No Strings Attached

Chapter 13

--

Passing Logan in the hall the next day was awkward. I didn't have time to tell him all that I found, so I had to wait until chemistry. I waited anxiously until then, seeing my classes as an obstacle to get to Logan and tell him how sorry I was.

Finally, fourth period came around, and I sped down the hallway into my seat. He wasn't there yet, so I scrunched my face in frustration. Each time the door opened, I spun around to see if he was coming in. My shoulders fell in disappointment every time. It seemed like he would be late, and I had given up hope that he would come in. Then the irrational part of me decided to draw conclusions. What if he changed classes because of me? What if he dropped chemistry just so he could stay away from me?

Was Logan way too mature to do these things?

Yes.

Did Tegan's logic think about that?

No.

So I proceeded to come up with all these different reasons why Logan was missing class. I was just short of "abducted by aliens" when the door to the chemistry room burst open again and he walked through.

"We must stop this habit, Mr. Shang," Dr. Tucker said passive aggressively.

I nearly stood up and hugged him. But he barely looked at me when he sat down. He couldn't still be mad, could he?

"Look," I whispered, "I wanted to talk to you about yesterday..."

"There's nothing to talk about," he interrupted.

Dr. Tucker opened up the presentation and started her lecture on Infrared spectroscopy.

"Yes, there is," I insisted quietly. "I found something online. It talked about how—"

He made a fist and spoke through his teeth, "I don't give a shit about what you saw on the internet about abused kids. I'm not interested in that."

"No, that's not what I saw. It was about possession."

He tried not to look intrigued but his eyes lit up the slightest bit.

"Miss Littleton, Mr. Shang, am I interrupting something?" sassed my chemistry teacher. Really, teachers, if you want to embarrass your students for talking, at least say something like I hope your conversation is more important than finding the angle of this triangle so you sound like an idiot, too. It's only fair.

"No, Ma'am," I mumbled and looked down at my paper.

She paused another moment before speaking again, just to emphasize her impatience.

"Tell me at lunch," Logan whispered discretely while scribbling down notes.

I smiled, and picked up my pen to learn about how lines can represent different molecular compounds.

--

As soon as class was over, I snatched my belongings up off the bench and hurried to my locker. I wanted to find Logan so we could finally talk about my discoveries in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't account for the amount of time Logan also had to take to get to lunch. He didn't seem as excited as I was to explore the cause of his...situation.

It took an eternity of two minutes for Logan to finally come through the swinging cafeteria doors. I waved him over to my table, and he rolled his eyes. He still had to get food.

So I followed him to the bar and just started talking. "Holy crap, you would not believe the night I had. I am so, so, so sorry for saying that you were being abu—"

He shushed me. "Don't say that, you idiot. Do you actually want CPS to come to my house?"

I muttered sorry and carried on while he paid for his three slices of pepperoni pizza, a couple of chicken wings, a pudding cup, and a diet Coke. "Well, I am sorry for that. I just didn't understand."

"$5.75," grumbled the lunch monitor who just seemed done with her job.

As Logan fished out the cash, I tried to be as discreet as possible. "So I was up, like, half the night wondering if you were really telling me the truth or not." We were making our way back to the table I reserved. "And then it hit me—"

Suddenly, an open PB&J sandwich splattered me in the face, and I heard cackling. I didn't even have to open my eyes to know it was Carrie.

"That's just wonderful," I mumbled to myself. Logan put his tray down quickly and ran to get napkins. I couldn't really see, so I just stood there, my expression frozen in a squinting contortion. While I was clearing my eyes of peanut butter, I had time to think of a comeback.

I took some jelly on my finger and ate it. "Ugh, Carrie, what kind of person uses strawberry jam?" Then I walked away with Logan's tray in my hands, probably getting it sticky.

Logan was by my side when I reached the table and handed me the napkins. And I set down his lunch.

"As I was saying," I continued as if nothing happened, "I realized that your dad wasn't even home when I heard all that noise going on. So I went online and looked up possession." I told him about my findings and what my theory was, and concluded with a smile on my sticky face, waiting for a response.

"Wow." It's all he said.

I scoffed. "Is that all I get? I lost sleep because of you!"

He rolled his eyes. "Well, what do you want me to say? Oh, Tegan, you are so wonderful, thank you for spending all that time on this for me! How can I ever repay you? I owe you my life! I could kiss you!"

"Something like that would be nice." That last part doesn't sound so terrible.

He chuckled, looking down at his food. "Alright, so, what are we gonna do about it?"

I pursed my lips. I hadn't really thought that far. "That, I'm not exactly sure of."

He stared at me while I thought about it.

"We could try to find some way to cast poltergeists out," I suggested.

"Yes, that would certainly be helpful," he said sarcastically.

I pushed on his arm. "Like you have something better."

"No, but at least I'd already thought of that," he retorted.

"It's a good start," I said defensively. "We just have to go from here."

The subject changed. Soon we were talking about music and books and movies. We had the same taste in music, but he didn't read like I did, although he liked reading the book before seeing the movie. I think I was flirting a little bit, too, hoping he wouldn't notice, but get the subliminal message nonetheless. By the time the bell rang, I was completely and totally a love-struck puppy. I watched his every movement with intense concentration, hanging onto every sound he made, watching his lips move as he spoke and wondered what would have happened if I'd...

Never mind.

I floated through the rest of my classes, happy Logan was my friend. Not only that, but that he actually wanted to spend time with me. And as I was trying to focus on introducing myself in Mandarin in Mandarin (no, that is not a typo), a terrifying thought occurred to me that I never wanted to think about again.

I sure hoped Logan wasn't gay.

Foreshadow: anything you do to a poltergeist also hurts the vessel. Victims do not recognize friend from enemy while possessed. Everyone is a threat...

Poltergeist begins to act like the human and cant tell if it's the polt or person? Become extremely violent?

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