AN: hi everyone! i'm excited for you guys to read everything that's coming! more coming soon that's all i have to say really. Hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter 11

"A song?" Gustavo asked. "You want to pitch me a song?"

Kendall hesitated, knowing he was about to face rejection, he still played into it. "Yes."

"Ok, is it finished? Do you have a music sheet?" Gustavo responded casually.

"Um, I have the lyrics and melody," Kendall said.

"Bring it with you tomorrow, and we'll see if it's worth recording. Now back to the studio." With that he left a pleasantly surprised Kendall. But then he realized what he did. Was he really going to put out his song to Gustavo? Which could mean putting it out to the world. Kendall needed a drink after this.

He returned to their session and gave it his best shot at nailing his vocals. He knew he should feel some sort of relief, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the end of the complications.

Much later that night Kendall with a white claw in hand looked over the lyrics, scrutinizing and tweaking every small thing he thought could be better. He wanted to kick himself for offering to show Gustavo in the first place. But things were different than the night he showed James. They were out now and the world had their story in their hands. Kendall knew he'd be able to take it back in the music.

When he finished he grabbed a joint and his jacket before heading downstairs where Carlos was playing a video game alone.

"Hey!" Carlos said eager. "Whatcha up to?"

"I was just gonna smoke a little," Kendall said feeling a little embarrassed.

"Cool if I join you?" Carlos said, his voice had the faintest plea in it.

"Yeah." The two sat on the sidewalk in silence for minutes that felt longer than they needed to. The quiet air had a buzz of its own daring either one of them to break its surface tension.

"So you and James," Carlos was the first to say after taking a drag.

"Yeah, it just kinda happened," Kendall responded, not knowing what to say on the matter. The two had only been seeing each other a few days now.

"I'm sorry the whole world found out like that, you didn't even get to tell us first."

"I know. We really wanted to keep it private for a couple weeks and start to tell you guys and it all blew up. I'm sorry, buddy," Kendall said genuinely. He felt like shit not telling the boys himself. As if it showed a lack of trust towards them.

"I just want to feel included in your happiness," Carlos added, his tone was more serious than he expected. "I get you guys wanted to be lowkey, but I just feel so left out sometimes. And now that you and James are together you're going to be spending all your time together and I'm gonna feel so alone."

Kendall paused. Part of him wanted to criticize Carlos's selfish thinking, but the other part understood him completely. "Carlos, we don't want you to feel left out," Kendall said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We've stuck together all these years and that's not changing anytime soon."

"Yeah, but everything just feels so different."

"You're right. We're just growing up, not growing apart," Kendall reassured. "We'll all do something fun together this week."

"Like go-karting!" Carlos immediately perked up.

"Yes, We can go go-karting."

The two continued to chat trying to brighten each other's moods before going in to snack on chips and pass out on the couch.

The next day, Kendall took a moment to pitch Gustavo the song during lunch. He strummed the melody and sang his own lyrics. The quiet patience of Gustavo with his sunglasses on felt heavier than ever. He waited for his response.

"I…" Gustavo said, naturally wanting to leave Kendall in anticipation, "like it."

"Really?"

"I do," Gustavo confirmed. "It just needs some shaping, master production and we might have a hit!"

Kendall pumped his fist in victory.

"So what made you wanna show me this?" Gustavo asked. "You ask me right after the meeting. What's up?"

"It seemed relevant," Kendall answered right away, surprising himself with his confidence. He felt like himself again at that moment. There was no doubt that he was still anxious about the world having their own opinions about him and his relationship. But being able to tell his story his own way seemed like the push he needed.

"I agree," Gustavo said. "In fact I'm gonna need help from all of you to make this album relevant."

"What do you mean?" Kendall asked, expectantly.

"I need to hear what's going on with you guys and we're going to write that album. Just like the first two ," Gustavo said. He smirk said exactly what he was thinking: I'm AMAZING.

"Thank god!" Kendall said a little too honestly.

By Friday, Gustavo had the production ready for Fond of You. To his surprise, Carlos and Logan seemed just as excited as James, who was over the moon when he told him. They had the main vocals recorded within an hour. For the rest of the session, Gustavo workshopped ideas with the boys about what they thought they should sing about, even showing James a little bit of the production side. It was an exercise they'd been doing since Kendall had first pitched the song.

With this newfound sense of collaboration, the boys felt less anxious about how the album was going to turn out. Instead they found themselves dancing, riffing and making up their own beats that Gustavo immediately started creating the tracks for. Each of them had at some point added their own contribution to lyrics, sound, or production. At one point James got so excited he pulled Kendall up to dance with him, James's chest on Kendall's back, the two swaying to the beat.

"Dancing with my baby," James started to sing in the spot they assumed could be the chorus.

Little moments like that kept happening between all of them, just being themselves. By the end of the day they had four potential tracks they could flesh out. And a plan for finishing out of Fond of You.

"I just wanted to say," Gustavo began before they left, "I'm proud of you guys and what we did here. A few more of these and we might have our best album yet."

The boys all cheered together. They then left, feeling charged and accomplished themselves.

"So who's down for go-karts tonight," Carlos said as the boys hopped into Logan's Honda. They agreed, still feeling the energy from earlier. That was until they drove out the parking garage and past Roque Records.

Maybe 15 people or so were outside with signs that when Kendall read them made him gulp in fear. He felt James's hand grab his but he couldn't turn away.

"Big Time Fags," a couple signs read. Others had bible verses on them. Some simply had James and Kendall's faces in a red circle with a slash through it.

"Oh my God," was all Kendall could say.