~*~Logan~*~

You're angry when you're beautiful
Your love is such tease
I'm drowning in your dizzy noise
I wanna feel you scream

            The first night at Brent and Priscilla's home slipped by and before Logan could realize it, sunshine was peaking through the window of the guest bedroom that Priscilla had fixed up for him. It was nice to see sun for a change.

After all, this is California.

He had slept with the door closed in hopes that no one would discover his exoskeleton. Logan never told Brent about his accident and wasn't even going to bother.

Why bring up the past?

Outside the oak door, Logan heard two sets of soft high pitched giggling and whispering, obviously Amy Ann and Mark trying to get a peek of Daddy's friend.

It had been a restless night for poor Logan. He awoke with the sheets tangled beneath and under his useless legs and spent his sleep flitting in and out of dreams/nightmares concerning Max. If it was about Max or not, she was there, either in the center of attention or off in the background.

I can't believe you're still thinking about her, you loser.

Logan maneuvered himself over to the exoskeleton, put it on and slid a pair of long pajama pants over them to hide any trace of them. After putting his glasses on, when he went to open the door, Amy Ann and Mark were seated on the floor, just outside the doorframe, as he suspected they would be.

"Hi," he greeted them, smiling widely.

They both gave him cat-who-ate-the-canary looks and shyly waved. Amy Ann was in a rumpled pink nightgown trimmed in lace and Mark wore a pajama set with sports balls embossed all over. Both of them had extremely messy hair.

"Where's your mom and dad?"

"Kitchen, makin' coffee," Mark whispered.

"They told us not to wake you up," chirped Amy Ann. "Did we wake you up?"

"Nope," Logan answered truthfully.

"Do you miss your girlfriend?" she asked, standing. Mark followed suit.

Logan smiled, "Why do you ask that?"

Amy Ann shrugged. "You just look kinda sad, is all." She smiled back, shrugged again and skipped off, Mark scurrying after her.

Cute kids.

Making his way downstairs, Logan recalled his dreams and nightmares. Some were particularly bad, some were surprisingly splendid. Either way, it bothered him that he was thinking about Max when they were suppost to be apart.

"Morning, Logan," Brent greeted when he entered the kitchen.

"Good morning," Logan replied.

"Sleep well?" Priscilla yawned and chuckled at the same time.

"Yeah, sure."

"I heard these two monsters were spying on you when you woke up," Priscilla gestured towards Mark and Amy Ann, who were pouring themselves bowls of cereal at the kitchen counter. "I apologize about that." She poured Logan a mug of coffee.

"No need," Logan insisted, taking the steaming cup from her. "They weren't bothering me, if that's what you're implying."

"We just wanted to be good hosts, Mommy," Mark piped up.

"Being a good host isn't bothering the guest," Brent chided gently.

"Can we go to the beach today, Daddy?"

"We'll see," Brent said. "It depends on what Logan wants to do."

I can't go to the beach with this machine on my legs. "I don't really, ah, enjoy the beach too much…" Logan said reluctantly.

"That's okay," Brent insisted. "We can always do something without the kids."

"No fair!" Mark protested.

"Let Daddy have some time alone with Logan," Priscilla said firmly. "I'll take you and Amy Ann to the beach if you still want to."

And that's exactly how the day went. The kids went to the beach, Brent and Logan stayed at home, in Brent's study with a bottle of vodka.

"Remember those girls who were in love with us back at Yale who introduced you to Daphne?" Brent asked. "Namou and Joi?"

"Ah, the Sexy Sorority Sweethearts of Tri-Delt?" Logan recalled. "Yeah I think so."

"I get an e-mail from Joi a few days ago confessing her love for me, not you."

"Really?"

"Funny thing is, she and Namou are lesbians."

"Get out," Logan laughed.

"I swear it. She's like 'oh I loved you so much I swore I would never love another man.' Apparently she wasn't kidding."

"Oh God," sighed Logan, sipping his vodka. "Geez it's really early for this stuff."

"Yeah, well, I usually never get a chance with the kids everywhere. Plus, I'm not one of those guys who drink alone."

"I know I never do."

"So you drink with that chick you're with. Max, was it?"

Logan winced, "Yeah."

"Tell me more about her. What does she look like? Better yet, got a picture?"

"Not with me, no. She's kind of tiny, though. Very thin. Uh, nice chest, nice butt. Strong. Fast. Kind of olive-y skin, brown hair, brown eyes, and big, full lips."

"Sounds like a winner. How old is she?"

"Twenty-one, twenty-two I guess."

"A kid," Brent scoffed.

"She's not that young, Brent. She was nineteen when we met."

"And you caught her breaking into your apartment?"

"Had my gun ready." Or at least my bodyguard did.

Brent burst out laughing. "You were gonna shoot to kill and now you two're knockin' boots?"

I wish. "Not necessarily."

"Well, you were the stud horse back at Yale," Brent gulped his drink. "Can't picture the great Logan Cale with one steady chick."

"Get used to it."

It was Brent's turn to recoil. "Yeah okay."

"Anyway, Max and I aren't like that. At least we're not suppost to. I mean, we're close and all that—I've been there for her, she's been there for me, we hang out together, we work together…which reminds me—how'd you meet Priscilla?"

Brent rolled his eyes, "I met her at a club. She was dancing in one of those cages they hang from the ceiling."

"So she was a stripper?"

"No," Brent corrected quickly and sharply. "She paid some guy a hundred bucks to let her dance in a cage. I remember she was in a little silver tube top and black hot pants with pink glitter all over she shoulders and chest. I saw her and thought she looked a little like an angel."

"If Heaven had hookers," joked Logan, remembering the time Max told him she once had to pretend to be a stripper to help Alec save a mermaid.

"Hey, shut up. I remember how you and Joi used to—what did you call it?—oh yeah, 'hang out' all alone in the dorms?"

"Well, we didn't really do anything."

"Then I must've been dreaming when I heard her shout your name at the top of her lungs followed by a chorus of 'hell yes' at two in the morning?"

Logan turned deep scarlet. That had been done as a joke. Joi had started jumping on the bed to make it squeak and screamed like that to not only irritate the other tenants but to embarrass Logan and tease Brent. She had always been wild like that.

Maybe that's why I'm so attracted to Max? Because she's a little like Joi?

True, Joi was a girl to be remembered. She was a unique Eurasian beauty with hair so black it seemed blue and she had it streaked bright red. Her eyes, coincidently, were almost like Max's, and her lips too.

Jesus, I'm seeing Joi in Max.

Logan shrugged that thought off his back but it haunted him for the rest of the day.

That night, as Logan, Brent, Priscilla and the kids were sitting in the dining room, consuming another one of Priscilla's "gourmet" meals, rain patted down on the windows and the roof of the Laszlos'  suburban home. In the middle of a roast beef, the doorbell rang. Priscilla and Brent exchanged private looks of shock and surprise and Brent got up to go see who it was.

"Can I help you?" Brent asked coolly to the person standing there after he'd opened the door.

"I'm looking for Logan Cale," the firm, feminine voice replied. She sounded a little breathless and slightly muffled, probably from the downpour.

Logan turned in his seat and made eye contact with Brent, giving him a little nod, to tell him it was okay, to let whoever it was in.

"He's here," Brent told the woman outside. "Come on in."

Then, as if in slow motion, the woman entered and Logan's breath caught in his throat. He then uttered the name he so longingly held between his lips and one he wanted to say over and over,

"Max."

I know it's a really long chapter but oh well…hope you enjoy and Chapter #6 is in the making…luv, C.W.