A/N: Another rousing chapter of Hooked! I think you guys will enjoy this week. A bit more Carlos and James this chapter :D I love Mrs. Diamond!
There is also a bit of a M rated scene towards the end, so be prepared.
Here is a snipper of CH 6 of Past The Sorrow from the amazingly talented waterwicca. You MUST read this. You will NOT be disappointed, I PROMISE :D
Sage and Kendall brushed their lips together in a light swift motion, tempting fate and each other. Karen could appear at any moment.
And here is a WONDERFUL snippet of Chapter Six of
"We have to get ourselves under control," Sage suggested, but she made no effort to move away.
"I agree," Kendall spoke, only leaning into her body more.
"Maybe we should start by taking a step back, or at least start breathing our own air," Sage whispered, her lips still lingering near his own as they both grinned.
"On the count of three," he suggested, knowing neither of them wanted to make the first move. Sage nodded slowly.
"One," Kendall started, his grip on her hips tightening.
"Two," Sage continued.
"Sage!" Karen called from the kitchen suddenly, and the two of them jumped apart. Their trance was officially broken.
"Three…" Sage whispered at Kendall with a laugh just as Karen came into view.
"Sage, would you like to stay for dinner?" Karen asked, wiping a towel against her hands.
"I'd love to… but only if you let me help," Sage insisted with a warm smile.
"That would be nice," Karen smiled back as she turned to the kitchen and Sage followed. Kendall made a move to walk with Sage, but she stopped him. When his mother was out of earshot, she spoke.
"It's probably better if you stay in the living room," she declared with a stern stare that was betrayed by a smirk.
"Why?" Kendall pouted and took a step closer to her.
"That's why!" Sage whispered, laughing quietly as she took a step back. "When we get too close, it's painfully obvious something is going on. Even Katie could see it," she explained, fighting to keep a small space between them.
"You're right," Kendall nodded, a look of determination crossing his features. "We'll just keep our distance until we learn to keep ourselves in check around my family."
"Agreed," Sage smiled with the same determined look. They stared at each other for a moment before Sage suddenly leaned forward. Before he knew what was happening, she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in for a quick kiss. Almost as quickly as it began, Sage ended it by taking multiple steps back. She wore a guilty smile as she continued moving backwards, heading for the kitchen.
"Tease!" Kendall joked in a whisper after he regained his senses. Sage stuck her tongue out at him.
"You love it!" she whispered back with a wide smirk. He shot her a look that said he clearly couldn't argue. They both waved goodbye as she entered the kitchen.
Sage disappeared from view and Kendall forced himself into the living room with dragging feet. He sat on the sofa and stared straight ahead at the black screen of the television as if it would distract him from the fact that Sage and his mother were alone in a room without him. He decided it may work better if he turned the television on.
Kendall grabbed the remote with a sigh and quickly flipped to one of the sports channels. They were showing a rerun of a hockey game he'd already seen. So, he didn't even get excited when two of the players started fighting in the middle of the ice. The distraction wasn't working at all, and it only got harder when he could hear laughter in the kitchen.
Kendall immediately perked up. Laughing was a good sign. It meant that they were bonding, and if his mother liked Sage then she wouldn't disapprove when Kendall finally admitted she was his girlfriend. It didn't even matter that they may be laughing over some embarrassing story of his childhood. He would even grab his old baby book if it meant they would get along. No action seemed necessary, though, because he heard more soft laughter and voices from his mother and Sage.
He almost fell off of the couch when the crowd cheered on the television. Kendall had been deep in thought and wasn't paying attention. Somehow he managed to move most of the top half his body so it was leaning over the side of the furniture. He realized he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to peer down the hall and into the kitchen. After catching himself, right before hitting the floor, he heard Katie come down stairs.
"What are you doing?" his little sister asked with her arms crossed.
Kendall looked up from his position. His head was near the hard wood floor and he had one hand against it to hold himself up. His lower half was still thrown across the seat.
"I-I dropped something," he stuttered, trying to recover. He still didn't move from the awkward position as Katie continued.
"Oh really? What did you drop?" she spoke with a knowing smirk. Kendall had to think for a second. Earring? Contact? His ears weren't pierced and he had 20/20 vision.
"The remote," he replied uncertainly, almost as if it were a question.
"It's right next to you," Katie laughed as she walked around and picked it up from its spot next to Kendall on the couch. She sat beside him and started flipping through the channels.
"Whatever," Kendall sighed and pushed himself back into his seat before changing the subject. "Hey, I was watching that!" Katie continued looking through the channels, leaving the hockey game he didn't really care about behind.
"No you weren't. You were watching the floor," Katie told him in a know-it-all tone.
"Brat," Kendall joked, poking her ribcage.
"Jerk," she shot back with a wide smile as they fell into their usual banter. "Where's Sage?" she suddenly asked, looking around the room. "Did she realize how big of a loser you are and run?" she smiled and threw the remote down between them after finding nothing worth watching.
