A/N: Yay, I'm not late on this! I actually wrote it the day after I posted the last chapter, but I waited to upload. This chapter is almost all about Carlos, plus, you get to see the guys again. Enjoy!
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Carlos awoke the next morning in his bed, still wearing the same clothes he had worn the day before. Considering the fact that he didn't even remember getting into bed, he figured he had been too tired to change. When he checked his phone, he found a text from James to get on Skype around noon, Florida time. It was already 11:15, so he yanked himself out of bed, rubbing his hands over his face and yawning.
After trudging around the rather large hotel room, he was finally washed up and changed by 11:50. He sat down on his perfectly made bed and turned on his laptop, grabbing his phone to reply to James's text to tell him he was online. A few minutes later, an alert popped up on the screen to notify Carlos that James had signed on. He clicked the Skype window and immediately pressed the video call button. After a moment taken to connect, James's face appeared on the screen, Kendall and Logan sitting behind him. The two men in the back were on their phones, but they looked up when they heard Carlos's voice.
"Hi guys," he said tiredly.
"Hey Carlos, how's it going?" Kendall responded in an equally tired tone. It was only 9 AM back in LA.
"It's alright, could be better."
"Right. We saw the article," James said in a sympathetic tone. Carlos only sighed, not sure how else to respond. "Sorry, buddy. Any idea who it was?"
"I have an idea, but I'm not sure. Did I ever tell you about the girl I dated back in high school? Piper?" Carlos said. He had thought it over the night before, and her timing just seemed too coincidental with the whole situation. He had yet to talk to Ryan and Alex about it, but she seemed like a good lead.
Logan spoke for the first time, "I think I remember you saying something about her. I'm not sure." The name sounded familiar, but he didn't remember the entire story. Neither Kendall nor James seemed to recall talking about Piper, so Carlos proceeded to tell about what had happened in high school and what he had learned the day before. They listened carefully throughout, and Kendall responded at the end.
"The irony of the situation is pretty funny, but that still sucks. Did she hint at it at all?" Carlos thought for a moment and shrugged slightly.
"Not really. Maybe she said something to Ryan when they were in the bathroom."
"Maybe. How is Ryan doing?" James asked with a mischievous gleam in his eye, smirking slightly. Logan chuckled at the question, and Kendall matched James's smirk.
"She's fine..." Carlos said slowly, silently questioning his friends' expressions. "Why do you ask?" His three best friends only laughed at his confusion. James responded with another question, the smirk never disappearing from his face.
"Have you taken her out yet?" he asked bluntly.
"Wh-what? No! She's just- she's just a friend!" Carlos stuttered.
"Do you WANT to take her out?" James continued his interrogation.
"She is JUST a friend," Carlos sighed out.
"You didn't answer the question," Logan teased in a sing-song voice.
"No, I don't want to take her-"" Carlos was cut off by Kendall.
"Yea, you do," he said, rolling his eyes. He laughed at Carlos's "what the fuck?" face before speaking again. "You're lying to yourself. Tell me that you're not attracted to her," he challenged.
"I'm not attracted to her," Carlos said, licking his bottom lip. James made an "Aha!" noise and pointed. When Kendall noticed Carlos's confusion, he went to explain James's outburst.
"You have a tell. When you're unsure about something or you're lying, you lick your bottom lip, even when you don't realize your lying."
"That's creepy that you know that, especially since I've never told you."
"We see each other every waking moment that we're in the same town. You tend to pick up on these things," Logan stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Whatever, you are nuts. What if my lip was just dry?" Carlos said defensively. All three men on the other side rolled their eyes and gave up before changing the subject.
"So the reopening is on Friday, right?" Kendall asked, receiving a nod from Carlos.
"Yepp! I'm so excited. It's become my little baby." The guys laughed at that.
"We were thinking about coming down for the weekend. Is that okay?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That'd be awesome. I'd love for you guys to be here for the ceremony."
"Won't it draw attention, though?" Logan didn't want to make things worse than they already were.
"It really won't make much of a difference now. Anyways, I want you to meet Alex and Ryan." They smiled and nodded. James had a mischievous look on his face.
"You don't know what you just got yourself into, 'Litos." He winked before disconnecting the call. Carlos sat in confusion for a moment before he received a text from Kendall.
He's gonna keep messing with you and Ryan, you know that right?
Almost immediately after reading it, he got another from Logan.
We'll be flying in tomorrow night around 10. I'll send you the flight info tomorrow morning. We're gonna be staying at the same hotel. Can't wait to meet your girlfriend. Oops, sorry, not girlfriend, just friend...
Carlos groaned, throwing his head back. Why couldn't he just have normal friends?
Around 4 o'clock, Carlos decided to go into the shop and put the final touches on everything so that he wouldn't have to worry about it the next day. He pulled up in his black Suburban and noticed a silver Pathfinder parked outside the store. Brushing it off, he walked up to the door of Hooked on Books and produced a key, unlocking the door. Stepping in and locking the door behind him, he went about his regular routine that he had developed over the past three and a half weeks. He walked behind the counter and turned on the large boom box he had brought in during the second week. When he switched it on, a loud beat blasted from the speakers, scaring him half to death. He turned it down before grabbing the portfolio of paperwork from his backpack. When he finally glanced up, he saw Ryan walking up to the counter.
"You scared the living shit out of me, you moron!" she shouted, arms flailing.
"Sorry! I didn't know the stereo's volume was up that loud. What are you doing here anyways and how'd you get in?"
"You gave me a key, dipshit. And I just wanted some quiet time outside of my apartment." Carlos then recalled giving her and Alex their own keys in case they needed to get in when he wasn't available. He nodded, satisfied with her response. "What about you? Pop-star don't have nothin' better to do?" she smirked.
"Haha very funny," Carlos said sarcastically. "I just wanted to take care of everything today. The guys are flying in tomorrow night."
"Wait, the guys are gonna be here?" Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. You gonna go into crazed-fan mode?" Carlos smirked. Ryan matched his expression when she responded.
"No, but Alex might."
A/N: Ugh, the damn line-break thing is being a bitch, so the spacing might be a bit weird. I'm sorry. But I hope y'all liked the chapter. Review/follow/favorite! I'd love to know a what y'all think, and I'm hoping we can get to 50 reviews by chapter 15. C'mon guys! Love y'all.