Disclaimer: Quinn invented a time machine and I get to stalk Chase and Logan all over again. Gotta love Quinn.
I've always tried to judge people not on what others say or how they seem, but by how they act around me. I usually get to know the true person this way, but some people are harder to read than others. Some people can hide their true intentions well, and no matter how hard you want to believe there's good in everyone, the truth is that there may not be.
I woke up the morning after we'd caught the wrong train to someone constantly asking "Excuse me?!"
It got through the third time, causing me to use my now built in reflex of shouting "Shut up Logan!"
"Huh?"
"What?" I said as my eyes were adjusting to the light of day and taking in the image before me. It wasn't Logan who was nudging me awake, but a person who looked strangely familiar. It was almost like staring at a mirror, well, if I had a red silky wig on anyway.
"Chase?! What are you doing here?" he asked me while smiling widely, revealing all his teeth and pushing his eyes into nothing but little lines across the top of his face. I recognized him from before.
"Aiden? Is that you?"
"Yeah. Long time no see."
"What are you doing here?"
"I already asked you that. Are you still asleep?"
I felt a little embarrassed that I hadn't paid attention to his question because I was taking in his stunning good looks. I mean, he looked just like me. Then I thought about my thoughts and thought… I've been spending too much time with Logan.
"Sorry. I'm still a little out of it."
"Well maybe a little coffee will help you wake up. We didn't really get a chance to introduce ourselves the last time we met."
"Yeah… I think we only said like three words to each other. But…"
I looked down to the head resting on my chest. He hadn't awoken even though I know I jumped when I screamed just now. I couldn't just leave him to run off with Aiden.
"Oh, Logan's with you?"
"Yeah… but he's still asleep. I can't really…"
"Leave him? Well, we could just go over there." He said, pointing only a few feet away to a continently placed coffee kiosk."
"But he's asleep."
"Just get up slowly and leave your backpack as a pillow. He doesn't look like he'll wake up anytime soon, and you can't just stay pinned down here for the next few hours."
I didn't really want to leave Logan by himself, even if it was only for a little bit. He might still be mad from yesterday, and I didn't want to be the reason for any more of his anger. But Aiden had already started walking and was looking back at me, waiting for me to go. And he did make a good point about Logan. He was the heaviest sleeper I knew. Every morning it was Michael and I's job to 'assist' him in getting up, usually by crashing a cymbal next to his face. It was funny at the time, but now thinking back on it, it seemed a little mean.
Anyway, I decided to get up and leave Logan to his own devices, but keeping my eye on him just in case he woke up startled. Aiden was looking over the menu, which consisted pretty much of coffee and coffee cake.
"Wow, so many choices it makes my head spin." he said looking over to me as I approached the counter. My hands were running themselves through my hair, trying to bring what little order they could to the chaos which was my hair, as they did every morning. I guess Aiden found it funny, because he's started trying to hide his slight giggling at my efforts.
"You know, it's harder than it seems to get my hair to achieve maximum fluff."
His attempts to conceal his laughter failed then, miserably. No one could resist a joke about my hair, myself included.
"I'm sure it's not."
"So… what are you getting?"
"I think I'll take the coffee, hold the cake" I said, directing my words to the recently arrived clerk.
"I'll have the same."
Aiden turned to me, his elbow on the counter and his hands intertwining in from of him while his head tilted to the side. He looked at me questioningly, and then back at Logan.
"So, how did you two guys end up here? I thought you guys had constant classes at PCA until Thanksgiving. Or maybe my calendar is wrong and I'm three weeks behind?"
"No, you're up to date with the rest of the world. But me and Logan…" I stopped myself because I wasn't sure Logan would want me to go telling everyone we met all of his plans. And I didn't really know Aiden all that well, so I decided to just give him the simple explanation.
"Logan decided we needed a vacation… or more like a honeymoon."
"Honeymoon? So you two are finally together?"
"Finally? You make it sound like you've been waiting forever."
"Well, it's been a while, or at least for Logan. He's been into you for almost a year now."
"Wait, what? Really? I thought it was only since the spring?"
I was genuinely confused, because Logan had never really brought up how he felt last year before the spring. He might have mentioned liking a few girls, but I never noticed him looking at me before.
"Logan told me that he'd been falling for you since last fall. That's when his dad and Zoey's mom got together officially, and when Zoey started talking to me"
"So you've known Logan since then?"
