A/N: Sorry this is so late guys! ;/ It might technically be Sunday, but it was a long day today.
I hope you guys like this, and please, please, please I am BEGGING you to review, and give me some feedback on what you liked? It only takes a few seconds, and it would mean A LOT to me, especially since this will be my last story on this site. Come summer, I won't be starting anymore LARGE OC stories, and coming fall, I won't really be writing anything anymore. So it would make me very happy to have my last story break over 500 reviews?
Thank you to all my reviewers who I love, especially so-complicated (you really need to check out her story Something to Sleep To! Its amazing)
And here is a snippet from waterwicca's amazing masterpiece that is too good for FanFiction (in my opinion) Past The Sorrow:
"We're heading out, Dad!" James called to his father as he turned the television off and stood up from the couch with Logan and Carlos on either side of him.
The trio had spent the evening at James' apartment where he lived almost full time with his dad, only staying with his mother every other weekend after he turned thirteen. His divorced parents had shared custody of their only son for the first several years after their split, but, once James was old enough, they let him make his own choices as to where he wanted to live; knowing that they would see their son more than enough because they both lived so close to one another. Christopher Diamond rented a condo in Sherwood, while his ex-wife had a house near the edge of town.
"You guys have fun! I want details in the morning. If you come back home with any girls, just put a sock on the door," Chris walked into the main room of the condo wearing only a pair of overly ripped jeans with a wide smile and a beer in his hand as he nudged his son's shoulder playfully. James laughed and nodded, bumping fists with his father as Carlos giggled beside them. Logan rolled his eyes and bit his tongue, never appreciating Christopher Diamond's lack of maturity even around his only son that he was supposed to be responsible for most of the time.
Logan never really liked spending time around James' place, not feeling safe around Chris' nonchalant parenting style, and becoming more stressed as they aged, feeling as if it was his job to keep James out of harm's way with no one else to look out for him. He also didn't have an excuse to not hang out at the Diamond's since his mother was still away on business and couldn't make up a lie that she said he wasn't allowed to go. Truthfully, Logan was permitted to do almost anything he wanted, Laura Mitchell fully trusting her responsible son with his own upbringing most of the time while she was busy with work. However, the fretful brunette often used his repetitively absent mother as an excuse for his worrisome ways.
"This is gonna be awesome. It's our first time around everyone as seniors. We're gonna run the school!" Carlos giggled excitedly, almost tripping over his own feet as he danced wildly towards the door with James in tow with his own hop in his step.
The group was on their way to a party being held in the woods by the recently graduated teens. It was the first one of the old students' final summer before college. The boys were expected to make an appearance, but they wouldn't necessarily be missed if they never showed. However, James was pulling his friends along on his ride to the top of the hierarchy, being the master of mingling and socializing with his peers. The pretty boy was all about making impressions and a popular name for himself and his best friends. Most thought James was independent, but a small fact only known to those surrounding him constantly was that the aspiring star hated being alone.
"We're not really seniors until September," Logan reminded them smartly, effectively ending the pair's celebration. "Also, I don't think Ms. Cohen would approve of us going to a party in the middle of the night where there will most likely be alcohol and-"
"Logan, you worry too much, man! Besides, Sandy's not in charge here. I am. James' mom tends to suck the fun and life out of everything. Right, Son?" Chris chuckled and winked at James, who easily laughed along with a vigorous nod.
Sandra Cohen, formerly Mrs. Sandra Diamond, was so different from Chris that they contrasted more harshly than night and day or fire and ice. While Mr. Diamond was a free spirited dreamer, Sandra was a strict, well focused real estate agent. It was easy to see why the wild James would want to live with his father. He felt that he was understood more around Chris, and the man supported his son's big Hollywood hopes; having numerous unrealized pipedreams of his own. When he was around his dad, James could get away with almost anything short of murdering someone, while his mother would always keep a close eye on him. She worries about his lofty ideas and attitudes, wishing with all of her heart that James would be more realistic or at least have a Plan B to fall back on if he couldn't make it in Los Angeles. James, though, didn't want to hear any possibilities of failure pass her lips; their conversations usually infuriating him to the point of storming out even on his weekends at her place.
