Hi dear readers!
I wanted to give a (somewhat) quick synopsis of what's happened so far. Since it takes me forever to get to writing, it's probably easy to forget where we've left L and L. Also, thanks for sticking around! I still have a lot of plans for this story and I really appreciate your patience.
Friday, Louise had finished her classes for the day and she and Georgia had decided to mall it up and catch a movie on Saturday with Max and Tina.
Saturday came, Tina backed out, so the 3 go to the mall and boom! Louise runs into Logan, punches and slaps him, then gets a CD, a raincheck for a book, AND forty bucks. What a deal, huh?
Sunday, Georgia goes to the library and spies Logan there in a casual meeting. She sneaky sneakies, but Logan catches her and gets revenge for Louise's punch and slap by convincing Georgia that Louise and he had in fact, been secretly dating, and that Louise had popped the big question to which Logan had said, no. Georgia tells Louise, who then goes a little crazy to be honest, gets a fake gun, and goes to meet Logan. He shows up with the book she wants, she gets sappy, they have dinner, she bails. End of day.
Monday is fine until in English, surprise! Logan is the guest speaker talking about publication! Louise almost gets beat up by a drunk guy (I mean, who's drunk on a Monday morning? Spoiler, we'll find out later.) Logan saves her and they end up spending lunch and part of the afternoon together until she gets mad, then he gets mad, and then to prove that he always wins, he kisses her knowing she won't be expecting it (and because, let's be honest, he wanted to.) Louise goes to Georgia for a revenge plan and they decide to give Logan some heartbreak. They end up going to a double date, Georgia and Max ditch, Louise and Logan end up spending a bunch of time together and agree to see each other the next day, being Tuesday, being this Chapter.
Phew! Let the fun begin anew.
Chapter 21
Delectable, coffee scented odor particles danced through the air, making their way to the sleeping Louise and finding entrance into her nasal passages, acted as an alarm, telling her brain that it was time to wake. A big inhale drew more of the welcoming smell into her nostrils and prompted a big stretch and even bigger yawn. Louise lazily scratched her head and sighed, allowing her eyelids one more minute of rest. Georgia noticed her roommate stir and got up to pour a cup of coffee.
"We're almost out of coffee, Lou. Should we go shopping? We need TP too. Unless you wanna snag some extra rolls from the public bathroom," Georgia said.
"Hmm, yeah, we can go," Louise replied groggily. She got out of bed and thankfully accepted the cup of java from its supplier. "Good Morning, Joe. How nice of you to wake me up today," she cooed at the coffee mug. Georgia was finishing packing up her bag and then put on her winter gear.
"Lou, it's supposed to be extra cold today, I already checked. Oh, and when I was shopping with Max I saw a cute pair of gloves, and they were on sale, so they may or may not be in your coat pockets," she said. Then she slung her backpack over her shoulder, slipped her phone and keys into her pocket, and left the room.
Louise raised an eyebrow out of curiosity while sipping at the hot coffee. The cup thumped slightly as she sat it down on her desk in order to search her coat pockets. Out came two light pink gloves. The color matched her scarf almost exactly but they weren't made of regular knit material. The inside was lined with a soft fabric and the outside was a faux leather. They would have looked very mature, except that on each glove was an embroidered bunny face, complete with two faux leather bunny ears sewn onto the gloves, so that when she had them on, the ears pointed up toward her arm and would be concealed by her coat sleeve. The faces were cute, and well stitched. Louise loved them. A happy grin lit up her face, but she rolled her eyes at her non-present roommate. "It's like living with a little mother…" she muttered to herself.
Picking up her momentarily abandoned coffee, she situated herself at her desk and tried to remember if she had anything due in her morning class. Louise wasn't the most organized student, but with Georgia's help, she kept things together well enough. This would be the last year of general studies and then her academic advisor would harass her to pick a major and ultimately a life career.
