YAY! New chapter! Enjoy, my lovely readers! ^-^
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The rest of the day passed fairly uneventful. Carlos had walked out on Maristella, or Audrey, or Elizabeth, was that it? It was all very jumbled around in his head, he couldn't focus very well on anything. They had a half day in school because they were supposed to record later that afternoon but Carlos knew he wouldn't be able to focus on that either. You see, Carlos had been very angry when he found out just how completely he'd been played. But being angry at the beautiful girl, couldn't stop him from feeling some sort of attraction, a strange sort of connection, towards her. He couldn't get the image of her, standing very close to him in the lobby before the smoothie disaster, picking staples off of his shirt. Her proximity and the gesture simply overwhelmed him, and the reaction when he thought of it wasn't much different. When a girl is so completely selfish, so thoughtless, so uncaring towards you, you're supposed to forget about her. You're supposed to see her for what she is on the inside, and not let a pair of beautiful blue eyes stop you from being resentful. But he couldn't. He just couldn't.
They were in the van heading to the studio for what would be, on a better day, a promising recording session. But Carlos had his face pressed up against the small window in the backseat, feeling so depressed, he didn't think any amount of catchy summer singles could possibly lift his spirits. To top all that negative emotion off, he was sitting next to Kendall, and his feelings of resentfulness towards him hadn't disappeared entirely either.
Logan was seated on his other side, and seemed to be exectuing his annoying, over-perceptiveness. He nudged Carlos in the arm, giving him a friendly wink.
"So, uh... how'd it go? This morning? With a certain..." Logan wriggled in his seat, obviously very sure his plan had been just the thing. "A certain petite, gorgeous someone?"
Carlos shifted uncomfortably. He could feel Kendall listening on his other side.
"It didn't," Carlos answered, hoping the tremors he felt inside didn't come out in his voice.
Logan looked briefly taken aback. "Well, what happened?"
"Later," Carlos mumbled, shooting a furtive look towards Kendall, but it felt very odd. They had never kept secrets or been private about anything before, the boys. They had shared everything. There wasn't a thing they didn't talk about or do as a unit.
Logan still looked confused, but half shrugged, half nodded, and turned back around in his seat. James was avidly mouthing the parts on Oh Yeah that he sang, which was playing on the radio. Carlos sighed.
They all piled out of the van when it pulled to a stop outside the back door of Rocque Records. Mrs. Knight said goodbye to all of them, and gave Kendall a kiss on the cheek, which he absentmindedly wiped off. She sped away, and the boys all went inside. Just inside the door, Kendall plucked Carlos back by the sleeve. Carlos gulped, then turned around to face him as Logan, his security blanket, walked away with James.
"Carlos, can you please fill me in on what the heck is going on here?"
"Wh- what do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Don't play."
Carlos took a deep breath. "About Maristella?"
"Audrey."
Carlos almost stomped his foot. "Elizabeth actually. She told me when you'd left."
"How do you know she wasn't lying to you again?"
"How do you know she wasn't lying to you all along?"
"How do YOU know that?"
"I don't!" Carlos was breathing heavily. "I just trusted her for no reason because I thought maybe, just maybe she was crazy enough to want to be my girlfriend because no one ever had before!"
"Well I just trusted her because I though she might be the one crazy enough to pull me out of my Jo-depression! She seemed so...
"Perfect," they finished together.
Kendall looked briefly abashed. "OK, so a cute new girl comes to the Palm Woods. You met her first, obviously, and then...?"
"I took her out for a smoothie."
"And how quickly did this happen?"
Carlos shrugged. "Maybe an hour."
"That didn't clue you in, huh?"
Carlos snorted. "Nope."
Kendall rubbed his eyes.
"But she was completely crazy, a total wackjob on our date. She got mad, then happy, then she cried, then she laughed, and she kissed me and I just had no idea if I was in some sort of limbo between dreams and reality because it felt real but how could it have been?"
"Yeah I know! I think it might have been after that, because she caught my eye and offered her name, well she told me her second fake name anyway, at about nine."
"That was after."
"So she bounces from boy to boy... for what reason exactly?"
"It was for a method acting assignment," Carlos told him miserably.
Kendall blinked. Then he just yelled, "WHAT THE HECK?"
"SHHHHH!"
"An... ACTING assignment?" Kendall whispered furiously. "An ACTING ASSIGNMENT?"
"Yes. I know, Kendall, I know. It is so wrong that it should never happen, even in horror films." He patted Kendall's back maturely.
Kendall looked so in disbelief. "Well man am I glad I didn't get in too deep with THAT. That would have been a nightmare, dating a monster like that."
"Yeah," Carlos said, trying to sound confidently in agreement when he felt oh-so-uncertain.
"Thanks for bringing her into the light. I mean if you hadn't had come when you had..." Kendall shook his head. Then he stopped and gave Carlos a curious look.
"What...?" Carlos asked.
"Why were you at her door the day after she went crazy on you with two dozen expensive roses?"
"How on EARTH can you remember that?" Carlos asked frustratedly.
