Kendall and Lucy stepped into the elevator to head down to the lobby after they had finally gotten rid of Lucy's ex-boyfriend Beau, they were finally alone together, and Kendall decided that this was the moment he had been waiting for, he knew exactly what he wanted to say to her.
"That was… really sweet, what you did for me," Lucy said, smiling up at him, and then glancing away.
Kendall scratched his head in nervousness and then turned to face Lucy. "Listen, if you're not doing anything tonight, I can get us on the guestlist for this cool… party… date." Kendall took a deep breath in, "A date." He corrected himself.
Lucy smiled at him. "Kendall, I think that sounds like a lot of fun. I'd love to go out on a date with you."
"Great." Kendall smiled back at her, and then without any more words passing between them, they stepped closer together, Kendall placed his hands on her waist, and Lucy reached up to place one hand against his chest, and the other over his shoulder. Kendall tilted his head to the side and they met in the middle for a tender kiss, that was really good.
Moments later, Kendall heard the elevator doors ding open, but he didn't care, he didn't plan on stopping until he had to.
But then he heard someone say his name. "Kendall?"
He broke away from Lucy and glanced up, and his eyes felt like they were popping out of his head. It couldn't be… "Jo!" Kendall shouted, he glanced at Lucy, who looked as surprised as he felt, and then back at Jo, who looked….so beautiful but also he could tell she was on the edge of tears.
Kendall pointed at her. "You're in New Zealand filming a movie. Three movies!"
"Well the studio tested the first film and the test audience hated it because it was nothing like the books, and then they burned down the theater, and then the studio canceled the sequels and then I came here…" Jo trailed off a bit awkwardly.
OK so Jo really was here, and for good, but she had also just seen him kissing Lucy, who he had just asked out on a date. Kendall's brain felt fried by how big of a problem this was, and he was completely paralyzed.
Both girls glanced at him for a moment, waiting for him to say something, but since he was frozen. Lucy stepped out of the elevator and reached out to shake Jo's hand. "Jo! Hi, I'm Lucy, I've heard so much about you."
"Hi," Jo said slowly, obviously forcing a smile on her face. "So are you guys dating?"
Kendall felt himself freeze again. He did not know how to answer that question at all.
"Oh, I guess you could say…" Lucy said slowly but then trailed off, "Uh Kendall?"
Kendall's eyes darted back and forth between both of their expectant faces, but he had no clue how to answer that with both of them staring at him. So it wasn't his proudest moment, but he panicked, pressed a bunch of buttons on the elevator, and then squeezed his eyes shut tight so he couldn't see them until he made his escape.
Back in the lobby, both Lucy and Jo were still standing there staring dumbfounded at the elevator doors.
Jo and Lucy then turned to each other and took one another in for a moment, neither knowing how to break the silence between them.
Jo sighed but forced a smile on her face, "OK Lucy, it's nice to meet you too. Camille has told me so much about you."
"Camille's told me a lot about you too," Lucy said an equally forced smile on her face as well.
"Has Kendall talked about me with you?"
"No, he hasn't. And has he talked about me at all with you?"
"No," Jo sighed, "we haven't spoken at all in months. I thought it would make things easier, but I don't know if it did. But look, if you don't know, yes Kendall and I broke up, and I even told him it was ok for him to see other girls if they made him happy. So if you two are dating, I promise you have nothing to worry about from me." Jo said in a shaking voice.
"About that…" Lucy also sighed, "I will say we've sort of been dancing around each other for the past few months, but Kendall finally asked me out on a date literally two minutes ago, but I think it's pretty obvious things just got a bit more complicated."
"Based on Kendall's reaction, I know you're right. So you two aren't together?"
"As much as I would like to say yes, honestly, right now I don't know. I'm going to go up to my apartment… Maybe I'll see you around Jo." Lucy walked off to the nearby stairwell without another word.
Jo sighed to herself again and pressed the button on the elevator. Ever since she'd gotten the bad news about the movie, coming back home to the Palm Woods, and to Kendall had been the one thing keeping her going, but now she really needed to talk to him.