Louise sighed. She wondered how many people actually stuck with the career they chose in college. She doubted it was many. Thanksgiving was coming up and she'd be back home with her sibs and the parentals which was fine, and something to look forward to…mostly. If it just weren't for her parents' subtle hints at taking over the restaurant, they'd all get along dandily, but she knew something would be said at some point and she'd have to snake around the topic. Now, even more so, they would be asking what major she was going to declare and since she really wasn't sure, she was leaving herself a weakness that her family could exploit.
"Load a' butts…." she muttered under her breath, disgruntled by her thoughts. "Hmm, Logan went through this, kind of…wonder how he dealt with it….," she thought casually. Actually, it wasn't the first time that morning that Logan had entered her thoughts. He had popped into her head when she took her coffee from Georgia, with a question of whether he'd already woken up. When she'd looked at her assignments, she'd thought how lucky he was to be done with school and not have any more homework to do. Louise was vaguely aware of this shift in her thoughts, but she attributed it to the fact that she was going to see him later that day. Now that her coffee had started to work its magic deep down in the pit of her soul, Louise grabbed her things to take a shower and officially start her day. Hopefully her classes would fly by and she'd get to land that promised hit right smack dab into Logan's gut. The thought was positively exhilarating.
After her shower, Louise slid into her black jeans and slipped on a dark green, button up flannel shirt. With her bag ready, and only minutes to spare, she was just about to pull on her boots when a thought struck her. Her mouth scrunched up on one side in some form of frustration mixed with indecision. Her eyebrows furrowed in contemplation. She slowly turned her eyes and then her head followed over to Georgia's desk. There, sitting so innocently next to the computer, where it always lived, was a little tube of tinted lip balm that was her best friend's signature. It was a very calm color, but added just a bit of shimmer…and of course…it was cold outside…her lips might get chapped if she didn't use something. Squinting her eyes as she made her decision, Louise walked over in a huff and swiped some of the balm over her lips. She rubbed her lips together, determined to convince herself that this was NOT because she was going to be seeing a blonde headed bozo later that day… She hurriedly donned all of her winter gear and then stormed out of the room with her backpack, embarrassed at herself. Once out of the building, she felt the cold bite at the heat that had risen to her cheeks. At least she could blame the blush on the cold weather…
Her morning class was uneventful and lunch was minimal and quiet. Her lecture class in the early afternoon seemed to last forever, though, and at one point the student in the seat next to her shot her a "What's wrong with you?" look. Louise answered with a quizzical expression. He leaned over.
"Your jitters are bouncing the whole table….you okay?" he whispered. A flush burned at her cheeks. She'd been nervously bouncing her leg for most of the class, and now that she was aware and had stopped, her leg was actually kind of tired. Her head snapped back down to her notebook and focused on keeping her body still for the remainder of class. "Ugh…what's wrong with me?" Louise wondered to herself. She asked the same question in multiple different forms until the teacher dismissed the class.
3:15. With a big inhale of sharp, frigid air - "Man, Georgia wasn't kidding…", Louise thought - she huffed out, cracked her neck to the side, and went off in the direction of the library.
….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …..
Logan had woken up groggy but excited. He'd slipped into shorts and a tshirt to grab some coffee from the lobby, too late to have caught breakfast. He'd checked his emails and other notifications on his computer before taking a shower and getting dressed. Then he'd sat at the desk, sketching out some ideas for work. Hearing the telltale sign of hunger grumble up from his stomach, he decided to go get lunch and then camp out at the library until his only appointment for the day – Louise Belcher.
He'd picked a comfortable spot in the library to scan through some comic books until she showed up. He read and jotted down ideas on his phone. He was trying to be chill and mature, but honestly there was a brunette jogging around through his brain, distracting him from his distractions. Students had been bustling around the library all afternoon and checking the time on his phone, he decided to move somewhere near the front so he'd be able to see Louise arrive. There were a group of soft, arm chairs near the entrance so he lounged back into one of them, pulling his left leg up and resting his ankle on his other knee.
