Do It Right
"CARLOS!" Gustavo shouted, his voice shaking with anger. The music stopped, and the four boys stood in the sound studio, obviously out of breath.
Carlos looked up from the sheet of music he was holding. "Yeah?" He asked innocently.
"THAT WAS… HORRIBLE!" Gustavo continued angrily.
Carlos shrugged. "Uh… sorry." He muttered, not wanting to meet any of his friends' or Gustavo's eyes. He knew he was failing them. He was a complete failure when it came to singing. He couldn't get any of the notes correct until he attempted to sing them over and over again. His voice always cracked when he sang a new song.
Gustavo sighed, obviously frustrated. But he decided that he was way too exhausted with the dogs to yell at them anymore today. "Alright… I'll see you dogs tomorrow. 8:00 sharp. Get out of here!" The four boys started scrambling out of the sound booth, grabbing their bags and running out of Rocque Records.
Carlos was last to leave, and was about to shut the door, when Gustavo stopped him. "Helmet dog!" He yelled gruffly. "Come back in an hour. We have got to work on the new song. You are completely failing it." Gustavo ordered him. Carlos nodded quickly, wanting to get out of there and hang out with his friends.
Carlos jogged back out, looking for Kendall, James, and Logan. He didn't even know why he was friends with them. Kendall was naturally amazing at singing and dancing. He was the one Gustavo had really wanted at first. James was so committed he would never make too many mistakes at once. He was talented like that. Sometimes, he could control how many stupid mistakes he made. If he stuck to something, he would always achieve it. Logan was smart. He knew the pitches perfectly because he'd studied them. He'd read books about them. That's what Logan did. Read and study about everything. But it helped him.
But Carlos didn't have any natural talent when it came to singing and dancing, like Kendall did. All he was naturally talented at was hurting himself over and over again. He wasn't committed and always determined like James. He couldn't even pay attention to one thing for a minute. His mind jumped from one thing to another in seconds. No one except for him could ever catch up with it. He couldn't study and read like Logan could. He failed almost all of his tests and quizzes and stuff. He tried to study, he really tried his best, but his brain just couldn't process all of the information. Carlos couldn't do anything his friends could.
"Carlitos!" Carlos looked up and found James waving his hand in front of his face. "Carlos! Are you alive back there or what?" James continued, chuckling. Carlos forced a cheerful smile and kept on bouncing along the sidewalk towards the limo. He didn't even notice that he had already caught up with his friends.
"Having a great time in Carlos World?" Logan teased him, ruffling Carlos's black hair. Carlos smiled.
"Yep. I had an awesome time!" Carlos grinned and jumped onto James, who was startled and almost fell.
"Dude! Not cool! If I had fell, what would've happened to my hair?" James yelled dramatically. Kendall and Logan rolled their eyes. James was such a drama king sometimes. Carlos just giggled, forgetting why he had been upset a minute ago, and kept on riding on James's back until they finally arrived at the parked limo. James pushed Carlos off of his back, and quickly called shot gun. Surprisingly, no one argued. They were all too tired and exhausted from dancing and singing for 8 hours straight.
"Ugh, I never thought I'd be saying this, but I wish we had school instead of this…" Kendall muttered. Logan and Carlos quickly agreed. James whipped his head around and glared at them.
"Guys, if we quit, then my dream will be all over! I'll just be a lonely freak living with cats!" He shouted. James was growing moody and cranky since he was tired and annoyed of everything lately. All the long practices and his friends pretty much threatening to destroy his dreams were really taking its toll on him.
"We know, James. We know. Trust me." Kendall replied, tired of James's ambitious desire to become famous and get a bunch of fan girls. Honestly, that was what Kendall wanted, too. All their life they had loved it when girls obsessed over them. That hadn't happened a lot, but when it did, it was heaven for all four of them. Especially James.
James snorted and turned back around. The driver of the black limo rolled his eyes, annoyed and amused at the four boys' silly arguments and conversations. It happened everyday, and frankly, he was quite used to it. But it still amused him sometimes that these boys never got bored of talking about the same stuff every day.
When they finally got back, Kendall left with Jo to wherever they were going, James left to go find yet another girl to date, and Logan went to try and sneak into an all girl's Science class.
Carlos sighed in relief. At least no one would be there when he had to sneak away from the apartment to go to Rocque Records again. He wouldn't have to lie and say he was going somewhere else when there wouldn't be anyone asking about it. Carlos was usually upset that no one was there to play with him, but this time, he wasn't. He was actually pretty grateful. He didn't want anyone finding out that he was too stupid to sing an easy song.
Carlos took a quick shower, and was getting ready to leave to go to Rocque Records. He was putting something back into a drawer when he smashed him hand as he was closing it. He yelped in pain, and quickly slid down to the cold ground.
