Authors Note- Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, here's the next. Not going to lie guys, I wrote 3 of the chapters in one day haha however, I like to make sure that I am completely done with the following chapter before posting one. Anywho please enjoy this chapter, things sort of take off in this one. So please, R&R and be nice! And of course, enjoy! :)

Chapter 2- Saying goodbye

James awoke the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock, he quickly dismissed it and sat up in bed, rubbing gingerly at his eyes. It was bright for 7AM, even in California it didn't seem so bright, then again his room did have a lot of windows here in Minnesota. He heard his door creak open and his mom poked her head in his room.

"Good morning sweetie." She cooed, walking into his room and sitting next to James on his bed. He let out a yawn and stretched his arms .

"Morning mom, when do you leave for your trip?" He asked. He was sad that his mom was leaving as soon as he got home, but he understood it was for business. It was a great opportunity for his mom to grow her business and he was happy for her.

"Soon honey, you're fathers bringing me to the airport after breakfast, come down and join us. I made your favorite, chocolate chip pancakes." James could feel his mouth water. That was his favorite meal of all time, but when his mom made it, it was just that much more amazing. He smiled

"Mmm sounds delicious!" He cheered. "I'll be down in a minute, I just want to get dressed." His mother smiled and exited his room. James hurriedly stood up, shoved a fresh pair of pants on and a clean teal shirt before heading down stairs to meet his parents for breakfast. He walked into the dining room and his mother was fixing them all plates in the kitchen, while his father was sitting at the head of the table reading a section of the newspaper.

"Good morning dad." James exclaimed happily. He was glad his father was being so nice. He hadn't had a mood swing yet, and he was hoping it would stay that way.

"Morning son." James' father set the paper down on the table for a brief moment to shoot a smile at him. He took a sip of his coffee, which was black, as usual, and then continued reading the paper. James' mother walked into the kitchen with the plates of food.

"Breakfast is served my loves, I hope you enjoy it!" She laid a plate in front of James' father first, then in front of James and then she sat down at her seat across from James at the table. The family enjoyed their breakfast. The pancakes were cooked to perfection, they were light and fluffy yet rich with plenty of chocolate chips. James was in hog heaven. When they finished their breakfast, James thanked his mother for the amazing meal and offered to clean up.

"Aw thank you sweetheart, but you don't have to." She smiled and grabbed hers and Steven's plates. James smiled.

"No, I'll get it mom." He gently took the plates from her, as well as his plate and headed into the kitchen. James cleaned the plates and the silverware, he also cleaned the pans she used to cook. He set everything in the drying rack and headed back into the dining room where his mom was adjusting her new heels.

"Aw, are you leaving now?" James asked. He tried not to sound sad, but he was. His mother smiled, wiped his hair out of his face and kissed his cheek.

"You're fathers waiting for me in the car honey, I'll be home in a few weeks." She grabbed her suitcase off the floor and headed towards the door.

"Oh, James," She started, pausing before opening the door. "Make sure your father goes to his meetings."

Meetings, that was code for his psychologist. It helped him deal with his bipolar disorder, it seemed to really be helping, so James knew he'd make sure his father went.

"I will mom, once a week?" He asked taking her suitcase from her, he wasn't going to let her leave without him helping her out somehow.

"No sweetheart, it's twice a week now." She smiled and opened the door.

They walked out to the car where his father was waiting. He popped the trunk so James could throw the luggage in it. James gently closed the trunk. He walked to his mother and gave her a warm embrace, kissing her on her cheek once more.

"Bye mom, I love you. Have fun! Se safe!" She smiled and sat in the passenger seat of the car waving her son goodbye

"Bye James, I love you honey! I'll see you in a couple of weeks!" His father started the car and drove away. James walked back up to his house. His mothers presence being gone made it not seem so...homey. He entered the house and walked upstairs to his bathroom where he started a warm shower. His phone rang and he answered before he got the chance to hop in. The caller ID read "Kendall". James answered his phone.

"Hey man, what's up?" James, still fully clothed leaned against the bathroom sink.

"Hey man, you still coming over?" Kendall asked.

"Yeah, sorry I'm running late bro, my mom left for Florida this morning, I wanted to spend some time with her before she left." He stated, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"Florida?" Kendall asked, he could hear Carlos in the background asking 'what about Florida?'.

"Yeah, she had to go on business, she'll be gone for a few weeks," James cleared his throat. "But hey, I'm just going to take a shower and I'll be right over, ok?" He finished beginning to unbutton his pants.

"Alright bro, see you soon." Kendall stated. "See ya soon."

