I looked around the apartment for a while, looking around. I saw a photo album on the coffee table of the living room. I hesitated before sitting on the couch and opening it.

There weren't many pictures in it. There were some of him, James and Logan. And a couple of him and a redhead woman who I assumed must be his mother. Or a sister; she looked quite young. I flipped to the back page and saw a photo with seven people in it. There were three boys; two in their teens, one a little older. A man and a woman, a redhead teenage girl and a small baby boy in the woman's arms.

"Curiosity killed the cat, you know."

I jumped and snapped the album shut. "Sorry, I was just looking."

Kendall shrugged and sat next to me. I turned to the back page again. "Is this your family? Are you the baby?"

Kendall nodded, looking at the photo too. I looked at him. I saw the pained expression on his face and sighed. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."

"Do you want me to tell you?"

"Well yeah, but—"

Then I'll tell you. I think I'll probably feel a little better once I've told someone, anyway." He sighed. "Ok. Uh . . . all the times I was 'disappearing', including today, I was visiting my mother." He pointed to the redhead girl. "That's her."

I waited for him to continue. "She's in prison. She got the life sentence, because she killed the whole family, except that tall guy, cos he was away at college. She did it to protect me." I saw his eyes were full of tears. I took his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. He smiled at me before continuing. "It was really my dad that she was saving me from." He pointed to the man in the picture. "He was a sick-minded freak." The venom in his voice surprised me a little.

I thought for a second before asking. "But why the rest of the family?"

Kendall let out a shaky breath. "Because . . . they should've protected her."

"Her? From who?"

He sighed and pointed to the man in the photo. "From my dad."

"But how . . ." Then I realised. "Oh my God. That . . ." I was totally lost for words. "It's . . ."

"Sick? Wrong? It's both of those things." He laughed sadly. "Since both my parents are related, shouldn't there be something wrong with me? Isn't that what usually happens? But I turned out ok." He gritted his teeth. "She was thirteen, Carlos. When I was born, he finally left her alone. And she thought she was finally free from him.

"The whole family just said I was her brother, and everyone believed it. I'm a guy, and he'd never bothered any of her brothers, so she thought he'd leave me alone."

He laughed again. "I was four when he started coming into my room at night. I was eight when my mom found out. She said that she wasn't going to let him hurt me anymore." A single tear slid down his cheek. "The next night, they were all dead. I saw them."

He sighed. "Well, now you know. There's my story. I grew up in foster homes until I got kicked out at eighteen. I stayed with Logan and worked until I had enough money for my own place, and here I am."

Another tear slid down his face. I didn't hesitate before slowly grabbing him by the sides of his face and kissing him gently. I moved my lips to his cheeks, kissing the tears away. He wrapped his hands around my neck and pulled me into another kiss. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him to his feet. "Thanks for telling me," I murmured between kisses.

"Thanks for listening."

I lifted him into the air when there was a flash of light in my mind.

"What's he doing here? What happened to his family?"

"His mother's in prison for murdering his family . . ."

Kendall's legs were wrapped around my waist as I walked across the living room, still kissing all the pain and sorrow away.

A small blonde boy was pinned down onto his bed, by huge hands pushing him down by his upper arms. He hated the way the tall man was leering at him, a horrible smirk on his face as he began to pull the boy's clothes off . . .

Kendall looked up at me, and I saw fear in his eyes. I realised what position we were in, though I wasn't sure how we'd got there. We were both lying on his bed, me straddling his waist. I sighed. "This is the most complicated relationship I've ever been in." I paused. "Not that I've been in many relationships."

Kendall just smiled up at me. "You're amazing, you know that?"

"Why?" I laughed, sliding down until our faces were level.

"You just are."

It's been three weeks since that day when Kendall told me about his family. Me, Kendall, James and Logan were like a foursome now, nearly always together. I still used the credit card, but they couldn't track me since I wasn't staying anywhere that they could find me. With Kendall's persuasion, I started sending postcards to my parents. Just telling them I was ok, the friends I had, what I was doing. How happy I was.

I still lived with Kendall; I had my own key and everything. And since we were really a couple now, it was needless to say that the spare room I was originally going to sleep in was completely forgotten. James and Logan knew about us being together. They teased us a little about it, but otherwise they didn't treat us any differently.

One morning I woke up to find that Kendall's side of the bed was empty. I immediately sat up and looked around. "Kendall?"

"The bathroom, Carlos," came a hoarse reply. I hopped up and went to the bathroom. Kendall was sitting on the tiled floor, leaning against the wall. His face was really pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. "Kendall, you look terrible."

"Thanks," he laughed weakly.

"I didn't mean it like that," I replied, kneeling next to him. "Are you sick?"

He nodded. "It's not much, just a bad cold; but I felt a little sick so I came in here." He shut his eyes and groaned quietly. "I'll just stay in bed for the day."

"You want me to stay with you?" I asked. He shook his head. "I'll be fine. You go, meet James and Carlos."

"Okay," I said uncertainly. "If you're sure."

He nodded. I smiled to myself, sliding my arms around him and picking him up. He rested his head on my shoulder, sighing. "I hate being sick."

"I hate it when you get sick," I replied simply, carrying him to our room and placing him down on the bed. "I'll see you later."

