His eyes stared at the screen, unwavering, never once faltering from the video playing. While his eyes remained glued to it, his heart constricted in the pained, longing way he experienced at least once a day. The video cut off briefly, moving to the next clip.

This time, he was the one on screen, the scene taking place in his bedroom, his bed specifically. He was laying against the pillows, one arm tucked behind his head, clad simply in a pair of boxers. He knew exactly, before even hearing the voice, who was behind the camera. It must've taken place after one of their many love-making sessions.

He heard James giggle softly, that modest laugh that said "Oh stop it!" in such a flirtatious way. He watched himself smile in the video and caught himself really smiling, fondly remembering exactly how he felt smiling like that. It'd been a long, long time.

His eyes scanned over the boy behind the camera, a smirk playing on his lips.

"I'm just saying," he insisted in the video, "You could easily be a porn star. With that body, those moans of yours..."

"Stop it!" James exclaimed in response and Kendall could hear the playfulness in his voice. "Seriously!"

"I am being serious!" Kendall laughed.

"I hope you realize that you're insinuating that your boyfriend fucks other guys for money."

Kendall watched as he sat up in the video, leaning forward, out of the camera's view. "Mmm. nope. You're all mine."

"Forever?"

"And always."

And then, without another word, the screen went black.

The next few days that followed went exactly as Carlos had expected. They went exactly as the past (almost) year had. Kendall was angry and distant, two emotions that Carlos was more than used to seeing on his friend. Kendall didn't say a single word to anyone, unless prompted for a necessary answer.

Carlos learned early on not to force Kendall into responding normally. He supposed there was a lot more to losing a loved one than he initially thought. It got to a point where he almost felt guilty about being so happy lately when Kendall was obviously so miserable.

At the same time, he couldn't help that he was so happy lately. He had someone specific to thank for that. A very special boy who hadn't been in his life long, but had already changed it so much. Because of Logan, he was attending class on a regular basis, rarely skipping any classes these days. Detention, however, wasn't completely avoided; Carlos claimed that Logan could coax him to going to class but he couldn't control what happened during said classes.

Though, it seemed his teachers were giving him fewer reasons to act out lately. It was probably due to the fact that he was showing up regularly and doing the good majority of his homework. Teachers seemed to love that.

The mere thought of the sweet boy had Carlos smiling to himself. Seeing the brunette was another story; it was another completely, one that brought, not just a smile, but an enthralled grin to his face. Carlos wondered if anything had ever made him this happy before. He shrugged it off; why question a good thing?

Anyone with eyes would've been able to see the way his entire face lit up when he saw Logan walking down the hall towards him. He subconsciously shifted on his feet, unknowingly antsy to see the other boy.

"Hi," Logan said shyly, a gentle smile on his lips as he raised his hand in a small wave.

"Hey shorty," he returned softly. He reached down to lace his fingers together with Logan's, smiling over at him. "Can I walk you to class?"

The smart boy bit his lip and nodded eagerly. Carlos beamed at this, pulling gently on Logan's hand as they started walking towards his class. There was no missing the anxiety that flashed over Logan's face at every single stare they received.

"Don't worry," Carlos murmured quietly to the other boy. "No one will fuck with you or I'll fuck with them."

Logan smiled, unable to help the blush that was slowly creeping onto his face. He wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. There was something about Carlos, more than just his tattoos and rugged attitude, that made Logan feel so safe, like absolutely nothing could hurt him. Carlos had this way of making him feel invincible.

But he didn't think this was something to just randomly share in the hallway. All he could do was smile as they finally reached his class, stopping in front of the door. The blush returned tenfold when the Latino leaned forward, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.

"Go," Logan demanded lightly, "You're gonna be late."

Carlos nodded with a grin, turning to wave one last time as he walked down the hallway. Logan smiled to himself, walking into class, wondering how he was ever going to focus now.

Kendall was starting to think that the amount of pull he had around town was slowly becoming self-destructive. He could have just about anything he wanted in town and it was really becoming a problem. Scaring the office aid into covering up his absence from school that day was taking it it a little too far (despite how often he had done it in the past).

But he just couldn't find the strength to leave the house that morning. This wasn't the first time this had happened. There had been far too many mornings like this to even try to keep track of them all. So instead of going to school that morning, he popped in some more videos he had of James, picking the lock to his mom's liquor cabinet. That's how he spent the entire day, drinking in hopes of washing away the guilt and sorrow he felt watching the love of his life on video. It was sad to think that's the only way he'd ever see James again, for the rest of his life.