As Logan watched the group laugh beside him at the expense of James' hardworking mother, he was suddenly glad that he didn't have a father in the picture at all if his parents weren't going to be happily married like the Garcia's or like Kendall's parents used to be before Mr. Knight's death. At least Logan wasn't forced to hear opinions on his father from others who hated him. With just his mom around occasionally, he was allowed the luxury of formulating his own views on her and his nonexistent father. Whether the thoughts were good or bad, they were his and his alone with no one else grooming him to think otherwise. Logan actually enjoyed spending time with Sandra when he would occasionally see her on her weekend with James. The woman reminded him of his own mother, except she was always around and actually making an effort to fit herself into James' life. James thought it was a nuisance, but Logan couldn't help but feel a bit jealous and infuriated at him for not being thankful for what he had.
As usual, Logan decided to stay out of it as he walked towards the door, knowing he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of going to the party.
"Let's go if we're going," he sighed heavily and held the front door open, waving his hand dramatically to usher James and Carlos through.
"Cheer up, Logie! It's a party, not a funeral… See ya around, Chris!" Carlos pushed his friend playfully before turning back to say goodbye to James' dad. Logan couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes a second time. Mr. Diamond had always insisted the boys call him by his first name, and the respectful boy hated it. Logan wouldn't have minded so much if it was a gradual change as they got older, actually feeling as though James' dad was offering them a level of respect and maturity as he saw them as men, but Christopher had none of this in mind. He had them calling him "Chris" since they were six years old.
"Goodnight, Mr. Diamond," Logan smirked as he turned to follow Carlos out the door, knowing that the man would instantly correct his choice of name.
You know you wanna read it, so do it! And review! It's the PERFECT time to catch up! :D
And now, we have Hooked.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Sherwood's
Carlos Garcia walked through the automatic glass doors of Sherwood's Grocery with a sigh. He had never been one for food shopping, especially since he couldn't drive and the market was a bit far from his house. He could always take the bus, but that was ever worse than walking at times, since on especially cold days, people piled up into it, clinging to each other for warmth. Carlos decided that he needed to clear his head anyway, so he took the half a mile walk down towards Sherwood's, clutching his mother's shopping list in her hand.
Carlos found it sweet that his mom didn't want to leave his dad, even though Gabriela was there most of the time. When Carlos had asked her why she was so adamant about staying all the time, Marta replied with a kiss to the boy's head and a simple "he's your father, mijo," answer. It was good enough for Carlos.
He and Kendall had been here a day already, and nothing else on Peter had been of attention to them. His father was still in a coma, breathing, but asleep. As much as Carlos had come back to Minnesota to be there for his dad, he needed some time out of the hospital, seeing as he had slept there last night with Kendall in the waiting room. The boys had passed out on the couches in there, Marta asking for blankets from the hospital to cover her son and his best friend. She had pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads before retreating back to the room with Peter.
Marta had asked Carlos to get her some things from the grocery store, so she could cook Kendall and Carlos dinner tonight, seeing as the boys had been living on hospital food as well as vending machine treats since landing. Kendall normally would've joined Carlos to the store, but his mother had told him to go home and check on the house, to make sure everything was still there. The boys had agreed that after shopping, they could go back to the hospital via Kendall's car. The keys to the boys blue Chevy were still in the house, seeing as there was no reason to bring them to California. Kendall was going to check on the house, drive over to Sherwood's, and then he and Carlos would drop off the groceries at the Garcia house, visit the hospital, and then take Marta back with them.
Carlos entered the bustling market, in which everyone on this side of Duluth went to. The aisles were filled with hockey-moms, old women, and couples food shopping for the week. Anytime Carlos came in here, it was a rarity to find a cute teenage girl, or something like that. Anywhere Carlos went in Minnesota, or even LA, he had his eye peeled for any cute girls he might be able to charm with his chocolate eyes and white smile, but here, he figured he wouldn't have to look, since there was guaranteed no possibility.
"Okay, first thing is…" Carlos said, taking out the crumpled list and scanning over the seven items written in his mom's messy handwriting, "eggs," he finished.
Carlos pushed the paper deep into his pocket and picked up a red basket to the left of him. Holding the black handles tightly he went over the frozen and fresh section of the market, holding his jacket closer to him from the chill. A month in LA had gotten him accustomed to more of a warm temperature, and even though he would never lose his Minnesota roots, he couldn't help but find it particularly chilly. Carlos went over the fridge in the middle of the section and picked up a pack of eggs, checking the date like his mother always told him to, making sure they would last two weeks. He placed them in the basket and sighed, pulling out the list, realizing it would be easier just to hold in his hand.
"Cinnamon Toast Crunch," he mumbled to himself.
