One of the Guys (8 page)

Skin!

“
And then…” I complained. “…She
wanted to put on nail polish. I swear she was reaching for
red.”

Logan laughed, still holding my
hands.

“
Hey! Keep that up and you won’t
get what I bought for you.”

Logan had the brains to shut his
trap.

He dropped my hands, and I reached
for my bag.

First, I handed him the woven
bracelet.

“
Wow, thanks!” He said, looking it
over.

“
Here.” I took it from him, and I
fastened it around his wrist. He was silent as I worked my fingers.
“There.” I said when I was done.

“
Thanks.” His voice was barely a
whisper.

“
Now, close your eyes and open your
mouth.” I said, and his eyes widened slightly and he licked his
lips.

“
Dooo iiit!” I said, pointing at
him. He smiled and then opened his mouth. I put the end of the
twirler in. “Ok, bite.”

Logan bit down on the lace and
chewed, a grin forming on his handsome face. I took the opportunity
of his closed eyes to stare at his features.

“
You’ve been to the candy store.”
He said, opening his amazing blue eyes.

“
I have.” I showed him the big bag
of twizzlers. “They’re all yours.” I said, handing them
over.

“
You’re the best.” He said, taking
another bite. “Bite.” He said as he held the twirler out towards my
mouth, feeding me some.

“
Mmm, yummy.” I said as I
chewed.

Logan put the same twizzler in his
mouth and nibbled on the end.

“
So, you still refused a massage?”
He asked, the corners of his mouth turning up.

“
Yeah. My Mom was a bit annoyed,
but I didn’t want one.”

“
You never know; you might like it
if you try it.”

I had a feeling he was just teasing
me, but there was something in his eyes that I wasn’t sure of. Like
he was testing me about something.

“
I
know
I won’t.” I said. I
didn’t like the idea, even though the touching was
innocent.

“
Turn around.” He said, circling
his finger.

“
What?”

My heart was suddenly trying to
break free, beating out of my chest.

Is he going to do what I
think
he’s going to
do?

“
Turn around.” He repeated, and I
slowly turned my back to him.

Logan lifted my braid and pushed it
over my shoulder. Then, his hands rested on my shoulders, where
they met my neck, and he pressed his thumbs into the muscles there
and circled them; his fingers squeezing at the same
time.

I felt lots, and
lots
of tingling heat
rush through me, settling between my legs, and my nipples tightened
from his touch.

“
Is that so bad?” He asked softly,
close to my ear, as my knees turned to jelly.

My eyes were closed as I
concentrated on every sensation he was causing in me.

“
No.” I answered, a little more
breathy than I’d hoped.

For a long time, I’d wanted Logan
to touch me. Not in an obviously sexual way, but loving. Like a
stroke on the cheek, a hug… but in ways that felt like it was
because he liked me, not because we were just friends.

Wiping the mud from my face was
just that. Hugs in the past were like ‘bro’ hugs. You know, the one
arm, quick hug, and then pulling away.

I wanted two arms, holding each
other, bodies flush kind of way.

Logan’s hands moved down my back a
little, and his thumbs continued to circle.

“
Whoa! What’s going on here?” Matt
asked with a sly grin as he walked into the room.

Neither of us had heard him come
into the house. Logan’s hands dropped from my back.

“
Hi, cock-block.” He grinned and
looked me over. “Am I disturbing your freaky time?”

“
Matt, what the fuck?!” Logan
yelled.

“
It looks like I just walked in on
your foreplay.” He laughed.

“
Let’s go to my room.” Logan
sighed, and we started to walk out.

“
Just keep the noise down, huh?”
Said Matt.

“
What?” I asked.

“
You know, from all your fucking!”
He laughed again, pumping his hips as if he were having
sex.

“
You’re disgusting!” I said. “Get a
life, Matt.”

“
Leave my brother alone,
cock-block.” He snarled before laughing again.

*****

“
I’m sorry about
him.” Logan began as we walked up the stairs. “I don’t know what
his problem is.”

“
I do.” I snorted. “He thinks that
you, being friends with me, is stopping you from hooking up with
other girls.”

Just saying those words made me
feel sick.

“
That’s
ridiculous.” He said with a frown. “I wouldn’t want to. Besides, us
being friends has got
nothing
do to with him. Ignore him,
I do.”

Going into Logan’s room, I sat on
his double bed that was in the center of the wall to the right of
the door, under the window.

He had a black, metal nightstand
either side with lamps on that looked like a baseball with a white
shade on top. His computer desk and chair were to the right of
that, at the other end of the room; near to the door to his
bathroom.

On the wall, at the foot of the
bed, was his TV. He had various posters of rock bands and famous
baseball players.

He even had one of Babe Ruth
during his last game on May 30
^th
1935, in Philadelphia.

By his computer, he had a cork
board with reminders for schoolwork and also photographs of us and
the other guys. In one of them, we were making rock hand signs and
pulling faces like we were rocking out. In another, we were using
twizzlers as mustaches. There were others of him with the baseball
team. I had taken those photos.

“
Do you want to play video games?
Or, we could watch TV.” He asked as he pulled one of his pillows
over his lap.

Strange dude.
I thought.

“
We could play Marvel Vs Capcom 2?”
He suggested.

