A/N: Hello all! First, thank you again to those wonderful few of you who reviewed! You guys are the best.
WARNING: This chapter had to be split in two. I was eleven pages past the point where this submission ends and I realized that I had at least fifteen more to go, which would have put the total well over sixty pages (at least). So, I found a decent place, one I can live with, and I split it. Yes, that means the next submission (which is just the last half of this chapter) will be DL centered as well. I wanted to be a bit further along with the second half before posting this, but I spent six hours yesterday taking a test (CSET) that my future depends on me passing and I don't think it went very well. I spent the rest of the day completely freaking out about it. Hopefully this is a more successful endeavor than the test felt.
Also, there is a Very Important Note at the bottom, if you're a reader on this site, you should read it.
Music: "Trouble Sleeping" by Corinne Bailey Rae and Glory Box by Portishead.
"I'd rather spend one minute holding you than spend the rest of my life knowing I never could," came Jimmy Livingston's, the Bubble Boy's, sincere words just before he passionately kissed the love of his life Chloe in the middle of her wedding ceremony to another man.
Dana had no idea why she was watching this movie. She had returned to school an hour earlier, none of the other girls were back yet, and this was one of the first things she had found on TV. It was alright at first, filled with stupid and sometimes gross comedy, but now, now she was reminded why she shouldn't watch this movie.
It was the look on Jimmy's face, the one right before he kissed the girl in the wedding dress. She had seen the movie before and when she saw it before the look meant nothing to her, but now it was familiar. That "absolutely all I want is to kiss the girl I'm looking at" look, she had seen it the previous night. And whenever she didn't find something to distract her she wondered if the previous night was really the first time or if it had become familiar long ago.
No. She was wrong. She was wrong, she was wrong, she was wrong. She had to be wrong. There was never a look, there was never anything. Never before and never again. Never.
Bubble Boy ended and Office Space came on and Dana turned up the volume on the television as she attempted to let the work troubles of Peter Gibbons and his co-workers drown out all the thoughts, memories, in her head.
In the next three hours all the girls returned and found attempts to get any kind of acknowledgement from Dana other than an initial hello, completely fruitless. They figured that either something bad had happened over her break or she was having a really off day.
Nicole knew something was out of place about her break, but she only had a snippet of information and if it was nothing and especially because she probably wasn't supposed to know, she claimed to the other girls that she didn't know what was going on. She had her suspicions, but she didn't know, so amazingly she kept her mouth shut.
The girls decided that if they tried to act like everything was normal, though Dana's dazed muteness clearly proved otherwise, maybe they'd get some answers.
"Let's establish post break relationship status by accounting for break contact," Nicole said with a happy clap as they all settled into seats around Dana who hadn't moved from the spot she sat down in when she got to school over four hours earlier. "I'll start," Nicole said eagerly, "Matt called me five times while he was on vacation and being charged like a lot to make the long distance calls. And he said he has something he wants to give me and we're going out tonight."
"So things are looking promising?" Lola checked.
"I don't know," Nicole replied with a shrug, "Sometimes he would say sort of weird stuff while we were talking. Like, every time he told me about someone or anything, he always told me what race each person was he was ever talking about. Maybe it's nothing though, but I'll find out tonight probably."
With Nicole seemingly settled Lola moved on and asked, "So Quinn, how many calls did you get from Jack?"
"None," Quinn replied, but quickly continued noticing the girls' worried looks, "I told him not to call, it would have been pointless. I have horrible cell phone service in Seattle, but good service here. Since I'm here most of the year it's never really a problem. So, we couldn't talk on the phone, but we e-mailed. He e-mailed me at least twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. I'm not seeing him tonight, he's not getting back until late, but we do have plans for tomorrow night. Things are good."
"Good," Lola commented, but quickly turned to the person she was most curious about, "So Zoey, was there ever a time that you weren't talking to Chase over break?"
"Yeah, there were lots of times," Zoey replied almost seeming like she didn't know what they were talking about.
"Nope," Nicole said shaking her head and smiling, "You're so not getting away that easily. Every time I called you your line was busy and I called everyone else and Chase's was always busy too and it was always Chase and never anyone else."
Zoey could no longer keep up her innocent, oblivious eyes. A blush rose on her cheeks as she tried to claim, "It wasn't that often."
Ignoring the denial, Lola moved on to what she thought of as more pressing matters, "So what'd you two always talk about?"
Zoey looked down and chipped at her white fingernail polish as she said with a shrug, "Nothing really." She glanced up because she could feel the stares of Lola, Nicole, and Quinn. She conceded with a sigh and said, "We talked about how he thinks the new Teenage Mutant Turtles look anorexic in the new movie trailer. And we talked about how he really didn't want to know that his grandpa switched from boxers to briefs. See, just pointless, random stuff; nothing really."
The girls couldn't contain themselves, Lola, Nicole, and Quinn busted out with laughter at the sheer absurdity of the conversation topics Zoey mentioned. Zoey joined them, but before they could calm down she tried to move the conversation away from her. She asked, still smiling from laughing with the other girls, "So Lola, how were things with Michael over break?"
"Ugh," Lola grunted in dissatisfaction as all the previous laughter completely disappeared from her features.
"That bad?" Zoey asked cautiously.
Lola was silent for a second, so Nicole jumped in already having been informed over the phone over break, "Michael had the opportunity to kiss Lola before we left and he didn't take it. She's been freaking out about it all break. And it didn't help that instead of actually calling, Michael usually just sent texts about nothing. Like, "Watching Rudy." I said that that was sweet because he was letting her know that he was enjoying her gift. But Lola's been worrying about whether he's actually really interested."
"Well I liked the slow, casual pace until I realized that maybe things are going that way because he doesn't really want anything to happen," Lola jumped in voicing just one of the thoughts that had occupied her mind over break. She was about to add that when her younger sister asked if she had a boyfriend, she didn't even know how to answer her. But she had spent all break worrying and wondering and she really didn't want to think about it anymore. So when she spoke she instead said, "I don't want to talk about it anymore. Can we just change the subject?"
Of course the girls were all more than happy to do as Lola wished, but the only one who was left, the only one who hadn't said anything, was Dana. They all turned to her, but she hadn't really been listening. Her mind was in a daze and she was completely somewhere else. She was at New Years Eve, minutes to midnight.
He pulled away suddenly, abruptly. He sat up until he was on his knees beside her on his bed. He was panting, as was she, from their activities. He was staring down at her, his hair a mess and his shirt a little askew. She sat up so she was leaning on her elbows and waited for him to explain why he suddenly stopped.
"Dana?" Zoey questioned, trying and failing to get her friend's attention.
"Dana?" Lola tried as she waved her hand in front of the completely dazed girl next to her.
"Do you want to try my stun gun on her?" Quinn offered, but all the girls immediately turned down the offer.
Lola stopped waving her hand and sat back in her seat, "I don't know what to do."
Nicole had been quiet, thinking, but then something occurred to her, "Maybe we should try dealing with her the way she would deal with one of us if we were acting like her."
"It's almost midnight," he said still catching his breath, "I'll just go for a few minutes and come back later." With puffy lips and mused hair she was staring up at him, still confused. He said in further explanation, "The superstition. I should go."
She understood what he was talking about; it was, after all, her idea. But she really didn't care right now.
The girls didn't know exactly what Nicole meant by "dealing with her like she would," but they watched Nicole as she got up and turned off the TV that Dana was seemingly staring at, though the thoughts in her mind made her oblivious to happenings on the television screen. The televisions suddenly going off did not awake Dana from the far away place in her mind, but Nicole didn't expect it to and it wasn't all she was planning on doing.
"Screw it," she breathed as she leaned up and captured his lips in another passionate kiss. Midnight, the New Year, came and they were still together, and if the superstition was true, then maybe together for the year.
"You're going to tell us where you were over break and what happened and you're going to do it now! You told your parents that you were staying at my house for New Years, and I lied to them, I covered for you, but if you don't tell me where you really were right now then I'm calling them back and telling them that you weren't with me," Nicole yelled fiercely from just the other side of the coffee table, across which Dana was sitting on the couch, now completely pulled from her thoughts by Nicole's outburst.
"I was with Logan," Dana replied without even thinking, too stunned by typically sweet Nicole's sudden demand.
None of the girls were expecting her answer. They all thought she was in denial about actually being in a relationship with Logan, but part of that denial meant that neither one of them would do anything to encourage the thought that they were together. Apparently sneaking off together over break, that just wasn't denial.
"What happened?" Zoey asked, suddenly feeling like she didn't know Dana at all because she had been quiet and she had gone with Logan, seemingly given in to the idea that she wanted to be with him. And that girl, she was not the bold, outspoken, stubborn girl she had thought she knew.
"Nothing," Dana replied because it was what she needed to believe. She glanced down, away from her friends. She could feel their gazes; she knew they didn't believe her. Usually it didn't matter if they believed her; she knew she was telling them the truth, or at least what she believed to be the truth in her denial ridden mind, heart. But now she didn't know if her response was truth, she wanted it to be, but when everything was quiet, like now, she started to wonder so many things that made her answer absolutely false.
Dana suddenly felt like the walls were closing in and the air was being sucked from the room. She stood up hastily and stumbled around the coffee table as she quickly said, "I have to go."
"Was I too harsh?" Nicole asked worried that her tact hadn't been the correct one after all.
"No, I think she just needs some time," Lola responded and she hoped, but she wasn't sure either. Living with Dana for the first semester they had gotten to know each other pretty well, but she didn't seem like the girl she had come to know at all so far that day. She seemed lost and confused, which Lola understood, she had felt the same way lately and sometimes what was necessary was space. She hoped that by encouraging the other girls to give her space and time, the two things would help Dana far more than the combination had helped her.
As Dana dashed down the stairs she almost ran into John Ely, who was ascending the stairs to the fourth floor in search of a certain blonde. John continued on his way after the near collision and knocked on the door of his destination when he arrived. He heard her yell, "It's open," and a smile immediately appeared on his face.
John opened the door and saw Morgan on her bed, the bottom of the bunk beds, texting someone and Tiffany across the room at her single with her suit case open, unpacking. He leaned against the doorframe casually and had his arms crossed across his rather chiseled chest. He was trying to sound mad, but the smile he wore completely betrayed him as he said, "You know, I almost got a ticket trying to catch up with you."
Tiffany had seen that it was him out of the corner of her eye, but she had just seen him at home two hours ago so promptly fully acknowledging him just wasn't possible, not unless she wanted him to know that she was glad to see him, which she really didn't since she was sure he didn't feel the same way. After he spoke she looked to him just long enough to retort, "It's not my fault you can't drive."
He laughed. He knew laughing wasn't what one was supposed to do when a girl insulted you, but lately, over break, the insulting somehow turned into good natured banter, which he really enjoyed.
John was about to say the real reason he was trying to catch up with her and had now come to see her, but Jenna suddenly interrupted him by coming back. He hadn't heard her coming down the hall so he was surprised when she suddenly squeezed through the door by him. There was enough room so that she didn't have to press her chest to his arm that much when she very slowly slid past, but apparently she was trying to come on to him. Which he became sure of when she pinched his butt, causing him to leap in shock, and said with a flirtatious giggle, "Hi Johnny." She continued walking to her top bunk and swung her ass a little extra as she climbed to her bed.
