A/N Happy Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for so many things. I am thankful for my crazy life, and my amazing friends and the adventures we share together. I'm thankful that I get to help raise two tiny angel boys, and the joyous and stressful learning experiences that go along with it. I'm thankful for my insane family, and for my cute lil van. I am thankful for the amazing studio that I have the privilege of dancing at. I am thankful for my gift of dance and writing, and I am so thankful for ALL of my readers. Every single one of you is special to me, even if I have never met you or even talked to you! You guys have a special place in my heart. I love you! And, of course, I am thankful for our boys Carlos, James, Logan and Kendall. They do wonders to my life, and I love them!
Carlos blinked his heavy eyes at the sunlight that poured into his bedroom, slowly slipping out of a deep sleep. The young Latino yawned and flipped onto his stomach, hoping for a few more minutes of sleep, but for some odd reason, something seemed slightly different than most mornings. For one, he felt well rested, which was an unusual thing lately because of James' constant night terrors. The other reason was that James' bed was empty. Usually James was asleep in the morning, because it was the only time he could sleep without a lot of night terrors.
Despite his wish to continue his undisturbed sleep that he was in desperate need of, Carlos was too curious to find James to fall back to sleep. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and shivered when his toes brushed the cold floor. He lied down on his stomach and rummaged through the stack of random items under the bed to find a pair of slippers. When he finally found his fuzzy blue slippers, he padded into the kitchen to find James cooking up pancakes. Carlos' eyes lit up. It had been ages since he had some of James' ultimate chocolate chip syrupy pancakes.
"Oh, are those pancakes?" Carlos exclaimed from behind the brunette's shoulder. James jumped 3 inches off of the ground and flung pancake batter through the air, startled by the sudden, loud voice.
"Oh, Carlos you scared me buddy," James said with a nervous chuckle, wiping batter out of his long lashes with a towel. "What are you doing up so early?"
Carlos shrugged and sat at the bar, watching his best friend while he cooked breakfast. Nobody really knew this, but James was the best cook Carlos ever met besides his mom.
"I don't know. I guess because you didn't wake me up all night so now I feel great!" Carlos said. James flinched at the comment. Carlos didn't mean to hurt his feelings and James knew that, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty that he was the reason why his friends were sleep deprived.
"Hey, wait a minute," Carlos said slowly, his chocolate eyes scrunching up and his cheeks puffing out in an excited grin. "You didn't wake me up all night! That means you didn't have a nightmare! James, you slept without a nightmare!"
James smiled sadly and stirred the rest of his pancake batter bitterly. "Yeah, I guess so buddy."
"Is that why you are making pancakes, James, to celebrate getting better?" Carlos asked innocently. James nodded as he served Carlos the first batch of buttery, chocolaty pancakes.
"Yep, that's why I am making pancakes," James lied, forcing his fake smile to stay glued upon his exhausted features. James was only making breakfast because he was bored of lying awake in his bed for hours.
The 2 boys ate in silence for a while the other boys slept. It didn't take long for Carlos to realize his friends were missing.
"Hey, where are Kendall and Logan?"
"They're sleeping, so don't wake them up," James said. It was only 7 AM, and it was a Saturday, meaning they were free until Gustavo called them into the studio. "Kendall's sick."
"Kendall's sick?" Carlos asked in surprise, a piece of pancake falling out of his mouth. "Kendall is never sick. What's wrong with him? Did he eat a bad corndog?"
"No, Carlos, it wasn't a corndog. He stayed out in the cold all day with injuries so he has a chest cold," James said with a guilty sigh. "We'll just let him sleep, ok?"
"Oh. Does Mama Knight know?" Carlos asked.
"No, she and Katie left a couple hours ago to go visit some relatives, remember? If she found out, she would be here babying him to death and he hates that," James said. "It's just a cold. We can take care of him ourselves." James looked up from his pancakes, not so hungry anymore even though he had only eaten half a pancake. Carlos was already finishing his 3rd pancake.
"Carlos, you should go back to sleep," James said, studying his younger friend. "You look tired. I want you to catch up on sleep."
"I'm not sleepy, James," Carlos said after chugging a glass of milk. He watched James throw on a jacket and a pair of slip-on shoes.
"Yes, you are. I can see it in your eyes," James said. He was the only reason why his friends were tired and ill and he felt strangely protective over them all of a sudden. He led Carlos to his room, closed the shades, and pushed the Latino onto his bed. Carlos lied down and snuggled under the warmth of his blankets. Ok, maybe he was more tired than he thought now that he was in his comfy bed with a full tummy.
"Where are you going, James?" Carlos asked. His usually overly-pretty friend never went out in public with tousled hair and just a hoodie and jeans like he was wearing right now.
"I just need to get out of the house for a little while, get some air. I'll be home in a few minutes. Good night."
"Don't you mean good morning?"
"Just go to sleep, 'Litos." James left Carlos' room and quietly slipped into Kendall's. The blonde was sleeping peacefully, but he looked pale and he was hot to the touch. James let his hand linger on Kendall's forehead, gaging his temperature. He didn't seem feverish enough to wake Logan, so James just placed a glass of water and a bottle of pills on his bedside and left the apartment. He was only gone for a few hours to walk around the mall and clear his head, but he was greeted with a livid Logan when he arrived home.
"James Isaac Diamond! Where have you been?" Logan exclaimed. James stumbled backwards when the small boy practically jumped on him and stood on tip-toe so that they were eye-level.
"Um, the mall," James said, blinking and looking at the flooring below him. It was kind of creepy when an angry Logan looked you directly in the eye. It was like he was reading your soul.
Logan sighed and backed off. "Dude, you're supposed to be grounded. Mrs. Knight specifically put me in charge of you and Kendall's punishment. You aren't supposed to leave the apartment except for school and for the studio."
