Guys' Night

(Day 5: Thursday Night)

"Is it just me or does the air seem a little thicker in here now, like harder to breath," Jay notices as he sets the three pop bottles and one large pizza onto the table.

"Oh. Yeah," Carlos begins, placing a hand to his neck for a moment. "I may have lit a cigarette earlier, but that shouldn't have affected the air that much."

Jay shakes his head, and Carlos can't tell if he had found the information tiring or just boring. "What are you doing lighting cigarettes?"

Carlos comments unsurely, "I just wanted to remember."

"That's why you kept them," Jay reminds him. "You didn't have to light one."

Carlos points towards their sleeping area, "Do you want me to crack open a window?"

"That would probably be a good idea."

"Okay." Carlos walks over to their bedside tables, uses his right hand to hold the curtain open, and then uses his left hand to crack open the window before he lets go of the curtain. "There." He turns around and finds Jay looking at him in thought, "What?"

Jay shakes his head, "Nothing." before he glances at the clock.

Carlos walks back to the ends of their beds and towards the round table, "No. Tell me. What is it?"

He shakes his head again, "No. I said we shouldn't talk about it again."

Carlos shuts his eyes for a moment, "Jay."

"It's just that I still don't get it," he explains. "Can't you just remember her and everything without those things lying around? I mean, how can you not? She's done nothing but hurt you for a very long time. How can you not remember any of it? Doesn't it just invade your mind sometimes? Don't you ever just find yourself not being able to forget about it?" He waits for some kind of response, but Carlos remains silent. "And why would you even want to remember? She may be your mother, but why would you want to keep a reminder of all the pain she's caused you?"

"I don't know," Carlos softly answers. "It's just…" Oddly comforting. "I don't know." Neither of them speaks for a minute, and as Jay is about to reply there's a knock on the door. "You should get that."

Jay turns around and goes over to open the door, "Hey guys. Come on in." He watches as William, Brendan, Aziz, Ben, and Li pass him. "Is that it?"

"Oh. Yeah," Brendan awkwardly replies. "Chad still doesn't very like you, and he's convinced some of our team members not to encourage your stay here."

Jay shrugs it off, "Don't worry about it. At least now I won't feel guilty about the lack of pizza. We could only afford one." He turns around and sees them sit down. "I hope everyone likes pepperoni." He sits down on Ben's left, facing the door, and Carlos down to his left and next to Aziz. "We also have Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, and Mountain Dew."

Li comments, "You played it very safe."

He laughs, "Yeah, well, that was kind of the idea. I know it's not much of a party, but if we get bored and anyone knows any good channels, then we could always turn on the TV."

"Forget the television," Brendan grins. "You lived on an island filled with every legendary villain ever. You must have some great stories to tell."

Carlos and Jay give each other a look, before Jay nonchalantly answers, "Not really."

Carlos tries to laugh, "Yeah. We only ever really got one TV channel." He emphasizes, "Pretty boring if you ask me."

William looks at him in question, "You guys only had one TV channel?"

"Well, two," Carlos corrects, "but it was basically just an ad for villain merchandise. The other one is just the Auradon news channel, which no one ever truly watches."

"Okay," Brendan gestures. "Now I know you must have some stories. It's not like you just sat around the house doing nothing."

Jay frowns, "No, but it's kind of hard to have any good stories to tell when all we were trying to do was survive. What we tell you might end up sounding like some great adventure, but to us it was just everyday life. And trust me. You wouldn't want it."

Ben asks, "How bad was it?"

"I wouldn't call it bad," Carlos starts. "I spent most of my days doing chores, going to school, and then returning home to do more chores." He half laughs, "Except that most days I don't do all of my chores."

"How could you?" Jay questions. "You have too many. It's not humanly possible."

"It's possible," Carlos denies. "It's just that for some stupid reason I don't do them. Don't know why… You would think I'd do them just to keep my mother relatively happy."

"Is that why she burns you?" asks William.

Carlos widens his eyes before glancing over at Ben, and then he grits his teeth at the blond, "Not everyone at this table knew that."

"Wait. So, it's true?" Ben questions, seeming to look a little worried.

Carlos smiles, "Enough about me. What about you, Jay?" He lightly nudges him on the arm, "Why don't you tell them all about your day on the Isle."

"Ah. Yes," Jay distracts them from Carlos. "Well, there's not much to tell. I spent a lot of my days skipping class to steal things out of people's lockers."

Li gasps, "I knew someone stole my deodorant. It was you."

Jay lets out an annoyed breath, "I didn't steal anything from you, or at least not like that. I've just taking what's been lying around, and even that I haven't done in a couple days. I figured that you guys have a different set of rules here."

"What?" Brendan questions skeptically. "The Isle of the Lost has rules?"

"Yeah," Jay seriously answers. "If you leave something lying around, then expect it to get stolen."

Li huffs, "And you expect me to believe you didn't steal my deodorant."

Aziz sternly responds, "He didn't steal it. I borrowed it, so just cool it."

After the moment of silence Jay breaks it, "And in any case, if I did steal anything I wasn't supposed to, what are they going to do? Send me back to the Isle?" He huffs a laugh, "I live there. It's only a matter of time before we get sent back there anyway."

Ben interrupts the table of shocked frowns, "Why would you think that?"

"Maybe because we're just exchange students," Carlos reasonably answers. "This is practically a different country. We're not really citizens here. After the school year is over where else could we possibly be sent to other than back home?"

Ben is quiet for a moment, and when he speaks there's a sadness to it, "I never planned to send you back there. The idea was that if you could learn to be good, then you'd be given a chance to stay here. If you remain relatively civil for the rest of the school year, then there's no reason why you should have to be sent back to the island unless you want to go." A sudden realization hits him, "Wait. Mal. Is this what she thinks, that I'll just send her back?"

After Carlos and Jay glance at each other Jay remarks, "That's what we all thought."

"Oh, God." Ben stands from his chair, "I've got to find her. Where is she?"

"Mal?" Carlos asks, before he gives Jay a questioning look. "Probably with Evie, right?"

"Probably," Jay confirms, before he looks over at Ben. "Try their room."

"Okay. Thank you," Ben intensely responds, before he rushes to the door and heads out.

Carlos slightly laughs, "That poor guy." before he fills his large cup up with Mountain Dew. "How about a toast?"

Jay fills his glass with Dr. Pepper and clinks it with Carlos's, "To the Isle."

"The Isle," Carlos repeats, before he takes a drink and notices the confused faces around them. "Because we're still betting we'll get sent back there. Get it?"

Aziz looks at him questioningly, "But Ben just said you wouldn't be."

"Ah," Jay smiles. "But we know things you don't." Before anyone can ask any questions he continues, "I know that Ben isn't here now, but we should also do a toast to his coronation." He tops off his drink and waits for everyone else to do the same. "To Ben's coronation."

The rest of the team repeats, "To his coronation." before they messily squish their plastic cups together over the pizza.

- "Poor guy." I just wrote what everyone was thinking. Seriously though, he's way too kind hearted and oblivious for his own good... and may I just add how sad it is that he always seems just one step behind Evie in everything he does, as far as when it comes to Mal anyway?... Maybe this comment is premature, but eventually you will get what I mean.