Not more than 5 minutes later, he watched as a familiar brunette bustled into the library, swinging her head from side to side evidently looking for someone. Logan stayed put with a grin on his face and one eyebrow up, amused. The young woman pulled her phone out and checked the screen. She turned sideways and he could see her profile, noticing that her face was turned down into a frown. Then her hand whipped up to her mouth and viciously smooshed back and forth against her lips. "Hmm?...Did she miss some food on her mouth?" Logan mused. "Alright…here we go!" he thought and stood up to go toward Louise. It was a good thing he did because in that instant she was on the move, probably to look for him. His long legs caught up to her quickly and silently, and he stepped right up behind her, essentially becoming her shadow. The goal was to step with the same foot at the same time as hers, as closely as possible, without her noticing. He was so close in fact that he almost brushed against Louise's hair. This was ridiculously fun for him, and when a person walked past the two, the girl swallowed a laugh as Logan put a finger up to his lips to make sure she didn't say anything.
"What's her problem?" Louise thought as she passed a girl who stared at her with laughter in her eyes. "And where is that loser?…" Louise mumbled, obliviously to her tall, blonde shadow. She let out a sigh and scanned some study tables a ways in front of her looking for Logan. After another sigh she grumbled, "Oh this is ridiculous…" and pulled out her phone to text him. A second after her message sent, she heard a "ding" sound out from right behind her. Literally, right behind her. She spun around so fast and her nose was almost buried in a man's shirt, about chest high. He was almost right on top of her with mere inches between them. Her eyes shot up and found exactly what she suspected – Logan's face grinning down at her.
Logan barely registered the devilish look of glee flash across Louise's upturned face before he felt her fist jab into his stomach. He bent over on impulse – she hadn't really hit him that hard - and due to their proximity, he was essentially slouching over her, draped onto her right shoulder. She laughed a sort of maniacal giggle, and then with one step back, she brought her right hand up and patted Logan's left cheek twice.
"My fist feels much better now. Thanks!" she gloated, looking right into Logan's eyes. He stared right back and then, glancing down her face, he noticed a very slight shimmer dancing on her lips. "Is she wearing makeup?" Logan thought. Louise noticed the movement of his eyes and her breath hitched, catching her off guard, and she coughed taking several steps back then. Logan grinned. "Dang..." she thought, "I wonder if he can still see the lipgloss…did I not get it all off?" Her eyes widened a little and then glanced to the side to avoid his eye contact which made Logan's grin grow.
"What's a'matter Louise-ee Bel-cheese-ee? Too close for comfort?" he teased and after straightening up, took a step closer to her, essentially eliminating any space between them. Louise stiffened up.
"Woah woah woah there, bean pole - personal space!" she recovered and put two hands to his chest to push him back. "I could get you fined for sexual harassment," she added with a teasing raise of her eyebrows.
"That's a serious threat, Little Lou Lou. You could really mess somebody's life up," Logan warned.
"Better be on your best behavior then," Louise said dryly as she removed her gloves and relaxed her posture.
"So what's the game plan? What shenanigans are we getting into here?" Logan asked with curiosity in his voice. Louise grinned.
"Follow me, knave!" she hollered, much too loudly for being in a library, with her arm pointed up in the air.
"To death, my queen!" Logan answered with a deep bow. He was rewarded with a laugh from Louise as she bounced off into the library.
After walking through some aisles Logan found themselves in an area somewhat familiar.
"Huh….comics. That's ironic,…" he muttered to himself feeling amused.
Louise looked up to him. "What'd ya say?" she asked.
"Comics. I like comics," he replied with a coverup smile. It was true, after all. He did like comics, and she already knew that, but she didn't need to know he'd spent the last few hours looking at all of the ones he was interested in. Louise skimmed one of the shelves, and finding a book that interested her, pulled it from the shelf and fanned the pages.
