A/N EEK! Sorry, this isn't a new update! But apparently, Caitee (the girl with the impossible to spell name that looks something like akslalkjfblah lol) says FF won't let her read this chap! So I decided to try and re-upload it and hopefully she can read. Can you read it Caitee? So sorry if I tricked anyone I feel bad, but now Caitee or anyone else who couldn't read this might be able to now, I hope! Love ya'll!
Well, I could make a really long authors note filled with excuses and apologies as for why I have not updated BUT wouldn't you just much rather read the story? Thanks everyone so much for all of the reads and reviews I would not be writing this story without everyone's awesome feedback!
Hey and follow me on twitter if you wanna, Channy_Girl20 and I always follow back.
Kendall drove up the circle drive in front of Gustavo's ornate mansion, his expression stony. He had been quiet the entire rest of the drive, even though Carlos, James, Logan and Katie had been full of questions that nipped annoyingly at his swarming, achy ears. Kendall felt this insatiable urge to cut himself off from the world for a bit, just lie in a dark room and close his eyes and ears and turn off all of his senses until the pounding in his brain faded away. It was hard to think when he was as nervous and stressed as he was.
Nobody made a move to speak or remove their seatbelts when Kendall put the cherry red car in park and just sat there silently for a few moments. Carlos glanced at Katie nervously, and she just shrugged. The Latino sighed and leaned forwards, so that his nose was at the driver's seat.
"Hey Kendall, are you sure this is a-"
"Just get out of the car and grab your bag, Carlos," Kendall said. His voice was calm but they all heard the fear in his unsteady voice. The blonde was second guessing his actions. He wondered if maybe it was such a good idea to have them all run away, because he knew that there would be hell to pay sooner or later for doing so.
Carlos obeyed Kendall's words like a puppy. He jumped in his seat and rolled over Katie's lap, spilling out of the car and onto the black asphalt driveway, than ran around to the trunk to pull out the few belongings that they still had.
Kendall turned off the engine and swung his legs out of the car and got to his feet, then slammed his door shut tersely, making James and Logan flinch. They followed suit and watched Kendall grab the bags from Carlos' hands (because the Latino seemed as if he was struggling a bit with the weight) and led the way up the windy sidewalk to the huge wooden front doors of Gustavo's multi-million dollar mansion.
"Aren't you going to um, knock?" Katie asked when Kendall stared blankly at the bronze lion door knocker.
"Oh, yeah," Kendall said. He cleared his throat, smiled a bit at his ineptness, and grabbed the handle that was the lion's mane and gave it a few rough swings. A moment later, one of the huge doors flew open with a creak revealing Gustavo's pudgy body in jeans and a flannel. He gave them all a sad smile, something none of them had ever seen before because he usually wore either an angry scowl or a goofy grin, and stepped aside for them to make their way in.
The large, dome foyer was filled with echoes of sneakers against marble as the 5 children slowly shuffled inside of the mansion. Even though they had spent the night there once before, their huge eyes lit up at the site of all the fancy architecture and the expensive belongings Gustavo owned. Carlos grinned when he saw his old friend, the odd statue placed right in the middle of the foyer. He ran up to it and gave it a hug, making Gustavo squeal and his face turn beet red. The record producer gently pried Carlos off his prized statue and placed him 10 feet away from the expensive statue.
"Yeah, nobody touch the statue!" Gustavo said loudly.
"Hey do you have some pudding? Can we have some?" Carlos asked enthusiastically, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet.
"And virtual golf, can we play that too?" James asked. "Ooh, and I am dying to take a bath in your clawfoot, gold lined tub again!"
"Guys!" Kendall said, putting his hand up to shush his friends. "Gustavo is letting us live here, show some respect. Tone it down a bit."
"It's ok Dog," Gustavo said, but his eyes turned dark when he realized something. 'Wait a minute! James, how do you know I have a 500,000 dollar tub lined in gold and what do you mean by 'again?'"
James cringed and looked at his feet, not wanting to admit he had snuck in a bubble bath in Gustavo's bathtub while he had mansion sat last time.
"Whatever," Gustavo said, waving his hands above his head. "Your bedroom is upstairs, down the hall and to the right. Katie your bedroom is across from theirs. Hope you like it. You guys can go get settled and I'll make you some snacks in 20 minutes." With that, the producer marched into his media room, leaving the 4 teenagers and young girl alone.
"Race you upstairs!" James yelled.
