*AN* I've been feeling unmotivated when I start new chapters lately so bear with me. Once I start I can keep going and find a plot line for the chapter and keep it moving so dont worry i will finish this story, its just going to take some time. These 'plot twists' if you could call them that, are actually helping me in my writing. I had some writers block then I couldnt decide which direction I wanted to go in and then I couldnt find the right build-up to the next important part. Sometimes its a good thing when your mind creates wild images, or free write or just let your creative self and mind take over your fingers and type whatever flows in.*
So this story is getting longer than I anticipated but at least I am reaching my original plot points, however this one wasnt exactly as I had been planning it to be, for the longest time to! At the last minute it changes but the way the story was rolling it makes more sense.
I've started to draw some sketches as story covers. However the way that I drew them, their size and what they might contain, they cant be uploaded here like I wanted. The problem is mostly the orientation of the drawing, I prefer to draw landscape rather than portrait so obviously this causes problems with the uploader. i am by no means an artist, I dont have my own style yet but my imagination and creativity is limitless, in many cases it only takes a minute or 2 to figure out the scene I want to draw in regards to the title. I cannot draw people, but I can draw cartoons, however my sketches are people based not cartoon so in short, they are pretty bad. I will upload them eventually but to my DeviantArt account. Most likely the sketches wont be colored just for time reasons however if I manage to get them uploaded in a decent way and not by use of a camera, fans are welcome to color them using their own computer or print out and color I dont care. I type up more info as I'm closer to being ready to upload. Until then enjoy the story! :)
Needless to say the guys were hurt by her actions and also confused. They had finally managed to get a hold of their manager and got a ride back to the hotel and despite all his questions, their manager was given the silent treatment, as they were driven back to their temporary home. They were too upset and frustrated to deal with anyone so they just went to their own rooms to let off some steam.
Their manager, Luke, was left confused but just let them be. Logan and James hadn't seen the others yet but seeing their confused manager rose questions that Luke couldn't answer himself. He told them that Carlos and Kendall seemed down and they wouldn't talk so he just let them be and suggested that they do the same. Naturally Logan and James were concerned about their friends and began to fish for answers.
"All I know is I drove them to that girl's house who was housing your bus and then they called me in a panic 4 hours later on the other side of town. Something must have happened between the three of them and I have no idea what nor do I want to be involved right now." Luke explained
"I knew something like this would happen." Logan began. James raised a brow at Logan's sudden excitement. "She must have had something to do with it, she is just another rabid fan after all. She may have some talent in singing or whatever but she's not special like you guys think she is!"
"Logan, what the hell man? This isn't like you at all." James pointed out.
"Whatever man, that chick is nothing but trouble since we first met her. She was a lousy server and now she's trying to weasel her way into our friendship where she doesn't belong." Logan insisted
"That's enough Logan! You know damn well that she did everything in her power to make things perfect for us, it was Jack who caused all the trouble. You saw the footage, you saw him beat her! It's like you don't even care!" James fought back
"I care enough to know that she's ripping our friendships apart! I mean look at us and how we're fighting, all because of her and what she started. I cant be the only one who sees this!" Logan said
"You're out of you mind." James replied.
"Fine. I give up, you want to let her ruin everything then fine. But I am not about to let this career die out this soon. You can join me and save our future or you can walk out on a life time of friendship. The choice is yours." Logan offered.
"Logan, you know I would never betray you guys, but I need to get to the bottom of this and find out for myself what is going on. If you want to save our friendships and our celebrity lifestyle, you'll let me do this." James rebutted. Logan was silent for a minute, staring his friend in the eyes, before walking away without a word. "Logan?"
"I'm trusting you to fix this." He said to the side before catching the elevator and stepping inside.
Logan stared his friend in the eyes with determination and trust as the doors shut. James turned to Luke to get a ride but Luke just handed him the keys instead.
"Here, I'm tired of being everyone's lackey. Besides this is WAY too much drama." he said walking away.
James left in a hurry and made his way to Katie's house to find it empty. Not knowing where to go next he sat in the car for a moment before remembering that she worked at the school on occasion so he checked there. He drove by and saw the same scene Kendall and Carlos saw and was appalled to see her being used in such a way. He stopped the car and jumped out in front of them, scaring Katie right away. Her dad wasted no time in trying to chase him off. James flinched at the display but quickly toughened up to try and help his new found friend that he still believed meant no harm.
James was ready to fight, both with his words and fists as her father approached. Her father's words and threats seemed to disappear when he looked to Katie and saw the sadness and fear in her eyes. Without thinking or even knowing, he dropped his fists, still staring at her. Time seemed to move in slow motion as he watched her look between him and her dad and as he looked between her dad and her. He no longer felt violent or offensive and wanted to take everything back. He went limp and his face softened. He could see her father talking but the words were just mumbled sounds to him.
"Look, I'm sorry, I really am. I didn't mean to come off so rude and offensive. I just came back for some answers, something is going on with Kendall and Carlos and I just…I just want to make sure everything is alright."
"Your 'friends' tried to kidnap my daughter! Not only that, but before, I caught both of them in my house, in her room." he spat.
James couldn't believe he was hearing, not at all. All he could do was look to Katie for something different but she wasn't even looking at him. She was crying though, he could see that.
