O_O Wow this chapter is long. So sorry. Anyway...here it is!
Enjoy!
"And I cant help but ask myself how much I'll let the fear take the wheel and steer" -Drive by Incubus
"Hey Valens!" Detective Washington, Valens' African-American partner, yelled out as he approached Detective Valens' desk. He threw a file on Valens' desk. "I think I might have found something about Matthew Long."
Piqued with curiosity, Detective Valens started looking through the files. His eyebrows scrunched up as he continued reading. "Am I supposed to be surprised that he's spent time in juvie when he was younger?" he asked.
Detective Washington rolled his eyes. "Look at what he got sent to juvie for. Three counts of aggravated assault. Derrick Benson, Arnold Fisher, and Tyrone Michaels...all black."
"So he's basically hate this hate for minorities his entire life," Valens stated, earning a sigh from his partner.
"He started getting into trouble when he was eleven," Detective Washington began to explain. "His parents had gotten a divorce when he was ten. Turns out, Matthew's dad cheated on the mom with..." he trailed off, hoping that Detective Valens would figure it out and finish the sentence.
"A Black woman," Valens finally said. Washington nodded, so Valens continued speaking. "So his hate was stemmed from his father and his affair." He glanced through the files, carefully this time. "Visitation rights were taken away from Matthew's father. So basically, the man never saw his kid after the divorce." Valens' eyes widened as he continued reading through the file. He sighed as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. "And Matthew's mom killed herself three years later...Because of that, he was put into foster care."
There was a silence between the two partners. The only sound they heard was the surrounding chaos buzzing in the department.
But Detective Washington broke the silence. "These guys...whoever they are...killed Andre Washington."
Valens nodded. "Your cousin," he stated.
Washington nodded. "And I don't care what his life story is. I don't feel sorry for him. I just want us to take him and his friends down."
"And we will," Valens promised. He dropped the files before continuing to speak. "Matthew Long seems to have a hate specifically for African-Americans, but these 'White Soldiers' don't just target African-Americans. They go after anyone who's not white."
"And we caught Long because he tried to kill a Mexican," Detective Washington reminded his partner. "He probably met the other 'White Soldiers', they all had a common story, ya know? That created a bond between them. Maybe something sad happened in their life and blamed it on a minority. That hate, combined with fear, grew and grew. Then, when their little friends hear of these stories, they convince themselves and each other that all minorities are bad and life would be better without 'em."
Valens' eyebrows perked up. "Okay, slow down, conspiracy theorist. Let's just-" Valens was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing. He glanced at the caller ID, then answered the phone with all seriousness.
Washington got closer to his partner, trying to listen to the conversation Valens was having.
Valens ended the call. He looked to his partner. "Let's go. At the Palm Woods hotel. There's been another murder by our guys."
"How do you know?" Washington asked.
"They left a little something for us," Valens answered simply.
Carlos had woken up two more times that night. James always woke up, of course, despite Carlos constantly begging him to go back to sleep. But James didn't listen to him. Instead, he comforted Carlos in every way possible until the scared Latino had fallen back asleep.
It saddened James to see Carlos so afraid and self conscious. Carlos was never the one to pay attention to something like race. It just wasn't his thing. He always believed that a person should be treated according to what is on the inside, and James wished everyone had the same mindset as his small friend.
But now, Carlos was suffering. In his mind, he constantly wondered what his life would be like if he were white. Sure, he'd gotten some pretty racist comments growing up. He had even fallen victim to bullying because of his race. That never bothered him. Carlos knew that it wasn't their fault that they hated him because of race. He knew they were just misguided, young, and naive. Like him.
But the people attacking and killing others right now because of race, he wasn't so sure.
The next morning, Logan and Kendall were surprised to see that Carlos had not woken up yet.
When James arrived at the dining table for breakfast, his two shorter friends gave him confused looks.
"Carlos isn't up yet?" Logan asked.
James shook his head in response. "He didn't sleep very well," he answered. "Th-the hate crimes..." James sighed as he poured himself some cereal and milk in a bowl. "I'm worried about him," he confessed.
"There's no reason to be," Kendall replied. "We all made a promise to Carlos and OURSELVES that we won't let anything happen to him. I plan to make sure that promise kept." His friends could see the determination coming from Kendall's eyes.
