"Hey! Where have you been? I've been texting and calling for like the past hour. Was about to send out a search party." Jay joked, a smirk creeping across his face.

Carlos remained silent for a moment before registering that he was meant to reply when people spoke to him,

"Oh! I uhh… left my phone here. Sorry." Was all he said.

He knew he was avoiding the question and that was pushing it with the potion as he felting the niggling urge to answer in the back of his throat. The two stood there, not speaking for a minute before Jay squint his eyes questioningly at Carlos and moved out of the doorframe, gesturing for Carlos to enter. He scrambled into the room and went over the bed, scratching Dude's head as he reached under his pillow to retrieve his phone, seeing the many missed calls and texts he'd received:

Texts: Mal (3)

Jay (7)

Jane (3)

Evie (1)

Missed Calls: Mal (1)

Jay (4)

"So… where have you been all day?" Jay asked from across the room, snapping Carlos out of his daze, staring at the now blank phone screen.

"Um, Mal and Evie's room." He replied, trying too hard not to give out too much information.

"Doing what?"

"Hiding." He said truthfully.

"Hiding?" Jay scoffed, "from who?"

Carlos gulped and looked Jay dead in the eyes, "you." He said flatly.

The smirk on Jay's face dropped slowly and he gave Carlos a confused and slightly hurt look. Carlos felt a twinge in his stomach as he registered the look on Jay's face and realised he'd upset him – that was the complete opposite of what he went there to do.

"What is going on with you Carlos?!" Jay snapped.

Carlos went to answer him, to try and clear his name, if only at the urge he felt at the back of his throat from the truth gummy but was cut off by Jay's angry rant continuing,

"First you pretty much run away at the sight of me this morning and then you completely ghost me all day. I was looking for hours, got my head bitten off by all these girls you've managed to piss off and now you finally come back and tell me you were hiding from me? You're acting weird, man. What is with you?"

"Jay… I-"

"No, Carlos, you know what? Forget it. Come find me when you're done acting like a complete… this." Jay said angrily, gesturing to Carlos and walking out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Dude whined a little from his place on the bed behind Carlos and moved to give his fingers a reassuring lick. Carlos slumped down onto the bed and sighed deeply; this had definitely not gone the way it was meant to. He decided that rather than start blubbering again as his eyes threatened to do, he would call or text Evie to tell her how horribly his and Jay's interaction had just gone. He would have text Mal too but didn't want to ruin her date with Ben. He briefly skimmed over his missed texts, not really reading any and completely brushing over the ones from Jane, too scared to even open them.

To: Evie

Spoke to Jay… sort of.

Didn't go well, I couldn't tell

him. I think this was a bad

idea

He pressed send and looked over the texts from Jay, reading through the threats to beat him on video games and asking where he was, and sighed. He threw the phone at the end of the bed and flopped down backwards, placing his hands over his face. Dude budged over and licked Carlos' cheeks encouragingly but Carlos was too wrapped up in his own misery to respond.

He sat back up briefly to turn around and lay back against his pillow, pulling Dude onto his lap as he did. He heard his phone buzz from where he'd thrown it but couldn't bring himself to look. Instead, he decided that he would wait right in that spot for Jay to come back and then he could apologise and maybe fix things without saying too much if he could help it – he was regretting the whole crazy idea of coming clean to his best friend about how he felt. He checked the time on the alarm clock next to his bed and saw that dinner was about an hour away and he had a little over eighteen hours left of the truth gummy's effects. He sighed deeply and slouched further down his bed, deciding he wasn't hungry and even if he was, he wasn't about to risk running into Jay in the great hall after their last interaction.

Dude shifted on Carlos' lap before jumping off the bed and going to sleep in his own,

'Great, even my dog doesn't want to be around me anymore.' Carlos thought to himself, looking over at Dude curling up across the room.

Carlos sat up and got his phone from the bottom of the bed, switching it on to read the text Evie had sent him. It was something encouraging about how he could do it and jay would get over it and blah blah blah; he didn't want to think any more about it at that moment. He thought about texting Jay to tell him he was sorry and could explain everything but thought better of it. He needed a distraction so turned on the games console he and Jay shared, putting on some sort of puzzle game that he like and Jay didn't and that didn't take a lot of energy or effort to play – he really couldn't be bothered.

Time passed slowly and eventually Carlos noticed that dinner had been over for a good half an hour, which made him worry where Jay was. He was sure that Jay would have been at dinner – he's never missed a meal since they arrived in Auradon – but now with him and Carlos not talking, did he have the same idea of skipping to try and avoid Carlos? There wasn't many places in Auradon Prep to hide, as Carlos had found earlier so wherever he was, he couldn't stay there long; the library closed at nine, the gym was locked up between practices and even Mal and Evie had their limits of boys hiding out in their bedroom – not that Carlos thought Jay would be there after he told Jay that's where he had been hiding from him all day. He couldn't believe that Jay had gone completely AWOL on him; even when they had their little squabbles, Jay didn't just wander off without telling Carlos where he was.