She took a big whiff and sighed. Logan just chuckled. Logan picked his own and they found a table to sit at. Logan opened his book, but was surprised when he looked over at Louise. She'd rummaged through her backpack and dug out a notebook. Flipping through the pages she settled on a particular panel, weighted the comic open with another book, and then began to scribble around in her notebook. An eyebrow lifted on Logan's face as he leaned over to see what she was doing.
The pencil sketched sloppy, short lines onto the paper, but eventually Logan made out a face, then a rough outline of hair. The style was supposed to be similar to the comic book's, he realized.
"Are you….trying to draw this?" Logan asked, very curious. Louise shot her arm out around the comic and her notebook, then buried her head down into it, attempting to block his view.
"Don't look! Not til it's done," she ordered, and then scooted her paper away from him.
An idea struck Logan.
"Hey, gimme a piece of paper and a pen."
Louise looked up. "Why?"
"Just do it."
Logan heard the sound of paper ripping and then smiled as she slid a piece over to him and dug around in her bag again, finding a pen.
"Thanks!" he said and then he examined his own comic book for some inspiration. His pen began to sketch line after line, merging them into shapes and shades. It's like his pen couldn't stop and would only lift momentarily to be repositioned onto the paper. Logan stole glances at Louise, noting her hair, facial lines, how her eyes were set. Little details like how high her nose was and where her ears began and ended. Louise would occasionally glance over, but Logan mirrored her posture, hiding his own drawing behind his arm. They spent a half hour or so in that manner before he set his pen down in satisfaction declaring, "Done!"
Louise poked her head up out of her burrow, very much like a turtle looking up out of its shell.
"What'd you dra—" was all she could get out as her eyes settled on the drawing. It was her. He'd transformed her into a comic book character and she had jumped right out of the pages onto his paper. The style was identical to that of the book open in front of him. Her hair was just right, and her face stylistically accurate. The difference though, was that he'd drawn her as a super villain. She was in a dynamic pose, with her fist clad in a pink leather glove equipped with brass knuckles, flying up and almost off of the paper. She was dressed in a black, fitted tuxedo, pink vest, with pink bunny ears and coat tails shooting out behind her.
"Wooooah ho ho ho. Hold on. What is that?! How did you-?" Louise managed. Then she watched as Logan scribbled something on the bottom of the paper and slid it over to her. She examined the scribble.
"To Four Ears - LBB"
"Ah! Why'd you do that!? It was so cool until you ruined it with your signature!" Louise teased. "Honestly though, I'll admit it, it is pretty good. Where'd you learn that?"
Logan shrugged. "It probably started with graffiti. Do you remember that incident with Fischoeder's fancy new garage? And then that obnoxious billboard Pesto put up?" Then he pointed his thumbs at himself. "Thisss guy."
"No way! Wow. Gotta hand it to ya, Logan. That was gutsy. Pesto went crazy! So are you an artist or something…?"
"I guess? I just like it, and comics happen to be what I do best. I like to design my own skateboards too. Now lemme see yours," he said as he started to reach past her, toward her notebook.
"Hah! Like hell you get to see mine!" she retorted and pulled her notebook up into her arms, shielding it from Logan's eyes.
"Oh come one!" Logan begged as he tried to wrestle the notebook from her.
"Nope!" she said and ducked out from under his arms. Logan was ahead of her movement though and maneuvering behind her, wrapped both of his arms around her and her clutched notebook, pinning her arms to herself. He leaned his head down by her ear. "Let me see," he whispered. Her body fought against his hold. "Looouuisseee…. Let me seeeee," he taunted, still fighting like a boa trying to keep its prey. Logan decided to play dirty. "One last chance," he offered.
"Over my dead bod-" Her words were cut short as her body responded to the sensation of air being blown into her ear. Logan had released his grip just in time for one of her hands to shoot up to her ear, leaving her notebook much more exposed. Then it was snatched out of her grasp. Mortified, she looked up at Logan with anger and embarrassment mingling together across her facial features.
