.:Chapter Three:.

"P-pregnant?" Logan repeated, his eyes growing wide.

"Like," James placed his hands on his stomach and then moved them out. "Pregnant pregnant?"

Carlos resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He didn't even know why he was so annoyed with them wanting to know what was up. He would be the same way if it one of the other guys were in his position. But they weren't, he was. He had to deal with this, because he was partially to blame.

"Yes," Carlos said calmly. "As in, six months, she's going to have a baby."

"Wait, she's three months pregnant?" Kendall finally found his voice. Carlos was scared to look at him; scared that his 'leader' was going to be disappointed in him. But when he did look at Kendall, he saw nothing but compassion in his eyes and that made Carlos less scared. Kendall was usually willing to help him with whatever problem he had and this was going to be no different.

"Yeah," Carlos said with a nod. "We found that out when we went to the doctor to be completely sure." He ran his hands through his hair. "Sorry, I know that this is all a big shock. But Steph, after some suspicion, took a pregnancy test. After that, we went to the doctor to be sure and she was. We didn't tell anyone because we didn't want to say it, and then have her potentially lose the baby and have all of that running around…" He trailed off, suddenly tired.

"So, wait a minute," James slowly started to grin. He raised and lowered his eyebrows rapidly. "If Steph's three months pregnant, when did you guys…"

Carlos's upper lip curled for a fraction for a second. "That's not really any of your business." He said quickly. He then lowered his voice. "But I'm going to be there for Steph every step of the way. We're going to have this baby together and then-"

"Carlos," Logan interrupted. "Have you thought of the other options that you have?"

"She's not going to have an abortion," Carlos said quickly.

"I didn't mean that," Logan held up a hand. "I mean adoption. Have you two thought about whether or not you'll put your baby up for adoption?"

"We…" Carlos ran a hand over his face. "We haven't talked about that yet, I've been a bit preoccupied with the news and then Steph's starting to show and she needs bigger clothes, and we're worried about our fans and…yeah."

"How are you going to pay for the food for the baby and the clothes?" Logan asked.

Carlos was annoyed again. "What? Do you think I can't handle it?"

"I just want to be sure that you know what you're getting into." Logan insisted.

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" Kendall asked, putting an arm around Logan's shoulders. He thought for a moment. "How many skips do you guys have left?" He asked all of a sudden. "For class?" he clarified. James said that he had two, Carlos had one, and Logan, with a hint of pride, said that he still had all of his left to be used whenever he didn't want to go to class. "I think we should skip today, if Miss. Collins asks, I'll give her an excuse but with what's going on. But for now, we need to talk."

He didn't wait for an answer, before turning on his heel and walking out of the lobby of the PalmWoods. James followed immediately after him. Logan and Carlos hesitated before they made their decisions. Carlos wasn't stupid; he could feel Logan's disapproval radiating from his body. He knew that Logan thought that he had just made the biggest mistake of his life and that he would have no way to fix it. Carlos watched as Logan finally sighed and walked out of the PalmWoods lobby.

Carlos twisted his mouth to the side and leaned back into the doorway of the classroom. He glanced over at Miss. Collins, who was writing something on the board at the front and then turned back to Stephanie, lightly waving his hand. Jo, who was sitting beside her, noticed and nudged Stephanie on the side, getting her attention. Carlos held up this thumbs and wiggled them back and forth, letting her know that he would text her later.

Stephanie nodded back and Carlos turned and hurried out the front of the PalmWoods to catch up to his friends.

"Ok, let's go through what's happening here," Kendall said, pushing his soda away from him. He leaned back against the backrest of his chair and crossed his legs. He rested his hands on his stomach. "You and Stephanie are pregnant."

Carlos loudly shushed him, his eyes darting around the restaurant. The four had left the PalmWoods and decided that they were going to go to the beach. Instead of having fun like they usually would if they skipped (of course Logan wouldn't join them as he hated the idea of ditching school) they were going to talk about how Carlos's life was going to change. And it was going to change fast in the upcoming weeks, let alone the upcoming months. They took the hour long bus ride to get there (as Logan still didn't have his license yet) and then decided to go to a seaside restaurant to get something to drink and to talk about what they were going to do. There was Mrs. Knight and Katie, whom he still had to tell, Gustavo and Kelly, his parents, her parents, the fans…Then there was the baby supplies that he needed to get and working around his schedule at Rocque Records.

Just the thought of it was making him sick.

"I'm sure we're all aware of that at his point," Logan said. His tone held an air of…something. Carlos couldn't place it exactly. He watched as Logan stirred his soda with his straw. He was looking everywhere but at Carlos.

"And in the next few months, Stephanie is really going to start to show," Kendall continued, as if he didn't hear Logan at all. "Which means that by that time, everyone at the PalmWoods is gonna know, because no one can keep a secret, especially one that big for that long."

"That and if someone sees that she's acting a bit different, then they're just going to start a rumor," James pointed out. "Which is just as bad as them actually knowing straight from them."