He pushed his way past a few people, going around the cold section to the regular aisles. Carlos hadn't been here in a while, but her certainly hadn't forgotten the cereal aisle. He walked past the chips and cookies, and the baking aisle before he got to the cereal aisle. He walked down it and saw a few other people dabbling towards the end, thankful that Cinnamon Toast Crunch was the first cereal on the right hand side. He scooped the box into the basket with a sigh, with a smile on his face, realizing that shopping actually was pretty easy. He looked at the list again, and squinted at his mother's handwriting, sighing at how hard it was to decipher.
"Chicken…broth?" Carlos guessed, scrunching his face up and looking. He shrugged his shoulders and turned on one foot back the way he came, going back up the cereal aisle and making a left. He passed the pasta aisle, which was really the ethnic food aisle, and then made a left into the soup aisle, where the chicken broth would be on his left hand side. As soon as Carlos looked up the aisle, hoping he wouldn't have to push people out of the way of talking, his eyes locked on a maroon and gold sweatshirt down the aisle. The name was hidden by the hood, but on the back, there was a large number 12. That was Kendall's number. Carlos made a suspicious face, noticing that it was a blonde girl wearing the sweatshirt. Her golden blonde hair hung down mid back. She was a small girl, but about average height, and she stood at the end of the aisle, fingering a can of soup suspiciously. She looked both ways down the aisle, Carlos quickly turning his head not wanting to seem like he was staring. Out of the corner of his eyes, Carlos saw the blonde girl hoard the soup into the pocket of Kendall's sweatshirt.
He'd never seen a picture of Stella before.
Not knowing who she was, or why she was stealing food, she noticed that towards the end of the aisle it was more crowded than it was in Carlos' direction. Stella stepped towards Carlos' direction and looked up at him with wide eyes, as if she had just seen a ghost. Carlos began to move slowly towards the girl, who was slowly backing up her steps. Knowing she was scared that Carlos had seen her, he smiled in a friendly demeanor and licked his lips, cocking his head to the side a bit.
"Do—do I know you?" Carlos asked her, moving even closer to her. The blonde bit her lower lip, trying to hold back a smile, as the boy's face coming closer confirmed her suspicion. It was Kendall's best friend, Carlos. The one she had seen in the picture with James, Logan and him. Carlos tried to see if he remembered the girl from school, and that maybe Kendall had given his sweatshirt for someone to borrow, and they hadn't given it back in time before he left. Her icy blue eyes, pale smile, and soft skin didn't ring a bell, but it was as if looking at her face just told Carlos something. Her face screamed recognition in some way, and he didn't know where from.
"Sorta," Stella said nervously, wondering if by some miracle of magic, Kendall was here in the store with him. She figured they both be together if they were, but just seeing that one of Kendall's friends was here was more than good. Carlos gave her an odd look as Stella moved closer to him, biting her lower lip. Carlos stared at her, wanting to know what she was doing with Kendall's sweatshirt, and how she knew him. She looked weak, and frail, her blue eyes a bit dull and her teeth crooked. "You're Carlos…right?" she asked cautiously, making sure she could match the Spanish name to the boy's tan skin. Carlos looked at her a bit freaked out by how she even knew his name, when he had never met this girl in his life.
"Y-yeah…how do you know that?" he asked her, taking a step back, a bit freaked out. "I-I feel like I know you from somewhere, but I-I don't think we've met before," Carlos said to her a bit confused, biting his lower lip.
"I'm Stella."
Carlos looked at the girl with wide eyes, blinking a few times before squeezing the handle of the basket so tight, he thought his entire arm would lose color. It was then it hit Carlos. He heard so much about this girl, and how her mannerisms were, how outgoing she was, the definitive color of her blue eyes and blonde hair, that he didn't even need to see her in a photograph to recognize her. It would make sense as to why she was wearing Kendall's sweatshirt now. But to end up here, in the same aisle as Carlos, the second that he and Kendall come back from Los Angeles?
"You're—you're the Stella?" he asked her in awe, swallowing hard. Stella chuckled softly and shrugged her shoulders.
"I-I guess so. I'm Kendall's Stella," she spoke, pursing her lips together perfectly in an expressionless way. Carlos looked up and down her with a smile on his face, the joy streaming through him like no other. How happy would Kendall be that he went to market for groceries, and he found Stella wandering about an aisle. "I saw a picture of you, Kendall, James and Logan once. I recognized you from that," she told him.
"Are y-you sure you're the real Stella?" Carlos asked her, not wanting to believe that he had found the one thing that had thrown Kendall's emotions around like a football the past half a year or so.