"No way!" Carlos cried, taking off after James. In the process he ran into Logan, who pouted and joined the meaningless competition while Kendall lagged behind, slowly walking up the staircase.
"You good big brother?" Katie asked, knowing that Kendall always joined a competition unless something was wrong.
"Yeah, I'm good baby sister," Kendall said, ruffling her hair. "You know, this will be fun, us living here. There wasn't enough room for us anyway at that apartment."
"Yeah, but there was mom," Katie said sadly. "And mom always said that no matter how small of a house we were in that it wouldn't matter as long as we were all together. Can't she stay with us, Kendall?"
"No, not this time baby sister, sorry," Kendall said bluntly. He put a hand on his sister's back and led her to her new bedroom, which was done with cream colored walls and bedding and dark wood furniture.
"Wow, it's pretty in here," the young girl breathed, looking around the cozy bedroom that was nothing less than extravagant. The curtains were cream colored silk with lace covering, the duvet was plush velvet, and there was even a crystal chandelier hanging high op on the ceiling. "This dude is richer than I thought."
"Do you like it?" Kendall asked hopefully, setting her belongings on her full-sized bed. When she nodded, he bent down so he could look her in the eyes easy.
"Are you sure? You will be comfortable living here for a while?"
"Yeah, it's beautiful, Kendall. I love it," Katie said truthfully, but the older brother detected the sadness in her voice.
"Think of this as like a vacation, ok? A really fun, extended vacation."
"That mom doesn't know about," Katie put in. Kendall sighed and ran a hand over his face. He hated acting behind his mother's back as much as she did. It just felt wrong.
"Kendall I trust you, I always do and always will," Katie said. "But I really hope you are right about this one. I'm gonna unpack now." The brunette gestured to her backpack, dismissing Kendall. The blonde nodded, feeling the weight of his friends' and sisters lives on his shoulders.
Just as Kendall closed Katie's door, he felt his cellphone vibrate in his pocket. He reached in his pocket and pulled it out to read that he received a text message from his mother. He opened the message, which simply said "Hey honey, David and I just got home. You were supposed to be back from the studio an hour ago. Did you boys go out to dinner?"
Kendall's mouth went dry. Of course his mom would text him, wondering where he was and of course, she would be expecting a reply back. She had no idea that her entire family had run away.
Kendall stared at his cellphone, his mouth set in a straight, hard line as he contemplated what to do. He had never run away before. He always let his mother know where he was at all times because she was his mom. He had to let her know he was at least safe.
Kendall quickly wrote "The boys, Katie and I are safe. Don't worry about us. If you want us back, than David needs to go. Your choice." A couple seconds after he sent the message, his phone vibrated again but this time it was a phone call from his mother. Kendall pressed "silent" and put his phone back in his pocket, ignoring his mother.
Kendall took a deep breath and poked his head inside of his new, large bedroom, where James and Carlos were jumping from bed to bed, their bodies tumbling and flailing through the air while Logan wordlessly tried to unpack, dodging their flying limbs every once in a while.
"Hey guys, wanna check out those snacks Gustavo was talking about?" Kendall asked. Carlos and James immediately stopped jumping and looked up with interest. Kendall could have sworn he could see them drooling.
"Chocolate pudding?" Carlos asked hopefully.
"I don't know, let's go find out," Kendall said, trying to sound upbeat. James and Carlos cheered and ran out of the room to attack Gustavo's living room fridge, but Logan continued to half-heartedly fold clothes and stick them in the giant cherry wood dresser that they were all to share.
"Logan, don't you want some pudding and rich people snacks?" Kendall asked. Logan shrugged, not turning to look at his older brother.
"Hey, come on. Let's have some fun, buddy. We are living in a mansion!" Kendall said.
Logan finally turned around, dropping a button-up flannel to the floor. "But it feels wrong, Kendall! We ran away, dude. We're outlaws!"
"Logan, we aren't outlaws. I don't see the big deal. Gustavo offered us a place to stay and we took him up on it. It's mom's fault and David's fault that they didn't tell us."
"Shouldn't we talk to your mom, first?" Logan asked, his voice pleading. He wanted to trust Kendall, but he didn't want to get in trouble either. He had done some crazy stuff before, but running away was where he felt he should cross the line.
"I tried, she won't listen, Logie. I swear I tried," Kendall said. "She's obsessed with David now. Maybe this will get her to wake up." Kendall thought that Logan might give the argument up when the smaller boy seemed thoughtful for a moment, but the brunette sighed and shook his head.
"You are going to give her a heart attack, dude."
