AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry this is two days late! Some stuff came up, and I wasn't able to finish it when I wanted to. But anyway, here it is. It turned out much longer than I'd planned (minds of their own, I tell ya!), so once again, I split the chapter up. This chapter and Chapters 11 and 13 were all originally gonna be one chapter, but that definitely wasn't gonna work! It took me some time to get a handle on this one because it's mostly James and Carlos, but I think it came out well! Thanks for all of your reviews and for continuing to read! You guys are awesome!
CHAPTER TWELVE
After dinner, James went straight for a long, hot soak in the tub. He needed to lie there and sort things out. By no means had he changed his mind, though. He was going to tell Carlos, and he didn't care what circumstances got in the way. If Carlos was reading a comic book, he'd snatch it out of his hands. If Carlos was listening to his iPod, he'd yank the earbuds out. If Carlos was polishing that damn helmet, he'd take it and throw it out the window.
Well...maybe not that. He didn't want Carlos to kill him.
But he was going to tell him. He'd been alone with his thoughts all day, and now he needed another opinion, a fresher outlook. And Carlos could surprise people sometimes. He wasn't just a dingy, ditzy ball of energy who had nursery rhymes and Disney songs playing in his subconsciousness all day. No, he had a mind of his own, and he and James had often had some good conversations about the things around them. They, too, had their thoughts about California (James: "The sun, the surf, the ladies...it's perfect!" Carlos: "It's TOO HOT here!") and they also had their own thoughts about being in this band (James: "Each day is a day closer to my solo career!" Carlos: "I can dance better than all three of you combined!"). They'd even talk about serious things, too, like the time Carlos lent a shoulder for James to cry on when he'd found a strand of grey in his hair.
Well...they weren't exactly on Kendall and Logan's level, but they had their own brand of friendship that served them both well. And James knew that just talking to Carlos would help him start to see things in a clearer light.
He couldn't stop thinking about it, though. Logan and Kendall. And Jo.
James wasn't a huge fan of Jo's, but she was an okay girl. She was Kendall's girlfriend, and so he respected her. He definitely didn't try to flirt with her, even though he'd heard many times that Jo was as easy as rolling a ball down a hill, especially after she had some drinks in her. He never told Kendall about what he'd heard, though, because he could never bring himself to be the bearer of bad news. And plus, sometimes it seemed like Kendall knew exactly the type of things Jo was up to at those wild parties. Still, though, James couldn't help but feel that if Kendall and Logan were indeed together and doing stuff behind Jo's back, then it'd be some sort of vindication for Kendall. If Jo could go out and get down with random guys, then why shouldn't Kendall do the same?
Heh. But James knew that if something was going on between Kendall and Logan, it would be much more than just "getting down" every now and then. Whatever they had was about more than just sex. The two of them had gone through so much together, and James knew it. He couldn't imagine them just rocking the bed every now and then with no deeper feelings connected. There had to be more than that.
But what made him think that? What was he really thinking about as he admired his own naked body in the bathtub? Was what he'd seen in Logan's journal really the cause behind his confusion? Hell, that could have been anything. Kendall and Logan could have just been joking when they wrote that. And the unmade bed? Jeez. Maybe Logan just wanted to make his bed that morning. And now James was assuming it meant they were sleeping together.
He knew he had to get a grip, but he knew that the journal and the bed were barely important anyway. There was more to what he had going on in his head. It wasn't just what he'd found that morning that had his mind in overdrive. No, those were just catalysts, those were just things that called to mind a number of other things...things that said more than little scrawls in a journal could ever say.
"Ugh, I don't want that cock-sucking dork on my team."
It was eighth grade PE, and the game was baseball. As always, Logan was the last one to be picked in team selections, but he was used to that. He was also used to the jerk-off team leaders never missing an opportunity to remind him that he was worthless to them.
"Trevor, watch your mouth," said Coach Crabtree, the teacher. Any other teacher in any other class would have written a kid up for what Trevor Callahan had just called Logan, but Coach Dwayne Crabtree, the laziest teacher in the human world, just told him to "watch his mouth." Ugh.
"We want Knight!" Trevor exclaimed, and his team rowdily agreed. Kendall was the best player in the class. Yeah, he hung around the dork too much, but he could hit a home run that went for miles, and the team that had him was almost guaranteed a victory.
Crabtree sighed. "I told you already. Kendall's finishing up a test for Ms. Cooper. He'll be back soon. Now, Trevor, your team is up to pick, and Logan's the only one left, so you have to take him."
