A/N: So, when I write I like to base my characters off of real people's appearances, and so for girls, normally I use young models. But I was looking and looking and I just kept thinking man, "man, all these girls are too pretty for Logan!" and then I looked up some pictures of Logan and decided I was wrong; any of them would do lol. I'll put pictures of the model I chose on my profile within the next chapter or so.

Sun Down

Chapter Three

Are you just hiding beneath the floor?

"Logan, your landing is off." Their latest choreographer told him in reference to the timed back flip he and James are supposed to do in sync. "Do it like James."

Logan gritted his teeth. He was the one who taught James how to back flip in the first place, now he was supposed to do it like him? He was growing increasingly more and more irritated lately. He wanted things to change. He already decided it. Things needed to change, they had to. Logan wasn't satisfied being who he was. It was time for him to step things up.

But he didn't know how. He didn't know where to start. It couldn't just happen overnight. He couldn't just all of the sudden be different, could he?

"From the top." The choreographer ordered. "No, no, Logan, all wrong."

He was being picked on. He knew he was doing everything right. Logan stayed up late the night before trying to perfect it. Logan's blood was beginning to boil. Why him? Why didn't this guy say anything to Kendall who had tripped three time, or to Carlos who forgot the moves that came after. Only he and James have it down. But only Logan was being criticized.

"Logan!"

"Logan."

"Logan-"

"Logan!"

"Fuck you!" Logan finally exploded.

Everyone in the room froze. Logan was seething. That was too much. He was doing it all perfect. He knew the moves, he never messed up once and yet, this has-been had the nerve to tell him that was all he ever did? No. Not to mention all he ever did was compare Logan to James. Logan would never beat James, it was a fact of life, he was taller stronger, faster, more attractive, smooth, and Logan understood that. Logan knew that James was everything he wasn't, but that didn't mean they had to throw it in his face all the time.

"All you've done all day is tell me I was doing this shitty dance wrong." Logan throws his arms up into the air, "and I have never been out of step, I've never been off beat. I don't appreciate that. And you know what? This dance sucks, you're a fucking has-been."

Logan exits the studio without looking back. He doesn't care what his friends think. He doesn't care what the choreographer thinks. He doesn't care what Kelly or Gustavo thinks.

Walking away from Rocque Records, Logan wasn't thinking, he was storming away in this mad rage. Logan was good enough, so why did everyone feel the need to make him seem inadequate? He wasn't.

What he just did doesn't really hit him until he's far away from the studio. But strangely, he wasn't worried, he was relieved. He felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He wondered if it always felt this good to yell and scream when you needed to. If it did, maybe he should try it more often.

Logan wandered the streets of downtown Los Angeles in a pair of track sweats and a black wife-beater. It wasn't normally attire that he would sport, but he didn't mind. The sweats were more comfortable than jeans and it was hot, so the wife-beater was just fine. He might get a strange tan, but it would better than a farmer's tan.

He walked for a long time. Aimlessly. It was kind of liberating. Logan always had a plan, a goal, some sort of outline for every little moment of his life. Not having one felt good.

But eventually, he headed back to the palm woods. It was a long walk, and his feet were tired when he arrived, but he forced himself to make it to the elevator. He wondered what the guys would say, or if they would say anything. Either way, Logan didn't want to deal with anyone. He thought about calling Camille, but decided against it. By now the entire teenage population at the Palm Woods had probably heard about his melt down. She'd want to talk about it, but Logan didn't feel like divulging his deep feelings to someone who would undoubtedly judge him.

Mrs. Knight and Katie were out; Logan discovered when he walked through the front door of 2J. Carlos and James sat playing video games. They both looked at him without saying anything, watched him as he went back to the room he shared with Carlos.

Logan avoided them by taking a long shower. His skin was burnt from walking around in summer sun without protection, and the cold water spilling from the faucet felt like heaven against his damaged skin. He closed his eyes and let the cool water run down his skin.

The events of the day had been a necessity. Maybe Logan wouldn't feel so tortured anymore. He popped the cap off the bottle of emotions that held his jealousy and inadequacy, his self-doubt and inferiority. Lately it was how everything had been making him feel. If he had been good enough, Camille wouldn't have needed to kiss James. If he'd been better looking she wouldn't have been as tempted. If he was good enough to sing lead, he'd get it, so obviously he wasn't. If he could just dance as well as James, he wouldn't get criticized as much.

He kind of resented his best friend. All of his feelings stemmed from feeling like in comparison to James, he would always be outshined. And maybe he would. But that wasn't fair.

