Louise sat in her bed the next morning, surrounded by the softness of blankets, wishing someone would come knock on her door and tell her they loved her. The blankets loved her, because every too-late-to-be-healthy night and every earlier-than-dad morning, they hugged her through all of them, got her through the midnight pains that caused the one a.m. thoughts that poly-morphed into the two a.m. taking of her razor out of the bathroom. This was one of those days. She stared at the ceiling, thinking about all these things, all the reasons she was still alive. There was mom and dad. Her death would cause so much unrest in their family, and that would be bad for them. She really loved them, despite how she acted at various points in time, and didn't want bad things to happen to them. Second, she still had so much time left if she didn't die right now. Then again, there was nothing to do with it. She didn't have a hobby, didn't have anything she loved to do enough to keep going. Last and certainly the least, there was Logan. He... had obviously grown quite a lot and become a different person. It fascinated her in some sense, and she wanted to figure out who exactly he was now. He seemed like he was so different, but at the same time he was still the boy/man who had stolen her precious hat. It was curious. Maybe there was a reason to get up today, maybe there was a reason somewhere hidden not to die.

Louise got up, walking like a drunk from sleepiness, and made her way, from her room, to stand in front of the bathroom mirror. She took in her messy black hair and cold eyes. They stared at her from some misty reverse world, and she could almost imagine in that world she was in love with someone, and she was peaceful and happy. She snorted at the thought, then took two ponytail holders out of her drawer in the vanity. She tied up her hair into her classic pigtails carefully, slowly, making sure not to tug too hard or harm her hair. She walked back to her bedroom, quicker now, and put on her pink eared hat, then went to the kitchen table and plopped down, the cold air making her shiver slightly.

"Louise, can you get dressed? Logan will be here in a few minutes, we promised to feed him and keep him busy all day. Stupid Cynthia, can't care for her own son..." Her mom trailed off, muttering some half witted insults.

"What does it matter, I mean it's not like he's gotten bad for me or something? I don't really feel like it."

"Louise, go!"

"Fine," she said, sighing. She pushed out her chair and stood up abruptly, waling to her room with a swagger.

Once her door was closed, she changed quickly, practically shoving a pair of jeans and a tank top on her body. She walked back out, her mind swarming with how all her flaws were overcoming her, how she wouldn't be good enough, she wasn't fit enough to wear this tank top and these jeans show off too much of her butt. The only sign outside of her mind that something was wrong was the small sigh she let out and the slightly forlorn look that haunted her face.

"Better?" She asked, her voice pointed.

Linda nodded, but she still looked the littlest bit mad. "I don't like that tone, missy! You better fix it."

"Okay," Louise said, holding up her hands in front of her face. There was a loud knock on the door, though, so her mom didn't get a chance to ravage Louise anymore.

"Oh, that must be Logan!" Her mom said, walking out of the kitchen and down the steps. She opened the door with a bang. Louise rolled her eyes once her mom was gone from the room and walked over to the table, sitting down and stretching her legs across the two chairs that were adjacent to hers. She really didn't feel like being cordial to anyone today, much less Logan Berry Bush of all.

"And here's Louise," her mom finished talking, presenting her daughter like some kind of prize on a game show, with all the hand gestures.

"Hey, Louise," Logan said, waving his hand. She frowned at him and he cringed.

"I'm gonna be down helping Bob at the restaurant, so you two have fun!" Her mom said, smiling and winking at Louise. Louise glared at her.

Logan nodded, slowly, watching the interaction between the two women with an appropriate amount of cation. After Linda had left, he sat down at the one spot at the table that wasn't taken up by Louise's feet. He could guess she wasn't exactly having a good day. She stared at the floor, pointedly not making eye contact with him. That left him to feel weird, and he wanted her to like him. So, of course, he did the reasonable thing.

"You look like a hillbilly five year old." He said, smirking at her.

She looked at him, finally, and glared. "You look like you just had a carpet burn sex with someone and they decided they like sadism."

"At least I'm getting some!"

"Hey, I've got friends with benefits."

"I knew all your friends were after something else."

Louise glared at him, tears forming in her glistening eyes. "Of course I have friends who aren't after me," she said, suddenly sounding too serious. Her face stood like stone as she walked away, despite the water flowing down it.

"I'm sorry!" He cried out after her, but the only response he got was a small whimper he could barely hear as she closed her bedroom door. Looks like he had hit a nerve there.

Louise slammed her door, but unfortunately none of the doors in this goddamn house locked. She collapsed into her bed, letting the blankets surround and calm her. It wasn't her fault Gene and Tina were both at college. It wasn't her fault nobody liked her enough to spend time with her like a friend would. The most she had gotten out of someone who wasn't stuck with her for a very long period of time was a begrudging understanding, to a small extent, of who they both were. She wanted a cigarette, but in order to keep her very secret habit of smoking secret, she had a rule of no smoking where others could find you easily, such as in a room without a locking door. A few minutes of silence passed, but suddenly someone was knocking on her door.

"Louise?" Logan's disembodied voice asked, slightly muffled. "Can I come in?" She grunted a very rough yes. Or maybe it was a no. She couldn't say for sure, but Logan probably would have come in no matter what. "I'm sorry, Louise," he said earnestly, walking into her room. "I didn't mean that. I thought we were joking around," he said, sitting down on the edge of her bed, like a parent might when they were telling their child goodnight.