The coffee arrived, and we went to sit at the closest table to the bench where Logan was. Once we were situated and our coffee properly sweetened, he began to tell me what he knew about Logan liking me.
"No, I've known Logan since elementary school. He swears he doesn't remember that though, but I showed him the pictures, and that shut him up. Logan stayed with his mother in Santa Barbara when his parents split about a year ago, but he was in Malibu visiting his father, so he was staying at the Reese Estate, while I lived next door to Zoey's dad, who lived with Dustin. I'd get to talk to him whenever he came to play with Dustin, since Zoey would never want to come with him to visit her dad. Zoey would talk about how Logan got on her nerves, and then Dustin would talk about how he was the best thing to ever hit the world. I liked Dustin's stories better. After seeing him with Dustin, and talking to him for so long about all these little things… something just hit me." He looked over at a sleeping Logan, who was holding on to my backpack like it was a flotation device and he was drowning.
"You mean like how even though everyone thinks he's a jerk, looking at him you can tell he's not?"
"And how someone who cares so much for a little kid must be a good guy at heart?"
"Yeah! Well, of course you know what I mean. You're the one together with him… and you're the one he wants…" Aiden lowered his head to drink the rest of his coffee. The strength of his words had diminished as he spoke the last few, almost as if they hurt to be let out.
"Aiden… what happened between you and Logan?"
His eyes shot back at me at the mere mention of Logan's name. They weren't angry, sad, happy…. They had no emotion to them, and that freaked me out a little.
"Nothing really happened… Well, about a week before his dad's wedding, I asked him to go out with me."
"Like on a date?"
"Well, that's what I meant, but he didn't take it to mean that. It was terrible. The whole time I was trying to tell him how I felt about him… but all he could talk about was that guy he was waiting for. He wouldn't tell me his name, but I knew whoever it was, I didn't stand a chance against him. I didn't see him again until the wedding ceremony. I went with Zoey, but I couldn't stand to be around her. All she did was cling to me, and complain about how she was going to hate having Logan for a brother. I told her to stop, and she got all defensive. I think I was sticking up for him a little too hard, because we ended up in a huge argument, where I kinda… spilled the beans."
"What did she say? I mean, she must have been furious."
"She was, but there wasn't much she could do, because the ceremony was starting at this point. But she didn't want me anywhere near her, so I went to sit by Logan. I told him what had happened… and he held my hand, almost to tell me it was going to be okay. During the reception, I finally managed to tell Logan how I felt… and he kinda freaked. Well… not so much freaked as tried to let me down easy. He kept reminding me of that guy he liked back at school, but… I just couldn't let it go, so…"
"So what?"
"Well, I kissed him. What I didn't know was that Zoey had been right behind us the whole time. She wasn't that angry before, but at that moment… she had this fury in her eyes that I'd never seen before. And she knew how to use it, because both Logan and I got a shiny black eye that day. "
He looked back up at me for a second, and then began to circle the top of his cup with his finger. He tried to start the conversation up again, but every time, he stuttered and stopped, as if he was trying to change the subject but didn't know how.
"You don't have to go on. I can see you're uncomfortable. Come on, let's get rid of these cups. They're bad for the environment… I think."
Aiden smiled at my small attempt to lighten the mood, and we went back up to the candy counter, which the trash cans were next to. Aiden started to tell me about how his parents moved to Devon Springs a few weeks after the ceremony, right after Zoey left for camp and Logan's mother came to see him in the hospital. But now, he was being more secretive, rushing through the story, almost purposely forgetting the details. He vaguely mentioned something that I think he didn't really mean to say. It turns out that he'd moved in large part because he'd tried to take his life, but failed. He obviously didn't want to get into it, so I didn't bother asking, even though I wanted to know more.
Then I asked him why he was here in the first place. It turns out his story was the same as ours. He got his tickets messed up. So, seeing how distraught he was, I felt bad enough to ask him to come with us to Devon Springs.
I noticed Logan was waking up, so I called over to him to let him know we hadn't abandoned him.
"Hey Logan! Come here!"
He was a little slow on the approach, but his sleepy eyes shot open as soon as he saw who I was talking to.
"Aiden? What are you doing here?"
Aiden looked a little hurt, so I tried to intervene to make the situation less tense.