John stood in the doorway, his eyes not on the girl clearly trying to get him to look at her, but instead on Tiffany giving her a look that said, "Did you see how your friend just practically molested me?"
Tiffany couldn't contain her amusement about John's freaked out expression as a result of Jenna's come on, she burst out laughing. She had stopped unpacking and she was practically doubled over with laughter, her eyes a bit watery.
John did not see the same amount of hilarity in the situation as Tiffany, but he couldn't help joining her in laughing, it was like laughter with her was infectious. He also couldn't help but keep his eyes on her while he joined her in laughing because he liked seeing her laugh. It was rare and one of those moments where she was totally real, and he liked her when she was real.
Jenna had been confused by the mini-scene in front of her and she interrupted it saying and looking between the two, "Whoa, okay, what's going on here?'
"What?" Tiffany asked, calmed down from the laughter and her brow furrowed at the question, but a smile still on her face.
"You two, you're all chummy with the laughing," Jenna explained.
John glanced at Tiffany and winked at her with his right eye, which Jenna and Morgan couldn't see on their side of the room when he turned his head. He turned back to Jenna and responded, "What are you talking about? You were the one laughing."
Tiffany caught on to what he was doing. She had mentioned some stories to him and in a few of them Jenna didn't come off as bright, at all really. He had claimed that she couldn't possibly be that dense and made it that far in school, but Tiffany had never elaborated in any of her stories. Tiffany played along and added, "Yeah, we were talking and then you suddenly started laughing really hard."
"No I didn't," Jenna said, though she wasn't entirely sure she was right anymore so she had hints of doubt in her voice.
"Yes you did," Tiffany claimed with certainty as John nodded his head in agreement.
Below Jenna on the bottom bunk Morgan was biting her lip in an attempt not to laugh because she knew what was surely coming next.
"Oh," Jenna conceded. "But why?" she wondered about the action she hadn't actually committed.
"We just asked you that," John replied, stunned that Jenna had actually just been convinced of doing something minutes ago that she hadn't actually done. She was that dense and it truly was a miracle that she had made it to the tenth grade.
"Oh," Jenna responded as her brow furrowed in complete confusion and she laid back on her bed actually trying to figure out why she had been laughing.
John grabbed the bag he had set outside the door, out of Tiffany's sight, and walked towards Tiffany with an easy stride having remembered his original purpose. He held out the bag as he approached Tiffany who was still digging stuff out of her very large suitcase, "You forgot my mom's cookies."
He was standing, holding the bag out in the middle of the foot that was between them. She turned to him and looked up at him as she reached for the bag. Her fingers brushed his as she took the handles of the large paper grocery bag and she attempted, pretty successfully, not to blush. Quickly ignoring the wonderful warm tingling she always seemed to get from the lightest of touches with him, she commented, "Your mom made way too many. She's going to make me fat." She had turned away from him to set the rather heavy bag on the bed as she spoke, knowing that looking too long would probably just bring trouble, the kind of trouble that she wasn't supposed to have with someone who was now technically family.
John gasped over dramatically and said sarcastically, "God forbid." He didn't understand why she was always so conscious of what she ate, he had seen her in a bikini and she looked great. Those were thoughts he shouldn't be having. Really, thinking of her in a bikini should gross him out the same way it did to think of his sister Haley in a bikini. Unfortunately for him though, it didn't and Tiffany liked to swim, often.
"You have to take half," she said turning back to him and ignoring his comment.
John was grateful she had disrupted him from his thought straying places that they couldn't. But he also didn't trust himself to not stray those places again. So he said as he walked backwards towards the door, "I already did." He wasn't lying either, he knew his mom had sent far too many cookies for Tiffany and she wouldn't be able to eat them all and wouldn't mind sharing so he did take half because he could eat like a horse and to him half was practically nothing. "See ya Tiff. Ladies," he said with another one of his charming smiles glancing to Tiffany, then Jenna and Morgan on their side of the room, and back to Tiffany as he finally exited and shut their door behind him.
Tiffany couldn't help smiling as she finished unpacking. She knew she shouldn't let it affect her because nothing could happen, but things were good between them. Jenna was actually right, they had gotten sort of…chummy over break and…no, she couldn't do this to herself. John was her step brother now and there were plenty of other guys and she really needed to find one to distract her because she was still smiling and she really couldn't be. Maybe she could find a distraction later though, because right now all she really wanted to do was pretend to read a magazine and actually stare at a string of four little photos of her, John, Haley, and Trevor from a photo booth in the mall. Oy, she was really in trouble.
While the girls huddled with Lola at her window and passed a pair of binoculars between them, they were forced to wonder where Dana actually was. All three boys were in their room and Logan didn't seem to be leaving to meet her anywhere and that just didn't make sense to them. For a while now whenever Dana would disappear it was always to Logan, but this time it wasn't and the girls were only more convinced that something was wrong.
Dana had crawled through the still un-lockable window to the bottom of the basement. There were lights, but she didn't bother turning them on. It was freezing, but she didn't notice. She just sat in the middle of the couch and finally let herself get lost in everything from the previous three days.
Three days earlier, December 30, 2006…
Dana found herself arriving at Ontario, California's international airport just after two o'clock Pacific Standard Time. She always found flying from Ohio back to California a bit odd because the time difference was also about the same length as the flight. In Ohio, her flight was at 1:45, but here she was arriving just after two. Though two hours had passed since she left her home state, setting her phone's time to the current time in her current time zone as she waited to be allowed off of the plane, it was almost like no time had passed.
After the plane finally stopped and the door opened allowing people to slowly file out, Dana followed the signs posted at the medium sized airport and headed for baggage claim. She didn't know where he'd be waiting. She wasn't even sure why she was arriving at Ontario airport, hadn't he said Big Bear? But they hadn't spoken; he just sent her a ticket. But she knew that he wouldn't be waiting for her at the gate, that was simply impossible with the heightened security at airports these days.
As she approached baggage claim she didn't look around for him, she didn't want to seem like she was searching. She walked directly to the carousel for her flight and waited ten minutes before her bag finally came up. She turned around to head to the area with the cars and taxis waiting for people because she figured he was sending someone to pick her up or he was picking her up, but either way they would be traveling by car so she headed towards the bay of waiting cars. But as she approached one hundred yards to the automatic doors that were her destination, the crowd suddenly parted before her and she saw a curly dusty brown haired boy standing, waiting by said door with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans.
Though he was looking at her his expression was fairly vacant, because he just couldn't look interested. He watched her as she didn't hesitate to walk directly to him.
She wouldn't let herself take a single step faster than usual. And she wouldn't let herself smile. She didn't know about the many times he had made her smile, all she knew was that if she was thinking about it she never let herself smile, not for him.
She knew what she was going to do when she got to him, she had known ever since she took her seat on the plane. Coming upon five yards between then and closing she suddenly tripled her pace, completely surprising him when her hand dropped from the handle of her suitcase and she was right in front of him. In single second she closed all the space between them, wrapped her arms around his neck, and captured his lips for the first time in twenty long days.
He didn't hesitate to return the hungry kiss, just as he didn't hesitate to slip his hands underneath her sweater to hold her close to him by her waist. She had noticed this new habit of his; he always immediately went for bare skin as if touching clothing would burn his hands. She noticed it, but she didn't say anything.
She gently bit his bottom lip, eliciting a small groan from him, just before she pulled away. She let out the smallest of sighs, completely content and feeling more normal than she had for what felt like a long while. She looked up at him, a smirk playing on her lips as she informed, "I really liked first class."
"Yeah, obviously," he replied, not able to keep the smile from his face as he stared down at the girl still in his arms. "So, uh, how do you feel about town cars?" he asked with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.
"Town car?" she said stepping back, away from him, "I was expecting a limo." She was just joking, her tone not at all serious.
But she wasn't expecting when he got a little frustrated as he responded, "Yeah but they were all out. The town car was the nicest thing they had left. It's…okay though."
"I'm sure it's tons better than the '95 Volvo station wagon I was driven to the airport in," Dana added as she grabbed the handle of her previously discarded suitcase and walked through the automatic doors to the sea of waiting cars.
Logan was a little confused by her comment, trailing behind her and thinking. Did it mean that the town car impressed her and she may be up for some…fun? Well, the only way to find out was to ask, so Logan asked, "Does that mean you're willing to fool around in the back seat? Cause Big Bear is like an hour and fifteen minutes away from here, a nice long ride to do stuff during."
Only a few steps out the door, Dana stopped, cocked her head to look at Logan who just came up next to her, and replied, "Well, I don't know Logan. I mean, you didn't even offer to help me with my bag."
"Huh?" Logan asked, completely lost.
Dana rolled her eyes, it had become an automatic response, and explained, "If you wanted me to do something nice for you in the car then maybe you should have done something nice for me before we get there."
Okay, things were starting to make a bit more sense even if it was really weird because they never used the word nice. Wanting to find out what "nice" was inside the car, Logan didn't argue, but forced himself to ask despite his set jaw, "Do you want me to carry your bag?"
Dana shrugged, "Why should you carry my bag when I'm stronger than you?"
Logan never wanted to hit a girl more in his life. She was making this difficult on purpose. She was trying to aggravate him and it was working. He had to mutter to himself as a reminder, "Never hit a girl. Never hit a girl. Never hit a girl."
Dana heard him, but she pretended she didn't and antagonized further, "So are we going to spend the rest of break out here or are you going to finally reveal where this supposed town car is?"
"Never hit a girl. Never hit a girl. Never hit a girl," he said growing louder as a result of increased frustration with her. He jerked his hand and pointed at a car and resisted the urge to throw the hand her direction instead. She followed where he was pointing and wheeled her case to the man standing at the trunk of the car. Logan lingered behind for a second, calming down and telling himself that she was a lot more pleasant when she wasn't talking.
When Logan arrived at the trunk of the car with the driver it came with and Dana, they were talking. Dana was smiling at him and shaking his hand and he, Henry as he had told Logan earlier, was doing the same. It seemed that Logan had simply missed introductions between the two and as Henry took his hand back and noticed that Logan was there again he asked politely, "Shall we be heading back to Big Bear now Mr. Reese?"
"Yes," Logan replied promptly, hoping that getting the hell out of there would somehow change everything, erase everything.
"Any more stops before the resort?" Henry asked dutifully as he opened the back door on the passenger side and gestured for Dana to get in.
"No," Logan answered as he quickly got in on the other side before Henry could open his door for him. He knew it was his job, but he always felt weird about having guys open doors for him.
Logan closed his door as Henry closed Dana's and they were alone as Henry walked around the car to the front driver side. The black leather bench seat had enough room for three people. Dana was sticking to her side, but Logan was hoping that the space between them was not going to be permanent. Logan glanced at Dana, she wasn't looking at him, but she could see him do it out of her peripheral vision.
"No," she said before he could even come on to her.
