Thanks a bunch of the reviews again! Muchos love for taeXen, Gaby, brittney, kk, CarganFever, ThisHendersonChick14, WeLoveTheLove, rosebud and of course,MoonbabyAstroRock3r.
Still loving the alerts and favourites. You guys are still awesome to me!
Also, gonna put this out there, I'm up for people asking me questions as well in their reviews. I'll respond by PM or on the next chapter. :)
Behind The Lens
Chapter Seven; The Way We Get By.
The whole week just seemed to drag on. For both of the boys, it seemed to be never-ending.
After packing his bag and going downstairs, the limo driver drove Johanna and Logan to the airport, the two getting on a private plane and taking to the skies. They soon landed in Ottowa, Canada, the home of Logan's shoot.
"Logan, smile," Johanna started, wheeling her suitcase along the ground towards the hotel. "This is great publicity."
"I know.." Logan quietly mumbled, dragging his feet next to her.
"Then why aren't you happy?" Johanna questioned her son.
"I dunno.. M-Maybe I'm coming down with something?" Logan replied hopefully.
Johanna was rather pristine and uptight to check things for her son, so usually, she'd just believe his every word, despite the fact that it was obvious when Logan lied. She came to a halt, stopping to face her son.
"Are you lying to me?" Johanna asked, raising a thin, overly-plucked eyebrow.
Logan's eyes grew wide as he too came to a halt. "No.."
Johanna let out a disgruntled sigh, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. She slowly re-opened them, the orbs looking rather colourless and unhappy. Without saying a word, she glared at Logan for a moment, before turning around and walking away.
But deep down, Johanna knew Logan didn't enjoy being a model. But did she care? The thing is, Johanna was always a good mother at heart. Without a father around, she had always wanted the best for Logan, to be so much more than just a kid without a father. She never told Logan why he didn't have a father, and frankly, Logan never bothered to question her. If he even brought the slight hint to wanting to know where daddy dearest was, Johanna would turn into Godzilla and shoot him down.
So, she put Logan into modelling. It was only then, that both Hollywood, money and fame got to her head, increasing it's size dramatically as Johanna turned from mother to agent.
All week, Logan couldn't concentrate. Truth be told, the only thing, well person, on his mind was Carlos. Every day that Logan woke up to the Canadian sun in the morning, all he could think about was the image he saw out of Carlos' apartment window and that only lead to Logan remembering for that split second he stayed quiet next to a sleeping Carlos, that he was truly happy to be in the Latino's presence.
In fact, the constant image of Carlos plastered on his brain didn't exactly help with the shoot. Logan struggled to pull off his crooked grin, he failed at making his personality ooze into the picture, he suffered with making different poses. Each and every time he done something, the photographer simply looked annoyed and asked for something different. This, of course, lead to Johanna constantly glaring at her son with distaste.
All the model wanted to do, was to jump on a plane and go back to America, back to Carlos.
For Carlos, the week seemed to be torturous. He finished the day off, choosing to go down to the bar he worked at late at night to go and see Lucy, to see how she was. He threw on some clothes, pimping himself out as he left his apartment.
The bar he worked at was normally quiet on the weekdays, only usually the drunken regulars filling up the space. Compared to the weekends when Carlos worked, this seemed like heaven. But of course, only thing could beat that and his name was Logan.
Carlos took to the stool, catching Lucy's attention. She swayed over, her dark hair tied up in a ponytail as the apron laid neatly across her waist.
"Car, what are you doing here?" Lucy questioned him.
Carlos forced a small smile on his face. "Just thought I'd see you.. Had nothing better to do."
"Not exactly what I wanted to hear.. But thanks," Lucy let out a small laugh as she cleaned a glass. She looked at Carlos, noticing the normally chirpy persona drained of happiness. "Something up? You wanna talk about it?"
Slowly, Carlos brought his eyes to meet hers. "Just missing someone, y'know.. Like that feeling in your heart where it just feels heavy, like your entire body has just dropped.. Y'know what I mean?"
"Yeah, like that feeling you get when you go on a rollercoaster?" Lucy asked.
Carlos simply nodded, his fingers playfully pulling at a soaked beermat sat on the counter.
"Is it a guy?" Lucy asked once more.
Carlos' eyes gazed back towards the counter. Secretly, he was regretting coming here now. Not only had he forgotten that Lucy knew he was gay, but, she had a way of forcing anything out of Carlos' mouth, and right now, Carlos didn't want to talk about the way his heart was literally breaking from being away from Logan. Not only that, but after knowing him for 2 days and already feeling this close to him, Lucy would no doubt laugh.
