A/N: The average chapter length for this story so far is 5154 words, and this chapter came out at almost 3k. Shortest chapter yet! Haha. And I still made you all wait a week, I know. I've been sick with strep for a while. Ugh. But I'm mainly better now and ready to get back to work :) As always, thank you so much for reading and double thanks for reviewing. Please continue to do so :) I think chapter 14 will be very exciting. And long, possibly.

Warnings: None.

Chapter 13
Crossroads

Carlos sighed and covered his ears with his hands. Logan and James had been talking constantly for five minutes, reiterating the same things over and over again.

"No, man, I started it. It's my fault."

"But I was the one who started yelling."

"Yeah, but I hit you first. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No, no, I'm fine. What about you? You okay?"

"Yeah, you don't punch very hard."

"Okay, I—Hey, wait a second…"

Carlos groaned. He puffed out his cheeks and rolled his eyes, tired of listening to the never-ending apology. "Okay, okay, you're both sorry. Now hug and shut up."

Their lighthearted bickering ceased. As Logan stopped at a red light, the two turned their heads and shared glances with one another. James laughed and stuck out a hand, which Logan accepted and shook, wearing the same forgiving expression. Carlos knew his friends didn't care for hugging as much as he did, so a handshake was probably the best they could do. At least it seemed sufficient to Logan and James.

Carlos's face was still slightly pink, and he had contemplated speaking up for a while. He really didn't want to draw too much attention to himself after the whole incident at the parking lot. He felt like an idiot, crying like that in front of James and Logan. But it also frightened him. He had no idea where the emotions came from. It was as if they had been building up behind a black wall of pressure, until the force became too strong and they gushed forth like a breaking dam. And once it started, there was no way to suppress his tears.

He shuddered. It was hard to imagine what would have happened if the guys wouldn't have stopped. What were they thinking, anyway? Kendall was already gone. Why would they want to lose each other, too?

"You know," said Logan, peering out the window in search of their destination, "I think it's Carlos we should be apologizing to."

Carlos blushed harder. "No, it's fine," he mumbled, sinking lower in his seat. He turned his head away, hoping if he did so, no one would notice him.

"No, it's not," said James. "Logan's right." Then he sighed, and spoke with an unusual earnestness. "Carlos, we're sorry. But we're not leaving, okay? We promised we'd stick together, and that's exactly what we're going to—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Carlos interrupted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Can we talk about something else now? Like how hungry I am? Because it's lunchtime, and I haven't eaten in like, forever."

"How can you possibly be thinking of food at a time like this?" wondered Logan.

"At a time like what?"

"At… you know. The crossroads of our journey."

It was just like Logan to speak in weird metaphors no one understood. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Logan patiently explained, "it kind of all comes down to this, right? I mean, if we search this new address on the computer and nothing comes up… then what do we do?"

Carlos hummed in thought.

"Or," continued the driver, "we could get a result for the address and it could be somewhere miles away. And I'll admit I'm a little wary about crossing state lines, because then this whole escapade becomes a federal offence, which is a serious mark on your criminal record…"

Carlos wished Logan didn't think so much ahead. It was way easier to go at life one step at a time. Take what comes and keep on going, right?

"It would be stupid to turn around now," James piped up. "We're already, what, eight hours from home? If 170Z Weylin Road is a real place, we need to investigate. No matter where it is."

"But what are we going to do when we run out of money?" Logan turned a corner and started down a long stretch of road. "I'm out of cash from buying gas and food, Carlos spent all his money on spray paint—which I'm still mad about, by the way. I mean, do you see all the people who stare at us?—and James, you spent a lot on clothes. We probably only have enough for another tank of gas." His eyes flicked downward to the speedometer. "Which we're going to need before we leave town."

James rubbed a hand over his face, pondering hard. "Well…," he drawled, thinking. "I guess we can just ration what we have." He turned around in his seat. "What do we have left for food?"

Carlos laughed nervously. "Um…"

"You ate it all, didn't you?" asked Logan, sounding not at all surprised.

"Not this." Carlos pushed aside a few empty plastic bags and revealed a pack of gum. "There's twelve pieces left." He stared longingly at the treat for a few moments, then popped one into his mouth. "Okay, eleven."

Logan looked like he was going to say something else, but he suddenly pointed out the window. "Hey, there it is."

Warrick Public Library was a small, old-looking building. A bicycle rack up front was at its full capacity; the parking lot was not. A flag pole stood in the center of a colorful flowerbed, which instantly reminded Carlos of his goldenrod. He hoped it was okay, wherever it was.

Logan parked the black and silver vehicle away from any other cars, like usual. Carlos made sure to put his baseball cap over his head before he exited the vehicle. The sun was high in the sky, a canopy of summer warmth making the town practically glow. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and jacket, already sweating from the heat.

