Wow, guys, just wow. I cannot believe all the response I've gotten for this story. Seriously, if it wasn't for you guys, I have no idea where I would be. Thank you. You guys are the absolute beeeeeeeesssssssssst!
Disclaimer: Me don't own dem boys or dat show…
Three days passed and Kendall, Carlos, and Logan forgot all about the incident at the movies.
But James didn't.
Every time James looked in the mirror and he wasn't wearing his beanie, James saw his shiny bald head and the words that the two boys spoke to him came flooding back.
"Nice haircut! Oh, wait, in order to have a haircut you would need hair!"
"Freak!"
"He's just a baby!"
These comments plagued James, every day they were what coursed through his mind. As the days passed, James became more and more depressed over what had happened. Of course, James would never let his friends know that.
James felt like he had already caused enough problems and already caused his friends to think so little of him, he really didn't need his friends knowing he was really affected by what those boys said. James loved attention, that was a given, but he loved attention when he was singing or dancing or doing anything on stage. He hated bad attention. He hated causing problems or looking weak. Lately, that's all he's been doing. He's seen people with cancer on TV and they all seemed so strong and no one treated them any differently. Why couldn't he be like that? Why did he have to make everything about him? Why did he have to be like this?
James didn't know the answers and that worried him.
A week passed and James refused to take his beanie off even around the apartment. It became a very rare thing to see James without a beanie. He only took the beanie off to take a shower, and he wouldn't even take it off to sleep! James didn't want anyone to see his hairless head, not even himself.
Two weeks before James' next chemo session, the boys were beginning to get worried about James. He just seemed so down and sad all the time, and it scared them to death. It was raining that day, so they were all stuck in the apartment together, bored out of their minds.
"Ugh!" Carlos moaned as he leaned over the couch so his legs were hanging over the top and his head was touching the floor. "There is absolutely nothing to do!"
"I know!" James agreed, sounding equally bored. "We can't go to the pool, Bitters won't let anyone hang out in the lobby, and Gustavo's out of town, so we can't even go to the studio!"
"We could just watch movies," Kendall suggested. "We haven't watched a Will Ferrell movie in a while…"
"Cool!" Carlos said, jumping up from his position and running over to the DVD rack. "Logan! Go make popcorn!"
Logan chuckled and pushed himself up. "Wanna help me, James?"
Sure," James said as he stood up too. "Just let me go to the bathroom first."
Logan nodded and James walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Afterwards, he flushed the toilet and turned on the sink to wash his hands. While he rubbed his hands together, James took in his surroundings. The toilet, the sink, the towels, everything seemed so organized, thanks to Logan. But when James' eyes traveled to the back corner, he felt tears welling up in his eyes.
In a neat little pile were all of James' hair care products. Cuda, hairspray, moose, everything was there. James didn't need it though. Slowly, James looked in the mirror and pulled off his beanie, revealing his scalp. James dried his hands and reached a shaky hand up to touch it. After he did that, he rubbed it. James held back the tears that begged to leak over as he opened the drawer under the sink and pulled out his lucky comb. He wouldn't need that either.
Suddenly, James was pulled out if his trance by a loud pounding on the door.
"James!" Carlos yelled. "Are you ok in there? You've been there for a while."
"Yeah," James said back, cursing himself for how upset he sounded. "I'll be out in a minute."
"Well, hurry up! Logan already finished making the popcorn and I got the movie started up!"
"Yeah," James said as a tear escaped passed his wall and fell down his cheek.
"You don't sound ok, James," Logan's came through the door. "Open the door, James!"
James shook his head in defeat. There was no fighting this one. He gripped the comb tighter and opened the bathroom door. Immediately, Kendall, Carlos, and Logan ran in.
Logan was the first to notice James' appearance. "James, you look a little pale. Are you feeling alright? You're not getting sick, are you?"
"I'm feeling fine, Logan," said James' hoarse voice.
Kendall's eyes traveled to James hand and he saw the edges of the comb peeking out. "James? Are you ok?"
James reached up his hand, opened it, and felt the comb's teeth. Without a second thought, he brought it up and snapped it in two. He put the two pieces of the comb into Carlos' hand and pushed past his friends. James walked out of the kitchen and out the front door, not bothering with a jacket or even his beanie.
Carlos looked at the broken pieces of plastic in his hand and back to the door. Kendall and Logan ran out the front door, but James was nowhere to found.
"Maybe we should go look for him," Logan said for the tenth time. "He's been gone for half an hour."
