Payback
"Ugh, I can't believe I fell for it," a certain helmet wearing teen groaned as he walked through the door of apartment 2J. The Latino, who was covered in pink paint, trudged to the kitchen's barstool, sat, then put his head down. A preteen girl, who'd noticed the other's bad mood, came up to him.
"What happened to you?" She asked. The older teen looked up with a tired look.
"Kendall, Logan, and James had all been pranking me this whole week! They said it was payback for when I waisted all of their money to buy a new pair of rocket shoes," Carlos groaned. Katie started heading to the other side of the counter and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Once she closed it, she wore a smirk.
"They've pranked me as well so why don't you prank them back?"
"I can't prank anyone by myself!" He straightened his back.
"Why not?"
"Well first: I always prank alongside James and second: I'm too nice!"
"Well what if you had a little help? What if you prank them SO hard that they might ever do it again?" He leaned in closer, interested in what she had to say.
"I'm listening."
Kendall, Logan, and James had set up another prank in the lobby where half of the Palm Woods were currently positioned. After finishing the last touch, they waited behind the wall near the vending machine until the fourth band member of Big Time Rush walked through. Soon enough, he did. Carlos was whistling when he came out of the elevator but once he began for the large stretching hallway, he was bombarded by water balloons in every direction. The people in the area were either laughing, grinning, or stiffing a laugh.
At least that how it started until they saw the expression on the Latino's face.
But the three prankers didn't.
"HAHAHA!" They laughed while struggling to walk up to the soaked teen.
"Dude you should have seen your face!" Kendall wheezed.
"I told you my calculations were right," Logan boasted with a laugh.
"Yeah but it was my right idea to use water balloons," James followed with a playful punch to the nerd.
"..." They stopped laughing when they noticed Carlos didn't join them. His head was down, helmet covering his eyes, and his hands were clenched. This threw them off.
"Uh, Carlos?" Kendall reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder but it was roughly slapped away. Everyone in the room gasped, even Mr. Bitters grabbed some popcorn now enticed in the commotion. Katie came down with a suitcase and positioned herself near his desk. Carlos finally looked up, looking at the three responsible ones in the eyes, and what they saw dumbfounded all of them.
His entire expression showed rage.
"What's wrong Carlos-?"
"What's wrong?! WHAT DO YOU THINK IS WRONG?!" He shouted, startling everyone, but the teen didn't let up. "You guys have been pranking me ALL WEEK! Over some little thing?! I said I was sorry for wasting your money but I had already paid you back, but did you stop? NO!"
"C-Carlos. We're sorry, we didn't know," Logan stuttered, guilt laced in his voice. The Latino started laughing, but it was unsettling by how it sounded.
"Oh of course you didn't know! It's how you three always saw it right? Just prank the youngest member because he messed up a little right? Nothing wrong with that," he waved his hand nonchalantly.
"So...are you mad?" James asked slowly, getting a slap to the back of his head by his two companions. Carlos' expression turned back to an irritated one.
"Oh no, James, I'm not mad…" The three let out a breath of relief. But then the other teen continued. "I'M FURIOUS!"
"Well you could have asked us to stop!" Kendall spoke up, getting slightly annoyed.
"I did! Every time you pranked me I asked you three to stop! But yet you didn't listen...that's it. I'm done," he sighed. He walked over to Katie and grabbed the suitcase she rolled out.
"Where are you going?" Logan asked, not getting what the teen meant when he said he was "done".
"I'm going back to Minnesota." That's when everyone froze, silence overloaded them. The only sound that emitted throughout the room was Bitters' dropping popcorn and the quiet mumbles exchange between Katie and Carlos. They gave each other a quick wink, a signal showing that the next part of the prank was about to start. The preteen left the room, pretending to be upset but in reality it was to call upon the other person taking part in the prank. Meanwhile, the dramatic scene still continued. "Don't blame it upon yourselves though, I have been thinking about it for a while."
"Come on Carlos, you can't be serious," James begged quietly.
"I thought we stick together remember? We're Big Time Rush," Kendall followed, the same amount of sadness in his voice. Carlos just shook his head and turned to them.
"That's what I thought too. But I guess we were all wrong."
"So what? Are you just going to leave?" Logan threw his hands up slightly.