"Do you need proof?" she asked the Latino with a small smile and chuckle. "I mean, I have you best friend's virginity," she said softly with a cunning smile, Carlos looking at her with big eyes, nodding at her persona. She was just the way Kendall said she was, and more. The outgoing, mannerless, spunky girl, no matter what the circumstances. She fiddled around with the can of soup in Kendall's sweatshirt, Carlos blinking in awe at the girl in front of him. It was like all this time, she wasn't real, and just a figment of Kendall's imagination. But here she was, in the flesh, just minutes away from Kendall when he had thought he had lost her forever.
"I-I just, I've heard so much about you for months, but—I-I've never seen a picture or anything," Carlos told her smiling, biting his lower lip in excitement. "I-It's just like, it's almost like we didn't believe you existed. Kendall talked about you all the time, a-and it's so weird to actually…see you," Carlos told her with laughter, but he noticed that Stella's face had dropped halfway or so through the sentence. She tensed her shoulders up a bit, and her eyes dropped along with her heart.
"T-talked?" she asked him softly, emphasizing the "d". Carlos took a deep breath and looked at how sad she was all of a sudden, but he owed her the truth. Carlos hadn't heard much talk of Stella at all recently, not since Kendall's dream, and Logan's re-falling out with his father. Kendall had talked more of his date with Jo the past few days, and all the boys commended him on forgetting Stella. But now, as Carlos was in front of her, looking at in the flesh and blood, wearing Kendall's sweatshirt and having to steal food to get by, he felt bad for her.
"Uh...yeah. He's uh…been trying to forget you lately," Carlos told her truthfully, biting his bottom lip awkwardly. Stella swallowed hard and nodded, looking down at her boots. She had to accept that fact, and she knew it. She had a feeling Kendall was trying to forget her, the same way she tried to forget him. The only thing that kept hope in her heart, was that it hadn't worked for her, even when she had slept with someone else.
"Is…it working?" she asked him. Carlos saw the heartbreak in the girls eyes, but felt he couldn't lie to her. She needed to know the truth about Kendall, just like how Kendall had needed to learn the truth about her. Carlos was never one to lie anyway.
"He went out on a date the other day in Los Angeles, but I mean, I-I don't live inside his head, so I wouldn't know," Carlos whispered awkwardly, trying to shield his eyes from the pain that radiated from Stella's sullen face. She nodded and swallowed hard, trying her best not to cry. She had to understand that Kendall was in the same boat she was, and whoever he had dated was more or less just a Cooper in the scheme of things. Stella knew that Kendall was going to fall in love again, and find someone who was right for him, but she didn't want that to happen until she got to see him again, and things got sorted out between them.
If she couldn't have Kendall, that would be the only thing that would make her happy.
"But he did have a dream about you two weeks ago!" Carlos said energetically, as if he were cheering up an old friend. He took a step closer to the girl he had just met, but felt like he knew for years. He was instantly comfortable with the blonde, as if she and Kendall had been dating all throughout high school. "You guys were engaged, and Kendall's father was there. He was really fucked up about that dream for a good day or so, trying to figure out what it meant," Carlos spat out amicably with a chuckle, hoping the thought of her in Kendall's dreams would somehow cheer her up. He had only seen her face for about two minutes, but he knew that he liked it better without a frown.
She smiled a bit, knowing that the dream couldn't have been too good if Kendall's father was in it, and that it had messed him up for a day or two. She looked at Carlos with a smile, and could tell why Kendall liked him and was best friends with him. She was partly aware by Lucie's conversation with someone at the market that his father was hurt, and that was the reason he was here, but Carlos' infectious happy demeanor couldn't do anything to Stella but make her smile.
"Well, is he doing okay? How are his anger problems, and how is his stage fright?" Stella asked Carlos dearly, moving closer to him with a smile. She instantly felt as if she had known Carlos before, especially with the smile that radiated on his face when he talked about his best friend.
"He's been doing really well with all of that. He sings now. He sang us the song that he wrote for you, and me and the guys really wanna bring it to our producer and have it made up into one of our tracks, but we need to convince Kendall to sing it, and that's gonna take a little while. I know he said that he left the chords back at the house," Carlos said in a soft talk, almost as if he was whispering to himself. Stella wanted to chime in, and tell Carlos she had been living at the Knight house for the past few weeks, but felt it no appropriate right now, not until she knew where Kendall was. "And I know the song makes him think of you, so I don't know if he'd want to sing it right now," Carlos told her with a sad, confused face. Stella nodded, understanding the boy's dilemma and sighed deeply.
