Chapter 8: Moving Back...?
~Logan's POV
"Right… Well, at least the interview went well," I smiled as we left the building, extremely satisfied. Gustavo makes these guys sound like complete wrecks!
But honestly though, I've been with them for quite some time, and I've to say, they're fun to be around! They're rule-breakers, sure, but they're not that bad.
Thank god we at least managed to perform our song preview perfectly, exactly like how we practiced it.
Actually… What was the name of the song again?
Huh, I can't remember.
Oh well.
"Let's go eat something!" Carlos exclaimed with a big adorable frown. "I'm hungry too," James said, fishing out his wallet. "Right, well, the restaurant is Café Tavolini," Kendall pointed at said restaurant, which is only 3 roads-to-cross away.
Why the heck are there so many roads here anyway? Whoever planned this city did a horrible job. Instead of having two large roads, it's separated into three individual roads, all facing the same way, leading to the same junction.
"Carlos!" James yelled, pulling Carlos forcefully off the road once we managed to cross all three. Carlos let out a loud, and high-pitched, "Eep!" as he leaped towards James, tackling the bigger fella'. "Seriously?" I asked with a lifted brow as I looked down at them.
"C'mon, I'm hungry," Kendall whined as the two got up.
Once they were up, we made our way to the restaurant quickly, since all of our stomachs were practically growling.
"Hey, aren't you guys the ones that just appeared on TV?" The waiter who was in charge of our table asked. I think his name was Van… Vance? I don't remember, honestly.
"Oh uh… Yeah," Kendall grinned while the other two were eating hungrily. "Can I have an autograph?" He asked with a small smile.
The four of us quickly signed an autograph for him before quickly leaving, with Kendall suddenly coming to a realization.
"We've to leave, quick. We just appeared on TV! This was a bad idea," He panicked. As soon as I realized what he meant, I quickly ordered us an Uber car. Within 5 minutes, we were on our way home, super tired.
What did Kendall mean, you ask? Well, he meant the amount of peoples who'd be swarming us if we were to waddle around town. We just appeared on TV like 30 minutes prior to finishing our Lunch, if we were to actually walk around the city, we'd get recognized immediately!
I mean, getting asked for autographs and pictures is nice for publicity usually, but not when we're all tired as hell! We actually had to do a ton of things backstage before, during and after the interview with Ellen, so we're all pretty much poofed out.
Since the guys were all pretty much pooped out, and somehow I still had a little bit of energy, I decided to actually draw. It's actually been quite a few months since I last draw something… Heck, I think it's been a year! While Kendall was taking a nap on his bed after changing his clothes, like the other two, I decided to venture out to the pool area, seeing the usual derpy faces of PalmWoods Apartment.
Honestly, the peoples who I thought looked hot before looks somewhat average now… Not sure if it's cuz I'm bored of seeing them or the fact that Carlos, James and Kendall has occupied my mind a lot.
"Guess who," I felt two somewhat rough hands cover my eyes while a female voice said that to me.
There's literally only one I know who has hands like these…
"Jo Taylor," I sighed as I mentioned her name.
"Did'ja miss me?" She asked with a grin as she let go, still looking like the same tomboy-ish Jo that I know. "Nope," I rolled my eyes with a small smile.
"How could you say that to your best friend?" She frowned widely.
After a while of silent walking, which was rather… Weird, since Jo never shuts up, a small sad sigh was audible. "I just wanted to tell you…" She frowned before finishing her sentence, "I'm moving back to North Carolina," She finished, causing me to stop mid-walk.
Wait, what?
"You're moving back to NC? But why?" I asked curiously. She told me she wanted to pursue… Whatever it was, here in PalmWoods, with me. Well, at least in the same city as me so she could 'keep teasing me' apparently.
"Well… Family problems I guess," She smiled before continuing her walk, forcing me to catch up to her quickly.
"I… I guess I can't stop you there, huh?" I asked, frowning sadly. Now my best friend's moving back to her hometown, and I can't stop her. Jo's been texting and visiting me the entire time I was with the boys, though somehow she manages to avoid getting seen by them every time!
"Yeah, well, promise me one thing," She grinned before holding out a pinky finger. "Let Kendall be your boyfriend," She grinned, causing me to gasp as my face burned red.
Thank god there weren't anyone near us when she said that…
"Wait, what?" I asked with furrowed brows.
"You heard me bitch, date him. I could literally see the love doves flying over your head, and I think I saw maybe a few baby birds flying over his," She teased with a small smile.