"Seriously?" Logan questioned, not understanding why she was being so difficult when they both knew why he asked her and why she came, they had an arrangement. "But the windows are tinted and this car is nice…"Logan added, saying anything he could come up with but quickly running out of potential reasons.
He was right. The windows were very tinted; passengers of other cars passing by wouldn't be able to see in. The car was nice. She had never been in a Lincoln Town Car, but it was spacious and comfortable and it made sense that it would be rented as a luxury vehicle. But, in an even tone Dana responded, "That's not what this is about."
"Okay," Logan said slowly, he really didn't want to piss her off because then he definitely wouldn't be getting anything good. He said sounding as understanding as he possibly could, "What is it about then?"
Crap. What was this about? Dana truly had no idea why she was doing this. It was just instinct and she went with it. She just suddenly felt really weird about being there. She lied to her parents and got on a plane flying across many states to spend three days with a guy she didn't like. There was something wrong with that, right? Saying the first thing that came to mind Dana said, "There's no partition Logan. I'm sure Henry doesn't want to see you mauling me in the backseat."
Just as Dana was speaking Henry had gotten into the driver seat, but he was trying to remain oblivious to the conversation as he started the car because he was a professional.
Logan didn't really understand her point since, "But he's driving, which means his eyes would be on the road not the backseat."
"And every time he glances in his rearview mirror he gets to see two teenagers making out? I don't think so," Dana retorted settling back into her seat as she roughly fastened her seatbelt and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Ugh," Logan groaned as he copied her and put on his seat belt. Looking straight ahead and not at her he said not at all able to hide the frustration in his tone, "I knew this would happen. I shouldn't have invited you."
"I knew I shouldn't have said yes," she said keeping her tone even, unemotional, as she stared straight ahead as well.
She wanted to ask why he asked her to come in the first place, because his original explanation didn't make that much sense. He wanted to ask why she really agreed to come, because her original reason didn't seem very credible. But both stayed silent, knowing how dangerous questions like that were.
Logan started listening to his iPod as he pretended to stare out the window at the repetition of trees, mountain, snow, and cars that went by. Dana needed to do something that he wasn't doing, so she started talking to Henry. He was a nice enough man. He was in his late fifties, kind of portly, and his grayish brown hair was disappearing from the crown of his head.
Dana talked to Henry for the first forty minutes of the drive, but they only talked about him. She learned he had a wife named Betty, three daughters, the youngest of whom would be graduating from college soon. He grew up in a large family and he was still close to all of them. He used to be an accountant, but when they didn't really need that larger pay check, he took this job as a driver because he liked meeting new people and not being stuck in an office with the same four walls all day.
Suddenly there was a lull in the conversation. Dana had been trying to make sure that didn't happen because then she may not be in control of the direction of the conversation any longer. But the radio station Henry had quietly put on went out of range as they headed further up the mountain. He scanned for more stations and as he did so they heard a few seconds of a version of "Shout" and Dana got lost for a second. That second was long enough for Henry to take the opportunity and ask her something, which was exactly what he did, "So why are you giving the boy such a hard time?"
"What?" Dana asked incredulously.
"Well when Betty treats me like you're treating him it means I did something wrong. So, what'd he do?" Henry asked, meeting Dana's eyes in the rearview mirror.
Dana glanced at Logan, he had fallen asleep with his iPod still playing. "Nothing," she admitted, but added, "He's just an ass in general."
Instead of continuing to let the stereo scan for stations Henry turned it off. If she wasn't mad at him, Henry could only come up with one possible explanation for the scene in his backseat, "So, this is all just part of the plan then?"
"Plan?" Dana questioned, truly having no idea what the older man was talking about.
Henry nodded and responded, "To keep him interested. I have daughters and sisters, I've seen them do it. You think the guy isn't going to stay interested, that he has a short attention span or something, so you play it hot and cold. Can't give him too much of what he wants because then he might lose interest, but you can't always hold out on him either. So you try to balance and hope that it works." Before Dana could say that that wasn't at all right because not only did she not want Logan's attention because she didn't like him, but also that no girl could hold his attention ever; Henry continued, "You don't have anything to worry about though. Guys who are as nervous as he was on the drive to the airport don't have wandering eyes. The boy was really starting to annoy me on the way to get you, with his leg giggling up and down so much, jumpy with tension, anxiety, anticipation, whatever you want to call it. He wasn't as annoying as the people that sit back there and pick their noses though, and then they wipe it on the seat. That really makes me want to stop the car and throw them out. Don't people have any courtesy anymore? Or shame? Or…hygiene?"
Henry continued to rant about his least favorite type of passengers, but Dana had long since stopped listening. Henry was wrong, he had to be. Logan didn't ever get nervous, especially over her, especially since they were nothing. She glanced at him. He was sleeping with his mouth open and his nose slightly squished against the glass of his window. It actually made him look less attractive. Maybe he just had to pee? Bouncy leg and not really many convenient stops on his way down the mountain to the airport made it pretty likely that he was probably just in desperate need of a restroom. He certainly didn't look nervous in the airport. Plus it was her and him so he couldn't have been nervous because he couldn't have been nervous for nothing, and they were nothing.
Dana pretended to listen to Henry's continued tales of different passengers he had had, but she really wasn't listening at all. The only thing she was really listening to was the voice in her head saying over and over again that Henry was wrong. Logan wasn't nervous. And her heart absolutely didn't skip a beat when Henry said that Logan was nervous. Because all of those things were impossible so the voice in her head claiming so was right, and Henry, he was only speaking of things he thought he saw, but were complete and utter lies.
With the repetition of reassurances of Henry's mistakenness, Dana had herself convinced he was one hundred percent wrong by the time they arrived in the village of Big Bear and pulled into the parking lot of the resort thirty minutes later. Dana was so wrapped up in denial that she hadn't noticed when the scenery outside changed from green pine trees to white snow covered pine trees. Northwoods Resort and Conference Center she read from the sign on the front of the large hotel. There were only four stories to the structure, but it was long and wide, sort of wrapping around in a squared U shape, wrapping around what exactly she figured she's find out later.
The car came to a stop and Henry announced that they were there, which seemed to awake Logan finally. Her door was promptly opened for her by Henry and she could hear Logan getting out as well, but she didn't feel like facing him quite yet. She stepped out on to the slushy ground and was hit by the freezing air with a rush. Jesus Christ it was cold! She knew snow meant that it would be cold, but it was still a shock to her body
since she was only wearing jeans, a somewhat thin red v-neck sweater, and UGG boots. Why had she packed her coat? She immediately regretted that poor decision as she was suddenly hit by a cool gust of wind.
Henry was about to hand her suit case off to the bell man when Logan interceded, "I'll get that. I already have the room."
She had watched him take the case and give Henry a generous tip and finally he looked up to her. But then he looked away again and simply entered the hotel. Assuming that she was supposed to follow, Dana entered the resort's lobby. It was nice, well, as nice as something decorated in hunting décor could be. There was a large front desk that was of course, wood that ran along the wall to her left. To her right seemed to be the entrance to a restaurant and on the back wall was a large rock fireplace that went from the floor to the ceiling. Around the fire place were many comfortable looking loveseats and chairs.
Dana followed Logan through the wide path through the lobby and turned left right after the front desk ended into a dead end hall that held two elevators. He pressed the up button and she waited beside him silently. She wasn't going to be the first to say anything, mainly because she didn't know what to say. She wasn't sorry, but she didn't feel good about how the day had been going so far either.
Logan had actually forgotten about the fighting. He had just woken up and it hadn't registered with him until after he said he'd take her bag. He hadn't actually been thinking about what she had suggested earlier, it was just that he already had her room and she only had the one rather large bag so they didn't need a bell man. Mentioning her bag had caused him to recall the arguing unfortunately, but he decided maybe it was best if he didn't remember. He couldn't stand the awkward silence any longer so he said despite the fact that it was obvious, "I already checked in, I was here earlier."
Well if he was ignoring earlier then she was going to too, after all, she had no idea what to do about any of it. It was normal for her to insinuate that he wasn't very smart so she decided to go with that natural instinct, "Why would you drive all the way up here, check in, and then drive all the way back down the mountain to pick me up, and drive all the way back up again? Why not just pick me up on you first trip up the mountain?"
"Because," Logan drawled out. He didn't actually know why he had done things the way he had. He knew that he was going to be picked up by the driver at nine that morning and Dana's flight wasn't arriving at the airport until after two and driving there he wouldn't be near the airport around the time she was going to be. So he just went all the way there, checked in, hung out for about an hour and left again. Although, now that she had brought it up it would have been smarter to stay at home and leave with the driver later so that he could pick her up on the way there. Of course he wasn't about to admit that she was right so he shrugged and said, "That's just how I roll."
He was trying to sound cool, but it just came off as jokingly stupid and Dana couldn't help but laugh. Though laughing wasn't what he was going for, Logan was relieved that she didn't know he thought she was right.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. After a middle aged couple got off, Logan and Dana got on and as he hit the button labeled three they were joined on the elevator by an elderly couple and a man wearing a red blazer clearly distinguishing him as hotel staff.
After waiting an entire minute before the old elevator doors closed and another minute and a half before the elevator slowly started moving. Dana, not feeling very patient, quietly demanded of Logan, "If we're only going to the third floor why are we taking the elevator in the first place."
"I don't do stairs on vacation," Logan replied just as quietly and seriously. They were standing in the back left corner of the elevator and had just been slightly leaning toward each other, but keeping their gazes straight ahead at the elevator doors, as they talked, but at Logan's response Dana turned her head to him with a quirked eyebrow.
"Seriously? We could have been up and down the stairs a dozen times by now, but we're in the slowest elevator ever because 'you don't do stairs on vacation,'" she questioned incredulously using air quotes on his statement.
There was another ding and the doors slowly opened to the second floor as the elderly couple exited. The couple disappeared turning left down the hall and it was another minute before the doors closed again. During which, Logan retorted, "That's right and since I'm paying for everything we're doing things however I want."
Dana turned back to the closed doors and shrugged as she said, "Okay."
Okay? Dana was easily agreeing, that was beyond unusual and Logan knew that she must have thought of something he didn't and any second now she was going to point it out to him.
And she did as soon as the elevator started moving again, "If you want to spend a lot of time in elevators with strangers instead of alone in a room…with me, then that's up to you."
Five minutes and she had been right twice. Damn her. Although this time she happened to make a point that was very, very good. And suddenly he was very eager for the elevator to stop and open, which it was actually doing. Of course the elevator doors were opening at the slowest possible speed again, but Logan hurriedly slid through the still opening doors. Dana smirked as she followed at a normal pace, he was so predictable.
Apparently her room was the one directly across from the elevator because Logan was hastily sticking in a key card and looking very impatient as he waited for the light to turn green, his hand poised over the door handle. The light turned green and simultaneously made a small beep and Logan rushed into the room, completely forgetting Dana's suitcase that he had been carrying.