"Yeah pretty much. Kaite helped me get a plane ticket, and don't blame her. I didn't want her to say anything to you guys." He slightly smiled. "I still love you guys but I don't think I'm cut out being in LA."
"Carlos we-" James was cut off but something completely terrifying.
Three gunshots rang through the building.
"PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND FREEZE!" The people did what the booming voice commanded. A masked man with a gun came in through the front doorway, stunning everyone. He scanned the room. "Which one of you is a part of Big Time Rush?"
"T-They don't live h-here," Logan spoke up fearfully.
"I know they do, so if you don't tell me where they are I WILL KILL EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM!" He shouted, causing everyone to flinch. What happened next shocked everyone to the core.
"I'm was apart of Big Time Rush. We got into an argument. The rest live somewhere else in Los Angeles, I don't know where," Carlos spoke up and moving to be directly in front of the rest of the room. The man smiled beneath his mask.
"Good." He then shot the gun, a body fell to the ground, then ran off to who knows where. But the people of the Palm Woods didn't care, all they did care about was their fallen beloved friend.
"CARLOS!" The rest of BTR screamed. They raced to the youngest, who was clinging to life. Logan immediately started putting pressure on the gushing wound while the others crowded him, all of them now had tears streaming down their faces.
"Why would you do that Carlos?" James questioned sadly.
"I-I was leaving anyway. I could tell you guys didn't want me here b-by all the p-p-pranks you kept throwing at me," the dying boy explained. He started coughing up blood which scared the future doctor.
"No! No! We would never want you to leave!" Logan started.
"We don't know why we were so mean Carlos but you have to hold on," James followed.
"Come on Carlos! We stick together and we're so sorry for all the stupid stuff we did to you. Just don't die," Kendall ended. Carlos smiled, his eyes becoming droopy.
"I know you wouldn't mean it, but I guess you really care. Why do you think I threw myself in front?" His voice started to get slower and quieter. "I...wouldn't risk my life for...people I didn't care about… I...love you guys…" he then closed his eyes, releasing his last breath.
"No!" The three remaining sobbed and hugged the limp body. "Carlos!"
"N-NO!" Kendall sobbed. The people of the Palm Woods either started crying or pried the three sobbing teens off the body but eventually they did. They turned away from the corpse, unable to face the truth. But then something else caught them off guard.
Katie came out of nowhere with a camera. They all stared at her, confused as to why she had the recorder.
"K-Katie?" Kendall called out loud, tears still running down his face. Unknown to them, someone started moving behind them. He got off the floor then silently inhaled the largest breath he could, then let out the loudest scream he could muster, startling everyone so much that they jumped three feet into the air. Then laughter erupted in the room.
The ones laughing were Katie and, miraculously,-
"Carlos?!" They all exclaimed, now fearful that they might be seeing a ghost. The preteen walked over to the 'bloody' teen and patted his back. Kendall was the one who stepped forward. "You're not dead?"
"Nope," the Latino grinned.
"But we all saw you got shot!" Logan pointed out.
"No I didn't. To make it look like it though, I hid this packet of fake blood on my chest and mouth so when a force strong enough to hit it makes contact, it looks like I got shot and cough up blood," he explained. Katie whistles for the shooter to come in, which he did.
"And this is Mike, the actor who was paid to be a gunner and shoot down Carlos," Katie smirked.
"Why would you do that? We all thought you were dead!" James came up.
"Well, Katie and I were feeling tired of getting pranked all the time so we thought why not return the favor," he smiled.
"So all that stuff you said about feeling like you didn't belong in BTR and in LA wasn't real?" Kendall questioned slowly.
"All fake!" Carlos grinned, though it faltered a bit because he knew that deep down it wasn't true. The three remaining band members just ran up to the youngest and gave him a bone-crushing hug, nearly killing him in the process.
"G-Guys! Can't breathe!" He choked but he gasped when they let go.
"We're sorry for pranking you, Carlos, and we are so thankful that you're not really dead," Kendall smiled.
"Really?"
"Yeah because now we get a chance to kill you," James smiled creepily.
"Why?!" Carlos started backing up.
"For making us go through that," Logan answered, his expression the same as the other two.
"You should run…" They all suggested in unison. "Now."
So Carlos ran as fast as his legs could go and the other three of Big Time Rush following dangerously behind.
The End