He chomped loudly on his gum as the three boys made their way discreetly across the parking lot. The library must have had the air conditioning on, because chilly air burst from the doors and immediately engulfed Carlos's body upon entering. He had never exactly been in a library before, except for his school's library back in Minnesota, and one time when Logan needed to do some research and Carlos was somehow convinced to accompany him. It was so boring. Who wanted to sit around and be quiet and read books all day? Especially books without pictures.

Logan led the way into the building. Books upon books lined shelves to the left, and to the right were rows of computers. Logan pointed. "Let's go."

Carlos trailed behind, blowing a small bubble with his gum. It was already starting to lose it's flavor, and it certainly wasn't doing much to calm his rumbling stomach.

He followed his friends into the computer lab where a few people worked. Logan chose a computer in the corner of the room, as far away from the other bodies as possible.

James hovered over the back of Logan's chair as he pulled up a web browser. "Go to MapQuest," the taller boy urged.

Logan's pale fingers were already flying over the keyboard. "Got it."

Carlos stood passively behind, snapping his gum nervously.

"170Z Weylin Road," Logan murmured aloud as he punched in the address. He exchanged a look with James, then hit the enter key.

Carlos held his breath as the page loaded. A purple marker appeared in the state of California, about a hundred miles southwest of their current location.

"Hah!" James cried, beaming. "I knew it! Look, look! Click on it!"

"I'm clicking!" Logan exclaimed, fumbling for the mouse.

Carlos's brown eyes widened. He gulped loudly as he unintentionally swallowed his gum. And for a moment, he couldn't help but wonder if he was dreaming. Everything that had happened in the past two days was completely overwhelming and existed only because fate seemed to be favoring their side. Logan was right: this was crazy. It was rash, it was inane, it was illogical.

But it was real.

170Z Weylin Road was located in a town called Redgrove. It was an actual address—James's suspicions were correct. Carlos turned to his taller friend with a broad grin curving his lips, expecting to see an identical expression. James just stared at the monitor, breathing deeply and shakily.

Carlos grabbed his shoulder and offered it an encouraging shake. James didn't remove his eyes from the map on screen, but the touch pulled him from his thoughts and caused a smile to break out across his face.

"Okay, okay, wait," said Logan, though he was smirking, too. "Let's see what this place is."

Carlos maintained his grip on James's shoulder as he waited patiently for Logan to do more clicking and typing.

Another window popped up. A picture of a long, grey building appeared. Carlos squinted to read the text underneath the photo.

"Oh, man," mumbled Logan.

"Is that the place?" asked James.

"Yeah, that's the place."

Carlos gawked. The building looked old and run-down from years of disuse, with cracked windows and dull paint chipping off the sides. A large white door took up most of the space in the front, and the faint, faded outline of a large letter Z was visible on the outside.

"It's a storage unit," Logan informed. "Probably used for larger stores and companies in the area. Doesn't look like it's been used in a while."

Carlos wasn't sure if he should cheer or be afraid. "So what should we do?" he asked no one in particular. "Why would Kendall be there? It sounds kinda suspicious."

"Yeah," James agreed. Then he paused. "Good thing we got the bat." He and Carlos slapped five.

"Hmm," Logan said, tracing his finger over the path of their destination. "It looks like this place is easy to get to. We get on the highway for a while, and once we hit town we just follow Heffron Drive until we get to Weylin Road."

"Sweet!" Carlos cried. "Let's go!" He and James began to dart away, but stopped when Logan didn't follow. He remained seated in his chair, gazing at the monitor with disbelieving eyes.

"Logaaan," Carlos whined, tugging on his friend's sleeve. "Come on! This is no time to be wondering if this is a dream or not! Even if it is, we need to hurry and find Kendall before we wake up."

Logan shook his head and stood, quickly closing out of the windows. "Remember what I said, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, go on the highway until we get to Heifer Drive."

"No, Carlos, that wasn't it—"

"Who cares! Hurry up!" James urged, grabbing Logan's arm and forcibly dragging him out of the computer lab.

The boys stumbled out into the parking lot, all three nearly laughing. Carlos skipped to the car excitedly. He had a really good feeling about the 170Z place. Although, maybe he shouldn't, because an abandoned warehouse wasn't exactly a normal place for Kendall to be.

Of course, neither was a bakery.

"Let's hit the road," James declared, flipping on the radio. He leaned back in his seat with a triumphant gleam in his eyes.

Logan lowered the volume as he slid into the driver's seat. "Hang on, we need gas."

Carlos noticed Logan and James's change of demeanor as Logan started the car and proceeded to a nearby gas station. He wished he would have went inside the station at Colby so he could have met the Dex guy his friends spoke of earlier.

"You know," said Carlos, "I bet Kendall is waiting for us to find him."