Once I was ready, I grabbed my jacket and headed downstairs. I smiled at the manager sitting at the front desk; he was used to me living here by now.

I headed down the street, towards the park. I saw James and Logan waiting there for me. "Hey, Carlitos! Where's Kendall?"

"He's sick," I explained. "Only a little, but he decided to stay at home." I paused. "So, what do you wanna do?"

James shrugged. "I'm hungry. You wanna go get food?"

We got takeaway burgers and sat in the park, talking about many random things. These two were really like the brothers I never had.

"So, Carlos," Logan said, taking a sip of the cola he'd bought. "You never told us where you came from."

"Huh?"

"You aid you were new around here. Where are you from?"

"Oh. Well, I . . . hmm . . ." I debated for a few seconds then I just gave up. I've never been a good liar." My parents were a little crazy. They hardly ever let me go out. That's why I don't know my way around."

"Oh." James nodded. "And you finally convinced them to let you go?"

"Yeah," I grinned, praying they'd leave it at that. They did.

Four hours later, I walked back to the apartment building, whistling to myself. My whistling died away as I got distracted by an argument going on at the front desk between the manager, Mr. Bitters, and a tall, dark-haired guy who looked about thirty.

"Just let me go upstairs!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but until I reach the tenant you wish to visit and—"

"I'm family, man! I already have permission!"

Then Mr. Bitters suddenly spotted me. "Carlos!"

"Hey, Mr. Bitters," I said, walking to the front desk. "What's up?"

"You and Kendall Knight share an apartment, don't you?"

"Yeah," I replied, not sure what he was getting at.

The man turned to me. "Hi. My name's Even Knight. I'm Kendall's uncle."

His uncle.

My heart skipped a beat. The guy who was away at college. The only one who wasn't killed. The man who lived!

"Ehh . . ."

"Look, can you just tell this guy that he's got no problem with me coming up to se him?"

"Er, you see, the thing is . . . he mightn't be there right now," I lied, praying that he'd believe me and leave it. "He told me he might go out to visit a friend of his. I don't know the name. I'll go up and see if he's there, if you like."

The man smiled. "Thanks. I'd appreciate that."

"Ok. I'll go up now." I turned and walked towards the stairs. Once I got past the door, I broke into a run. I ran up the stairs, glad the apartment was only on the second floor.

I took out my key as I was running and stuck it in the keyhole. I managed to get the door open and almost fell through it.

"Carlos?" Kendall looked at me from his place on the couch. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I looked at Kendall, seeing that he was dressed, and he no longer had the pale, ghostly look on his face. "You're better."

He nodded, grinning. "Are you gonna tell me what's wrong?"

"There's someone . . . *gasp* . . . at the front desk . . . *pant* . . . he wants to see you. He says he's your . . ." I took a breath of air before continuing. " . . . Uncle."

"What?" Kendall was on his feet in an instant. "Evan?"

I nodded. Kendall's eyes widened. "Oh my God," he muttered blankly. "What's he doing here? I haven't seen him since I was eight years old!"

He looked at me, a lost look in his eyes. "Carlos, what should I do?"

I shrugged. "What was he like when you were little?

"He was nice, I guess. He went to college when I was like five. I only saw him after that at Christmas and stuff."

He sighed. "Well, what could go wrong?"

"So, you're gonna invite him up here?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'll do that."

I nodded. "Actually, I can tell him if you ant. I was gonna . . ." I looked t the floor. " . . . I was actually thinking about going to visit your mom. I dunno, I'd like to meet her."

Kendall smiled at me. "Alright. You know where it is?"

"There's only one prison in this town." I grinned at him. "I think I can find it."

I wet back downstairs. "You can go up," I called to Evan as I passed, leaving the building again.

I was really used to finding my way around by now, and it only took me five minutes to get to the prison.

"Hi, um . . . I came to see Challen Knight."

It was easier than I thought, and soon I was siting on one side of a glass window with Kendall's mom on the other. She pointed at the phone hanging on the wall and I picked it up.

"Who are you?" she asked me. I liked her straight away; her vice was kind.

"I'm Carlos, a friend of Kendall's." I paused for a second before continuing. "His boyfriend, actually."

"Ah. Well, nice to see you. I think Kendall mentioned you the last time he wa here." She smiled. "I always ask him all these questions. It's my job, after all." She sighed. "So, why are you here?"

"I just wanted to meet you, I guess. Kendall couldn't come, so I though I'd come alone " I laughed. "I'm not that much of a bore, am I?"

She smiled. "Of course not. You're a sweet kid." Her smile faltered for a second. "What's the matter with Kendall?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just that his uncle came to see him—"

I stopped talking, because Mrs. Knight had dropped the phone. She was staring at me with wide eyes. She said something, but I couldn't understand. I pointed to the phone and she picked it up again.

"Not my brother Evan?"

"Yeah, your brother Evan."

"No, that's not a god idea. Listen, Evan came to se me the other day, and he was angry. He hates both of us. Calls us home-wreckers. He's not visiting Kendall for kind, thoughtful reasons. I don't know why he is, but it can't be good."

I couldn't believe this. "Ok, thanks. I'll go back to the apartment. I'll come see you again, ok" I put the phone back and left.

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