by Dawn Doyle
Instead of standing there, waiting for them to finish talking, I decided it was best if I just left.
“I’m going to class. See you guys later.” I said.
I waited for a response.
Not one. Not even from Logan.
I turned and walked away, feeling my heart harden a little. I walked through the hallways and got to my homeroom class and sat down. I put in my earbuds and started listening to my music until it was time for my first lesson.
I sat down on my seat and got out my History book, waiting for class to start, and to see whether Logan noticed I’d gone.
I hadn’t gotten any text messages or missed calls. It was probably something stupid, like he’d forgotten his phone.
Yeah, that was it. He’ll say something when he gets here.
Logan walked in and sat down at the table next to me, as he always did every year we had class together.
“Hey.” He said with a smile.
I just looked at him.
I don’t believe it! He doesn’t even realize that I left! I thought.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he heard me saying goodbye.
I continued to stare, butterflies in my stomach, and not the nice kind, thinking that maybe he didn’t notice, and he might have even forgotten I was there.
“What?” He asked, narrowing his eyes a little, still smiling.
“You don’t realize, do you?” I asked, softly.
“Realize what?” He looked confused.
I was devastated, and my heart hurt in my chest. The guys had done that to me before, but not Logan…ever…and now…
“What happened in the hallway.” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
“No, what happened?” He asked, like there was some news to hear.
I decided to give him a clue and then work the rest for himself.
“We walked into school together, and Lex and Pike met us.”
“Yeah?”
“Think about the rest, Logan.”
I sat back and watched as the wheels turned in his head. I knew the moment he realized what had happened. His eyes widened as they snapped to me.
“Oh my God, Chase, I’m so sorry!” He held his hands to his chest. “Why didn’t you say you were leaving?”
“I did. You went to your homeroom and never even wondered where I’d gone, did you?” The look on Logan’s face told me everything. “You forgot I was even there in the first place.” I said.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to show him that he’d hurt me, but I couldn’t. He would know my true feelings, so I took a deep breath and willed the tears away.
“Chase, I’m sorry. We got talking about practice and, I guess, it took over everything.”
“Your game’s important, forget about it.” I said, looking down at my book when the teacher entered the room.
“So are you.” He whispered, and I turned to look at him. “You’re my friend too, and I should’ve known when you’d left. Practice isn’t an excuse. I was an ass. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“Sure.” I said.
I had a feeling that it would. I don’t know why, or how, but I knew something was going to happen. Something not good at all.
*****
“We all owe Chase an apology.” Logan said when we sat down to lunch.
He’d made a point of staying by my side, being overly nice and paying attention only to me. Usually that would’ve been a good thing; I loved it when I got his undivided attention when it was just the two of us. But now? Not so much. It felt forced as if he had to make up for forgetting me.
“What did we do?” Pike asked, looking between us.
“We forgot about her. Chase left, and we didn’t hear her say goodbye or notice she was gone.” He said.
Lex and Pike looked at me with shock.
“Fuck, Chase…!” Lex began, but Carl cut him off.
“I knew.” He said, causing all the guys to turn to him. “Yeah, I heard her say she was going to class and she would see us later. Then, she walked away.” He said with a smirk.
“What?” Logan almost whispered in disbelief.
Surprised as I was that Carl had paid attention, and I was also surprised Logan’s face was so furious.
“Why the fuck didn’t you say anything?” Logan shouted, causing quite a few students to turn in our direction.
“You were busy talking about practice. It looked like it was more important, so I didn’t say anything.”
I heard the jab in Carl’s tone, about practice being more important.
“You’re a fucking asshole, Carl!” Logan growled.
I’d had enough of Carl. I wasn’t going to let him upset me or Logan.
“Isn’t it funny how you noticed though, Carl? You were paying attention to me. Why is that?” I asked, cocking my head to the side and narrowing my eyes.
His face flushed as he looked between the guys.
“Yeah, Carl. Why is that?” Lex asked.
I glanced to Logan, and he was looking at Carl with so much anger I thought he was going to hit him.
“I was facing her, I saw her.” He said.
“So was I, dude.” Said Pike. “I didn’t see.”
“I didn’t pay any attention.” Said Stu. “Sorry Chase.”
I waved my hand in dismissal. Stu Never seemed to pay attention to any girl.
“If you must know…” Carl said, glaring at me. “…I was wondering when Chase was going to fuck off. Then, she went away.”
“What?!” Logan yelled.
“But, you were still aware, Carl, regardless of what you’re saying.” I said, even though his words hurt me, I remained calm.
“Stop being such a dick, Carl. Give it a rest. Chase is one of the guys.” Said Lex, putting his arm around me like he did at the diner.
Logan looked to his hand on my shoulder and scowled.
“Whatever, I’m leaving. See you guys at practice, without the tagalong.”
Carl got up and stormed away like a brat.