Logan started to laugh. "It's uh…" he managed between chuckles. "Wow, Louise, I mean really…" he laughed again. "I think a chicken could do better!" he finally blurted out. Then he looked at Louise, whose head was hanging down. "Ah shoot….guess I went to far," he thought guiltily. As he was about to apologize, Louise's head rolled up and murder was written across her face. Logan imagined that this was what victim's saw before a serial killer chopped their heads off…Then his instincts kicked in. Before Louise knew it, Logan had grabbed his own drawing off the table and with her notebook still in hand, 'booked' it, out of the library.
"BUUUUSH!" she yelled after him and she scooped up her own belongings before running after. A library assistant hollered at both of them, but the two were out the door before she could catch up. Logan didn't stop once outside. He kept on running, dodging students, and checking back over his shoulder to see where the psychopath was. Louise had slung her bag over her shoulder and was in hot pursuit and Logan let out a cackle when she made eye contact with him – he stuck his tongue out at her. He turned back around and heard something like a muffled roar. "Oooh you're totally dead, man," Logan joked to himself.
Louise wasn't the most in shape person, and with the air being so cold outside, her lungs were starting to burn. "Oooo I'm gonna kill him!" she vented to herself, but her run slowed down to a jog, and eventually she stopped in favor of resting her hands on her knees as she bent over for air.
"Logan!" she yelled at him catching his attention. The tone of her voice was threatening yet contained an undertone of surrender. Logan stopped running and turned around to see Louise bent over, one hand on her knee and the other out in the air waving around as if she had a white flag in it. He sauntered back to her and held out her notebook after tucking his drawing in between two of the pages.
While her head was still down, she patted around on Logan's coat with her outstretched hand until she found purchase on the pocket. Grabbing hold, she pulled him toward her as she shot up to her full height just to glare at him.
"Listen, I don't really wanna kill you, it's such a messy job after all, but you make it so…so…tempting." The words slithered from her lips but Logan merely smiled, feeling very entertained. He shoved her notebook against her and then grabbed the hand that was holding onto his pocket.
"You know what, Louise? It's kind of chilly out here. How about something warm to drink?" he asked attempting to bribe her into a better mood. Then he started to lead her off to where he'd parked.
….. ….. ….. ….. …..
The passenger in the car was full of mumbles and grumbles. The driver, however, was contentedly humming and tapping his fingers lightly on the steering wheel to some unheard song. A frustrated Louise was almost always entertaining.
"So I just gotta know, Doodle Bug, are you mad cuz' I made fun of you, or because I'm better than you?"
Her eyes snapped over to him and then squinted into a glare which made Logan laugh. A slight grin pulled at the corner of Louise's mouth as his laugh melted some of her frustration. She let out a "tch" and a "hmph" through her nose, before relaxing into the seat.
"Fine. It's good, way better than mine," she conceded, though barely audible, and with an eyeroll.
"Huuuuh? I couldn't hear you. Wanna say that again, louder?" Logan teased.
"Don't push it, Bush."
Logan stole a glance at Louise and found her looking at his drawing. "Should I tell her?" He wondered. "Nah, not yet."
"Where are we going anyway?" Louise asked, her voice sounding normal again.
"Coffee? I know we keep getting coffee, but – "
"Oh! Yes! Coffee. Hey, turn here," Louise directed. Logan's eyebrows went up at the sudden change in her demeanor. After following her directions, they ended up in the parking lot of a supercenter.
"Uhhh…" Logan questioned.
"Georgia and I need coffee. And toilet paper. Let's go!" Louise called out and then exited the warmth of the car to traverse the parking lot.
"Hey! Wait up!" Logan called and quickly unbuckled his seatbelt to follow. Catching up to her, he tucked his shoulders up around his exposed neck and shoved his hands down into his pockets.
"And when did I become your errand boy?"