"OWW!" He cried, tears forming in his eyes. He quickly brought his injured pointer finger up to his chest, cradling it gingerly. Gosh, it hurt so bad. Carlos took a glance at it and saw it already started throbbing, the whole of his finger starting to turn purple. Carlos decided to suck it up like a real man, and quickly hurried out the door.
The wind outside was cold and chilly, but it wasn't even winter time yet. Fall had just started, and Carlos had to avoid stepping into mushy piles of orange, brown, yellow, red, and green leaves. He stuck his uninjured hand into his jacket pocket, and started jogging. The weather was getting colder and colder by the second, and it was only about 4:30 in the afternoon.
Carlos jogged and jogged, staring up at the sky and looking in awe at the pretty birds flying up there. The clouds looked like snowy mountains, and the sky was as blue as-
Carlos yelped in surprise when he crashed head on into a pole. He saw stars in his vision for a few painful seconds. Carlos cleared his head and kept on walking faster and faster, his eyes on the ground, trying to ignore the stander-bys laughing at his stupidity.
His stupidity. A lot of people laughed at Carlos. Carlos hated it when someone laughed at how stupid he was, or how dumb he sounded. It made him feel so stupid when someone laughed at him and not with him. Carlos knew he wasn't the smartest guy ever, but he didn't like it when people shoved it in his face. Sometimes, when he would do something stupid, like crash in a pole like he did just there, his friends would just laugh until they cried. They made Carlos feel so dumb. So useless in life and every other thing.
And now, walking to Rocque Records, Carlos couldn't help but feel more useless than he ever had before. He was the only one who couldn't get the stupid song right. He had to take up Gustavo and Kelly's precious time just because he needed extra practice. He kept his friends behind, too. They could've been totally famous by now if he hadn't needed to start the songs over and over again when he messed up completely and lost his place. He was such a... bad singer.
Before he knew it, he had made it to his destination without farther embarrassing himself. He took a deep breath before slowly entering the studio. When he saw Gustavo's face, Carlos knew his boss wasn't happy. Carlos sighed, bracing himself for more ear splitting yells.
Surprisingly, Gustavo just muttered a quick and reluctant "hello" when Carlos walked in, and told him to get his butt into the sound booth. Carlos quickly did what he was told, and put his headphones on his head. Carlos was used to the routine, but what he wasn't used to was his ears not ringing when he got into the sound booth due to Gustavo's yelling.
Gustavo his red pen down, and sighed heavily. Carlos bit his lip. Gustavo was getting so tired of him; he'd probably fire him soon.
"Sing." That was all he said. Carlos didn't need to be asked twice. He started singing as accurately as he could. He tried his best, he really did. He thought he got every note correct. He thought he'd actually achieved something for once.
But when Gustavo silenced him and started screaming about how Carlos messed up every note, Carlos knew it was too good to be true. He would never get it right. He'd be here forever, until his hair turned white and Gustavo's turned… really, really, white.
"Carlos! Start singing correctly or there will be horrible consequences!" Gustavo exploded, completely fed up with Carlos's horrible singing. Carlos nodded without a word, and started singing the same phrase again.
"That. Was. HORRIBLE!" Gustavo shouted through that little microphone he had on his sound control thing. Carlos winced when he felt his ears ringing. Ouch. Carlos took his headphones off when Gustavo kept on yelling, not wanting to be here ever again. He never wanted to be a singer. So why should he be doing this now?
Because he was scared. Scared that his friends were going to leave him if he didn't agree to go to California with them. He was scared that he'd have no more friends when they were gone. That was probably the only reason why he agreed to start a singing career.
Carlos felt water in his eyes. He was such a crybaby. But he didn't care at that moment. He couldn't take this anymore. Carlos sniffled and ran out of the booth. Out of Gustavo's messy office room. Out of Rocque Records. Out of their lives. Carlos ran and ran and ran, until he had no idea where he was.
Carlos wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his warm jacket. But even with his warm jacket, the wind was freezing him to an ice cube. Carlos shivered and sat down on the sidewalk. He didn't know where he was. He was scared. He was lost, and no one ever knew it. Carlos hugged his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth, whimpering and shivering.
He was a failure. He couldn't get the song right, and now Gustavo completely hated him. Now he would ruin his friends' dreams. He messed up again. Yet again. He was always the one to mess up. He was always the one to ruin it for everyone.
When Carlos finished crying and sobbing his head off like a baby, he decided to call Kendall. Kendall was like his big brother; he'd do anything to help Carlos. And Carlos knew he needed quite a bit of help right now.
"Kendall?" Carlos said after the phone ringed three times. Kendall answered, his voice filled with concern.
"What's up, buddy?"
Carlos bit his lip. "I'm kinda lost at this place…" He trailed off, not even knowing where he was at. He didn't even know what street he was on. Stupid him. Stupid, stupid, Carlos.
