A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with a new update! I'd like to give a huge thank you to Breanna Dominque and winterschild11 for reviewing the first chapter!

Like I said, I'm kinda nervous about this story since I've never really done anything like this before, but I know I've gotta step out of my comfort zone. I'd also love some feedback so that I can improve my writing

I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter Two

Pulling the front door closed behind me, I jogged down the front steps and fell into step behind James and Kendall. I was close enough to catch snippets of their conversation, but far enough away that they were sure to leave me to my thoughts. Thoughts which, given the strange lunch conversation yesterday, were filled with insults tossed my way by my own roommate.

Okay, so maybe he didn't come right out and insult me, but the face Kendall made when James had said that we might be good together wasn't exactly flattering. Kendall's reaction had been nothing like mine had when James made the suggestion. It wasn't as if we didn't have things in common.

Besides working pretty well together on the hockey team, Kendall had a way of appealing to my sense of humor that often had me laughing at the smallest joke. And I just got Kendall, reading him as well as any book when he thought he was being clever or hiding what he didn't want others to see. He had a soft heart with a great body and a way of bringing a smile to my face just by teasing me or trying to bring me into the action.

Being his friend was sometimes like being caught up in a whirlwind, one that usually left me feeling flustered and winded. Of course, that could be put down to the feelings that I'd rather not mention. The sad fact was, Kendall acted like anything more intimate than beating me at hockey three times a week would be a punishment.

Would it? Kendall could be pushy and loud and aggravating- all the frustrating things that sometimes made him a less than ideal roommate. And there were definite drawbacks to beginning an intimate relationship with a roommate, especially with another person in the house. Lack of privacy, a shift in expectations for intimacy, not to mention what would happen if it all fell apart. Not that any of this mattered. The entire possibility was rendered moot because Kendall couldn't see it happening.

This is wrong.' I thought to myself. 'Allowing myself to feel this way again just because Kendall doesn't want me.' I guess this was a case of reverse psychology. I thought I'd gotten over my crush a while ago, but as soon as Kendall implied that he wasn't interested, those old feelings of inadequacy made me want to prove to him that I was worth wanting. Which was childish. Silly. Not worth either of our time to prove something Kendall didn't care to know and I knew wouldn't change anything. But it was the principle of it.

Although, now that I thought about it, proving the point could only get me in trouble that I didn't need.

The problem now was, the idea had been planted. Nothing I'd said or done before had gotten the blonde to notice me that way, but that didn't mean it couldn't be done. After all, I hadn't tried the direct approach. That could end well, or… it could end with me questioning how I'd developed anything as hopeless as a crush on someone who'd put me firmly in the platonic friend category.

As much as I knew that it was a bad idea, I was sure that a large part of me had accepted the challenge. I only hoped that the sane part of me could intervene before I did something I can't take back.

I was brought out of my thoughts as James glanced over his shoulder before turning to face me and walking towards me, leaving Kendall behind as he shifted his gym bag on his shoulder.

"It's okay if you actually wanna walk with us to practice, you know." He said with a small smile.

I smiled a little before starting to walk towards Kendall to close the distance, James following by my side.

"I figured Ken needed some private time with you so he can seal the deal."

"Uh, no." James said, grabbing me by the elbow before gently shoving me towards Kendall. "I think this is a good time for you two to get to know each other."

"You can't be serious." Kendall said. "We've been sharing a house for two years. We know each other well enough."

"I meant something a little deeper. Logan only knows that you leave your stinky socks in the bathroom all the time and you know he likes to cook spicy garlic chicken at two in the morning." James said in a teasing manner.

"Hey, only when I'm studying." I said defensively.

"And when you want the house to smell like Chinese food for two days." Kendall muttered.

"I opened the window and turned the fan on last time I cooked." I said with a shrug, not missing the way Kendall rolled his eyes.

"Which just made Carlos invite himself over to eat. Speaking of which," He said, looking around before scanning the sidewalk behind us. "where is he anyway? Is he going to be late for practice again?"

Again, as if the one time Carlos had been late for practice had been a world tragedy. Of course, to Kendall, anything that affected practice was a big deal. But even before Carlos had joined the hockey team, I had noticed Kendall hadn't really taking to our attractive neighbor.