Kendall sprinted into his apartment and slammed the door shut behind him, the other three guys were all there and looking at him expectantly.
"So did you get that date with Lucy?" James asked with a grin.
In response, Kendall ducked into the locker beside their door and shouted. "I'm not here! You haven't seen me! You don't know where I am!"
"What did Lucy shoot you down?" James asked.
"Hey, guys." Kendall heard Jo's voice as she walked through the door.
"Jo!" All the guys shouted overenthusiastically, they all shared a freaked-out glance with Kendall, all three immediately understanding why he was acting so crazy.
"You're back!" Carlos cheered, overenthusiastically, and slammed the door to the locker closed.
"I'm uh, looking for Kendall," Jo asked.
"He's not here," Carlos said.
"I haven't seen him," Logan said nervously.
"We don't know where he is," James added.
"Oh, well if you see him… tell him I'm around." Kendall could hear the disappointment in her voice and felt his heart drop hearing her footsteps walking away down the hall.
Carlos closed the door to the apartment, and Kendall sighed while still hiding in the locker. "I've got problems."
"That's tough buddy, my delivery of Zombie Gone should be here any minute. See you later." Carlos left the apartment, and James followed him shouting something about giving him a bottle too.
And then moments after the door closed, there was another knock on the door, which Logan answered to find Lucy.
"Hi Logan, have you seen Kendall?"
"Nope, not here. Haven't seen him. Don't know where he is." Logan quickly replied.
"Well, let him know we need to talk…about Jo and stuff," Lucy said and then she left too.
"OK, you know you can't just hide from your problems," Logan told Kendall.
"Yes, I can." Kendall shot back, refusing to get out of the locker.
Jo walked away disappointed, she could tell when people were acting, especially the guys even though she hadn't seen them in nearly a year. It was pretty obvious that either Kendall was hiding in their apartment or at least gave them some sort of explanation of what was going on based on how awkward and nervous they acted. So Kendall was obviously hiding from her, and she was sure the guys had some sort of pact to be loyal to Kendall first before her, so they probably wouldn't give her any answers. But she had an idea for who she could ask for help.
She dropped her suitcase off back in her old apartment, looking just the same as how she had left it, but that was probably the only thing that would be the same as before. Then she walked down the hall to Camille's apartment and knocked on the door.
Camille quickly answered and looked surprised and also super happy when she saw it was Jo. "Jo! You're back?" Camille launched herself forward to hug her, and for a moment, Jo let herself take some solace in seeing a friendly face. She and Camille had kept in contact the entire time she had been away, but she hadn't told anyone she was coming back, she had really wanted to surprise Kendall, and she definitely did that, but not in the way she'd been hoping.
"Wait, why are you back?" Camille asked when they pulled apart from each other.
"It's a long story, but I need your help," Jo said, and felt tears gathering in her eyes again as she thought about seeing Kendall for the first time in months and he was kissing another girl.
"Oh no, Jo what's wrong? Tell me everything, come on inside." Camille wrapped her arm over Jo's shoulder and led her inside her apartment to sit on her couch, where Jo finally broke down about everything, how the movie was a flop, and what she had accidentally walked into when she came back to the Palm Woods.
Camille listened with rapt attention, not saying anything until Jo covered everything while offering her occasional tissues to try to dry her tears.
"OK, so first off, what does this mean for your career?"
"Well, obviously it was still a good experience for me that I can put on my resumé." Jo sighed, "But right now New Town High is happy to let me come back on, I'll start shooting the new episodes next week."
"Oh that's good, now I know let's get to the big thing. So you walked in on Kendall and Lucy kissing in the elevator."
"Yes, Camille did you know they had a thing going on? Lucy said Kendall asked her out like two minutes before I saw them together."