Kendall sighed in concern. "Where at?"
"I… I don't k-know." Carlos admitted, feeling embarrassed and scared. It was getting really dark, and Carlos was starting to feel… frightened. The dark seemed endless, like he was forever stuck in some maze that he could never get out of.
"Wait… okay, I know where you are." Kendall said quickly, sounding like he was already starting the engine of his car.
"What do you mean?" Carlos cried.
"Tracked your phone." Kendall replied, sounding like he was smirking and worrying at the same time. Carlos smiled slightly. Leave it to Kendall to do something devious like that. But this time, Carlos was grateful for Kendall's strange tracking-the-phone system.
"I'll be there in 5, okay?" Kendall asked him.
Feeling relieved, Carlos replied, "Okay." And then Kendall hung up. Carlos sighed and put his head in between his legs, feeling exhausted and tired. He was hoping that Kendall would come quickly. He was feeling tired, scared, useless, and worried that Kendall could find out. Find out that Carlos was a failure.
When Kendall arrived, Carlos got up and ran towards the car. He sat in the passenger seat, since no one was there to fight with him. Kendall grinned at Carlos, feeling relieved himself, and Carlos closed his eyes and sighed.
"Thanks, Kendall." Kendall just nodded and kept his eyes on the road. It was night, and he didn't want to get Carlos and him into an accident.
The drive home was silent, except for the times Carlos coughed or when Kendall sneezed. The two boys finally got back into the apartment. James and Logan were waiting for them curiously, wondering where they were.
In fact, the first thing Logan said when they arrived was, "Where the heck were you guys?"
Kendall smiled and wrapped an arm around Carlos. "Carlos here got seriously lost, so I had to give him a ride back. Carlos looked down, and started thinking about what had happened at Rocque Records. He blinked several times to keep his tears in his eyes, but it was no use. Carlos sniffled, and a warm tear ran down his cheek.
"You're crying, buddy." Kendall pointed out lamely.
"What's wrong?" James added, looking worried and concerned.
Carlos didn't' want to tell them. He really didn't. But he couldn't keep it in anymore. He started sobbing into Kendall's chest, telling them about everything. How he always needed extra practice after rehearsals, and that today he had completely freaked and ran out of Rocque Records. Kendall rubbed his younger friend's back in circles, telling him not to cry.
"And, and now Gu-gustavo h-hates m-m-me." Carlos got out, finishing his long and surprising story. James, Kendall, and Logan just stared at Carlos in shock. Why hadn't Carlos ever told them? They could've helped. They really could have.
"Why… why didn't you tell us, dude?" James asked quietly, not wanting to upset the sniffling Latino even more. Carlos just shrugged.
"I-I thought you guys would k-kick m-me out." Carlos admitted. "I'm a failure." He added.
The other three boys stared at each other in shock. "No you aren't." They said at the same time, not even noticing it. Carlos looked up and smiled.
"R-really?" When the other three nodded Carlos let go of his firm grip on Kendall's shirt and hugged all of them one by one. As tightly as he could.
"You know, Carlos? We could help you if you want." Logan suggested. James and Kendall nodded in agreement.
"How?" Carlos asked. There was no way his friends could help him when the legendary Gustavo couldn't' even help them. Logan's eyes shined and he smirked.
"You'll see."
A few minutes later, Carlos was singing pitches with Logan and James. Kendall played the notes on his guitar, and Carlos learned to match all the pitches. He found that after a few unsuccessful tries, he could finally get them right.
He found also that he could concentrate and feel more important when no one was yelling into his ears, insulting everything he did. Carlos knew Gustavo didn't mean it, but maybe he should go to a therapist or something to get checked on his anger management issues. Just maybe.
Next, the four helped Carlos work on the new song they had. Carlos found that he could do rather well when he was bribed with corndogs. He got so many phrases correct that he threw up from eating too many corndogs. But no matter how sick he felt after that, he knew this was the best moment of his life. He could do something correctly. Just like his friends could.
The boys rehearsed until about 11:30 at night, singing and singing, dancing and dancing, until they practically fell asleep on their dirty old floor. Before they fell asleep, though, Carlos quickly said something that his friends really deserved to hear.
"Thanks, guys. I love you."
"No problem, buddy. No problem." Carlos didn't know who had said it, because he was slowly drifting off to sleep, too.
Four boys passing out from exhaustion on the cold wooden floor in the middle of the night, one thinking that he finally wouldn't be getting yelled at the next day.
The End.
A/N- Wow… 2,883 words, not including this author's note. Most I've ever written for a chapter. I'm proud.
I hope you guys like this! I worked on this for such a long time, and now I am feeling ACCOMPLISHED! Yay! I love that feeling I'm having at this moment.
Please review and tell me what you think? Please? I'd really appreciate it, and I'll try to write more one shots soon! Love you all!
-Anonymous Skrtle