"Oh, all right, already!" Trevor stomped petulantly. The rest of his team groaned as Logan lamely joined them.
"Luke, Kendall will be on your team when he comes back," said Crabtree.
Team Luke, which included James, cheered. "Well, I guess we know who the winner's gonna be now!" yelled Luke, a lanky boy with an Adam's apple that would be more accurately described as an Adam's watermelon.
Team Luke was first at bat. As Team Trevor grabbed their mitts and headed out into the field, Trevor pulled Logan aside. "Go way, way back into the outfield. You can't fuck anything up back there. But if you do, I'm kicking your ass, all right? And that's a promise."
Logan didn't nod or say anything in response, just went on to the outfield, where no one could bother him.
James watched the exchange between Trevor and Logan, and he just shook his head. He couldn't help but feel bad for the kid. He'd seen people make fun of that guy over and over again for years and years, and he just didn't get it. Maybe James was maturing faster than most boys, but it just didn't make sense to him. Why tease someone who was smaller than you? Why rough up someone who was weaker than you? Was that supposed to be entertainment? Fun? Ugh. Dumbasses. He'd been thinking about extending a hand of friendship to Logan for a while, but he'd never actually gone through with it. There was still something scary about it. The unwritten rule was that if you made friends with a bullied kid, then you, too, would be bullied.
Besides, Logan had Kendall. Everyone knew that Kendall and Logan were best friends, and even though the class of hot-tempered thirteen-year-olds loved to make an easy target out of Logan, they knew to keep quiet as long as Kendall was around. He was a hot-tempered thirteen-year-old, too, but he was fiercely protective of Logan, and he'd destroy anyone who messed with him. Luckily for those dumbasses, though, Kendall wasn't there today, and so they took advantage of the situation.
"Look at that fag back there," said one of the guys on Team Luke. "He's probably dreaming about a nice big cock in his mouth."
"Yeah," said another. "He's dreaming of Knight's nice big cock in his mouth."
"What the fuck? Did you just say that Knight has a nice big cock?"
"No! I mean...I'm just saying, Mitchell's dreaming of Knight's cock!"
"You're as gay as Mitchell!"
James rolled his eyes and tried to separate himself from the team as much as possible. He would have said something, but that would have been like inviting them to start hassling with him, and he was so not in the mood for that mess. They normally left him alone. He wasn't the best baseball player, but he was good enough to fly under the radar. Plus, they knew if they'd try to gang up on James, he'd just turn around and fuck all of their sisters and girlfriends, maybe even their moms, without remorse.
The game started. The first three batters on Team Luke were good, and they all got on base, so when batter number four, Luke himself, got up for his turn, the bases were loaded. Obviously, he was going for a home run, and obviously, he was going to get it if the only obstacle in his way was Logan, who stood in the center field with his head pointed straight up at the sky.
"Wait a second!" Trevor called out. He ran from his position at short stop to switch places with Logan. "Get up there, bitch," he told him, and Logan did as he was told.
The pitch was given, and Luke hit it with all of his might, but at the last second, the wind hit the ball, and it went straight for Logan...who wasn't even paying attention.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD, PICK UP THE BALL! PICK UP THE BALL!" he could hear people screaming at him, but all he could see was Luke and the other three guys hitting the bases one after the other and then heading home. The second baseman, Michael, appeared out of nowhere to pick up the ball from Logan's feet and try to get Luke out at home, but it was too late. Four runs scored on what should have been a fly ball.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Trevor asked as he ran up to Logan and got into his face. "You catch the fucking ball! Catch the fucking ball! I know you're used to catching balls in your fucking mouth, but this is how you catch a ball!"
He grabbed Logan's arms abusively and yanked them up to the sky, his fingernails digging into Logan's skin and leaving red marks, almost breaking through. "Catch the fucking ball!"
James was so embarrassed for Logan, but he couldn't do anything. He turned away so he couldn't see. All of Team Trevor came to the center of the field and circled around Logan, hurling insults and throwing their mitts at him.
"You just fucked up the game for us, you bitch!"
"You can't even catch, you little girl!"
"I hope you can lick balls better than you can catch 'em!"
Trevor moved in on him and pushed him to the ground. He stared into Logan's helpless face with a menacing stare that almost resembled a glow. "That's where you belong. On your knees. One of these days, I'm gonna make a real cocksucker out of you, you little bitch."
James turned back to see what was going on. Now, it wasn't even just Team Trevor ganging up on Logan. Team Luke was there, too! And it was only James and a few other guys who refused to take part in it. To make matters worse, Coach Crabtree was nowhere to be found, probably hiding behind the shop building, having phone sex on his cell.
