Status: so far, my favorite one shot that I've ever written. like ever.

A Million Pretty Girls

kendork

When I was eleven, I hated moving from my comfortable town in Colorado to Kansas. I hated having to make new friends, having to start all over, and most of all, being picked on even more for being the new kid. The kids at my old school picked on me but it wasn’t something that I couldn’t handle. My older brother, Mitchell, was still going to school with me but then he moved up to middle school, leaving me all alone to fend for myself. Meadowlark Elementary School was a great school, don’t get me wrong, but the kids there were crummy. They left me mentally scarred for weeks until he saw me. He noticed me sitting all alone against the wall outside with no one else to play with and did the most gentlemanly thing anyone could’ve done. I remember it like it was yesterday.

After crying my eyes out against the wall, a shadowy figure began to linger in front of me. I didn’t look up or say anything, just thinking it was another one of the mean girls to pick on me.

“Leave me alone,” I sniffled, wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my Mickey Mouse sweater, “Haven’t you tormented me enough?”

The shadowy figure disappeared, though it only moved to sit down next to me.

“I heard what they were saying, and I don’t think any of it’s true. Your feet aren’t big,” the boy said, patting the top of my shoe, “I think they’re the right size for you.”

I finally glanced over at the boy, a small smile appearing on my face as I noticed who it was. Kendall Schmidt. All of the girls in our grade talked about him. When I came to school the first day, girls were telling me all sorts of stories of how he offered to push them on the swing a few times or he’d pick a day and sit down and draw with them or even make up little skits to perform for the teacher. Basically, everyone thought that Kendall was the perfect fifth grade boy that the world had ever seen. I couldn’t really tell, seeing that I was only two weeks into the school year, but so far, he was doing a good job at impressing me.

“Thanks,” I said softly, “I-I’m Charlotte.”

Kendall smiled at me, moving my hand from my eye, holding onto it and stroking the fabric with his thumb. Though I couldn’t feel his skin against mine, the slight friction from the soft cotton onto the back of my hand was enough to make me giggle a little bit.

“And I’m happy to see you smiling.”


Kendall Schmidt hasn’t changed a bit. Ever since elementary school, we’ve been best friends. All throughout high school, people assumed that we were a couple because we were literally attached at the hip. Whenever we had class assignments, the teachers would always pair us together. You couldn’t have a Kendall without a Charlotte, and vice versa. During our freshman year, we were nominated for Homecoming King and Queen. Much to our surprise, we actually won. Senior year was quite the same, except it was our prom that we won the title for. That was the first time he had kissed me. Like, kissed me for real.

Everyone had cheered and gone crazy for us, much like an audience at a sporting event instead of a group of high school kids at a dance. It was obvious that we loved each other and wanted to be together, but that all changed when he got his big break in Los Angeles.

Kendall starred on a show, Big Time Rush, with three other boys. They were in a band, actually, that were very successful and well known. I’d been watching him on television a lot. On the show, he was hilarious, or at least I thought he was. It was only the episodes that his love interest were in that I found the show to be the most vile thing I’d ever viewed in my life. I had nothing against the girl, at least not personally, but whenever she kissed him, I could hear my heart breaking. It was scripted, yes, but it still made me feel like he had forgotten all about me within that one kiss. But, then again, it was scripted. He was supposed to look like his whole world was complete with that girl but…I just couldn’t stand watching it. It made me feel like I wasn’t important anymore.

After the show took its break to start a new season, the boys went on a worldwide tour. Kendall had told me over Skype one night and I was more than happy for him. He deserved it. He was a talented singer and an amazing actor. Girls everywhere loved him, lusted over him, even. I had seen a few clips of Big Time Rush performing on Youtube from fans all over the world. Kendall looked amazing. He was tall, tanned, and toned, it was easy for girls to be all over him. During one of the shows specifically, they were singing one of their songs called Worldwide. After seeing a couple of clips of them singing this song, I realized that they all picked girls from the audience and sang this song to them.

That’s what I was doing now, watching a live stream of them singing Worldwide. They were going through, picking girls from the audience to begin singing to them. Kendall picked a girl from the crowd, pointing to her a few times to get his point across.

“Yes you!” He said into his headset, laughing softly when she finally made her way up onto the stage. “What’s your name?”

“Char-Charlotte,” the girl said with a huge grin, sitting down next to him, “My name’s Charlotte.”

