A/N Oh my gersh thanks so much for the reviews! I was not expecting this story to be popular haha! It was supposed to be just a spooky Halloween one shot and now it's just taking up a life of its own. Thanks so much everybody! Let's whump James a bit, shall we? He usually comes out of stories relatively unscathed so this is fun!
"James, where have you been?" Kendall blurted out as soon as James walked through the front door. He cringed when he realized he sounded like a mother, but he had been beside himself with worry.
"Nowhere," James mumbled, avoiding eye contact with Logan and Kendall. All he did was go for a walk, it wasn't that big of a deal. He needed to be outside. It was too claustrophobic inside this little apartment.
"Nowhere?" Logan bellowed, making Kendall shush him so he wouldn't wake up Carlos. Logan cleared his throat and continued at a lower decibel. "James, it's 4 o' clock in the morning! You can't just storm out of the apartment and roam the town at any hour of night!"
"I wasn't roaming the town, I just went to the park and walked around," James said. "I needed some air. I was suffocating in here."
"You worried us to death, James," Logan said.
James chewed his bottom lip, looking guilty. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.
"If it happens again, I'm waking mom up," Kendall said.
"You wouldn't!" James said. But Kendall just gave him a look that meant he really would, turned on his heel, and went back to bed.
"Go back to bed, James," Logan instructed. "You need some sleep."
"Is he mad at me Logan?" James asked, ignoring the smart boy's orders. Logan sighed.
"No, James, we aren't mad at you. None of this is your fault. Go to bed, we're going to have a talk tomorrow."
"A talk? But Logan there's nothing to-"
"James! It's late, I'm tired, we have school in the morning…"
James nodded. Logan did look extremely tired. He was fully aware that his nightmares were causing not just him, but everyone, to be sleep deprived. He was screwing everybody up, just because of that one stupid night. He wished he could somehow put it behind him and forget about it, but he couldn't.
"Ok, Logan. I'm sorry I worried you so much."
Logan waved his hand tiredly. "It's ok. Good night, bro." James watched Logan recede to his and Kendall's shared bedroom before heading to his own bedroom. He snuggled down into his soft bed and yawned. Sleep sounded so inviting right now, but he didn't want to have yet another bad dream. He couldn't handle another one.
James suddenly tensed when he heard a rustling noise from across the room, and he looked over to see Carlos' head peeking out of the blankets, sleepy eyes studying him worriedly.
"James, you're home," Carlos said softly. James gave his smaller friend a warm smile.
"Yeah. Sorry about that buddy. I just needed to cool off. What are you doing awake?"
Carlos shrugged. "I couldn't sleep knowing you were away somewhere."
"I'm fine, Carlos. Please don't worry about me. Go back to sleep."
James was expecting Carlos to say "sweet dreams!" than lay back down and fall right back to sleep. What he was not expecting was for the young boy to scowl at him from across the room and snap at him.
"How are we supposed to not worry for you, James? You're my best friend and you keep acting like everything is all perfect when obviously, it's not! You can't even sleep and you look like the walking dead. I'll stop worrying about you when you quit acting so selfish." Carlos huffed in frustration and slammed his face into his pillow. James just stared at him in shock. That was very… Un-Carlos like.
"Carlos…" James said, unsure of what to say. Carlos was right. He should've known Carlos would be the first to snap at him, the Latino always was the most honest of the group. It was literally impossible for the smaller boy to keep any of his feelings inside of him, whether they were happy emotions or, on the rare occasions, upset ones like these.
"Leave me alone," Carlos said softly, more of a request than an order. James' heart sunk.
"I'm sorry bro," James whispered. It was all he could think of to say. Carlos shifted but refused to answer him. After a few moments of silence James gave up and buried his face in his pillow. Soft snores from Carlos soon filled the room, but James found himself sleepless for the rest of the night.
After a couple of hours of lying in bed, bored out of his mind, James decided to roll out from under his covers and start his morning routine early. He took a long shower and blow dried his dark locks, than styled them perfectly with sculpting spray and Cuda hairspray. He then put on his tanning lotion and applied extra eye cream for the dark circles underneath them. But even with so many beauty products, they could not hide how unhealthily tired James looked. Mrs. Knight would catch on too quickly, as well as Carlos, Logan and Kendall. His friends were annoyingly observant sometimes.
On his tiptoes, James quietly crept into Mrs. Knight's bedroom and sifted through the small make-up bag on her dresser. He found what he was searching for, a bottle of liquid cover-up, than tip-toed back to the bathroom and applied the make-up under his eyes. He smiled, satisfied. The dark circles weren't as prominent anymore.
