Chapter Text
It was a late night at the Palm Woods. The four boys were all camping out by the fire pit, along with their respective female counterparts. In other words Jo, Camille and Stephane were with them. The boys had been wanting to camp for a while at this point but never got around to finding actual campsites. Camille came up with the idea of just camping by the pool. They all pitched in money and bribed Bitters to let them actually do it. Low and behold they were actually camping outside right next to the pool.
“And that’s when I knew I was going to be an actor.”Camille concluded her story. The rest of the group decided that clapping would be the best response to the girl’s wonderful, long-winded, story.
“That was a cool story Cami.”Logan hummed, leaning into James embrace. For it being August in California, it was getting a little chilly for the small boy.
“Why thank you Loges.”She did a seated bow before she zipped up her hoodie,”anyone else got a cool story to tell?”
“Did I ever tell you guys about how James, Kendall, and I beat up this one kid at our old school because he was mean to Logan?”Carlos asked. The three girls all shared a similar expression.
“A lot of people were mean to Logan I thought.”Jo said,”I thought this was a common occurrence.”
“Hey.. it was not as common as you guys think.”Logan grumbled, and crossed his arms. He could hear James coo softly at his dismay. Logan would bitterly move away from his warm embrace if it weren’t for the fact he was cold.
“Not really, people stopped messing with us after this situation.”Carlos explains, Logan now knew what story he was talking about.
“Oh, is this the Greg situation? The one where he spread a nasty ass rumor about me.. what was it?”Logan thought. He felt James arm wrapped around him tightly, Logan figured he just then remembered as well.
“He claimed that you were in a threesome with two adult men. You ‘cheated’ on him with them. The whole school called you a slut or tried to sleep with you.” James spoke, his voice was dark. Logan frowns, he remembered trying not to cry when it all happened but he broke down during one of his and James tutoring sessions. The next day the boys tracked his ex at the time down and well..the rumor dissipated.
“That sucks.”Stephanie frowns for the boy,”good thing it was all sorted out.”
“Yeah.”Carlos agreed,”We showed him. No one messes with our friend.”
Stephnie smiles at the boy sitting next to her. Carlos grabbed her hand and gave a shy kiss. He was blushing more than she was.
“Speaking of your stories from Minnesota..”Camille waved her finger back and forth at James and Logan,”how did this happen?”
“I’ve tol-”Logan starts but Camille waved her hand to get him to stop.
“No no, I know you two were “friends with benefits’ but how did that situation start, and how did it get here?”She asked. Logan glanced at James for the okay, it was his story to tell as much as it was Logan’s.
“Welp, I guess we can tell you. It’s a long story though.”James warned.
“I for one do not care, I am also curious to see how this blossomed.”Kendall raised his hand. Logan squinted at his brother. He was lucky Jo was there to protect him.
“Just not too graphic with some of the details please,”Carlos pleaded. Logan and James exchange one last look at one another before James begins the story.
“Welp it all started over maybe two years ago..”
~Maybe two years ago~
James held the pillow over his head when his phone’s alarm clock made him aware of the time. School was never the place he wanted to be but today was a whole lot worse. Today he was a freshman in high school. Kendall, Carlos, and eventually Logan would talk about how they would play hockey for the high school team. James had been looking forward to it forever- until this past summer. Somehow, somehow his mom got to keep him almost the entire summer and so he spent the prior seven weeks in a completely different state without a phone or friends to talk to. His stay was well, as someone who knew Brooke would expect. James tried to keep his mind off of it. This task is difficult since his shoulder pain keeps on reminding him of it. James let out another frustrated sigh before he sat up and shut the waking noise down. Like clockwork, a soft but continuous knock tapped at his door.
“Jamie.. there are pancakes waiting downstairs for you.”The soft voice of his step-mom, Heidi, said. Her voice was a normal tone of cheerfulness. It never really bothered James until now, but that was because of his bitter mood he was in.
“Be down in a minute Mom.”James responded, so she would leave the area. He loved his step-mom, to pieces, he was just tired and needed a longer break than what he got.