He couldn't imagine how Logan was feeling in that moment. He could see him all balled up and shaking in the middle of the circle as the other boys continued with their insults, kicks, and pushes. James felt horrible. He needed to stop this! He needed to get in there and stand up to those douchebags! Logan didn't deserve that! He did nothing to anyone, but everyone did anything they wanted to do to him! And it wasn't fair!
And James couldn't even get up the courage to be the person to make it stop. He couldn't. He was too concerned with his face and his hair, he was too concerned with how his social status in the school would be affected. He hated himself for his lack of guts, but he just turned away again, hoping that somehow that idiot coach would do his job.
Logan was in tears now. The circle was getting smaller and smaller around him. He could feel violent hands and violent feet striking his body, and all he could do was rock back and forth, hoping that it would all be over...hoping that he could make it all go away...hoping that he could just end his life right then and there because he knew that even if they stopped messing with him now, people would be messing with him for the rest of his life.
"How many dicks do you think he can fit in his mouth?"
"Don't worry, we'll find out in the locker room! Kendall won't save him today!"
"Guys, maybe we should leave him alone. He's crying!"
"Fuck him! I don't care about a little fag who cries! I'll give him a real reason to cry!"
Logan wanted to die. But then came the voice of an angel.
"Hey! Hey! What the FUCK is going on here?" Kendall yelled as he ran out to the field, his gym shirt barely on all the way. He stormed to the circle and broke through, not giving a damn whose feet he stepped on or whose arms he twisted. "Get the fuck out of the way!"
The sight of Logan in tears, red bruises all over his arms, lit an explosive fire in Kendall like never before. His jaw dropped, and for a second, he was just as helpless as Logan...just as bruised as Logan...just as lost, just as sad, just as hurt. But Kendall Knight never hurt for long. No. That hurt always turned to heat, and the heat always came fast. Without saying a single word, he grabbed Trevor by his shirt and started punching the shit out of him, knocking him to the ground. Kendall pounded Trevor's face into the ground, groaning and panting like a rottweiler attacking a poodle.
"Dude! Oh my God! What the hell! Somebody stop him!" It was all the various jackasses could say as they watched their leader get chewed up and spit out by Kendall.
James mustered up the strength to look again, and when he did, he had to crack a smile. Karma...such a lovely thing.
Kendall stood up, and, for a second, everyone thought it was over. Hell, Coach Crabtree finally realized what was going on and started jogging to where they were. But Kendall wasn't done. Oh, no. Just as the bloody-faced and grunting Trevor rolled over on his back and stretched his legs open in pain, Kendall licked his lips, cocked his own leg back, and, with every ounce of power in him, he swung, signing adoption papers for Trevor and his future wife.
The entire class shrieked and grabbed their crotches.
"Break it up! Break it up!" Crabtree demanded, but Kendall's work was done.
And as the coach held Kendall up against a wall and paged for the principal, James's eyes were fixated. Kendall's rage was palpable, and James had never seen him that riled up before. Sure, Kendall had punched a guy once or twice in the past for messing with Logan, and he'd told a few girls off for trying to start shit with him, but this was the first time he'd actually gone all the way in on just massacring someone.
"Logan, are you okay?" Kendall called as they carried him away to the office. "Don't worry about them, Logan! They suck! They all suck! And I'm gonna kick all their asses!"
James observed Logan, who sat in the aftermath on the pitcher's mound, trying to be as invisible as possible. James could tell that he was in no way proud of Kendall's actions, but he could also see that Logan wasn't crying anymore...that Logan wasn't shaking anymore...that Logan wasn't wheezing in pain anymore...that Logan didn't have a circle of menaces trying to kill him anymore.
About a week later, after Kendall had served his five-day suspension and after the school had found a replacement eighth grade gym teacher (because they'd found some suspicious calls coming from Crabtree's office phone), James still couldn't forget the incident. Not a single person in that entire school - not any of the bitchy "hot girls," not any of the assholes from their gym class - had anything negative or mean to say about Logan Mitchell. They all liked living.
It was Kendall's first day back at school, and the boys were changing into their gym suits. Because of the enormity of their PE class, Logan and Kendall's shared locker was around the corner from the rest of the boys' lockers. Of course, this worked well because Logan was shy about being half-naked in front of the others, and it also allowed for some quiet conversation that didn't have to revolve around pickup truck engines, how to detect a boob job, or the WWE. James's locker was the closest to theirs, and though he couldn't see them, he couldn't fight the urge to listen in on their chat.