Kendall scowled at his younger brother. "Logan, he hurt you! He beat you raw last night!" The blonde exclaimed, his green eyes widening with anger at the memories. "I refuse to ever watch that happen again, and if we stay there he's only going to get worse. He'll hurt all of us, including Katie. He gets angry Logan, really angry. And it's one thing for him to hurt me but one of you guys? You're like my brother, man. I can't watch that."
Logan opened his mouth to argue, but faltered a moment at Kendall's blunt words. The blonde had just admitted something the he had been trying to keep secret, judging by the sudden uncomfortable look across his sharp features. "What do you mean by all that, Kendall? Has he… Has he hurt you before? Like he hurt me?"
Kendall held his breath and put his fingers to his temples. He couldn't hide it anymore, at least not from Logan. He slowly nodded and watched Logan's eyes fill up with fearful tears. He was expecting an explosion of questions to come from the brunette but instead he launched himself into Kendall's arms and held him tightly.
"Don't- don't tell the boys," Kendall said in a strangled voice. Logan let go of Kendall and nodded. He knew he needed Kendall's trust right now. The brunette reached forward and shut the door, than led Kendall to a nearby bed and sat him down, then sat next to him and put a small hand on his back for comfort, just to let Kendall know that he was there.
"Is that why you never talked about him after he… He left?" Logan asked, wondering how in the world a kid could hold in so much pain. Logan always knew that Kendall was strong, but now he was sure that he was way stronger than he ever let on.
Kendall nodded and put his hands on his knees. Logan could tell he was having a hard time keeping it together. He was remembering things, bad things that happened when he was so young.
Logan wrapped his arm around Kendall's broad shoulders and leaned into him. He closed his eyes when he felt wetness fill them. He wanted to cry for his big brother. But since Kendall was not crying, he refused to cry.
"I feel like a little kid again," Kendall said. His voice was weak and small, and he rested his cheek on Logan's soft brown hair. "I feel like I did when I was 6 years old. Always scared, and weak. Because I can't do anything about it. Dad always has and always will have power over me. I will never be stronger than him. He'll always be able to hurt me, Logan."
Logan's heart throbbed at Kendall's revelation. His best friend, his leader, was scared. His emerald eyes were no longer filled with confidence but were now timid and fearful. He looked like a small child again.
"He won't hurt you anymore, Kendall. I won't let him. James and Carlos and I, we'll put a stop to this."
"No," Kendall said, shaking his head vigorously. He fell backwards on the feathery-soft bed and put his face in his hands, staring at the ceiling between his fingers. "Logan, you can't. You can't protect me from this. I can't let you guys get hurt. Logan you have to promise me that it has to be like I never told you a thing. Everything I said, it stays in this room, ok?"
"But Kendall he-"
"Logan, promise me please! You have to promise me! You have no idea what my dad is capable of!" Kendall said forcefully. He sat up and looked into Logan's eyes, begging for sincerity. "Please, Logie."
Logan rubbed the back of his neck and winced, feeling a bit panicky. This whole thing was a mess. "Ok, ok Kendall. But if he tries to lay a hand on you-"
"Then it's my problem," Kendall cut in. Logan wanted to cry out in frustration. Why was Kendall so adamant about excepting help? He was like a toddler who refusing to let his mother help feed him. He would much rather spend twice the amount of time making a bigger mess than necessary trying to figure it out himself than let anyone just simply help him.
"Yeah, and what if he hurts me again?" Logan asked. Kendall growled and got to his feet, pacing around the room in anger.
"Then I'll kill him. He's never touching any of you ever again!" Kendall said, and Logan could tell he was dead serious.
"So why is he allowed to hurt you, but not me? Why would you let yourself get hurt when we can help you, but you'll risk your own safety for us? Why aren't we allowed to do the same for you?"
Kendall stopped pacing and stared at Logan as if the answer was obvious. "Because I'm the big brother, Logan. This conversation is over." With that, Kendall turned on his heel and exited the room.
Logan let out a small yell of frustration at his difficult friend. For all of one minute, Logan had succeeded in letting Kendall's guard down but as soon as Kendall had realized that, he had put it right back up again. But the brunette didn't care what Kendall had to say. He would respect his wishes to keep it a secret between just the 2 of them. But he knew the moment that David ever put another hand on Kendall, he would break his promise and he, Carlos and James would make David pay for hurting their big brother.
