"I'm only sixteen, perv!" Louise squealed, her cheeks bright red. She walked down the pier next to Logan, who smirked at her.
"Hey, M'lady, I only have to wait two years. It's not that long," Logan answered, knocking her arm with his elbow and wiggling his eyebrows. Louise laughed again and looked out across the ocean, admiring the way the light hit the waves as they rose up and down.
"Two years, I'll be out of this town and in college!"
"College? I can just follow you, if you even go." Louise glared him and stuck her tongue out, ignoring a pang in her heart. He had hit a nerve.
"Yeah, well that's not possible if I don't tell you where I'm going."
"Yeah, well I could ask Linda."
"Yeah, well then I'll key your car."
"Yeah, well I'll buy a new car."
"I'll key that one too!"
"I'll buy five new cars and fut barbed wire fences around all of them!"
"I'll get a blowtorch, melt the fences, then melt the cars."
"I'll sue you!"
"I'll get someone else to do it!"
"I'll get you as an accomplice!"
"I'll just chain you to a chair, then!" Louise screamed, getting looks from all the passerby.
"Oh, really?" Logan whispered to her, leaning in closer than necessary. "And what would you do while I was held down, darling?" Louise jerked back from him, and slapped him.
"Pervert."
"It's not perverted, because you would be eighteen," he reasons, smiling at Louise.
"It is if I tied you up now," she spat back, walking quicker. He didn't speed up, just crossed his arms and sighed happily.
Louise fumed on ahead, muttering softly, so no one could hear, under her breath. She would've thought Logan's constant sex jokes were funny, if only they weren't directed at her all of the time. Just once, she'd like to find someone, lead Logan to them and make him make a sex joke about them to their face. It would be even better if he actually wanted to have a romantic relationship with them. Unfortunately, Logan was a smart individual who knew Louise too well for that.
Louise kept walking faster than Logan, making sure not to leave him in the dust, but also making sure she wasn't close enough to talk to him. She checked her watch. It was four p.m. and they were just getting down to the beach, as they had made it back from the edge of the pier and down the rocks that led to the beach. They had about two hours until Linda would want them back home. Ugh. Two more hours with Logan. She hadn't felt this kind of resistance towards something since she had been asked by her father to cut up lettuce instead of raw meat. That was just criminal, but also five years ago, before much of the situation that had caused Logan to come into her life had happened, so she supposed this is exactly what Linda was aiming for. Making her feel things.
"Louise!" His voice called out from behind her, and she huffed, but kept walking. "Louise, let me say sorry, okay?" She didn't stop. She heard the sand crunching slightly louder behind her, and sighed. This interaction was happening no matter what.
"Logan," she said, trying not to grind her teeth.
"Louise, do you want me to stop making those kind of jokes?" He asked, looking more sincere than she cared to appreciate. She nodded. "Okay, I will."
They walked together once more, shoulder to shoulder. After about five minutes, Louise was uncomfortable with their comfortable silence.
"Logan," she said, but it wasn't cold and angry like before. "What do you want to do with your life?" He looked at her, mystified.
"I don't know yet... I got a degree in business, but I don't even know what to do with that. I thought about becoming a fashion designer once, but that seems so out of reach. When I was little I wanted to be a firefighter like all the other blonde haired boys in my kindergarten class, but I don't have that kind of courage in me. I hate fire, too."
"I honestly always thought you wanted to be a chef."
"It's been a recent passing dream of mine, but I don't know anyone who would teach me that kind of thin-" Louise slapped him for the second time that day.
"Berry Bush, do you realize who exactly you're talking to?" Logan's eyes narrowed for a minute, but suddenly, after Louise frowned at him for just as long, he looked like he felt dumb.
"Oh my God, you're the heiress to a restaurant!"
"I wouldn't go that far, but I sorta know a guy." She smirked.
"Are you offering to spend more time with me?" Her face fell.
"No! But dad already likes you, I'm sure he would teach you and you could see if that was a real opportunity." Logan nodded.
"I'd like that, if you don't mind." Louise looked away from him, towards the water, to hide her growing redness of cheek.
"I wouldn't mind one bit."
They walked for the remainder of their time together along the shore, occasionally talking about one thing or another. Their silences weren't forced, and neither was their conversation. It flowed like water into the ocean, naturally and the way it was supposed to without effort. The sun began to set, and Louise checked her phone again, frowning.
"We'll have to start walking back now. It's already five fifty." Logan nodded. Before following Louise off the beach, however, he took one last long look at the sunset. It was red and orange, with veins of pink. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't put a finger on what exactly. Ah, it would come to him in time, he thought, and started to follow Louise.
That night, Louise lay down on her bed, smiling at the ceiling. She was strangely happy, and she didn't know whether to be frightened or not. There was good chance this was the eye of the storm. Tomorrow she would be on the ground again, crying out, but for tonight she could be happy. It sort of frightened her, but at the same time didn't that mean she was getting closer to being on the other side? And that meant she was getting closer to being able to do things again, closer to not having people look at her with tears in her eyes, telling lies about how much they had liked her before. She could be her own person, her own thing. She could live a life that was hers and hers alone. She fell asleep to the beat of her dreams about what she would do when she could.