After covering up his imperfections, James returned the make-up and decided to spend the rest of the morning on the couch, watching crappy cartoons on the big-screen. By 7:30, all the boys were awake and Mrs. Knight was shuffling around the kitchen, making oatmeal with one eye open and shouting endlessly for Katie to drag her "Lazy butt out of bed".
"James, you're awake early," Mrs. Knight said from behind her pot of oatmeal, stirring the gunk vigorously. James gave a tired grunt in reply. Mrs. Knight raised an eyebrow. Before James knew it, the mother-bear was standing over him, checking his temperature with the back of her hand on his forehead.
"Mama K!" James whined, ducking his head away from her hand. She gave him a stern look.
"James, you haven't been yourself lately. Are you doing ok? Does it have anything to do with…" Mrs. Knight lowered her voice, "The incident?"
"No, Mama Knight, I'm fine," James said. Of course Mrs. Knight had found out about the horrible prank gone awry immediately after it happened, but he down played it for her, a lot. She didn't even know about the nightmares, or so James thought. It didn't take a genius to figure out that such a young mind would be deeply affected after something like that, and Mrs. Knight knew everything that went on with her kids, whether they be her own children or her surrogate ones. She knew James well enough to know that he would want to keep some dignity and not talk about his nightmares, but it had been a month and it only seemed to be getting worse. Mrs. Knight was getting very worried for him. His behavior was not normal. She had hoped that with the help of his friends, he would recover just fine, but he seemed to just keep falling into a deeper and deeper hole.
"James, sweetheart, I know you're having nightmares," Mrs. Knight blurted, keeping her voice low even though the other boys were currently showering and getting dressed.
"What? Who told you?" James asked, feeling betrayed and ashamed. It was bad enough his friends had to know he was freaking out, but the fact that they told his "mother" made him downright angry.
"Relax, nobody told me, James. I'm a mother, I know these things. I also know that you aren't doing so good, are you?"
James groaned. "Mama Knight, I'm fine. The nightmares will go away in a little bit. It's only been a month. I just need some time."
"I know you need time, but you also need to talk to someone about this. I'm always here to listen to you and help you, and so are the boys. Take advantage of that, it will make you feel so much better. Ok?"
"Ok Mama Knight," James agreed, though he had no intentions of talking about his night terrors. They would go away on their own, he was sure of it.
Mrs. Knight patted James' cheek. "Ok. Come on baby, come get some breakfast. I'm making raisin oatmeal, your favorite."
James smiled. "Thanks, Mama Knight." The brunette boy followed her to the table and spent breakfast chatting away about the latest Cuda products and how excited he was to get them before they were even released to the public just because he modeled for their senior line so many months ago. He was trying to play it off as though last night never even happened, and it seemed to be working, but by 11:00 his face quite literally slapped his school desk and he started snoring away.
"Dude!" Kendall whispered harshly, jumping when he saw James head dip down and hit the desk. Carlos snickered at the sight and Logan looked amused and concerned at the same time.
"Mr. Diamond!" Ms. Collins scolded, slapping his desk with her ruler. James sat up with a snort of surprise and the small room erupted into mean chuckles. The laughter immediately ceased, however, when Kendall gave every teenager a menacing glare.
"James, falling asleep in class is unacceptable," Ms. Collins lectured. "If it happens again, you can stay after class for detention."
"Sorry Ms. Collins," James mumbled, his pasty cheeks turning bright pink. The tall boy struggled to stay awake for the rest of his lesson and ignored the worried gazes of his best friends. When the bell rang, James got to his feet and grabbed his bag so quickly he nearly tripped over his desk in an attempt to get out of the tiny, cramped room.
"James, dude are you ok?" Logan asked, running after him with Kendall and Carlos close behind him.
"I'm fine," James said stubbornly, making his way through the busy lobby so he could wait outside for their limo to arrive and pick them up.
"Are you sure? Because you're breathing kind of heavy," Logan said. James rolled his eyes. Logan picked up on everything.
"I'm just tired, Logan." James shoved forward through the doors of the Palmwoods and stood at the curb with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't care if he was acting like a defiant little kid. He was tired and he was scared and he hated being asked if he was ok every 3 seconds. Why couldn't his friends just let it go?
Logan sighed in frustration, sharing a look of annoyance with Kendall, who just shrugged.