"What do you mean?" asked James.

"Maybe he's testing us. Maybe he wants to see if we're good friends."

"So stealing a car, painting one side black, driving illegally and switching license plates makes us good?" Logan murmured.

Carlos rolled his eyes. "I said good friends, not good people."

Logan sighed.

Being Warrick was so small, it took only a few moments of driving to locate a gas station. Logan commanded Carlos to stay in the car, because the Latino was jiggling in his seat with so much energy that Logan was afraid he'd bounce away and they'd never be able to catch him. It happened once in eighth grade.

James remained in the car to keep Carlos company while Logan went inside to pay. He turned around in his seat. "You really think Kendall's at this place?"

Carlos nodded vigorously.

A strange thing happened to James's lips. They almost looked like they turned into a frown. But that couldn't happen, right? Because James should be happy, not sad. "Hey," said Carlos, ceasing his fidgeting. "What's the matter?"

James cast a glance out the window, making sure Logan wasn't approaching. Then he exhaled, loudly. "What if Logan was right? What if I messed up again and this new place is nothing?" He lowered his voice. "I don't want him to hate me."

It was Carlos's turn to frown. "Logan won't hate you."

James rubbed his hand over a bruise on his face.

"Dude," said Carlos. "This whole trip you've been reminding us that no matter what is going on with Kendall, we need to find him and bring him home. He wouldn't give up on us, so we need to return the favor. And I think Logan's finally starting to get that through his head."

James still looked doubtful. "He's only doing this for you, Carlos."

Carlos blinked. "Huh?"

"Because of what happened in the parking lot."

Carlos blushed again at the memory. He dropped his gaze as James flipped back to the front. He hadn't considered Logan's abrupt change of heart could have happened because of him.

Carlos contemplated in silence, staring at the car floor. It wasn't until a loud wail assaulted his ears that he looked up. Whizzing past on the road to the left was a police cruiser. Carlos rotated around and peered out the rear window, watching the car zoom down the street. The sirens ceased as it pulled into the library parking lot.

"Oh no," Carlos and James said in unison. But when Carlos faced forward, he saw that James wasn't watching the cop. His eyes were on Logan, who had just exited the building and had frozen dead in his tracks. His skin was so white he almost had a glare.

"You don't happen to have ear plugs, do you?" muttered James, bracing himself in anticipation for another Logan-freakout.

Carlos sighed disappointedly. "Nope."

Logan marched forward the moment he snapped from his apparent trance. He ducked into the car, breathing hard. "Did you see that? Please tell me you saw that."

"Logan—" James started, holding up a hand.

"WE'RE FUGITIVES!" screeched Logan.

Carlos prepared to locate the paper bag.

"You know, Logan, I have something to show you. Outside."

Considering Logan was in near-panic attack mode, he probably failed to notice the mischievous tone in James's voice which suggested he was formulating a plan.

Carlos raised his eyebrows in curiosity as James opened his door and readied himself to step out. Logan yelped and grabbed the taller boy's arm, restraining him. "No! Are you crazy? You can't go out there! We'll get caught! Close your door, we have to get out of here!"

"Not while you're freaking out," James replied, maintaining a calm voice. "And no one's going to catch us. We have disguises, Logan. And I changed the license plates, remember?"

"Yeah, b-but what if—"

"Just come here for two seconds, okay? Then we can leave."

Logan bit down on his lower lip. After a brief moment of hesitation, he gave a small nod and followed James out of the car. Carlos noticed both his friends pulled their hats lower on their heads as they exited the vehicle.

Logan remained by the side of the car, uneasily shifting his weight from one side to another, his concentration focused on the danger in the distance. Carlos tried to see out the back window, but James had opened the trunk and the door obstructed his view.

Carlos sighed, bored. He was about to settle back in his seat and wait for James to do whatever it was that he was doing, when the door opened. James smiled cheekily, holding up a limp Logan by his underarms.

"Aw," groaned Carlos, "you knocked Logan out?"

"Don't worry, I barely hit him," said James. He grunted, attempting to stuff the unconscious body in the backseat next to Carlos. "Scoot over."

Carlos did as he was told, sliding to the opposite end of the seat. He grabbed Logan's arms as James lifted his legs, and pulled the shorter boy into the car. Logan's body sprawled flaccidly across the grey leather, his head resting in Carlos's lap. "So you're going to drive?" asked the Latino.

"How hard can it be?" James slammed the door and quickly made his way to the driver's seat. He examined the steering wheel, as if expecting the thing to move on its own. "Um, okay. Which way do you turn the key?"

Carlos shrugged. He looked down at Logan, then patted his head sympathetically. "Just try both ways."

James must have found the correct direction, because the engine rumbled to life. He grinned, satisfied, then reached for the volume on the radio. "Time to find Kendall!"