Loving Logan

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Miss Baxter, I assure you we'll get to the bottom of this," Officer Brown tells me before he gives my dad a nod. "We'll be in touch."

After he leaves, I let out the tears I've been holding back. Casey, who's been sitting next to me this whole time, wraps her arms around me and I let myself become hysterical.

I've been holding it together for too long. Now it's time to fall apart.

"If the cops don't do anything, I will," dad growls, pacing back and forth anxiously. "Actually, I'd rather get my hands on him myself."

He sits down next to me and I fall into his arms. I feel his shoulders shaking against my face and I realize he's crying too. I don't know why, but it makes me feel bad. Almost...guilty. He's been going through so much lately and here I am stirring up even more trouble in his life.

Josh told the cops that we were dating and the s*x was consensual. He even had a few of his buddies back his story up. After a waitress at Nancy's Diner remembered serving us on our date the other night, that pretty much killed any chance I had at taking Josh down.

There was no GHB found in my system, which means he used something undetectable to knock me out.

Now, it's just my word against his.

Tomorrow is Monday, but I can't bear the thought of facing Josh again after what happened. My dad said I can take all the time I need, but I don't know how long it will take to recover from something like this.

Josh probably gets off knowing I'll be living in fear. I'll be struggling to deal with this, to come to terms with what happened and finally to accept it and move past it. That could take months, if not years.

While he gets to go on with his life like he didn't ruin mine.

There's a knock at the front door and since my dad and I are still having a moment, Casey gets up to answer it.

She comes back a few seconds later wearing a faint smile on her face. "Someone's here to see you."

"I told you, I don't want to see anyone right now," I sigh, rolling my eyes.

"Trust me, you're gonna want to see this person," she says.

I look at my dad and he nods.

I wipe the remaining tears from my eyes and straighten out my shirt. I start to the front door wondering who it is that I'd want to see at a time like this.

I open the door and I'm met with a pair of stormy blue eyes. I'm momentarily stunned, both by the sight of him and the fact that he's here. At my house.

A mixture of emotions swirl around those blue irises before he speaks. "I had to see you. I had to see for myself that you're okay."

I stare at him for a while, trying to figure out how to respond. "Why did you leave?" I whimper.

His face falls and he takes a step back as if I punched him in the gut. He runs his hand through his messy brown hair and only then do I notice his knuckles are bruised and busted.

I take his hand and he tenses up. I meet his eyes and notice the guilt they hold. He blames himself for what happened to me and my question only added fuel to the fire.

"I shouldn't have left you. If I had stayed..." He blows a long breath through his nose, his face hardening in anger. "I'm so sorry, Katie. I should've been there."

"What happened?" I ask, pointing to his hands.

I already know, but I need to hear him say it. I need to know that sick son of a b***h got what he deserved, even if it wasn't by legal means.

"You know what happened," he answers, but as if he can read my mind, he continues, "I beat him until he stopped moving. You don't have to worry about seeing him at school either. He's gonna be in the hospital for a while."

There are so many things I want to say to him, so many things he deserves to hear, but my tears beat me to it. So instead, I hug him. I hold onto him tight, silently thanking him. I could never find the words to express how thankful I truly am. He's always been my hero, but now, he's something else entirely. And it's changing the way I feel about him.

 -

"Katie." Colton stops in front of my desk and while I'm expecting him to make fun of me or inflict some kind of injury, he only smiles.

"Yes, Colton?"

"I was wondering if you could help me with something," he replies.

Here it comes. I'm about to be the butt of some cruel joke.

"Ok?"

He squats down next to my desk, and when he does, I notice the cuts and bruises on his knuckles.

"I want to ask Casey to the homecoming dance and I was hoping that you could maybe keep her busy on Friday afternoon so I can get everything ready?"

What the hell?

I totally forgot about Colton and Casey hooking up on Friday night. After everything happened, she never brought it up and I didn't think to ask her about it. He was with her when she found me.

He's the one that called Logan.

"Uh, sure. What are you planning to do?"

He smirks. "Like I'd tell you short stuff." He stands up and practically grinds his hand into the top of my head, messing up my hair.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

I look over at Logan and he smiles. My heart flutters and my cheeks are blazing. This is really happening. He actually likes me.

-

Casey made sure to tell our friends not to bring up the whole Josh thing and to carry on as if everything is normal. I'm grateful that she thought to do that since I'm in no way ready to talk about what happened. I do, however, have to bite my tongue to keep from telling Casey about Colton's homecoming proposal. Instead, I feel it's the perfect opportunity to ask her about him.

"So I heard you hooked up with Colton Turner Friday night."

Both Evan and Bryant nearly choke on their food. Or puke. Not sure which.

To my surprise, Casey doesn't seem completely repulsed by my accusation. "Yeah, so?" she shrugs.

I scoff. "So? You've hated his guts since, I don't know, birth?"