I rolled my eyes, 'Even if he was into me… I wouldn't let him date me anyways. He deserves someone better,' I thought, letting out a sigh. "I can't promise you I will date him, but I'll… I'll try," I smiled, 'Nope,' I thought. Seriously, Kendall deserves someone way better than me.
Our pinky fingers crossed, "I suppose if it didn't work out, I can't force you anyways," Jo smiled.
As we walked back home, we sang a song that we've been singing from the day we became friends. Yeah, for about 8 years now, we've been singing this same damn song.
The poop song.
I couldn't care less if peoples around me were staring, heck, I couldn't care less if my voice was crap right now! Being around Jo just made me feel careless. Like, I could sing the poop song with her all day long.
"I guess… I'll see you around then," Jo grinned before extending a hand.
"You better, bitch," I grinned before we did our handshake.
High slap, low slap, through the loop, spin till you're dizzy and finally a fist-palm.
I watched as she left, waving at me before turning around and disappearing into the streets in-front of PalmWoods Apartment.
I smiled before entering the apartment, reminiscing about all the times we've spent with each other, goofing the fuck off. I'm not a rule-breaker, but having fun with no care with Jo is amazing.
"Welcome home!" James, Kendall and Carlos screamed at the top of their lungs as soon as the door to our apartment swung open.
~Kendall P.O.V
"Are you sure this is right?" Carlos questioned for the 5th time as I seared the steak. "For the 5th time, yes. We've literally been following Logan's recipe the entire time!" I rolled my eyes with a huge frown.
"I mean… It smells good? It looks good, but…" James frowned with worry etched on his face. "Surely you guys put everything in… Right?
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil
1 Boneless Rib-eye (Or New Yong Strip) Steak – 11/2 to 2 pounds and 2 ½ inches thick.
Kept at room temperature.
Coarse Salt
Cracked (Butcher-grind) Pepper
Optional:
Lime
Steps:
1.Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Heat Oil in a large cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet over medium-high until it begins to smoke.
Pat steak dry with paper towels.
Season each side with 1 teaspoon of Coarse Salt and 1 teaspoon of Cracked Pepper.
2.Cook steak in skillet over medium-high heat until dark crust has formed, 5 to 7 minutes per side (Reduce heat if meat is browning too quickly).
Holding steak with tongs, quickly brown all edges, turning as necessary; lay steak flat in skillet.
3.Transfer skillet to oven.
Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the steak registers desired doneness, 5 to 15 minutes.
Transfer to a plate; spread with 1 tablespoon of Steak Butter.
Cover loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest 5 to 10 minutes.
Slice across the grain; serve with remaining Steak Butter.
Cover and refrigerate any leftovers, for up to 2 days.
"Kendall, are you sure out of all of the recipes in these 4 books Logan has, we're gonna make this?" James questioned with a huge frown.
"It looks hard to cook," Carlos frowned, staring at the huge load of recipe-steps.
"Obviously, yes. We're gonna show Logan that we're not completely incapable of taking care of ourselves," I grinned, picking up the book while James and Carlos stared at me in curiosity.
"Incapable. It means not being able to do something," I frowned, shaking my head. "Oooh…" James and Carlos nodded before following me to the kitchen.
"Yeah! We'll show him we're not impalpable!" Carlos grinned in excitement, "Incapable," I corrected him.
And now, 10 minutes later, James is worried whether he put in the wrong type of pepper, while Carlos is worried about whether the oven's heated enough or not.
"Relax you guys, we can do this," I grinned as I confidently seared the steak. I actually managed to make a serving for four, and Logan's probably coming back soon.
"Logieeeeeeee," I dragged out as soon as I woke up after a quick nap, peeking into our bedroom and James and Carlos' bedroom. I even went up to the slide, thinking maybe he's up there, but only found emptiness.
I went down the slide with a frown, seeing Carlos and James wake up, yawning and stretching. "Where's Logie?" Carlos asked with a small frown as he walked towards me, fixing his shirt.
"I… I don't know. He's not here?" I wondered, walking back into our room. "We're gonna go take a shower, let's go look for him afterwards," James suggested. I nodded before watching him disappear into the room he shared with Carlos,
After taking a shower myself, I decided to look through Logan's stacks of books. My old dusty bookshelf is now dust-free, and actually filled with books. Heck, there were so many that he had to put a few books on my table! Well, our table now.
There's some sort of ornate steel box at the bottom of the bookshelf, which I remember was at Logan's place before.