Carlos looked at Stella and bit his lower lip. It was only then that he realized Kendall truthfully may not want to see her. After all, this might totally fuck him up again, beyond all belief, and send him back to where he was before. He could lay his eyes on Stella once, and then totally regress back to square one, crying in his room, beating up his friends, and lying to his mother. Carlos knew Kendall didn't want to go back to that, and he knew that he didn't want to go back to that either.
But then again, Carlos thought, what if this was his one chance to make Kendall back to normal again? What would Kendall do if he found out that Carlos had seen Stella, and she had asked where Kendall was, and he didn't tell her? That would probably make Kendall more angry than he had ever been and would revert to more violence, specifically aimed at Carlos. The Latino definitely did not want that, and quickly opted more towards telling Kendall that he had found Stella. He stared into the girls beautiful blue eyes and smiled warmly.
"I just can't believe...you're real," Carlos joked out astonished at the fact that he was standing in front of her.
"I guess you've uh…heard some really shitty stuff about me," Stella said softly, looking down at her fingernails awkwardly. Carlos felt like telling her about all the stuff Kendall said about her after she had cheated on him, and how upset he was. Carlos felt a little angry about that, but once he actually saw Stella, he knew she was genuinely sorry for her actions in the way she spoke about Kendall. It was almost like…his father. Carlos had almost forgotten about the fact that his father was in the hospital, and the realization of it brought his smile down a bit, his mind beginning to go off on some sort of tangent. Stella noticing the change of the boy's facial features moved a bit closer and frowned. "He uh…really hates me, doesn't he?" she asked him, the boy's eyes stuck to the linoleum floor tiles of the supermarket. Carlos shook his head and looked back up at her, a bit surprised at how he got lost in the trance of her eyes when he looked at her.
"No uh…I just…I got some family stuff going on, and I-I don't know, I just got lost for a second," Carlos joked out, trying his best to return to his happy demeanor, realizing the drop his face scared Stella a bit. He could see her hanging onto every emotion, as if she had been practicing the art of interpreting people for all her life.
"Oh, well, I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't be bothering you with this nonsense," Stella said awkwardly, Carlos sensing the first bit of timidness and regret in her voice and actions. She began to turn her body away from him a bit and he reached out to touch her arm comfortingly, something that seemed instinctual to him. He didn't want her to feel awkward, he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to let her know that while Kendall was trying to forget her, and passing it off like it was working, he and the boys knew that deep inside the boy would always hold onto her. He wasn't totally clear of Stella's intentions, but somehow he knew that the love she had for Kendall was pure, and that she wouldn't do anything to mess him up again.
"He doesn't hate you," Carlos told her softly, as she turned around to him with a surprised face, almost not believing his words. He smiled at her, Stella returning it back, a bit relieved that her worst fear had not been realized. "If anything, he loves you more now that he's trying not to," he told her with a small chuckle, scratching his head with the hand he had used to pull her back. Stella smiled at him with pink, pursed lips, looking absolutely beautiful.
"That sounds like him," Stella whispered out softly, biting her lower lip. Carlos nodded and stuck his hand in his pocket, with a big smile across his face.
"He was really hurt after what happened between you guys on the day his dad died," Carlos said. Stella nodded and looked down at her feet shyly, trying to find the correct words to say. Here she was, talking to her lover's best friend, trying to justify the reason why she had slept with someone else besides him. There was no easy way to do it, or correct way to do it, and Stella knew that. "I've never seen him so distraught," Carlos continued. "And I think what made it worse was that, the entire time…we didn't believe in you guys," he said to her softly. Stella looked up at him a bit impressed by Carlos' outright honesty with the girl, and his innocence about the situation. "I mean, he claimed to be madly in love with you when he came back from vacation. He lost his virginity to you after only three days. We thought he was crazy," he joked out to her with a smile. "But no matter how many times we tried to tell him it wasn't real, he persisted. He said it was meant to be, and Kendall has this whole crazy thing about fate, and his father, I don't know, I'm still fuzzy on it…" Carlos said with a chuckle, Stella smiling at the feats of her boyfriend. "But…we were wrong. When he found you again, you guys picked up right where you left off. And then you fought, and things got bad," he continued sadly.
"The only reason I did what I did was to forget Kendall. I-I tried so hard to forget him," Stella said softly, closing her eyes. "If I ever had any intention of trying to love him after I did that…I-I would've never done it," she told him, slowly taking her small, pale hand and pushing back her soft, dirty blonde hair. She swallowed hard and looked at Carlos who had a purely sympathetic face on with a small smile, like he understood completely. "I promise you, I never meant to hurt him…just myself," Stella whispered out softly.
