A Wall Between

Chapter 18

Cooper woke up early the next morning and just lay in bed for several minutes, one arm draped over his eyes, debating going back to sleep. His head hurt and he didn't feel ready to start the day.

He needed to pee really bad, though, and he knew there'd be no going back to sleep once he got up, so in the end he didn't have much choice.

When he headed out of the bedroom, Cooper found Logan sitting on the sofa in the den. He was doing something on his laptop.

Logan gave Cooper a nod of acknowledgement. "Bianca's still asleep, so I thought I'd come down here to get some work done."

Cooper squinted at him. "It's early for work."

"Yeah, but we'll be busy later."

"It's Saturday."

Logan shrugged. "It's like that sometimes."

There was still a part of Cooper that expected Logan to tack on something like, when you have a real job. Cooper was starting to get the feeling he wasn't the type of person who said things like that anymore.

"Is there any coffee?"

"Not sure. There might be some basic things in the kitchen?"

Cooper peed, then went upstairs and scoured the kitchen, even going so far as to climb up on the counter so that he could peer into the very back corners of the cabinets. No coffee.

"No luck?" Logan asked as Cooper headed back downstairs.

Cooper shook his head. He felt more upset about that than he probably should have, but he used caffeine to self medicate his ADHD and being without his one crutch at a time like this made him feel even more vulnerable.

"We'll get some when we go out. Mason gets grumpy if he doesn't have his as well."

Cooper took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Right. They'd be heading out soon enough and they could just get some then. He could survive not having it first thing in the morning. "I'm going to go jogging."

"It's too early for work, but not too early for jogging?"

"Early is the best time for jogging. Or late. If you go in the middle of the day, it's too hot."

Logan shook his head. "Wish I had that kind of energy."

Cooper started out jogging around the lake, but then he spotted a walking trail and headed off down that. He weaved through dirt paths, then came out the other end onto a suburban street. He spotted one of those tall, pyramid shaped rope climbing frames in a park and jogged down a steep hill towards it.

When he reached the park, he made his way up the climbing frame and lay down across the ropes near the top to catch his breath.

For several minutes he just lay like that, eyes shut and the breeze cooling his skin. Finally, he grabbed hold of a rope and pulled himself into a sitting position.

How the fuck was he going to get back?

He'd jogged until he was exhausted, directly away from the lake house and down a hill that he would now need to get back up. The return trip had never entered his mind.

Back at home, he could always rely on Ellie and Abra to bail him out of his own stupidity. They weren't here, though. But... his brothers were. It was Cooper's first instinct to call Mason, but he was probably still asleep. He called Logan instead.

"Hey, what's up?" Logan answered.

Cooper lay back down across the ropes. "Help, I'm stranded."

"You're... stranded?" Logan sounded like he didn't know whether to be concerned or if this was some kind of joke.