"Please, I'm amazing," Kendall rolled his eyes playfully and nudged Katie's legs with the toe of his sneaker. Katie smiled softly at him.
"You're totally head over heals aren't you?" she asked.
"So!" Kendall replied defensively while putting one leg on the couch, thinking Katie was trying to pick on him.
"It's good!" Katie reassured him with a sincere smile that let Kendall know she was being serious. "Sage is really cool, and you're dorkishly happy. I haven't seen you like this since I was about four and we were still in Minnesota with your friends Carlos, James, and Logan."
"You remember that?" Kendall asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, one of my earliest memories is the four of you having the time of your lives during a pillow fight in the living room. You broke a lamp, and Mom only let me have pancakes the next morning… The rest of you had to eat oatmeal," she answered with a giggle.
"You're right," Kendall admitted with a laugh. "I almost forgot about that…"
"I'm glad you found someone that makes you feel like you did before. I may be young, but I know Minnesota was home to you," Katie added softly.
"Sometimes I forget how mature you are, Baby Sister," Kendall spoke with a proud smile. Katie just rolled her eyes and smiled slightly at the compliment. More laughter came from the kitchen and Kendall immediately tensed up. His eyes and upper body started heading toward the hall again. He had forgotten Sage was in there with his mom.
"You have to calm down. You look nervous, and you're never nervous," Katie said as she tugged his arm so that he wouldn't go over the side like earlier.
"I really need this to work out," Kendall replied warily with a gesture towards the kitchen.
"It's going fine… and if something does happen, then you'll just fix it like you always do," Katie responded nonchalantly as she picked the remote back up and started searching through the channels once again.
"You're right," Kendall decided with a smirk while watching the TV with his sister. He was confident that, no matter what, everything would be alright in the end because he would make sure he still had Sage.
It's amazing right? Yeah you MUST go read. I promise you, that you will NOT be disappointed :D :D
I don't own anything except for Stella, and my other OC's. I do not own Two Is Better Than One by Boys Like Girls ft. Taylor Swift.
Chapter Fourteen: Understandings
It had been twenty hours since Stella had met Cooper, and she could already feel tension between them. Not that anything was wrong between the two 'friends' who had met on the streets, but more so sexual tension. Stella, who had been in a whirlwind of being touched, and pleased by Kendall for an entire, amazing week, had to admit she felt quite empty without the comforting kisses of someone on her lips.
Even though she constantly tried to push away the love for she so obviously had for Kendall Knight, it seemed as she pushed further and further, her love came back quicker, and greater.
Stella slept soundly on the mattress Cooper had so generously offered to her when she "moved" in, encased in a seemingly unfit paradise of thick blankets and comforters which weren't even too dirty. She sighed as she felt a cold hand on her warm forehead, pushing back her blonde hair gently. Stella's crystal blue eyes shot open, and she smiled upon seeing a similar pair stare right back at her, Cooper kneeling beside her bed, a bit startled that she had actually awoken.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to wake ya," Cooper spoke softly, his voice wavering a bit.
Stella smiled a bit and stretched out her body, cracking her neck and resting back on the pillows comfortably with a thin smile on her lips. She felt like she was in some sort of grand hotel she always heard people talking about, where you could just lie in bed all day and not have to worry about anything else in your life. She had never been able to do that.
Not since Kendall.
"It's alright," she said with a soft smile.
"You just look so pretty when you sleep," Cooper said nervously, with a forced, embarrassed blush.
Cooper, whose hand still rested on Stella's hair, raked his thin fingers through the blonde hair with a tantalizing smile on his face, his brows in an expression Stella had never seen before. She smiled up at him as he slowly began to inch his face near hers. Stella looked at him a bit confused, but then immediately smiled once she knew what was going to happen.
The boy slowly lowered his face down to Stella's, and slowly pressed his lips against hers. Stella's entire body seemed to convulse with the touch of Cooper's lips towards hers. They were dangerously chapped, they tasted like salt, and they were nowhere near as plump and soft as Kendall's.
Cooper pulled away slowly with a grin on his face as Stella bit her lip confused, but a bit happy. The comfort of someone's lips on hers made her feel alright. Cooper was alright. He was just like her.
He had run away from the shelter in North Dakota he had been in at fifteen, and had been living on the streets ever since. The boy had settled here in Cumberland the past two months, and luckily, hadn't been found out by anyone in the small, dirty, yet comforting apartment he called home. That was all Stella knew about him in the twenty some odd hours they had spent together. She liked having a comrade, it made her feel somewhat safe, even if she didn't have any idea who Cooper Harris really was.
Stella looked up with him with a smile on her face. He was cute, with his small button nose, crooked smile, empowering blue eyes and dingy brown hair. Stella could imagine them cuddling up during extra cold nights on the mattress, hugging each other for warmth, Cooper planting light kisses on her nose, telling her she was beautiful.