"I know that," James said. "That doesn't scare me. Carlos is going to be fine, I know that...but look what this whole thing is doing to him now!" James didn't mean for the volume of his voice to increase like that, it just kind of happened. He winced, hoping he didn't wake up Carlos with that outburst. James lowered his voice and continued. "He's really scared. He kept having nightmares last night. You know what he asked me?"
It was a rhetorical question, but Logan and Kendall shook their heads anyway.
"He asked me if I thought he was worthless!" James answered. "He thought he was worthless because he wasn't white."
There was silence in the room, Kendall and Logan trying to process what James had just said. "We...we didn't know," Logan said, looking to Kendall, who shrugged pathetically. "Why didn't he tell us?"
"Maybe because he thought he wasn't worth our time!" James reasoned. James was about to yell something else, but was cut off with the door opening.
Jennifer and Katie had walked in with bags of groceries, both wearing confused and worried looks on their faces.
"Why are there cops and caution tape outside?" Katie asked, placing grocery bags on the table. "All we heard is that something happened here last night."
The boys exchanged confused looks before dashing out the door, still in their pajamas, and headed downstairs. When they walked outside, it wasn't hard to find where everything started. All they had to do was follow the crowd.
"What's going on?" Logan asked out loud, hoping that someone would hear him and answer the question.
Camille noticed the boys in the crowd and approached them. She gave Logan a peck on the cheek before answering her question. "It's not pretty," she finally answered. "You know Josh, the guy in 4A?"
"The guys who says he's Jay-Z's nephew?" Logan asked, raising an eyebrow.
Camille nodded before she continued. "That's...that's him they found in the dumpster."
The boys gasped. Kendall's mouth hung open. Logan's eyes widened. James looked over at his two best friends, who easily read what James was trying to say with his look.
You know how Carlos will react to this, right?
"There's more," Camille added, temporarily snapping the boys out of their shock. What more could there possibly be? "Whoever did this to him...cut a Swastika into his arm."
"A Sah-whatika?" James asked, thinking Camille made up a word just to stumble him.
Logan sighed and rolled his eyes. "A Nazi symbol!"
"I thought the Nazis are over," James said, completely confused at this point.
Camille sighed, feeling the same frustration that Logan seemed to have.
"James," Logan addressed his friend. "The Nazis believed in the dominance of the Aryan race. So basically, the dominance of the pure Whites, so it makes sense for racists of nowadays to use this symbol."
The boys knew that Carlos would find out about this incident. And they knew that it would only scare the poor boy even more.
When James, Kendall, and Logan turned around to head back to their apartment, they discovered that Carlos would find out sooner than they thought he would. Because now in front of them was Carlos, shaking and staring at the dumpster that Josh was found in.
Four people were sitting in a living room, watching the news report. News of the killing had already surfaced, talking about the tragic death of Joshua Marks, a teenage boy with a future in music.
One of the watchers chuckled as he listened to the newscaster's voice. The newscaster spoke as if the death of the kid was a sad one. Like Josh had a life worth living.
Well they all thought that was bull.
"If he wasn't killed," a female voice in the living room said, breaking the silence. "He woulda died anyway. How much do you wanna bet that this 'Joshua' kid smoked weed more than he breathed oxygen?"
She laughed as she remembered seeing the look on the boy's face right before he died. The look of fear. The pitiful look shown on his face was priceless.
The girl rolled her eyes. "Tell me when the news actually has something good to say," she said.
Her boyfriend laughed. "Hey Susan, remember when he begged us not to kill him?"
"Last I checked," another voice rang out. "We tell his people what to do, not the other way around."
"Aw poor kid," the last voice finally spoke up, completely sarcastic as he continued watching the news report. "Jpshua had academic awards. He was the oldest of three kids in the family. He was a talented musician blah blah blah. No one cares."
"I don't understand why people view us as the bad guys," Susan's boyfriend said. "We've done nothing but clean up the streets of LA, and this is the thanks we get?"
"They're all misguided, Justin," Susan responded as she messed with her curly hair. "Once they start to see the benefit to all of this, they'll understand that what we're doing, is actually saving them." She turned off the TV. "Michael," she said to another one of the guys. "You seem deep in thought."