Kendall looked almost taken aback for a moment, like he thought I was the only Charlotte in the world. He just nodded and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

“My best friend in the whole wide world’s name is Charlotte,” Kendall told her, doing something with his phone that I couldn’t quite make out.

“I thought it was Carlos,” the other boy said into the mic, making the audience laugh.

Kendall laughed too before pressing the phone to his ear.

“Guys, everyone, be quiet for a second.”

The whole stadium fell absolutely silent as they watched my best friend closely, trying to figure out what he was doing.

“Yeah, the ink may stain my skin,
and my jeans may all be ripped.
I'm not perfect, but I swear,
I'm perfect for you.

..and there's no guarantee,
that this will be easy.
It's not a miracle ya need, believe me.
Yeah, I'm no angel, I'm just me,
but I will love you endlessly.
Wings aren't what you need, you need me.”


I glanced over at my iPhone that was vibrating violently on top of the coffee table. Without removing my eyes from the screen, I leaned forward and picked up the phone, sliding to answer it, pressing it up to my ear.

“Hello?”

My voice echoed throughout the arena, letting me hear myself from my laptop speakers.

“Charlotte! What are you doing?”

“Kendall, you idiot, what are you doing?! I’m watching you online right now!”

Kendall laughed and so did the other boys.

“Well, I miss you. Is it such a crime to call my best friend to say that I missed you?”

The crowd all let out a simultaneous ‘awww’, even the Charlotte sitting next to him. A slight blush arose in my cheeks, making me look away from the screen as if Kendall could actually see me.

“I miss you too, Kendork. When are you coming home?”

Before Kendall could answer, the crowd slowly started a chant, though I couldn’t hear until it grew to the loudest volume.

“Kendork! Kendork! Kendork!”

“Look what you did!” He yelled into his phone, holding it out towards the crowd. “Tell her she’s mean!”

“You’re a genius!” A few of the girls screamed from the audience.

“Ha! Even in Mexico, you still can’t win against me!” I said with a smile, crossing my legs underneath me as I continued watching Kendall, resting my laptop on the arm rest of the couch.

As I continued looking at my best friend on the screen of my laptop, I began to notice how attractive he really was. His golden brown locks looked perfectly side swept, as if it had been wind had blown through it all day, tousling it and making it perfect. Even though I couldn’t see those foggy grey green eyes of his, I knew they looked as curious and hopeful as ever. Those were the eyes that looked into my dark brown ones with a sense of reassurance and faith, his stare was enough motivation to keep me going some days. He was matching with the rest of the guys, wearing a pair of baggy black skinny jeans, a white undershirt, and a black vest. On his feet were a pair of black and white Nikes, the pair that I had bought him last Christmas when he came home. He tried telling me that they were too expensive but I insisted that he deserved them. Kendall was also sporting an all black snapback, though he had it snapped around his belt loop instead of on his head. Bottom line, touring made him somewhat more attractive than he was before he left to go on tour.

“You are so evil,” he muttered, trying to put on a serious face, though as I watched him through the screen, it was as if he knew that I was staring right back at him with the same expression, “How do I know you’re pulling that face?”

“Because you know me oh so well,” I murmured back to him, running a hand through my dark brown locks as I continued watching him, “So other than the fact that you missed me, did you only start thinking about me because the lovely blonde sitting next to you is named Charlotte?”

Kendall shrugged, adjusting his headset for a moment before responding to me.

“I’m always thinking about you,” he said honestly, making the audience gush all over him again, “Always.”

I scoffed slightly, making him raised one of those thick eyebrows that I’d come to know and love so much.

“You’ve got a million pretty girls throwing themselves at you and I’m all you can think about? Wow, I’m sorry, Kendork.”

Kendall rolled his eyes. “I may meet a million pretty girls that know my name but Charlie, don’t worry-”

“Cause you have my heart,” the other three boys sang back as a response, smiling at each other.

The crowd sucked it up, but I knew some of them were pissed about Kendall calling some random girl in the middle of the concert. It was supposed to be their night but it was turning into a gushy Kendall and Charlotte love fest that they probably could care less about, especially the prettier blonde Charlotte sitting next to Kendall.

“Shut up and stop quoting your own song,” I retorted with a smirk, “I’m gonna let you go now because the show must go on so I need you to be strong.”

“Hey!” Kendall yelled, laughing along with the audience, “You can quote our songs but I can’t?”

“Not my band, not my problem!” I told him cheerfully, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear, “But seriously, finish up the show and call me back when you get the chance, ‘kay?”