It wasn't that Stella wanted to be enamored with Cooper, it was just easier that way.
He was like her. She was like him.
Things could work out this way.
This is what Stella deserved.
Stella leaned up to Cooper's lips again, and softly kissed them, her hand slinging around his thin, pale neck as their lips moved in unison. Cooper instantly parted Stella's lips with his tongue, the blonde girl surprised at his force as he began to passionately kiss her, his ice cold hands holding onto her arms tightly.
Stella couldn't say she felt comfortable at the moment.
But this is what she deserved.
Carlos sat on his bed, sitting on his fists, his breathing heavy.
"That is my boy!" Carlos heard his father say loudly, screaming at his mother. Carlos closed his eyes and bit his lower lip, trying to block everything out.
"Don't pull that bullshit, Peter! He is just as much mine as he is yours, he's our son, and I'm sick and tired of you always thinking what is best for him!" Marta screamed at her ex-husband, the tears in her voice evident. Carlos stared at the wood door across the room that separated him from the fury in his living room.
This hadn't been an unfamiliar event in the Garcia house when Carlos was a young boy, but now, even when he was sixteen, his parents still fought tooth and nail over him, every decision that was about him, everything that had to do with him. This hadn't happened in years, and Carlos was shaken by the words he heard from his living room. It seemed that his heart had fully healed from all the horrible words his father had said to his mother, but what Carlos didn't know is that both his mother and father's pain had thrown daggers into his young, growing heart, and that it could never fully be healed.
"I FUCKING HATE YOU MARTA!" Carlos heard his dad yell out loudly.
Carlos bit his lower lip, and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the tears he knew were forming in his eyes. He fisted the comforter on his bed violently; his breathing heavy as he heard a loud slam and something crash.
Carlos let his tears fall down his cheeks, his hands shaking as he bit his lower lip white. He couldn't bring himself to move, or to speak. He was brought back to being six years old, and hearing his father angrily slam the front door to the house as his mother sobbed in the kitchen, not knowing that their screaming had kept their little boy up well past his bedtime. Carlos would cry himself to sleep on nights like those, each of them being another little stab at his heart.
Carlos' thoughts were interrupted by a loud slam of the front door, signaling his father's departure. The boy blinked, and quickly wiped his tears away, ashamed for crying in the first place. He took a deep breath and got up from his bed, shakily walking the few feet it took to get to the door. He stared at it and took a deep breath, opening it and looking out into the hallway. He could hear his mother's sobs from the living room, as he took a few careful steps forward on the wood floor. He touched the mauve wall of the hallway, and peeked his head out the doorway, seeing his mother in hysterics on the couch. Her short black hair seemed to fall over her face in comfort as she sobbed into her hands.
As much as Carlos always loved his father, he always felt bad for his mother. He had seen what a divorce could do to a woman firsthand. There were nights she barely ate because she was either too exhausted from working a nine hour day and went straight to bed after cooking for her son, or that she was too upset to eat. To say Marta Garcia was in a depression could have been accurate, and Carlos was constantly concerned with how upset she was. It made him angry at his father sometimes, because of how he treated her. It didn't matter of if she was his ex-wife or not, she was his mother, and Carlos felt that his father should've kissed the ground she walked on for being so strong, and independent, raising Carlos by herself.
Carlos cautiously stepped over to his mother, swallowing hard. He gently, with no words, took a seat next to her on the couch, immediately putting a hand on her expanding and contracting back. Marta looked up at her son with watery, red, defeated eyes. Carlos bit his lower lip and tried his best to be strong and not burst into the tears he felt were coming. Marta sighed deeply and Carlos swiftly pulled his mother into his arms and hugged her tightly, kissing her mess of black hair, and pulling her towards his body.
"I love you, mom," Carlos spoke softly, his voice a bit weak from the silence. Marta did nothing but nod into her son's chest, letting out a loud cry.
"You're the only one I love Carlitos," Marta cried into him, holding onto him like she never wanted to let go. Carlos swallowed the lump in his throat, and snuggled into his mother more, as a thousand things ran through his mind.
"I remember every look upon your face, the way you roll your eyes the way you taste, you make it hard for breathing."Kendall's voice seemed a bit wary as he strummed his guitar softly. The way his fingers felt over the strings was odd and painful. His soft fingertips weren't used to the callus playing guitar so graciously offered, but even more painful, was the fact that when he opened his eyes, his father wasn't next to him.
Kendall hadn't played guitar since his father had died, and quite frankly, he didn't know why all of a sudden, today, he decided to pick it up, dust it off, tune it and strum a few chords.
Maybe it was the fact that last night he had punched his best friend in the face and they weren't talking. Or maybe it was the fact that Logan had surprised him today, by offering him an invitation to California with him and his dad at the end of the month. Maybe it was the fact that he still hadn't received a letter from Stella. Kendall didn't know what it was, but he needed to get away.