“Sorry, Chase.” The guys chorused.
We all sat down, wondering what the hell Carl’s problem was with me.
It was decided that he just didn’t like a girl hanging with them because he felt like he couldn’t say what he wanted about other girls. I thought that was completely wrong because he liked it when Sian showed up at the diner. Or, maybe that was a one-time thing. He was a class 'A' ass, not doubt about it.
Logan asked me whether I was going to practice, but I didn’t want to. I wasn’t about to put up with any more of Carl’s nasty comments.
“Please?” He begged. “Come on. Carl won’t say anything. You know I play better when you’re there.” He gave me his best smile and raised his eyebrows. I tried, and failed, to hold my smile back.
“Oh, ok.” I groaned.
I liked that Logan thought of me as his good-luck charm. It was sweet.
The gnawing in my stomach was there from the morning and I couldn’t help the ever present feeling that something bad was coming.
Logan went off with the guys to change, and I went out to take my usual spot on the bleachers with my books. The sun was beating down, as it was almost summer, so I took my baseball cap out of my backpack. It was white with a red peak. The school baseball emblem on the front; a tiger surrounded by flames.
‘The Flaming Tigers’. So cheesy, but they liked it.
The baseball and football teams had the same names to.
Sian, Gretchen, Charlotte, Carly, and Poppy were cheerleaders for the football team, as well as some seniors. Cassie hadn’t joined the squad, even though she was friends with the girls.
I looked around for any sign of them, but then I remembered Poppy telling me they were holding tryouts, this week, for new sophomores to join when they go up to junior year. Yay! Not.
Slipping on my mirrored aviators, I watched Logan batting and running; without any of them knowing I was drooling over him. If anyone looked, they would see my head down towards my
books.
Logan made his run around the third base and waved to me.
I waved back, forgetting that I still had my head angled down to my book.
Shit! It was obvious that I was watching. Hopefully, he wouldn’t realize and know I was ogling him as he ran.
I loved it when he ran.
His thigh muscles tensing and his ass flexing under his track pants. Even though they weren’t tight, I’d seen him many times in his baseball uniform and whoever decided that the pants should be that tight deserved a fucking honor award. Especially when Logan was up to bat and I had a great view as he leant forward; his ass encased in the white fabric.
Mmmmm I moaned, internally, heat flushing through me with thoughts of Logan during his games.
Yeah, you guessed it. That’s why I never missed a game. Who in their right mind would miss that opportunity? Not me, that’s for sure.
That’s also the reason I didn’t know much about the game even after going all of the time. I spent my time watching Logan and not paying attention to anything else.
“Chase!” I heard Logan calling my name.
“Huh, what?” I said, my face heating.
“I called you a few times. Are you ok?”
“Oh, uh yeah.” I said, embarrassed. “Just doing math in my head.”
“I thought you were reading from your Chem book?”
Damn it! Think, Chase!
“I was.” I had nothing.
Fuck. My quick thinking brain had gone on vacation.
Logan looked confused.
“Um, okaaayyy.” He said, as if I’d lost my mind. “I was just going to ask if you thought that run was any good? If you saw, that is.”
“Yeah, it looked good from here.”
Real good. Now go run so I can watch your muscles. My head was running away with me!
“Good. We won’t be much longer, ok?”
“No problem.” I said, tracking him as he jogged away.
I blew out a sharp breath in relief, and I felt like I needed to fan myself from the thoughts running through my mind.
Logan got back to the bench, and I followed his hands as he lifted the hem of his T-shirt and raised it to wipe the sweat from his brow, revealing a stomach so ripped you could wash your clothes on it. A V-line running into his pants that made you want to see where it went.
My breath caught in my throat, and I froze.
In all the time we’d been friends, I’d never seen Logan’s stomach. Hard to believe, I know, but he’d never changed in front of me, and we’d never been swimming together either. We didn’t live anywhere near the beach so even that was out of the question.
Every part of my body was hyper aware of what my eyes had just landed on, and they were incredibly pleased with the visual. So pleased, in fact that my heart rate was through the roof. If I’d have gone to see the nurse, she would’ve called an ambulance.
I squeezed my thighs together, the ache there increasing the longer I stared.
Logan had lifted and lowered his shirt in only a few seconds, but it was enough to scramble my brain. I watched him step up to the mark and swing his bat over his shoulder. His thighs apart, kneed slightly bent, ass pushed out the tiniest bit and my mouth watered.
Pike pitched, and Logan hit the ball with a ‘thwack’ and I swooned as he ran.
God I’m going crazy here! I thought.
Logan made it around all of the bases and exchanged high fives with the guys.
They all picked up their things, and Logan walked over to me as I watched him.
“We’re going to hit the showers. Meet you outside the locker rooms?” He asked.
“Sure.” My voice came out shaky like I was a bag of nerves.
I was.