Kendall sighed from the other line and I noticed him slump slightly on his stool, though he nodded.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later. I love you, Char.”

“I love you too, Ken.”

Kendall blew a kiss in the direction of the camera and out of pure instinct, I reached towards the screen, catching it into my hand and stuffing it into the pocket of my sweats.

“I got it,” I whispered with a smile before hanging up.

Kendall slid his phone back into his pocket, a slight blush rising on his cheeks as he looked towards the camera again, knowing that I still had my eyes on him.

“This one goes out to both Charlotte’s. Even though Charlotte is sitting here right now, being my Worldwide girl, the Charlie back at home wearing those stupid black sweatpants from high school and my old PE shirt will always be the one who has my heart.”

I watched him closely, blinking away the tears that began forming. He knew that’s what I wore almost every night to bed, especially when he was away from home. The Charlotte girl was still excited to be sitting next to Kendall but even she knew that he wasn’t thinking about her while he was singing that song.

Not in the slightest bit.

Image


If the neon green sign that said ’KENDORK’ hadn’t been an obvious stand out within the crowd of bodies, then I didn’t know what would get Kendall’s attention in the crowded airport. Just a week after that concert, he called me and told me he was packing and getting on a plane to come back home for a month or so. The word ‘excited’ was an understatement at that time. I was crying, laughing, smiling, and thanking the higher power above for letting Kendall come home earlier than I thought he would. He told me what to wear too, so we’d be matching when he showed up. I was wearing one of his other high school shirts, the white PE one with his last name on it and he had another white one that looked identical. To be honest, Kendall went through a lot of PE shirts during the year. He either lost them, got them stolen from his locker, or kept giving them to me to keep as mementos of that school year. My shirt was tucked into my jeans and was complimented with a simple black belt and a pair of worn Converse. I had no idea what else he was wearing besides the shirt but I knew who I was looking for.

As I held the sign to my chest, I heard a few screams erupt from behind me. I turned around, seeing a small crowd of girls waiting there, all decked out in their Big Time Rush apparel. When I repositioned myself, Kendall came into my view, wheeling two suitcases with one large duffle still on his shoulder. As soon as we locked eyes, I dropped the sign, completely forgetting about the other people trying to pass to get to their planes and loved ones. I sprinted and nudged and bumped into the other people, muttering out small apologies on the way. Kendall let go of all of his luggage, opening his arms out large enough for me to jump into. My legs wrapped around his waist and my face buried into the crook of his neck, taking in the scent of him. Oh God, how I had missed that smell of Old Spice that he wore. Denali was the name of it, and I’d admit, I had purchased a can of it just to spray on my pillowcase when I desperately missed him. Kendall’s arms wrapped around my waist, holding me as close to him as he possibly could. We stood there for a while, just taking each other in again completely. It had been about six or seven months since I had seen him, in person, I should say. Sure, we had Skyped and Facetimed a lot but it just wasn’t the same as being in each other’s presence.

The fans that were once cheering and screaming weren’t making a sound. If they hadn’t seen last week’s show in Mexico or heard about it on Twitter, then they were completely out of the loop. They probably thought that I was a secret girlfriend that they were just informed about. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were snapping pictures and tweeting about what they were seeing. But I didn’t care. I had my best friend back and that’s all that mattered.

“I missed you so fucking much,” Kendall whispered to me, still holding onto me, “You don’t even know, Charlotte.”

When I finally pulled myself away from his neck, I offered him a weak smile. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and much to my surprise, it was a mirror image on him. I lifted my arms from around his neck, wiping away his tears with a shaky hand.

“I missed you so much too,” I whispered, kissing a spot on his cheek where a tear still remained, “Stop crying, Kendall, I’m right here.”

“You too,” he muttered, trying to put on a smirk, though it wasn’t as confident as he wanted it, “I just missed you so mu-” I interrupted him by placing a finger on his lips.

“Just fucking kiss me, Kendall.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Kendall’s lips found mine. At first, we were kissing soft, like it was our first time kissing each other. I used a free hand to take off his black snapback, placing it on top of my head so I could wrap my arms around his neck again, fingers lightly combing through his hair as our lips moved together in perfect sync. Our lips were made for each other, moving together so effortlessly and expertly, you’d think we’d actually kissed like this before.

I was the first to pull away, giving him a few short pecks, in which he returned them just as quick.

“Always remember,” he whispered to me with a soft pant, “Girl, you’re mine.”
♠ ♠ ♠
written for this lovely contest.
enjoy. c: