Give and Take

"Hey Logan, aren't you coming?" There was a slight pause. "Logan?"

"What?"

Logan looked up from his laptop, rubbing his eyes. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn't notice his friends, Kendall, James, and Carlos, standing beside him. And from the way that they were looking at him, it was obvious that they had been calling his name for a while.

"Sorry," he apologized quickly as he turned to give his friends his full attention. "What were you saying?"

"We have to get to the studio," James replied as he motioned to the sweats that he and his friends were wearing. "Like, right now." He made a face as he tried to peer at the computer screen. "What were you doing anyway?" He, Kendall and Carlos leapt towards the computer and Logan quickly slammed the top down.

"What do you not want us to see?" Carlos demanded as she tried to reach around Logan's back to grab the laptop.

"Nothing! Leave me alone!" Logan replied and then hesitated when he saw James and Kendall exchange a look. Logan knew what that meant. It meant that the two were only seconds away from manhandling the laptop away from Logan to try and look at what he was doing. Thankfully, he now had it when he closed his computer it would go to hibernate, causing them to have to try and find out his password. And his password was so simple that no one could figure it out. "I mean, let's get to the studio before Gustavo starts yelling at us.

"Ok then" Kendall raised an eyebrow, as if he still wasn't fully convinced but turned and left the apartment anyway. James and Carlos pouted as they looked at the laptop one last time, and then saw the stern look on Logan's face and turned and followed Kendall.

Logan let out a sigh of relief before following his friends out the door.

The four friends laughed and joked around as they headed towards Rocque Records and they knew that they were getting close as they could hear Gustavo's yelling get louder and louder. Kendall winced and hesitated for a second at the front door, as if trying to decide whether or not it was actually worth it to go in there and get yelled at. But he finally opened the door and led them all towards the dance studios.

Along the way, he paused, knocking on the glass door, and waved. James and Carlos waved too and it took Logan a second to see who it was, as he had to push his way to the front to see. He then gave a shy smile and waved too.

Sitting in the middle of the dance floor and stretching was their friend Rhuben Jackson. She and her three little brothers and her twin sister were part of the band the DarkElements and they also worked at Rocque Records. Either they had the day off or Rhuben had just gotten there early to work on a routine to teach her siblings as she was the choreographer of their band.

"Go on"

"What?" Logan looked away from the door and blushed when he saw his friends crowding around him. Kendall had a warm smile on his face.

"Go ahead," he repeated and gestured towards the door. "We'll let Gustavo know that you're running a little late."

"O-Ok," Logan replied before swallowing thickly. He had known Rhuben since they were kids before she moved away from Texas and when they were young he had a crush on her, since meeting each other again the crush had grown back and his friends definitely knew about it. He never really wanted to do anything about it because he knew how awkward things would be.

"Dude, you haven't moved." James remarked.

"I noticed." Logan muttered darkly.

"Do you need a push?" Carlos asked and before Logan could reply, he placed his hands on his friends' back and shoved him through the door. Logan fell down and rolled across the dance floor before stopping on his back, staring at the ceiling.

"Working on your ninja roll?" Rhuben commented from where she was sitting, not turning around.

"No," Logan replied and laughed nervously as he brushed off his clothes, standing up. "I was testing to see if gravity still works." He laughed again. "It still does."

"Don't I know it," Rhuben commented as she stood up and turned to face him, brushing a few loose strands of her black hair out of her blue eyes. "Just today we were acting like total idiots and jumping on our beds, you know because s kids you weren't allowed to," she smiled a little bit. "And Patrick bounced off the bed and into a wall. I ducked out of there before dad got home."

"Nice," Logan smiled back in reply.

"So what did you come by for?" Rhuben asked as she stretched her hamstring before slowly moving across the room in ballet steps. "And why didn't the guys stay?"

"Oh we have to work on our dance steps for The City Is Ours." Logan replied.

"When are we going to be able to hear it?" Rhuben asked as she stopped dancing and placed her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow. "I figured that since I'm your best friend," she paused. "Along with Riley," she added as an afterthought. "We'd be able to have some sort of privilege of hearing it before anyone else."

"It would ruin the surprise."

"I hate surprises."

"Yeah, I remember." Logan replied quietly and the two fell into a comfortable silence. "So, about this best friend thing…arrangement that we have going on…" he trailed off, waiting to see if he had her attention.

"Yeah?" Rhuben stopped dancing again and turned to face him as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"What would you say if I said to you that I didn't want to be friends anymore?" Logan asked quietly as he studied her gaze. Rhuben's eyebrow twitched as a hurt look slid into her blue eyes. It was then that Logan realized what he had said and hastily fixed it. "No! Not like that!" he cried as he waved his hands around. "I don't hate you or anything…I mean…I think you're really pretty…I mean…"

"Logan," Rhuben interrupted, holding a hand up to get him to stop talking. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Logan swallowed thickly and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "I've liked you for a long time and I just wanted to tell you because I wasn't sure how you'd react and I didn't want to ruin our friendship just in case you didn't like me back." He sped through his words and opened his eyes, blushing again. "And…yeah, that's it."

Rhuben stared back at Logan, arms still crossed over her chest and her eyebrows raised, but she didn't have the look of hurt in her eyes anymore. Now she had the look of…well, Logan wasn't sure what the look was because she could be as apathetic as she wanted whenever she wanted to. And it was really making him sweat now.

"Logie," she stated, using the nickname that she had given him when they were younger. "Do you remember back when we were nine and you had gotten that stupid little secret admirer note on Valentine's Day?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" Logan asked, confused.

"Wow, I thought you were the smart one." Rhuben muttered as she slapped her forehead before turning serious. "That was me." She explained and Logan's eyes widened. "Yeah, who would have thought that little ol' me, Rhuben Jackson the self-proclaimed tomboy would ever have a crush." She rolled her eyes. "Trust me; it wasn't easy seeing as you were my best friend. That and we were so young." She cleared her throat. "I didn't want to say anything, because like you, I didn't want to ruin our friendship." Her eyebrows furrowed together. "I would have thought that you would have figured that out, but you know guys, they aren't always the brightest.

"So what you're saying is-"Rhuben cut Logan off as she placed a hand over his mouth. She smiled and removed her hand before moving forward and kissing him. Logan couldn't help but smile when she pulled away; he had been waiting a long time for that. "Pick me up at 7, unless you want to get bombarded by my brothers." She stated as she picked up her bag and started to leave the studio.

"For what?" Logan asked in confusion.

"You're smart, you'll figure it out." Rhuben replied over her shoulder before leaving the room.

Logan's smile grew wider as he went to meet his friends in their own dance studio.