James closed his phone, slipped out of his pants and boxers and removed his shirt. He hopped into the shower. At first he just let the hot water rush over him. It was soothing and the pressure felt amazing. Soon he reached for the shampoo and commenced the actual bathing aspect of his shower. Once he finished, he grabbed a towel, ran it around his body to dry it and finally wrapped it around his waist. James walked into his room, rummaged through his still packed suitcase and grabbed a clean pair of boxers. Throwing them on he walked back into the bathroom and threw on his clothes from earlier which were still clean since he had only worn them for breakfast. James brushed his teeth with his favorite toothpaste, the crest whitening one. He also gurgled with the corresponding mouth wash. He finally went into his room, grabbed clean socks out of his suitcase and threw on his black slip on Vans shoes. James finally walked down stairs, walked out the front door, locking it behind him. He began his trek to Kendalls house.

Kendall didn't live far from James, in fact, all of them lived rather close to each other. Carlos lived the furthest, and his house was only 4 blocks away. All were within walking distance, but Kendall only lived across the street and 3 houses down from James. He reached Kendall's front door in no time. He gently knocked on the door and immediately Katie, Kendall's little sister answered the door.

"Hey James!" She exclaimed, the little Knight had always had a huge crush on James. He smiled at her and patted her on the shoulder.

"Hey Katie, Kendall in his room?" He asked. Katie nodded her head and invited James in. He walked up stairs to Kendall's room. Kendall, Carlos and Logan were all sitting on the couch in his room.

"Finally!" Exclaimed Logan. "We were about to leave without you!"

'Leave without me?' James thought to himself, when he remembered that they were planning on playing hockey.

"Oh, sorry about that, I-" James was cut off by Carlos.

"Who went to Florida, and why didn't they invite me?" He huffed. James smiled at his friend, Carlos was like a child. He got worked up over the silliest things.

"My mom did, and I'm sure she would have loved all of us to go but it was for business." James finished. Suddenly James felt a rush come to his head, he instantly felt dizzy. He sat down on the couch next to Logan to try to hide it. James was the kind of person to never get sick, he never felt 'off'. So feeling dizzy was something new to him. He rested his head in his hand as he waited for his friends to start pushing hockey practice. After he sat for a few moments the dizziness seemed to fade away, James was relieved.

"So, off to play some hockey gents?" Kendall asked excitedly. They all enjoyed playing hockey, but Kendall loved it and he was clearly the best at it. He dreamed of one day going pro. They all headed down stairs to meet Kendall's mom.

"I'll be in the car, boys." She went outside, Katie followed. The boys grabbed their hockey equipment which was stored in Kendall's garage. They headed to meet his mom at the car. St. Paul Minnesota was a small town, no hockey rink. So they drove for a while to get to one. They finally arrived, the drive took about an hour. They all exited the vehicle and made their way inside, where they all suited up and got on the ice. At first they were all a little wobbly, it had been a year since any of them had played. But skating a few laps their legs got used to it again and they began playing.

Logan took his place as the goalie, like always and the others swatted the puck around back and forth. Kendall was the first one to shoot it towards the goal, but Logan blocked it with ease.

"You're losing your touch there, bud." Joked Logan throwing the puck back on the ice. Kendall laughed and snatched the puck back up, he shot it at Carlos who pushed it around the ice for a small length of time before James snatched it from him. Kendall tried to steal the puck from James, but James shot it at the goal. Logan grabbed for it but missed.

"Good shot James!" Exclaimed Logan once again tossing the puck back onto the ice. James smiled. He was proud of himself, normally Kendall was "the man" at hockey, but today James was actually doing better than him. Kendall came up and patted James on the back.

"Great shot, dude!" They both smiled.

James skated towards the puck once more when he suddenly felt another dizzy spell. He stopped in his tracks as the room began spinning. Carlos took this chance to grab the puck. Kendall, however noticed James stop. He also noticed when his legs started to buckle under him. Kendall skated to James as fast as he could and caught him just in time.

"James, dude, are you okay?" Kendall asked, holding James up by his arm.

"I..I'm fine." James stated. He was annoyed that he was dizzy again. He was even more annoyed that anyone noticed it. James snatched his arm from Kendall and tried to steady himself, only to find himself being caught by Kendall again. 'Dammit' he though.

"Hey man, I'm going to bring you to the bench, you need to sit down. I'll get you some water." James wanted to tell Kendall no, tell him that he was fine, but, he couldn't. His head was spinning and he knew he would have face planted onto the ice had his friend not been supporting him. So instead, James nodded in agreement.

James was sitting on the bench when Kendall brought James a styrofoam cup filled with water. He drank the cup and thanked his friend. The dizziness was now gone, but James still felt off.