Dana picked up her case and stepped in the room before the door shut. As the door shut behind her Dana noticed that there was a bathroom to her right and a small open closet. Just on the other side of the wall from the closet and the bathroom was a king sized bed, the head of which was against the wall, and a window facing the parking lot/mountain view on the opposite wall. There was a dresser on the wall to her left, a small nightstand on each side of the bed, and a table with two chairs in the right corner of the room towards the far wall with the window. The hunting lodge décor was semi-continued in the room, though there was a bit more of a floral feel to this particular room. The bed linens were sage green with small flower like plants on them and there was a dried arrangement of flowers hanging on the wall above the headboard of the bed. Contrasting the floral theme was a throw folded at the end of the bed which had fish sewn on to it. But overall the room was very nice and rather spacious.
Dana's eyes finally stopped scanning the room, which she had entered and set her suitcase in the middle while she did so. She turned back to Logan who was still at his original spot by the door/closet area. Logan seemed fidgety and anxious. Dana knew why, but if he wanted her then he was going to have to make a move, after all she was the one to do it last time and she knew it was only a matter of minutes or seconds.
Though Dana's eyes had just come back to rest on Logan, his eyes were darting everywhere, looking anywhere but her. He finally let his eyes go back to her as he said briefly pointing to his left, "My room's just next door."
"Super," Dana replied sarcastically figuring at least one of them should be acting normally because at this moment it definitely wasn't Logan. Did he lose his mojo like Austin Powers? Well, one thing was for sure, she definitely wasn't going to make the first move. But twenty seconds later she decided that she could at least make it easier for him so she closed the seven feet between them to be less than half a foot.
Logan had watched her as she walked to him and stopped so close. He wanted to make a move since before they even got on the elevator, but he didn't really want to hear "no" again so he was waiting for a sign. Though getting closer to him would normally be a good sign, he wasn't sure that it was this time. Maybe she was just stopping in front of him and going to tell him to get out. But she didn't say anything and Logan didn't have the patience to wait anymore so he asked bluntly, "Are you going to let me kiss you this time?"
It was a valid question, but she thought that they were ignoring earlier. Maybe her "no" was something that couldn't be ignored or forgotten though. She had never really turned him down before, she never had any reason to and she wasn't sure she had had a reason to earlier, but she just found herself doing it. Suddenly she was doing things and saying things and she wasn't even sure if she meant it, but that kind of behavior wasn't new for her around Logan. Where he was concerned she always seemed to find herself doing things and she didn't understand why. But asking why was a dangerous question with few answers and none that she liked.
"Why don't you try and find out?" she challenged. And again, she didn't know why she was doing the things she was. Like why her heart was racing, or why there was a lump that seemed to be rising in her throat, or why when he looked at her as he was now with so much lust she wasn't sure if she was breathing.
His lips were on hers and his arms were around her waist and she was crushed against him in a second. She would tell herself later that she couldn't have stopped him if she wanted to. His arms had crossed across her back so that fingers were wrapping around to the front of her waist and once again they were on bare skin under her sweater. He was holding her so tight, but then she was also doing the same with her arms wrapped around his neck.
He walked her backwards, his target being the bed, but he somehow maneuvered them wrong and they ended up feeling hotel hangers brush the top of their heads as they stumbled into what was supposed to be a closet, but was really just a rail on a wall with a shelf above it. Dana felt her back and her head hit the wall forcefully and she knew it'd probably be sore later, but she didn't care. It had been twenty days, twenty long days, they were desperate and desperate was reflected in their actions.
His arms unwrapped from around her right after she fell into the wall, but he still held her by the bare skin of her waist. But he always wanted more and his thumbs slipped into the front of the waistband of her jeans and rested there, rubbing soft circles in the newly touched skin, because subconsciously he knew that going further would end everything.
Maybe this time it wouldn't though, or at least that was what Dana was unsure about. She had suddenly found her left leg wrapped around his right, thigh to thigh, calf wrapped around calf, and hanging on tight. Why did it always feel like it wasn't enough? Why did it always feel…right, like this, with him? His assault on her mouth had continued, but she kissed him harder now, pulled at his hair a little instead of just having her fingers threaded through it, because she hoped that it would make her stop thinking. She didn't want the questions in her head because what if the answers to the questions made this stop? She didn't want to risk having to give this up…with him.
Logan took her more demanding kiss as a sign to try and move them again, which he managed to do successfully this time. He was mostly successfully at least, after bumping into the wall a couple of times and almost knocking over one of the nightstands. They stayed making up for lost time and ignoring reality on the bed for a while to come.
By the time Logan left Dana's room it was dark outside. Though being winter and getting dark out earlier and them not getting to the hotel until nearly four, they hadn't spent that much time together. But it being dark out made possible activities afterwards rather limited. Any type of snow sport activity was definitely out of the question. Dana had wandered around the hotel a bit. She found the bar, but there wasn't anything for her to do in there. There was a spa, but it was closed. And she found out that the thing the U shaped hotel wrapped around was a pool, which looked really pretty iced over like it was. Dana ventured into town, which surrounded the hotel, but the only things open were restaurants and if she ate at one of them she'd have to pay and she didn't come on this vacation to pay for herself. One of the main appeals of the vacation, she told herself, was that Logan was paying for everything.
To ensure that he really did pay for everything, she decided to head back to her room and order room service, which would be charged to Logan of course. She relaxed and watched TV, but after she was done eating there didn't seem to be anything good on TV. She was about to order Casino Royal, courtesy of Logan's wallet, when her phone beeped alerting her of a new text message.
It was from Logan and simply demanded: Come over.
Well, she wasn't exactly doing anything else so Dana got up and headed for his room without hesitation despite the fact that she had changed into black pajama pants with tiny white skull and crossbones on them and a heavy bulky dark gray Hurley sweatshirt. Dana grabbed her key, put it in her pocket, and walked out her door. She turned to her right because she had remembered Logan pointing that way earlier, but now that she was knocking on the door and it wasn't promptly being opened she started to wonder if he had told her the wrong direction just to screw with her because that would be so like him. She knocked again, louder this time, and finally heard heavy footsteps jogging to the door.
Logan answered the door looking a little flushed. He was in the same thing he had been earlier, except despite the increasingly cooling weather he took his sweatshirt off.
"You summoned," Dana greeted dryly, clearly trying to display her disinterest.
"In," Logan ordered with a gesture as he stepped aside to let Dana in.
Dana did as she was told and entered the room walking past his closet/bathroom area all the way to the beds, of which there were two. Wait, two? "Why do you have two beds?" Dana questioned eyeing the two queen sized beds curiously.
"I don't know. I just went in the room they told me was mine and found two beds," Logan said sounding awfully close, but then Dana already knew he was close, she could feel him.
She turned around and wasn't surprised to find that she was right; he was just a breath away. She knew why he called and why he was that close, what he wanted, but she had remembered something so she took a step back and said before he could do anything, "I forgot to tell you about the rule I have for this little trip."
"Another rule," Logan whined looking like he was ready to stomp his foot and throw a tantrum like an upset two year old. Dana's hands naturally went to her hips, clearly signaling to him that if he didn't agree he would suffer grave consequences. So, Logan crossed his arms across his chest as if to say he was waiting to hear whatever it may be.
"Tomorrow, New Years Eve at midnight when it becomes New Years Day we are absolutely not together," Dana declared firmly.
It was an easy enough rule to follow, but Logan couldn't help but wonder, "Why?"
Dana bit her lip for a second in hesitation, but gave in and explained, "Well, I don't really believe in superstitions, but there is that superstition that whoever you're with at midnight when the New Year begins is who you're going to be with for the year." He seemed to understand where she was headed with it, but Dana decided to help Logan along and ask, "You don't want to spend the year with me right?" And the voice in her head was screaming very loudly that the answer she wanted was "no." No because she didn't want to be wanted by a guy she didn't want, or at least that was the reason she was admitting to herself. But the other reason was because anything other than "no" violated the agreement that allowed her to be with him and anything other than "no" would end them.
"No," he replied, understanding every reason why it was the only answer he could give and telling himself that it was the one he felt. Feeling that "no" was not enough to assure her, to assure himself, that their agreement could continue so he added with a lit to his voice, "I hate you."
"I hate you too," she responded, unable to keep the smile from her face because he gave the answer she needed to hear. She ignored the existence of the smile though because acknowledging it would mean having to erase it. She checked, "So you're okay with the rule then?"
"Fine," he said before effectively ending all conversation by seizing her lips.
Dana didn't mind the conversation ending, he had agreed so further talking wasn't necessary anyway. She quickly felt her back hitting one of the beds, but as soon as it did there was only one thought going through her mind: she was so hot! She had noticed that the room seemed a little warm when she had entered, but she was burning up. That couldn't be the effect of Logan, could it? No, of course not, she felt like she was about to pass out from heat stroke and there was no way he could do that to her. There was a fireplace in his room though right? She thought she had seen one next to the TV and across from the bed that was nearer to the window, but now she wasn't sure. She didn't like to open her eyes when she was kissing someone though so she didn't open them to check. Wait…could she hear the heater on?
Dana tried to concentrate on making out with Logan and notice the fact that his hands were unusually above clothing for the moment at least, but she couldn't do it, she was so hot. She put her hands on his chest and forced him off of her. "I'm so hot," she said as she began taking off her sweatshirt to reveal a thin camisole.
"And you say I'm the cocky one," Logan commented with a smirk.
"No seriously Logan," she said tossing her sweatshirt aside, "it's really hot in here I'm burning up."
"Take off more clothes," Logan tried to suggest innocently, but Dana immediately caught on.
She saw the fire burning in the fire place and got up and checked the thermostat. "Logan you have a fire going and the heater on full blast. It says its ninety-seven degrees in here!" Dana said as she immediately switched the heater off. Dana crossed the room and opened both windows, letting the freezing air in. She questioned, "Did you seriously think you could make it hot enough to get me to take off all my clothes without me realizing what was going on?"
Logan shrugged and replied, "It was worth a try."
"And the consequence of that try is that I'm leaving," Dana said, but didn't immediately move from her spot cooling off by the window.
"Fine," Logan said, acting like he didn't care because of course he didn't. He flopped back onto his bed, the one furthest from the window and the one that he had been with Dana on, and hit the menu for movies on the TV remote.
As Dana crossed to the door she noticed the television screen because the same title she had highlighted and was about to order was now highlighted on his screen. She paused in front of the TV and at the end of the left sided of the bed where he was and asked, "You're going to order Casino Royal?"
"Dur," Logan not so eloquently replied as hit the enter button on the remote which caused "Buy" to be selected on screen.
"That's what I was going to do too," Dana said with a small groan as she sat down on the right side of the other bed, the one that was only separated from the bed Logan was on the left side of by a nightstand.
Logan looked at her strangely, not at all understanding what she meant, intended, or was doing by sitting down. He asked slowly, "What are you doing?"
Dana rolled her eyes, having to explain everything to him was really annoying, and replied, "There's no point to both of us ordering it."
She was staying? But they didn't do things together and there was no reason they should start now, not that Logan could see. He sat up and shook his head as he said, "No, nuh uh. You're not staying."
