.:Chapter Two:.
Stephanie was three months pregnant and she was at the very early stages of starting to show. Well, Carlos thought so, anyway. But then again, his brain was so wired over the fact that she was pregnant that he could have been imagining things.
Or he wasn't getting enough sleep. That was possible; he hadn't had a good night's rest until the two of them found out that they were going to be parents. When they had first discovered that Stephanie was pregnant, they had talked about the possibility of her getting an abortion and they both decided that it wasn't what they wanted. There were too many risks and complications that could get in the way. Now the only risk or complication that they had to deal with now was…telling everyone…
"Carlos!"
Carlos looked up from his plate of pancakes and into Mrs. Knight's face. He noticed her expression of concern, but tried not to let it bother him too much. He gave her a sheepish smile before picking up his fork and cutting into his fluffy breakfast.
"Are you ok?" Mrs. Knight wasn't going to let him off the hook. It was the first time that Carlos had ever just stared at his plate of food without taking a bite first. And being someone that had once eaten part of a sandwich that he had found in a dumpster, when he was being chased by the girl's field hockey team, it was weird. "You look like something's bothering you, honey."
Carlos sat up straight and shook his head, mustering up the best smile that he could. He could feel Kendall, Logan, James, and Katie's eyes all on him. "I'm fine, Mama Knight." He replied with enthusiasm. "I'm just a little tired; I didn't get much sleep last night."
James snorted as he picked up the bottle of syrup and dumped it over his pancakes. "You were snoring like a monster truck last night," he licked a blob of syrup off of his finger. "And I mean, all night long."
Carlos's upper lip curled, but he didn't say anything in reply. He looked at his watch, wondering if he could see Stephanie before class started. He wondered how she was doing. He read that by month three, that was when you started to get all of the effects of the increase in hormones; irritability, morning sickness, breast tenderness, cravings…He gave a half smile. The cravings might not be a bad thing.
"Whatever dude," he said finally. "It's not like it's worse than the nightly beauty routine you go through." He said with a roll of his eyes.
"It is kind of weird, dude." Kendall agreed. "I mean, I already thought that you were strange for carrying so much stuff in your pockets that could potentially help you with stardom. But even I draw the line at your routine."
"Hey, it's hard work to have skin as flawless as this." James said and then lightly ran a hand over his cheeks.
"I always knew that you embraced your feminine side, but this is ridiculous." Katie teased from Carlos's other side. She, Kendall, and Logan burst out laughing as James rolled his eyes and went back to eating his breakfast.
Carlos just sighed and poked at his plate with his fork. He could feel Mrs. Knight's eyes on him once more, but before she could say anything, he pushed back his seat and got up; the screeching of his chair grabbing everyone's attention. "Sorry," he apologized. He walked over to the trashcan and scraped his food in before walking the plate over to the sink to rinse it. "But I have to go and meet Stephanie before class starts."
He turned and went into his room. But instead of getting his backpack, he leaned against the doorframe and listened as the others started to talk about him.
"I'm really worried about him," Mrs. Knight said. "He's been more preoccupied than usual. His grades are starting to slip and he doesn't focus as much as usual."
"Yeah," now it was Logan speaking. "He hasn't been doing well at the studio either. Gustavo is starting to get really mad at him. Kelly tries to talk to him, but Carlos just sits there and nods. Half of the time I'm sure that he's not even listening. I mean, not that he listened much before, but you could always count on Carlos to take into considering what you said whenever someone brings something up to him."
"I'm sure he's fine," Kendall said firmly. "Maybe he's gotten some bad news from his family, or maybe he and Stephanie are having a fight. It's not really any of our business until he wants to talk to us about it." Carlos could hear clattering. "Could I have some more pancakes, mom?"
"How can you sit there and not be worried, Big Brother?" Katie asked.
"I'm not worried because this is Carlos," Kendall replied. "If there was something bothering him, he would tell us. If he doesn't, then there's not. He'll bounce back soon. If he doesn't, then we can ask him what's going on. You know that he's the one that is really big about his privacy."
"Yeah, you're right." Katie agreed.
Carlos turned and started to gather his schoolwork together, shoving it into his backpack. He zipped his bag shut and hoisted it over his shoulders. He then reached under his bed and pulled out the stuffy puppy that each of the boys had gotten from their photo shoot and studied it for a few moments. He then opened his backpack and shoved the stuffy puppy inside before zipping it back up. He put his, now full, backpack on his back and slid his phone into his jeans pocket before walking out of the room as fast as he could.
"I'm going to go meet Steph now," he said, just as fast as he walked across the apartment. "I'll see you guys in class."
"Carlos, wait!" Logan suddenly called after him.
"Can't," Carlos darted out the door and started to close it behind him. "I'm going to be late." He closed the door; but just before it shut completely, he heard Logan tell him that he had forgotten his helmet.
Carlos paced back and forth outside of the elevator, waiting for Stephanie to appear. Every time someone would come out, he would eagerly glance at the doors, and then visibly deflate when it wasn't her. But when she finally did appear behind the opening doors, she looked at him as if she didn't recognize him, and then kept walking to the classroom. Carlos hurried after her. When he caught up to her, he grabbed onto the sleeve of her sweatshirt, causing her to stop. She had been wearing baggy clothes lately, he noticed it, so he was sure that Jo and Camille, Kendall's and Logan's girlfriends, had noticed it as well. He hoped that no one asked her about it, how could you make up an excuse as to why you're wearing a sweatshirt in 90 degree heat?
"Hey Steph," he greeted her. "How are you doing today?"
