I decided that I should just post Chapter 1.
I hope you guys enjoy it.
It has literally been five years since he and Carlos had spoken. He had tried many times to talk to his best friend after the wedding, but he didn't have much time before he had to leave for his honeymoon. When he got back, Carlos wouldn't answer any of his calls, e-mails , texts, or messages of any form, so eventually he gave up.
He was having a wonderful marriage with Camille. They were rather well off, living in a nice, modest house and were raising their daughter, Hailey, who was turning four that year. Sounds perfect right? But it hardly meant a thing to him if he couldn't enjoy it with his best friend. Was it something he had done? It was eating him up inside.
"Honey?" There a small knock on his open door of his workroom.
Logan turned his head away from the computer monitor and took off his glasses.
"Hey sweetie, need a hand with anything?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
She frowned and placed her hands on her hips.
"You look absolutely exhausted, Logie. You should go to bed and maybe take a small nap," she advised.
"What about Hailey?" Logan inquired, yawning.
She smiled and placed a gentle kiss on Logan's cheek.
"I can take care of her. All I need to do is turn on some Wiggles and she'll behave."
Logan sighed with relief.
"Thanks, baby. I owe you. I'll go take Hailey to the park in half an hour or so."
Camille nodded.
"Sure. Get some rest first, okay? Don't tire yourself out."
Her husband walked into their bedroom, got into bed, pulled the covers over his body, and fell asleep as soon as his eyes closed.
…
"Hails! Come back!" Logan called after his hyperactive daughter as she sprinted ahead.
Hailey was giggling and laughing as she ran faster, heading for a big puddle.
"No!"
It was too late. She had jumped into the filthy water and splattered her rain boots and jeans with mud. Logan grumbled and caught up with his daughter, swiftly picking her up and placing her on a nearby bench.
"Hailey, please don't do that again," he sighed, kneeling down as he investigated the sopping wet material. "Stay with daddy, alright?"
"Sorry, Daddy."
Logan smirked and kissed her on the top of her head.
"It's okay, darling."
He stood up and took a step back, helping his kid off the bench when he backed up into a jogger, causing the poor guy to fall back.
"Ow!"
Logan gasped and released Hailey's hand to help the fallen gentleman back onto his feet.
"I am so sorry! I didn't mean to—"
Logan immediately stopped talking, eyes wide with surprise. The man was still brushing mud and leaves from his sweatpants.
"No, it's alright. You didn't see—"
He finally looked up after he plucked the last wet leaf from his legs and froze.
"Carlos?" Logan gasped.
Carlos' lips quivered, panic ensued, and he took off like the wind.
"Hey!" Logan shouted after him. "Wait!"
He turned around to Hailey and told her to stay put. He began to chase Carlos, running as fast as he could. But his thick coat, gloves, scarf, and loafers were slowing him down, so he began to strip. He was so close behind Carlos, except he couldn't reach him even if he extended his arms. So, he jumped.
Logan tackled Carlos to the soaking wet grass and pinned him down. Good thing Logan always excelled at sports more so than Carlos did.
"Get off me!" Carlos screamed, thrashing under Logan's weight.
"Not until you explain to me why you ignored me for five years," Logan yelled back.
"I can't."
Carlos stopped wriggling, sighing with defeat. Logan decided to get off of Carlos, so he rolled himself off the shorter's body and pulled him up from the ground. Carlos' face was painted with streaks of dirt and his clothes definitely needed to be washed immediately.
"Carlos, please don't run. I need to talk to you."
Carlos appeared reluctant as he glanced around nervously before closing his eyes and nodding.
"Fine."
"Come on, let's go to my place. I'll get you cleaned up," Logan said, draping his overcoat onto Carlos' shoulder. "Hailey!"
The little girl skipped up to the two, and cocked her head to the right at the sight of the filthy man wearing his dad's coat.
"Who's he, Daddy?"
Logan noticed the flash of discomfort in Carlos' dark brown eyes, but concluded it'd be best to leave it unaddressed.
"An old friend of mine, sweetie," Logan informed. "This is Uncle Carlos."
Carlos offered a small smile at the tiny girl.
"Hi, what's your name?" he asked sweetly.
She ran to hide behind her dad, and Logan let out a small chuckle.
"Don't be shy. Tell your uncle what your name is!"
Hailey began to quietly giggle, poking her head out to the side.
"I'm Hailey!"
Carlos' lips curled into a big smile and he bent his knee, petting Hailey on the head.
"Hi, Hailey. How old are you?"
"Three, but almost four!" she exclaimed joyously, holding up four of her fingers.
"Let's go now, Hailey. Uncle Carlos is getting rather cold."