"Yeah," Carlos agreed. "I'm worried."
"You guys go," Kendall said, head down.
Logan and Carlos' head snapped to Kendall. "What are you talking about?" Logan said. "You don't want to find him?"
"No, I do, but I shouldn't," Kendall said, tears welling up in his eyes. He hastily wiped them away before they could fall.
Carlos moved over to him. "What's wrong, buddy?"
Kendall laughed a humorless laugh and shook his head. "What's wrong? What's wrong? Carlos, what isn't wrong? James is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and it is my fault! I could have stopped this, but I didn't! Therefore, this is my fault!"
"Kendall, we all feel like this is our fault, but you got to understand that it isn't!" Logan said. "It isn't any of our faults."
"We won't be any help to James if we can't just get over our silly guilty feelings. And I don't know about you, but I want to help James," Carlos said as he rubbed Kendall's back.
Kendall grabbed the pillow resting on the couch and buried his head into it. He sobbed and wept and cried, not wanting to look weak, but caring in the slightest. He felt too pair of arms wrap around him the owners of those arms bury their heads into his shoulders. He felt their tears soak through his shirt, but he didn't care. Kendall lifted his head from the pillow and buried his own head into his best friends' shoulders.
"We really should go look for James," Logan said after the three boys had stopped crying. "Carlos and I would really like you to come with us, Kendall."
Kendall really didn't think he should, but he couldn't just ignore the desperation in Logan's voice. "Alright, let's go."
All three boys stood up, wiped away any remaining tears, and walked out the front door. But before he left, Kendall checked the clock on the oven. 6:38. Kendall sighed. James had left at about 5:45. Mrs. Knight and Katie had gone on a shopping trip that day, so they wouldn't be back till later. And looking at the window, Kendall could see that it was still raining hard.
"Ok, we should split up," Kendall said. "Carlos, check the roof and the other floors, Logan check the basement and stairway, and I'll go check the lobby and pool. If you don't find him, meet me back in the lobby."
Carlos and Logan nodded and all three boys took off in separate directions. After fifteen minutes of searching turned up nothing, they all met back up in the lobby, just like Kendall said.
"I couldn't find him," Carlos told his two friends.
"Same here," Kendall and Logan said at the same time.
Kendall started pacing the lobby. "Ok, you guys, now I'm starting to get worried. Where could he have gone? It's not like he could have just driven away or something."
"Just calm down," Logan said. "Let's think this through. Where else have we not checked? We checked the floors, roof, basement, stairway, lobby, pool… Where else could he be?"
"The park?" Carlos suggested. As soon as he said those words, Kendall and Logan took off, Carlos struggling to keep up. They ran out the front doors and to the park as fast as they could.
"Ok," Kendall said, still breathing heavily. "Split up. And if you find him, just yell."
Again, Carlos and Logan nodded and they took off. Carlos ran over by the big oak tree, cupped his hands around his mouth and called out for James. After he got no response, he ran closer to the oak tree and when he saw a large figure sitting up against it, soaking wet, he broke out into a huge grin.
"KENDALL! LOGAN! I FOUND HIM! HE'S BY THE OAK TREE!" Carlos yelled into the air and walked over to James. He leaned down and put his hand on James' shoulder. "James? You ok, bud?"
Before James could answer, Kendall and Logan were surrounding him, pulling him up, and scolding him for sitting in the rain for so long.
"What were you thinking?"
"You had us worried sick!"
On and on it went, Kendall and Logan never letting James get a word in. They practically dragged him back to the lobby and into the elevators. Once they got to 2J, Kendall pushed James into their room, instructing him to take a warm shower and change into some dry clothes. James noticed he was shivering slightly and nodded his head in response, not feeling strong enough to put up a fight.
Half an hour later, James was in his bed asleep, after taking a shower and changing into dry clothes. Even under the blankets, James was still shivering. Logan sat there, watching him with worried eyes when Kendall and Carlos walked in.
"How's he doing?" Kendall whispered.
"I'm not sure," Logan admitted. "He's shivering."
Kendall sat down beside Logan as Logan got up and put a gentle hand on James' forehead. After a moment, he turned back to Kendall and Carlos, looking even paler than normal.
"What is it?" Carlos asked anxiously.
Logan sighed. "He has a fever."
Ok, so I am SO SORRY for not being able to get this updated yesterday! I was just so busy and then I got home really late and I was exhausted and I'm just really, really sorry. Maybe I'll be able to make it up to you and update tomorrow?