"Can I ask you something?" Carlos asked the blonde hesitantly, not sure if this was going over the boundary line of just meeting five minutes ago. Stella nodded and Carlos sighed.
"Why'd you try to forget Kendall? Why didn't you just let him love you?" he asked her. Stella swallowed hard.
"I didn't want him to love me. I didn't think I deserved it. I'd never been…loved before. I was scared," she told him through thin lips, obviously more than affected by the fact that her fear had ruined everything from the beginning. "But now, I'm not scared to tell Kendall how I feel."
"Do you think he'll take you back?" Carlos asked her, unsure if she felt the same way he did. Carlos felt that Kendall may take Stella back, but he didn't see how it could work, with her being a runaway and all. Stella nodded no.
"I hope he doesn't. I hope he's strong enough to realize he deserves better than me, Carlos. As much as I would love to have him back, he's not mine anymore," she whispered softly between her small lips, as if the statement crushed her heart into pieces. "I just want to let him know that the only way he is going to move on is if I tell him that I love him, and I always will," she said. Carlos looked at her confused, not understanding as Stella smiled at him and sighed. "I know it doesn't make sense to you, but it'll make sense to Kendall, I promise," she told him with a confident smile, nodding her head. Carlos nodded and took a deep breath.
"Well, I guess I should tell you that Kendall is at his house right now," Carlos said with a chuckle. Stella's eyes got wide and she swallowed hard, knowing that at this moment, the boy was probably freaking out about whatever creep had been living in his house. She imagined Kendall with half of his hockey stick in his hand, against the walls trying to figure out if this person was still in the house. She wouldn't expect anything less of him.
"Well, can you take me there?" Stella asked, deciding not to tell Carlos that she had been living there for the past few weeks. Carlos nodded with a playful smile, but first nodded his chin at the soup can that was in Kendall's sweatshirt.
"But first, let me buy you that soup."
The second had Kendall stepped into his house, it was as if all the memories began to flood back to him. He smiled as he took a step into the dark, dusty house he had called home all his life. He flicked the light on next to him and sighed, looking at how untouched and unlived it really looked. Closing the door behind him, Kendall took a few small steps to the stairs, looking back at the kitchen and the living room. It was as if everything was the same as his family had left it, just dustier.
Kendall sighed and jostled the key in his pocket, walking over to the kitchen key rack where the keys to his beloved car hung with their hockey stick keychain on the side. He smiled once he saw the familiar Wild hockey stick hanging from his driver's key and instantly took it in his hands. He sighed again, looking around the lonely and deserted kitchen, seeing as no one had touched it in three months.
Deciding he'd had enough of the downstairs, Kendall began to climb the stairs to the second level, making sure that the few posters that still hung in Katie's room were intact. The little girl had insisted on leaving them behind was she moved to LA, hoping to get bigger and better ones of specifically her teen dream crush, Dak Zevon. Kendall walked the few steps to Katie's room when he reached the top of the stairs, peeking in the door slightly and smiling at the posters that still hung on the walls. Katie's room looked indefinitely untouched, seeing as the girl was such an absolute neat freak that everything had to be exactly in the order she had left in. Kendall's eyes scanned the row of stuffed animals on the chest to the side of the bed with a smile, noticing how there was not even a small ear of dog or paw of cat out of place. He slowly retreated from the doorway of the room, closing the oak door to the girls' portal. He then slowly smiled and began to walk towards his room, closing his eyes as if he was just a normal boy living in Minnesota again.
Kendall opened his eyes, and found it a bit odd that his door was slightly ajar, as if someone had closed it and it hadn't closed all the way. Figuring it had just been the wind, or it had just creaked open by itself, Kendall walked into the blue room, only to be totally surprised by what he saw.
His entire bed was unmade, the blue of his comforter rumpled up in the white of his sheets. The pillow was pushed up against the headboard, as if someone had been sitting there just minutes ago. Kendall saw that his closet door was open as well, and that the one plaid shirt he had left behind and didn't have room to pack, laid on the bed, obviously wrinkled and worn since had had been gone. He slowly took a step forward, his heart beating out of chest as he got a bit closer.
He had no idea who had broken into his house, but he was beyond worried. Being able to think quickly, he figured it wasn't anyone too dangerous, seeing as that everything downstairs had remained intact. All the TV's and Kim's crystal glass vase still remained in the exact places they had been when the Knight's had picked up and left a month ago.
It seemed as if the only thing touched was Kendall's room.