Michael shrugged. "I am a little deep in thought..." he confessed. "Matthew. I wonder how he's doing."
Justin sighed. "Yeah, it's sad he got caught, but he's loyal to us, he's not gonna rat us out."
"But what about that cop?" Michael argued. "The one that's related to that Andre guy we killed? It was all over the news. Can you believe they're still letting him work this case? Who knows what he's doing to Matthew."
"Matthew wouldn't let anything like that happen," the still unidentified person stated confidently.
"Do you not remember how he got into jail in the first place?" Michael asked. "Nathan, what do we do?" Michael asked as he turned to the mastermind of their group.
Nathan sighed as he stood up from the couch. "Well I'm heading to work, then going on a date tonight tomorrow night. We can figure something out later."
Kendall, James, and Logan were surprised at how quick Carlos had recovered from the discovery of attack at the Palm Woods. If what Carlos had done could be called "Recovery."
When one of his friends brought up the subject of Josh's attack, Carlos would say things like, "I'm fine" or "There's nothing to talk about, later telling his friends that the only thing he needed at the moment, was for all of them to get to the studio. After constant efforts from Logan, James, and Kendall, they finally called it quits. When Carlos was ready to talk, he'd talk.
The boys had planned to ride to the studio together with Amirah, since they were heading to the same destination, anyway. When they got down to the lobby, they spotted Amirah talking to two detectives. They knew that it had everything to do with Josh's death.
"I wish I could be of more help," she was telling one cop after they were through questioning her. He was a tired looking African American man, and they could only imagine that these detectives were the ones assigned to the murders involved with the hate crimes. "But all I saw was him leaving the lobby to get something from his car. I was on my way to my apartment, about to go to bed, so I never saw him come back in but I just assumed that he'd be okay..." she trailed off.
"It's okay," the detective replied. He pulled out a business card. "If you or any of your friends hear anything, give us a call."
"Okay, Detective Washington," Amirah replied as the two detectives began taking their leave. She was about to do the same when she heard Detective Washington call out to her again.
"And...be careful, okay?" Dectective Washington simply said, earning a nod of graitude from Amirah.
"Amirah," Kendall called out to her after the detectives left. He and his friends sped over to her. "Was that about...?" he trailed off.
Amirah nodded. "Apparently, I was the last person to see him alive." She sighed. "I shoulda stayed down here. You know that creppy feeling you get when you think something bad is about to happen? Well I had that! If I had stayed in the lobby for just a few extra minutes, I coulda seen something or-"
"Gotten yourself killed," James cut in, hoping to calm her down. His friends nodded in agreement.
Amirah sighed. "Yeah but...survivor's guilt sucks."
Kendall chuckled. "Trust me. I know." He inhaled deeply before continuing. "But in the end, his death wasn't your fault. You didn't help the ethnic haters attack Josh. You didn't give them the knives. You didn't tell them when and where they could find Josh by himself. You shouldn't feel guilty about this."
"The police are gonna find the jerks that did this," Carlos said with full confidence. With his father being a cop, he always trusted the police. His father always taught him that if you're patient, the system works toward the innocent person's favor. "And when they do, they're gonna give these guys the punishment they deserve."
Amirah swallowed the lump in her throat, Carlos' optimism becoming a little contagious. "We should head to the studio," she said, suddenly realizing the time, and trying to change the subject.
Once they made it to Rocque Records, Gustavo went straight to business. "Now tell me," Gustavo demanded loudly. "Have you started the song Griffin wants?"
The teenage musicians looked at each other. Kendall finally shrugged. "We really...haven't been able to think of anything yet," he answered.
Gustavo was about to yell at them, but Kelly was always quick in stopping him and giving him a lecture. As much as Gustavo liked the fact that Kelly was temporarily staying at his mansion, he hated the fact that Kelly had the ability to nag at him even more, and Gustavo couldn't tune her out.
Gustavo sucked in a deep breath. "WHY NOT?" he yelled anyway, though the statement came out sounding much nicer than he expected.
"Uh, we've kinda had other things on our minds right now," Logan responded. "It's not like we've purposely been ignoring it, it's just that we can't think of anything."