Logan joined his friends downstairs with a false smile on his face. James and Carlos greeted him enthusiastically with chocolate-pudding-grins, but Kendall didn't even look at him. The blonde looked almost guilty for telling Logan everything, so the brunette took a seat next to him at the kitchen table and squeezed his shoulder.
'It's ok," Logan whispered. Kendall nodded and gave a small smile, than handed Logan a pudding cup. Logan grinned and took it thankfully, suddenly very hungry, and the 4 boys enjoyed the rest of the evening eating pudding and terrorizing Gustavo in the media room.
By 10 PM, Kendall had received 5 text messages and 3 calls from his mother, all of which went ignored. The blonde turned his phone on silent and paid no attention to it. If his mother really cared about him and wanted him back, she would break up with David to get him to move back in. But first, he had to make her really worry first.
They were in the middle of a game of virtual jump rope when Logan tugged on Kendall's sleeve anxiously.
"Dude, dude, look!" Logan begged in a whisper.
"I know, Carlos has been jumping for 4 minutes straight!" Kendall said, not tearing his eyes off of the Latino jumping up and down rapidly like an energizer bunny.
"Well we all know he'll sleep well tonight," James said in amusement. Just then, Carlos' animated body on the screen jumped a split second too late and got tangled up in the rope, falling flat on his face on the concrete.
"Noooooo!" Carlos wailed, falling to the floor with his character even though the rope was imaginary. Kendall laughed, and Logan tugged on his shirt again.
"Ken-dall! Pay attention to me," Logan whined. He shoved his cellphone 5 inches away from Kendall's face to show him what was getting him all riled up. Kendall blinked and moved the phone further away so he could actually see the screen, which read "3 missed calls" from Mama K.
"Just ignore it," Kendall said.
"But I can't lie to Mama K!" Logan said fretfully.
"You aren't lying to her, Logan! Just don't answer the phone," Kendall told him. Logan moaned and whimpered.
"But it's your mom, I'm not strong enough to resist her power and-"
Kendall rolled his eyes, grabbed Logan's cell phone, and ripped the battery out of it. "Quit worrying about it, dude."
"Oh. That works," Logan said with a shrug, than joined Carlos for a game of double dutch.
By midnight, the 4 teenagers were jumped out and close to a sugar coma. They almost fell asleep on the media room floor when Gustavo poked his head in and bellowed for them to go to bed, so they got to their feet and trudged to their rooms and got dressed for bed. Carlos, Logan and James lied down and fell asleep immediately but Kendall went over to Katie's room to check on her since she had been absent all night.
The little brunette was fast asleep on her new bed, curled up with a pillow in her arms. Kendall went over and kissed her forehead gently. The little girls eyelashes fluttered opened slowly, and she smiled when she saw her big brother peering down sweetly at her.
"Hey baby sister, I'm sorry I woke you," Kendall whispered, brushing her silky brown hair away from her cheek.
"It's ok big brother," Katie said, sitting up to give Kendall a hug. The blonde pulled the young girl into his lap and held her there.
"Kendall I'm scared," Katie admitted, burying her face in his chest.
"You don't have to be scared, I got you," Kendall assured her. "Get some sleep Katie, you need it." Kendall gently laid his sister down and tucked her in, than gave her forehead another kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too big brother," Katie said softly as she drifted off to sleep. Kendall stayed with her until she fell back to sleep than quietly left the room. He took out his phone to see if his mother had texted him anymore when he saw a number he'd never seen before on the screen. He opened the message and felt his stomach drop with horror.
"Kendall, I'm going to give you a choice. Either bring yourself, the boys and your sister back home by tomorrow, or I will find you myself. David."
Kendall gulped and squeezed his eyes shut, his heart pounding. What if David found them? He wasn't sure if David would even bother looking for them, but if he did, Kendall was sure that he would hurt all of them.
Kendall typed out a quick text message reading "You have what you want, my mom all to yourself. Leave us alone." After he pressed send, he deleted David's message, removed the phone battery and hid his phone in his dresser so he would never have to hear from his mom or David ever again, pretending that he never received the threatening text.
A/N Have any of you ever played virtual jumprope before? I play it at Dave and Busters and win like a ton of tickets. Anyway, I hope this chapter was ok…
Ps, me and Twisted Illusions FINALLY got tickets for BIG TIME RUSH! We are going to be FRONT ROW AT THE HOUSTON RODEO! I am so stinkin' excited! And with our super stalking skillz combined, we are sure to meet them! GAH I JUST WANNA SQUISH A SQUIRREL OR KISS A RANDOM PERSON I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!
Please review teehee.