Behind the Façade

--------Carson---------

The rest of the day passed quickly. The guys left us early in the morning and rehearsed for hours, while Savannah, Brianna and I chatted over shallow celebrity gossip magazines, flipped through cheesy soap operas on the hotel TV, and munched on endless room service snacks.

The guys took one hour for lunch, during which I could count the number of times Logan looked at me on one hand. Hunter, however, seemed to have taken great pleasure in me promising to confide in him, and was grinning the whole time, offering me food, and telling me outlandish stories from his past. I’m still unsure about telling him about everything, or what I’ll tell him if I decide not to tell him the truth.

But now, as we walk into the fancy restaurant for our dinner reservations, I’m sure of my trust in him more than ever. Logan still hasn’t approached me since this morning; I guess he didn’t take well to Hunter’s arm around me.

“Logan,” I say, tapping on his shoulder, but he ignores me. “Lo, come on.”

“Just ignore him, Carson,” Hunter says, giving me a crooked smile. “You got me.”

“And me!” Brianna squeals. “But I think he’s been acting strange…what happened?”

“Well,” Hunter says, ready to dive in to an exaggerated story. “Last night while-”

“Nothing,” I say, cutting him off. “He’s just being…”

“An ass?” Hunter offers.

“I was going to say difficult, but ass works too, I guess,” I smirk, getting a small giggle from Brianna.

The seating hostess leads us through the restaurant, all the way into a private room, decked in velvet curtains and little window seats with views of the harbor. The table in the middle is decorated with flowers and fancy china, shiny placeholders at each seat.

“Looks like you’re next to me,” Hunter grins, squeezing my shoulder gently.

“You wouldn’t happen to have had anything to do with the arrangements, would you?” I say suspiciously.

“Of course not, silly, it’s meant to be,” he smirks.

After we’ve taken our places I’m convinced he did have something to do with the arrangement. At our end, Hunter and I are squeezed into the corner, and Logan is seated the farthest away from us. Throughout the meal, Hunter makes easy jokes and imitations of Logan, which make me laugh and Logan glare, but we’re having so much fun we just ignore his sour attitude. It’s getting old anyway.

When we arrive back at the hotel room and I reach into my suitcase, expecting my sweat pants back now that I'm not sleeping with Logan, I immediately come into contact with lace and silk. And this time, instead of making me dread wearing it, I actually have a giddy feeling about tonight.

The guys are still talking out in the hall, and I don’t expect them to enter anytime soon, so I quickly strip off my shirt and pants. I bring the black lace dress to my arms and start to pull it over my head when the door opens and Hunter saunters in, a lopsided grin on his face. Before I can shriek and hide, he shuts the door in front of the other guys and looks me up and down, looking pleased.

“Hunter, please,” I groan, wiggling the thing to cover my body.

“What? I’m not gonna tell,” he says. “I might have to keep you all for myself.” he wraps his arms around my waist and buries his face in my hair. At first I stand stiffly, not letting myself to show any response in how I feel towards him, but the longer he stands there holding me, the more I urge to let go. “You look and smell so good…” this makes me giggle, and finally I allow myself and loosen up, holding his arms in my own and melting against his warmth and security.

“What the hell?” Logan exclaims, standing in front of us, and I will myself to leave Hunter’s warmth and sit myself on the bed. I hadn’t even noticed him come in.

“What is going on with you two? If you’re fooling around, stop it now,” Logan demands angrily. “Carson, in case you haven’t noticed you’re still my girlfriend. And Hunter, last time I checked you were my best friend. Why are you being such an ass?”

“Logan, please,” I say pleadingly, standing shakily from the bed. Savannah’s warning about breaking up the band swims into my mind and I run to him. “It’s nothing, I promise. I know you’re my boyfriend. I would never…hurt you by fooling around…with…anyone,” my voice is barely a whisper, and I want to drop dead here and now. I know it’s the right thing to say, and do, but it’s like a stab in the heart to say that without picturing Hunter’s disappointed face. There’s just something about him that I don’t get in Logan.

“There’s nothing?” Logan asks suspiciously. I shake my head slowly, and he envelops me in a hug, burying his head in my hair, but it feels nothing compared to how it felt when Hunter did it. “I’m so sorry babe, for thinking you would be such an asshole,” he says softly. I stand there stiffly, unwilling to hug him back. He’s the one who’s been a jerk, who’s been ignoring me. “And Cars, I have to tell you something.” he pulls away from me, holding my shoulders roughly, and stares into my eyes, making me squirm uncomfortably. “I love you.”

<<>>

---------Hunter----------

Carson starts a fit of coughing, which Logan does not know what to do about. She stands there, in his limp arms, coughing for a good long while, Logan’s pathetic eyes searching her for anything he can use as a ‘sign of her love.’ Come on.

She starts wheezing and hacking uncontrollably, doubling overt and holding her stomach. Logan spins her around and I look at her eyes, which are wide and fearfully staring at the floor. He starts performing the Heimlich on her, which develops urgent sense of alarm in her eyes and worsens the awful sounds coming from her throat.

“That’s not what she needs!” I yell, running over and pushing him out of the way. I sweep Carson off her feet and carry her like a baby over to the bed. I sit down and hold her snugly against me, running my hand through her hair and rubbing her back gently.

After a few minutes, her breathing returns to normal and she finally opens her eyes and blinks up at me. Her eyes look embarrassed, ashamed, and they quickly dart around the room and find Logan.

“What was that?” he exclaims.

“It was a panic attack; she was not choking,” I say condescendingly, as a teacher explaining an easy lesson to a stupid kid for the hundredth time might. “She needed comfort, not the Heimlich.” He runs a hand over his face and lets out a frustrated breath. Carson stays in my arms, and somehow I know that she’d rather be here with me than with him. I know I’ve won.

An hour later, Logan has already tried every way possible to get Carson to notice him since the whole panic attack incident. If I wasn’t so annoyed with him about Carson I would actually feel kind of bad for him. I mean, he confesses he loves her and she has a panic attack? That’s got to hurt.

“Tonight Logan’s on the couch,” Bryan says as he climbs into his bed. “He kicks too much even for me.”

“What about Brianna?” Carson asks, emerging from the bathroom in her black lacy dress, a blue toothbrush dangling from her fingers. God, she’s so gorgeous.

“She can sleep with me,” Bryan says, and a wave of scarlet washes over Brianna’s face. Bryan notices it and suddenly his face turns every shade of red, but he ducks down under the bed ‘to get something’.

“Bri, you fine with that?” Carson asks carefully.

“Um, well, yeah, that would, be uh, fine, I guess,” Brianna stammers, and I chuckle silently. Bryan and Brianna.

They climb into their bed and Logan takes his spot on the couch. I wiggle down under the covers and Carson, returning from the bathroom, slips into the bed beside me. She faces away from me; I know she’s ashamed for pleading in front of Logan and denying her feelings for me that I know exist. The only thing I don’t understand is why. Why beg and plead for Logan when she so obviously isn’t interested in him?

* * *

That question bothered me all night, and by the time I fell into a restless sleep I still hadn’t figured it out. I woke up early this morning, too early, with Carson’s head resting on my chest, her arm wrapped around me, and I don’t even care how it got there. I’ve been extra careful not to move, for fear she’ll wake up and move, but I can’t bring myself to sleep again. It just feels so right to be here with her right now. And it’s our last day in New York. This won’t happen again, at least not any time soon. So I’m cherishing it.

I look over and see Brian and Brianna snuggled up, and then Logan snoring peacefully, half of his body hanging off of the couch. And seeing him, so peaceful and so innocent, almost makes me feel bad for trying to steal his girlfriend. Almost.

He doesn’t deserve her.

“Doesn’t deserve what?” Carson murmurs into my chest.

“Did I say that out loud?” I ask, cursing myself for waking her.

“Yeah,” she giggles, rolling her head and looking up at me. “So what were you saying?”

“Bryan,” I say, thinking quickly. “He doesn’t deserve that free chocolate cake the waitress gave him at dinner last night. I think she was sweet on him.” I feel instantly bad for lying to her.

“He had cheesecake, and our waiter was an old man. Now who’s the liar?” she mumbles tiredly. I chuckle guiltily but don’t respond. Guess I wasn't as good a liar as I thought. “Fine, don’t tell me.” she turns her head back over and pushes herself off of me, bounding off the bed and into the bathroom. Nice going, Hunter. Nice going.