"Sorry, I forgot. You guys were all sleeping and I got bored," James said. "And you won't have to worry about Kendall sneaking off, he's too sick to go anywhere." James sighed and sat on the orange couch, curling his long legs beneath him. Logan tilted his head to the side, giving James a confused glance.
"What do you mean he's sick?" Logan asked, looking from Kendall's doorway to James' now sprawled out figure on the couch.
"Don't tell him I told you," James mumbled with a long, loud yawn. He buried his face in a brightly colored throw pillow, feeling incredibly tired. Even stopping at his favorite coffee shop on the way home couldn't fight his exhaustion. He listened to Logan rush to Kendall's room before slipping into a half-asleep state.
"Kendall, buddy you ok?" Logan whispered, shaking the blonde boy's limp shoulder gently. Logan was displeased to find his best friend under a pile of blankets, snoring away with a stuffed up nose and flushed cheeks. Kendall muttered something unintelligible and nearly disappeared under his blanket fort. Logan frowned and pulled back the covers a bit so he could feel Kendall's forehead. As he anticipated, he was burning with a fever.
Kendall groaned and let his eyelids flutter open, a bit upset that he was woken up and even more upset that James must have told Logan. "I'm fine Logan, just a cold."
"Your fever says it's more than just a cold," Logan said, picking up the bottle of Tylenol and studying it. "I'm going to bring you something that will help with more of your symptoms. Just hold tight ok?"
Kendall nodded, and the simple movement sent him into a coughing fit. Logan listened to the congested hacks from the bathroom and brought him some stronger fever and pain reducers and some cough syrup.
"Did James tell you I was sick?" Kendall asked, clutching his throbbing ribs. Logan cringed under Kendall's feverish emerald glare.
"Yes," he squeaked, spooning up a serving of cough syrup for Kendall. The blonde opened his mouth and swallowed the medicine with a sour expression on his face.
"I can't believe I got sick," Kendall whined with a cough.
"I'm sorry," James' tired voice rang through the doorway. Kendall and Logan looked up to see James leaning against the door frame with sleepy eyes and a frown.
"Hey, I thought you fell asleep," Logan said.
James shrugged. He had woken up from his half-sleep to hear Kendall coughing violently and got concerned. "I just wanted to check on Kendall. How are you feeling, buddy?"
"'Been better," Kendall mumbled, squirming to find a comfortable position. Being on his stomach put too much pressure on his ribs and laying on his back caused his stuffy nose to drip into his throat, making him cough more which only caused his bruised up ribs to scream in pain. Finally, he curled up on his side with his arms protectively holding his middle, as if to keep himself together with each shuddering cough he emitted.
"I'm sorry Kendall," James said again. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, I just want to sleep," Kendall said, missing the guilty tone that plagued James' soft voice.
"Alright buddy, we'll check on you in a bit," Logan said. He nudged James and led him out to the living room.
"Are you ok James?" The young doctor asked, noticing that he seemed to be acting kind of unusual.
"Yeah, why?" James asked, trying to play it off like he was perfectly fine.
"Well, you went to the mall looking like you just woke up, you're acting all mopey, and you seem really tired."
"Nope, I'm fine," James replied, flashing him a pearly-white grin to prove it. Logan studied him for a minute longer before nodding.
"Alright, I'm going to make some lunch for us. Can you go wake up Mr. Lazy and tell him corndogs will be ready in 15 minutes?"
James saluted and went to Carlos' room to wake up the sleeping Latino by bouncing a pillow against his scrunched up face. Carlos sputtered and sat up, confused by the rude awakening. He laughed when he saw James looking with an innocent look on his face, even though he was holding a pillow behind his back nonchalantly.
James you suck," Carlos said with a giggle, pouncing on the taller boys back and wrapping his arms around his neck. James laughed and spun around a couple times to make him dizzy.
"Do you want some corndogs?" James asked, shifting Carlos' weight so he wouldn't slide down his back.
"Yeah I want some corndogs!" Carlos yelled. James laughed and gave Carlos a piggy-back ride to the kitchen, than slipped him onto a chair.
"Ssh, don't wake up Kendall," Logan hissed, placing 3 glasses of chocolate milk on the table.
"Oh right, Kendall's still sick," Carlos said. "Is he getting any better?"
"No, it's going to take a couple of days 'Litos," Logan said, amused. Carlos frowned while sucking on his straw, savoring his delicious chocolate milk for a moment before remembering something.
"Ooh, James, did you tell Logan the good news?" The hyper Latino asked, practically bouncing in his chair. Logan smiled and cocked an eyebrow at a confused James.
"Oh, I'll tell him," Carlos said excitedly. "James slept all night without one nightmare, Logan! James is getting better!"
Logan's eyes widened and he turned to James with a proud, crooked smile. "Really James, You slept through the night without a nightmare?"
James was frozen for a minute, and he took a long sip of chocolate milk to gather his thoughts. He was briefly reminded of the Twix commercials while he took a moment to think up a lie.
"Yep, I didn't have one nightmare last night," James finally said with a grin. That wasn't really a lie, was it? He really didn't have a nightmare, because he didn't sleep.
"Well that's great buddy, keep it up," Logan said as if James could actually control it. He gave the tall brunette an affectionate pat on the shoulder before tending to the corndogs baking in the oven. James smiled, but it slowly melted into a sad frown as soon as Carlos and Logan were distracted by other things.
He didn't even realize the lies he was starting to build, and Carlos and Logan didn't even realize how fooled they were by them.
A/N Oh no! James is starting to lie to them about his nightmares, and he's only getting guiltier. Thanks for reading and please review? And what did everyone think about their gorgeous rendition of the National Anthem? It was simply breathtaking. Love those boys! Enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving!