Disclaimer: These are not my characters.

CHAPTER 6: Logan

Over the past year, Mary Anne and I set up some basic rules. It's nothing we've ever talked about. Talking about it, would make it a thing. And we've definitely decided that we don't have a thing.

The main rule is to never hang out unless we absolutely have to. We don't want anyone getting the wrong idea.

Still, when my mom asks Hunter's favorite babysitter to help plan his birthday party, she's not going to say no. And yeah, since Mary Anne suddenly had a Sunday free and Mom had about a million other things to do, it made sense that I should be the one walking up and down the aisle of Stoneybrook's only party store, with Mary Anne, awkwardly trying to act like things weren't awkward. After a morning like today, it's not like my mom gave me much of a choice.

Besides, making an extra effort to not hang out is against the rules, too. That makes it seem like we're avoiding each other. And why would we be avoiding each other? People only avoid each other when they have something they don't want to talk about. And we don't have anything that needs to be talked about. And there's definitely not anything that doesn't need to be talked about.

Like I said, we don't have a thing.

"Hunter still likes Superman, right?" I ask as I grab a bag of Superman tagged whistles.

Mary Anne rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Superman is so last year." She says mimicking Kerry's new grownup tone. "Gosh, Logan. You'd think you'd know your own brother."

Her sense of humor has gotten really dry lately. It's mostly at her own expense but she's getting really good at making fun of me too.

I shake my head and exaggerate a sigh. "Well, who can keep up? The last time I checked, Hunter was all about Legos and Kerry was collecting My Little Ponies."

Mary Anne smiles. If we were allowed to touch each other, she probably would have patted my head or rubbed my shoulder (condescendingly, not because she was trying to be nice). Instead, she leans on the mostly empty shopping cart between us.

"Hunter still likes Legos and Kerry still likes My Little Ponies." She gives me a warning look. "But if you ask, she likes them ironically."

I raise an eyebrow. "I have no idea what that means."

Mary Anne shrugs. "You're not supposed to. Just know that her favorite is Apple Jack and that Pinkie Pie is so mainstream."

I blink. "Seriously? I have no idea what any of that means."

"Good. Cuz you shouldn't." She sticks her tongue out at me.

"Good." I pull the cart slightly away from her and she has to take an extra step to not lose her balance. "Cuz I don't."

We wander up and down a few more aisles trying to find a more party favors. Mary Anne has to pick everything out because I honestly don't get what Hunter's into. The corner of her mouth tilts up as she's grabbing a few packs of fake moustaches and cheapy looking black glasses.

"Oh my lord, these are going to crack him up." She says gleefully.

"Is it like a…Harry Potter thing?" I hadn't seen the last two movies. And I had promised Hunter I'd try to read the books but I haven't had time yet.

This time she sniffs and shakes her head. "I feel like I'm shopping with my dad."

She doesn't really laugh anymore, now that I think about it. She'll usually just smile and shake her head. She's always worried someone's going to think she's laughing at them. That's why she doesn't mind making fun of me. I know when she's joking and she knows where to draw the line.

I roll my eyes. "I can't help it if I'm out of the loop. You baby-sit them because I have other stuff to do, remember?"

I hold up a Batman poster. When she nods, I throw it in the cart. Then we turn into an aisle full of pink boxes. I immediately grab one of them for Kerry. I know its dumb but I like that I can still buy My Little Pony dolls for her, even if she is getting really annoying.

Mary Anne rolls her eyes and snatches the box out of my hand. "What did I just say?" She scolds lightly. She puts it back on its hook then after a second, grabs an almost identical box.

"Apple Jack, Logan." She says slowly. She holds the box so it's only a few inches from my face. Inside there's like a cowboy (cowgirl?) pony with a small carton of apples.

I can't help smiling. "Kerry would want the country pony."

As Mary Anne places the box in the cart, our eyes lock. Then she shakes her head and quickly looks away. "Honestly, how do you even function without me?"

I've probably got the goofiest grin on my face but I can't really think of anything to say. All I can think is that we're breaking a ton of rules today. Besides actually being out in public together, we're goofing off and enjoying hanging out. Not to mention that we're standing within a few feet of each other.

Yeah, we have rules about how closely we can stand together.

Whatever. It's complicated.

Well, I mean-it would be if it was-Not that it's not-

I'm pulled out of my thoughts by Mary Anne shoving my hand away from another shelf. She huffs at me. "Smarties?" She asks as she grabs a bag of chocolates. "That stuff tastes like chalk. Do you not remember what good candy is?"

I frown. Apparently we're cruising down the candy aisle and I just reached for the first thing we passed. Candy is candy, right? I don't remember them saying otherwise.