"H-Hello?" he asked out into the empty room, his voice a bit shaky. He moved closer to his bed, his hands grazing the fabric of his plaid shirt, swallowing hard. If someone was in the house, they had to have been downstairs, seeing as there really was no place to hide up here, especially not in Kendall's room. All the boy had was a closet, and a desk that you could maybe curl up behind for a few minutes, as the boys did when they used to play hide and seek.
Kendall slowly moved aside the shirt looking around to see if there were any more clues about who could've been in his room.
And there, he saw it.
It was tattered and torn, but it seemed to smell fresh, and like flowers. The stitching on the collar had been pulled out, and there a large hole on one end of the sleeve. It almost wouldn't be recognizable if Kendall hadn't savored the moment in which he saw it last.
It was his blue cardigan.
The blue cardigan he had give to Stella.
She was here.
Kendall reached out and touched the soft fabric, feeling it send some sort of spark through his body. The fact that Stella was here made him a little uneasy. He hadn't heard anyone in the house when he had come in, and now his eyes were even more cautious than before. All he had to do was see the flip of golden blonde hair, and the glimpse of those icy blue eyes, and he would be captivated again.
Kendall sat down on his bed in shock, still fingering the fabric with a smile, loving how Stella had kept it all this time, even through Cooper.
He didn't know exactly how he felt about all of this.
While he loved Stella dearly, and wanted nothing more than to love her, and kiss her, and make her his, he knew it wasn't right. Stella was not right for him, and no one could deny it. Logan, James and Carlos had all said, and even his mother had seemed to express it through her actions and her talks. And the most important person who felt that they didn't belong together…was Kendall himself.
While he knew he was in love with her, he knew things would never work out between them. Stella was a runaway, and lived a completely different life from Kendall, a completely different life from most people. She had definite issues that she needed help with. She had been abuse in the numerous foster homes, and orphanages she had been in, until she finally got the strength to runaway. She had been living on the streets, stealing food, trying her best to somehow make ends meet. She was a survivor, as was Kendall, just in two totally different ways.
Also, she had cheated on him. Kendall was aware of the circumstances, and how Stella was trying to forget him, but she had cheated on him. True, they hadn't an established relationship, but she had been with someone else by choice. She had tried so hard to forget him, even after she had opened up to Kendall and told him that she loved him. She had said it when they had sex in the cabin, and before he left. She had said it when Kendall gave her the cardigan, telling her that he would be back to see her again soon…and yet, she had tried to block him out. Kendall knew it was because she had issues. Stella had never been loved by anyone before, and Kendall had somehow swept her off her feet in the matter of fifteen minutes, causing her to become totally intoxicated by her new ability to love.
He sighed and shifted on the bed, feeling the crinkle of paper against his hand. He slowly looked to his left, and saw paper underneath his hand. He lifted his hand and took the paper to his face, looking at what Stella had been reading. Kendall's heart dropped when he saw the letter he had spent to painstakingly long on. His eyes scanned the crumpled paper he had left perfectly flat when going to LA, and saw that there were small drops of tears, smudging a bit of the pen on the last few lines.
"'Passion is all but soft, it's not tender, it is violence to which you get hooked by pleasure.' It's true in every sense of the word, love. I'm Hooked, Stella," Kendall read slowly, the words ghosting out between his lips. He chewed on his lower lip, sighing and sagging his shoulders. He ran his hands through his hair stressed out, and placed the letter aside. He was thankful that he had left this home, along with everything else that reminded of Stella, but now, knowing she had read it and was here Kendall couldn't help but feel helpless.
Kendall looked to the side of him, and also noticed that the song he had written her on Christmas was laid out, chords and all. He smiled and grabbed the paper a bit, and his scanned the words he written to Stella the night they had made love. Kendall remembered how wired he was, and how he couldn't stand to close his eyes after the experience he had just had. It was like…he owed it to the world to stay up, after the good things it had done to him.
Kendall sighed and stood up from the bed, feeling revitalized and a bit at peace with himself after seeing that Stella had read his letter, and come back for him. Kendall frowned a bit, wondering where she was if she wasn't in the house. He knew she hadn't left, seeing as the cardigan was on the bed.
Stella was alright, and Kendall could breathe a bit again. It was a bit of closure, what he needed, but not nearly enough.
Kendall knew that he needed to see, and talk to Stella one last time before anything was really resolved.
"It's not too long of a walk, Carlos," Stella told her new friend with a small smile.