"Weeell," Camille said slowly as she thought about it. "Last month Lucy did call dibs on Kendall in front of the entire Palm Woods, but Kendall told her he wasn't interested because James had already called dibs on her, but eventually the guys worked something out, which for some reason involved all four of them running a mile in their underwear to get rid of the dibs. I don't really know. But then Lucy dropped her dibs and they were just friends for a while, and then Kendall helped Lucy out when her parents and ex-boyfriend showed up wanting her to go back to Georgia but then you know Kendall planned to convince them she was where she wanted to be. Honestly, I think they've been dancing around each other for a while now that I'm thinking about it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
"It's not your fault Camille, it's mine." Jo sighed, "I decided to do the movie, and we were both hurting so much, I was the one who broke up with him. I even told him it was ok if he dated other girls. Obviously, that was before the movie flopped because of the stupid director who I honestly I think only read about every other page of the book. I wanted him to be happy, but I don't know… I can't move on from him, and part of me thought he would never move on from me."
"And what was I thinking? Of course, Kendall would have no problem finding a new girlfriend. He's a world-famous popstar. He's amazing, and handsome, and so sweet, and kind, and determined…"
"So Jo, do you want to get back together?"
"Of course I do, I had this whole fantasy in my head that it would be just like a movie. I'd find him immediately when I got back, he wouldn't believe his eyes at first, but then we'd hug and kiss, and make up and be together again, just like we were. I was stupid to think that was going to happen." Jo pouted.
"You're not stupid Jo. I know even when you broke things off, it wasn't because you stopped loving Kendall, not least of which because no matter what, you could never hang up the phone without asking me about how he was doing, and let me tell you, for the first two months you left, and then for at least a month or two after their world tour, he didn't even look at another girl, and even when he started to get back to his old self, I know he never forgot about you."
"So Camille what should I do?"
"Do you still want to take him back? Even with Lucy possibly in the picture?"
"I do, but I can't force them apart if Kendall's happy. What I want to do is just talk to him, but he ran away when he saw me downstairs, and he's either run off to who knows where or hiding from me."
"Hmm. How about this, you go start unpacking and wait in your apartment, I'm sure Kendall will come look for you there when he's ready."
"You really think so?"
"Of course. There is no way Kendall would just forget about you, Lucy, or no Lucy." Camille stood up and led Jo back to her door.
"Thanks, Camille, um where are you going?" Jo asked as she stepped out into the hallway too.
"It depends either I'm going to go find Kendall, or I'm going to go find Logan and make him tell me where Kendall is and try to talk and or slap some sense into him."
"OK, but if you do, just tell him I want to talk, and he doesn't need to hide from me."
"Sure thing Jo, let me know if you need anything." Camille gave her another hug and a friendly smile. Jo trudged dejectedly back to her own apartment, while Camille turned on her heel with a glare on her face, Kendall had some explaining to do, for both her, and Jo.
It had taken some convincing, but Logan managed to talk Kendall into getting out of the locker and sitting on their couch.
"OK, so you did ask Lucy out, and she said yes, correct?"
"Yep." Kendall sighed.
"And then you kissed in the elevator and Jo saw the two of you?"
"Yes again."
Suddenly Camille stormed into the apartment. "Ah ha! I knew you were in here! How could you avoid Jo, who you dated. And Lucy, who you've just started dating. But Jo came back and just saw you kissing Lucy, who you don't know as well as Jo but you didn't know was coming back and… oh wow. No wonder you're avoiding them."
"And confused." Kendall admitted, "You forgot confused."
"Which means you have to figure out your problem. Like does Jo even want to take you back?" Logan asked him.
"She does. She told me." Camille supplied.
"She does?" Logan asked.
"Mhm." Camille nodded her head.
Kendall was pretty sure that was the case anyway, just from how hurt Jo had looked down in the lobby.
"OK, but do you still like Jo?" Logan asked him. "I mean you guys have been away from each other for a long time, and you really like Lucy."
Kendall blinked his eyes rapidly and shook his head. "I haven't even thought about that, it was just suddenly Jo was there, and I had no clue what to say to either of them." He thought about the last few months, he had still missed Jo nearly every day, but once he realized he was starting to crush on Lucy he had been happier than he'd been in a long time ever since Jo left. "I don't know if I still have feelings for Jo."