"If the room's a normal temperature by the end of the movie I'll resume our previous activities with you," Dana quickly and easily offered. He couldn't get away with trying some stupid hormone inspired stunt without being punished, but she'd be lying if she said that it wasn't also punishment for her to end things so soon after they began. Of course Dana was very used to lying to everyone, including herself, but this whole movie thing gave her an excuse to offer a continuation to the three minutes of making out of earlier and she knew she wouldn't be turned down.
She wasn't turned down. Logan promptly responded, "Deal." He fell back onto the bed and pressed play on the remote.
Before the movie could start and so that the plans for later wouldn't get messed up, Dana pointed out, "You might want to put out the fire if you actually want the room to return to a normal temperature."
"Right," Logan said as he paused the opening credits of the movie and got up and took care of the fire.
Dana settled in on top of the extra bed since the room was still like a sauna despite the opened windows.
About an hour into the movie Logan happened to glance at the other bed and found Dana not only asleep, but buried beneath the covers. It had gotten rather cold in the room with the opened windows and no heat on or fire anymore. Logan had even put his sweatshirt back on absentmindedly, but seeing Dana burrowed into the sheets, blankets, and a comforter prompted him to get up and shut the windows finally. He set the heater to go on at a reasonable temperature and settled back into his bed to watch the rest of the movie. But he fully intended to wake Dana as soon as the movie ended and make her go through with their deal. He didn't really care that she hadn't watched the movie; he didn't see why her falling asleep should affect the more fun part of the agreement.
And Logan would have woken Dana up, or at least that was what he told himself when he thought about it for days to come, but actually he fell asleep twenty minutes before the end of the movie and by the time he woke up the sun was brightly shining in his room.
The red numbers on the digital clock on the nightstand read 9:04 a.m. when Logan first opened his eyes. The sunlight poring into his room was slightly blinding him, but his eyes soon adjusted and landed on a form in the other bed across from him. It seemed that Dana was still sleeping soundly, but Logan wanted to get to the mountain and get in some snow boarding or skiing, hadn't really decided yet, but that meant he needed to get up and get ready. This was his room so he didn't see why he should have to be quiet about getting ready, she was the intruder. He slid out of bed into the space between the beds and peered over at her. Maybe he should just wake her. He could kiss her and maybe continue the activities they were supposed to have the previous night. But kissing her awake seemed like something that would be done to someone he liked so he couldn't do that with her, it was far too…nice. He could put her hand in warm water, but if that happened to work correctly he didn't really want his room to smell like urine. But a-ha…
Logan had a stroke of what he thought was genius and quickly raced to the bathroom and filled up the ice bucket with cold water. He rushed back to her bedside and was relieved to find out that his actions hadn't woken her up. He poised the bucked over her head, but hesitated for a second and just stared at her sleeping form, laying on her side facing him, bits of her short ash hair strewn in her face. But he caught himself in his unusual behavior and immediately dumped the bucket knowing that her reaction would allow him to ignore the existence of his pause.
Dana was awoken to freezing water crashing down on her face and sprang up in the bed, spitting some of the water out that had somehow gotten in her mouth. Her now soaked hair was plastered to her face and wiping it out of her face got her hand drenched. She looked up at Logan who was laughing at the side of her bed and growled, "You asshole!"
"That…was…hilarious," Logan said in between laughs, practically doubled over.
Dana jerked the ice bucket out of Logan's hands and launched it at his head, from her close distance, before he had time to figure out what was going on. As he groaned ow and clutched his now sore head, Dana got up pushed around him, though it wasn't really necessary, and headed out the door as she yelled, "I will get you back for that!"
"I'd like to see you try!" he quickly retorted though she had just stepped outside the still open door.
"Oh you will," she promised having heard him just as she turned left down the hall and stuck her head back in before the door closed.
The door shut behind her not giving Logan the opportunity to retort, though he didn't know what he would possibly say anyway. That irked him a bit; he hated not getting the last word, especially with her. But he reminded himself that he had had the last laugh as he thought of the look of pure shock on her face as the ice cold water hit her. Yep, that was a much better choice than kissing her to wake her up.
Twenty five minutes later Dana was showered and ready to head out her door, but she stopped herself remembering that she needed to call her parents in an attempt to keep them from getting suspicious, and because she had agreed to a daily call as part of the conditions of letting her go. Though they didn't actually know where she had gone. They thought she was in Kansas because her former roommate Nicole had invited all the girls over to spend New Years with her and her family. After assuring her parents that Nicole's family was indeed going to be there and that the Bristow's were hard working God fearing people and pointing out that to turn down such a generous invitation would be rude, Dana's parents allowed to let her go. Dana's parents were strict and she didn't really get along with them, but over the phone she endured her mother's many and specific questions about everything concerning exactly where she was and everyone she was supposedly with in an attempt to get along with her mother for the moment so that her lying may not be caught.
After twenty minutes on the phone with her mom, Dana was finally able to head out her door and down to breakfast. Logan had at last managed to get his hair to his satisfaction and stepped outside his door just as Dana pressed the down button at the elevators.
Logan joined Dana in front of the elevators, waiting, and asked, "Plotting your revenge still?"
Dana glanced to her right, at him, and replied, "Oh I can't tell you that, I'd lose my element of surprise."
The elevator dinged signaling its arrival. The doors slowly creaked open and Dana stepped inside the empty space first with Logan following close behind. An awkward silence settled between them. They never really talked and they were both convinced that they didn't want to talk to the other so coming up with conversation was difficult to say the least.
The elevator jerked as it started descending to the lobby as Dana had pressed the button for and Logan remembered something to say, "Um, I think I forgot to tell you that this place has regular shuttles to the mountain about every twenty minutes in case you were planning on going there."
"Yes you did forget to tell me that, but I read about it in the information book in the room," Dana said sounding like she had read the information because she expected him to leave something out. Or maybe it was that she read it because she would rather had to look something she wanted to know up than ask him. At least, that was the sort of feeling he was getting from her. Silence feel for a few seconds and instantly returned to awkward so Dana continued on saying the only thing she could think of, "I'm not going directly to the mountain though because once I go I plan on staying until it's dark so I'm going to head to breakfast first."
"Oh," Logan said in realization, "so was I."
"Fine," Dana commented, resolved to the fact that they would obviously just eat together. But he didn't seem to be expecting that they would be together after the elevator, but Dana had always had other plans so she let him know, "Even if you weren't planning on getting breakfast you were still going to wait for me to leave."
Since when? Logan thought. "What?" Logan asked not understanding why she'd think he'd wait.
"You'd have to wait for me because I need to go there with you so you can pay for my snowboarding lessons," Dana explained. Logan was still staring at her confused as the elevator doors opened to the lobby so she further detailed as the stepped out and headed for the hotel restaurant, "I can ski, but I've always wanted to learn how to snowboard and since you said you're paying for everything, well, everything includes my lessons."
"Fine," Logan agreed begrudgingly as they crossed the lobby, "I could teach you myself and save money, but then I'd have to spend the day with you so I'll pay."
The reached the open doorway to the restaurant and the hostess at the front asked, "Two?"
"Yeah," Logan promptly replied.
She grabbed two menus and led them through the fairly empty restaurant where the hunting décor of the lobby was not only continued, but far more intense with its antler chandeliers. The thirty-something and very pregnant hostess stopped at a small table for two and put a menu on each side as they took their seats across from each other and said, "Enjoy," as she headed back to her station.
They both spent time thoroughly reading the breakfast menu because it was less awkward if they had something to do. After a couple of minutes as Logan continued to read each item's description carefully he couldn't help but comment, "Ew, breakfast quesadilla, that sounds disgusting."
Before Dana could reply a middle-aged woman whose nametag read "Marge" was standing beside the table and said, "Hi I'm Marge, I'll be your server today. What can I get for you?"
"I'll have the breakfast quesadilla and regular coffee, black," Dana promptly responded and smirked at Logan knowing what was coming once the waitress left.
"Denver omelet, coffee, cream and sugar," Logan listed off as his eyes didn't leave the smirking girl across from him.
Marge picked up their menus and said, "Okay. I'll be right back with your drinks."
As soon as Marge left Logan asked, "Are you actually going to eat what you ordered?"
Dana scoffed. He really thought she would just order it to bother him? Well, she would do something like that, but she had actually already decided to get it long before he commented on it. "Oh yeah, sounds delicious," she said, over embellishing.
"That's disgusting," Logan said just as Marge returned and placed their coffees in front of them, as well as cream and sugar for Logan.
As soon as Marge left again, Dana remarked in a clearly mocking tone, "You know my grandma drinks her coffee the same way."
Logan fumed and took another dig at her clearly disgusting eating habits. They continued insulting each other for the rest of breakfast. Every time Dana took a bite of her quesadilla Logan would make a face and compare what she was eating to something even more disgusting like how the salsa she poured all over it looked remarkably similar to what he threw up the last time he had the flu. Then every time Logan took a sip of his coffee, cream, and sugar combination Dana would insult his masculinity, saying things like, "Why isn't your pinky in the air when you lift up that cup? A lady always raises her pinky when she drinks. Come on Logan, start behaving like the lady everyone knows you are."
Overall, the breakfast was fairly typical.
The small bus shuttle to the mountain was crowded and silent, at least between Dana and Logan. As soon as they arrived Logan rented both of them everything they would need, paid for a lesson, and was out the door of the rental place and on a ski lift before Dana was even met her instructor. Though, once Dana's instructor introduced himself, Dana forgot all thoughts of Logan's quick ditch.
As Dana waited at the counter for her instructor as she was told to do, she suddenly found a man towering over her. He looked to be in his mid-twenties and definitely over six feet tall. Looking up at him Dana finally understood the expression "Holy Abercrombie Batman." He had chocolate brown hair, the perfect tan, blazing blue eyes, and she knew it couldn't be possible, but Dana could have sworn she could see his six pack through his heavy blue Northface jacket. "Hi, I'm Lage and I'll be your instructor," he said holding out his hand with a very charming smile and with what sounded like a Swedish accent.
Dana shook his hand, returned the smile, and replied, "Hi, I'm Dana."
Dana immediately blushed as their hands came into contact. Sparkling eyes, an accent and she was pretty sure she could see the muscles in his legs through his pants; it was just too much for her. Lage's pants actually looked exactly like the ones Logan was wearing, black cargo snowboard pants, except Dana immediately noted that they looked much better on the tall, muscular Lage. Actually, come to think of it her pants looked the same as theirs, except hers were white. And now she immediately regretted that she was wearing her warmest jacket because it was a hot pink bubble jacket and it did nothing for her figure. Oh no, she also brought a hat and goggles and that was going to mess up her hair and face. Gosh, of all the ways to meet a hot guy she had to meet one when she was going to end up looking horrible, she was so not lucky.
Twenty minutes into the lesson Dana fell down for the first time and Lage rushed to help her up, which inspired her idea to fall frequently so she could get picked up. Two hours into the lesson though, she was still being doted on in the same professional yet very friendly manner by the striking instructor. By the third hour it was getting really annoying to pretend to fall down because Dana was actually catching on fairly quick. So, Dana finally let herself get through the easy run without falling and Lage suggested that the progress deserved a break.