Although, to be fair, I haven't actually taken the kids trick or treating in years. There was always some Halloween party I had to go to.

Gross.

Did I really just think of my brother and sister as the kids? "God, I feel old."

Mary Anne shrugs. "Well, you are almost an adult."

We both snicker then. We shouldn't because not only is it breaking our rule, it's also making light of why she and I are doing the shopping instead of my mom. But I guess since we're getting along, this seems like a good time as any to bring some of "it" up.

"You know," I say, slowly. Mary Anne immediately straightens and her grin evaporates but I keep going anyway. "Cokie kind of did you a favor. I mean, you needed to quit anyway. That job was stressing you out."

"Oh really?" She glares at me. "Are you deciding what's best for me? I didn't realize I was back to a point where I couldn't think for myself."

Her lips purse but her frown doesn't quite reach her eyes. That means I'm not totally off base, so I continue. "They were paying you way less than everybody else. And you had shitty hours."

"I'd appreciate it if you'd not use that language." She's trying to change the subject, which is basically the same thing as her agreeing with me.

I should just leave it at that but for whatever reason, I keep talking while she picks out paper plates and a tablecloth. "You can't honestly say that teaching knitting classes and restocking shelves was your dream job."

"Not all of us are okay with our parents paying for everything." She says, looking at a shelf of paper cups. "They have bills too, you know."

"Yeah, I know." I say as dryly as possible. "But they're parents, Mary Anne. Their job is to help us until we start taking care of ourselves."

"Well, maybe some of us are able to do it faster than others."

I glare at the back of her head. "Then why are you still living at home? Richard doesn't charge you rent or make you chip in for groceries. He doesn't use your GPA as a barter system. And I know for a fact if you tell him that you're too busy with school to hold down a part time job, he'll actually be relieved."

That gets her attention. She spins around and looks at me, her eyes wide in surprise. "Were you talking to my parents?"

My face gets hot from the hurt tone of her voice. "Oh, so it's okay for you to talk to my family but I can't talk to yours?" I'm not bitter. Or angry. And I'm keeping my voice even.

She still gets offended. "I can't help it that your brother and sister like me!" she snaps.

"And I can't help it that your dad is crap with tools." I shoot back. "You know, if you'd actually sit down and talk to them-"

Mary Anne lets out a dry laugh. "Really? You want to go there? When's the last time you weren't so busy with school? And do you really have to be on every team? It's not just Kerry and Hunter that you've been shutting out."

We tend to not look at each other when we argue. Not that we argue.

Very often.

I mean, you can't argue with someone that you're not heavily invested in. And we're definitely not. We broke up years ago. Seriously, its old news for both of us. Depending on who's asking, we might even say we're friends. I mean, our friends know better than to ask. And it's not like we'd ever consider getting back together. Technically, I'm with Cokie Mason and Mary Anne's not in the right space to consider a relationship with anyone.

Not that I'd want to be in a relationship with her again.

Like I said, the past is the past. We're nowhere near as close as we used to be. But the look she gives me right now makes my stomach hurt a little so I'd rather look at the shopping cart when she asks, "Do you have any idea how hurt Louise was today?"

I don't think our voices are that loud but this is getting too personal and I'm pretty sure there's some kids from school who work here. "Can we just pay for everything and go?"

She nods. She keeps her hair behind her ears as we load everything on the cash stand and she doesn't fiddle with the ends like she would if she was nervous. So she's definitely mad. Which, technically is good because it means she's finally not beating herself up.

I sigh and shake my head as I give the cashier my debit card. This is the whole reason we don't hang out. We know each other too well.

We don't say anything as we walk back out to my truck. Poor Bessie does not do well in the rain. She's rusted like crazy and whenever it's too cold she has a hard time starting. So while Mary Anne loads everything, I try to coax her into starting up. The engine won't turn.

Great.

I pop the hood while Mary Anne goes to drop off the cart. Bessie really needs a new engine but that's pretty much impossible for a '54 F100. Dad and I have been rebuilding her bit by bit and sometimes Kerry and Hunter help, but it's slow going. Especially since Dad only chips in on the pieces after every report card. I still owe him for the new starter belt and brake pads. Technically those might get dropped if I do well during the game next week but if my mom hadn't insisted, he wouldn't have helped with those either. And now it looks like one of the mount pad is looser than I thought-

"Logan?"

Fuck.

Of course now would be when Cokie shows up. I thought by not answering my phone, she'd get the hint. But Stoneybrook is a one horse town, of course she'd find me.

I take a breath before I turn around to face her. "Hey, babe." I say in what I hope is a nice tone.

Using that nickname doesn't help my mood. I hate calling her that. I keep picturing the pig from the book I used to read to Kerry. But it's not like I can call her anything else. Cokie whines that I don't have enough pet names for her. I'm afraid if I call her Honey or Baby or any of that other crap, she'll pick up on the sarcasm. Despite what her report card says, Cokie's not stupid. She's paranoid and jealous and extremely self-destructive but she has enough common sense to know when someone is talking down to her.

"You haven't answered your phone all day." She says, jutting out her bottom lip.

It takes everything I have not to roll my eyes. Instead I shrug and kick at a pebble by my foot. "I forgot it at home. I've been getting stuff together for Hunter's party."

She narrows her eyes. "Who's Hunter?"

"My brother." I say flatly.

"I didn't know you had a brother." She says as she follows me to the driver's side.

"Yup, I do. His birthday is next week." This time when I turn the key, the engine starts. Thank God. I don't feel like talking to her. I don't even care that she can probably see my phone sitting out in the cup holder. And I don't bother to point out that I've told her about Hunter before. We haven't had enough conversations for her to not remember him. I just hop out of the car then slam the door behind me. "I have some more stuff to do, so…"

She crosses her arms and does the thing with her lip again. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

I can't deal with this anymore. I roll my eyes and lean back against my car door. "Cokie, I don't want to get into it right now. I'm not mad though, okay? I just have a lot of shit to do so that I can get back on my mom's good side."

"That wasn't my fault." Now she's whining. I seriously want to slam Bessie's hood on my head right now because I've heard The Speech so much.

"It wasn't my fault." (Translation: It was Mary Anne's.)

"She's jealous of us." (Translation: Mary Anne wishes she was Cokie.)

"She's been trying to get back at me for helping Grace steal Pete Black." (Translation: Mary Anne will never be over me or Pete Black.)

"She was trying to make me look bad." (Translation: Mary Anne is forever scheming revenge even though Cokie has never done anything wrong.)

Maybe dating my stalker isn't the smartest idea but when Cokie decided that we were together, I didn't really say no. I didn't say yes either, but it's convenient.

Cokie deals with the girls who keep trying to flirt with me. I do my school work, focus on sports, and when Cokie starts complaining that we don't spend enough time together, I take her out to the movies or something.

Honestly, I'm just as surprised as everyone else that she's stuck around this long. I figured keeping things PG and always being busy with school and sports would bore her enough to dump me. But I guess she really does care. I mean, for the most part, I do try to treat her well. We've been "dating" since the end of last year, so almost six months. I think that's a record for Cokie. It's actually kind of a record for me too. I haven't dated anyone seriously since Dorianne dumped me back in tenth grade.

Usually it works pretty okay. Today was an exception.

Cokie tried to join Mary Anne's knitting class at the art store. Mary Anne normally would have let her but Cokie was high and thirty minutes late to the class. So Cokie flipped out and started cussing her out.

Cokie did The Speech.

And my mom and Kerry happened to be in the class that day.

So not only did they get to watch my "girlfriend" (who I hadn't told them about) cuss out Mary Anne, they also got to watch her get dragged out by security and then hung around while Mary Anne was pulled into the office and fired.

Which is why Mary Anne and I were on party duty. My mom insisted that I try to make things "right". I don't know what she was expecting. I know Mary Anne told her Cokie was normally really sweet because, when Mary Anne wants to be, she can be an amazing liar. And she hates that about herself. (To be fair, she hates a lot of things about herself, right now.)

But just because she was willing to cover for me with my mom doesn't mean I was off the hook. She spent the car ride here bitching me out for choosing to date a girl that we both know is psychotic.

Until I pointed out that she wasn't supposed to have a say in who I date. After that she offered to let me borrow her phone to get updates on the Browns versus the Bears since I don't have a data plan on my phone. And it's not like I could say no to that.

Unlike now.

Right now, Cokie is still going on about how Mary Anne had deliberately planned all of this so I sigh and pull her into a hug. I'm a foot taller than her so she wraps her arms around my waist and pretends to sniffle into the front of my jersey.

At least now she can't see the face I'm making. "You know you don't have to worry about anyone stealing me from you. I'm not an idiot." I say. I also know she feels better about herself if I act more physical with her. So, I grab her ass. I do feel like a jerk but at the same time, I'm not not attracted to her. She's hot and she dresses like the girls on T.V. We've never made it past second base but that's because I have issues. She's hooked up with a couple of the guys on the team. And one of them, Clarence King, always likes to bring that up during practice.