I guess something about having another hot guy around triggered his territorial instincts. Carlos usually happened to pop up at most of our favorite hangouts, and received more than his fair share of male and female attention, not that he really noticed. Anyway, the only way for Kendall to assert his dominance was to order Carlos around at practice, often chastising him more than the other players.

Of course, Carlos took no notice of this. I doubt anyone else noticed the rather subtle attempt at an ongoing rivalry on Kendall's part, but I noticed everything. If there was one thing my years of studying clinical psychology had taught me, it was that no detail was unimportant. And if the tone of the blonde's voice when he mentioned Carlos was any indication, not was the perfect time to defend him, or else we'll all be skating extra laps just to make up for Carlos daring to act outside of their coach's strict timetable.

"He might be late." I said, remembering that Carlos said that he had a few things to take care of before practice. But thankfully, he only would only be a few minutes away from the rink. "He has a few errands to run for his dad before practice. But he'll be a few minutes away from the rink so he shouldn't be too late."

"Good." Kendall said. "I want to go over a few things with him before the next game."

I didn't miss the bright smile he gave me, making my heart skip a beat in the process.

"I looked through your playbook. I still believe a good hockey play is about acting on instinct, but I think we can implement a few of your ideas into our next game. We'll even try some of them out today." He said, making me give him a bright smile of my own.

That was pretty high praise coming from our picky coach. It was a wonder he'd gone through my play book at all. Kendall's idea of a strategy was often to yell at someone to go left and further out in the middle of a game, but the casual coaching style worked for the most part. Players felt safe to react in the moment and the other teams found our unpredictable style difficult to counter most of the time. It didn't hurt that pretty much everyone was fast on the ice and a few of our larger players were a little rougher than most.

"Instinct is fine, but sometimes you have to have a good game plan." I said casually.

"Yeah, speaking of plans, you know what he's doing right?" Kendall asked as he motioned ahead of us. James had taken off down the sidewalk, a figure in the distance that grew smaller by the second. "He's serious about this crazy plan of his."

'It's not that crazy.' I thought to myself.

"I don't know what you're worried about. He can't set us up if we don't want to be." I said.

"I'm not worried." He countered. "I just don't like that he's trying to push us together. It'll be awkward."

"It won't be awkward. We just ignore him. Though you're not so good at that, are you? Every time he brings Lucy home you freak out." I pointed out.

"His bedroom is next to mine."

"By your own choice."

"So you're saying you don't like me coming into your room in the middle of the night to escape the noise?" He asked with a teasing grin.

"I'm saying that when he gets up in the morning and sees you coming out of my bedroom, he probably gets ideas about what kind of roommates we are." I said. "You do have a lot of friends with benefits."

"Used to." He corrected. "I don't do that anymore."

"Got tired of it?"

"Everyone's getting into relationships. Hard to play without a playmate. And to tell you the truth, I don't hate the idea of being in something long-term myself." He said with a shrug.

"So why don't you? It won't be hard for you to find someone."

"Good to know you think I'm hot." He grinned, making me start to blush when I realized my mistake.

It was at that moment that I grateful that he couldn't read me as well as James could. That little quip about how good Kendall and I would be together hadn't come out of nowhere, and I blushed so much that I was sure the blonde would notice. But as it was, Kendall felt nothing more than platonic friendship. And apparently, annoyance with my cooking habits.

"I think you have your own gruff charm. You know, for an attention whore with boundary issues."

Though I'd said it with a casual, joking air, I had come off a lot harsher than I'd intended. And I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

"What?" Kendall asked, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk for a few seconds before taking several steps to catch up with me. "Is that your official diagnosis? What brought that on?"

"Nothing." I said before letting out a sigh as we reached the rink. "Just that I can see why you don't want to be set up with someone, especially me."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you sure you want to hear this?" I asked hesitantly as we walked inside, continuing when Kendall nodded his head. "Think about it. I wasn't kidding yesterday when I said you want what you can't have. You are charming, to a lot of people. You have no problem going out and meeting guys, talking to them, buying them drinks, whatever gets them interested in you. If you don't want to be alone in bed, you don't have to be. And you say you don't hate the idea of being in a relationship, but the person you want is someone you know you'll never have." I said, feeling like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders as I said what I've been wanting to say to the blonde for a while now.