They returned to the bottom of the mountain and the pro shop where Dana found out that beverages and a snack was included in the fee for training that Logan had paid. After a short break, during which Lage had double checked how long of a lesson Logan had paid for,-the entire day- they returned outside.
As Lage was explaining that he'd like to have Dana try a few more easy runs before letting her progress to an intermediate, Lage noticed something over Dana's shoulder and said, "Oyv not again."
Dana's brows furrowed in confusion. One minute she was enjoying the way Lage said slopes, with his accent it sounded like slovpes and his lips would pucker ever so slightly, and then the next second he seemed to be preoccupied with something and talking about whatever it was.
"De husbands, fiancés, and de boyfriends, alvays vith de dirty looks," Lage said while continuing to stare at something over Dana's shoulder.
Dana glanced behind her and followed his gaze. As soon as she saw who he was looking at she immediately blurted out, "He's not my boyfriend, he just paid for me to come here."
"He is definitely yealous," Lage observed, very familiar with men being jealous of him spending time with their significant others.
Oh no. That was so wrong. Dana was about to set Lage straight when what felt like a large clump of snow hit her in the back of her head. Damn him.
"O! I'm so sorry, dat vas obviously meant for me. Dis kind of ding happens a lot," Lage quickly apologized, misreading what was happening. "Dough de yealous man is not usually so hot," Lage added with his gaze heading back to a laughing Logan.
No wonder why she wasn't getting any kind of reaction from him with all the heavy flirting she had been doing, he was gay. Though now she felt like an idiot. Really, with a gay brother she should have better gay-dar. Ignoring the embarrassment of having spent the past three and a half hours throwing herself at a guy who wasn't into her gender, Dana explained the situation a bit, "Yeah, he's hot but he's an ass because that snowball hit it's target."
Lage's handsome features contorted in confusion, which was yet another good look for him as all faces had been so far that day. Before he could ask what she meant and why her boyfriend would throw something at her, Dana finished brushing the remaining snow out of her hair and said clearly trying to contain her anger, "Please excuse me for a minute Lage, I'll be right back." Dana turned on her heel and added to herself mostly, "After I kick his ass."
It's late and I'm feeling so tired
Having trouble sleeping.
As Logan saw Dana marching towards him, though still about a hundred yards away, he prepared. He quickly formed about a dozen snowballs. But Dana could see what he was doing so she paused and made a snowball and threw it at him before he could throw one of his.
This constant compromise
Between thinking and breathing.
Logan saw it coming and ducked. When he looked back up again and met her eyes he was wearing his typically cocky smirk.
Could it be I'm suffering
Because I'll never give in?
Dana, now frustrated, stopped her quick march to him again, fifty yards or so away this time, and hastily made another snowball and launched it at him. He managed to avoid it again and laughed as it zoomed by his head. "You're such a bastard!" Dana hollered, completely forgetting she was at a family friendly place.
Won't say that I'm falling in love
Tell me I don't seem myself
In the second that she yelled Logan threw another snowball at her and once again hit her, squarely in the chest this time. Dana was fuming and to further antagonize her Logan yelled, "That's the third time today I've gotten you Cruz and you have yet to follow through on your little threat. That's right, I'm awesome and you suck."
Couldn't I blame something else?
Just don't say I'm falling in love
Oh, that was it. Dana charged at Logan, running as fast as she could in the snow. Logan immediately grabbed a few of his already made snowballs and took off in the semi-wooded area behind him.
Some kind of therapy
Is all I need
He would hide behind a tree, she would seemingly have him trapped and then he would hit her with a snowball. She'd try to retaliate, but nine times out of ten her snowball would hit the tree he was hiding behind instead of him.
Please believe me
Some instant remedy
That can cure me completely
They continued lugging snowballs at each other in anger, for Dana, and competition, for both, for ten minutes before the nature of their fight, of them, seemed to change. Suddenly they were both laughing and smiling as they continued to run after each other trying to pelt the other with snowballs.
Could it be that I'm suffering
Because I'll never give in?
And after about five minutes of the good natured snowball fight, Logan had managed to tackle a laughing Dana in the snow and kiss her while she was still smiling, but then again, so was he.
Won't say that I'm falling in love
Tell me I don't seem myself
Couldn't I blame something else?
Dana couldn't let the opportunity of his distraction pass her by, so while they continued to make out lying in the cold snow, Dana grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it between his shirt and his back.
Just don't say I'm falling in love
'cause I've been there before and it's not enough
So nobody say it
Logan immediately sat up in surprise, but simply smiled at her and leant down again to kiss her.
Don't even say it
I've got my eyes shut
Won't look, oh
No, I'm not in love
They were lying in freezing snow and Logan had some melting between his bare back and layers of clothing, but neither seemed to notice, completely caught up in each other.
Could it be I'm suffering
Because I'll never give in?
I'm falling love
Tell me I don't seem myself good enough for something else
Just don't say I'm falling in love
Falling in love
Lage had watched Dana run off and after about five minutes he figured he wasn't going to have her as a client for the rest of the day. But after twenty minutes back in the pro shop and despite the fact that she had not come in looking for him, Lage decided to look for his client. He didn't immediately see them, the trees were sort of off any normal paths, but upon seeing the pair still horizontal in the snow he knew he could take on a new client for the rest of the day. Lage headed back and hoped that his next client would be single, jealous boyfriends always had a way of interrupting his lessons.
An hour later Dana and Logan were back on a shuttle bus to return to the resort. Logan's many times there had caused him to learn that if one waited until sunset to leave, it'd be a very long wait for the shuttle. Like their first ride on the shuttle, their second was quiet. But once they returned to the hotel and began the wait for an elevator again Logan asked, "Going to that New Years Eve party down here tonight?"
"Don't know," Dana said with a shrug, her eyes remaining on the elevator doors. She added casually, "You?"
"Maybe," Logan said with a shrug of his own, his eyes also remaining on the object they were waiting for. He elaborated in the silence, "It's always pretty lame, but there's not really anything else to do here."
"Yeah, no wonder why your parents let you stay here by yourself. You couldn't find trouble here if you tried," Dana commented as the elevator arrived. Five people got off and Logan and Dana got on and Dana continued, "I mean this place doesn't even have mini-bars."
"I don't think any of them do around here. This is the nicest place in the area so if any of them did this would be it," Logan informed, fairly familiar with the area since his family had been going there on vacation every year since he could remember. Though, the last three years they hadn't shown up for the planned vacation.
"The sun goes down and this becomes the most boring place on earth," Dana said only slightly exaggerating, in her mind at least. Thinking back to the previous night, she couldn't remember the last time that she fell asleep that early, it was before eleven, and all because there wasn't anything else to do.
They had been standing side to side, a foot between them, and conversing so far without actually looking at the other. But Logan leaned over and turned his head towards her as he said quietly, "That's why I brought you."
God, there was that heart racing thing again. What was wrong with her? Lucky for Dana the elevator doors opened and she walked out without replying. Logan followed, he wasn't sure if he was looking for a reply, not verbal at least.
Dana put her key card in the slot and hurried in, but not before saying to Logan, "Later."
What did that mean? Was it simply her saying a common saying upon departing or was she promising what he wanted by supplying a time that was not now? The door shutting snapped Logan out of his thoughts. He was standing in front of his door with his key card out, but finally put it in and opened the door. He went inside still wondering what was going on.
And in her room, Dana was doing the same. She didn't know why she said what she said or anything at all or what she meant by it or why her heart was still racing and why she was hot despite the fact that her clothes were wet from the snow. She didn't feel like she knew anything anymore. But as she stripped off the wet clothing and started a nice hot shower she decided it was best not to know. She didn't want to know what was going on, she told herself it was nothing, because if she really thought about it she'd figure out it was something and then she'd probably have to give it up. She didn't want to realize what was happening because she didn't want everything to stop.
Logan and Dana had very similar nights. Alone in their rooms they ordered room service for dinner and watched TV. But by ten-thirty Dana was beyond bored and she decided to head downstairs to the New Years Eve party being thrown by the resort. Logan said it was lame, but she figured he could be wrong since she thought he was pretty lame, while he thought he was pretty awesome. They often had opposing opinions about things and as she waited for the elevator to take her down to the party she hoped that this would be another situation where that was true.
Inside his room Logan was debating what he should do. Pretty much for the entirety of the past two hours all he thought about doing was getting Dana to come over or just going over to her room. He wanted…what he always did with her. But he hadn't called or texted or gone over because tonight he realized it didn't feel so much like want, but need. And he couldn't need, he wouldn't let himself need. So since he had the feeling of need, it had to be squashed, which to him meant denying it not only from his thoughts but from himself all together. So as a distraction from everything, at about eleven o'clock Logan decided to head down to the lame party.
Dana had been at the party for thirty minutes and for the first time that she could recall she agreed with Logan. The party was in the restaurant and attached bar. There was a dance floor with a disco ball above it in the bar and the music, which was mostly bad in Dana's opinion, could be heard throughout the entire place, no escaping it. It wasn't just the music and the fact that none of the drinks and food were complimentary, but also that the room was mostly filled with couples and families.
Dana had tried talking to a semi-cute guy who was possibly younger than her, but he was there with his family and he kept looking over his shoulder as if expecting his mother to pop up and start telling embarrassing stories about him. It turned out Logan was right; people with their families didn't like to hook up. Although, thinking about what it would be like to have her family around Dana could definitely understand that. But it wasn't like she was looking to "hook up" either. She was just looking for someone around her own age to talk to, to attempt to enjoy the party, to distract her from the fact that all she really wanted to do was go upstairs and knock on the door next to hers.
And then she saw him. He sauntered into the dark room, lit only by strings of mini-white lights and the disco ball. He scanned the room looking at it like he had seen it all before and she realized that he probably had. She highly doubted that anything about the hotel's New Year's party routine had changed since they were currently playing an Eagles song. Though, she kind of liked "One of These Nights." She listened to the song fill the room and watched him weave his way through the crowd to get a drink and she felt like her night suddenly got a lot better. But she would tell herself that it was because of the music.
He noticed her, he noticed her immediately. She had changed into this white curve hugging cowl neck sweater that looked like it would feel so soft to touch. And the minute he was looking at her from the other side, after he had crossed the room, and he saw her very well fitted dark denim jeans all kinds of impure thoughts flooded his mind. But he didn't walk over to her and he tried to stop his gaze from falling on her because he was supposed to be squashing those kinds of feelings tonight.
Dana was to the far back left corner of the room near the end of the bar that spanned the left wall. She was approached by a guy that looked to be in his early thirties, late twenties maybe, and he was wearing a wedding ring. She was kind of disgusted by the fact that she was being hit on by a married man, but for the first time since Logan had arrived forty minutes earlier his gaze was finally firmly on her.
She was tired of analyzing everything she said or did. Nothing meant anything, she told herself firmly. It didn't mean absolutely anything that she caught his gaze around married guy's shoulder and she began heading for the opened doorway, knowing the entire time as she weaved her way through the crowd exactly what she was doing.
