A/N: Hey guys… I feel absolutely awful for not posting this sooner, I basically just finished writing it… again. I started it on Tuesday the 14th (yes, that is last Tuesday), but ended up reading through it and rewriting small parts… then big parts… then scrapping and rewriting it completely. This happened 6 times. I'm still not even sure how well it turned out, I feel like it's a little over the top.

Thanks to Lewkis, comics lover, Sum1cooler, irishoreo, and hahippy for reviewing last chapter, and thanks to all the others who put this on story alert. And when you read "not pity worthy", I think you interpreted it in the wrong direction. Totally wrong. Just read the title of this chapter and you'll see that.

Anyways, disclaimers are the same, except for an added one- violence in this chapter. Not too horrible, but definitely not just a slap, that's for sure. Let's get moving.

Chapter VIII- Dreams of Fury

The bathroom door opened with a loud squeak, and I peered around the corner to make sure that it hadn't woken my sleeping angel of a boyfriend. He rolled onto his other side, but that was it. He didn't stir, and I smiled softly at how cute he looked. They say that I'm the adorable one of the band, but lately that role had been taken up by Logan if you asked me. 'I'm the sexy one,' I thought with a smirk as James' expression from the night before when Kendall and Logan called me "the face" popped into my head.

My head turned back to the bathroom when the door creaked as it began to shut again. I then remembered my current state: covered in sweat from the awful nightmares I'd had that night. Still quite shaken from them, I shuddered and pushed the door back open, trying to erase the memories of those terrible dreams.

They just wouldn't go away. I stared at myself in the mirror after turning on the water, noticing that my eyes were cloudy and distant looking. However, as soon as I took note of them, they cleared up. I sighed as the mirror began to fog up, stripping off my sweat-soaked boxers and stepping in the shower stall. Warm steam instantly enveloped me and I relaxed a bit when the hot water touched my tan skin. I spaced out a bit, standing under the stream and pondering the meaning of the wretched nightmares I had had.

After what felt like only a short period of time I heard a knock on the door, coming from the door that lead into Kendall and James' room.

"Just a second please," I whisper-yelled, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around my waist. Stepping over toward the door, I turned the handle and pulled it to find Kendall looking down at me, wearing nothing but a pair of long green boxers that matched his eyes. "Yes?" I asked in my sweetest tone with a saccharine smile. He seemed completely unfazed by how cute I was trying to be, immediately piercing my expression with his own. My smile dropped.

"You always take really long showers when something is wrong," he said simply. He was right of course, I do, although I had only been in the shower for- "You've been in there for forty minutes," he read my thoughts, his expression full of concern. "What's wrong? James and I were woken up by your scream at like ten minutes past midnight, and we both knew something happened. Even though we knew Logan would comfort you we wanted to know what it was. So talk." Once he finished he simply crossed his arms across his bare chest, shifting his weight and staring coldly and piercingly into my eyes.

I tried to avoid his gaze, but Kendall always gets you and finds out whatever he wants to know. After a few futile seconds of trying to resist the bright green eyes boring into me, I caved.

"Okay, look, it was just a nightmare," I started, but he cut me off.

"There's way more to it than that." He's good at this.

"Okay, not just one, it was a few nightmares. But they're nothing," I lied. He sighed loudly, clearly annoyed.

"Keep going, I know there's more."

"Kendall…"

"Carlos- I always win this little 'game'. Spit it out now before I have to pry it out of you." I shrunk back a little as he stepped forward once. He's right that he always wins; none of the three of us could ever hide things from him.

"Okay! So I had three different dreams that I can remember from last night. The first one was some sort of falling dream where I didn't know what was going on and that's the one where I screamed Logan's name," I hurriedly described. He raised a hand to his chin, then nodded.

"Go on."

I was suddenly filled with dread as the second nightmare refilled my memory. He apparently saw it in my expression, as the corners of his mouth shifted downward.

"Well… the second nightmare I had was something that I really don't want to-"

"Carlos," he stepped forward once again.