Kendall winced a bit at the chord he played, re-adjusting the capo on his guitar to his liking. He was trying his hardest to fit the chords he had in his head to Stella's song he had written her for Christmas. He could just imagine how beautiful it would be to see her smiling as she listened to his voice. Kendall knew if he got the chance to sing in front of her, that he would make sure he wasn't nervous this time around. But even the first time he sang in front of her, he wasn't that nervous. It was like Stella was a performing muse for him, because when he sang to her, he wasn't afraid of anything, just like it was when he sang with his dad.
Kendall sighed, and took the pencil from behind his ear and wrote down some possible chord combinations down on a piece of loose leaf beside him.
"Haven't heard you play that thing in a while," Carlos spoke softly from the doorway.
Kendall looked up from what he was doing, his face a bit red and embarrassed as he licked his lips nervously, shoving the pencil back behind his ear, and taking the guitar from his lap. He hadn't asked his friend to come over or anything like that, but Kendall felt as if he was expected even though Carlos had just appeared out of nowhere.
"Yeah, I know," Kendall said embarrassed as Carlos took the initiative to walk into the boy's room, shutting the door closed behind him. Carlos took a seat on the bed next to Kendall with a deep sigh, his hands hitting his thighs with the emphasis and stress of a long day. Kendall moved over a bit, resting his guitar on the floor against his bed as Carlos let out a small chuckle.
"Well, I mean, you could've kept playing, dude," Carlos said with a small smile. Kendall looked at the boy with a nervous smirk, and shook his head.
"Nah," Kendall said bashfully, his face tinting red a bit. Carlos looked at him with begging brown eyes.
"What if I ask you to play?" Carlos asked with a small, deceiving grin. Kendall looked at him awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck and sighed deeply, avoiding the question. Carlos motioned to the paper with his chin, clasping his hands pleasantly.
"What's that?" he asked curiously. Kendall looked over at the sheet and picked it up, knowing that if he didn't tell Carlos exactly what it was, that the boy would keep asking and asking until Carlos got it out of him.
"Well I uh-wrote and sang a song for Stella for Christmas, and I'm trying to put some chords to it," Kendall said embarrassedly, his face turning a bit blush as he looked at the paper. Carlos smiled and chuckled, playfully punching his arm.
"What a romantic you are Kendall Knight," he joked with his friend, eliciting a small chuckle from Kendall who looked very pained and upset. Carlos knew he hadn't gotten a letter back yet, he knew that Kendall and James weren't talking, and he also knew that playing the guitar instantly made Kendall remember his father.
"Why don't you show me what you have so far?" Carlos asked with a smile. Kendall sighed deeply and looked into Carlos' eyes, knowing that boy really wanted him to play. He knew that his friends had heard him sing his father's favorite song at the cemetery, and since then, Carlos had brought up singing to Kendall a few times in fact. Kendall sighed deeply, realizing that he really did want someone else to hear this, since it had to be perfect for Stella.
"Alright," Kendall said unconfidently, picking up his guitar and slinging it around his neck, as Carlos gave his best friend more room, and looked at him with excited, lively eyes.
After the afternoon he had with his mother and father fighting, Carlos had moseyed on over to Kendall's house, seeing if the boy maybe wanted to hang out for a bit or just talk. He couldn't stay in his house any longer and watch his mother cry. Mrs. Knight and Katie who were downstairs watching television had directed him up to Kendall's room where he had listened from the hallway to the boy's beautiful voice ring through the wood door of his room, and smiled peacefully, seeming to forget all about the reason he was here in the first place.
Kendall took a deep breath, readjusting the loose leaf in front of his eyes and tapping his fingers and pick against the body of his guitar, trying to take the chords he had written down in his memory. Carlos looked at how the boy's fingers on the neck of guitar made the chord shapes effortlessly and gracefully, as if he hadn't missed a beat in playing, even though it had been a while. Kendall took a deep breath and closed his eyes, and began to play.
"I remember what you wore on the first day, you came into my life and I thought hey you know this could be something."His voice started off a bit shaky, but by the last word, it was strong and as confident as ever. Carlos' mouth hung a bit agape as he watched the talent of his best friend, amazed that Kendall had hid this from everyone. Kendall continued singing, the corners of his mouth turning up into a smile when his voice went a bit higher; his eyes closed the entire time as if he was lost in his own little world.
When he finished what he had so far, and played the final chord, he opened his green eyes and saw Carlos there, absolutely memorized by his voice. Carlos swallowed hard and then looked at Kendall in awe, chuckling.
"Dude, seriously? How did we not know you had a voice?" Carlos asked his best friend with wide, amazed eyes. Kendall licked his lips and shrugged with a small, embarrassed smirk.
"So, it was alright?" Kendall asked humbly. Carlos rubbed his hands together and sat on the edge of the bed shaking his head.