"I think that's enough practice for the day!" Kendall shouted onto the ice at his remaining friends who had continued playing. The boys joined them at the bench where Kendall's mom met them.

"Time to go home boys, did you have fun?" She asked with her usual sweet smile. Carlos bragged the entire walk to the car about how amazing he played and how he won because Kendall and James forfeited. They all climbed in and arrived back to Kendall's house after a car ride that seemed to last forever. When they arrived, Carlos and Logan said their goodbye's as they walked home. Kendall and James walked inside and they both collapsed on the couch. They were both sore from hockey, they were playing for over an hour before James started feeling ill. Kendall looked over to his friend.

"Hey James, what happened out there today dude?" He asked, concern plastered across his face. James cleared his throat. He didn't really know what to say, or how to explain it for that matter. He just got dizzy.

"Nothing." He finally explained.

"Nothing? Dude, you practically collapsed." Kendall reached to his friends shoulder.

"You can tell me if there's something, anything wrong with you." He stated. James shot a half smile at his friend, he knew he was just being a good friend and caring, but he really didn't want to talk about it.

"Hey man, I'm fine," He started this time patting Kendall on the shoulder. "Thanks for hanging out today bro, hockey was fun. See you tomorrow?" He asks. Kendall shoots a smile at James. He was genuinely worried for his friend but he could tell he didn't want to talk about it.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," He stated. James stood up and grabbed the door handle to go home.

"Oh, James," Kendall called. James turned and faced his friend. "Feel better, okay?" James just smiled and nodded walking out the door, closing it firmly behind him.

James opened his front door as quietly as he could. He hadn't realized how late it was already, he had spent the entire day with his friends, playing video games, watching movies and playing hockey. He never realized how true the saying "Time flies when your having fun" really was. He closed the door and locked it. He also turned off the front porch light.

James glanced at the time on the front of his phone which read 10:18PM. He was just happy his father was in bed. Steven Diamond was a firm believer of a curfew, and James' was 9:00PM on a school night, whether school was in session or not. James headed towards the staircase when he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. James stopped dead in his tracks. He had spoken too soon.

"It's late James." His father stated in a deep firm voice. "Way past your curfew." He continued. James turned to face his father.

"Yeah, I'm sorry dad, we played some hockey and the game was really good and we just-" James gets interrupted by his father, who's mood had clearly changed.

"I don't care to hear your fucking excuses!" He screamed in James' face. James' eyes widened. He hated when his father would get like this, he knew it would take a lot to calm him down after that.

"Listen dad, I'm sorry, I-" James was cut short. His cheek stung and his neck hurt from a sudden motion. His father smacked him. James placed his hand on his cheek. His fathers been known to yell or argue, but hitting him? He had never done that before. It scared James.

"D-dad..you...you hit me.." James stammered. He was physically shaken by the occurrence.

"Shut up." His father said quietly.

"But, dad-" James started, walking towards his father.

"I said shut the hell up!" Steven Diamond, once again screamed in his sons face, but this time instead of slapping him, he reached his arm back, formed a fist and punched James in his stomach. He hit James so hard that he dropped to the floor gasping for air, it knocked his breath right out of his lungs.

James laid there. He groaned out in pain. He had never been punched before, it was a very painful thing. But the most painful part of it, was that his dad was who threw it. Steven Diamond stepped back and examined the sight of his son, wreathing in pain on the floor.

"Oh God.." He began, James looked up at his father.

"Oh God, James I'm..I'm so sorry I.." James let out a small gasp when his father grabbed his arms to lift him to his feet. His body stiffened as he expected his father to hit him again, but the pain never came.

"James, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you, I've had a hard day at work, I miss your mother. I was hoping to get to spend some time with you but you were with your friends all day. Son, I'm so sorry." James stared at his father. The man who he used to look up to as a child, the man who was his rock once was now the man who had just physically harmed him. And yes, his fathers tears seemed sincere. James could not help it.

"It's...it's okay dad." He started.

"No, it's not. God I'm so sorry James.." He trailed off with another sob. What James did next was not something he wanted to do, but he felt that he hadto. He wrapped his arms around his father in an embrace.

"It's okay dad, I forgive you...I forgive you."

Ending Authors note- Hope you enjoyed, I hope I'm explaining the emotion thoroughly enough. Haha Chapter 3 will probably be posted tomorrow, depending on when I finish writing Ch. 4. :) Also, to kind of explain more into things. In the last chapter when Kendall's mom dropped him off at his house, it was because they just came home from the airport. She dropped the other boys off first since she lives across the street from James. Kendall and Katie werent in the car because she dropped them off first because they were tired. That's why it was just her and she was driving. haha. Anywho, please R&R. Thanks for reading! ;P