"FINE!" I held my hands up in front of me to stop him. He stepped back again and watched me fidget from nervousness and fear. "So I was sitting at the table with Logan. We were laughing about something… and then he randomly broke up with me. I cried and tried to get him to reconsider, but he just pushed me away and then I was forced to watch him hook up with Camille right in our front doorway. I tried to separate them but I got stuck… it hurt so much… and after a bit of flirting with her," I hissed the word, "he taunted me about it." Tears began to roll down my face and my breathing hitched a bit with each word that came next. "And then I punched him. I beat him up so hard that he was unrecognizable, but I couldn't stop… because it felt so good… I was going to freaking kill him…"

Kendall didn't respond. He took a couple steps back and leaned against the doorframe, eyebrows furrowed and eyes staring into the space just over my shoulder. He was thinking of what to say, but that didn't help my current state. I was sobbing madly, tears falling directly from my cheeks to the floor as my head tilted down. After a couple minutes of silence, the only sound being my sniffles, I felt a large hand on my shoulder and another under my chin. My head was pulled back upward, and my eyes rested on his only an inch away. Both the tip of his nose and his forehead were pressed against my own, and he was staring as if he were looking through my eyes. His emerald orbs were mesmerizing; I couldn't look away from the shining green, and they made me feel safe and warm. My tears quickly halted.

A few more seconds passed with the two of us just standing like that before he pulled his face back. "Now that you're calmed down," he began, "maybe you can tell me about your final dream." I backed up a bit and leaned against the sink counter.

"The last dream," I breathed quietly, forcing him to lean in closer, "was almost as bad as the second." I shuddered again, and looked back over to Kendall. His eyes were closed, but he was still listening intently. "The apartment was on fire, and Logan and I were trying to escape. We got really close to the door, and a big beam was gonna fall on me, but he pushed me out of the way. He sacrificed himself for me… he died saving my life, and I couldn't take it. That's when I woke up and came in here for a shower. I couldn't go back to bed." I began to tear up once more, but Kendall wiped them away quickly, placing a hand back on my shoulder.

"Look," he said bluntly, "I'm sorry to have to say this so outright, but you have to cope and move on. They're just dreams, they don't apply in real life. It is very, very unlikely that you'll fall into an endless void, or that the apartment will catch fire, or that Logan would ever decide to break up with you for Camille." He shivered at the name before continuing. "He loves you more than life itself and would probably never be the same without you. He would crush himself more than you by breaking up with you. So suck it up and don't worry; dreams can't hurt you," he finished, leaning back up and staring at me with his arms crossed over his chest again.

I mulled over what he had said. There was nothing but truth in what he had told me, and it made me glad that he had interrupted my overly long shower.

"Now, are you going to give up the bathroom? We've been here talking for almost half an hour now, so it's time to start getting ready for practice today," he said calmly, a Knight family trademarked smirk crossing his face. I beamed at him and pulled him into an extremely tight hug, comforted by his heat and the hard muscles of his chest (damn he was in great shape, James had a definite keeper). He was a little surprised, but he eventually hugged me back.

I let go after about ten seconds, then walked out of the bathroom and looked at the clock to verify what Kendall had said about the time.

'6:48.'

I tiptoed over to the dresser in order to avoid waking Logan. I pulled the drawer open and got dressed silently.

The rehearsal day went by in a blur, with no annoyances, anger, or head trauma to speak of, and we were back at the Palm Woods in what felt like no time. I got up to the apartment first, fidgeting with the doorknob until Kendall came up and unlocked the door. I barged in and plopped down on one of the stools at the bar in the kitchen. Logan came around the other side and put on an adorable grin.

"What'll it be, milady?" he mused, snickering as my face reddened.

"Hey mister, I may be the sub here but you aren't allowed to call me a chick," I retorted, just earning a laugh from him and Kendall and James.

"You're also the one who has a recent affinity for pink," James called to me from over by the table, causing the already reddish color in my face to become considerably darker. That blush just earned another laugh from the three of them. I tried to shake the statement off.

"Anyways," I made sure to emphasize how much I wanted the topic to change, "can you just grab me a soda from the fridge and a cookie from that plate?" I asked, pointing him in the general direction.

"Will do Carlitos," he replied with a cute little grin. As he did what I asked I smiled and turned to make conversation with Kendall and James, but they had all but disappeared in the short time that had passed since James had zinged me. Logan quickly returned, a Coke and cookie for me in one hand and a Sprite in the other for himself. Setting them down in front of me, he looked into my eyes and beamed widely before speaking. "So, can I ask a favor of you?"

"What is it?" I picked my cookie up and began to munch on it. Honestly, I didn't listen to a word he was saying, just watching his beautiful face change positions repeatedly as he spoke. "You're adorable," I mumbled under my breath.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing." I took a couple sips of my drink and continued to watch his mouth move, but I wanted his lips to stop moving for speech and start coming for my own, his words basically just flying over my head.

