I leaned back against the passenger seat, closing my eyes as I tilted my head back and hummed to myself as I waited. I wasn’t exactly sure why Logan had dragged me off insisting that we had to leave and then decided to make me wait in his car for him. It’d been a good ten minutes now. What on earth could he have been doing? And, if it was important enough he had to do it before leaving, couldn’t he have just waited to pull me away from Dylan a bit longer then? It had actually started to become an interesting night.
It was then, as I opened my eyes to look at the time, that I realized my mistake. I hadn’t asked Dylan for his number. I hadn’t given him mine. I hadn’t even thought about it. “Idiot,” I grumbled to myself as I leaned forward to peer out the windshield to see if I could spot Logan yet. Still no Logan.
My fingers drummed on the top of my cellphone that I still clutched in my hand. More time passed and still no Logan. “This is stupid,” I finally hissed as I realized that it’d been a good seven minutes since I’d last looked at my phone. I scanned the dark dirty streets again before pulling open the door and climbing out onto the streets.
If Logan wasn’t going to take me home now then I’d just ask Dylan for a ride. He’d said he had a car. And, after this stupid Logan pulling me out of the party for no reason thing, I didn’t feel like staying at the party any longer. I mean really! The nerve of him! Yanking me free from a perfectly heartwarming moment to make me sit in his piece of shit car while he was off doing whatever it was he felt more important was about as assholeish as one can get. Then again, this is Logan we’re talking about. The guy who likes to piss me off as much as he likes to sexually harass me. Though I had a feeling those were going hand in hand.
I stomped down the streets as I suddenly realized that Logan had just been trying to get me out of the party. Had he thought I was embarrassing him with Dylan? The two obviously knew each other. Could Logan have just pulled me off to put me on a time out? If he had then he would be getting an even colder shoulder from me than he had been getting.
I worked my way back into the house and spotted Dylan instantly. He was hard not to spot with that soft smile of his and jet black hair that made his attractive form all the easier to spot out. But I didn’t approach him. I was stuck watching the two girls who were flirting with him. Flirting was an understatement actually; they were trying to have sex with him with just their eyes.
My gut twisted a little as I watched the two of them standing in front of Dylan who was leaning against the wall drinking from the whiskey that he’d had in his hand for most of the night. I’d know, I’d only refilled it four times while he was flirting with me. That was what he’d been doing right? Flirting?
Instead of approaching and making a scene I just watched from a distance as his lips moved, obviously talking to them. If he really had the audacity to move on to the next batch of girls right after I’d left then maybe it was best Logan had pulled me out. Maybe he’d been trying to protect me? Like that day when he’d put down Cristy at the store and stuck up for me.
Stuck between a grimace that I’d almost been played so easily, and a small smile that Logan had cared enough not to let it happen, I watched one of the girls scoot closer to Dylan. She set her hand on his chest, leaning in to say something. Obviously something seductive from the way she’d managed to get her body as close to his as possible without actually pouncing on him.
Just as I was about to look away the scene changed suddenly. Dylan set his hand on hers and lifted it off of him, scooting sideways from where he’d been between the wall and her. His mouth moved for he was obviously saying something, and his face looked almost apologetic. My own mouth had opened a little as I watched him graze his fingers over her cheek, shake his head, and walk off from the two girls.
Quickly I slunk back, ducking behind a guy as Dylan made his way across the room to sit once more on the stool he’d set by the counter when I’d first met him. Preston spotted him instantly and the two began to chat openly as Preston leaned against the counter top to smile and laugh as he listened.
Dylan hadn’t seen me, of that I was sure. Yet he’d just shrugged off two girls who most obviously had some fun surprises in store for him if he’d gone with them. I smiled a little and noticed for the first time the person I’d ducked behind was staring at me. I met the guy’s eyes and he flashed me a little smirk opening his mouth to talk to me.
I scoffed, rolled my eyes and turned to leave. Part of me wanted to go over to Preston and Dylan and join them in their conversation but I didn’t. I really had had enough for one night. There was only so much socializing I could handle. Besides, it had to be nearing five in the morning, and I was growing tired now that the slight buzz of the alcohol had worn off.
Suddenly a pair of hands clamped around my waist and I was being dragged backwards against someone. “What do you think you’re doing?”
I pulled his hands off of me and spun to face Logan. “Looking for you,” I responded, shrugging as if it really didn’t matter. Truth was I’d come back in to find a ride home but he didn’t need to know that. I didn’t feel like starting a fight with him, not now.
He looked surprised by my words and blinked quickly as though considering how to respond. “For me?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I want to go home,” I turned and walked off once more, squeezing through the people to make my way out. When I hit the chilly dark air outside I glanced over my shoulder to see that Logan was indeed still behind me. I climbed into his truck and closed the door, sinking back into the dirty seat.
Logan pulled out and was silent for the first few minutes as we drove. Finally he turned his blue eyes on me and scanned me over a few times. I watched as he did so, waiting for the insult that was surly brewing in his head. I could already tell there would be one from the annoyed look he’d taken on. “So what happens Friday?” he finally asked.
“Nothing?” I responded, wondering what he was talking about. It wasn’t exactly what I’d expected.
He scoffed and narrowed his eyes on mine. “You’re bad at lying Kara.”
“Funny, because so far everything I have said as proved to be true,” I retorted angrily as my mind flashed back to when he’d taken advantage of my drunken state in the bathroom. “I am a virgin. I don’t want you,” I said counting them off on my two fingers, “the two things you’ve accused me of lying about that have proved to be quite true.”