"I know, I should be sorry too. It was an overreaction, because I'm having one of my bad days. I just... I get all messed up in my mind because..." she sniffed, and a lone tear drifted lazily down her cheek. "I don't actually have friends. Nobody likes me enough. I'm sorry, I know it's going to be a very long month. God, why did you even do this? You, most of all people, know I'm a pain in the ass!" Louise sat up stiffly, but did not look him in the eyes.

"I did it because... Well, I wanted to see you again. It was certainly impulsive on my part, but I couldn't resist. I never can when it comes to you. I couldn't wait to torture you a little bit, but ever since I saw you, I could tell you've changed."

"I guess that's better than say, just wanting money. I'm sure my mom offered you quite a bundle, though. She's tired of me, I know." A little flash of softness appeared in her eyes for a split second. "Hey, guess what."

"What?"

"My mom thinks that Cynthia is a terrible parent," Louise said, feeling a little twinge in her gut, not being used to gossip. She didn't usually have anything to gossip about.

Logan laughed softly. "I think I can agree with that. She basically didn't raise me, and is now confused on why I only come home on birthdays and holidays." He rolled his eyes. Louise felt herself nearly smile. "Hey, guess what," he said, grinning.

"What?" Louise crossed her arms.

"There's this party next Friday night, and I got Linda to agree to let us go."

Louise sat with her mouth half open. "Mom never lets me go to parties."

"I convinced her it would be good for you to get out of the house," he said, smirking proudly. Louise leaned over and grabbed him tightly, latching onto the back of his button down shirt, squeezing his back. She closed her eyes before whispering to him.

"Two years," she said, almost sounding sad. He smiled, hugging her back.

The few days left between then and Friday passed with the utter slowness of a turtle trying to find something. A very methodical turtle. Louise had ups and downs, but it mostly her, praying she was stable enough for Friday. As of Tuesday, she had just come off of a three week episode, and maybe it could hold off for awhile before coming back. School was terrible, but that was typical. She barely even noticed the twinges in her brain now, the teasing and slightly afraid glances thrown her way didn't even bother her. She had to get somewhere, and that somewhere was Friday. Everyday she came home, she went to her room in a hurry. So fast not even her mom had a chance to catch her, and she dreamed. She spent hours upon hours stuck in a world that was all her own, just laying, spellbound, on her bed, imagining all the different ways that this could go. Nothing interesting happened during the day anyway, nothing that could compare to her dreams.

Louise was a very cynical person. She didn't have a typical dream, where at the end of the night Logan would sweep her away to some hotel and they'd duke it out on a bed. No, Louise's fantasy had much more to do with something terrible happening, a super villain attack, a zombie apocalypse, etc. And then she would go and save the day, and Logan, in a very violent way. It was her own way of calming her mind, her sort of therapy. She'd been doing it for as long as she could remember, but it never ceased to calm her fears and lift her spirits.

Logan knocked on Louise's bedroom door, grinning.

"One second!" Louise called out through the wood of her door, and after a few seconds she opened the door and stepped out. Her black hair was curled and lay down, caressing her shoulders and framing her face. She was very close to grinning, her mouth just barely curled at the edges like a piece of paper being burnt. Her dress was short, it hit her about in the middle of her thigh. It was sleek and black, with a gold zipper that was barely visible under one arm. The only noticeable makeup on her face was a splash of scarlet lipstick that made you want to kiss her. But that might've just been Logan.

"I've never seen you in a dress," he teased, smiling at her and raising an eyebrow.

"You've never seen me try to look nice, then, which isn't surprising. And since we're being picky, I haven't seen you in a tux with your hair neat, either."

"Well, I guess it's not surprising you've never seen me on a date," he said, laughing as she glared at him and crossed her arms.

"Sixteen, perv," she said, her eyes lightening enough for him to know she wasn't upset. They walked to the top of the stairs, both of them eager to get going, but Linda stopped them before they could get very far.

"Were you gonna leave without saying anything, baby?" Linda asked. Logan noticed a disposable camera in her hand, and had a very bad, and by that he knew it was good, idea. Louise turned around, her eyes widening in horror.

"No," she said, laughing, but you could tell it was fake. "No, of course not. We were just about to tell you we're leaving. Bye now!" Louise shouted, trying to walk down the stairs, but Logan grabbed her arm before she could get very far.

"We can't let your mom not have pictures of us, Louise. I mean, you got so dressed up. You look very nice," Logan said, narrowing his eyes at her in amusement. She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Come on, get back here," he said, gently pulling her into his embrace. Her eyes widened as she realized where she was, but Linda just laughed, as if she knew Logan's gag.

"Okay, lemme get a picture," she said, quickly using all twenty five exposures on her camera of them at different angles. Logan made sure to smile brightly in all of them, but Louise just glared straight at the camera with the face of a girl who hates romance being forced to take fake date photos.

"Can we go? I think we're gonna be late," Louise said, looking for any possible out.

"She's right Linda, we've got a ways to go to get to the party," he said, winking at Louise. She just rolled her eyes, but barely held back laughter.

"Oh, okay. Well, have fun on your date!" Linda cried as they walked down the stairs. Just before they left the house, Louise shouted back at her.

"Sixteen, mom!" Logan laughed, and eventually Louise found herself laughing too, at the absurdity of it all.

They stepped out on to the sidewalk to witness the beginning of the night, with all it's warmth and promises of happiness in the following hours.