Big Time Assistant | James Diamond

↠ to the grave

Logan caught the frozen ice pack, immediately gluing it to his face as he slumped in the stool at the counter. Emily wiped the blood off her chin, wincing at the sting in her open lip. 

"They're going to find out eventually," Logan told her softly. 

She nodded, dabbing a smooth gel over the cut, "Yeah, they're gonna find out about the accident," the girl pointedly stated. 

"Em–"

"Logan," she said, "we're taking this to the grave."

"To the grave?" 

"To the grave." Seeing the unconvinced expression, "you know they already think of us as the weakest, the ones who need to be kept out of trouble."

Logan nodded to himself, "You're right. To the grave." Logan didn't want to lie to his friends for the rest of his life, especially because it would last a while, but she was right. The guys always had to fight his battles in Minnesota or save him when he pissed off the baseball team. 

"But for now..." she hummed, "we're going to cover up as much as we can."

Emily pulled out a case of makeup from her bathroom, tossing different tubes of concealer and foundation to Logan with a brush or sponge. 

"Is this actually going to work?" He wondered, playing with the stick. 

"Maybe," Emily shrugged, taking it from him, and beginning to touch a light dab of product to the purple mass on his cheekbone when a loud knock echoed from the front door. 

Both of their eyes went wide. Logan chucked the makeup supplies across the counter where Emily frantically shoved them into drawers within the two seconds it took for the knock to stop and the door to swing open. 

"You're back!" Carlos cried. "We're playing street hockey," he smirked, Kendall and James entering behind, looking for their fourth player and designated referee. James past by, not noticing Logan keeping his head low, and across the kitchen island to his girlfriend who faced the sink for a "hello" kiss.

"How was the library?" He asked, leaning down to kiss her cheek, partially blocked by hair. 

"Boring!" Kendall sang, laughing with Carlos. Logan turned, to snap at them for being so dense and they both gasped. 

"It's actually very edu–"

"Dude!" Carlos gasped, dropping his stick.

James turned, walking around to see what got his friends all riled up. Logan sheepishly sat, cursing at himself for lasting less than 30 seconds, purple and blue whelps over his face with light specks of dried blood on his eyebrow and hairline. 

"Did you get in a fight?" Kendall asked in a soft voice, shocked to see the damage. James  instantly flashed back to Emily, crossing back to her as she didn't say a word, his heart drumming. She was fine... right?

He lifted her head up and to the side to look at him, thumb and index finger guiding her chin. James felt sick. 

Her once soft lip had a break down the middle. There was a light red haze tracing up and down the side of her face, along with a purple shadow under her eye. Then he noticed the light bruising around her wrist. 

"Who did this to you?" His voice was low, shaking, and all together breaking. 

"No one–"

"Emily."

"No one," Logan shook his head, jumping in. "I wanted a Carl Sagan book, but it was on the top shelf. So I climb up the ladder and I guess the bookshelf was old. It just broke apart and fell on top of us."