"Cookbooks…?" I curiously stared at the stack of 4 rather thick books on my table.
Each book was at least 150 pages, all hand-written by… "Logan?" I tilted my head before a small smile appeared on my lips.
He hand-wrote four cookbooks… That's amazing!
He's super organized too!
Each book is labeled according to their recipes, with the first book being Entrée, the second book being Appetizers, the third book being Desserts and the fourth being Drinks.
There were even cute colored bookmarks to mark the difficulty of each recipes, with red being hard, yellow being mediocre and green being easy.
The more I know about him, the more I fall in love, honestly.
"You ready to go look for him?" Carlos popped into our room, along with James, all readied up. "Actually…" I grinned, opening the book labeled 'Entrée'.
"I think we should cook something for him…" I grinned, flipping randomly until a landed on a page with the words 'Seared Steak' written really big on top.
Now, 30 minutes later, we're cooking dinner on our own. Part of me kept praying that this goes well, the other part is super confident as long as we follow Logan's recipe.
"Right, into the oven you go," I grinned as I transferred the skillet into the oven. Now we're near the end, I'm praying Logan doesn't come home in the next 20 minutes.
~20 Minutes Later…
Right, everything's ready. The meat's nicely plated…
"Good job you guys! Seriously, that's beautiful plating," I grinned proudly at the dishes we've completed. "I say we should open our own restaurants! All four of us could be chefs," Carlos grinned, earning a high-five from his taller friend.
"Where's Logan though? It's like… 6:20 PM and he's not back yet?" James thought out loud, his voice laced with curiosity. "Uh… Should we call him?" Carlos asked as I opened the door slightly to take a peak outside, since I heard light footsteps from outside.
"Wait, shush. He's here," I grinned, quickly standing in-front of the door, tidying myself up.
James and Carlos joined me at the front door, standing side-by-side with big grins.
~Logan's P.O.V
I was actually really surprised by James, Kendall and Carlos as soon as I pulled the door open, not really expecting them to be standing there looking all neat and grinning.
Heck I didn't even think they'd be up yet!
"C'mon," Kendall grabbed my wrist, leading me into the apartment, a happy aura coming off of him. "What is… this?" I asked, staring at a set of perfectly plated, perfectly cooked and amazing smelling pan-seared steak in-front of me.
A small smile, which eventually turned into a grin, appeared on my face as I neared the table, the aroma invading my nostrils. Although it smelled nice and all, I felt like something was missing, based on the aroma.
"You guys made this?" I grinned, sitting down on my usual seat, next to Kendall. "Yeah, try it!" Carlos excitedly said. Actually, I could see they were all proud and excited for this dish… Which I understand, really.
The plating's amazing, it smells delicious, it looks perfect. One bite into the meat though, I knew what they were missing. Or rather, lacking.
"You guys didn't put enough pepper into this," I mocked a frown as I swallowed it, seeing their big adorable smiles turn into frowns. "But it's still perfect!" I exclaimed ever so happily, feeling as if I've successfully raised 3 children, when in all seriousness I didn't do crap.
I saw my book open widely in the kitchen earlier, so I suppose Kendall went with the first recipe he saw once he opened one of my recipe books. I quickly dug into the dish.
Although I've already cooked this a few times, it actually tastes 10x times better when these three cooked it together. "This is actually delicious," Carlos moaned with pleasure, shutting his eyes as he ate his own dish.
~Kendall
I still couldn't get over how neat Logan's handwriting is. I mean, I thought James' handwriting was beautiful, but Logan's writing straight up looks like it came out of a printer.
"As a reward, I'm gonna make you guys a tart for our midnight snack tonight," Logan grinned once we finished eating and the dishes were washed.
"Seriously? Heck yeah!" Carlos and James exclaimed in unison.
"Need any help?" I asked Logan as he began preparing the ingredients for said 'tart'. "Nah, thanks for the offer," Logan grinned before sticking his head into our large fridge again.
~The Clock Strikes 11 at night…
"Right guys, your midnight snacks are ready," Logan yelled from the kitchen, causing Carlos and James to both drop their controllers and zoom towards the dining area.
I smiled, seeing a small plate of 'Chocolate and Strawberry Tart' presented beautifully on the table. "You guys were amazing today," Logan grinned as he ate his tart, I nodded.
Ever since Logan came around, replacing Wayne, things really have gotten better. I honestly love having him around… I wouldn't have anyone else replacing him.