"Ok then, let's figure it out," Logan said calmly. "Take a deep breath, imagine you and Jo are running through fields of flowers-"
Kendall closed his eyes and he knew immediately, without an ocean separating them, and the shock of seeing Jo and the whole elevator situation disappeared for a moment, he knew, his feelings for Jo were still just as strong as ever. "Yes." Kendall interrupted Logan immediately. "I still like her."
"Alrighty then, we now know your problem, so that means you need to make a decision," Logan told him, just as calmly as always.
"Do you stay with Lucy, or get back with Jo?" Camille supplied.
"And how do we solve these problems?" Logan asked him.
"You run from them?" Kendall asked.
"No, you confront them. Head on. You're Kendall Knight, you can face down any team on the ice, no goalie ever stands a chance against you. And don't tell James or Carlos I said this, but based on merchandise sales and Google searches, you're BTR's most popular member, and you're our leader when the going gets tough. I know this is scary, I've uh… been in similar situations before." Logan glanced nervously at Camille for a moment, but she just rolled her eyes playfully at him. "You've got this buddy."
"Ok but what if-?"
In response, Camille opened the door and Logan shoved Kendall out into the hallway, shutting and locking the apartment door behind him.
Kendall took a deep breath to calm himself down. Logan was right, he could do this, all he had to do to figure this out, was talk to both Jo and Lucy, and he always loved talking to both of them, right now didn't have to be any different than any other day of his life. He slowly started walking down the hall, but when he turned the corner, he saw Lucy walking in his direction, and he felt a flash of fear so powerful, he wasn't ready to talk to her. Kendall quickly turned around before Lucy could spot him, but when he walked in the other direction, Jo was walking towards him, and oh man, he really wanted to talk to her after all this time, but he couldn't, he didn't know what he was going to say to her either. So he turned around again and chose a door at random to make his escape.
After surprising his neighbor Scott by barging in, and still being afraid to go back outside out of fear of running into either of the girls, Kendall spilled everything about his current problem to him, who listened quite attentively and told him that most of the time, problems will go away on their own. Despite Kendall not really knowing how this situation could fix itself without him having to choose when he left he felt a little bit better but still decided to make his way back to his own apartment, he really needed another pep talk from Logan.
He was about to walk in, but Lucy was standing in the doorway, talking to Logan and Camille so he pressed himself against the wall and prayed she wouldn't see him.
"You're going away?" Logan asked, surprise filling his voice.
"Look," Lucy said. "I'll understand if he wants to get back with Jo, but if he does, I don't want to stay around here and see it, you know? If I don't hear from him by tonight, I'm going to save myself the broken heart and… leave the Palm Woods." Lucy said and then walked away, thankfully without noticing Kendall.
Kendall ran into the apartment and closed the door behind him. "She's leaving the Palm Woods?"
"Um… it's bad." Logan admitted, and then there was another knock on the door. Kendall checked the peephole and had a mini heart attack that was Jo standing right outside.
"It's Jo!"
"Hide in the locker!" Camille shouted, and Kendall crammed himself inside once again.
"Hey! Sorry, we haven't seen him." Logan and Camille said at the same time after opening the door for Jo.
Jo sighed, "I guess I made a mistake thinking we could just pick up where we left off. Just tell Kendall if I don't hear from him by tonight… I'm going to leave the Palm Woods."
What? No! Jo couldn't leave! Kendall felt his heart skip a beat and his blood froze. She couldn't leave, and Lucy couldn't leave, but this wasn't how the problem was supposed to go away.
"Um, ok we'll pass the message on to Kendall, but even if you do leave, don't go without saying goodbye."
"I won't Camille, don't worry, and we can still be friends, just not here." Jo sighed again and left the apartment.
Logan walked over and opened up the locker. "So you're hiding from your problems again."
"Yeah, and if I don't make up my mind TODAY, both Jo and Lucy will leave."
"Just choose who you like better and go knock on her door," Camille suggested.
"I don't know which door to knock on." Kendall sighed and exited the locker, staring down at the ground as his brain thought over both girls. "Jo is…amazing, but she's an amazing actress, and who's to say she's not going to leave again for another big movie? And Lucy is also amazing, but we've only been dating for like 96 minutes."
"OK." Logan clapped his hands excitedly. "There's only one way to settle this."
"Please don't say love science."
"Love Science!" Logan declared proudly.
Kendall groaned, "Love science isn't going to help."
"Trust me buddy, it works," Logan said with all the confidence he could muster.
Turns out Kendall was right, the love science didn't work, according to Logan he liked both Lucy and Jo the same, and in the end he just ended up running away again when both girls noticed him looking down at them from the window.
One thing was clear to Kendall by now, his brain couldn't work when he was constantly terrified of Lucy or Jo seeing him before he was ready, and also Logan and Camille weren't being that helpful. He knew probably no one could, he just needed some time to himself, away from everyone else, so he just kept running until he made it to Roque Records and sat on a bench outside, where hopefully no one will bother him.
He didn't know how long he sat there silently going over everything, he tried making a pros and cons list, but that wasn't really helping, he kept getting stuck on how amazing they both were, and it was really difficult to come up with any flaws for either of them.
"Hey, Big Brother." He was surprised to hear Katie's voice when it broke him out of his stupor.
"Hey Baby Sister, what are you doing here?"
"I just finished running Roque Records for the day, by the way, I edited your contract so all you guys will receive an end-of-the-year profit-sharing bonus. So what are you doing here?"
"I just ran away from two girls who are both amazing, and I don't know what to do. The short version is I asked out Lucy today, like a minute before Jo showed up, and now I have to choose one of them, or they're both going to leave."
"You know you can't run from your problems."
"They also don't go away on their own, or get fixed with love science, so I don't know how to solve this one Baby Sister."
"You walk. It'll clear your head."
"But my head won't tell me what to do."
"Of course, it won't, but take a walk, it will make your head shut up and make it easier to listen to your heart. Your heart will lead you where you need to go. It always does." She reached out to place her hand on Kendall's shoulder.
Kendall stood up and took a deep breath. "Thanks, Katie, I know better than to argue with you. I'm going to take that walk now."
"Good luck Big Brother, and no matter what, trust yourself to make the best decision for you. That's how I made Roque Records $5 million dollars in three hours."
Kendall shook his head and smiled at her. "That's my Baby Sister." He then started walking back to the Palm Woods, going in the general direction, but not worrying about taking his normal direct route. As he made his way home, he kept passing signs that reminded him of Lucy, from license plates and restaurants to advertisements featuring girls with red highlighted hair. He took those signs under advisement but tried to keep his mind from focusing too much on any one thing. As he got closer to the Palm Woods though, he saw more familiar landmarks that instead reminded him of Jo, like the walls they plastered with BTR posters before their first concert, and of course all their starlit date nights in the park, but he didn't stop, he just kept moving forward.
He walked into the lobby and took the elevator up. Jo and Lucy were both on the same floor. He paused for a moment and closed his eyes, doing his best to listen to his heart. Then with his eyes still closed, he took a step and chose a direction. He stepped to the right, and he knew in his heart, it was the right decision for him to make.
He slowly walked over to the door, that he had walked up to more times than he could count, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. The door opened and he smiled, he no longer felt any fear, only happiness. "Hey."
"Hey." Jo smiled back in a shaky voice.
Kendall's spirits fell slightly, he could tell she must have been crying. The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt her, but he kept smiling. "Jo I… I missed you, so much, and trust me the Palm Woods hasn't been the same without you here, I haven't been the same without you here. So, if you want us to start over, I want that too."
"I do, I do so much Kendall," Jo said, her voice still shaking.
"So, can I come in, and can we talk?"
"Absolutely." Jo stepped back to let Kendall into her apartment, following her to sit down on the couch in her living room, they sat down next to each other, but still with plenty of space between themselves for a moment.
