Chapter Thirty

They were sitting on his porch when he got home.

Carlos drawing lines on the ground with a piece of bark, Logan was leaning back on his elbows, looking at the sky, and Kendall was looking at his phone.

In the background are the sounds of cars, zooming this way and that, but that's never bothered them. Occasionally some poor driver takes a wrong turn and sweeps slowly along the road, eventually hitting the dead end before they swing a u-turn and tail it back to the entrance of the neighborhood. So, they don't bother to turn and look when they heard the sound of a car coming up the driveway.

At least, not until they heard the car door slam shut and the engine cut off.

Carlos looked up first, dragging his eyes away from the stick in his hand that he's been playing with for the past ten minutes, wondering whether or not he wanted to break it in to. He dropped it to the ground and stood up to give the, obviously lost, driver directions, the words falling off his lips when he saw who it was.

"Dude, what's up?" Kendall asked, turning away from his phone. Logan tilted his head back down as well, when he didn't hear Carlos reply. "Dude?"

Carlos reached down and grabbed Kendall and Logan by the arms and dragged them to their feet, his eyes still wide open. But his mouth, which had dropped down, was now in a full blown grin. He was bouncing on his toes in excitement.

James sat on the side of the bed of his father's truck. (The only thing that Brooke wouldn't let him take), kicking his legs back and forth and grinning as he looked around at the familiar scenery. Well, there wasn't much to scenery; it was just his house and his friends, who were staring at him like a bunch of idiots.

But that's not new James thought to himself with a grin.

"James." Logan finally choked out, starting to smile as well.

"You've changed," James said jokingly as he jumped to the ground.

He didn't even have a moment to register the attack before Carlos swooped in, grabbing him by the waist and swinging him into the air, laughing madly. The moment James touches the ground again, dizzy and laughing just as loud, he found himself grabbed into the clutches of Logan's and Kendall's hug before a group hug came his way.

"James," Carlos was bouncing up and down now. "James, Jimmy, Jim-Jam. You're home! You're home!"

James doesn't know if it's his tears or his friends falling down his face but he didn't care. As the four of them collapse to the grass on the front lawn, wrestling each other, all he really cared about is the fact that the four of them were together again.

Hours later, full of food and warm and sleepy, James sat on the couch, looking over at his three friends that were asleep on the floor. He tilted his head back and smiled towards the ceiling, silently thanking his mom for getting rid of his dad, so everything could go back to normal. He then jerked his head back down, laughing a little when he heard Carlos' loud snore. He missed that, the comforting sounds of his friends around him.

James definitely couldn't see his best friends giving him an even bigger or louder homecoming.

And that was just what he wanted.

THE END

A/N: Wow, I'm sorry that this chapter wasn't long either. *Cue throwing of tomatoes* How about this, the first chapter of the Carlos story is going to be really long (about 3000 words worth).

In that case…

That's the last chapter. Of course I'm sad to see this story go, because I have fun writing Jangst (James-angst). I don't know why, but writing angst for him and Kendall I always find to be very entertaining. Anyway, the next two stories that I'm gonna do are ones for Carlos and Logan. Carlos' is title Live and Love and Logan's is titled Live and Learn. I'm going to do Carlos' next (after a brief break of doing the angst stories of the four of them) and then Logan's. Thanks to everyone that read, reviewed, favorite, alerted, and put this story in C2s. Without you guys I wouldn't have been able to get this story done.

Cheers,

-Riles