Here's the next chapter!
I want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, Favorited, and alerted this story. You guys rock!
Anyway, on to the story. Enjoy!
Rafael was restless. Why wouldn't he be? His brother had attacked his other brother. That was just messed up.
So here he was, awake at 2:38 in the morning, though he had work to go to, thinking about his previous day.
Rafael sighed, seeing as how he wasn't going to get any sleep even if he tried. He went into the kitchen and found something to eat. Well. Kind of. He found a pudding cup and made due with that.
The kitchen was next to the living room, so Rafael could see Carlos' sleeping form on the couch. He finished his pudding cup, and headed back to bed.
Every time he closed his eyes, images of Carlos had played in his head. First was finding Carlos on the living room floor with his tear stained face. Then, past images came up. He remembered six year old Carlos in the hospital after Omar pushed him out of the tree. He remembered Carlos crying to sleep the last time Omar came around years ago.
"Dios mio," Rafael breathed out as sleep began to creep up on him. He snuggled further into his blanket.
Then he heard footsteps entering his room. "Carlitos?" Rafael asked sleepily when he saw his little brother inching closer to the bed.
"Sorry Rafael," Carlos said in a small voice. "Did I wake you up?"
Rafael shook his head. "No. No, Carlos. What's up?"
Carlos looked down, almost seeming...embarrassed? "I-I had a bad dream. C-can I stay here?"
Rafael nodded. "Uh yeah. Yeah," he responded. His voice full of concern. He scoot over on his bed, giving Carlos enough room to climb on. Once Carlos was comfortable, Rafael asked, "You wanna talk about it?"
Carlos was silent for a while. And Rafael almost thought he'd fallen asleep until Carlos whispered, "It was about Omar."
"Was it about yesterday?" Carlos shook his head. "About another time?" Rafael guessed again. "What happened?"
Carlos got closer to his brother. "I...I d-died."
Rafael froze. "He killed you?" Carlos nodded. "Carlos, I'm not gonna let that happen. Ever."
"I know."
Rafael sighed. "I'm gonna pay Omar a visit soon. This needs to stop."
"No," Carlos protested.
"I'm tired of you always letting him get away with what he's doing to you!" Carlos jumped at the sound of his voice. "Sorry hermanito," Rafael started rubbing Carlos' arm. "But I gotta do something about this."
That's when Carlos raised his voice. "You don't understand! Omar came because Dad called him! He thought I told Dad about the slap I got from him a few days before! Omar said the beating was a reminder of what would happen if I snitched!" Carlos lost control and started crying.
Rafael tried to wrap his head around everything that his brother had just said. "Wait. Slap? He slapped you? When?"
Carlos cursed himself and his big mouth. "Th-the day he came by," he said between sobs. "He came by that morning before I went to Kendall's house. I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you guys but I just couldn't do it." Carlos put his head on Rafael's chest as he cried for seemed like forever.
Rafael rubbed Carlos' back until his breathing began evening out. Carlos had fallen asleep, leaving Rafael awake, wallowing in his thoughts.
Rafael finally fell asleep at 4:50. Too bad he has to wake up at 6:30 to get ready for work.
Carlos woke up with a headache. Strange, seeing as how he wasn't hit in the head at all yesterday. He glanced at Rafael's digital clock and saw that it was 11:45AM. He sluggishly got out of bed, feeling very hungry.
He discovered a note from Rafael on the kitchen counter.
Carlos,
I made pancakes for ya! They're in the fridge.
Don't worry about what I said last night. I won't talk to Omar...yet.
You and I needa figure something out together.
You might wanna call Logan.
See ya later.
Carlos smirked at his brother's "straight to the point" note. At least now the secret was still between him and Rafael...and Logan!
Carlos grabbed his cell phone and quickly dialed Logan's number. Hopefully, Logan wasn't quick in telling the other guys what he had witnessed. He gave a sigh of relief when he heard Logan answer the phone.
"Hey Carlos."
"Hey Logan," Carlos replied nervously. "Listen, I was calling about...last night."
Logan sighed at the mention of it. "I wish you hadn't kept that a secret, you know."
Carlos had already begun to feel guilty. "I know Logie. I'm real sorry. I was scared and Omar he's-"
Logan cut off Carlos' rambling. "Okay, breathe, Carlos. How are you feeling? You really scared us last night."
"I'm sorry. I-"
"Stop apologizing," Logan cut of once again. "It's not your fault. If anything, all the blame goes to Omar...and me. I shoulda never left you there by yourself."
"If you had stayed, he probably woulda hurt you too Logie! I'm glad you left. I woulda never forgiven myself if Omar had done anything to you!" There was silence on the line for a while, until Carlos heard random noises coming from the line. "Logie? You still there?" Carlos heard a voice. A voice that wasn't Logan's. "K-Kendall? Logan, is Kendall there?"
"He just now walked in I swear!" Logan was hoping that Carlos wasn't going to jump to conclusions.
Carlos heard Kendall ask, "What's going on, Logan? Is that Carlos?"
Carlos panicked. He didn't know exactly what to do. So he did what every panicked teenager does. He hung up. Quickly. He couldn't have Kendall finding out anything. It was bad enough that Logan now knew what was going on. But unlike Logan, Kendall's hard headed, and he's not afraid to confront anyone.
Carlos dropped his phone once it started ringing. Logan was trying to call him. He didn't know what to do.
He hated it, but he decided to not answer it. Carlos couldn't tell how the conversation would end up, and he couldn't afford another "slip of the tongue".
Carlos didn't know what possessed himself to tell Rafael about Omar slapping him the other day. Carlos also didn't know that Rafael knew the reason, and it was this: Carlos was tired. Not physically tired, seeing as how he slept for over fifteen hours during the previous night, but tired in general. He was tired of Omar. He was tired of not being able to do anything about Omar. He was tired of lying.
As he began heating up his pancakes in the microwave, he listened to the message Logan left on his phone.
"Hey Carlos. It's Logan. Look, you shouldn't have freaked out like you did. Kendall doesn't know anything about this. He just came to drop something off. But you can't keep this a secret forever, you know. If I found out about Omar the way I did yesterday, just imagine how James and Kendall would find out. Think about that. We don't want you hurting, Carlos. If you don't do something about this soon, we will. And you know Rafael is included. Call me back, okay?"
Logan can get aggressive when he wanted to.
Carlos sighed. Logan was right. Hiding what Omar had done wasn't helping him. And he hated to think of how James and Kendall would find out. At my funeral? Carlos shook the thought out of his head. No. That won't happen.
He dialed Logan's number.
"Hey Carlos. Got my message?"
"Y-yeah Logie. I did. You're right. I need to tell the guys."
Now I'm off to go work on my other BTR story. (I've been slacking.)
Hope you loved it!