4.

It started off innocently enough. Logan was up early, he had nothing to do, and he felt up to a nice intellectual challenge. As long as he could just get one game in before any of the others got up and gave him a hard time, he'd be satisfied.

8.

"Hey, Logan! How's it going?" Patton walked into the living room one morning, surprised to find Logan curled up on the couch on his phone.

"Oh, hey, Patton. Not much, you?" Logan replied, distracted.

16.

"Not much, just a typical Saturday morning! Whatcha doing, anyway?"

"Nothing important, don't worry about it." Logan adjusted his position so that the screen stayed hidden, and focused harder on the task at hand.

Suddenly, something clicked for Patton. "Wait, you're not doing what I think you're doing, are you? You know how you've gotten in the past."

32, 64, 128.

The combo gave Logan renewed energy, and he waved Patton away absentmindedly. Patton stood by for a moment, concerned, but eventually he gave up and migrated to the kitchen to start on breakfast.

Virgil walked in a few minutes later, and it only took him one look at Logan to know exactly what was going on. He turned to Patton. "Oh no, he's not..." Patton just nodded grimly.

256.

"Logan, buddy, please don't do this again," Virgil pleaded. "Thomas has a lot to do this weekend. We can't afford to have you like this."

"Look, this won't last for more than a few minutes, okay? I'll be done soon-GAH!"

One swipe in the wrong direction had brought him dangerously close to losing everything. If he didn't get another 4 on his next turn, it was all over.

Meanwhile, Virgil had cowered at Logan's outburst, and Patton put a hand on the latter's shoulder. "Look, for Virgil's sake, at least, can you please stop? Just put it down for a couple of minutes?"

"It's fine, it's fine, okay? It won't happen again." And it was fine. Logan had saved himself from imminent disaster and was now back on track.

512.

This time, Patton took a stab at reasoning with him. "Come on, buddy, don't be like this! Think of all the times you've complained about Thomas being on his phone. Virgil's right, we have a lot to do this weekend.

1024.

Logan's eyes widened. He'd never gotten that far before. But it still wasn't good enough. He curled up even tighter as his swiping motions grew more frantic.

"Hey, what's Roman's high score again?" Logan asked without looking up.

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, not this again. Look, you're better at rapping and he's better at coming up with nicknames and you're better at chess and he's better at a silly phone game. Seriously, you guys have got to let this go."

Logan ignored the tirade completely. "It's, like, 30k something, right?"

Virgil and Patton exchanged glances again. At this point they were going to have to stage some sort of intervention.

It was Patton's turn again. "Logan-"

But he was interrupted by another yell from the logical side, this time a more triumphant one.

He had it. The combo he needed was right in front of him. As long as he moved all the tiles in the right way, he could finally put this behind him...maybe.

8, 16, 32, 64, 128. His hands were still shaking, but the emptier the board got the more thrilled he felt. 256, 512. Patton and Virgil stood off to the side, intrigued and even happy for him now that he didn't seem so upset.

Logan's eyes widened. He swiped left one more time; the two 512 tiles merged. Just one more swipe up, and he'd win.

At long last, Roman strolled into the kitchen. "Morning, everyone! What's up with you all on this fine-"

"I GOT IT!" Logan shouted. Virgil jumped again, but Logan just put his phone down and leaned back for a moment.

"You got what?" Roman asked, confused but interested.

Virgil spoke up. "Ugh, he's just happy because he finally beat 2048."

"Oh. Cool!" Roman gave Logan a nod of approval before turning to the fridge. Logan sulked at the reaction, but returned to his phone.

Patton came over to him. "Oh no you don't. You beat the game, great, you can check that off the list. Good job! Now please put it away." He snatched the phone from Logan's hand.

"Wait, no, please!" Logan begged. "I haven't lost yet."

Patton stopped in his tracks and tentatively handed the phone back. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I promise," Logan said eagerly.

Patton sighed and gave him the phone back, and the other three stood by while their now much more relaxed friend played his game for another few minutes.

But finally he lost for real this time, and at last he put his phone down. He got up from the couch. "So, what's for breakfast?"

Virgil cleared his throat. "What?" Logan whined.

"Delete the app," Virgil insisted.

"Okay, okay, fine. I will." He opened his phone again and showed his friends the screen so they could see him deleting it.

"Good," Patton said, satisfied. Logan smirked at Roman as he walked past, and Roman, unaware that the rivalry wasn't quite as friendly on his opponent's side, just gave a confused smile back.

Meanwhile, Patton and Virgil exchanged glances once again. How long was this going to go on?