Once Jay had stormed out of the room, he didn't really know where he was going or what he was going to do. Him and Carlos had obviously had arguments before but none of them were ever so bad that Carlos started avoiding Jay all day? What had he done to deserve that? He shook his head and carried on walking, picking up speed with the more wound up he got. Since being at Auradon, Jay hadn't been all that angry like he used to be on the Isle every day with his dad being who he was but now, he was angry, like it was all coming back to him and he hated it. He hated the feeling of the uncomfortable heat in the pit of his stomach that came with the rage he felt so often before and just kept walking, trying just to walk it off and cool down a bit before he went anywhere near Carlos - he hated snapping at him and getting mad at him; something that made the whole thing so much worse.

After a while of walking around, not really knowing where he was or where he was going, Jay bumped into probably the person he wanted to see least at that very moment: Chad. Why did he always have to pop up at the worst times? It was like he knew just when he would get on someone's nerves the most. Jay tried to just keep his head down and walk away but he had already made the mistake of making eye contact with him and he was already on his way over.

"Hey Jay! Where are you off to?" Chad asked as he approached.

"I don't know, Chad." Jay replied, shortly.

"Oh. Cool... Well dinner's gonna be ready soon. Wanna come to the hall with me? I was on my way now to get in there early."

Jay looked up at Chad and for a moment wanted to go off at him and start yelling and take everything out on poor, helpless, annoying - but harmless - Chad. But he didn't instead, he took a deep breath and said,

"Sure."

With that small act, Jay felt his anger slipping away until it was just a small lingering presence in the back of his mind, just where it always was and where Jay liked to keep it - away.

"So I spoke to Audrey earlier, She actually picked up this time! I think she wants me you know? She's finally coming to her senses." Chad babbled as the two boys walked towards the dining hall.

"That's great Chad, but maybe you should chill out a little with the phone calls? Girls like it when a guy's mysterious." Jay responded, trying to be helpful and think about anything other than his fight with Carlos.

"Wow, yeah thanks Bro, that makes sense." Chad sounded as if his mind had been blown (it didn't take much to be fair), which made Jay just a little bit happy.

The two walked together and were met with their empty, usual table. Ben had been kind of absent lately with all his new king duties so it wasn't a shock that he wasn't there and Jay guessed Carlos wasn't there because of their fight but Evie, Doug, Mal, Jane and Lonnie not being there either was strange.

"Where is everyone?" Jay asked.

"Don't know, man. I guess we're earlier than we thought."

Just as Chad said this, Lonnie appeared in the grand doorway and made her way over the the table. As soon as she sat down, she also asked where their friends were. With a shrug, Chad got up to get in line for first dibs at food, Lonnie following suit, leaving Jay alone at the empty table. He was about to let his mind wander when his train of thought was interrupted by Doug and Evie walking over to join him.

"Mal?" Jay asked Evie.

"Uhh, she wasn't feeling well so she's giving dinner a miss tonight." Evie said but the look she gave Jay was a 'I'll tell you later' look, "Carlos?" She continued.

Jay just shrugged, looking down at the table as he did,

"I'm surprised you don't know where he is." He said, more spitefully than he meant to.

"I'm sorry?" Evie questioned.

"Well he was with you guys all day wasn't he?" Jay replied, regaining some calm.

"Oh. Yeah... he was but then he left. I haven't seen him since. Have you?"

"Unfortunately." Jay whispered under his breath, just quiet enough that Evie didn't hear.

"What?"

"Nothing. Yeah, he was back at the room when I left. I thought he would be here."

Evie looked at Jay questioningly but didn't want to push or drop Carlos in anything so didn't say any more. Jay held her gaze, mimicking her expression, wanting to know more like why Carlos was there all day but didn't want to get into anything over dinner and had snapped - or nearly snapped - at too many people in the last hour.

Dinner went by uneventfully with Mal, Carlos and Jane all remaining absent for the duration. It was odd and awkward at times but everyone seemed to be going through stuff at that moment and Jay was too wrapped up in himself to really care about anyone else - selfish, he knew but he was quite enjoying his pity party of one. When everyone was sufficiently full and ready to leave, they got up and said their goodbyes, Evie telling Jay she would walk with him for a bit and saying goodnight to Doug before she left. Evie and Jay left the hall and walked around in silence for a moment before Jay asked,

"So, what's really up with Mal?"

"I don't think her date with Ben went very well. I didn't really get much out of her when I got back to our room but she's not happy. Everyone's going insane today, I swear."

"Tell me about it." Jay replied, "Carlos is acting weird too. I think I've made him mad but I can't think of what I could have done. How come he was with you guys all day?"