“
Ok.” I said and leant over to
switch on the console and got our controllers.

Logan cleared his throat and
shuffled about, sitting at the end of the bed when I sat back
up.

The game came on, and we started
playing.

As time went on, I started to Kick
Logans’ ass on the game.

“
How are you so good at this?” He
asked, pressing the buttons furiously.

“
I’m not. You
just suck…
really
bad.” I teased.

“
Really? Let’s see how good you are
when you can’t see!” He said, suddenly bringing his arm around the
back of my head and covered my eyes with his hand.

“
Logan!” I cried.

“
Not so good now, huh?” He
laughed.

“
I can still kick your ass!” I
pressed the buttons frantically and my character beat his. “I told
you, you suck real bad.” I tried to hold in a laugh.

“
Swap controllers.” He
demanded.

Like
that
was going to redeem
him!

As he realized I was still winning,
he began to lean against me, making me off balance.

“
What are you doing?” I
snickered.

“
Trying to put you off.” He said,
pressing into me a bit more.

“
It won’t work.”

“
It will!” He said in a sing-song
voice.

I was almost lying on my side, with
Logan’s heavy frame leaning on me and I was loving every second of
the close contact; his bare forearm against mine.

The feeling of him touching me had
my head in a fog. Thoughts of him touching me in different places
and kissing me with his perfect mouth, still feeling his hands on
me from the massage in the kitchen. I lost all concentration as
Logan leant on me even more, so I was lying on my side, and he won
the round.

“
Ha! I told you!” He cheered with a
satisfactory smile; still leaning on me.

He looked at me for a second and
then sat up straight. “Another round?” He asked, but he seemed
unsure.

I was going to suggest a different
game. One that didn’t involve our physical contact.

Fuck it.
I thought to myself.

“
Of course. You cheated so now I’m
going to have to beat you down.” I said in my best fighting talk
voice.

“
Oh, it’s on!” He said in the same
way. “Let the battle begin.”

My body was on fire next to Logan
as we played the game. He tried to cover my eyes again, but I
quickly dodged his hand, and shoved into him to push him away,
loving it.

“
Hey!” He laughed out.

“
Stop cheating!” I
giggled.

“
It’s not cheating. It’s called
gaining an advantage.”

“
By cheating.”

“
Ok, yeah.” He admitted.

Then, Logan leant across me, in
front of my face so I couldn’t see.

“
Logan!” I cried again as I
laughed.

Inside, though, my stomach was
doing all kinds of flips as he rested across my lap. His thigh was
against mine, his side was resting on my thigh and his right elbow
was now pressing onto the bed, as though he was trying to lay
across me. I didn’t mind in the slightest. In fact, I wanted to put
my controller down and run my fingers through his hair whilst he
stayed exactly where he was. I couldn’t tell him that, though, but
the way he’d suddenly started to touch me more than usual today,
was as if he already knew and he was teasing me.

There was a time, in sophomore
year, when we’d run through the school parking lot in the pouring
rain. When we got inside, before I had a chance to do it myself, he
pushed the loose, wet strands of hair out of my face. I just froze
and let him. It had felt intimate but once he was done, he went
back to his normal self, like nothing had happened. I’d dreamt
about that for months afterwards.

“
You’re going down!” He said,
playfully. Pushing more of his weight onto me.

“
Nice try, Blackwood, but you will
never defeat me!” I replied.

“
We’ll see about that.”

As Logan was leant sideways across
me, he shifted his weight to his left side, pushing me
backwards.

“
Stop!” I laughed as he continued
to push me down. If I didn’t have strong core muscles from
gymnastics, I would’ve been flat on my back.

“
Winner!”
The voice came from
the TV.

I’d beaten him again.

“
Damn it!” He said, without
moving.

“
I told you! Now, get up you heavy
lump.”

Logan slowly sat up next to me
again.

“
I clearly suck at this.” He said,
turning his face to me, his eyes looking into mine.

“
Just a bit.” I teased, and I tried
not to sigh at the blue pools; his thick, dark eyelashes framing
them perfectly.

Logan flinched, as if he were about
to lean closer to me, when the bedroom door opened.

“
Hey dudes!” Pike said as he walked
in.

He held his fist out to bump Logan
and then me, before sitting on the computer chair. Logan didn’t
look pleased that we’d been interrupted, and I wondered why that
was. We were only playing a game, after all.

“
Awesome game, who’s winning?” Pike
asked.

“
Chase. She’s kicked my ass.” Logan
smiled. “I got in one win and only because I cheated.”

“
Pass it here.” Pike held his hand
out to take Logan’s controller, and I knew that I was stuck playing
the game with him.

Logan passed it over, and we set
our characters.

“
Where are the other guys?” Logan
asked.

“
Picking up Lex. They said they’ll
come over too. They should be here soon.”

My heart dropped. Carl would be
over, and he would make his dislike known as soon as he got
here.

“
Let’s see what you got, dude.”
Pike said.

“
You
do
realize I’m not actually a dude?” I said, slightly
annoyed.

“
Yeah, yeah.” Pike said, dismissing
what he said, getting ready for our virtual battle.

“
Game
on!
” the voice came from the TV and
Pike began pressing the buttons wildly, probably trying to prove
something because he was playing against a girl.