And it seemed right. Just as she began to essentially ditch the scumbag hitting on her a song she liked came on, the first one since The Eagles song. And she knew he wasn't close, but she knew he was following, just as she had wanted him to.
I'm so tired of playing,
Playing with this bow and arrow,
Logan told himself that a sleazy guy around her meant it was necessary to stare. He brought her there and he had to make sure she came back, which meant he had to keep an eye on her with a creepy guy near her. Then she looked at him and he forgot all about the squashing he was supposed to be doing. She started walking away from the guy still holding his gaze. But then she was past him and not looking back, so he followed her.
Gonna give my heart away,
Leave it to the other girls to play,
He was quite a few steps behind her though and found elevator doors open, waiting. She was inside alone. She didn't say anything when he entered, so he didn't say anything either, just stood beside her facing the elevator doors.
For I've been a temptress too long.
There was maybe an inch of space between their sides, which was the closest they had been on the elevator together despite the fact that they had been crowded on it with other people. But the lack of space just showed that they both knew why they were there. She knew he knew why she left, the look she gave him said it all. And he knew what would eventually be happening if he followed her and he knew that by doing so it would tell her that he wanted it to happen, but he didn't care because he did want it to happen, he wanted it to happen so goddamn much.
Hmm just,
Give me a reason to love you,
She wasn't going to make the first move though. She didn't mind making the first move; she had done it plenty of times with him. But then again she had made the first move this time too, she got him to the elevator, her intent very clear. So, he should make the second move not only because she made the first, but because she liked it when he took her by surprise, controlled her.
Give me a reason to be,
A woman,
And that he did. He couldn't take the waiting anymore. He figured she was probably waiting for them to get to one of their rooms, but he had been wanting, no needing this all night. One of his hands was on the back of her neck and the other was on her lower back pulling her to him as he collided his lips with hers in a split second.
I just wanna be a woman.
There was absolutely no space between them as he kissed her deeply, urgently, but it wasn't enough. All thoughts of rules had completely left his mind the second she looked at him at the party. His hands skimmed down her backside gently and then roughly grabbed her upper thighs, fingers wrapping around to her inner thighs, and spread them apart and hoisted her up so her legs wrapped around his waist as he stumbled her into the wall behind her.
From this time, unchained,
We're all looking at a different picture,
Through this new frame of mind,
A thousand flowers could bloom,
Move over, and give us some room.
She let out a half gasp half moan, surprised and pleased at his actions, but even though his fingers were still wrapped around her thighs and in an area that was supposed to be off limits for him she didn't stop him or them. Like the tight, fluttery feeling in her stomach, Dana was also ignoring the rules at the moment.
Yeah,
Give me a reason to love you,
Give me a reason to be,
A woman,
I just want to be a woman.
Despite the fact that all he could think of was absolutely how satisfying it was to merely feel her lips against his, and how he felt like he couldn't get enough of the taste of her, and how having her legs wrapped so tightly around him like that was surely going to make him lose all control very soon, he did manage to notice the elevator doors open to their floor. He carried her out, still wrapped around him and continuing the frenzied kissing. He managed to get to the right door immediately since his was only slightly to the left across the hall from the elevator, but it took him three tries with the key card to get it right without having to stop the activities.
Logan quickly got them directly to his bed without any accidents, but he fell onto the bed on top of her unceremoniously. Neither of them seemed to even notice the rough landing since it didn't interrupt their carnal behavior in the least.
The heater and fireplace weren't on like the previous night, but he quickly broke away from her for the briefest of seconds to remove his sweatshirt. He was hot, but he wasn't that hot. Just, every once in a while since this all started in the elevator he noticed something he was doing, though he wasn't sure what, was causing her to arch into him and he wanted to feel that much more than he could with the bulky sweatshirt on.
So don't you stop, being a man,
About fifteen minutes had passed since they left the party and having known the time when they left, something occurred to Logan. He pulled away suddenly, abruptly. He sat up until he was on his knees beside her on his bed. He was panting, as was she, from their activities. He was staring down at her, his hair a mess and his shirt a little askew. She sat up so she was leaning on her elbows and waited for him to explain why he suddenly stopped.
Just take a little look from our side when you can,
"It's almost midnight," he said still catching his breath, "I'll just go for a few minutes and come back later." With puffy lips and mused hair she was staring up at him, still confused. He said in further explanation, "The superstition. I should go."
Sow a little tenderness,
No matter if you cry.
She understood what he was talking about; it was, after all, her idea. But she really didn't care right now. Here he was, staring at her with his eyes completely clouded with lust and he stopped to talk, to say something that showed he listened to her, to make sure they did something that she told him was important to her, for them. But she couldn't think about that now. Noticing things like that only lead to her knowing that he cared about her and he wasn't supposed to care because they weren't supposed to care about something that was nothing. So, she didn't want to notice what was happening and the best distraction was to get caught up with him.
Give me a reason to love you,
Give me a reason to be,
A woman,
It's all I wanna be is all woman.
"Screw it," she breathed as she leaned up and captured his lips in another passionate kiss. Logan didn't object at all, but followed her back down to lying on top of her on his bed. After all, he really didn't want to leave.
For this is the beginning of forever and ever,
Midnight, the New Year, came and they were still together, and if the superstition was true, then maybe together for the year.
It's time to move over ,
So I want to be.
But things were already moving fairly fast, and suddenly they were moving faster. She sat back up briefly and tugged her sweater over her head. She was wearing a camisole like the previous night. Logan immediately devoured all the newly exposed skin. But then her hands had somehow come to take his shirt and wife-beater off all at once and he found himself with quite a bit of newly exposed skin as well, which she seemed to delight in. But then her tiny camisole was pushed up, his hands having done it as they roamed her stomach, and they were just below the bottom edge of her bra. And he could feel those occasional arches so much better now and then there was the sporadic and so enticing roll of her hips against his and he couldn't take it anymore.
Logan bolted up from her, figuring that moving quickly would make stopping easier. But looking down at her completely confused and disappointed expression and all that skin still showing, Logan knew that stopping with her would not be easy no matter what he did. To answer her unasked question of what was going on he said, "So, I'm going to go take a shower now…a cold one."
"What?" Dana asked, still not understanding due to the wonderful haze in her head that being with him created.
He scratched at the back of his neck uncomfortably. He really didn't want to have to explain it that much, but he explained begrudgingly, "If you don't want this going much much further, then…I really need to stop. Kind of maybe needed to stop like ten minutes ago, but…you still want to stick to those big rules of yours right?"
"Yeah," she quickly replied, now realizing everything that was happening and hoping he would leave and take that shower now before she completely lost her mind. After all, he was still shirtless, and God, so tempting.
Logan hopped off the bed as he said, "Right so I need that shower now." He then quickly grabbed some stuff as he dashed into his bathroom. He didn't want to ask her what she was going to do now or what was going to happen after his shower. It was too awkward to stay in that room. It felt like if he hadn't stopped them she wasn't going to. But he was doing the right thing by stopping them because if both of them ignored her rules then she'd probably regret it and then she'd be really mad at him, never talk to him again, never want to see him again kind of mad and he couldn't handle that. Yet as the cold water hit him, Logan realized that doing the wrong thing would have felt so much better, at least for a little while.
As soon as she heard the door to the bathroom shut Dana let her back fall back onto the mattress as she proceeded to panic. Until he mentioned "big rules" she hadn't even realized that he was almost at second base and she had done nothing to stop him. Sure things had definitely gotten very steamy that night and some rules had been abandoned completely, but as far as bases he still hadn't made it past first. What bothered her was that he was about to and she hadn't done anything to stop him. She was glad he did, but what if next time he didn't and she still didn't. Would it just be second she'd let him get to or would she have given in to third and home too? She couldn't let any of that happen. She had never let anything past first happen with a guy before and she couldn't let Logan past first because they'd all be firsts for her and Logan just couldn't be the first guy she let past first. Because she always had the notion that that guy was supposed to mean something, maybe not her soul mate or anything like that, but something that she wouldn't' regret. But Logan was supposed to and did mean nothing, and letting a nothing guy have firsts just seemed wrong.
As Dana continued to lie on the bed she managed to convince herself that she would have stopped them, but her not being the one to stop was a good test of him, to see how much he was paying attention and how devoted he was to their agreement. She had gotten really good at bull shitting herself. And lying to oneself was exhausting so as she lied on his bed and did so, she drifted off to sleep.
Logan took a longer shower than usual. He was normally a twenty minute shower guy, but tonight about thirty-five. Showering was a task and tasks kept his mind from thinking of the girl he had left on his bed, the one that was confusing him more and more lately. When he finally finished his shower though he expected her to have left and was surprised when he found her asleep on his bed. It felt like such a long day and he had planned on going to bed as soon as he got done with his shower, he had even already changed into his pajamas and everything. But she was in his bed, curled up on the left side actually. He considered waking her, but she had quite the violent streak and he didn't really feel like getting hit. So he carefully unzipped her boots and slid the covers from under her and put them on top of her. Surprisingly, she didn't wake up.
Now Logan had a choice. He could get in the other bed or he could just sleep in his bed despite the fact that she was in it. He got in the right side of his bed because he told himself that the cold climate would have kept the other bed still damp from when he had dumped water on her that morning. And he stuck to his right side, as far away from her as the queen sized bed would allow. He told himself that if she kicked him in her sleep it didn't matter that she was a girl and he was going to kick back. He told himself that choosing his bed had nothing to do with the fact that she was in it, but because it was his bed. He was really good at bull shitting himself too.
Dana awoke in a dark room that wasn't her own, but she quickly recognized it as the room she had woken up in that morning. She wasn't in the same bed though and most different of all there was something slightly restraining her from moving. She turned her head to her left and found Logan about a foot away. She noted where she was in the bed and where she had been and realized she had moved, or been moved. He was sleeping on his stomach, his head turned facing her, his mouth opened, and his left arm lightly laying across her waist. Dana didn't find his touching surprising or unusual; he was always very "hands on" awake so of course he would be while they were sleeping. She considered removing his arm so he couldn't cop anymore feels or just going back to her room, but she was tired, she was already there and comfortable, so she just let herself fall back asleep.
Logan awoke to annoyingly bright sunlight filling his room; he forgot to shut the curtains again. But without even opening his eyes he could tell that this morning was very different from the last. He opened his eyes and confirmed all of his suspicions; he was wrapped up with Dana. He was lying flat on his back for the most part; his legs were sort of turned toward her, to his right. Her head was resting on his right shoulder, somewhat snuggled into his neck. He could feel that she must have been sleeping on one of her arms, because the hand of that arm was on his side, while her other arm was draped across his upper chest. His right arm was around her mid-back and his left arm was reaching out to lightly hold her waist, underneath her shirt he noted to his delight. Their legs were a bit of a mess. He had no idea where her left one was, but her right leg was in between both of his, her knee slightly bent into his legs and resting lower thigh to lower thighs.
He didn't try to move, to unravel. He just stayed still, staring at their position until suddenly he dipped his head down a bit as he leaned in and caressed her lips with his ever so softly.