He sat quite for a moment, turning his eyes back to the road as he made a sharp turn. But I’d known it was coming and barely shifted in the seat as I kept myself steady. Provoking him probably wasn’t the best idea but I couldn’t stop myself. If I backed down he’d only keep it up. He’d proved that true. The only way I could keep him away was if I annoyed him too much for it to be any fun at all for him.
He let out a sharp breath of air and snapped his eyes back to me. “Oh but you’re so ready to change that for Dylan?”
For a moment I stared at him. Just what was his problem? “What I do or do not do with Dylan is none of your business Logan.”
Again he went quiet and turned his eyes to the road. I leaned back once more and closed my eyes as I realized he had no witty comeback for that one. I went over the entire time I had known Logan in my mind. I was searching for what I’d done that had possibly made him have such a vendetta against me. That’s when I remembered it.
The only time I’d ever messed with Logan had been that first bad encounter with him. I hadn’t known how he was and I’d teased him in order to get my poptarts back. Oh god, what is it I’d said?
“Don’t play a game you can’t win.”
Suddenly I turned in my seat to face him. “Look, I didn’t mean it.”
It was his turn to be confused as he looked over at me surprised by my random statement. “What?”
“That stupid little ‘game on’ statement I’d made,” I explained feeling the need to get it out and quick. If it would make him leave me alone then things would get better. “I wasn’t trying to play with you. I just wanted to get my poptarts and get back to Maver.”
His blue eyes searched over my face a few times before finally snapping back to the road. Logan didn’t say anything but I could tell he was thinking. Something was running through his mind and I wasn’t sure what it was. I took his silence as a good thing and decided it would be best to get everything out then and there. “It wasn’t about you. I didn’t even know you. Hell, I still don’t know you,” I said and leaned my head up against the window to gaze out at the passing houses. “I was just messing around and it didn’t have anything to do with you. I just wanted back my poptarts and thought it’d be a funny way to get them. There wasn’t any meaning behind it.”
I didn’t dare to look at him. So I kept my eyes on the familiar houses we were passing by. Every second seemed to drag on as I waited for his obnoxious annoying remark that would surly come. But it never did. He was quiet, deathly quiet. Finally we pulled up to my house and I tucked my phone I’d only just realized I’d been clenching so tightly into my pocket.
I pulled open the door and gave Logan one last look. “It wasn’t meant to be a challenge and I hope we can avoid each other from now on.”
I climbed from the car, closing the door behind me. From his lack of response came a little happy feeling. Did I really just manage to get Logan off of my back just by explaining that first bad encounter away? Would he really leave me alone now? I hadn’t even thought about the fact he’d thought it was some game until just a few minutes ago and now it looked like all of the sexual harassment would be ending.
With a bounce in my step I approached the house and began to dig through my pockets for my keys. It’d been a good day so far. I’d gotten closer to Preston, I’d been able to have some moments alone with Maver, I’d met Dylan and to top it off I’d now solved things with Logan. Who knew a party could cause things to look up so quickly? “Shoulda started going to them years ago,” I teased myself knowing perfectly well that I’d never really been invited to any in the first place.
As my hands entered my back pocket I realized suddenly my mistake; I’d left my keys at Maver’s. A groan escaped my lips and I stared at the front door. My aunt wouldn’t be home. She was never home.
A loud obnoxious honk rang through the air and I turned to see Logan’s car still sitting there at the side of the street. He honked again, loud long and ear grating. “Idiot!” I hissed under my breath as I quickly approached his car. If he kept it up my neighbors would wake up. Unlike him and his drinking friends not everyone enjoyed being up at five on a Sunday. I reached out to open the door but it caught in my hand and I nearly fell backwards as I yanked on the locked door.
I waited patiently for him to unlock it as I stared through the window at him. But he didn’t. Instead he pushed the button and rolled down the passenger side window. “Why are you honking?” I asked as I was forced to lean over in order to talk through the window at him.
“Why aren’t you going in?” he answered my question with a question of his own.
“The doors are locked an-“
“Then use a key,” he cut me short.
I rolled my eyes and stared in at him. “I would if I had one. But I don’t.”
“You don’t have a key to your own house?” he demanded and I wondered why on earth he was acting like such a jerk about the fact I’d gotten locked out. It’s most definitely not like I’d done it on purpose.
“I do-“ I started slowly as I met his blue eyes, “-but I left it at your place with my things.”
Logan stared at me for a long moment then nodded. “So you’re locked out then.”
“That’s what it comes down to, yes,” I snapped back. I obviously wasn’t just hanging around a locked house for shits and giggles.
He was quiet for a moment and I released my grasp on his window as I straightened up and forced my red curls back into the pony tail they kept falling from. “Me too.”
I bent over again peering into the car. “You too what?”
“Me too,” he repeated slowly as he turned his eyes away from me and back to the road, “I hope we can avoid each other from now on too.”
With that said he pushed down on the gas and I stumbled backwards, away from the window as he pulled off down the street. I watched his beat up car turn the corner and drive out of sight behind the houses. For a long while I stood there just watching where his car had disappeared as the sun finished raising in the sky. When I finally broke my stunned expression and stalked back to the house I was seething.
He could have taken me back to get the keys! I would have walked from his house back to mine. He could have even just let me spend the night there in Maver’s room. Something! Anything! But no, he’d just driven off. He’d just left me here locked out at nearly six in the morning with nothing but the clothes on my back and a cellphone.
I stomped into the garage and yanked a lawn chair from the stack of them that he’d stowed at the end of summer. I collapsed into the hard plastic and leaned back; falling asleep in the cold garage with ill thoughts about Logan carrying over into violent dreams.