Author's note: Angst. Angst. Angst. Angst. Sorry guys, I have FCMD. But there's nothing I can do about it! Logan is just too adorable when he's all pityful and sad and scared and. . .Gah! Yes, Logan has an abusive father and an uncaring mother. Poor Logie! Okay fangirling done. . .For now. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Chapter 4
Mitchell Archives
Last night wasn't as bad as usual. The bruises were still coming in dark purple under his shirt, and the cuts still stung hard, but there wasn't any broken bones or heavy bleeding anywhere this time. Still, when he pushed himself out of bed, his body ached like crazy. Despite that, he hurried around his room, getting dressed as fast, yet as tenderly as possible, and quickly brushed his teeth.
"Hurry up boy!" The intimidatingly booming voice eched through the house and reached the bathroom in no time at all, practically causing the bathroom mirror to vibrate.
"Yes sir! I'm coming sir!" He shouted. Well, as loud as the timid, scared boy could shout. He rinsed and ran down the stairs where his father and mother awaited him, already fully dressed for the cold weather.
"Get your boots on." The man said, towering over the small boy. He nodded quickly and rushed to get his boots on, than slide on his jacket. His parents then opened the door and he followed them out into the cold snowy weather.
It was early morning; 8:00 a.m. The sky was grey with the clouds blocking the sun, and it was too early for any kids to be awake on a Saturday. But not for him. He was always awake this early. Especially on days when his parents wanted to go out and have some time together. They could be gone all day sometimes, and they never brought him, but he didn't mind. If anything he was thankful for the days when he would get a break from them shouting at him and his father. . . .But he also loved when he got to come here. This was like his special place; away from the world and his problems. No one ever came here this early, so he got it all to himself.
They reached their destination in no time; the two adults anxious to get to where ever they were going, away from the boy. "Hurry up." The man said, shoving a pair of skates in the boy's face.
The boy immediately sat down and pulled his skates on. He shakily tied the laces and stood up to face his parents. His mother kneeled down and clicked his helmet on.
"T-thank you." He stuttered; from the cold or the fear he didn't know.
She slapped him somewhat lightly. "Now Logan, what did we say about stuttering?" She said gently.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"Now," His father started. "You know the drill. We'll be back in a few hours. Rules."
"Don't talk to anyone. Don't draw attention to myself and don't leave the pond." Logan recited.
Mr. Mitchell smirked. "Good boy." He turned to his wife. "Come now Joanna."
"See you later Logan." She called as they walked off.
He watched them walk down the sidewalk, then he turned and got on the ice. The big empty pond felt so welcoming. He could skate the whole circumference of it without worrying about bothering other people. Logan turned left and right, making circles and lines in the ice. Then he skated over to the very edge, took a deep breath, and sped down the length of the pond to the other side as fast as he could. He stopped, turned around, and did it again. This was his favorite thing to do on the ice; the laps. The speeding so fast down the ice that nothing could catch him. He could leave his world behind in the dust. Escape it; if only for a few hours. The cold winter air bit at his face as he rushed it, but he didn't care. Everything just seemed to fall off his shoulders when he was here, at the pond.
He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't even notice the lawns and sidewalks slowly fill up with children and their parents. Logan finally noticed the kids playing in the snow; having snowball fights and making snow forts and snow angels. Parents watching their children with love and care in their eyes, always making sure that they were safe and happy. Logan smiled at the show from his spot over on the pond, away from the kids and parents. He longed for friends to play in the snow with like the kids were doing with all of their friends. He longed for the kind and loving parents that watched them with pride and a happy smile. Logan had never known kindness. He had seen it being displayed around him, but never had he been shown the same care and consideration. 'It must be nice to have friends to play with, and people who care about you.' He thought.
Again so lost in his thoughts, he almost didn't notice that another kid was at the edge of the pond with his mom. His mom was carrying a little girl, must've been the boys' little sister. 'I wonder what it's like to have little siblings.' He thought. The boy was putting skates on. Logan would have to be careful not to bother him. Logan skated over to the very far side of the pond then. 'I'll just stay on this side. I can't bump into anyone over here, and no one will come and talk to me.' He watched as the boy's mom walked away and the boy got on the ice. 'Just keep to myself, just keep to myself.' Logan was getting nervous. What if the boy skated over here? What if he talked to Logan? What if he was mean? What if he hurt Logan?
The boy was skating near the far end of the pond where he had first got on. He didn't seem to want to skate closer. Then he skated a small figure eight, and just kept doing that in the middle of the pond, still a far ways away from Logan. He could relax a bit for now. Logan continued to skate mini laps in his side of the pond, sending small glances at the other boy from the corner of his eye, without fully looking at him. He was being weary of him, but deep down, also longing for any sort of contact with other people. He soon realized that he was bordering on actually staring at him. So to avoid drawing any attention to himself, he decided to ignore him, pretend he wasn't there.
Logan kept to himself at the edge of the pond, doing his laps. The boy kept to himself near the middle of the pond, doing circles and little figure eights. A little while passed when another kid got on the pond. The boy in the middle moved a little bit more towards Logan as if to make room for the other boy, causing Logan to become nervous once again. There had never been so many people on the ice when Logan was skating. Of course that could be due to the fact that Logan was always out extremely early, and the fact that it had been minus 30 for the past week, so no parent would dare let their child skate around for 2 hours in that kind of weather, other than Logan's that is. So Logan wasn't used to being around so many people, or having to be so careful not to interact with them.
The new boy had come with his dad, who Logan noticed to be a bit inattentive of the boy. Once the boy was geared up, his dad merely gave him a little shove on the ice and left to talk to someone near a tree. Logan could kind of relate. He felt a pang of sympathy for the boy when he noticed the small disappointment and hurt cross his face. But the boy brushed it off and continued to skate. 'I wish I could be strong like that.' Logan thought. To not let those things bother him, and to not want to cry whenever his parents were mean to him. He could maybe, be happy for a little while.
He watched the other boy skate around in circles, then noticed yet another boy get on the ice with his dad. He saw the joy in the boy's face, and thought he saw the same thing in his dad's. 'But that's impossible. Fathers don't like to spend time with their kids. . .Do they?' He double-taked, and saw that he was indeed right the first time, the boy's dad was actually having fun with his son. 'He must be the best dad in the world. I wish I had a dad like that.' A tear made its way down Logan's cold, flushed cheek, and he looked away. He couldn't watch anymore as these happy kids skated around with their happy lives with happy, nice families. The mere thought hurt. The thought that there was actually a such thing as nice people, as nice friends, as nice parents. As a happy life.
Logan was trying so hard not to cry right then and there. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. He decided to just focus on skating. The movements, the technique, the feeling of the ice beneath his skate. It was working. The smooth gliding sensation was calming him down. He became lost in the feeling. He was only vaguely aware of the shouting and laughing around him. But he had lost sense of time. He skated back and forth in his little area, never looking up from the ice. He'd skate to one end, and push off so fast and let himself glide to the other, closing his eyes and letting the feeling envelope him. He wasn't aware of how long it had been since he looked up.
Soon Logan noticed that the shouting was getting closer. Then, a paticularly loud shout urged him to look up. "LOOK OUT! AAAAAAAAAAH!" A boy sped towards him.
Logan acted fast, his reflexes and instincts taking over. He stood his ground, right in the boy's path. As soon as the boy was near, Logan quickly moved to the left and wrapped his left arm around the boy's waist, stopping him immediately. "Are you alright?" Logan asked. He kept his hand around the boy's waist and brought his other to the boy's back to steady him as the boy regained his breath.
"Whoa!" The boy exclaimed through his heavy breathing. "That was amazing! How did you do that?"
Logan blushed and released the boy once he had steadied himself. Then brought a hand to rub the back of his neck nervously. "Um, I don't know. I just did." He shrugged helplessly.
"Carlos!" The two other boys shouted as they skated over. "Are you okay?" The boy that was doing figure eights asked. Logan then realized that he had caught the boy that was with his dad, the happy one.
"Did you guys see that?" The boy, Carlos, said awe-struck. "He caught me!"
"Yeah actually we did." The boy with the other dad said. "That was really cool!" He exclaimed. The figure eight boy nodded in agreement.
Logan blushed harder. "Uh, thanks."
"Thank you! I was out of control!" Carlos said.
"Again." The circle boy shot.
Carlos sent him a glare, then turned back to Logan. "You saved my life!" He exclaimed dramatically.
"I don't think you could've died Carlos." Figure eight boy said rolling his eyes.
Carlos brushed him off. "Thanks again."
"You're um, welcome." Logan said nervously. "If you don't mind me saying, you should try bending your knees more. It helps you balance and have more control over where you go." Logan suggested.
Carlos tilted his head and looked at Logan like a curious cat, then bent his knees and skated a little, straight ahead, then turned around. "Hey you're right it works! Look at me! I'm skating!" He skated slowly in a circle around them until he slowed down and stopped in his previous spot. "Wow you're really smart!"
Logan blushed again, then realized what he was doing. 'Oh no, the rules! Stop talking to them!' He was screaming to himself. "Uh, I have to go." He said nervously and started to skate away to the other side of the pond.
"Wait!" Carlos said before Logan even moved his second skate. "Wanna skate with us? We just met too." He informed.
"I-" Logan started.
"Yeah but now we're like, best friends." The figure eight boy said. "You can be our best friend too!"
"But-"
"Yeah!" The circle boy said. "We're racing right now. You wanna race?"
"I can't, I-"
"I bet you'd be really good at it!" Figure eight boy said. "I saw you skating, you're really fast! I've never seen anyone that fast!"
'Stop talking to them! He'll get really mad! Just skate away. Skate to the other side of the pond. Do it now.' "I really should-"
"I know, we could be on teams!" Carlos beamed. "You and me against them!"
'They. . .They want me to play with them? They want me on their team? But I. . .I'm not. . .I'm not cool! Why would they want to play with me?'
"That's a great idea!" Figure eight boy said. "Whadoya say?" They all leaned in towards Logan, anxiously awaiting his answer.
Logan stood shocked. 'They actually want me to play with them. What if. . .What if he would never know? What if I just played for a little while and stopped when he came back? He'd never know. It'd just be for a little while right? He'd never know.' Logan slowly started to nod his head "O. . .Okay."
They all cheered. "Alright!" Figure eight boy said. "Oh I forgot. My name's Kendall." He announced. "This is James. . ." He gestered to circle boy beside him.. James waved. ". . .And this here's Carlos." Carlos sent him an ear-to-ear grin. "What about you?"
"Uh, me?" Logan asked flabbergasted.
"Yeah," James said. "What's your name?"
"Uh, it's, Logan." He said nervously.
"Alright!" Carlos said. "James and Kendall against me and Logan! First one to the other side wins!"
"Wait, I know how we can spice it up a bit." Kendall said schemingly as he raised an eyebrow.
The others leaned in. "We're listening."