Dana immediately responded to the kiss, making it a little more aggressive. She hadn't been asleep, there was far too much light in the room to sleep. She kept her eyes closed telling herself that she was trying to fall back to sleep, but really she just didn't want to move. It felt good, perfect, right, everything it wasn't supposed to feel like to lie there with him. So she didn't think about how it felt, she thought about how it was too damn bright in his room because he wasn't smart enough to shut the curtains. And then he gave her a distraction in the form of a kiss and she wanted to be distracted a little bit more.
Logan hadn't had a plan or expectations when he kissed her. Hell, he didn't even know he was going to do it until he was doing it. Turned out to be a good impulse though because she was definitely into it, she had moved as she deepened the kiss so that she was completely on top of him.
She knew he was enjoying himself as well, which was why she stopped. It really hadn't lasted long, a couple of minutes or so, but after the previous night stopping quickly was probably a good idea. Dana could already "feel" things heading to the direction of the previous night. She sat up and immediately got off of him, sitting at his side because it was safer than straddling him, and said smiling, "You should go take another cold shower."
Yeah, he knew that was coming pretty much the second she got on top of him. He had just woken up, wasn't fully alert yet and had almost no self control. "Good way to wake up though," he commented with a smirk.
"Oh yeah. Much better than an alarm," she assured him.
She was still smiling and he didn't know it, but so was he. He was staring up at her and he didn't know what it was but God, he just wanted to kiss her. Whoa, no, he couldn't go there. It had already been established that they needed to stop so ignoring need, want, desire; he got up and headed to the shower as he yelled to her, "Be ready for the shuttle in an hour."
As she got up and left his room for hers, Dana was glad he didn't say anything about going to breakfast. She didn't want to eat another big breakfast before going out on the snow, which had turned out to be a mistake the previous day. She hadn't felt so great for most of her lesson, but all the purposeful and unintended falling probably didn't help.
Logan had also regretted eating such a heavy breakfast. He went there every year, but every year he always made that mistake at least one day of his trip. But remembering his usual routine he ordered a nice light continental breakfast from room service and had Dana sent one as well. He wasn't sure if he had made it clear that they would not be eating at the restaurant again so to make it clear he sent the food. It wasn't out of thoughtfulness or kindness; it was out of…clarity. Or at least that was what he decided.
Dana was pissed to hear someone knocking on her door just as she got out of the shower. If it was Logan she decided that she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her kicking his ass while wearing just a towel and that he'd have to receive punishment later. But when she opened her door and received food she was confused. She hadn't ordered anything, which was what she told the person delivering it. Once they said it was from the gentleman in the room next door it all made sense. But really, she wasn't as dense as him; she understood that they wouldn't be eating downstairs. It was pretty convenient that he sent her food though, now she wouldn't have to get a candy bar at the pro shop…though she probably still would.
After getting ready Dana called home again. The conversation with her father, then her mother, seemed to drone on forever. It was like time stopped so that she could have teeth pulled. Yes, she thought of having to talk to her parents as a painful experience and she was glad she didn't do it very often.
While Dana was feeling like she was ready to scratch her own eyes out if it'd make the conversation stop without getting her parents suspicious about her actual location, Logan was waiting. He was ready to go fifteen minutes early and he had absolutely no patience. But he was aware that he gave her an hour, he just didn't really care since it didn't take him the full hour to be ready. So after two minutes of waiting in his room he began waiting in the hall. After three minutes of standing still in the hall he began pacing, which he did for seven minutes. Her door still wasn't opening and he couldn't handle waiting anymore so he went in her room. When he checked in he was given two keys to each room and since he had only given her one of hers, he had the other one.
Dana's mother finally let her say goodbye just as she heard her door opening. She had been on her bed and as soon as she heard the door her hand instinctively went for the lamp on the nightstand beside her, ready to clobber whoever just entered with said object. Before she saw who was coming around the wall she moved the lamp to strike the intruder, but luckily Logan had quick reflexes and caught it.
"Whoa, geez Cruz, do you always greet people so nicely?" Logan quipped as he jerked the lamp out of her grip and set it back down on the table beside her.
"Me?! What about you? What the hell are you doing in my room?" Dana yelled irately.
"I have a key," Logan replied nonchalantly, but he was smart enough to know that if he gave her time to respond he'd be sorry. So he attempted to avoid continuing this particular conversation and quickly commented as he headed for and out the door, "You're ready. Let's go."
Like leaving the room would make her not continue this or would make her less pissed. Dana grabbed her coat and put it on as she followed, but was only more angered by the fact that they weren't the only ones waiting for the elevator. She wasn't about to start an argument in front of completely strangers, especially not a family of six with four young kids, and Logan knew it, which was why when she joined him waiting he was smirking at her. Jackass.
The ride down was cramped thanks to the fact that there was already three people on the elevator when everyone from their floor got on. As soon as they got off Logan and Dana headed through the lobby for the front doors to go outside for the shuttle. Dana was relieved when the kids immediately headed the opposite direction in the lobby and she could resume the argument, because this was something that she absolutely wasn't going to allow.
There were still a lot of people around though so Dana kept her voice low, but menacing as she said to Logan walking beside her, "You can't just walk into my room any time you want-"
"Yeah I can, that's what the key means," Logan cut in, a typical arrogant air of superiority about him.
"No you can't," Dana said forcefully. Trying to make her point clear she elaborated, "What if I had been in the shower? Wh-"
"I could have joined you," Logan suggested with a waggle of his eyebrows and cutting her off again. But the very stern look Dana was wearing told him that was never going to happen. In fact, he would probably be lucky if this argument ever ended. It was going to be a very long day.
What Logan didn't know was that someone had overheard his last comment, someone that would make his argument with Dana the very least of his worries.
A/N: Please read the following note and if you'd like, other information concerning the story and the second half of the chapter follows.
Important Note To All Readers:
The average hit to review count on each chapter dropped severely with the last chapter. While the previous chapters had one review per every five hits, the last chapter had one review per every fifteen hits. I am not naïve enough to think that every hit is a read, which was why those hits are actually rounded down quite a bit. The total hits for various periods of time for a new chapter did not actually fall at all and alerts have continued to rise far beyond my expectations. While I would never stop writing this story, I have to admit that it was discouraging. It made it easier to blow off writing this chapter when the opportunity presented itself, though I only chose to do so twice. I love writing, especially this story, and even if there are immense delays between chapters, know that I will always be continuing it until there are twenty two (though this chapter in two parts and possibly others later) chapters posted and it is finished.
Yet this drop in reviews is something I noticed wasn't only happening to my story in this particular category. And honestly it sucks so much. A character, a line, a glance, a look, an idea provided by a television show or a movie or a book has actually managed to capture our attention, to make us wonder, to make us think, to make us write and post and put a piece of ourselves out for anyone to see. And if there isn't some little piece of you in all the things you write then you are doing something immensely wrong and missing out on a release that is absolutely wonderful. We see things though, things that make us write and reveal pieces of ourselves to complete strangers, and we do this despite the fact that it is typically so easy to ignore anything and everything that goes on around us, to let a phrase get lost in a muddle of other words. And then the hit counts keep sky rocketing and the reviews stay static and it's discouraging and disappointing. And maybe the reader enjoyed it, though they didn't review, and wonders why the author isn't updating, but what they don't realize is that the author probably received more discouragement instead of encouragement to continue. We put ourselves out there and we can love what we're writing, but we still need to be told that it's okay because we're only human and we need reassurance.
Looking around the category, there are so many unfinished stories and what that tells me is that discouragement won for many many fellow authors. Was a story you loved suddenly stopped? I think all of us could probably think of at least one and you should ask yourself, did you review? Did you let the author know that there was something you liked or loved about their story? Even the smallest of comments mean something.
If the discouragement continues to out weigh the encouragement for this story, don't worry those faithful few reviewers and the only people I know are actually reading, I will still continue. As I said before, I am not one to let things like this permanently effect me. But looking around at all the unfinished stories, at the stories with more chapters than reviews despite the fact that they don't deserve to be so unrecognized, lack of response does permanently affect a lot of authors. So, the next time you read something and you like it, make sure you let the author know. Because if you simply read something and like it, the author will only see the hit count go up and the reviews stay static, and will be left to the logical conclusion that whoever was reading didn't like it enough to say so, that what they wrote simply wasn't good enough. And if you don't tell someone that you enjoyed their story enough to want them to continue, you may find that it's never continued.
On to other business:
The hotel and accent and snow activities: The hotel, Northwoods Resort, is a real place and if my descriptions weren't painting as detailed of a picture as you'd like, feel free to look it up. There weren't a ton of pictures and I took liberty with some of it, but I hope I painted a fairly detailed picture of their surroundings. Lage, means tall, and I tried to give him an accurate Swedish accent by studying the Swedish language, but it turned out that something truly accurate would have been un-understandable so I didn't implement all of the changes. And I'm so sorry if there is anything wrong with my snowboarding or skiing descriptions or mentions. I've never been skiing or snowboarding, with my complete lack of coordination and athletic ability I never had the desire to. I tried to not go into any detail on either snow activity since I know nothing about it, but if I got anything wrong, again, I'm so sorry.
The iMix: I made the iMix and was told that it was created, but I can't find it now. It was titled Discovering Us by SS (1) and it may show up a bit later, I'm not sure, so if you're interested in it, do look for it. Also, iTunes didn't have some of the songs, but I've listed those on the mix and if you'd like to find those I suggest Napster, which I know has at least a few of them.
Opinion, please? I'm greatly considering deleting the introduction to this. It does explain a lot, but I feel like it probably also puts people off a bit. If you have an opinion about whether or not I should keep it, I would greatly appreciate if you shared that opinion.
Next Chapter: Caught Up: part 2 is the last day and night of Logan and Dana's stay at Big Bear and everything changes, yet somehow it's not that new. I know, awfully cryptic of me, but since all of you could probably guess who "someone" is, I've got to try and be a little mysterious. Though, keep in mind that one of the other things to look forward to is the look the movie reminds Dana about at the beginning. That look hasn't happend yet. It happens on the last night and we've left off at the beginning of the last day. Oh, and in part two you'll find out how Nicole's date went and quite possibly, if I can work it in correctly, what Chase and Zoey were doing at midnight on New Years Eve/Day (but that may have to wait until chapter ten or simply be an out of chapter "missing moment" so to speak). And like I mentioned, I'm already about a third of the way into the chapter and I'd like to have it up in the next week, though I make no promises. For progress on the chapter and on other stories, check my profile, which I'm trying to update with progress regularly.
Um…hmm, it seems like there was something else I was planning on mentioning, but nothing is coming to mind. Well, if I remember I suppose I'll just have to try and get the continuation of the chapter out faster. So, let us all hope that I remember whatever I wanted to say so that I am even further motivated to get out the rest of the chapter and that it's up before you can believe it.
Of course, reviews also motivate me greatly, so if you feel like doing so, please do review.
Thank you for reading and I hope you've enjoyed the first part of the chapter!
-Sarah