We stood there in silence for a few seconds before he finally spoke up again.

"Do you… do you like James too?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yes, I'm attracted to him. He's hot, he's a good friend and a great guy. But I have no illusions of where that's going. I guess it's different because you've known each other since you were kids, and you've kissed once, but it's obvious to everyone else who knows him that he'll never want to be with a guy. You've been friends for years, and you've lived alone together for a few months before you got me to move in. If it was going to happen for you, don't you think it would've happened by now?"

"Not if he's not ready."

"Right. If kissing you when you were thirteen and being at your side pretty much every moment since didn't make him ready, what will?" I asked finding that I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eyes during my little speech.

It was difficult enough telling him the harsh truth when the whole situation was really none of my business, friend and housemate or not. I was the last person who wanted to discourage someone from pursuing a dream, even if it was pointless. I supposed that wasn't practical for a future doctor/therapist, but I rarely allowed myself the indulgence of analyzing my friends and advising them the way I would if they were my patients. I wouldn't like it if it was done to me, and I could tell from the stiff set of Kendall's jaw that he wasn't thrilled with what he was hearing. Still, I had to get it all out there. This might just be the last chance I'd get to tell Kendall exactly how James and I saw the situation.

"My point is, you're great at connecting with people when you want to." I continued. "You're the life of the party and there's a lot about you that someone could appreciate, if you gave the right someone a chance. But you constantly surround yourself with people who don't want what you say you want because you're holding out for a fantasy. And James loves you like a brother so he's not going to outright reject you. He would never hurt your feelings that way. But he sees the way you look at him and trying to set you up is his way of saying it's not going to happen."

With that being said, I finally allowed myself to look up at Kendall again. His gaze was on James, the best friend who would never reciprocate his feelings.

"I get that you're not into me, but you should know that when James realizes it's not going to work with us, he'll try and set you up with someone else. He wants you to be happy and he knows he's not the guy to make that happen. At least, not in the way you want him to." I added.

A long silence passed before Kendall asked.

"How do you know that's what he thinks? He's never said anything like that to me."

"James and I talk. That's why he said you should get to know me better. He has and for some reason he thinks we'd be good together."

I hadn't realized it until my speech was over, but James' concern about Kendall had been a frequent topic lately. James was serious about getting Kendall settled down with someone, not only because he cared about the blonde, but also because he didn't want Kendall to be alone when he got more serious about his girlfriend. For all my own unresolved feelings, I wanted him to be happy, and I would give just about anything to be the reason for his happiness.

"He told you all this about me?" Kendall asked as he turned back towards me. I tried to read his expression, but he broke eye contact after a few seconds.

I started to study his profile and frowned. This is what I had been afraid of, that opening my big mouth would possibly cause a rift between us. It was probably unsettling for Kendall to learn that his friends had discussed his private life in that much detail, but the truth of it was, we did it because cared about him. I only hoped the way Kendall was avoiding looking at me didn't men more than shock at my words. The last thing I wanted was to hurt him in some way.

"No, some of it I guessed." I said. "You were right earlier. We do know each other well enough. At least, I know you."

"You're saying I don't know you very well?"

"I'm saying you won't let yourself. You only see me a certain way, which is fine, because we're good as just friends, right?"

With that said, I leaned down, reaching into my bag to pull out my playbook before handing it Kendall.

"Come on, let's start warming up. I'm ready to get things started."

Done! I've gotta say, I'm proud of how this chapter turned out! This is also the longest chapter I've ever written!

(P.S. Sorry if there's any mistakes! I wrote most of this on my tablet.)

So this chapter was kind of a filler, but you all got a look at Logan's character and also what his relationship with Kendall is like. You also got a peek at Kendall and James' history together.

I'm still kinda on the fence about continuing this story, but I'll see where it goes from here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! I'd also love to hear if you had a favorite part in the chapter! :)

Next chapter, you'll get to see Carlos! There will also be a sweet Kogan moment! I'm hoping to have it up by next weekend!

Until next time!

-Epically Obsessed