Hailey began walking in the direction of their home, and Logan and Carlos followed. Carlos moved to the front and began playing games with Hailey, and Hailey was laughing endlessly. Logan smiled; he couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy at the sight of this.
As much as he wanted things to revert back to the old days and pretend nothing had happened in the past five years, he knew that that would be impossible. There were still so many things they needed to talk about, things he couldn't just forget.
"Honey, we're home!" Logan called out into the house as the three of them stepped into the front door.
As he shut the door, he heard footsteps descending the flight of stairs and a quirky brunette ran up to greet him. She seemed extremely surprised when she saw a very dirty Carlos standing at the doorstep. Hailey ran up to hug her mom.
"Hailey!" she laughed, picking her up. "You need a shower! Change out of those clothes and I'll be right up."
Camille set her back down and she shot up the stairs without another word.
"Carlos, I haven't seen you in years," she said, turning her attention to Carlos. "How have you been?"
"Um, fine," he replied with no emotion.
Logan stepped forward.
"I'm going to get him changed out of his dirty clothes, alright? And then we need to have a bit of a private talk."
Camille seemed uneasy, glancing back and forth between the two men.
"Well alright. I'll be upstairs washing Hailey. Then I'll drop by the supermarket and buy some food, yeah?"
Logan smiled.
"Sounds good. Thanks."
She quickly placed a kiss on Logan's lips and went up the stairs.
Logan led Carlos into his bedroom, which was downstairs. Logan handed him a button-up, a pair of jeans, and clean underwear.
"Wash up and change into these," he ordered. "I'll take your clothes and put them in the wash."
"You really don't need to do this," Carlos assured, taking his shirt off.
"I really do."
Logan turned to retrieve the soiled shirt, and stopped what he was doing to hitch his breath and appreciate Carlos' nicely defined torso. It was all tan, and smooth, and—wait what was he doing?
Carlos snapped a couple of times, causing Logan to snap out of it. Logan's cheeks tinted red as he averted his eyes and returned his attention back to the laundry basket. Why was he staring at Carlos' naked body?
"I can wash my underwear myself," Carlos lightheartedly laughed, standing in nothing but his white boxers.
Logan tossed the last of Carlos' garments into the laundry basket and nodded, looking at anywhere but his basically nude body.
"Sure thing. Take your time," Logan said, heading for the door.
As soon as he heard the bathroom door click shut and the shower start, he released the breath he had been holding in.
Holy shit, he mouthed, thinking about his caramel-colored, fit body.
He threw the load into the washing machine, poured some detergent in, and powered on the machine. He slumped down beside the humming machine as he attempted to grab ahold of himself. Why did Carlos' half-naked body make him freeze like that? And why is he fantasizing about squirting whip cream on his abs and licking the light, fluffy dessert off of his stomach? It was all so wrong! He was a married man, a straight married man. He's always had a soft spot for the certain boy but this made Logan's head spin like crazy. It was too much.
He heard the shower stop, and he quickly got back onto his feet and went back into his bedroom. He pretended to read a book when Carlos walked out, a towel hanging around his neck as he continued to towel dry his wet hair. The button-up was slightly too big for the boy, and the jeans were a bit long. Still, he looked extremely attractive… extremely. The way his hair was sticking up in every direction and how he chose to not button the top three buttons, exposing his pectorals… oh my God.
No, stop Logan! This is so wrong.
"How was the shower?" he blurted, saying the second thing that came to his mind.
"Pretty nice, considering you tackled me to the wet ground," Carlos joked.
Logan rolled his eyes.
"Be lucky we live in LA, and not New York. It would be a lot less fun if it were dirty snow."
"Oh yes, thank you God for letting a psycho attack me and push me into mud, not snow."
Logan rumbled with laughter, setting the book aside on his bedside table. The joyful atmosphere rapidly died down and was replaced by a heavy tension as the two men stared at each other with hardened expressions.
It's not that Logan didn't know what to ask, it's that he didn't know what to ask first. Should he slowly lead up to the incident that occurred on his wedding day, or simply cut to chase? It's not like Carlos wasn't expecting it.
"So, what do you do?" Carlos asked, tugging at the hem of the shirt.
"I am a professor at USC," Logan answered. "You?"
"I, uh, work at James' company now. I'm doing advertisement."
Logan and Carlos nodded at each other, the unbearable silence hanging over them yet again.
"So how—"
"Stop," Logan interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Carlos…"
Carlos stayed quiet as he awaited for Logan to continue, despite the fact he already knew what he was going to say next.
"How could you do this to me?"
But imagine if Logan was a professor at USC.
Sigh, I'd do anything to get in. :D
Hope that was satisfactory. Feedback is always a plus!