"Good point," Kendall mused. "So, we should assume that at this point, everyone's gonna find out soon." He made a face. "At this point, I think that's the thing that you have to really focus on. Telling everyone…" he sucked in a sharp breath. "And our fans."

"We get hate for changing our hairstyle," Logan remarked. "I don't think that it's going to make a difference if he announces that he got Stephanie knocked up."

Carlos let out a low growl before he could stop himself. He was already so sick and tired of Logan's self-righteous attitude. Weren't they best friends? Weren't they supposed to help each other at a time like this? Carlos could feel his anger rise so quickly that he knew that he wasn't going to be able to stop himself. He had to confront Logan, that way; he would at least get everything out in the open.

"So why don't you go right on and tell me how much of an idiot you think I am?" He demanded, keeping his eyes on Logan. "I can tell that's what you think." Logan stayed silent. "Well, I'm not ok. I knew the risks that we were taking when we…you know." His eyes shifted around once more, hoping that no one that was a fan was listening; hoping that no one would spread it around before they were ready. "But I love Stephanie and I wouldn't do anything to hurt her. We were careful, I made sure that everything was protected, but it happened anyway. And now it's too late to do anything about it, except wait for it to happen." He clenched his hands into fists.

"Now, you can either shut up or you can help me try and figure out what to do." Carlos said a little calmer that time.

James's eyes were wide. He had never seen Carlos go off the deep-end like that before. He knew that he was really upset and that Logan wasn't helping him, but still. He looked over at Kendall, who was still sitting in his seat, calmly. He hadn't moved even at Carlos's sudden outburst. He just looked like the picture of perfection.

And that worried James a little.

"I was just making sure that you knew how serious this is," Logan said, sitting up straight.

"No," Carlos retorted. "What you were and are doing is taking snide little swipes at me."

Logan nodded.

Silence fell over the table again.

Carlos put his face in his hands, his mind racing at a mile a minute. He was genuinely sorry for snapping at Logan like that. He knew that Logan didn't take any offense to it, they were best friends, brothers from other mothers; he couldn't take offense. But Carlos still felt bad for it anyway. He was taking his frustration out on Logan and he knew it. Why did this have to happen to me? He hated himself as soon as the words popped into his head. There wasn't much he could do about it now. And he wasn't lying when he said that he loved Stephanie, he truly did. Even if he was only 18 years old, he knew that he was only going to love her for the rest of his life.

But still…to go and screw it up like this…

Carlos felt tears come to his eyes. He wasn't worried about what was going on with him anymore, he was worried about Stephanie. What would happen to her? Would her father kick her out? Would she be forbidden to see Carlos? Would she be forced into getting an abortion? He quickly wiped the tears away.

The worst part was the not knowing.

"Carlos," James said gently, getting his friend's attention. "If you guys finally do decide to keep the baby, I'll help in any way that I can." He then gave a short laugh. "I can be Uncle James even before it's born."

Carlos managed a small smile.

"Thanks," he whispered.

"No problem," James smiled back. He looked at his watch. "Hey, we better get going, so we can tell Miss. Collins why we missed class." He looked over at Kendall. "I'm sure that we wouldn't want her to call Mama Knight or the shit will really hit the fan."

"Really," Kendall agreed. He stood up before pulling his wallet out of his pocket to pay for their drinks.

"Kendall, wait," Carlos grabbed onto Kendall's arm, stopping him. Kendall tilted his head down slightly, to look at his best friend. Carlos licked his lips. "I get that Logan is mad. I get that James isn't really sure how this is going to affect him. But I know that you understand the problems with what's going on, so…why aren't you upset?"

"Honestly?" Kendall asked. Carlos nodded. "Because I know that people make mistakes," he said. "And I know that you're being a man and owning up to yours and taking responsibility for it." He clapped Carlos on the shoulder. "I'm proud of you."

Carlos nodded.

He looked at his feet.

He knew he was doing the right thing, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel that he was letting everyone down.

A/N: Thanks to everyone that's continued to review. I've changed the premise to this story a bit, it's still gonna be about 15 chapters long, but instead of showing everything when it comes to pregnancy, I'm probably gonna show everyone finding out, the ramifications of that, and then when Steph goes into labor. I haven't completely decided yet.

Also, for shotinthedark, the only reason you didn't see Steph get up to the three months is because in the first three months of pregnancy, all you really get is throwing up and because she had missed her period (prompting her to take the test) that would have been around the first or second month of pregnancy. Also, the other reason is shown/said in this chapter.

Thanks to shotinthedark, KendallsCoverGirl804, chocolate-colombo, and BTR-Fan-4Lyfe for reviewing.

What did you think of the guys' reaction? I think that I made Logan a bit OOC, but I felt that it worked for his character as well; that he would be disappointed in what's happening. I felt that Kendall and James would be more supportive, and Kendall's reasoning for being so quiet is shown in the next chapter.

So let me know what you guys thought.

Cheers,

-Riles