"You shouldn't have done that."
"Done what?"
"What you did to Trevor last week! He had to have emergency surgery!"
"Well, maybe he shouldn't have fucked with you."
Silence.
"Kendall, you don't have to keep protecting me."
"I know."
"Then why do you?"
"Because I want to. Look, I told you a long time ago that I was gonna be there for you no matter what, all right? For a few minutes last week, I wasn't. And you saw what happened."
"But that wasn't your fault! It's not your fault that I'm...that I'm a dork and that I can't take care of myself."
"You're not a dork, and you don't have to take care of yourself. That's my job."
Silence.
"I just don't want you to get into trouble because of me."
"You don't think you're worth it?"
"I'm not! I mean...ugh, I don't know what I mean. Just...stop getting yourself into trouble, okay? I'd rather have them beat me to a pulp than have you do something crazy that might get you...well...just stop, okay?"
"That might get me where?"
"That might get you sent to another school or worse. Okay? I don't...I don't want you to leave."
Silence.
"I don't want to leave. But I'm not gonna let them do whatever they want with you and think that they can get away with it because all of the teachers at this school suck. Someone has to stand up for you, Logan, and I signed up for that a long time ago, okay? And I'm not done yet."
Silence.
"And what about when you are? You're not gonna want to be my personal bodyguard for the rest of your life. What am I supposed to do then?"
Silence.
"Logan, I'm gonna be whatever you need me to be for however long you need me to be it, and that's until the day I die."
That day's baseball game went off without a hitch. Yeah, Logan dropped several balls, and yes, he struck out three times, but no one teased him...no one pushed him around. Kendall kept a watchful eye on him at all times, and everyone was aware of it.
James was fascinated. Truly fascinated. Never before had he ever seen a guy give himself so completely to another guy...all in the name of friendship.
But he couldn't help but wonder. Friendship. Or more?
And now, years later, he wondered the same exact thing.
Kendall had a way with girls that was undeniable. They fell down in front of him, they threw their panties at him, and he riled them up to do it all the time. And now he was with Jo, who he loved more than anything in the world and would do anything for. But still, James had that feeling about Kendall and Logan. It wasn't something that stayed with him at all times, but when he'd think about it, it would really dig into his mind.
And now...with what he saw as concrete evidence, what was he supposed to do? Pretend he'd never seen anything, never thought anything? How could he?
No. He had to tell Carlos. Not in a gossipy way. Not in a "Can you believe what those two have been doing?" way. No. In a "How can we help them?" way. In a "How can we show them that we're gonna be there for them, no matter what?" way. James knew that he had to be there for them, especially for Logan...if only to make up for that one time when he should have stepped up on the baseball diamond.
"We need to talk," he said when he left the bathroom and went into the bedroom. "Like...right now."
Carlos looked up at him. He'd been sitting on the floor, cleaning his favorite pair of sneakers. "Talk? About what?"
"Kendall and Logan."
Carlos wrinkled his eyebrows but went back to his shoes. It was always something with someone. Always. "What about them?"
James hesitated. He knew how easy it would be for Carlos to write him off, and he wanted to make it clear from the very beginning that he wasn't joking, he wasn't lying...he was dead serious. Graced with the gift of bluntness, he took a deep breath and let it out. "I think they're...together."
Again, Carlos looked up at him, but this time with confusion. "No, they're not. Kendall didn't even get back from his date with Jo yet."
James rolled his eyes and sat down next to him. "No, you moron. I mean together...together together!"
"Together?"
"Yes!"
Carlos pondered for a second. The only other thing James could mean was...nah, he couldn't mean that, could he? Logan and Kendall were...Logan and Kendall! They were best friends and nothing else.
"Together...like together together?" he asked James.
"Yes!"
The first thing Carlos could assume was that James was trying to pull some kind of practical joke on him. Everyone always played the pranks on him because he was so gullible. Well, not this time. "Yeah, sorry, but I don't believe that," he said flatly as he started scrubbing his left shoe.
James raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean you don't believe that?"
"I don't believe you," Carlos repeated calmly.
"Why would I lie about something like that?"
"I don't know," said Carlos, as he looked back to James. "The same reason why you lied about that girl at the park that one time. The one who you said was too shy to ask me to join her for a picnic, but then it turned out she was there with her boyfriend!"
It took James a second to remember, but when he did, he laughed with pride. "That was a good one, wasn't it?"