"So will you help us?" he finally asked. I had no clue what he was asking me to do. I had paid no attention to a word he had said, but I nodded anyway, not wanting to disappoint him in any way. His smile broadened (if that was possible), and he walked around the bar counter before pulling me into a tight hug. "Thanks hun," he whispered in my ear before pulling away.

"What, just a hug? No kiss? That'd be the perfect way to thank me," I pouted, guilting him into doing what I wanted. He raised his hand to his chin, as if contemplating the idea and I simply rolled my eyes, putting a hand behind his head and pulling it so that my lips pressed to his and he deepened it immediately, and I melted into him. We spent what felt like forever moving our mouths against each other, but eventually we both felt the need for air pull us apart.

"Well, here's this," he said, pulling out a stack of paper and putting it down on the counter. I glanced at it, but didn't read the big boldface words on the front. He smiled and instructed me to come down to the pool the next day at around two.

"Will do," I gave him a salute like my dad had taught me. "So, what're you going to do now?" I inquired, watching as he tipped his head to the side in thought and taking the last couple sips of my drink that were remaining.

"Well, I don't have anything planned," he began, holding his arms down in front of his body. "Did you want to do something? I mean, we could watch some TV, or play a video game, or-"

I cut him off by diving into his open arms and pushing him down onto the couch before quickly straddling his lap. "I kinda just wanted to spend some time with my boyfriend," I smiled at him and he laughed, returning my happiness. My head leaned down and my lips touched lightly against his, and he pushed up with his own head to intensify the kiss. I swiped my tongue against his bottom lip, demanding my few moments of dominance over him. He obliged, opening his lips and allowing the flexible muscle to enter his mouth. I mapped out the inside of his mouth, finding all the sweet spots, but he eventually asserted his normal position in the relationship and took dominance again, fighting my tongue back into my mouth forcefully.

After about a minute he pulled his head back suddenly and gave me a goofy grin before speaking in a stupid sounding French accent. "You crazy Americans, who told you that we kiss like that?" I rolled my eyes again at the "French kissing" joke.

"Shut up and give me your lips back." He just laughed and allowed me to have my way once again.

We sat for about forty minutes, just on and off lip-locks with the occasional break for low whispering and giggling (most of the giggling was from me, he would just grin at my cute jokes and mannerisms). After that time, he lightly pushed me off his lap.

"Sorry baby, I just remembered something I have to finish in preparation for tomorrow," he announced. I huffed about it, but his look told me that he was completely serious about whatever it was that I was going to be helping with. I still didn't know what it was, or really care. He would probably just explain it tomorrow when I got there.

"I'll see you at dinner then?" I looked up with fake sad eyes, still trying to guilt him into not going.

"Yeah," came the reply. Well that wasn't what I wanted.

"Fine then, love you," I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest as he turned to the apartment door.

"Love you too." It sounded pretty much automatic, mechanical even. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

Nothing truly remarkable happened for the rest of the day. It was mostly TV by myself or video games with Kendall and James while Logan was out doing whatever it is that Logans do when they're working on a big project. I would give the occasional glance up to the stack of papers that were still sitting on the bar counter, the ones that I was expected to read; every time I did that I would end up falling behind Kendall in our race game and cursing loudly when I noticed. Luckily, I still won every game. Except the one where they tag teamed me, but that just wasn't fair.

Logan was back just before dinner; Mama Knight made fish sticks. After we finished he and I cleaned up the table while the other two guys washed the dishes. The six of us sat down and watched a movie after that; I don't remember what movie it was, I fell asleep in Logan's arms almost immediately from food coma and, according to Kendall, Logan didn't take long after I fell asleep to follow my example. The only thing I remember is just before falling asleep, I leaned up to Logan and whispered to him.

"Promise you'll never hurt me?"

"I promise."

We spent the night on the apartment's orange couch, which definitely was an awful idea. When I woke up I was horribly sore.

Logan was nowhere to be found, but after a short minute of searching my immediate area I found a note on the coffee table.

Remember- today at two at the pool. Reread the packet, it should be memorized. Sincerely, Logan.

Even in a note to his boyfriend he ends with "sincerely". He was so weird about things like that. I ignored the second statement in the note, glancing at the clock to check how much time I had to waste before going to help Logan.

'11:04. I was asleep longer than I thought."

