dear figgrole,
no, you're not the only dude that reads this stuff! I had a guy review on one of my stories a while ago. It's cool. Next time I'll say "brosephs and brosephinas" kay? kay. :D
Kendall, James, Carlos, and Logan pulled up to the house on Maple Drive that weekend.
As soon as Logan's foot hit the carpet inside the front door of his childhood home, a chill went up his spine and he stepped back out, causing the others to bump into him unexpectedly.
"You guys can go in." Logan said quietly, stepping back again. "I think I'll stay out here."
Carlos waved Kendall and James away and they obeyed, going into the house.
"We can sell the house." Carlos murmured to Logan, who was on the steps, as he sat next to him.
"That'll take too long. And we won't have enough to buy a new one." Logan said, head in his hands. "No- I'll be okay. It's just that... A lot of bad stuff happened in there."
Carlos rubbed Logan's back sympathetically with one hand.
"You grew up here?" he asked.
"Since I was born." Logan nodded, looking up and across the yard of overgrown grass and weeds, left to grow for almost a year. He was confused as to why it wasn't just foreclosed, but he signed papers the other day and this house was legally his now, along with all of his parent's money. He didn't go to his dad's funeral. He suspected that nobody did.
Carlos rested his cheek on his boyfriend's shoulder and hugged his arm.
"We'll paint all the rooms. Get new furniture. Throw everything out." he said.
Logan smiled and kissed Carlos's short hair.
"Thanks, Los. Just for being so understanding about all this." he said, getting up and helping Carlos up. Carlos laced his fingers with Logan's as they entered the house. Logan's breath caught as he looked around. Everything had been cleared out. He had no idea where the furniture and stuff was, but he didn't care.
The house was small. They walked into a little welcoming area, and across from that was a little living room. The living room was attached to a kitchen, boxed in with a bar. To the right of all this was a hallway leading to Logan's old bedroom and the bathroom. To the left of it was the master bedroom and the laundry room.
Logan took a long detour around a spot in the living room to get to the kitchen.
"Bad things happened in that spot. Don't ever stand there." Logan said, pointing to the spot against the wall that he walked around. "My mom died there. And I almost did."
Carlos nodded a little and Logan let go of his hand to go into the empty kitchen. Carlos could feel the heaviness in the house. Like a weight put on your shoulders. He didn't know that he wanted to live here...
Kendall and James were exploring somewhere.
"Guess we can move in now." Logan shrugged, coming from the kitchen.
"Are you sure? I mean... I don't know that I want to..." Carlos said.
"Why?"
"There's this mood in this house... Like a weight." Carlos said.
"We'll paint. And put up pictures. And get happy furniture." Logan said. "You'll see. It'll be good."
He took Carlos to the master bedroom.
"The only room that I ever felt safe." Logan said as they stepped in. "Walter never slept in here. He normally slept on the couch. And sometimes I'd sleep in here with my mom- we'd kinda protect each other."
He sat in the center of the room and grinned.
A blanket of good feelings flowed through him.
"There's happy feelings in here." Carlos noted.
"It's Mom." Logan said. "It sounds weird, but I think I feel her here still."
"Loge, that's creepy as hell." Carlos said. "She's gonna watch us do... STUFF?"
"Don't worry." Logan said, getting up. "She's not like a GHOST or anything- not actually here. No, I just feel her here. The feeling of safety and love and just a dash of happiness."
"Swear this room isn't haunted?" Carlos asked wearily.
"It's not HAUNTED by my mother. She's somewhere in Heaven- with God. She's the only reason He doesn't hate me." Logan grinned as he wrapped her arms around Carlos's waist.
"I grew up in this house. And someday our kids will, too." he said. "Once it's a happy place again. Once I forget."
"I guess we're done." Logan said, looking around at the boxes in the living room.
"Guess so." Carlos said.
"Sure you don't wanna sleep over til your bed comes?" James asked doubtfully.
"It's cool. We'll camp out." Logan grinned.