"I threw up twice," Stephanie said frankly. "Other than that, I'm fine." She took a deep breath, moving her dark brown hair from her hazel eyes. "Listen, Carlos, I know that the last thing that you want to be is tied down-"
"What?" Carlos interrupted, confused.
"I mean," Stephanie paused. "I'm sure that you don't want to have to worry about me and the…baby," she lightly rested her hands on her stomach. I don't even know how we're going to support it, or do anything-"
"Steph," Carlos interrupted her, his eyes searching hers. "Are you saying that you want to break up with me?" Stephanie shrugged, looking back at him. "Oh," he suddenly got it. "No, you thought that I was going to break up with you. Why would you think that I would do something like that?"
"I've heard…many stories where a couple has gotten pregnant and the guy has fun off," Stephanie shrugged again. "I figured…I'd feel less guilty if I said you could do whatever you wanted, rather than worrying about being stuck with me." She looked at her feet as she shuffled them. "Or something, like that."
"Steph," Carlos reached out and placed his hand on her cheek, lightly rubbing it with his thumb. "I would neverdo that. I'm going to be here to help you, every step of the way." He said sincerely, looking right into her eyes. "I promise. I'm always going to be there for you whenever you need it. If…well, when you tell your Dad or your mom or your brother, I'll be there for moral support."
"What about Mrs. Knight?" Stephanie asked. "Or your mom?"
"I don't think they're going to like it," Carlos said honestly. "But that doesn't mean-"
"No," Stephanie cut in, laughing lightly. That was something that she always loved about Carlos; if he didn't get what you were saying right away, it didn't necessarily mean that he was slow. He was just thinking of other people, or he was one step ahead of what you were thinking. "I mean, when are you going to tell them?"
"When the time is right," Now it was Carlos's turn to shrug. "I mean, we said that we weren't going to tell the others, Kendall and Jo and them until we were sure that nothing was wrong." He reminded her.
Stephanie nodded.
Carlos nodded as well.
"So," he took a step forward and rested his forehead against hers, breathing in her scent. "Does that mean that we're going to be ok?" He asked.
Stephanie wrapped her arms around his waist. "As well as we can be, I suppose." She replied, resting her head on his shoulder. "We're going to be going through a lot, you know." She reminded him. "And there are our fans, what's going to happen with them? And with your music and everything? What if you have to go on tour?"
"Steph, we'll figure it out when we get to it." Carlos said patiently. But he was trying to reassure himself on that part. He wasn't sure if they could figure everything out. He wasn't sure that everything was going to be ok. But he hoped that he could keep Stephanie from getting so scared, at least for the time being. "I promise." He added.
Stephanie pulled her head back and smiled up at him. Carlos smiled back at her and gave her a kiss before wrapping his arms around her in a hug, enjoying the way that she fit right against his body. They weren't going to fit like that again for a while. Carlos buried his face in her hair, wanting to hold onto that one moment. But Bitters ruined it by walking by and demanding that they get to class, as well as reminding them of the 'No PDA in the lobby' rule that he had implemented the month before after Logan and Camille got a little too 'friendly' after their date.
Stephanie laughed, pulling away from Carlos. She stood back, lightly poking him in the stomach with her index fingers. "Are you sure?" she asked him.
"I am," Carlos replied. "Oh and here's the first gift that we can give," he said and then slid his backpack off of one shoulder. He unzipped it and produced his stuffy puppy. "Or you can have it, maybe I can spray it with my cologne and you can sleep with it if I'm not around."
"I love it Carlos, thanks." Stephanie took the stuff puppy and gave it a squeeze. She looked over her shoulder before moving back into Carlos and giving him another kiss. "C'mon, let's go to class." She said and grabbed his hand, walking him over to the room. She let go of his hand and walked over to her desk as they entered the classroom.
Carlos started to follow after her, but he found that no matter how hard he tried to walk forwards, he wasn't going anywhere. Carlos craned his head around and saw that James had a tight grip on his backpack. He was then dragged backwards out of the classroom.
"Guys, this is ridiculous," Kendall said as James turned Carlos around.
"What's going on?" Carlos asked as he looked at them.
"That's what we want to know," James said as he let go of Carlos. "We know that something is bothering you and we want to know what it is."
Carlos felt his annoyance spike almost immediately. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said shortly.
"Yes, you do." James insisted. "I've been watching you every night when you thought that I was asleep," he said. "And you've been either sleeping restlessly or have a good night's sleep. And then there's the constant phone calls, you're always with Stephanie, and you haven't been concentrating at all."
"Is there a problem with wanting to see my girlfriend?" Carlos demanded.
"Jo and Camille know that there's something going on with her, too." Logan continued.
"They don't know anything." Kendall continued.
"Carlos," Logan said firmly. "We want to know what's going on and we want to know now."
Carlos looked at his three best friends as if he was looking right through them. His brown eyes, which were normally filled with happiness and excitement, were filled with fear.
Nothing but complete and total fear.
Carlos took a deep breath.
"Fine," he whispered. "You want to know what's going on." He took a deep breath and finally said the words out loud. "Steph's pregnant."
A/N: So if you're confused, the first chapter was a while before this chapter happened. So, like I said, Stephanie is three months pregnant here, so she and Carlos are trying to figure out what to do; with each other, telling people, and getting the things needs for the baby. I hope that you guys liked it. Thanks to xsilentlyxscreamingx, paula, BTR-Fan-4Lyfe, KendallsCoverGirl804, shotinthedark, and LogieLuvr914 for reviewing.
Also, to those being affected by the Hurricane, please stay safe. (I'm being affected by it, likely my university will lose power, may have classes cancelled tomorrow).
Cheers,
-Riles