Carlos had grumbled and mumbled that the walk from Sherwood's to Kendall's was long and grueling, but with the nice weather afoot, Stella didn't mind it at all.
Perhaps it didn't seem long to her, based on her usual walks in Thief River Falls, and because she had made this walk nearly every day the past few weeks.
Especially since she was usually alone.
"Eh, it's not too bad, just annoying," Carlos told the girl with a sigh, swinging the two bags of groceries in his hands. Stella held one last one, which contained the soup and pack of bread Carlos had brought her. Stella had declined many times at first, but Carlos had insisted on buying the two things for her, even though she had claimed she wasn't hungry. However, the girl really hadn't had anything too great to eat in days, seeing as she felt guilty for stealing more than one thing from the market at a time. The Knight's also had some food in the pantry in the kitchen, and she had been taking a few crackers from that at a time. She didn't want to steal, but it was the only way she could survive.
Carlos had seen the way Stella's eyes looked hungry, and how thin she was from not eating. She obviously wasn't getting the right nutrition, and looked like the people who sat outside on the streets and begged for food, with bags under her eyes, her soft skin beginning to sink in, and her wrists beginning to emaciate.
Carlos still saw the sparkle in her eye that made her beautiful, what Kendall had seen from first laying eyes on the girl.
"How…bad was he after?" Stella asked Carlos a bit randomly, as they got closer and closer to the Knight house.
"Well…what do you mean?" Carlos asked her back, knowing what she meant, but trying to delay it as much as possible to having to answer the question. He didn't want to tell her how heartbroken Kendall was, and how absolutely horrible things had gotten after she had cheated on him.
"After he came back the second time…how bad was he?" Stella asked the boy, looking down, avoiding the eyes that would give her the answer quickly and painlessly.
Carlos slowly began to relive the events he had almost forgotten at what had happened at Harrison's party the night of Kendall's return from Thief River Falls. Their drunken counterpart in the upstairs room with a random redhead, getting out all his frustration in one way or another. The two took a few more steps and Carlos itched at his neck awkwardly, the plastic bag still in his hand, the boy not having another move.
"I uh…I…I feel like you should talk that out with Kendall, Stella. He was bad enough for it to be…bad," Carlos told her, having a lack of words to tell the girl. Carlos hadn't been the one up in the room at Harrison's, having to witness all of this, seeing as how he had been a bit tipsy all night and had heard it from James the next morning.
"Oh, okay," the blonde said quietly, keeping her gaze straight ahead, the knots in her stomach beyond anything she could've imagined.
And then…the Knight house came into view.
Stella took a deep gaping breath and Carlos looked over at her with a half smile, knowing she was nervous.
"I hope he doesn't slam the door in my face," Stella whispered out with a chuckle, "especially since it took so long to get here," she said. Carlos laughed.
"Well, I'm sure he won't do that. He's…he's gonna be surprised though, and I don't think Kendall's a big fan of surprises," the Latino told her, giving her a fair warning for any of Kendall's immediate behaviors at seeing her. Carlos just hoped and prayed to the God's he wouldn't have to witness Kendall get angry, and that Stella wouldn't set him off. His anger had been so good since he'd tried to forget about her.
"I have a feeling he won't be surprised," Stella told him with a smile, turning her head to his nodding, "trust me." Carlos seemed a bit confused, but didn't want it explained, knowing he probably wouldn't get it anyway.
Carlos and Stella nervously walked up to the Knight's front door, Stella twisting the bag of soup and bread in her hand, as Carlos rang the doorbell. She closed her eyes tightly and grabbed Carlos' hand out of instinct, the boy giving her a tight squeeze of comfort before dropping it, not wanting to give Kendall any ideas and give him even more of a shock than he was already in for.
Kendall's thunderous footsteps were heard coming down the stairs, as Stella stood up a bit taller and more confident than Carlos had seen her since meeting. The Knight's door began to slowly open, the sound of creaking wood piercing the blonde's ears as Stella and Carlos stood face to face with Kendall Knight.
Kendall and Stella just stood, their eyes locked on each other as Carlos looked back and forth between their glances, just seeing the pure lust, want, desire, anger, and hatred that radiated between them. He felt that the two had more emotions within their stares than the entire world had in their bodies.
"Look who I found at the market," Carlos said awkwardly, as neither blonde moved.
"Hi, Kendall," Stella said softly, trying to create some sort of peace between them, with a small smile on her lips. Kendall swallowed hard and leaned against the door with his hands, as every single emotion took over his body and he tried his best to speak, licking his dry lips and staring at Stella in awe.
"God, I've missed you."