Chapter Seven
"So you're having another party?" Jo stated her dark eyebrows rising as she pulled her blonde hair behind her ears. "Do you remember what happened the last time you tried throwing the party here at the Palm Woods?" She reminded him as she put down her script, allowing Kendall to take the seat opposite of her. "Let me refresh your memory if you don't, you and I had to run around the Palm Woods throwing Bitters off of our trail, we barely got a chance to have fun."
"But messing with Bitters was fun," Kendall defended himself and then tossed in a charming smile. "You have to admit that. And if it wasn't for the party, you and I wouldn't have started dating."
"That's true," Jo couldn't help but smile as well. "But, that was also the start of me getting dragged into your guys' crazy plans and schemes."
"You don't enjoy that either?" Kendall's mouth fell open, his green eyes widening. "Like, seriously?"
"My dad is starting to become even more suspicious of you guys," Jo rolled her eyes. "This time he's completely convinced that you guys are going to end up being arrested or something." Her smile then widened. "But I do enjoy getting in trouble every now and then, especially after the whole fiasco at prom." She sat up straight, getting down to business. "Ok, what's this party for?"
"We're trying to cheer up Carlos," Kendall replied with a nod, his smile fading a little. "Logan is convinced that something is wrong with him, James and I think he's fine. But we want to throw a party for him anyway."
"So what do I have to do with this?" Jo asked, twirling a finger in her hair.
"Besides being my date of course," Kendall stated.
"Of course." Jo agreed with a giggle.
"So you and I are going to go and get the food and drinks for it," Kendall started to count off on this fingers. "James and Rachel are going to see if Gustavo will actually let us have the party at Rocque Records along with inviting almost everyone at the Palm Woods, and Camille and Logan are going to get Stephanie to come too."
"Oh, that's so great!" Jo gushed as she clasped her hands together in her lap. 'It will be awesome to see her again and I know that she's been dying to see Carlos. This whole long-distance thing is kind of hard on them, well; it should be hard on any couple." She started to look concerned. "I'm kind of surprised that they've lasted this long."
"They're in love, what can I say?" Kendall shrugged and stood up. "Now, the party is this weekend, so it's probably better that we go and get the food now, so we don't have to worry about the rush of people grocery shopping on the weekend." He held his hand out to his girlfriend.
Jo stood up, taking his hand, and then turned to him, giving him a knowing look. "You just want to ride in the cart while I push again, don't you?"
Kendall beamed. "You know me too well."
Jo pretended to roll her eyes as she walked out of the Palm Woods pool, dragging her boyfriend behind her. "It's a curse."
Logan paced back and forth across the carpet in Camille's apartment as he twirled his phone in his hands. Camille was sitting on the couch, watching him pace back and forth, an amused expression on her face. The two of them had been dating for a long time, not as long as Kendall and Jo, but still, for a long time. When Logan wasn't with the guys, you could always find him with Camille. But they knew how to spend some time apart. Today was one of the few days that Logan could actually get into her apartment s her father was almost as bad as Mr. Taylor. He isn't a CIA agent, but he's still a father that is over-protective of his daughter.
And to Mr. Roberts, no guy was good for her, so he was always iffy about going to her apartment. But because they had a good reason for it that day, to help out one of their greatest friends, he wasn't as worried about Mr. Roberts bursting through the door at any moment.
"So explain to me again why we can't just ask Steph to come back as a surprise for Carlos." Camille stated as she pulled her laptop onto her lap, looking through different websites for airlines, trying to get the best priced ticker from round-trip from New York to California.
"If we want her to come as a surprise for Carlos, we can't tell her that we're having a party." Logan replied patiently as she dialed Stephanie's number into his phone. He sat down on Camille's couch as the phone rang and leaned against her side, looking at the computer screen. "That would ruin everything."
"So what if she actually can't come back home?" Camille tossed her hair over her shoulders, letting out a short breath of frustration. "Like what if she already had plans and wants to stay over there." She laughed as Logan hung up the phone. "What?"
"Now you're making me nervous." Logan replied, looking affronted. "What if you're right? What if she does already have plans? I mean, people in New York don't like to wait for things to come up. What if she-"
"If this is for Carlos, she'll go ahead and come," Camille stated gently, putting her hand over Logan's mouth to get him to stop talking. "If it was me that was in New York and the other guys were trying to get me to come back here, I would be on the next plane in a few seconds."
