One of the Guys (35 page)

My heart began pounding when he
said I was his Chase. I didn’t say anything. Not because I had
nothing to say, but because I couldn’t.

“
I made it up.” He said, after a
moment. “It was an excuse, ya know? If I ‘forgot’ you…” He held his
unsteady fingers up for emphasis. “…I would have to make it up to
you, and I could touch you without you thinking I was trying
something.”

It had taken him a while to get his
words out, but I understood what he’d said. He wanted to touch me,
but didn’t want me to know.

If it were true, it made sense. The
extra closeness and touching after he’d been an ass.

However he’d gone about it, it
didn’t excuse what I’d seen.

Pulling up to his house, Matt
opened the front door and, surprisingly, came over to help me get
Logan out of the car. All without a stupid comment.

“
Lex called. Told me you were on
your way.” He explained.

When we got Logan to his room, we
lay him down on his bed and Logan started chuckling.

“
If you wanted to get me in bed,
all you had to do was say…” He said, still chuckling.

Like Cassie.

“
He wasn’t with
Cassie.” Matt whispered, causing me to think I’d said that our
loud. “
I
was.”

“
Gross.” Logan
slurred.
"Chase
is my girl. My beautiful girl.”

He hadn’t been with Cassie! She
was just leaving from being with Matt.

My mouth dropped open as I stared
down at Logan. His eyes closed, but he had a goofy smile on his
face.

“
I’ll talk to you soon.” Matt said,
walking out and closing the door over.

“
Chase?” Logan
whispered.

“
Yeah?”

“
You’re still here.” His smile grew
bigger.

“
I am.”

“
Chase?” He whispered
again.

“
Yeah?”

“
I didn’t mean to see
you.”

See me? What was he talking about?
He wasn’t making any sense.

“
What do you mean, see
me?”

“
In your underwear. I’m sorry, it
was an accident.”

“
What?” My
underwear? How in the hell had he seen
that
?

“
I sneaked; to scare you. I saw
through your door. You were in your underwear. White and lacy.” He
smiled. “So hot.”

My stomach flipped. Logan had seen
me in my bra and panties and hadn’t said a word.

“
You didn’t say
anything.”

I shouldn’t have been carrying on
the conversation whilst he was out of it, but I was intrigued by
his confession.

“
You would’ve killed me. I crept
back downstairs and shouted you. God, after the race and I saw your
legs again… wow.” He blew out a breath and moaned a
little.

I felt the heat flowing through my
that Logan had been aroused by me. I had no idea. The way he’d
blushed in the kitchen suddenly made sense. My Dad’s reaction too…
He’d seen Logan checking out my legs!

I smiled.

“
After you left me… I wanted to get
closer to you. Let you see… I needed…”

Logan’s breath evened out. He’d
fallen asleep.

I didn’t want to leave him like
that, so I leant over and took off his sneakers. As I moved them to
the side of his desk, I noticed a letter pinned to his
board.

A signed baseball sat next to his
computer, and a team-signed Lions T-shirt was pinned to the wall
near his Babe Ruth poster.

I smiled.

Brent had responded and had given
him gifts for his birthday.

I felt an ache in my chest. I
wasn’t there to see his reaction when he got them.

Moving back to Logan, I slowly
lifted his head and pulled his pillow underneath, looking down when
something fell to the floor.

I picked it up, and I held my
breath when I saw it was a photo.

A photo of me, laughing. It had
been under his pillow the whole time.

I felt the shield around my heart
melting away as I looked down on the boy I’d fallen in love with.
The boy who’d liked me back, but was too scared to tell
me.

Quickly heading to Logan’s
bathroom, I collected a couple of Advil from the cabinet and a
glass of water, for the hangover he’d most certainly have the next
day.

Leaving them on his nightstand, I
reached to open the door.

“
Chase.” Logan whispered, almost
dreamlike.

“
Yeah?” I whispered in
reply.

“
I love you.”

I clamped my hands over my mouth as
hot tears flowed down my cheeks.

He’s drunk. He doesn’t mean
it.
I thought.

I choked back the tears, wiping my
cheeks with the backs of my hands. Taking a deep breath, I opened
the door, and walked out.

Matt was standing outside the room,
waiting for me.

“
We need to talk.” He said, his
arms and ankles crossed as he leant his back against the
wall.

“
I’m listening.” I crossed my own
arms, defensively. I’d never had a normal conversation with Matt,
and I felt uncomfortable.

“
You’re the best thing that’s
happened to him.”

“
Excuse me?” I asked, unsure I’d
heard him correctly.

“
I let my own feelings hurt you
both.”

“
Go on.”

“
I had a…friend… like you. She was
amazing, and I was in love with her. I didn’t do anything about it,
and she ended up with somebody else. I felt as though I’d wasted my
time being just friends so… I thought Logan was wasting his time
with you, and I wanted to save him the heartache.”

I dropped my arms, clenching my
fists, and jaw. My anger rising.

Matt held up his hand, letting me
know he had more to say.

“
When I saw how you looked at him
the last time you were here… I didn’t realize. I’m
sorry.”

That was
two
people who thought I was a
problem hanging out with Logan. Two people who were dead wrong.
They didn’t know anything.