Gustavo sighed in frustration. "I don't know if you realize this," he finally said, his volume steadily increasing. "But if Griffin doesn't get what he wants, he'll fire someone! Do you understand?"
"Don't try to scare them, Gustavo," a new voice warned kindly. Everybody turned their heads to entrance of Gustavo's office to be greeted by Nathan, making them wonder how long he'd been standing there.
"I'm not scaring them," Gustavo argued. "I'm telling them what's fact! Besides, nothing scares them! They never do what I say!"
"Hey!" Amirah said in defense. "I listen!"
Gustavo just rolled his eyes in response.
"Gustavo. Kelly. Why don't I speak with them alone?" Nathan suggested. Gustavo glared at Nathan and the five teenagers before walking out of his own office. He wanted to argue with Nathan, but he remembered an important fact: Nathan worked with Griffin. In other words, Nathan was almost Gustavo's boss. If Nathan was anything like Griffin, a dispute over something as trivial as office space would turn into huge trouble.
"So no song?" Nathan asked. "You haven't thought of anything at all?"
Oh. So that's how long he was standing at the door. How did anyone not notice him?
"We have a few ideas," Carlos finally spoke up. "But nothing's written in stone yet. We just need a few more days!"
Carlos regretted speaking up like that. He saw a weird look in Nathan's eyes that seemed almost scary.
"James," Nathan called out to the tall brunette. "What are you reading?"
James smiled as he held up his magazine, the front cover written in nothing but Spanish. "Pop Tiger Latino," James answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And I think I found a solution to our writer's block."
Logan raised an eyebrow. "You solved our writer's block...by reading a magazine?" Logan scrunched up his eyes as he stared at it. "How do you even understand that?"
"My Spanish is better than you'd think!" James defended. "Ask Carlos."
Everyone looked to Carlos, waiting for his answer. He shrugged and smiled. "I must admit. James' Spanish isn't bad. What didja get, buddy?"
James smiled. He cleared his throat before beginning. "According to this magazine, Reggaeton star Don Omar, and Egyptian singer, Hakim, did a song compilation that was a huge hit."
Amirah snapped her fingers. "I know that song! Don Omar sang all his parts in Spanish, and Hakim sang in only Arabic!"
James nodded excitedly. "We should try something like that! Amirah or Carlos can sing in their language, and we sing the rest in English!"
"No," Nathan's voice cut in, suddenly killing the excitement. "No, you shouldn't."
"Why not?" Kendall asked. "I think that's a great idea."
"Listen," Nathan breathed out. "This John Omar-"
"Don Omar," Carlos quickly corrected, earning a small glare from Nathan.
"Don Omar," Nathan said. "Has probably been in the business much longer than all of you have. He knew what he was doing when he signed with that Egyptian. You kids, don't. So for now, we're sticking strictly to English."
"Back to the drawing board, I guess," Amirah said with a large sigh. "But thanks for the suggestion, James."
Carlos sighed. He was excited about singing a song in Spanish. But Nathan knew what he was talking about. Neither of them were as experienced as Don Omar and Hakim, so it makes sense that Nathan would object to that idea.
Right?
Nathan had given them a few more days to at least come up with a verse or a chorus. Carlos had thousands of ideas, but Nathan shot down all of them. He didn't even give Carlos a chance. He had to admit that it hurt him, but he couldn't let that get to him. Being back at the Palm Woods made Carlos, who was lounging at the poolside, extremely happy.
Carlos, James, and Kendall were messing with Logan, but Logan tuned them out.
From across the pool, Stephanie subconsciously stared at Carlos. She thought he looked so cute and happy as he continuously messed with Logan while still looking completely innocent. Stephanie blushed as she noticed that the sun had shone on Carlos' torso, showing his perfectly toned abs. "Earth to Stephanie!" a voice yelled, disrupting her gazing. She looked up to be greeted by Camille. Camille gave a fake sigh of relief. "For a second there I thought I lost ya," she joked. She took a seat. "What's on your mind?" Camille asked. "Well...Besides the obvious," she added, gesturing over to Carlos.
"Whatever," Stephanie said while giggling. She blushed. "It's nothing."