"First off, I'm so sorry I ran away and then I've been hiding from you all day. You coming back to LA early was the absolute last thing I expected today. And then I was just so scared and confused because I knew with you back, I had to make a decision, but I just had no idea what to do or what to say to either of you. I'm sorry."
"Kendall, there's no need to apologize." Jo gently reached over and squeezed his hand. "I didn't really like how you chose to deal with it, but I do get it. I need to apologize too though, for well everything, doing the movie, and breaking up with you."
"Hey no, you do not need to apologize for doing the movie. I told you to do it, remember? It really, really sucks that it isn't going to be your big break. I wish you were still doing all three movies."
"To be totally honest, when I first got the news, after I got over my surprise, I felt immediately relieved. It was fun and exciting and a great experience, but I really don't think I could have made it two more years without you, Camille, and all my other friends here, but mostly you."
"Oh, ok…" Now Kendall felt even more guilty for pursuing Lucy. "If I had known you were coming back soon, I never would have even looked at Lucy like that."
"Kendall you don't have to apologize, I even told you it would be ok if you dated other girls. I may have lied to myself and you that I would be ok with it, but again I wasn't going to stop you from living your life."
"Did it help you? Not talking anymore and breaking up?" Kendall asked, "Because honestly that just made things even worse for me until I realized I liked Lucy."
"No." Jo sighed, "That was the dumbest idea I ever had. That if we just stopped talking I would magically stop thinking about you every day, it only made me want to talk to you even more. I promise I'll never suggest we do something stupid like that ever again."
Kendall grimaced and looked at his shoes guiltily his voice shaking slightly. "What if this does happen again? One of the things I'm scared of is that this whole thing will happen again. You'll get cast in another movie that you'll have to go to who knows where, and I'll still be here in LA waiting for you to come back. Or even my tours where I'll have to leave you for weeks or months. What are we going to do then?" Kendall glanced back up at Jo.
Jo sighed, "I know Kendall, I've thought about that too, and I never want to leave you again. The long distance was horrible. Well, I'm returning to New Town High for the time being so I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, but I know I want to audition for more movies, but anything I do get cast for I will discuss everything about it with you, including the location and if we think we can make us work." Jo scooted over along the couch to snuggle up beside Kendall, resting her head on his shoulder. "I told you before I left, maybe you only come once in a lifetime. No matter what there will always be other roles, but there's only one of you, I don't want to mess us up again."
"What? No Jo, I will never stand in the way of your dreams." Kendall said passionately.
"Even if my dreams include you?" Jo asked him, "Kendall I know just like anything else there's always a risk that we could get hurt, but we both know that is the last thing either of us want to do to each other. But I promise that if I ever have to make a choice like that again, I will be totally honest and open with you, and we will work together to make the choice that we both accept."
"Alright, I guess that's all I can ask for." Kendall smiled and lifted his arm to pull Jo closer to him, and he was hit by a sense of rightness in the world. Jo was exactly what he had been missing all this time. "You know, we should probably talk more about everything, but right now that we're together again, I just feel so happy."
Jo smiled back at him, "I am too."
"Do you remember how you welcomed me back when we thought BTR was canceled?"
Jo grinned even wider and blushed. "Yes, I do."
"Well, allow me to return the favor. Kendall reached out to gently caress her cheek and bent his head down to make oh-so-wonderful contact with Jo's lips. The moment they touched, Kendall felt himself melt on the inside as his mind became a total blank except for Jo, the most wonderful girlfriend he could ever ask for. The only one he wanted, more than anything else in the world. He wanted to remind her just how much she meant to him.
Jo was kissing him back just as passionately, like so many other things, she had been dreaming about this moment for the past week, even though there had been some bumps in the road along the way. She was beyond happy to be back with Kendall, back where she belonged, where she wanted to be, and the only one she wanted to be with. Although there were a lot more things she wanted to talk about, more worries she had. Right now, all she wanted to do was live in this moment and just drink in the fact that she and Kendall were together again.