When Logan exited the bathroom, he got redressed. A pair of jeans, a loose fitting V-neck. He didn't really plan on going anywhere, but he didn't want to be in the apartment. He slipped out before James or Carlos got a chance to say anything to him.

When he got downstairs, he knew, everyone was just kind of looking at him. He didn't meet any of their eyes. He just kept his head held high and walked past everyone. He sat poolside, kicked off his shoes and rolled up his jeans. He'd just taken a shower, but today was just one of those days. Nothing normal really mattered.

He sat out there for a while and watched the sunset. When it was down and most of the lobby had cleared out, he remained. None of his friends tried to come talk to him. Which he was kind of grateful for, but at the same time, it made him wonder. Didn't they care enough to find out what was wrong? Or maybe Logan was just being a girl.

Someone did sit down next to him though. He didn't bother to look and see who it was. It was probably one of his friends. But then he smelled cigarettes and vanilla. He heard something dip into the water and he looked over. There was the new girl, sitting only a few inches from him, long hair pulled up into a ponytail, a loose fitting tank-top and a pair of shorts that made Logan gulp. She dipped her long legs into the water.

She didn't look at him when he looked at her, not at first. It took her a moment or two to tear her bewitching eyes from the sky and meet his.

"You looked lonesome." She said. Her voice was like velvet, so smooth. Logan had forgotten what she sounded like. It'd been a little over a week since the last time he saw her. She'd yet to show up in class at the Palm Woods, not that Logan was looking of course.

Logan looked down at the stilling water. He gave a shrug, and they were quiet for a few minutes. The silence was comfortable this time. Logan wanted to say something, but at the same time, he didn't. He didn't want the new girl to think of him the way everyone else did. Maybe he could convince her that he was someone other than he was, and if she believed it, then maybe he could believe it too.

"I'm Madison." She broke the silence. "But I prefer Maddy."

"I'm Hortence."Shit. Fuck. "But I prefer Logan."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Hortence?"

He winced, "Yeah, I didn't mean to tell you that."

He saw a smile in her eyes even though her lips didn't move. "I like it."

He smiled weakly, "Thanks, I guess." Had he really just told this beautiful young woman his name was Hortence? How ridiculous could he be? He never introduced himself by that anymore. He must have been brain dead, in shock, unable to process her appearance. He had to be. He didn't even refer to himself in his head as Hortence.

"Nice to meet you." She said and extended her hand towards him. He took it and shook it, her grip was firmer than he would have expected, but her skin was just as soft as he would have guessed.

"Do you mind if I smoke?"

"You aren't supposed to." Logan said pointing to the sign by the lobby door.

Her lips twitched up and her eyes narrowed slightly, "So you're one of those kids, huh?" Logan mentally kicked himself. So much for trying to make her believe he was someone different, his goody two-shoes side came out right from the get go. Logan shrugged and then said, "I don't mind."

He kept his eyes upon her as she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her satchel. She offered him one, but he shook his head. She just nodded, took out a single cigarette and lit it up. She put it between her lips and took a deep breath in. She exhaled upwards, he watched as the smoke dispersed in the air.

He was trying his best not to cough. He hated the smell, but he would survive, besides, the way it clung to her and mixed in with her perfume was heavenly.

"So," Madison looked at him with those deep green eyes, "what's your story?"

"I don't have one yet." He answered meeting her eyes. He was locked there, frozen in place under her gaze. But he was taking it all in as well, the beauty of her face. Her eyelashes were extravagant, long, evenly spread, almost like something from a magazine. It made him wonder whether or not they were real. Her eyebrows were clean and arched. Under her eyes was a dark outline, but he couldn't tell if it was make up or just because the light outside was fading quickly and the lights from the lobby were dim at the distance they had between them. Her cheekbones were defined and her cheeks, slightly hollowed.

"Well, then tell me why you're out here."

Logan looked down and said, "Don't know."

"You're a bad liar, Logan." He liked the way his name sounded coming from her velvety voice.

He decided not to resist, conversation with Madison might be riveting, and it might also be a one time thing. "Bad day."

"I'm the queen of those." She said after another drag on her cancer stick. "What happened?"

He shrugged again, "Cussed out our choreographer. He wouldn't get off my ass about- well, everything."

"You're a dancer?" She was off topic.

"No, singer, but it's part of the whole deal."

"Like in a band?"

"Well, yeah, kind of." Logan didn't know why but he was kind of embarrassed to tell her that he was in a boy band. "Not like, well," it would be better to just say it. "I'm in a boy band."