Camille just stared at her. She didn't believe Stephanie for a second. "You're a liar," Camille responded.
Stephanie sighed, knowing that no matter what, Camille wasn't going to let it go. "Has Logan ever acted...paranoid when it comes to your safety? Like, has he ever made you constantly check in with him?"
Camille nodded truthfully. "C'mon. This is Logan we're talking about. He makes everyone he's close to do that. Why do you ask?"
Stephanie hesitated before responding. So...maybe she was overreacting? "Well...Carlos has been really...overprotective of me lately..." She loved that Carlos cared for her so much, but she found that protective and caring character kind of annoying nowadays.
Camille raised an eyebrow. "I'll admit that when Logan first started doing that, it bothered me. But after a while, I realized that he did it because he loved me so much. Remember that time I went to Connecticut to visit my family?" she asked, receiving a nod from Stephanie. "I promised him that I would call as soon as I landed, but by the time my plane landed in Connecticut, my phone died. I charged it at my family's house, but I fell asleep and forgot to call him. Kendall told me that Logan couldn't sleep the first night I was gone because he was so afraid that something had happened to me." Camille chuckled. "When I finally did contact Logan, he was so mad. He yelled at me for a few seconds before apologizing. That's when I found just how much I meant to Logan, and you have no idea how happy that made me feel."
"Well, I find it cute when Carlos does it sometimes..." Stephanie admitted. "But other times it's kinda weird. He's been having me check in with him. Especially at night."
"Maybe he's just worried about you," Camille reasoned. "Everybody's been on edge since those hate crimes. And with Josh's death, he has even more reason to be worried about you. Carlos just wants to make sure you're okay. He can't help it."
Stephanie sighed. "I know. It's been hard for a lot of us," Stephanie confessed. Just the thought that the next one could be her or someone she cared about made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
"Besides," Camille began. "I'm sure the guys are making him do the same thing." She was completely sure the other guys did the same thing to Carlos. Camille loved the way Logan got whenever he worried about someone. She just thought it was extremely adorable.
Stephanie smiled, seeing reason in Camille's words. "So when do you think he'll calm down?"
Camille shrugged. "Probably after this whole thing blows over. I'm sure the police are having some sort of breakthrough moment as we speak."
Stephanie nodded. "The sooner the better."
Carlos poked Logan's side, causing his pale friend to jump. "Ow. Carlos! Would you cut that out?"
"I can't help it, Logie," Carlos responded. "It's so funny seeing you jump like that!"
"Well be careful," Logan warned. "I think your girlfriend's getting jealous. She probably thinks there's something going on between us..."
"My girl..." Carlos trailed off as he saw Logan indicate Stephanie, chatting with Camille.
"She's been staring at you for a while now," Logan pointed out. "I'm surprised that you haven't noticed."
Carlos turned over to Stephanie, who was pretending to ignore him. Carlos smiled as he saw Stephanie talk to Camille while she played with her long, dark hair, deep in thought. Every time she did that, it sent chills down his spine. Carlos finally snapped out of his thoughts. "I'm just giving her some space..."
"Well don't give her too much space," Logan warned.
Carlos shook his head. "I have something very special planned for the both of us coming up soon." Carlos already had a perfect date for Stephanie planned. He wasn't going to let anything mess it up.
Well this chapter is not only long but really random.
Idea! I want to do a Logan story next! I've some stories revolving around Kendall, Carlos, and James coming to Kendall's rescue, but I haven't done a real thing with Logan yet. (That "We Made It" oneshot doesn't count!) So that's now on my Fanfic to-do list
Anyway, so for those of you who read my "Miracle" fic, I mentioned that Amirah was Sudanese. Anyway, writing this chapter reminded me of a funny conversation I had with my cousin. Basically, I confessed my love of BTR to him, and he looked at me with a look of disgust and said "Ew. I'd rather listen to Sudanese music." Now really, I remember the Sudanese music I used to listen to wasn't bad, but IDK, maybe it's been a while.
Okay. I swear I'm done talking nonsense. Now be honest. What did you think of this chapter. I'M A BIG GIRL I CAN TAKE IT! Anyway, expect some real angst to start hitting at the next chapter.