"Oh. He... uhh... I don't know really, he spoke to Mal mostly, I wasn't there much. I don't think he's mad at you. Just talk to him. He'll probably tell you more than you think he will." Evie smirked inwardly to herself at the joke only she would understand.

"Yeah, I think I will go talk to him. I should get back then. Thanks Evie." Jay smiled at her before the two said their goodbyes and parted ways, each returning to their own rooms and respective friends in need.

Another hour passed as Carlos settled in to bed with a pack of cookies (maybe missing dinner wasn't the best idea) and put a film on. It wasn't very late but after the day Carlos had had, he was exhausted from the stress. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, the door to him room opened slowly and Jay creeped in. Carlos' eyes snapped open but he remained still as to not alert Jay to the fact he was awake – he really didn't want to argue with him and was too afraid to start a conversation in case Jay was still mad. Jay closed the door softly behind him and walked over to his own bed, sitting down on the edge and sighing.

"Carlos?" He called quietly from where he sat across the room.

Carlos thought about not answering and keeping up the pretence of being asleep but then thought better of it; ignoring Jay seemed like it would be worse than arguing with him. He rolled over onto his side to face Jay's direction,

"Mhmm?" He hummed faintly.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier, I just thought you were mad at me for something."

Carlos sighed, "I'm not. I deserved it though; I have been kinda weird all day."

"Yeah," Jay scoffed, "you got that right."

Carlos propped himself up a little on his elbow,

"I'm sorry I was being such a jerk. I just… I don't even know. I'm sorry."

Jay got up from his bed, walked over to Carlos and ruffled his hair in his playful, reassuring way,

"Dude, it's fine. Don't worry about it. What did you do to Mal and Jane though? 'Cause they are actually mad at you." Jay laughed, taking a seat next to Carlos on the bed.

Carlos groaned and screwed his face up,

"I… don't wanna talk about it. It's been a long day. Can we talk tomorrow or something?" He asked, both avoiding the question but telling the truth.

"Yeah, sure. Do you think you could help me with the maths homework tomorrow too? I thought I was getting the hang of it but honestly, it still makes zero sense to me."

Carlos playfully rolled his eyes,

"Of course. We can do it after dinner."

"Thanks. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." Jay said before getting up and going into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Carlos sat up and decided to do the same until he remembered his phone with the many unanswered texts from earlier. Carlos took a deep breath before picking it up from the end of the bed and finally reading over Jane's messages.

From: Jane

Are you okay? Mal

was asking about you, I

think we need to talk?

From: Jane

What in the world Carlos?!

What was that? Text me

back, we need to talk!

From: Jane

?

From: Jane

Carlos! How can you

just ignore me?! How could

you do that to me? I swear

to God, if you don't talk to

me, I'll tell everyone your

little secret.

Carlos was in shock for a few seconds, Jane did not seem like the type to sell out her friends like that but he thought that he couldn't really blame her if he was honest after what he did only a few hours earlier. The feeling of guilt from before came creeping back and he suddenly felt really bad rather than angry at Jane for potentially threatening and blackmailing him. He typed and re-typed a message without sending anything, still too shaken to know what to say.

To: Jane

Jane, I'm so sorry I

didn't mean for that to happen.

I guess I was just confused and scared.

I really am sorry, please don't tell

anyone about what I said earlier, I don't

want Jay to know. Can we talk in the morning

maybe?

Carlos pressed send and felt like he finally let out his breath. He went back into panic mode and started freaking out. Jane had sent the message over an hour ago, what if he was too late replying? What if she had already told everyone? He quickly checked all of her social medias and saw nothing, taking a sign of relief – he presumed nothing had happened yet and calmed down the tiniest bit. When there was no reply for a few minutes and she hadn't read his message, he presumed she was asleep and tried to let himself push the thoughts out of his head long enough to get ready for bed, keeping an eye on his phone the whole time with no change. Jay came back into the room and hopped into his bed, turning his bedside lamp off and getting under the covers.

"Goodnight." Jay called over to Carlos.

"Night." Carlos barely mumbled as he too got into bed and settled in for the night; he thought he wasn't going to be able to sleep with all the stress he was feeling at the time but instead fell asleep within minutes.

A/N - Ahhh it's been so long I am sorry, I got a new laptop and rewrote this chapter about 25 times and then I've had exams and so much going on. Mostly I've just had no motivation but yes, here we go, enjoy! I know I said there would be interesting stuff in this chapter (i think i said that at least) and this might be a little disappointing buttttt i'm gonna lead it on to some cute stuff for next chapter I promise! I'm also finishing and posting this at 3am so sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes, i am a tired mess. Okay so thanks and enjoy and please leave a cute review if you want (any suggestions of where you want the next chapter/s to go would also be great because I'm struggling with what I actually want to include from the film and what direction I want it to go - as you can see, i am a mess) OKAY GOODNIGHT :)