"Oh." Is all she said. It wasn't amused, or put off, it was just an oh. "So what happened with the choreographer?"

"I got that fucking dance down, I perfected everything, and the asshole has the nerve to tell me I need to backflip more like James." Then Logan shakes his head, "maybe I was just pissed about being compared to James. Don't know, but that asshole deserved it."

"Sounds like it." She said. "Is that out of character, on your part, I mean."

"Cussing someone out? Uh, yeah, kind of, no, yeah. Just yeah. I just kind of exploded today. I think it all has to do with James though."

"Who is James?"

Logan paused. She had been here a week and she didn't know who James was? Was that even possible? He had heard James make a comment about a hot new girl just the other day. Logan just automatically assumed he'd talked to her. But apparently not.

"Um, James, tall, brunette, pretty boy."

She shook her head.

"Oh, wow. That's really hard to believe."

She shrugged, "Should I know him?"

"No, probably not."

She didn't quite smile, it was one of those lip twitches again, but Logan could see a smile in her eyes. "Why not?"

"Best friend or not, he's an ass hole."

"James is your best friend?"

Logan nodded, "yeah, we're all out here in this band because of him. Well, Kendall actually, but whatever long story short, James wanted to be famous and no we're a boy band."

"Sounds like quite the tale."

"Oh trust me." Logan moved his feet, rippling the still water. "It most certainly is."

"So what did James do? If you don't mind my asking, of course." She flicked the ash off her cigarette and took another drag, looking into Logan's eyes.

"He kissed Camille."

"The crazy chick, right?"

Logan laughed. "That's one way to describe her." But to Logan, Camille hadn't just been the crazy chick. She'd been a girl that he really liked. Outwardly, yes, she was a bit much, but behind closed doors, when she wasn't mauling him, she was actually really cool. She liked the same things he did. She was smart, she wasn't shallow the way it seemed that every other girl in town was. Her acting came from the heart. Everything she did came from her heart.

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"Was." Logan leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and watching his feet in the water. He looked over at Madison's legs, her knees were so bony. In the dim light he could barely make out a scar on her knee. It was long and stretched down to her shins out of his sight, covered by the dark water.

"Oh, sorry."

"Sometimes I hate him." Logan glanced up towards the light on in his apartment.

"James?"

Logan nodded.

"Why?"

"Have you ever felt like you weren't good enough?" Their eyes met again and Madison looked away quickly, she flicked her cigarette and shrugged, "Sure, who hasn't?"

"James's whole life is like one big long parade of making everyone else feel like they'll never be worthy."

Logan noticed how she looked down at the water and her brows furrowed. She didn't respond for a moment. Logan wished he could be inside of her head. But then she looked up at the dark sky and said, "Sounds like a terrible person to be friends with."

Logan looked up with her and saw that there were no stars out. The city lights made them too hard to see. It was one thing Logan missed about living in a small town. The stars had always been shining and bright.

"He has his redeeming qualities, of course."

"I'm sure he does."

Her phone rang then. "Shit." She cursed and put her cigarette out on the poolside. Bitters would not be happy. But something about her told Logan that she wouldn't care about what Bitters would have to say. She looked at the caller ID for a long moment as it rang.

"I have to take this." She stood.

Logan joined her, "yeah, sure."

"Thanks for talking to me though." She said softly. "I had a bad day too. You were a good distraction."

"Yeah, um, yeah, thanks for listening, Madison."

"Maddy." She corrected, "I'll see you later Logan."

He watched her walk away again. As he made his way back up to 2J, he wondered if he'd ever get to talk to her like that again. Would she take over and be popular, become a bitch like the Jennifer's? She was prettier than all three of them from Logan's perspective. Maybe she'd become the queen bitch. But everything about her seemed so real, while everything about them seemed so plastic. He didn't think that was who she was. He'd be glad if he was right.

The lights were off in the apartment. Everyone was already in their respective rooms. When Logan entered his, Carlos was already in his own bed and the lights were off. Logan quietly stripped down to his boxers and slid between the sheets of his bed, opposite of Carlos. He felt better. Talking to a stranger, he realized, he didn't have to worry about them judging him. Madison didn't know him; she had no other opinion of him to go by.

"Hey," Carlos said, "Logan."

"What?"

"He totally deserved it today. Just so you know. We all thought so."

"Thanks."

Logan drifted off to sleep a little more at ease than he had been with himself for a while.

A/N: So, how was it? I apologize for any grammatical errors. I re-read everything before I post but sometimes I miss stuff.

Reviews, please?