"I didn't make you my errand boy!," Louise scoffed, pretending to be offended. "I made you my taxi driver," she finished. Logan just grinned as he pulled a cart out from the store's entryway. Louise got out her phone and called Georgia. The conversation was entertaining to listen to, even if he could only hear one side of it. From what he could tell, Georgia questioned how Louise got to the store without her driving them there and then when Louise spilled that she was with Logan, he could hear the squeal of glee from the other girl and watched as Louise pulled the phone from her ear in pain. Then the conversation turned to a list of other things the two girls needed. Once off the phone, Louise turned her attention to Logan as they walked down the coffee aisle.
"Well, my list grew. Anything you need while we're here? Reader glasses? A walking cane? Denture toothpaste? Depends?" she whispered.
"Har har. I'm not that old."
"It's okay, Logan. You don't need to be ashamed of your incontinence," she said loudly enough that a couple of girls nearby heard and glanced over. "We can pick something up when we go over to get you some Rogaine." She heard stifled giggles from the girls.
"Ah, that'd be perfect. While we're on that side, we can pick up some Preparation H for you," Logan shot back.
"Woah! Woah, buddy! Watch your volume! And it's not Preparation H I'm out of. It's the Ducolax," she said without missing a beat. They both heard whispers from the girls as they exited the aisle and headed for the toilet paper.
The two meandered through the store collecting the rest of the items for Georgia and Louise, plus a few things for Logan. After choosing a checkout lane, they settled into a mildly uncomfortable silence. Walking to the checkout lanes was a young girl finishing up her own shopping. Her brown eyes scanned down each lane to see which was least busy and ended up standing behind Louise and Logan.
"This is taking forever," she muttered to herself, but was loud enough that Logan turned his head to see who was behind them. He accidentally made eye contact with the young woman.
The girl's face lit up. "Hey, wait a minute….You're that guy that came to our class, right? The publishing guy?" she said. Noticing a girl standing with him, but not being able to see her face, she continued, "Sooo is that the girlfriend you talked about?" she pried with a flirtatious smile.
Louise had been counting the money in her billfold when she heard a female's voice address Logan behind her. Tucking the money away before turning to inquire, she was shocked to hear that she'd just been accused of being Logan's girlfriend. Her head spun and her eyes met with…..Margot.
"Greetings, Margie."
"Louise?!" The flirtatious smile vanished as a look of confusion transformed her face. "You're the girlfriend?!"
It took only milliseconds for Louise's brain to make a decision. She could deny the charge since technically, they weren't boyfriend/girlfriend, and technically, she wasn't hanging out with him to be his real girlfriend anyway, or she could lie, jump in with both feet, and then get a gauge from Logan to see if he was taking all the bait she was throwing at him. Mischievousness won, and as Logan was just about to open his mouth in denial, Louise looped her arm through his and tucked herself up against his side. Without a word she slyly grinned at her classmate as if daring her to ask the question again.
Logan was dumbstruck at first. Then he was hyper-aware of Louise's petite form pushing against his side. She fit very well there, he thought. So well in fact…...he unhooked his arm from hers and instead, wrapped it around her waist to pull her in closer. He wanted to push his luck and place a little peck on the top of her head, but decided that today was not a good day to die.
Turning to Margot, he casually answered, "You got it," with a wink. Then he was being tugged slightly toward the front of the store as he heard Louise speak up to him.
"Logie, the line moved. Can you help me put our stuff up on the belt?" she asked, her voice dipped in sugar. Logan imagined that if her classmate hadn't been there, that sentence would have gone something like "Hey Stankface! We're up. Let's get a move on, Bushbutt." He had to resist the urge to laugh.
Louise and Logan both played sweet until they were walking out to the car. Logan pushed the cart and watched as Louise was physically trying to shake off the sick, sticky, sugary sweetness of the act she'd just pulled.
"Yuck!" she exclaimed with a shiver. Logan outwardly laughed, but to himself, he was noticing how cold his side was now that a certain little punk wasn't nestled up beside him.