He stood to his full height, after a quick morning stretch that is. A positive from summer was that he did grow a couple of inches. By the looks of it he could possibly be taller than Kendall now. James picked up jeans that were tossed on the floor and smelled them. They still smelled of the soap he used to clean his clothes meaning that it was definitely clean. He pulled them over his briefs but they instantly began slipping down his waist. At the beginning of summer they fit perfectly, but now he needed a belt and his ankles were uncovered from the new length of his legs.. Unfortunately he was not brought back home in time to go school shopping so he had to make do with what he had. Heidi promised she would take him after school so it would only be awkward for one day. The most important day of freshman year, but still. He managed to find his belt on the pile of dirty laundry right next to his hamper. He struggled to remove the belt from a pair of pants they were still attached to though. To make matters worse he shoulder still caused him discomfort. He managed to move through the pain and get completely dressed and brushed.
One backpack grab and his shoes tied later he was downstairs staring down at the stack of blueberry pancakes in the kitchen, ready to be eaten. James grabbed one with his hand and was getting ready to take a bite when a plate slid in front of him.
“Jamie plate, you become a high schooler and lose all manners.”Mike scoff’s, in somewhat of a joking tone.
“I just wanted one, didn’t want to waste a plate.”James covered his mouth as it was partially full from his one bite of pancake. Mike glanced away from his coffee to give James a concerned look.
“You feeling okay, you usually eat at least five when Heidi cooks them.”James just shrugged in return, his appetite lessened over the summer, apparently.
“Oh Michael, he’s probably just nervous for his first day.”Heidi brushed her hand to smooth out his hair. James tried to move away from the shorter woman, as his hair was at the level he wanted.
“Mom.”James huff. Her mouth gaped open, James was sure if it was the attitude or the word.
“Just mom?”She then frowns before hugging him dramatically,”you are getting so big, I remember your first day of kindergarten. You were hiding behind Mike with your fingers in your mou-“
“Ma-“James put his hand up as she was hurting his shoulder. He clamped his jaw shut to contain his hiss of pain from escaping his mouth. He was in no mood to answer thousands of questions.
“My little guy, who is taller than me.”She squeezed him harder. James did let a wince escape as it felt like she was trying to pull his arm off.
“That isn’t very hard Heidi.”Mike joked and hid his face in his coffee mug. Heidi continues to pout before fixing James' hair once more. This time it hit that one tangle that pulled his hair. That and a mix of shoulder pain caused James to grumble deeply and push away from her. Not an aggressive push, but it was out of character for him. He generally didn’t mind the affection his step-mom provided he just was in a sour mood.
“My hair is fine.”He huffs. Before the adults could react to the action he headed for the door,”I’ll see you after school.”
James felt bad as soon as the door shut, it wasn’t Heidi’ fault why his shoulder hurt. It was his fault and shouldn't have taken it out on her. James stopped at the steps and thought about turning around. He decided to continue on, he had a fifteen minute walk ahead of him.
The building was huge, bigger than his middle school. He stood at the front steps just to take in the sight. There was an orientation that he had to miss due to being in a different state at the time. Luckily Heidi got all of the information he needed for him. The only issue he should run into was finding his classes. Hopefully one of his friends shared a class with him so he could just follow.
His friends, he hasn’t spoken to any of them in weeks. Not because he didn’t want to. The circumstance he was in didn’t allow him to text his friends, or even use his own phone. He hoped he didn’t worry them too much, he has never gone radio silence on them before. He just hoped that when he did see them, he wouldn’t be bombarded with many questions. He took a deep breath and began to ascend the staircase that led to the front doors of the school.
