"beautiful. dirty. rich."

·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·

Logan realizes, rather belatedly, and in a vague, passive sort of manner, that he's always had this weird obsession with Chase.

At first, it isn't about Chase himself, he reasons. It's merely that Chase is associated with all the things that Logan lives for: competition, games and girls.

He and Chase compete for everything. Occasionally, Michael joins them, but the competition is always raised to fever-pitch between the other two. From food-eating contests to go-cart racing they battle, neither stopping until the other gives up. The games are the same: fighting, skill, RPGs and racing, besting each others' high scores just for the satisfaction of seeing the shocked face or to hear that sudden burst of swearing. And girls. Girls, girls, girls. Everyone knows who the real champion is when it comes to the opposite sex. Then again, Chase had dropped out of the race the unfortunate moment that Zoey had stumbled into their lives.

Then, Logan has his first sexual encounter with a guy. Yep. One of those human beings. The ones that happen to be the same gender as him, coincidentally. You know, equipment, and all that. And good ol' Chase appears to Logan in a whole new light. Chorus of angels and everything. Logan sees with opened eyes. Whenever he actually has time for Chase, that is.

Logan gets confused. He decides to think about it from the beginning. Where this whole mess really started.

·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·

The unexpected incident is a complete accident on Logan's half. After basketball practice one afternoon, he decides to delay himself to do a few drills in private [he and Chase have a slamdunk-a-thon coming up— last to twenty has to do the other's laundry for a month]. He's just finished showering off when he is slammed into a wall - he's more surprised than hurt, he remembers -, still dripping water and wearing nothing but a thin towel around his waist.

"Ow!" yells Logan, a pretty standard reaction for anyone shoved into (hard] concrete, caught completely off guard. Then he recognizes his attacker. "Durrell! What the f-"

The rest of the sentence is muffled by lips of the assailant in question, Jason Durrell, the tall, muscular captain of the swim team, pressing the offending appendages to Logan's, and Logan is sure that if the rest of his body had been talking, it would have been cut off too.

Logan's first thought? WHOA.

Logan's next thought? ...WHOA.

When Jason stops ravaging his lips long enough for Logan to form a full sentence, he manages to grind out a, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" It unfortunately lacks most of the conviction it had possessed in his head in the few seconds before. He remembers that too- that Jason used to make him so uncoordinated.

Jason chuckles as he stares down at Logan with curious lust simmering in his brown eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, Logan. What does it look like I'm doing?" Jason's hands travel slickly down the sides of Logan's dripping torso, and Logan is uh, pret-ty sure he wasn't tingling there a second ago, yeah. "And if you really are that stupid, well…" His soft lips burn an amused smile against Logan's wet neck, meeting no resistance. "What does it feel like I'm doing?"

Logan bites his lip, sub-consciously tilting his head to one side and giving Jason more access to his neck when suddenly, he realizes what he's doing. His eyes narrow. "It feels like you're trying to rape me." He puts his hands on Jason's bare chest and pushes. "And I'm not interested, because I'm not gay."

And as he walks away, he makes a mental note to tell himself the same thing later when he's having serious sex withdrawals.

Then Durrell opens his big fat mouth and ruins everything:

"You can't rape the willing, Logan."

Logan freezes. His mind stops mid-whirl. Um. He can feel his mouth hanging open. Um. He turns slowly, his eyes wide with disbelief. He did not just say that. "Excuse me?"

Jason is smirking and Logan has to remind his brain yet again that it isn't attracted to boys, and therefore, Jason Durrell smirking like that is not sexy in the least. Not. In. The least. Nope. Not at all. He sends Jason a ferocious glare.

"Don't play dumb, Logan- it really doesn't suit you. And I know you heard exactly what I said."

Logan, now understandably pissed, stalks toward Jason, one hand tightly securing his towel on his hips. He is standing so close to the cocky swim captain that he can see the golden flecks in the other's light brown eyes. He knows quite well [and with a rather questionable thrill of excitement] that he's invading personal space, tempting the shark with fresh bloody meat. "Do you know who I am, Durrell? I'm Logan Reese. And there is no way that I'm a fucking faggot. You wanna know why? It's cuz I love girls. And I'm never gonna stop loving girls. Got that?"

And Jason still has that damn smirk on his damn face.

What. The fuck.

"Okay, Logan. Sure. We'll play it your way." He steps back and walks past a stunned Logan to the door. As he pushes it open, he looks over his shoulder and waits for Logan to face him. As soon as Logan meets his gaze, he gives Logan's body a long, obvious, appreciative appraisal. It sends more of those unfamiliar tingles down Logan's spine. "It's a shame, really. I'd planned on getting some tonight. But I wouldn't worry too much about it." Jason grins. "You'll come to me when you're good and ready. And when I take you?" His brown eyes glimmer dangerously and his smirk widens. "You'll beg for it."

Needless to say, our poor Logan is left cold, bewildered and very confused about his apparently ambivalent sexuality.

But despite his angry denials, as the days and weeks go by, Logan finds himself more and more attracted to Jason. He notices the other boy's presence everywhere now, and he wonders if Jason is doing it on purpose [manipulative bitch], or if he's just never seen him around [. . . manipulative bitch!]. It isn't as if he isn't popular, Jason; he's always surrounded by swarms of people, both boys and girls, and Logan has to wonder if they all feel the same way he did. He has to admit, it's hard as hell not to.

Jason's also been playing a leading role in his dreams. It certainly isn't everyday that he's rescued from drowning in a pool by a smoking hot lifeguard [thank God- he might've died from sensory overload by now], and then given the Kiss Of Life to regain consciousness, among, um- other things. He's there; nearly every damn time Logan was closes his eyes. This has to mean something.

And goddamit, those fucking eyes. Jason always be watchin' him. Always. Stalker. And those brown eyes are luring him in just a little bit further every time. Just say yes, Logan, they seem to murmur, twinkling with naughty promises. All you have to do is say yes. Got Logan mixing up his body parts and shit. Ew.

Why can't he make up his mind? Logan asks himself. Quite frequently, actually.

The answer is - obviously - Fuck the fuck off.

So why does he desperately want to say Please, please, please- take me before I die from Jasonitis?

·◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊×◊·

Chase, on the other hand, begins to receive less and less of Logan's attentions. Except to eye him slyly whenever he gets the chance [which includes creating unnecessary reasons for entering the bathroom whenever Chase is showering], Logan has been throwing Chase aside again. And again. And again.

And unbeknownst to Logan, Chase is getting slowly and quietly upset, like a dormant volcano that has suddenly realized seventy years later that it was tricked during that game of Hide and Seek, and that, no, no one is ever coming to find it. Ever.

And so one pleasant Tuesday afternoon, Chase erupts.

"Dammit, Logan! What the hell is wrong with you these days?"

Logan blinks, surprised and unusually lost as he's ripped [quite rudely, really] from his thoughts. "What? What are you-? Nothing's wrong with me."

Michael, who's sitting across the room with a book in his hand, scoffs angrily, turning a page and continuing his facade of reading, even as he says, "Yeah, right, Logan- don't try that crap."

"It's like you're a goddamn zombie!" Chase shouts, his fists clenched. Logan stares. "You don't do anything, and when you do, it's just barely eating, just barely sleeping or going to class! You hardly talk anymore, and you're never. around. And that 'ball shooting contest we were supposed to have the other day? You never even showed up."

Logan's shocked silence stretches on, and for the first time in his life, there are no sweet placating words on the tip of his tongue.

"Logan, what's going on?" Chase's voice breaks at the end of his question, and Logan can only continue to gape at him in surprise. "Logan," Chase whispers, roughly wiping a tear from his cheek, and ho-ly shit, a tear? "You're my best friend, and... and I'm scared and I feel like I'm losing you… and. Jesus. What went wrong?"

Michael sends a look of complete disappointment at Logan, swallows audibly, and leaves the room, and it takes a big-ass chunk of Logan's self-control to not go running out that door after him, because, shit. Michael never lets them see him cry.

Logan is more or less traumatized. He hasn't at all realized how much his new obsessi- fixation has affected the rest of his friends, and usually, yeah, he really doesn't care. But Michael just left him. And Chase... Chase is… crying.

Logan stands and walks over to where his best friend has collapsed, sitting on his heels, a hand clenched in his untamable hair as he continues his silent sadness. Logan kneels next to him and wraps his arms around Chase's body awkwardly, feeling extremely vulnerable and out of character.

"I'm so… I'm so sorry, Chase." The words feel so foreign on his tongue. "I didn't know that- God, please stop crying. I didn't- Stop crying, please don't cry…"

And with firm resolve, Logan decides that he is done. That's it. He can't take this shit anymore. He's going to go to Jason tonight to finish this silly game once and for frigging all.

A/N: Allo (:

Long time no type! Haha!

Wow. Kinda good to be back.

Would you believe I had this written BEFORE Touch Me, Taste Me?

Then again, TMTM had been a spur of the moment thing. THIS poor story has gone through so many changes, experimentations.

But it's here (:

I think I have a pretty firm view of how long I want this to be, and in what direction I want it to go,

and have a couple chapters written out. We'll see how it goes.

On the subject of Opposites Attract, no, I have not abandoned it. I've been stuck in a difficult spot for quite a while,

and I don't want to just upload a shitty chapter. I think I'm nearly there.

Give me your slashy thoughts ;)

Til next time, yeah?

xx

- I.D.