"Wait. You're actually admitting to this? Like, you don't care that people know you've been defiled by the dumbest meat head to walk this earth?" Evan asks in disgust.

"Okay, first of all, I was defiled like, two years ago. Second, Colton was the best lay of my life, so I have no regrets," Casey explains, using the fry in her hand to get her point across.

Bryant hides his face in his chemistry book. This has to be hard for him to hear since he's been crushing on Casey since he met her.

"Anyways, in other news... I got my first kiss," I blurt out, trying to change the subject.

Bryant drops his book and Evan drops his sandwich. Casey is looking at me like she's going to snap my neck and I suddenly realize I never even told her.

"How dare you?! Why am I just now finding this out?! I have half a mind to... wait. Was it...Malone?" she asks with wide, excited eyes.

"Your first kiss was Logan Malone?!" Evan asks, a little too loud for the amount of people around us who can hear our every word.

"I guess the cats out of the bag." Logan casually sits down next to me with his lunch like he's been doing it every day since forever.

Everyone is staring at him, but no one can speak. Including me. Logan looks up from his sandwich and notices all of our shocked expressions. "What?" he asks.

"We didn't realize you ate... food," Casey says, still fully displaying her shock.

"Well, I usually hide out in the school basement and eat small children for lunch, but I thought I'd give cafeteria food a try today," Logan deadpans.

As morbid as that sounds, I can't help but laugh. Pretty soon, the others join in too.

Logan doesn't say much throughout the rest of lunch, but the fact that he made an appearance in the cafeteria, not to mention, sat down and ate with actual people, says it all. After all this time, he's finally coming around.

After lunch, I stop at my locker before heading to my next class. I hear snickering coming from behind me, but I ignore it at first. When it becomes louder, I turn around and see three girls smirking at me.

"We want to know if it's true," one of them say.

My whole body freezes. I'm sure everyone knows about what happened since half the school was at Jamie's party. And most of them only know Josh's version of what happened, which is far from the truth.

When I regain my composure, I try and push past them, but one of them step in front of me. "Tell us, Katie. What was it like to be with Josh Matthews?"

At the mention of his name my stomach churns. I back away from her, shaking my head. Not knowing what else to do, I turn around and run away.

I run out of the school, through the parking lot and halfway down Mackenzie Street before the tears I've been holding back come pouring out like a raging river.

I keep going, not worried about what the consequences of skipping class might be. My house is only a few blocks away and I'm determined to make it.

"Katie?"

I look over and see a familiar blue Tahoe sitting next to me. Ashley jumps out and rushes to my side.

"Are you okay?" she asks, looking me over for injuries.

Her concerned eyes and warm embrace calm my racing heart and I allow her to help me into her car.

She gets in and drives away, but not in the direction of my house.

"I live on Jefferson Street," I say, throwing my thumb over my shoulder.

"I know that, but there's no way I'm letting you go home alone after what happened. You're going to the bakery with me until your dad gets home."

"You know?" I croak.

She looks over at me and purses her lips together. "Logan came home covered in blood the other night."

My eyes spring open in surprise. She probably hates me for getting her son involved in all this. "I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" she chuckles. "Don't be. That scum deserved worse."

I give her a confused glance and she smiles. "I usually don't condone violence, but in this case, I'm willing to look the other way."

"I wish I could've seen it," I say bitterly, turning my attention to the window.

"You'll see the results of it. And that's how you'll be able to face him when he comes back to school. Knowing that he's going to need cosmetic surgery to fix his broken face will do a lot for the healing process."

For the first time in days, I laugh. Everyone else has been tiptoeing around me, cautious about what they say to me. Ashley doesn't seem afraid to brush the subject.

"Everyone at school thinks I wanted it. That's why I was walking alone. I didn't know what else to do," I say, holding back another round of tears that threaten to take over.

She takes my hand and squeezes it gently. "I just made a fresh batch of Nutella doughnuts. When we get back to the bakery, I'll make you a cup of coffee and we can talk about it if you want."

I sigh. "I don't know if I'm ready to talk about it just yet."

"Maybe not. But trust me, you need to. It's the only way to move on," she says, still holding onto my hand. "Holding on to something like this can make you crazy. I would know."

"You would?"

She pulls up to the bakery she's been talking about which I assume she works at. Sugar Baby's Sweets is painted on the window in big, pink letters. She's staring straight ahead like she's deep in thought and I'm wondering if she even heard my question.

Just when I'm about to ask her again, she turns to look at me with a pained look in her eyes. "I know we don't know each other that well, but I want you to know that I'm here for you. Not just about this, but for anything."

I give her a small smile. What she said makes me realize that what I need right now is my mom. She would know what to say. She would show me how to be strong. But she's gone. She left me. And now I'm turning to a stranger for that strength.

"Thank you, Ashley."