And that's not really something I want to think about while I'm making out with her. So I pull back from our kiss before she gets too carried away. "We're good right?"

She smiles up at me. "Even though your mom probably hates me-"

I roll my eyes. "It doesn't matter what my mom thinks, she doesn't decide who I date."

The look on her face changes to something more predatory and it takes all the willpower I have not to jump into my car and get as far away from her as possible. "You are so fucking sexy." She traces her finger along the bottom collar of my jersey. "I want to show you how hot I think you are, right now."

Her tongue is halfway down my throat and her hand is down my pants three seconds before my brain catches on. Which is still thirty seconds slower than my dick. I'm a seventeen-year-old guy, okay? I can't help it if my hormones work faster than the rest of me.

Still, once I figure out what she's trying to do, I manage to pull away from her face before anything too embarrassing happens. "Cokie, we're in a parking lot," I say as I try to get her hand out of my pants. "Seriously, we're outside of the party store," This is causing way more friction than I thought it would. I finally get her hand out of my pants and I pull my jersey down. "We're across the street from the mall." I can't believe my voice cracked. What the fuck, hormones?

I clear my throat.

She smirks. "We can go back to my place. Nobody's home."

"As tempting as that is," And I'm trying to make it sound like I'm more conflicted than I am, "I really have to get back. My mom probably has more stuff for me to do."

"Well, call me tonight, lover." She purrs the last word. "I'll make it worth your while."

She does this exaggerated hip saunter away. I know its fake but now that I can't see her face or hear her voice it looks kinds hot. I'm kind of a sucker for brunettes. And from the right angle…

"You are such a jerk." Mary Anne whispers, practically in my ear.

I almost have a heart attack as I spin around. "Shit!" I whisper shout. I glance back over my shoulder but Cokie's already across the street, so I don't think she can see that Mary Anne is just barely peeking her head out of my driver's side window. "How long have you been hiding in there?"

But she's no longer in the window, so I hurry to close Bessie's hood then climb into the cab.

Mary Anne has her hand over her mouth and she's turning red from trying not to laugh out loud.

My face is burning red hot. "How much did you see?"

She just keeps moving her head from side to side and won't look up from her lap. Her shoulders are shaking.

With a huff, I put Bessie in reverse and then start heading out of the parking lot, making sure to drive the opposite direction of Cokie. "Where were you anyway?"

Mary Anne gasps, like she's been holding her breath and finally looks up at me. When she brushes her hair out of her face I can see that her eyes are shining and her cheeks are flushed.

My stomach somersaults so I look away while she opens the passenger visor and wipes at imaginary smudges under her eyes. "I stayed on my side of Bessie. I didn't actually see anything." She closes the visor and grins at me. I'm trying to keep my eyes on the road. Admitting to myself that she has the most beautiful smile in the world is definitely against the rules. "But man, did I hear some stuff."

"You did not." It's a plead for her to drop it.

Of course she doesn't. "Were you choking on her tongue?"

I shrug and check my blind spot to see if I can merge. "Well, she shoved it in my mouth before I was ready."

"There were slurping noises."

"Have you ever had someone force themselves down your throat?" I muttered. "You need a lot of lubrication."

We both blush. I can't believe I just said that.

"Well, I'm not a jerk." I say, trying to kill the awkward silence.

"Your fly is still open."

I can't help but smirk. "So don't stare so hard."

She spends the next few minutes looking out the window and I debate on whether or not to zip my fly. I decide not to, just because I don't want her thinking that I care what she thinks.

"Your mom wants me to stay for dinner." She says to the window. "She made a red velvet cake."

"She wants to cheer you up." That's a neutral response, right?

I peek at her from the corner of my eye. She's looking at some texts on her phone now.

Mary Anne makes a face and locks her phone. "I don't need to be cheered up. I should've quit when they made Tracy key. I've worked there twice as long."

I make it a point to not say I told you so. "Well, stay anyway." I say instead. "You know she made the cake for you. Besides, Hunter loves when you stay for dinner. I think he has a crush on you."

We laugh because that's one of the things we're allowed to joke about.

"I guess I could stay." She says. She pauses. "Not too late though. Louise'll have a heart attack about me riding my bike home in the dark."

I nod as we pull into the driveway. "Yeah, try to leave right after dinner. Tell them you have to help Dawn with Morgan or something."

I turn the engine off and open the door.

"Logan!" Mary Anne grabs my wrist before I can step out. We look at each other and for second I think I might be holding my breath. So I look down at her hand and she quickly lets go. "Your, um…" Is it just me or does she sound flustered too? "Your fly's still open." She says as she grabs a few of the bags.

Then she's rushing to the house before we break any more rules.