I was still wearing the same clothing from the day before, so I grabbed a new outfit before heading into the bathroom to get freshened up for my day.

Later

'1:50. No harm in being early.'

I opened the apartment door, quickly glancing over to the neat stack of papers on the bar counter one more time before shrugging and exiting the room. Pushing the button for the first floor, I imagined what Logan could possibly have planned for me.

'Probably something scientific… ooh, maybe it's some kind of love potion,' I giggled at that thought. 'Losing my free will and being hopelessly in love with someone, doing whatever they want at their slightest whim? That would be perfect… unless I fell in love with someone else, which would kind of suck. Or maybe he's going to do something awesome with that freezy stuff, like back in 8th grade. What was it called? Liquid something or other.'

Ideas of fun experiments continued to pop into my head, but those quickly ran out and were replaced by not-so-enjoyable ones. There was no more making ice cream the scientific way, or making goop like we did in summer camp a long time ago. Oh no, there were images of Logan wearing a white lab coat and cackling madly while I was strapped to some sort of operating table with a laser shooting at a spot between my legs and slowly moving upward. But as soon as I heard the elevator ding for the first floor, I wiped those away. Logan would never do anything cruel to me.

I strode out the open metal doors, turning to walk through the Palm Woods Lobby and happily turned out onto the pool deck. That's when everything in my head turned upside-down.

Logan was there of course, just like he told me he would be. But what he was doing was unbelievable. Standing with Camille in his arms, KISSING HER. I probably looked like an idiot with my mouth hanging open, my eyes beginning to tear up at the sight of my boyfriend kissing that she-beast. It was a scene directly out of my nightmares. Steeling myself, I strode quickly over and grabbed his shoulder.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I shouted in his face. He gave me a look of surprise, but then his expression changed to embarrassment.

"Oh, hey… this is not what it looks like," was his simple reply. My shock turned to anger with that answer.

"Oh really? Then what is it?" I growled, rage flowing outward.

Camille then unwrapped his arms from around her and took a step toward me. She was wearing some really nerdy looking clothing, probably from some role that she was practicing for before she started kissing my boyfriend. Glaring at her I crossed my arms over my chest and shifted my weight to my other foot. "Let me handle this," she calmly assured Logan, and he leaned back a bit. She looked me in the eyes. "He's done with you. He never loved you, he'd never really love a brat like you. Give it up, because you two are over."

I stared at her, mouth agape. Did she really say what I thought she said?

"She's right," I heard Logan say from a bit behind her, and I watched him wrap his arms around her again. "It was only a matter of time before I dumped you and came to this beautiful angel. We're through, Char."

'CHAR? He couldn't even be so kind as to say my name correctly?'

I was outraged, suddenly seeing everything playing out exactly as I had dreamed. No electricity of course, but the pain of heartbreak was nearly as bad as being dropped out of a plane without a parachute and hitting the ground, if not worse than that. Absolutely crushed, I stood there, watching him embrace that devil-woman once again, about to kiss her once more. That's when something in me snapped.

"You promised."

Angrily, I separated them, forcing Camille backward into a pool chair. Logan gave me a confused look, but my raw fury blinded me to it. I picked him up, muscles straining (God damn, he was much heavier feeling than last time), ignoring his stupid cries of protest. Walking over to the pool's edge slowly, I waited for a second before tossing him into the water. This was nothing like our first date when I threw him in the same pool. That time I was just being playful and flirting with him; now I was straight up vicious. Borderline murderous even. I wanted to kill the son of a bitch for even thinking of lying to me in such a horrible way. He promised not to hurt me, and he went back on that promise not even 24 hours afterwards.

People around the pool had turned and started to stare in our direction once they heard the loud splash of Logan hitting the surface of the water. Their staring didn't matter to me, as long as they knew why I was doing this. And I would make sure that everyone knew why I was doing it. I saw him surface, spitting out water, and just as he was about to speak I decided it was my time to jump in after him. Seeing me lunging for him, the bastard moved out of the way and toward the edge, but I wouldn't allow that.

I grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him toward me, staring him in the eyes. The chocolate orbs were filled with fear, and I could tell that he was scared of the look on my face. My teeth were bared, showing off needlepoint canines, and my eyes were burning with my rage.

"You promised," I uttered again in a low voice, and he just shuddered, probably scared out of his mind. I reveled in that fear, switching my hold to the front of his shirt.

"Carlos, please listen," he tried to speak, but I cut him off by dunking him under the water.