"He was six-foot-five!"
James laughed even louder, but he got control of himself. "Look, I'm sorry about that, but I swear to you, this time I'm serious. I really think...something's going on with Kendall and Logan."
Carlos looked at him again, this time more willing to accept what he was trying to say. And when he looked...he could see that James really wasn't trying to be funny. But what the fuck...Kendall and Logan? Together? Really?
"That doesn't make any sense," he said. "Are you forgetting that...oh, I don't know...Kendall and Logan are straight? Kendall kinda has a girlfriend, too, remember? He's kinda on a date with her right now!"
"Carlos, I know how ridiculous it sounds-"
"Well, why are you even saying it, then?" Carlos asked seriously, a question that sort of cut through James and made him feel guilty for getting so far ahead of himself with his point blank assumption.
"Because! Because...I don't know," he answered as he threw up his hands.
He got up and went to the window. The sky was a beautiful shade of dark blue, and there was a big full moon hanging right over the Palm Woods.
"This morning," James began, "when I was looking for my journal, I found Logan's by mistake. Only, I didn't know that it was Logan's at first. So I read a few pages...and on those pages were little...little notes, I guess you could say. Little notes. 'Logan loves Kendall.' 'Kendall loves Logan.'"
Heat swept over Carlos's forehead. He didn't want to think about this...he wasn't supposed to think about this. He wasn't supposed to think that way about Kendall and Logan. They were friends, nothing more. He wasn't supposed to be two-faced...he wasn't supposed to think mean things about them behind their backs, and he was a little mad at James for bringing this up.
He tried to latch onto any plausible explanation that floated through his head. "You know what probably happened? One night, they were probably just joking around, and they wrote that in there knowing that one of us would find it, and now you've fallen for it!"
James was solemn as he turned to face Carlos. "Do you really believe that? Like...really?"
"Well...what else are you even basing this on? Stupid things that kids used to say in middle school? I really thought you were better than that, but I guess I was wrong."
"I can't help it, okay? Sometimes when I think about...you know, how close they've been to each other, and all of the little things that they do for each other that me and you definitely don't do...it's just...it makes me think, okay? Remember a long time ago when Kendall was suspended in junior high for beating up that kid Trevor Callahan?"
"Yeah."
"Remember why he beat up Trevor?"
"Because! Trevor and those guys were beating up Logan first! Just because a guy stands up for his best friend doesn't mean that they're...you know..."
"Yeah, I know. But you weren't there. You didn't hear them talk about it...you didn't hear how they talked to each other."
"Maybe you only heard it the way you wanted to hear it."
James restlessly plopped down on Carlos's bed. He knew he was on to something, no matter how hard Carlos tried to prove him wrong. He knew he wasn't crazy, he knew he wasn't imagining things. He knew that this whole thing was finally going to come out into the open.
"How about when we were fifteen? That weekend."
"What weekend?"
"You know."
The weekend Carlos and James called Kendall and Logan a million-bajillion-zillion times but never once got an answer...ever. And then that Monday...Kendall told them that he and Logan had been "house-sitting at the cabin for Gramps." Just the two of them, and no one else. Not even a dog. Alone...together...alone together. Never mind the fact that Logan was all of a sudden smelling like Kendall's cologne.
Carlos gave up. He closed his eyes and leaned back against his bed, taking in a deep breath. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Yeah, exactly. That means you've thought about it, too."
Damn right Carlos had thought about it. Before they'd all become good friends, he'd heard about that dorky Hortense Mitchell, and he'd heard all of the rumors people would spread about Hortense and Kendall. Carlos never really understood it, though. Everyone got along with Kendall for the most part. Everyone thought he was cool, all of the girls thought he was hot, and he was a fairly popular kid. But for whatever reason, people would whisper behind his back about his sleepovers at Logan's house. They'd give each other scandalous looks whenever Logan and Kendall would sit together by themselves in the field at recess. They even made catcalls when Logan was on crutches and Kendall had to carry his books for him.
But by the time they'd gotten to junior high and then high school, Carlos had become friends with them and James, and he had a strong sense of what was right and what was wrong in a friendship. And the most sacred rule, according to him? You just don't talk shit about your friends behind their backs. You don't even THINK shit about your friends behind their backs. And so when Kendall would sleep over at Logan's house without Carlos or James present...Carlos would pay it no mind at all. When Kendall would go on family vacations with the Mitchells...Carlos would write it off. And, as hard as it was to do, when Carlos and James found out about "that weekend" (that they still had so many questions about)...Carlos dismissed it as innocent fun.