"Don't avoid the question."
Carlos sighed. Truth will out, he supposed. "I was trying to make up with her?" It was a half question, because here, in the studio, miles away from Maristella, er Elizabeth, and her searching eyes, it sounded so absurd.
"Make up for what?" Kendall furrowed his brow. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"Really?" Carlos let out a long breath.
"Are you crazy?"
"Yes," Carlos replied promptly.
"Don't go back to her Carlos. She'll only hurt you. Someone with that little regard for the human heart really has no business being around people."
"OK," Carlos mumbled. But he knew he was gonna have to break that promise eventually. He just couldn't stay away from her.
Kendall said something about getting back to the guys and Carlos numbly followed. He felt so confused. Should he hate her? Should he...? But he couldn't, no. He just couldn't. He didn't know why, and that was so frustrating. He needed a shrink.
The recording session went as well as it could have. Carlos tried to lose himself in the heavy bass of the new track, and to think of nothing other than this happy bliss, of doing what he loved with the people he loved. Feeling in slightly higher spirits walking out then he had walking in, Carlos argued cheerfully about this and that, because that always had a way of making him feel better. It didn't fail this time.
They all piled into the apartment at once about four hours later. Four exhausted teenage boys ran towards the kitchen, stomachs chasing after them rumbling loudly. Katie hopped onto a bar stool and pulled out her DS, the mildly annoying music of Castle Smashers filling their ears.
"Katie, turn that down!" Kendall shouted, through a mouthful of turkey sandwich.
"Katie, turn that DOWN!" Katie mimicked, roaring back at him.
"You two argue too much..." James said, scratching his head.
"I'm going through my rebellious stage," Katie retorted.
Kendall snorted. Carlos was just cramming as many egg rolls in his face as he could before Logan realized he was eating his portion as well. By the time Logan returned from the sink with a glass of water, Carlos was leaning back in his chair, burping happily. Logan just sighed, and started looking for something else to eat.
"I should know better than to leave you alone with my food."
"Yup. You should." Carlos was feeling better. And more annoying. He figured he was back to normal. He couldn't even remember what's-her-face's name anymore.
KNOCK-KNOCK! Two sharp raps on the door jerked Carlos out of his food coma.
"I'll get it," Logan said, jogging to the door and opening it wide. It was Camille, smiling broadly. She gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek. Carlos scratched his chin.
"I still don't understand how you two can act all couply and not be dating."
"We're off again. We'll be on when we feel like it," Camille said, grabbing Carlos's soda and taking a swig. He swished around the remains. There were none. He crushed the can and made a perfect shot into the waste basket.
"Logan, have you met Lizzy yet?"
Logan frowned, sitting down beside her on the couch. "No, don't think so. Which apartment?"
"One on this floor. Either H or L. Not sure which. Only two doors down and you don't know her?"
Carlos gulped his invisible soda and excused himself.
"Stupid Camille..." he thought. "Stupid things Camille says," he amended.
Now he couldn't stop thinking about her. It was so awful. He lay on his bed, completely miserable again. He could understand why Camille like Lizzy so much. They were practically the same person, except Camille HAD a heart. Why she would be friends with someone who didn't, he had no idea.
A soft knock at the door made him look up from his bed spread. Katie slipped in.
"Wanna play Castle Smashers with me?"
"No, not right now."
"Wanna go get a hotdog?"
"I just ate."
"Wanna have a chicken fight with James and Kyle?"
"I don't wanna get wet really, not right now."
Katie sighed. Then she sat on the floor. Carlos was looking down onto the top of her shiny brown haired head. Little lights almost reflected off of it onto the walls.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked. "Why are you so mopey?"
"It's all HER fault!" Carlos said, smacking himself in the head, because that's where he couldn't seem to get her out of.
"Who?"
"Elizabeth. Lizzy. Camille's new method acting friend."
"You like her?"
"I think I do."
"Well, do you or don't you?"
Carlos thought for a second, then decided. "Yes."
"Does she like you?"
"No. I think she hates me."
"Bummer. Why does she hate you?"
"She method acting played me into thinking she was my girlfriend, then dumped me the next day to see if I bought it."
"Did you?"
Carlos nodded sadly. "Until I caught her pulling almost the same thing on Kendall. Then I knew. She was a big old beautiful jerk."
Katie nodded, like she understood all of that. "But you're still sad? Even though she's a heartless troll who has no regard for human feelings?"
"Yup."
"You're an idiot."
"Yup."
They sat in silence for awhile.
"You need a normal girlfriend."
Carlos sighed. "Yup."
"The question is..." Katie got a daring look in her eye. "How do we get you one?"
"Been trying for seventeen years, Kate. Not happening."
"THAT'S quitter talk! I will not have that in this house!" Katie remarked, leaping to her feet, and thwapping Carlos over the head.
"Ouch," he muttered.
"Get cleaned up." She grinned evilly. "We're going girlfriend hunting."
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Til next time. Mwah.
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~Starbucks