"I want some fruit smackers," Carlos said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Too bad, we have to go to the studio. Freight Train will be here in 2 minutes," Logan said.
"But I'm starving!" Carlos complained, clutching his growling stomach. "Can I please have some quarters? Come on Logan, listen, I'm gurgling!"
"I don't want to listen to your intestinal gurgles," Logan said. He reached into his jeans pocket and handed Carlos a couple of dollars so he could buy more than one packet of fruit smackers.
"Oooh, thank you Logan!" Carlos said gratefully. He ran back inside the lobby just as their limo pulled up.
"Hey, Carlos will be out in a minute," Logan said as they piled into the limo.
"Cool beans," Freight Train said casually. He always arrived several minutes earlier than he needed to because he knew one of the 4 boys would be late every time.
5 minutes passed though and Carlos was still in the lobby, buying who knows how many fruit smackers.
'Ugh, where is he?" Kendall said.
"He's probably petting puppies or something," James said. "I'll go get him." Annoyed, James stepped out in the cool November air and ran into the lobby. Hazel eyes darted around the room until they landed on Carlos, huddled in the corner by the vending machines, looking small and frightened. 2 teenagers who were much bigger than him were taunting and laughing at the Latino shamelessly.
"Hey!" James growled, rushing towards the pitiful scene. "What the hell are you guys doing?" He demanded, grabbing one of the boys by the collar. These boys were big, but not as big as James.
"Whoa, just having some fun, no biggie!" The boy said, putting his hands up in surrender. James let go of the boy's shirt, but continued to glare daggers at him.
"Hey, aren't you that kid who got locked in that coffin on Halloween?" The other boy asked, eyebrows arching deviously. James felt his cheeks heat up and he looked away, avoiding eye contact with the mean boys.
"Who cares? Just leave my little brother alone," James said, too tired to think up a threat. He reached his hand towards Carlos to help him to his feet, but he was taken by surprise when the 2 boys teamed up and pushed him against the wall. James tried to squirm away but the bullies proved to be stronger than him when they worked together.
"Hey!" Carlos cried, jumping to his feet. He lunged forward to attack the mean boys, but he was too slow, and everything else happened so fast. Before he knew it, the supply closet near the vending machine was thrown open and James was tossed in quite violently. The door slammed closed and James' yells filled the room, along with the loud thudding of his fists against the door.
"Awe, is poor Jamie scared of the dark now?" One of the boys teased when he heard James' frantic cries of terror. By now a small crowd of residents were forming, staring at the scene in shock.
"Stop it!" Carlos yelled, trying to pull the bullies away from the door. "He's claustrophobic, guys. You're hurting him!"
"Whoa, what's his problem?" One of the bullies asked when James let out a shrill scream. He let go of the door handle, seeming to realize that he may have gone too far.
"Idiot!" Carlos cried, shoving the boy out of the way. He grabbed the doorknob and jiggled it, but it didn't budge. James' cries became softer but more heartbreaking. Carlos knew his friend was having a mental meltdown in the tiny room.
"James, it's ok man!" Carlos said. "I'm going to go get Kendall. The door is stuck, just hold on!"
James didn't answer. The pounding on the door ceased and all that could be heard were quiet sobs. Carlos ran out of the lobby and to the limo.
"Carlos, what took you so long?" Logan asked when Carlos swung the door open, a look of panic written across his cherubic features.
"It's James! He's locked in a supply closet and he's freaking out!" Carlos cried. Kendall's eyes widened in alarm and the blonde boy darted towards the lobby.
"James!" Kendall cried, pushing his way through the small crowd to where Mr. Bitter's was trying to open the closet. The bullies were long gone and James wasn't even sobbing anymore.
"What's going on?" Kendall asked Mr. Bitters. The middle aged man shook his head, messing with the door handle. "Is James in there?"
"Darn kids causing ruckus in my lobby!" Mr. Bitters said. "I was in my office trying to watch my soap operas when I heard all this screaming. I tell you kids all the time not to mess around in the supply closet!"
"He wasn't messing around in there, some bullies shoved him in!" Carlos cried.
"James, can you hear me?" Kendall asked, knocking on the jammed door. To his horror, his best friend didn't answer him. "James, it's me, Kendall! Are you ok in there?" Kendall pressed his ear against the door and listened for any signs of life. James let out a whimper of fear, and a scratching sound could be heard against the wood.
"Oh my God," Kendall gasped. "Why won't the door open, Mr. Bitters? We have to get him out of there, now!"
"The knob is jammed, it happens all the time," Mr. Bitters said. Kendall grabbed the man's shoulders tightly.