But now that James was sitting here, essentially telling him that it was time to start taking things more seriously...that it was time to start remembering the old middle school rumors...Carlos felt dirty. Just plain wrong.
"But Kendall has a girlfriend," he said again, thinking that would actually make a difference..
"And?" James asked. He sat back down on the floor. "Maybe she knows and doesn't care. You know what they say about Jo..."
Carlos nodded helplessly. "She's a ho."
"Exactly. Maybe she likes it. Maybe she gets off on it. Maybe she and Kendall and Logan...you know..."
"Oh God, stop!"
"Well, I'm just saying..."
They sat quietly. Unsure of what to do or say, Carlos reached for his shoes and began to clean them again, even the spots that he'd already gotten to. He just needed something to do, something to concentrate on so that he didn't have to think about what was or wasn't going on in the room next to his every night.
"We'd know about it, though," he said, still latching on to whatever he could find. Another sacred rule was honesty. Yeah, jokes and pranks were an exception, but everything else...complete honesty. "They wouldn't just not tell us, would they? I mean, it's just like lying, and they'd never lie to us."
"Come on, Carlos," James said, patting him on the shoulder. "You know just as well as I do that Kendall and Logan are very capable of keeping secrets from us."
That burned.
"Well..." said Carlos.
"Yeah. Well," said James.
Carlos grew up with devout Catholic parents who kept a huge ass painting of the Virgin Mary in the living room. He was much more of a free spirit with his morals, though. There was only one thing that he'd managed to learn in all of those years of going to mass and Sunday school every. single. week. Love. Love mattered more than anything else in the entire world. Love. Family love...friendship love...romantic love. At the end of the day, love was all there ever was. And if Kendall and Logan loved each other? Good for them. Great for them. They were perfect for each other anyway.
As he let himself own the fact that he'd had his own suspicions about them throughout the years, he became more comfortable with it. Knowing that James had been thinking the same thing all along didn't hurt.
"You don't...you don't think it's weird, do you?" he asked James carefully, not sure how he would respond. "I mean...if it's true. We don't know for sure if it's true, but if it is...just if it is...we're cool with that, right?"
"Yeah. I'm completely cool with it. Are you?"
"Yeah, totally," said Carlos. "But...you know, like I said, we still don't even know for sure if it's...you know...true."
"Right," James said as he jumped up from Carlos's bed and went back into the bathroom. Carlos began to put his sneakers away. James continued, "And that's why we're not going to say anything yet."
"Not say anything! How can we...I mean...that's just not something you just decide to not say anything about!"
"No! We're not going to say anything!" James reiterated sternly as he passed his comb through his hair a few more times. "Think about it this way. If they are...you know, together...then we'll find out about it sooner or later. Like...we'll find out about it. They can't hide it forever. But if they're not...and we tell them that we think they are...how do you think they'd react to that?"
"Okay, but that means we just sit here and talk about it and talk about it while they're just on the other side of that wall?"
"That's exactly what it means! And besides," James said as he turned off the bathroom light and started to pull back the covers on his bed, "it's their business, not ours."
Carlos had no response to that. It just felt wrong. He didn't want to be that type of person, the kind who whispered and glared and read way too much into everything. That's not the type of guy he was, and he didn't know how long he'd be able to keep this to himself. It wouldn't be long before he'd take everything Logan and Kendall did or said out of context and try to twist it to fit the suspicions James had planted into his head. He trusted James's instincts, though, and if James decided they shouldn't say anything, then he wouldn't say anything. But damn it, he'd be thinking everything.
He went to the door and hit the lights. Soon, they were both in their respective beds, and the dark room was eerily quiet.
James knew he'd made the right decision. Not that Carlos was some wise sage who made everything better, but hell, just getting it off his chest was good enough. Now he had someone else who could shoulder some of the stress. Now he could get to sleep and be well-rested for the next day's hard work.
"James?" Carlos asked softly.
James sighed. "What?"
"If they are...you know...together...then that means they've been together for a long time, right?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Well...how long?"
"How long what?"
"How long do you think they've been together?"
"I don't know," James yawned, and then he drowsily answered, "Forever."
"Forever?" Carlos asked in surprise.
"Yeah. Now go to sleep."
NOTE: I'm still a little iffy on some small parts of this, not sure I like how it ended up, but I swear I won't make huge changes like I did a few chapters ago! If I tweak a little bit, I'll just incorporate it into future chapters. Again, thanks for reading and sorry for the wait!