"Carlos, I will get it out of you." Lucy smirked.
Carlos looked up, noticing Lucy staring at him, the glass in her hand mysteriously gone.
"Fine. If you must know, then yes, a guy who I've known for 2 days.." Carlos mumbled, getting quieter.
"You're such a cutie," Lucy smiled. "Why don't you text or call him?"
A sigh escaped Carlos' lips. "He's in Canada.. And I kinda forgot to collect his number.."
"Okay then," Lucy nodded. "If he's taking a holiday, he'll come back. Then, when he does, go get him."
Then, reality hit him. He was acting stupid, acting as if Logan was gone forever. Sure, a week was going to kill him being away from Logan. But this week, he could just dive into his new job, focusing on that to push the image of Logan to the side. Then, when a week is up and Logan returns, he can be around him again.
"You're right," Carlos smiled. "Can I have a beer?"
"Sure." Lucy grinned, turning towards the taps down the bar.
A WEEK LATER.
The plane became jittery as it descended to the ground below in the early morning. Logan bit tightly on his bottom lip, the plane slightly shaking as the wheels hit the cement. That was another thing Logan couldn't stand and no doubt, another thing his mother didn't know. Johanna simply looked over at her son from her seat, passing a very false smile as she continued to read her magazine.
Logan let go of the breath he was holding, sucking in as much as he could as the plane came to a halt.
He quickly rose out of the seat, watching the people around him do the same. Grabbing hold of his hand luggage, he made his way down the aisle, Johanna not far behind him. Right there and then, Logan didn't really care if Johanna could keep up. All he wanted to do was to leave the plane, and leave his mother, all so he could run to the mall in which Andrew was stationed at, in the hopes of 'accidentally' bumping into Carlos on the way.
Logan skipped each step, noticing a limo in the distance across the runway. Carlton was stood in his usual uniform next to the door, smiling from underneath his cap. Logan quickly sprinted over, flinging his arms around the older man's shoulders.
"Carlton, I missed you buddy!" Logan cheered into Carlton's shoulder.
"Mr Mitchell," Carlton replied, pushing Logan away from him. "And Ms Mitchell."
Logan spun around, noticing Johanna had caught up rather fast, her sunglasses blocking her evil eyes. "Carlton."
On command, Carlton opened up the door, Johanna walking past Logan and into the limo, Logan quickly following as he recieved his warm and comforting smile from Carlton, the closest man in his life to a father. Carlton soon climbed in his seat, starting the limo up as it purred to life, before driving away. The car moved down the many streets, heading directly to the Palm Wood apartments.
Logan kept his eyes fixed out the window as Johanna continued to moan at him through the entire journey.
"You are so un-professional nowadays Logan," Johanna complained, her face turning red. "I did not raise a slacker!"
Logan simply didn't reply. If he replied with a sorry, then she'd only assume he was being sarcastic. If he disagreed, then Johanna would only get more angrier. Either way, Logan couldn't win. So the best thing, obviously, was to keep his mouth shut and eyes away from her glares.
"Then there's the fact that you didn't get it right. I mean, c'mon Logan, you have been in this business long enough to know how to do a proper smile. Yours was false and plastic. Are you false and plastic? I should bloody hope not!" Johanna continued to spit.
However, the blood was literally boiling underneath Logan's skin. Every part of his body was getting hotter, the growing anger causing him to shake.
"I'm not fake, unlike the rest of the people in the business!" Logan yelled, the veins on his neck bulging as he clenched his fists.
Johanna looked taken aback, recoiling into her leather seat. "Do not talk to me like that."
"Then do not talk to me like a child. Remember, it's my career and you're only my agent, I can fire you if I wanted." Logan said bluntly, his mind swirling as he looked at his mother emotionless.
"How dare you threaten your mother!" Johanna launched forward in complete anger, her hand connecting to Logan's cheek with a sickening thud, Logan's head jerking to the side from the blow.
Logan's hand instantly moved towards his now burning cheek, quickly rubbing and cupping it. He looked at his mother, noticing the shock on her face from her actions. But right there, Logan didn't care. She had just slapped him, something that no mother should do.
"Carlton, stop the car now!" Logan shouted at the front, quickly opening the door before the car even stopped. His feet made contact with the cement, hand still pressed against the stinging sensation overwhelming his cheek.
"Logan, you get back in this car befo-" Johanna started, leaning across the leather, her head bright red from the anger before she was interrupted.
"Go to hell!" Logan spat, slamming the door in her face and storming off down the street.
He carried on walking down the streets, not really knowing where he was going. Normally, Carlton would drive him to every location. And when Carlton wasn't around, then he'd rely on Drew or Sabrina for a lift. Although, that rarely happened, seeing as how controlling Johanna was when it came to Logan having a life.
Tears began to fill his eyes, the stinging sensation having gone. A small tear rolled down his cheek, as he sniffed in an attempt to stop the oncoming flow. He lifted his head, looking at the street signs. After some deliberation, he gave in. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he dialled some numbers, starting with Sabrina.
But no answer.
He scrolled through his list again, this time, choosing Drew. He always answered his phone.
But again, no answer.
Pulling the phone away from his ear, Logan let out a sigh. There was only one other person he could call who knew their way around and knew where everything was in California from the constant partying and events they attended. He tapped away at the device, before slowly pulling it back to his ear and sniffing once more.
"Well, it's nice to hear from you." a sweet voice bellowed through the speakers.
Logan let out a sigh. "Hi James."
Carlos let out a groan as he stretched his arms out, his eyes opening to the flood of light pouring into his apartment. He glanced over at his alarm clock, noticing the digits dance and thankfully, let out a sigh. Andrew was nice enough to give Carlos the day off, seeing as how hard he worked all week. In his attempt to forget about Logan, Carlos really went all out when it came to his job. Each and every model that came into the shoot told Andrew about how wonderful the Latino was, how nice and cute he was.
And of course, Andrew repeated every message to Carlos.
So having earned a decent amount of money as well as a bonus, Carlos was sastified. Not only that, but all week, Carlos managed to only think about Logan when he wasn't behind the camera. So, about 50% of the day he still thought about Logan, but it was slowly getting better as the date of his return got closer and closer.
He threw his feet to the floor, stretching his entire body as he stood up straight.
Carlos began walking to the kitchen to grab some breakfast, when his phone vibrated. Quickly and excitedly, Carlos launched himself across the room, scooping up the device in his hand as he read the text message. For some strange reason, Carlos had thought, prayed, that it was Logan. But how could it be when Logan didn't have his number.
Kendall: 'Dude, get up! Today's the big day! ;D'
Carlos: 'Haha. Such a funny guy -.-'
And of course, Carlos couldn't have got over the week if it wasn't for Kendall. After confiding in Lucy, Carlos realised that it made him feel better about the whole situation, as if it was releasing some sort of pressure that he couldn't share. So naturally, the next day after nursing a hangover, Carlos spilled everything to Kendall. The dirty blonde was happy for him. Jealous, but overall, happy.
Kendall: 'Good! Let's do this thang!'
Carlos: 'Kendork, shut up and get your butt here :D'
With the reply sent, Carlos carelessly threw the device onto the bed. He motioned over to the kitchen in nothing but his boxers, opening the fridge and grabbing out a carton of milk. He chugged the contents, a small drizzle sliding out the corner of his mouth and down his chin. Carlos pulled it away, stuffing the carton back into the fridge as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
Then, there was a knock on the door.
"Kendall got here quick.." Carlos mumbled to himself, grabbing a t-shirt off of the kitchen counter and throwing it on.
He opened the door, a familiar figure stood in the doorway. But it wasn't Kendall.
Carlos' body dropped, his eyes bulging at the sight of the visitor. "H-H-Henry?"
"Still as cute as ever," Henry replied, knocking pass Carlos to get inside the apartment. "Still haven't decorated properly yet?"
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Carlos seethed, returning back to reality.
"Oh Carlos," Henry smirked. "Is that any way to treat your ex-boyfriend?"
"Empathsis on the word ex." Carlos said coldly.
"Ex, current. They're all just words to me.." Henry breathed seductively, closing the gap between them. "You should know that better than anyone.."
Henry placed his hands onto Carlos' chest, his fingertips running across the small chiseled chest that Carlos had made over the last few years since a teenager. Disgusted, Carlos shunted Henry away.
"Do not touch me, you slut!" Carlos spat.
"Now now Carky," Henry slightly laughed, his head tilting to the side. "I remember you using many names in the bedroom, but I don't think slut was one of them."
"Well, if the shoes fit. Now get the fuck out of my apartment." Carlos said rather calmly, despite the obvious anger lurking underneath.
Carlos wasn't an angry person. He didn't do anger, violence, fighting or anything that resulted in the Latino becoming annoyed. He couldn't stand it. He was a strong believer in taking each day with at least the smallest bit of hope, thankful of what he had. To him, violence and anger were something that dragged you down.
"Our apartment. Remember, it's rented out under both of our names." Henry laughed.
"You moved out." Carlos replied bitterly.
"Doesn't matter? Either way, it still has our names," Henry crept closer, closing the gap between him and Carlos even more, a dark glow covering his abnormally pale face. He leaned in forward, his mouth close to the Latino's ear, a husky breath of air catching his neck as he whispered. "Just to let you know, I'm moving in downstairs, exactly one floor below you. If you ever want some fun, like old times, you know where to find me.. Neighbour.."
Henry pulled away from a shocked Carlos, laughing under his breath as he ran a hand through his dark hair.
"See you around sweetcheeks." Henry blew a sarcastic kiss towards Carlos, passing him and leaving the apartment, the tension lifting from the air.
Shaken, Carlos flung himself towards the open door, slamming it shut as he slid down to the ground, his eyes staring out into thin air in shock. This was not something he needed right now. Everything was running so smoothly. He had a better job that paid well, great friends, a great boss and an even greater potential boyfriend, but now, Henry was there like a hole in the road, ready to trip up the perfect run.
Logan waited on the street corner, his arms wrapped around his waist as he continued to bite back the oncoming tears. He couldn't help but get the feeling that his life would always be like this, Johanna ruling it with an iron fist. In retrospect, Logan needed a way out.
A red convertible drove only the road, the top open as a gorgeous brunette sat in the driver's seat, black sunglasses perched on his face. The car slowed down near Logan as the model looked up, noticing James.
"Hi." Logan mumbled, opening the door and getting in.
"Hello yourself grumpy," James laughed. "Wasn't expecting a call from you.
Logan leaned the other way as James drove off. "Sabrina or Drew didn't pick up.."
"Not exactly the thing I wanted to hear," James laughed once more. "Maybe, 'Yeah, you were my first option James!'"
Logan let out a faint laugh. "Sorry."
"No need. I take it something bad happened with your mom? Wanna talk about it?" James questioned sympathetically.
"No offence James, but you and me aren't all that close." Logan replied, sounding more bitter than he realised.
James just shrugged his shoulders. "We've known each other for years now, why can't we start now?"
"T-To be friends?" Logan stammered.
James simply nodded, a perfect grin sweeping across his face. "More than just colleagues."
"But why? Why now?" Logan asked.
"Well," James started. "I think you're a great guy, and the model business is tough as you know. You need real friends in this dog eat dog world, not some plastic barbie dolls."
"And your point?" Logan asked, raising an eyebrow, his cheek still sore and slightly turning purple.
"That you could use another real friend besides Sabrina and Drew, and well, I could use with someone that knows what it's like to be under pressure." James sweetly smiled.
"You're serious, aren't you?" Logan replied.
James let out a small, understated laugh. "Always am.. Most of the time."
"Well then, I suppose we can be friends.." Logan shrugged his shoulders.
"Brill! So, where do you wanna go?" James turned to face the pale boy.
Logan shuffled in his seat. The thing was, his sexuality was rather.. A secret. The only people to really know were Sabrina and Drew, whom he told. Mercedes also knew, but only after she got offended about Logan turning down the fake-date. In reality, Mercedes would have been the last person he told. But deep down, as much as James seemed like a genuine guy, Logan just didn't know whether he trusted him or not.
"D-Do you know the.. Err.. Palm Tree apartments?" Logan stuttured, tripping up his own words.
"The Palm Woods apartment, you mean?" James corrected him.
"Y-Yeah, that one.." Logan quietly replied.
"May I ask why?" James turned to face him once more.
"Oh you know, to see a friend.." Logan pushed a smile to make it sound convincing.
Really though, they were only friends. But Logan didn't want it to be that way. Secretly, he wanted to be more than Carlos' friend. But not only didn't he know whether Carlos would feel the same, but also that how would he managed balancing two different lives without them interacting?
Thought I'd splash in the start of the Jagan friendship. Right now, it may all seem confusing and choppy, with random things happening.. But trust me, it will all make sense when things come together, I promise!
This chapter also didn't have much Cargan. This was supposed to be my attempt at starting the drama up by introducing antagonist #2. Next chapter will be full of fluffness, I think. I dunno. You'll have to see. :)
Yes, too clear up some things. Johanna did slap Logan. Henry is the guy from Carlos' past he met at the club. Yes, Henry is a bad guy. Yes, Johanna is a sort of bad girl. Not intentionally, but she's a thorn in the future happy couples side