"Yeah, but we haven't really been in a long-distance relationship before," Logan murmured as he thought back to what Carlos had said to him earlier.
Logan slowly nodded. So that's what this is about Logan thought to himself. He misses Stephanie. Logan licked his lips. "Listen, Carlos, I know that you're still upset that Stephanie had to move away to work on some of her movies, but-"
"Why are you apologizing?" Carlos' eyebrows lowered. "I mean, your girlfriend didn't move away."
"But I know how you feel," Logan insisted. "Especially when Camille is going away to film for her movies, it's-"
"Yes, but she always comes back!" Carlos interrupted, not looking thoroughly annoyed. "Listen, I know that you're trying to help me feel better, but you don't know how I'm feeling. Camille is always going to come back here to the Palm Woods when she's done with whatever she is doing. Steph is probably going to stay over there because she keeps getting filming opportunities. So, sorry if I don't think that you feel the same way."
"So we don't really know what he's going through." He finally turned his brown eyes to Camille's hazel ones. She looked back at him with sympathy and concern. "We kind of got into an argument about it. I was trying to tell him that I knew how he felt, because of you going out for auditions and getting them, and me going on tour, but he says that because Steph is, like, permanently across the country for the time being, it's not the same."
"And it's not," Camille reached out and ran her fingers through Logan's hair. "What we have is different than what Carlos and Stephanie have, or Kendall and Jo, or James and Rachel. Not all relationships are the same, and he's probably just upset that he doesn't really have anyone to talk to about this because none of you guys have been through this before."
"Yeah," Logan agreed with a short nod. "Like, if Jo had taken that movie role and gone to New Zealand, I know that Kendall would be a wreck." He let out a short sigh. "Maybe I should be a little more sympathetic." He looked at Camille out of the corner of his eye. "I told you that being around me would make you smarter." He teased.
Camille lightly hit him on the arm and turned back to her laptop. "You're a goofball," she stated, shaking her head. "But you're better than I am about this kind of stuff; help me find a good ticket." She leaned forward, a hand on her chin as she continued to scroll through page after page of flight information.
She looked up as Logan continued to stay silent, looking thoughtful. "What?"
"I just realize that the only reason that I'm kind of freaked out about this is because I feel that I have to protect Carlos." Logan frowned a little. "It's kind of hard to explain, because the four of us are best friends, but Kendall and James seemed to have clicked and Carlos and I have clicked. So whatever crazy plan Carlos would come up with, I would go to make sure that he didn't get hurt, or to try to tell him that his plan is going to fail miserably. And they usually do."
"That's your charm, Logie." Camille said. "And it may be because Carlos is the…well, he's not the youngest…" she paused. "I don't know. He acts like he's the youngest, so that may have something to do with it."
"He's innocent and sensitive," Logan replied with a nod. "That's the reason why." He ran a hand over his face and then smile. "Well, I know that this party, with all of his friends and his girlfriend, is going to put a big smile on his face."
"And we're not going to be able to put it on his face if we can't get Stephanie out of here." Camille plopped her laptop into Logan's lap, causing him to wince, and she grabbed his phone from her hand. "Since you know what you're doing, you book her flight, and I'll call her." She punched in the number and brought it up to her ear. "I'm a girl," she explained at Logan's skeptical look. "I think I can get her hear with the same kind of tricks that we use on you guys to do whatever us girls want."
"What's that?" Logan snorted. "Begging?"
Camille reached over, grabbed a pillow, and hit him in the face with it.
A/N: This story is mostly focused on the LoganxCarlos friendship because I based most of Live and Let Die on the KendallxJames friendship. It's weird, personally, I think that Kendall and James are best friends out of the four of them, and then Logan and Carlos are best friends. Which is probably why I've written some Kames stories… Hm…
Anyway, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. Today I'm officially on Fall Break, so you'll see more updates from me. So don't be surprised if your inboxes get spammed with alerts from me/us.
Check out my other stories Life Goes On, I'm With You, One of The Guys, and my co-write with Rhuben Big Time Boarding School if you would please!
Cheers,
-Riles