I’d seen what was under his shirt, and now I wanted to see more. Imagining him naked in the shower wasn’t doing me any favors either.
My legs wanted to follow him into the locker room, and my lady parts were definitely up for that too.
Logan shot me a smile and went with the other guys, whilst I attempted to gather my wits together, along with my books.
*****
I finally made it to the locker rooms and only waited for a couple of minutes before Logan and the others appeared. My eyes immediately fixed on his wet hair, hanging down his forehead.
“Hey.” He said, his huge smile showing his gorgeous teeth.
“Hey.” I replied as casually as I could, even though I could hear the pulse in my ears from my pounding heart.
“Let’s go to class.” He said, and I flinched a little when I felt his arm drape across my shoulders. Lex had done that to me today and I wondered why now, of all times, Logan decided to do that too. I won’t lie; it felt fucking amazing! Right at that moment, it felt like more than a friendly gesture. I was tucked under his arm, into his side, and I could feel his heat through both of our T-shirts, inhaling his fresh clean scent every time I took a breath.
I could feel eyes on me, and I turned my head and saw Carl looking at me, and that’s when I noticed a bruise and slight swelling on the right side of his lower lip. He saw that I had seen it, and he turned away from me without scowling, for once. He’d been hurt, and I wondered if Logan had been the cause of that.
We walked into Chem class and Logan only dropped his arm when we got to our seats. I felt the loss immediately, feeling a cold spot where he’d touched me.
He sat at the table next to me, Carl on his other side. Throughout the class, Logan didn’t speak to Carl at all. He spoke only to me. As a teenage girl getting attention from an incredibly hot guy who I was in love with, I was loving every second of it. However, the other rational part of me knew that it was because he felt bad at forgetting me and was just trying to make it up to me.
Sure, we always talked in class, but he was paying way more attention to me than usual and the extra touching, although fantastic, wasn’t like Logan. I began to wonder what was going on with him and his sudden change.
Grocery shopping for Bren was something Logan and I did together. I know it’s a childish fantasy, but walking around the store, I often wondered what it would be like if we were shopping for our groceries.
Then, my thoughts turned back to practice.
“You’re smiling.” Logan said as we walked down the aisle for Bren’s cookies.
I was so busted! My cheeks heated.
“I was?” I was so embarrassed.
“Yeah. What were you thinking?”
About your hot body and sexy ass!
“Um… Nothing.” I said, trying not to smile.
“It must have been something.” He pressed.
“Ok, I was thinking about how I beat you down on the video game, yesterday.”
Thank you, quick thinking brain! Welcome back!
“Oh really?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yep. You seriously sucked.” I laughed.
"I did, but I bet I could beat you at Street-Fighter.”
“You’re on.”
Logan held out his fist to bump mine, and we got back to shopping.
I picked up a few extra items for Bren, and then paid the cashier.
“Do you think she knows you buy extra with your own money?”
“I don’t think so, so don’t tell her.”
Bren always gave me fifty bucks for her groceries, but I always bought more. I don’t think she realized that extra things appeared that weren’t on the list. I’d spend some of my own money to buy her other things she might need.
This time, I’d spent an extra forty bucks on things for her. A few extra apples, an extra carton of juice, household cleaning items… Not that she cleaned.
The care company sent people over, but they never provided the equipment.
There was a time that they’d run down Bren’s supplies so they just used a damp cloth to wipe up with.
Gross.
I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“You’re really good to her.” Logan said on
the way back, after stopping at the pharmacy.
He’d said it many times before, but this time seemed different.
More…serious.
“She’s always been good to me.” I replied with a shrug, like it was nothing.
Bren had bought me ice-cream, on hot days when the van came around. We’d sit on her front porch, and she’d tell me stories from the old days. She was really sweet, and I liked helping her.
After her husband had died, she didn’t have anybody close by. Her granddaughter visited, but she lived fifty miles away and Bren’s only daughter, had also passed away.
Getting to the house, Logan and I carried the bags to the kitchen.
“Hi Jo.” I said to the caregiver.
“Hello Chase, Logan.” She said as she helped Bren into her armchair.
“Hello sweetheart!” Bren said with a huge smile when she saw me.
It made me happy seeing her like that.
“Hi, Bren. Logan and I have your groceries. How are you today?”
“I’m just great, and thank you both.” She beamed, turning her attention to Logan.
“Hello, Logan. How are you, young man?” She asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Logan never mentioned anything, but I’m pretty sure she teased him about girls when my back was turned.
“I’m good, thanks Bren.” He replied and saw a slight flush in his cheeks.
Yeah that was happening a lot more lately too.
“Well, I’m fantastic.” She grinned. “Jo, here, had made me tea, and helped me about as usual. But, now she has to pick up her son from school.”
“I do. I’ll be back tomorrow, Bren.” She said, picking up her bag. “Watch out for her…” She pointed at Bren. “…She’s been up to her tricks today.”