"Gotta be honest with you dude," he said in a disappointed tone of voice. Kendall looked at his friend's confused and fearful, but suddenly Carlos' entire body turned to him with a swoosh and the boy grabbed his shoulders and shook him excitedly. "That was fucking amazing, Kendall!"
Kendall smiled widely, looking at the excitement that coursed through Carlos' veins as the boy bounced on his bed with laughter and glee. "Really?" he asked.
"Kendall, can you please like join choir at school or something like that? Please? You sing like the people on American Idol do, and I'm talking about the good auditions, not the bad ones!" Carlos said with a passion in his voice, a bit of a Spanish accent that usually seemed to come out when he was overjoyed or angry about something peeking through his r's and n's.
Kendall chuckled at his friend's excitement, settling his guitar on the floor and sighing. "I don't know. I'd have to think about it," he said honestly. "Choir I mean, not American Idol. I'm no famous superstar," he said with a chuckle.
The reaction he had gotten from Carlos was absolutely enthralling, especially since Kendall had never played and sang in front of his friends before, but he didn't know if he could handle letting people he wasn't friends with sing.
"Jeez, you and James would kill at school shows," Carlos said, almost forgetting the soreness Kendall had towards his best friend. Kendall sighed loudly and cocked his eyebrows a bit frustrated, tucking the pick into the strings of his guitar and setting it down back on the floor.
"Yeah, if we were talking," he mumbled out a bit upset, swallowing hard.
Carlos sighed. Today at school had been horrible. James had retreated to the chorus room, skipping lunch all together, and Kendall just sat there picking at his sandwich miserably, while Carlos and Logan enthused about how the Wild were on a winning streak. James hadn't talked to Kendall at all, his nose and ego still pretty badly bruised from Kendall's fist. "You haven't talked since?" Carlos asked dumbly. Kendall, who was obviously upset by the fact shook his head no and got up off the bed, his guitar in hand, bringing it back to the corner of the room. Carlos looked down at his hands and sighed.
"I'm sure if you just talk to him, everything is gonna be fine, Kendall. You know James never stays mad at anyone," Carlos said with a joking manner, the blonde boy approaching the bed again and sitting down. Kendall sighed as he sat, running his now sensitive fingers through his blonde hair sighing.
"I don't know, Carlos. He just—he doesn't get it. He doesn't even try, and it-it bothers me so much," Kendall said, closing his eyes in frustration. He sighed deeply. "He doesn't know anything about Stella, and he just dismisses this as some infatuation. If I didn't love her, I wouldn't be doing all of this," Kendall spoke with an agitated tone of voice, staring into his tan friend's eyes, hoping he would understand. "I love her so much, I always will."
"I know," Carlos said briefly, scratching his neck at the awkward topic. He really didn't want to talk about this with Kendall right now, not after what he had just left in his own house. Carlos wasn't sure he could handle love talk. He also wasn't sure he could accurately side with Kendall about all of this, due to his own suspicions about Kendall and Stella's relationship that he wouldn't dare tell him now.
"So you uh—going to California with Logan and his dad?" Carlos asked with a smile. Kendall sighed and rubbed his forehead pained.
"I—I don't know yet. I mean, my mom said if I wanted to go that I could cause she already talked to Logan's dad, but I'm not sure if I want to," Kendall spoke softly. Carlos looked at his best friend confused, raising an eyebrow.
"You…don't wanna go to California?" Carlos asked with a chuckle, Kendall smiling at his friend's innocence on the situation.
"I mean, it would really be a great trip, but I don't know if I wanna intrude on Logan's time with his father…" Kendall spoke unsure, Carlos knowing that there was definitely another reason. Kendall looked down at his feet silently in deep thought, as silence fell in the room like a heavy blanket. Instantly, and painfully. "And I-I don't know if I can go without getting upset about everything. Especially since I was supposed to be at that game with my dad," Kendall spoke out softly.
Carlos frowned. While sometimes his dad wasn't his favorite person because of all the stuff he did to his mother, Carlos couldn't imagine his father dying, and not having him there with him to help him. It didn't matter if his parents were divorced. Peter was still his father.
"I know it'll be hard, man, but don't you think since your dad went out of his way to get them for you so in advance, that he'd really want you to go?" Carlos spoke softly, trying his hardest not to his any sensitive spots inside his best friend. Kendall sighed and nodded half smiling.
"Yeah. I wish he could've given them to me, He would've been so excited to see my face, I just know it," Kendall whispered past thin lips. Carlos rested a hand on Kendall's back and gave him a reassuring pat with a smile.
"He would've been. And he would want you to go to this game like you were supposed to go, Kendall. Your father got you these tickets because hockey is something you love to watch, and play," Carlos said in a low soothing voice. "He'd want you to enjoy it."
Kendall looked down at his hands, fidgeting with them a bit and sighed deeply, nodding his head and shaking his leg a bit nervous. He looked up at Carlos with a small smile. It was true. Kendall knew that his father would want him to go to that game, and experience seeing the Wild play out of state. Given all the obstacles he had faced, he'd never thought that it would ever happen when his father passed, and now, it could happen.
"He would want me to enjoy it, wouldn't he?" Kendall asked with a smirk. Carlos nodded and patted his back once more before bringing his hands to his own lap and chuckling.
"Yup. And that's exactly why you should take this once in a lifetime opportunity and go to California with Logan, watch that game, and have a good time. Cause you deserve it, man," Carlos said with a smile, punching Kendall's shoulder playfully, the boys both exchanging smiles of understanding and happiness, something Carlos hadn't seen on Kendall's face in a while.
James sat in the back den of his house drinking a large, cold, frothy glass of soda and mindlessly watching MTV. He brought his hands to his nose, and touched the tender bridge, which was still a bit swollen and bruised from Kendall's fist. He hadn't uttered a word to Kendall since the incident, avoiding him all day at school under all costs. He had skipped lunch with his best friends, and hadn't even really bothered to talk to Logan or Carlos. James was embarrassed about what happened, and also incredibly angry. He knew Kendall had problems with his anger, and sometimes he got a bit violent, but this was out of line.
He just didn't understand why Kendall was doing this to himself. James knew that he liked Stella, but to be in love with someone? Especially someone like Kendall, who had no sense of love, or relationships. While James' knew love was out there somewhere, he knew that it wasn't worth all the bullshit that people make it out to be, and that people got it confused with sex all the time. He figured that's what Kendall was doing, seeing as the boy had lost his virginity to this Stella girl. He was just so frustrated with his friend being so down all the time, and he wanted nothing more than for him to return to fun-loving, controlled Kendall Knight he was before they had broken for Christmas break. It scared him that Kendall could change so rapidly in a week.
James just did not understand any of this.
He looked down into his glass of soda, seeing that it was basically empty and sighed, dragging his body up from the couch to go into the kitchen. With a few steps down the carpeted hallway, James made a right turn into the clean cut kitchen his mother had set up, and saw her at the glass table with a smile, flipping through what seemed like a photo album.
James sighed when he entered, and his mother looked right up at him. Lucie had been concerned about James since everything with Kendall happened, noticing that since he came home last night he had barely said word to anyone.
"Brune, come sit," Lucie spoke sweetly to James who stood at the fridge pouring himself another glass of ice cold soda. James looked at his mother with a small half smile, as his mother pulled out a chair for him and patted it eagerly. James had to admit, since getting attacked by Kendall, he hadn't really spoken to anyone at all, and he felt it would be nice to talk to someone, even if it was his mother. And to top it off, MTV just wasn't doing it for him.
James closed the fridge, walked to where his mother was, sat down with a sigh, gently placing the glass of soda on the table, and arched his head to look at the photo album his mother was looking at.
"What are these from?" James said raspily, his voice weak from not speaking. Lucie chuckled, and angled the old photo album to show her son the pictures. On the left page was a large, old photograph of a beautiful young dark haired woman, with a fresh face and bright eyes alongside a tall, muscular looking man, who was wearing hockey gear, and a bright, white smile.
"College. That's me and your father right there after one of his games," Lucie said, pointing a manicured fingernail to the picture on the left. James smiled a bit and chuckled, tugging his lower lip with his teeth, taking in the background of the ice rink in the photo and smiling.
"Wow. You guys made a pretty hot couple," James said with a chuckle. Lucie laughed, and pointed to the other picture on the other page, her and her husband kissing on a dock with the sunset behind them. James smiled again and laughed, the picture below that with them kissing outside of some cabin obviously in the thick of the woods in Minnesota.
"You and dad seemed to kiss a lot," James spoke out with a laugh. Lucie nodded and licked her lips.
"Yup. We did, and we still do," Lucie joked out.
James rolled his eyes playfully as his mother turned the page, to a few more pictures scattered on each page. James noticed that every picture of his mother and father, they were always smiling. And James knew it wasn't those fake smiles that people make when they know they are getting photographed, because half of the pictures were all candid shots of Lucie and Jason dancing, or sharing some sort of intimate moment together that their college friends caught on camera. James ran his hands over the smooth laminate of each page, noticing how the old pictures were protected to the death, as if they were the single most important thing in his parents' lives.
"These are all from college?" James asked as he turned to the next page, and Lucie sighed at the picture that was in front of them. On the left page, there was a picture of Lucie and Jason from one of the banquets that the university had. Lucie donned a strapless, grey evening gown, Jason clad in a tux. James chuckled at the photo, seeing as how the fashions and hairstyles had changed over the past twenty years or so, his dad having a mullet and Lucie having this frizzy, poofy, curly mane.
"Yup," Lucie said, her eyes not leaving the picture on the right.
James turned his eyes to look at it, and instantly, a smile was brought to his face. It was his mother and his father amidst a background of maroon and yellow graduates, Jason hugging Lucie from behind, the picture taken from the side. Their smiles were radiant, each of them wearing a graduation cap, but not gowns. Lucie's head rested back on Jason's chest, his hands around her stomach, holding the small beginnings of a life inside. Lucie's three month pregnant stomach just barely protruded from her light blue dress.
"You know who's in there?" Lucie asked with a small voice, her manicured nail pointing to her pregnant stomach in the photo. James chuckled, his face turning a bit blushed, and he smiled.
"Me?" he asked. Lucie nodded and gently swung James' face over to hers, kissing his cheek with a smile. She took her lips from his cheek with an audible smack and smoothed out the back of his hair, the pretty boy not minding the affection from his mother whatsoever.
"This is one of the first pictures of you," Lucie chuckled out, James joining in.
James looked at the picture and swallowed hard, looking at how incredibly happy, and in love his parents looked. It could've been just because they were graduating college, but James realized that even pictures his parents took now, some odd years later still looked the same. His parents were enamored in each other, and they always would be. He turned to his mom and licked his lips, the question he had somewhat always been thinking of in the back of his mind finally coming to his lips.
"Don't you regret it?" he asked softly. Lucie looked at her son confused, and raised a dark eyebrow with a small pursed lip smirk.
"Regret what?" she asked. James sighed and looked down at the picture, then back into his mother's eyes.
"Regret…me. Regret…keeping me, and marrying dad," James asked, his hazel eyes going wide at the question, as if he was five again. He knew it was a silly, innocent question, but he also knew that he needed to hear the answer himself.
"Why would you ever think that? I love you and your father very much," she spoke with wide, concerned eyes, moving one hand to James' hand and another to his shoulder, rubbing it lightly. James shrugged and chuckled a bit uncomfortable at letting his guard down in front of his mother.
"I…I mean. You could've been famous, mom. You could've been on television, met all these famous people and been rich. "You would be able to travel anywhere, not have any worries, and wouldn't be stuck in here in Minnesota," his eyes still attached to the picture. "Dad would be a center for the Wild, living his own dream. You both wouldn't have lost so much like you did when you had me and got married. You could've done anything you wanted to without anyone holding you back. You could've lived your dreams."
Lucie Diamond leaned down, and kissed her son's luscious brown locks softly, and tipped his chin up to hers, looking at his slightly swollen nose, and the covered up purple bruise he exhibited on the bridge. She smiled at him warmly and James looked at her confused.
"I didn't lose anything, baby," Lucie said with a smile. "And none of that would've been nearly as good as the life I'm living now, because I have you and your father," Lucie said with a smile. "Dreams change, Brune."
Lucie kissed her son's forehead with a smile, as James looked at his mother in wonder.
Maybe he could learn to understand.
"It's freezing out there," Cooper said with a shake in his voice, barreling through the broken window. Stella lay on the mattress, engulfed in the covers shivering as she chuckled, Cooper securing the comforter that kept some heat in the apartment. Stella sat up with a small smile on her face.
Since her and Cooper had kissed this morning, she hadn't thought of anything but the way his lips felt on hers, how his skin felt on hers, and how his eyes stared into hers.
Even though he wasn't up front and center, Kendall Knight was still in the back of her mind.
Cooper took off his jacket and hat, and approached Stella with a smile on his thin, bluish lips. He sat down next to her on the mattress with a sigh, and Stella immediately nuzzled into him, ready to spend their second night together.
Cooper leaned in and swiftly kissed her lips, immediately parting Stella's mouth with his tongue, kissing her forcefully. Stella kissed back forcefully, her hand resting on his chest, their lips moving sloppily and uncoordinated against each other.
They parted and Cooper smirked at her, his hand beginning to creep up the back of her sweater. Stella shivered a bit at the cold contact as Cooper leaned into her lips again, and forcefully parted them again with his tongue. Stella was gripped into the kiss as Cooper's hand began to trail up her back, under her sweater, hands still freezing from the cold. Her back stiffened a bit as her hands went around his neck, and she played with the frays of his hair, unfortunately not eliciting any response from him.
Cooper concentrated more on the kissing as Stella let out a small moan into his mouth, the boy's hands going to the clasp of her bra. He quickly undid it and Stella swallowed hard, a bit nervous as she grasped onto his neck tighter, Cooper relinquishing his lips from hers, and going to her ear.
"You're not a virgin, are you?" he whispered in her ear. Stella swallowed hard and nodded no, Cooper smiling widely, and pulling his face away from hers.
"You wanna?" he asked her with a smirk. Stella swallowed hard. She knew this was wrong, but she couldn't deny the absolute pleasure she had felt when she had sex with Kendall. It was mind-blowing. After being so cold, so upset, and so without any love the past few days, maybe this would help her. This could help her forget Kendall completely.
Stella swallowed hard and nodded as Cooper took no time in gently pushing her back to the bed. His lips clashed violently with Stella's, her breathing heavily, and her insides shaking a bit. She wasn't nervous when she and Kendall had sex for the first time, and that was her first time. Cooper ravished in her body, his hands trailing down to her jeans, and immediately unbuttoning them. His lips went to her pulse point and he bit down hard, sucking on her neck roughly, as he began to work at her sweater.
Cooper quickly and violently unclothed Stella of her sweater, her bra coming off with it, as she lay back on the mattress topless, her jeans undone. Cooper looked down at the girl in front of him and smiled devilishly, his hands immediately going to her jeans, and pulling them down to her ankles, not bothering to take them off. He roughly pulled down her underwear, leaving her naked in the bitter cold, as he moved down to her lips, kissing them passionately. Stella kissed back, closing her eyes tightly, trying her best to forget about Kendall. Cooper's hands touched her skin, and she felt like someone was pricking her with a pin, his hands so incredibly cold.
He quickly went to his jeans and opened them, unbuttoning his fly. Stella watched, almost paralyzed as Cooper tugged out his erection from his boxers, and her eyes went wide at his size. While Kendall was definitely above average, Cooper was unmistakably larger. Stella swallowed hard, biting her lip nervously as Cooper came over her with a warming smile. He leaned down and kissed her lips, Stella kissing back as well as she could. She then suddenly felt a blinding pain as Cooper surprisingly thrust into her violently.
Tears fell from Stella's eyes down her cheeks at the blinding pain.
She stared up the entire time he ruthlessly and roughly had his way with her, the only thing coming from him were grunts and moans. He didn't kiss her neck as he bucked his hips, but yet squeezed her breasts firmly with each thrust, the growls coming through his throat horrifying to Stella's ears.
She closed her eyes tightly, wishing that it was Kendall above her. Cooper didn't kiss her lips, he didn't tell her she was beautiful, he didn't make sure she was alright. Stella's entire body was filled with pain as Cooper roughly had his way with her, his eyes closed in pleasure as he harshly and erratically thrashed his hips against hers.
Stella didn't feel anything. She could tell Cooper was getting close by the way he bucked his hips into her faster and faster, the moans in his throat strangling him. He then totally abandoned himself of her body as she gripped her hands over her chest, tears falling down her cheeks as Cooper powerfully finished inside of her, not even collapsing on her, but hanging his head in pleasure as worked himself through his own orgasm.
Stella lay there silent, and stone cold, not feeling the slightest bit of pleasure, but incredibly sore and dirty as Cooper looked her in the eyes with a sly smile, breathing heavily. He leaned down to her and pecked her lips platonically, as he harshly pulled out of her and began to tuck himself back into his boxers.
Cooper fixed himself up, as Stella lay there paralyzed, goose bumps covering her white skin, her entire body frozen, underwear and jeans at her ankles. Cooper zipped up his fly and stood up, still a bit breathy and wiped his bangs from his face with a sickening smile. Stella looked at him with hooded, teary eyes.
"Make sure you get dressed, it's cold in here," he spoke with a fake concern in his voice, as he turned from her and walked into the adjoining kitchen of the apartment as if nothing had just happened.
Stella swallowed hard, freezing as she shakily pulled up her underwear and her jeans, her body already sore from Cooper's exertion. Warm tears spilled down her cheeks, and sobs collected in her throat, as she began to dress herself. In the matter of what seemed like five seconds, she was all bundled up, stuffing one of Cooper's blankets in her bag, along with everything she had arrived here with.
Looking back once into the apartment, her entire body still shaking, Stella lifted the comforter to the window with her canvas bag on her back and quickly escaped. Whimpering, she made her way down the shaky fire escape, holding on as well as she could with shaking hands. As her feet hit the ground, she ran down the alley to the street, and commenced running.
She had to run away. As she ran down the sidewalk in the bitter cold, Kendall Knight came back to her. What had she done? Cooper didn't have Kendall's touch, his voice or his sweet kisses. Stella didn't feel that pleasure she felt when Kendall was inside of her. Cooper had used her. He didn't care about her like she had deluded herself into so foolishly thinking. He didn't want her. Kendall Knight wanted her all along, loved her all along, and here she was, pushing herself away from him, to the point where she had sex with Cooper.
She couldn't push Kendall Knight away any longer. She couldn't deny her feelings for him. Why she had fallen in love with Kendall so quickly was beyond her wildest imaginations, but even so, she couldn't fight it anymore. Stella was going to have to let love in. She didn't have a choice now.
A good distance from the apartment, Stella found a bus stop bench and quickly ran to it. She sat down on the bench, her breathing heavy from the cold, her face flushed with red cheeks and tears, her entire body exhausted. She lay down on the cold, plastic bench, and fervently dipped her hand into her canvas bag. She hit away the blanket of Cooper's which was not going to help her right now, and dug deeper for what she really wanted, what she really needed right now.
She pulled it out and rested her head on the bench, hysterically crying into Kendall Knight's blue cardigan.