into the sink.

"Watch a movie?" Kendall asks James.

"Well, that way we could at least talk to Carlos alone. I mean, he's acting weird."

"No, he's acting normal."

"Guys, he's just in denial. It's normal when someone close to you dies, you go through several stages of grief. The first one is denial." Logan explains.

"So what can we do?"

"All we can do right now is just help him through it by acting as normal as possible."

"Okay, I think we can do that." Kendall says and James nods in agreement.

After a while of rushing, they are all dressed in their swimming trunks and a shirt as they start to head outside. They head for the four lounge chairs they always sit on, but suddenly find one occupied.

"Oh, great, now we can't all sit together." James whines.

"I'll handle this." Carlos suddenly announces, walking over to the guy lying on the bed. He is listening to music and bopping his head to the beat with his eyes closed. The other guys look on curiously at hat Carlos will do.

"Hey, buddy!" he shouts. The guy doesn't respond. To their shock, Carlos just pulls his earplugs out of his ears, making the guy look at him in surprise.

"What the.."

"You're in our chair." He responds coldly, with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Uh, excuse me?" The guy asks.

"You're in. Our chair." Carlos replies slowly.

"Uh, Carlos, it's fine. I'll just go swimming." Kendall tells him. But Carlos isn't listening anymore.

"Get up." He orders.

"Look, I don't see your name on here. I live here too, so I can lay in this chair if I want to." The guy angrily says back, before closing his eyes and putting his earplugs back in.

The guys look on in shock as they see Carlos' hands turn to fists.

"Carlos, what are you doing?" James asks, but again his friend doesn't listen.

Carlos walks towards the guy, roughly pulls his earplugs out. He then proceeds to pull on the plugs until the music player comes with it. He grabs it and throws it awa as hard as he can.

"Dude, I paid for that with my own money. I worked hard for it!" The guy shouts at him.

"Get. Up." He hisses at the guy.

"No. You owe me a new iPod." The guy states as he crosses his arms now too while lying down.

"Okay. If that's the way you want it." Carlos says with a smile as he turns towards his friends. They breathe a sigh of relief and smile too.

But suddenly everything seems to go in slow motion as Carlos turns around, screams and grabs the guy's shirt. He puts all his strength into it as he pulls the guy upwards, out of the chair and then throws him into the pool full force.

The guys stand looking with their mouths open in shock at the guy spluttering in the pool. They look at their friend who has now gone to sit in the chair. He has a big smile on his face and happily pats the two chairs beside him.

The guys look around and put up a small smile for Carlos just to make sure he doesn't freak out. They put up their hands and mouth sorry to all the Palmwoods friends who are staring and whispering in shock.

Then their looks go back to their friend, who is now just grinning widely with the sunglasses he just put on, acting like nothing ever happened.

Oh boy…

No, this is not the angst story I mentioned that I would be putting up after Big Time Bonding. There is plenty of drama though and I just love the idea of it.

I hope you like it as well, just let me know what you think.

I'll soon start posting chapters for my angst story as well. I have two ideas for that actually, but I'll write one at a time ;)

Anyways, thanks for reading and until next time

Love, Baxxie