“
Don’t tell Logan any of this.” I
said, releasing my fists.

“
He’s going to know you brought him
home. If he doesn’t remember, which I doubt he will, he’ll find
out.”

“
I meant what you just told
me.”

“
Sure.” Matt said, looking a little
more relaxed.

“
Bye Matt.”

I walked down the stairs and out to
my car.

If Logan doesn’t remember what he
told me… If he
had
meant everything he said…

Oh this is going to be so much
fun.
I thought, a devious plan
forming.

I couldn’t help but giggle to
myself, happily, all the way home.

After homeroom I
sat down in my usual space after swapping with Sam… again. I waited
for Logan to arrive, not actually knowing whether he’d turned up
for school.

After a couple of minutes, a
hungover Logan walked slowly into the room, sitting down in his
seat.

I turned to look at him, his eyes
red rimmed, and I tried not to laugh. He looked awful, yet still
drop dead gorgeous at the same time.

“
Chase, I’m sorry about last night.
Thanks for taking me home.” He whispered.

“
No problem.” I replied. Keeping my
tone level so he didn’t suspect I knew anything.

“
Um… did I
say…anything?”

Oh this is too easy!

“
Like what? You were so drunk I
couldn’t understand you.”

“
Oh, ok.” He looked
relieved.

You’re not getting away with
it
that
easy.

Logan didn’t make any attempt to
talk to me, nor I, him.

I just let him stew as I twirled my
hair round my fingers. Letting my leg swing back and forth over my
knee. Knowing he would see the movement.

I saw his eyes glance back and
forth from his work, to my leg. Either I was annoying him and he
wanted me to stop, or he wanted to touch me, so he
needed
me to
stop.

His eyes flicked to me, and I kept
looking down at my work. Flicking my hair over my shoulder. Giving
him a view of the fitted tight/loose vest combo I was wearing.
Instead of black over red, this one was a hot pink over white.
Also, more of the white could be seen because of the
slashes.

I knew he’d noticed. He was
fidgeting in his seat as always, but now I knew the reason he’d
done that.

God
I’d
been so naive!

Lifting my pencil, I ran it over my
bottom lip, almost laughing when Logan ran his hands through his
hair and over his face.

It was cruel, I know, but I was
getting him back for all those times he’d unknowingly teased me
until I was a total mess.

I wasn’t going to relax, though,
and think he wouldn’t start up again. This was just the first
class, and I wondered if he would corner me again.

I kinda wanted him to…

I met Poppy after class, and she
looked at me like something had happened.

“
Oh my God! I heard, from
Charlotte, that you had to rescue Logan last night.”

“
Sort of. He was drunk and making a
scene. I took him home. Matt helped me in.”

“
So… Did anything happen? Did he
say anything?” She beamed.

I couldn’t stop the smile across my
face.

“
He never went with Cassie.” I
said. “She’d been with Matt.”

Poppy did a silent scream when I’d
told her, without spilling too many details, why Logan had
‘forgotten’ about me.

“
That’s kinda romantic, in a weird
way.” She said.

“
Yeah.”

“
So. What are you gonna
do?”

I smiled again, before filling her
in on my plan, knowing she wouldn’t tell.

“
Oh, Chase. What’s happened to
you?” She asked, shaking her head.

“
Logan’s gonna find out.” I
replied, raising an eyebrow.

During lunch the girls, and I, sat
our usual table. The table I was now part of. I still couldn’t
believe how much things had changed over the summer.

“
Chase.” Poppy whispered, and
turned just her eyes to point me in the direction she wanted me to
look.

Logan, and the guys, were walking
to their table -my
old
table-, and I watched as he sat, turning away so they didn’t
notice us looking at them. There was something different. Liam was
sitting with them, and I’m pretty sure that they all thought he was
just a new friend joining them.

I smiled, knowing the
truth.

I let my eyes wander back to the
table, and Stu was looking in my direction. He gave me wink, and I
smiled back. He was happy, and I was happy to have
helped.

Turning my attention to Logan, he
was looking down at his lunch. Listening to something Lex was
saying; he nodded intermittently.

Just when I thought he wasn’t going
to look up, his eyes lifted. It seemed as if he were only going to
glance, but when he saw me looking, his eyes snapped back to
mine.

I tried to keep my face neutral,
like I was still mad, but I let a slow smile creep across my face.
The kind that said ‘I know something you did.

His eyes widened, and I swear I saw
him blush before he looked back to his lunch.

After the way he’d gotten up close,
and in my space, touching me and teasing me with his sexy voice all
through the week, this wasn’t what I’d expected.

No.

He thought he hadn’t said
anything, so I’d expected him to either glare at me, letting me
know he was going to do something or look away and make me paranoid
that he
might
do
something.

This was better.

Now, I had the upper hand, and I
was just getting started.

Charlotte and I took our usual
seats in chem class, after I kindly asked the other two kids to
switch back.

They were happy to. They hadn’t
liked being at the front.

I also made sure I sat in the seat
nearest Logan.

Sam walked in, and took his seat,
smiling broadly at us.

Then, Logan walked in. All six-feet
two inches of hot, sexy guy.

I watched his wide back as he
approached his table, next to ours. Sneaking a peak at his ass as
he bent to sit in his seat.