Chapter Two: Crash
The first person I run into at Crash is Original Cindy. She takes one look at my tear-stained face and steers me to our table.
"Hey guys," she says looking at Herbal and Sketchy, "why don't you give me a moment or two along with my homegirl, aiight?"
"No," I sniffle. "You guys can stay," thankfully they rarely listen to me.
"Okay boo, what's the dealio? I thought you had a date with wheel boy tonight?"
"I did."
"So what did he do to you? Does Original Cindy need to kick his scrawny white, rich ass?"
"It's not his fault. I screwed this one up all by myself," I say as my tears finally subside.
"What're you talkin' about boo?"
"He only wants to be friends. That's why when I tried to tell him that I had come to realize how much he meant to me he blew me off." I am miserable. How could I be so dense as to think that Logan could love me? A science project gone horribly wrong.
"Hold up there girlie. Don't be thinkin' that this has anything to do with your revved-up DNA. That boy is head over wheels in love with you, and I think that's the problem."
"What?"
"Max, think about it. You're some sort of superhuman, about as close to perfection as you can get. Logan is, well, he's Logan. He's stuck in a wheelchair and he doesn't want to hold you back. Think about it girl. Look at the way looks at you. Logan is all about you. He is completely in to you."
"Then why…"
Original Cindy cuts in, "Girl, he sees you with Zach, someone who's your equal. Someone not in a chair."
"Zach? I can kick his ass any day. Besides Logan is my equal. He's smart, cute, he has these eyes that make you just want to…."
"Yeah, yeah. But do you see what I'm getting at? You are gonna have to knock some sense into him. You think he's worthy, but you have to make him think that."
"How is that you know all about the male psyche?" I ask taking in her suggestions. "I need some paper. I have to do some serious convincing 'cause he's gone into full self-deprecation mode."
"Anybody in this joint got a notebook my sista can borrow?" Original Cindy asks the crowd. "C'mon it's all in the name of love. Thanks brudha," she tells some gothic looking guy as he hands her a notebook.
I flip the cover back and begin to write. "Let's see Logan is intelligent, Logan is funny, smart, witty, charming…"
"Boo, just write it in the damn book. I love the doe-eyed expression and all you get from talking about him, but after what he did he to you I don't want to hear about his positive attributes aiight?"
I just smile and crinkle my nose at her and go back to work. The notebook only had about ten pages left it in, and I managed to fill them front and back within an hour. Cindy has watched me the entire time. She said she didn't want to hear about Logan's attributes, but she couldn't help sneaking a peak at my list. I wonder which one made her laugh? I look back at my handiwork. I ended up making two lists. The first one is all the really wonderful things about Logan. The second list, the much longer list, is all the reasons I can think of why I don't deserve to be with Logan. "Gotta blaze. If this works don't worry if I don't come home tonight."
"If you do come home, Logan better be worried because Original Cindy'll come after him," she tells me as I leave.