"Sir, please. Whatever they did, I'm sure its all a misunderstanding. I just want to make things right, I want to apologize. I know we got off on the wrong foot and you are just protecting your daughter from some random guys you don't even know, but I assure you, all of us are just friends. Or at least we were, everything seems to be falling apart fast and I don't know how to fix it…"
"I don't know much about you and you are right, I am protecting my daughter from scum such as yourselves. From what I do know is that you are celebrities, ones that my daughter likes very much. I don't trust any of you and I am not about to take a chance that any of you or her, get an idea to go off together. She may be unwed but I am not that desperate to pair her off to some stranger. Celebrities are nothing but trouble and if word gets out she is shacking up with one of you, her life will be in danger. She is safe where she is where I know where she is and what she is doing. She is more useful to me here than off with you, not working." he said gruffly.
James was insulted to say the least but he understood where the man was coming from. James had nothing more to say only because he didn't know how to respond and just left after accepting her father's answer. He mulled over a few different ideas and schemes to try to fix this mess but first he had to get the others in on it.
James came into the hotel in a hurry. His mind was swirling with so many different things he didn't know where to start. Hotel staff attempted to approach him in a normal manner as they did with all their guests, but never had the chance as James swept past them. Both elevators were in use so he took the stairs, running up the first 3 flights with ease. He made it to the 7th floor and pounded on everyone's rooms. They all opened their doors confused as too who was knocking since they couldn't see anyone and found James standing in the middle of the hall.
"All of us need to talk, right now." he ordered.
The others didn't question his order and propped their doors open before being herded into James' room. They talked for several minutes after James gave them the story to unite everyone, then lectured them. They all came up with the same answer and plan to solve everyone's problems, Katie included.
"Then it's settled." James finished.
They all agreed and began to form the details of the plan. It was late in the day by the time they finished and they ordered some room service for dinner to their own rooms where they relaxed for the remainder of the evening before turning in for the night. They were all tired but also anxious and found it difficult to fall asleep. Morning seemed so far away as they stared at their ceilings, out the windows to the sounds of the eerily quiet city and to the clocks the stared them in the face, numbers seemingly refusing to change.
Eventually they did all fall asleep one by one and morning came quickly or at least to Logan who was the first one awake, he was also the last to fall asleep. He had only gotten about 4 hours asleep which was kind of normal on the road but he still felt restless. It was too early for the others and way to early to visit Katie so he sat in silence, watching some TV, waiting for the minutes to just tick by.
A knock on his door caught him off guard, glancing at the clock, it was only just after 7 so he wasn't sure who it could be. Logan was partly decent but not knowing who it was he grabbed a towel just in case. He opened the door and Carlos was on the other side.
"What are you doing up?" Logan greeted quietly
"Couldn't sleep. I'm too nervous about the plan." Carlos replied sheepishly
"Come in." Logan said, moving aside. "What are you worried for?"
"Are we making the right decision? I mean I want to help her and get her away from all the abuse but she doesn't want to leave." Carlos asked, plopping down on Logan's bed
"It's all she knows, Carlos. You can't blame her for not trusting us when she has no one else in her life." Logan said
"But doesn't she want to be saved? All the movies I've seen the abused or bullied kid is always rescued in the nick of time and it all works out. None of those kids never said that they didn't want to be rescued from whatever pit of hell or non-existence they were in." Carlos insisted
"Because they were movies. Real life is never portrayed like it really is, in movies. Movies never show the story of what happens when it's too late to save someone, and if they do, there is no back story to let you know how the person felt like there was no way out. We cant judge what is going on in her head or her heart. All we can do is try our best and hope we arent too late." Logan assured, patting Carlos once on the shoulder.
By 9am they were all up and ready to go, they skipped breakfast to nervous to eat and made a quick stop to her house first to find it empty, and her car was gone. They drove by the school discreetly and saw no movement whatsoever on the outer grounds. They didn't want to draw attention to themselves or what they were doing so they continued on.
Kendall was driving and the others were on their phones, looking through her face book page, which was easy to find, not too many people with the name Katie Pryszwiec. Her face book was empty of friend messages and had just lonely posts from apps and statuses that went unliked. Compared to her other friends, her activity was nearly non-existent. Her status and overall attitude on her page was pretty positive with the occasional bad day, she was putting up a real good front to her peers and were amazed that she hadn't broken down yet.
James finally found a check in at her college from several weeks back and thought it would be a good place to check but it was a good distance away so they continued to check for anything around town. Her employment status was listed, but like her relationship status, it could be fake. Clicking through it appeared to be an unknown place with only a dozen likes and there were no results on google maps for a place that name. She did mention being a dog trainer but she was pretty quiet about it for whatever reason. Even on her face book there wasn't much info on the place itself although she had many stories of he adventures.
"What a minute, check this out." Logan began. Logan was actually getting into the search to aid his friends but he also began to take a liking to Katie as a friend, just as the others had already. "She mentions a place called 'ACS' and its about working with dogs, maybe the names changed or there was a mix up?"
"On it." Carlos replied as he switched to google. "Here it is: ACS is an acronym for the 'Academy of Canine Science'. Located on 428 Sundown Drive."
Kendall put the address in his gps and as soon as he got the first instruction they took off.
*AN* The ending is near, I have some of it straightened out I just dont know how I want to present it just yet. Do i want to present a sequel, have an epilogue or combine the whole thing into one? I'll figure it out as I go along. I dont know exactly how many chapters are left, it all depends on my writing and how far my mind wanders or how much I get carried away with a scene.