Students were flooding the hallways, at his height it was a little difficult to navigate. Plus him wearing his oversized hoodie wasn’t a helping factor as the hood was covering his line of sight. Though in all reality it didn’t matter if his hood covered his face anyways. He never remembers to put on his contacts and his glasses don’t suit his face. So he chooses to live dangerously and live a blurry life. It’s not extremely boring, it was just hard to see any words put on the board or make out faces from a distance. He held a hand over his bad shoulder as a way to block impact from other kids he would inevitably bump into. From what he could tell the hallways were tight when it was filled with kids standing around their lockers. James didn’t really have an idea what he wanted to do at the moment. He could find a class and sit by the door, while he hoped he had a friend in it. Or option two was to find his friends himself. If he was being honest, he truly wanted to hide in a bathroom stall and just not be there that day. Though he’d rather be stuck in a classroom full of people than get in trouble with his dad. Being with his mom for a long period of time was bad enough. He lets out a quiet sigh before turning down a random hall without looking. This action leads to the consequence of bumping into someone.
“Hey wat- why hello.”The voice was familiar but not one of the three other boy’s familiar. He lifted his face away from his feet and squinted. From what he could tell it was Karla Reyes that was standing in front of him,”I’m Karla, you are?”
“Karla, it’s me James. We have been going to school together since kindergarten.”James said with a question in his voice. How did she not recognize him? Sure he lost a little weight and grew a few inches, his face did not change much, at least he thought it didn’t.
“Jamie Diamond, you look- Good.”She said with genuine shock. James couldn’t help but frown at this. Karla had turned him down twice before and now suddenly, by the sound of her voice, she was flirty with him.
“T- thanks I guess.”James rubbed the back of his neck, trying to be polite.
“Wait till I tell Gabbi about this.”She pulled out her phone. James watched her fingers rapidly tap the screen as she walked away.
“Bye..”He waved confusedly. He stood in his spot for a brief few seconds so he could figure out what just happened before he continued walking. He placed his hands on his pockets and made it all the way to the cafeteria before he could hear the loud excitement that was Carlos’s voice. He stopped in his tracks, he still was left unsure if he was ready to face his friends. He didn’t want to give them any reason to worry about him. He could hear Logan’s voice faintly as the shape of Logan got up from his spot, he must have been close enough to set off his radar.
“Jamie is that you?!”He called waving to beckon James over. This attracted the attention from the other two boys and the three came running up. James braced for impact as the footsteps grew louder. This action made him realize he really was not ready to greet them.
“Gu-“James gasped as Carlos nearly knocked the air out of him. All James james could do was bite down hard on his lip to hold back a forming yelp. Once James regained his personal space he could sense the concern instantly growing around him. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen.
“Jamie you’ve lost-“Logan started, but his voice trailed off. His face grew puzzled as though he was trying to pick his words carefully.
“What happened over your summer?”Kendall asked, bluntly.
“Yeah we haven’t seen or heard from you in weeks. Do you have a secret life that we don’t know about?”Carlos asked, then getting excited at his own imagination,”are you a spy like James Bond- well your last name is Diamond but you get what I mean?!”
“I- I don’t really wanna talk about it.”James moved his hand up to his shoulder, in an attempt to sooth the throbbing pain.
“Come Jamie, you can tell us.”Kendall assured and tried to touch him but James' newfound defenses led him to step away from the gesture. James watched Kendall’s hand recoil back to his side and their expression grow slightly more troublesome.
“I- I don’t wanna annoy you guys with it-“He started but this was not enough for Kendall. James should have known this by now but even if he tried to fake a smile Kendall would have seen right through it. Same as Logan, and even Carlos. They have been friends forever, nothing can be kept from any of them.
“Jamie, you can tell us,”Logan tried and started to reach out his hand, but took it back quickly.
“Yeah, it can’t be that bad,”Carlos adds.
“That bad?”James whispered to himself, James suddenly felt a wave of anger wash over him. “Oh no, it was fine. I was stuck in a different state with my mom for six weeks. At her rich boyfriend’s house, without my best friends. I had a blast!”
The three boys step back with that outburst. Jake knew logically that he shouldn’t be taking out his inner emotions in them. So he did the best thing and walked away, he could find his first period class by himself.
He managed to get three doors down from the door when he felt a hand grab his elbow. James grit his teeth before turning around.
“Wait Jamie-“Logan’s voice said. James didn’t bother facing the boy. Instead he removed the boy's hand from his arm.
“It’s James, Logan. Leave me alone.”He sneered before moving forward. He didn’t turn back, not even to see if Logan walked away.