"Shut it you bastard," I hissed at him, pulling him back up after a short time. Coughing loudly, he opened his mouth to gasp for breath and try to speak again. I made sure he didn't get a word out by pushing him under again. He began to flail in my grip, but I was able to resist and hold him down. I heard Camille yelling some shit about a script from the pool's edge, but I didn't listen. In my rage I was essentially trying to drown my former lover, holding his head down while he rapidly threw fists at me in desperation. My sadistic look hadn't faded from my face, and I was sure that people would think I had gone completely loco.

Suddenly, two more splashes rang out from other places in the pool, and I then felt two large hands grabbing my shoulders and saw James ripping away my vicegrip on Logan. The tall boy pulled Logan's limp form to the opposite edge of the pool as Kendall dragged me out of the water, instantly wrapping his arms underneath my armpits to keep me from getting away. The blonde carried me around the edge of the pool, with me kicking and screaming expletives and awful names the entire way. Some people had left the pool area, and others had gathered around where James and Logan now stood.

James had managed to revive Logan, who was shaking and staring at me with fearful eyes. I barked insults at him, and he flinched each time my arms flailed or I extended my neck to make the shouting easier. Everyone around could practically see the pure hatred boiling off of my skin. I could feel Kendall's hold on me weakening, and that made me struggle even harder, but James just pulled Logan back a bit further as he saw Kendall having a hard time holding me back.

I continued in that state for a good minute before I was snapped back out by something hitting the side of my face really hard. My head whipped to the side, and I felt my neck crack a bit. Turning my head slowly back forward, I saw Camille's left hand slowly lowering, her eyes burning with all of her method actress passion. She had backhanded me, and my face was aching from the heavy impact. I simply stared her in the eyes, my anger matching her determination.

"What do you want, you boyfriend stealer?" I spat at her, and she raised her hand once more. I flinched, and she frowned, lowering the hand again. And that's when the yelling began.

"What? What the hell is wrong with you Carlos? That wasn't in the script at all!" she shrilled, eyebrows turning downward. "You almost killed him!"

"He deserved it for lying to," I began, but the stopped, logical thoughts starting to return. "Wait, what script?"

"The one that I put on the counter for you," Logan broke in, still avoiding looking in my eyes. Camille held a packet of papers up so that I could read it. Scrawled across in big, boldface was "A Victory for Smarts – A Script by Camille Roberts".

Upon reading over the small summary on the front, everything began to click for me. The script was apparently about a popular guy named Brent, in this case played by Logan, who was dating the head cheerleader in his high school named Charlotte. 'That was who I was supposedly playing… no wonder he called me Char…' Reading further, this Brent guy falls in love with a nerdy girl named Trish and dumps Charlotte with her help.

"Oh no," I choked out, completely devastated. I had no idea of any of this, I hadn't read anything that Logan had given me the day before. Noticing that Kendall had put me down, I quickly stole the script from her hands and flipped through it to the place where we had supposedly been reciting lines and acting at. I read the page slowly. All of her words and all of his words lined up, which wasn't surprising, but what did surprise me was that my words lined up almost perfectly with what the script showed for Charlotte's part. My arms dropped to my sides, and Camille removed the script from my hand.

James had ushered Logan out of the area, probably back to the apartment. Kendall was still standing there, looking over my shoulder to try and get a glimpse of my face, which was beginning to sparkle with falling tears. Camille reached to place a hand on my shoulder, but Kendall waved her off, mouthing some words to her. She nodded and hurried away. I felt Kendall's strong arms wrap around me, and that's when I lost it. I began bawling, sobbing loudly and letting tears fall freely from my eyes, feeling Kendall's embrace tighten. But it wasn't any consolation. I had done something really wrong, and I didn't think there was any way to fix it.

A/N: Okay, again, I am really, REALLY sorry that this took so long. Something like a week and a half? I'm so sorry for making you wait so long, I hope you all forgive me. I'll try and work overtime on the next one, but on this Sunday I move to University of Michigan for a two week summer program, which will have me working on school hours again. In other words, no late night typing, and very little during-the-day typing.

I have to say, I didn't have fun writing this chapter. It was completely frustrating to get the words out correctly. I really hope you guys had fun reading it, because it'd make dealing with this a lot easier. Please review, I most definitely need feedback on this 6-times-written chapter. Again, thanks for the people who story-alerted and faved this, and I'll see you all next time, which I hope won't take a week and a half.