Kendall shrugged and took another slice of pizza before he and James left.
Carlos and Logan sat down against the wall where the TV should be.
"I'm thinkin' light blue in here. Get a nice, soft dark blue couch. Big TV, good for video games." Carlos said, but stopped when his eyes fell upon a room he didn't notice until he sat in that spot. He got up, going toward Logan's bedroom.
"What's in here?" he asked, approaching the door, but suddenly he was pulled away.
"Don't go in there." Logan pleaded.
"Why?"
"It's my old room." Logan said. "It's bad."
"I can't live in this house without seeing." Carlos giggled. "Just stay here and I'll be back."
Logan nodded and turned away as Carlos opened the door and entered, turning on the bedroom light. His breath caught immediately as he looked at a huge brown stain in the white carpet. There were scratch marks in the blue paint. A hole in the wall. More scratchmarks- everywhere. A slash in the screen of the window. "please help" and "RIP mom" carved in the wall.
Carlos quickly turned off the light and hurried out, closing the door.
Logan was waiting, looking at the floor.
"Now you know what it was like." he said quietly.
"Was that stain-"
"Blood." Logan said. "From when I stabbed myself so that he would take me to the hospital. He didn't. My ribs were broken and I had a concussion. He didn't take me even when I was bleeding to death."
He lifted his shirt and showed a small scar below his rib, which Carlos never noticed.
"And the claw marks- from the many times he dragged me outta there." Logan said. "And the screen is cut because after seeing my own mother die, I tried any way to escape. It just got me into worse trouble. I carved into the walls cause- what else was I gonna do?"
Carlos shook his head and hugged Logan hard. By going into that room, he felt like he WAS Logan. The fear, the helplessness, the tears, the physical and emotional pain. He felt it all flow through him.
"I wish things coulda been different for you." Carlos said. "I wish I coulda killed that bastard myself."
Logan laughed.
"You're so damn sweet." he smiled. "But he's gone. In Hell. I'm ready to forget."
"No!" Logan laughed as Carlos put a splotch of sky blue paint on his nose playfully. "You little bitch!"
Logan lunged forward with his paint roller, rolling paint all the way up Carlos's old t-shirt.
"C'mon! I didn't go that far!" Carlos laughed.
They got into a paint fight, which ended in a cute kiss- just like the movies.
"Why don't you go take James some water?" Logan suggested. "I'm sure he's dying or dead."
"Yeah, yeah." Carlos grumbled, going to do what Logan told him. James was outside mowing the long grass, Kendall painting the kitchen yellow.
Carlos stepped out into the warm May weather.
"Day-um." Carlos hooted as James saw him and turned off the mower. He had long before stripped off his shirt and was in just shorts.
"Yeah, yeah. Like you haven't seen it before." James said sarcastically as he took the water and started chugging it.
"I was actually DAY-UMing at the grass. But you're not lookin' so bad either." Carlos laughed.
"Yeah- almost done with the front. Then gotta do the back."
"Eh- well you're great at back yards." Carlos waved casually and they both burst into a fit of laughter.
Soon James continued his work and Carlos went back inside to see Logan proudly observing the finished walls of the living room.
"I think we need to take up all the carpet. There's... STAINS... Everywhere. And in my old room especially. We'll fill in the scratches and carvings and paint it... Pink. Pink is a happy color." Logan said. "But I can't have that one room ruining the whole house."
"Good." Carlos said, scratching the paint off of Logan's nose. "Perfect for a baby girl someday."
"Maybe." Logan said. "But I dunno about you, but I just graduated high school. Not really thinking about kids yet."
"Yeah- guess you're right."
Logan took Carlos under his arm and they looked around, imagining their future home. There was still lots to do- new carpet, new furniture, getting cable hooked up. But they were happy with the progress.
I know that looked like an ending, but it's not. I'm thinking one more chapter.
But I've set a canvas for absolutely ANYTHING.
So, dear readers. What shall the last chapter be about? Sex? A party perhaps?
I dunno. Something happy.