Author's note: A flat.

Disclaimer: I own the storyline only; Rob Thomas owns the characters and settings, although he probably doesn't want this particular iteration of them.

X X X X X

It all started one night when Duncan and Lilly and Logan and I were going to a dance. This was before Logan and Lilly had had one of their thousand breakups, and while I still got enough out of Duncan to make him worth dating.

And it's not like Duncan was horrible; I mean, sure, he wasn't that great in bed, but he bought me expensive things and always paid for the meals, and that's something. I mean, not enough to keep me around when things start to go to hell, but enough until I scoped out the other options.

I hadn't even considered Logan as one of them. For one thing, he was dating Lilly, and since I was learning from her, I hadn't seen any reason to tick her off. For another, he'd never shown the slightest bit of interest in me. Oh, we got along fine, but nothing more until that one night in the limousine. We'd all decided to play truth or dare. I was tempted to see how outrageous a lie I could get away with under the heading of "truth," but Duncan ended up asking me a really boring question.

Anyone up for a rousing rendition of the "who'd'a thunk it" chorus? Didn't think so.

Anyway, it all started when Lilly asked Logan what he thought of me the first time he saw me.

He seemed almost embarrassed, but he said, "I don't know; I thought she was hot."

I blinked. "Really," I said. "I never would have guessed."

"Besides," Lilly said, "Wasn't she, like, 12?"

"And totally working it in shorts and knee socks."

I laughed and said, "That was my soccer uniform!"

"It still worked," he said.

And I could tell that he meant it.

Naturally, I was intrigued. From what Lilly had said, Logan was a hell of a good rime in bed. And I figured I'd learned all I could from her anyway. So I figured, what better way to make my move than to seduce Logan right out from under her?

I began my campaign the very next school day. It was a nice enough day, so I wore shorts and knee socks. I went up to Logan when he was sitting by himself during lunch and said, "Did you mean what you said in the limo?"

"I said a lot of different things in the limo, Mars," he said. "I don't even remember half of them. If it had anything to do with giant lizard people invading Java the Hut, then the answer is no."

"Darn," I said. "I was hoping for a good photo or two to sell to Weekly World News." He laughed. "No, I meant during the truth or dare when you said you thought I was hot when you first met me." He looked around a little nervously. Now I laughed. "First, I'm not trying to get you in trouble with Lilly. Second, she didn't yell at you when you said it before, what makes you think it would get you in trouble now?"

He was convinced. Good. That had been me at my most convincing. "Yeah, I meant it. Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, I was just curious," I said. "It's just something I wish I'd known sooner, that's all." I turned around and walked away; his eyes followed me all the way back inside.

This promised to be fun.

I sent him a few knowing glances throughout the day, and kept this up for the rest of the week. He didn't throw himself at my feet, but he seemed extremely confused. And Lilly, bless her, remained blissfully oblivious.

It got even easier later the next weekend, when Logan drunkenly started making out with another girl – daughter of some rapper -- at a party. It was only for a minute; but it was long enough. I took a couple of pictures and made sure Lilly got them.

I couldn't have told her personally; then Logan would have gotten angry at me. And while I'm sure I could have worked my way around that, I figured, why put in the effort?

So the photos assured one of their regular breakups, no doubt, in Lilly's mind, to be followed by a makeup in a few days or weeks. Only that wasn't going to happen this time.

I dropped by the Echolls estate the day after the breakup to "check in on my friend Logan." He was the only one home at the time, and after he let me in we went and sat on his couch.

"What do you want, Mars?" he said. "Here to torture me a little more? Didn't Lilly's public snubbing of me do that well enough already?"

"I didn't come over here for that, Logan," I said, walking towards him. "I came over here to say that I think she wildly over-reacted. I mean, look at her. She dumps you for every minor transgression you make – and then expects you to run back to her whenever she's done with whoever she's doing. And you do."

"I love her," he said.

"I know you do. I love her too," I lied. "But I think it's time you stood up for yourself a little. Show a little backbone. The next time she snaps her fingers you can say, 'sorry, baby. Your turn to wait for me.'"

"I already did that at the party," Logan said. "You see what happened there."

I shook my head. "That was drunken and unintentional and it doesn't count. You should try it again with your eyes wide open."

"And if someone tells her?"

"Then they tell her," I said. "But who's going to tell? You're not going to. And certainly I'm not going to."

"You –" I shut him up by leaning in to kiss him. "What was that about?" he said a bit bemusedly.

"What do you think it was?" I said, as I straddled him on the couch. "You said earlier in the week that you wanted me. I've been watching you carefully. You still do." When he didn't say anything, I said, "You reacted to that kiss." I began to kiss him again.

At first he pushed me away – but not too hard. The second time he did it, I barely had to stop.

There was no third time.