"He needs to get out of there, he's deathly afraid of tight spaces!" Kendall cried, knowing James was reliving the horrible experience all over again.
"Ok, let me go get my tools," Mr. Bitter's said, sensing the anxiety in Kendall's voice. He left to go get his tools from his office.
"Ok buddy, just hang on!" Kendall said, knocking on the door again. "We're right here, James. It's me and Logan and Carlos. You're going to be ok. We're going to get you out."
"Why isn't he answering you?" Carlos asked in a small voice. Kendall chose to ignore the question to avoid upsetting the Latino any further. It felt like hours when it had only been minutes before Mr. Bitters unattached the handle and opened the door. James was sprawled out on the floor, chest heaving as he hyperventilated. His eyes were wide open, pupils blown with fear. Tears flowed down his cheeks and landed in a puddle on the plush carpet. Kendall got on his knees and scooped James up into his arms, leaning his limp body against this broad chest.
"James, are you ok buddy? You're safe now, James. You're safe," Kendall said over and over again, rocking his best friend's body gently.
"James, please wake up," Carlos whimpered from beside Kendall.
"He's not with us," Logan said softly, pushing James' soft brown locks away from his pale face. "He's having a panic attack."
"Guys…" Carlos said, running his hand over the scratches on the wood door. He took James' hand and examined the broken skin. His fingertips were littered with splinters, drops of blood falling onto Carlos' palm.
"James, you need to wake up now bro," Logan said calmly, cupping the tall boy's cheek with his hand. "It's me, Logan. You're not in a coffin, you're at the Palmwoods. Wake up, buddy."
"L-Logan?" James moaned, the warmth of Logan's touch and his calming voice slowly allowing him to re-enter reality. "What happened?"
"Ssh, just breathe," Logan instructed with relief. He listened to James' heavy breathing until it started to become steady. "You had a panic attack but you're alright now." James wiped his eyes furiously, trying to hide his tears. Even though his heart was still pounding, his embarrassment took over.
"I-I know, I'm fine," James said, shakily rising to his feet. "W-we should get to work."
"Um, absolutely not!" Logan said incredulously. "You need to get to bed, James." The small genius looked to Kendall for help. Kendall caught on and grabbed James' arm.
"Come on, we're going upstairs," Kendall said sternly. James always listened to Kendall better than he did Logan for some odd reason.
"Carlos, you ok?" Logan asked as Kendall and James disappeared upstairs. The taller boys had opted not to take the elevator to avoid another attack.
"Yeah, that was just scary," Carlos said, clutching his helmet to his chest. "Hey, where did everybody go?"
"I scared them off with my Taser gun," a familiar female voice said. The boys turned to see Camille standing by the front desk, holding a small black gun of some sort in her hands.
"Whoa, you have a Taser?" Carlos asked, impressed.
"No, it's a prop I stole off the set of the movie I just finished filming," Camille said. "But I figured James would never live it down if half of the Palmwoods saw him freaking out in a closet so I told them all to get out before I electrocuted them."
"Camille, thank you," Logan said. "You're the best."
Camille shrugged. "Yeah, I know. But what happened in that closet? James seemed seriously scared."
"He's just really claustrophobic and scared of the dark, ever since Halloween," Logan said. Camille was one James' only friends who knew the details of what had happened on that night. Word had gotten around that James had been locked in a coffin, but nobody really knew that he had been only minutes from death and how much it truly affected him except for the boys and Camille. "He's not getting any better. It just keeps getting worse. I don't know what to do to help him," Logan admitted.
"Just be there for him, he needs you right now," Camille said, giving Logan a quick hug. Carlos stretched out his arms, silently asking for a hug too. The pretty brunette gathered Carlos in her arms and pecked his forehead. "Let me know if you need anything."
"Of course. Thanks Camille," Logan said. Camille nodded before taking a deep breath. Her voice faltered and she cleared her throat.
"Logan, he's going to be ok, right?" The young girl asked. Logan stared at the ugly carpeting on the floor, unsure how to answer that.
"I don't know, Camille. I honestly don't," Logan said sadly. Truthfully, he didn't know what it would take to help James recover from what happened. He just wanted the old James back.
A/N Thanks to Twisted Illusions for the idea to have James locked in a closet! It was fun to write! More James whumpage to come. Please review?
Oh ps I am only sort of freaking out because it's after 2 am and there was a scary earthquake and I'm all alone and *hides under blankies and cried* that was scary.