"Aiden lives in Devon Springs. He got the tickets messed up too."
"Yeah, I thought I was the only person who could make that mistake." He spoke up, as I tapped his shoulder for calling me dumb.
"I told Aiden he could come with us to Devon Springs. We can't just leave him on his own with all these hobos here. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure, I don't mind." Logan said flatly.
We both started to giggle, but stopped when we looked at Logan. I guess he was still mad from yesterday, so Aiden and I gave each other a knowing look, and decided to try to cheer him up.
"Great! So… how exactly are we getting to Devon Springs?"
"What do you mean, Aiden? Can't we just get on another train there?"
"Not really Chase. You see, we're really far off. Devon Springs is only about twenty miles from Vancouver."
"And where is Vancouver, Aiden?"
"In British Columbia, Chase."
Logan then burst at the seams. I think his anger got the best of him, because he yelled "Why are you two talking like that?!" loud enough for people back at PCA to hear.
"Sorry Logan. We were just trying to lighten the mood. I know how upset you must be."
I tried holding his hand to make him feel better. And he did seem to calm down, but he was really uncomfortable around Aiden for some reason.
We had to get to Devon Springs somehow, and Logan couldn't use his credit cards, so a trip all the way back to PCA was out of the question. We asked the people at the station for directions, and they told us to go to a city called Harrison about ten miles down the road and take the train to Seattle. From there, we could take a train directly to Devon Springs.
So, we started walking down the dirt road, Logan straggling and me telling him to hurry up a few times. Then Aiden told me to slow down a little to be with Logan. He said that Logan always got angrier when he was left alone. So, I let Aiden walk a few steps ahead of us. Logan caught up to me, and when we were side by side, he started whispering to me. I wasn't sure if we were in hearing range of Aiden, but Logan didn't think so, so I followed suit.
"Chase?"
"What's up?"
"You seem to be really friendly with Aiden."
"Yeah, he came up to us about an hour before you woke up. He didn't know where he was and confused us for locals until he saw you, and then he remembered meeting me back at PCA. We started talking and he told me about how he made the same mistake as me when he was buying his ticket home."
"Yeah… home…"
"Yeah. He told me his parents moved to Devon Springs after your father's wedding. Apparently Zoey was giving him a hard time too, and he was really close to doing something stupid."
"What do you mean 'something stupid'?"
"I mean he was… well…" I looked down at his wrists, which were now healed and bandage free.
"You mean he tried to…?"
"Yeah. It was really bad, so his parents wanted to give him a fresh start in a new place."
Logan seemed lost in thought after that. The only words coming out of his mouth being a barely audible "I miss the train."
He looked exhausted. I guess the stress got to him. He was falling asleep on his feet, so I decided to be his train and carry him the rest of the way there.
We'd been walking down this road for about an hour now, not a single car passing by, and it was cold. Logan was probably freezing though, since he'd insisted on wearing one of his muscle shirts even though we were going somewhere he knew would be cold. I'd given him my jean jacket, but I don't think that was enough, because he still felt cold.
When we got into town, the trains had stopped running, and we, Aiden and I, decided to go stay at a motel until tomorrow. We decided not to wake Logan, since he looked so tired. When we got in the room, there was only one bed, and a couch on the other end of the room. It wasn't a dump, like I was expecting it to be. Motel's always looked so shabby, but this one was very clean and well kept, almost like a mini hotel, except for the lack of beds.
"Hey Chase, maybe I should get a separate room. I don't think Logan would appreciate all three of us sharing a motel bed."
"Are you sure? I mean, you and Logan could take the bed and I'll sleep on the couch."
"No, I couldn't do ask you to do that."
"I insist. You spent too much on this room alone for me to ask you to get another one."
It was true. For a motel, this place was expensive. It was almost 200 for one night. And Aiden had insisted on paying for it all on his own, giving me back the hundred dollar bill I put up on the counter after the cashier had given him the room key.
"Okay… but I'll sleep on the couch."
"No you won't. You should get the bed because you paid."
"Fine… you win. But I bet you Logan will freak out tomorrow morning when he sees who's next to him"
"I'll set up the camera."
A/N: Okay readers of the world. Did I spice up your life? Huh? Did I? OMJ, look up there, Aiden and Logan in the same bed? What do you think will happen? Review and tell me! Who knows, I might be one of those writers who listens to their readers.