The next couple of weeks were full of really, really great times with Logan and my family. We hung out all the time and since Logan was so smart (even though he didn't want other people to know) he had been helping me with my homework and my grades were getting better! However this week was probably the best. Logan had been over every day and last night when he left my mom joked that Logan was pretty much a member of the family. After dinner yesterday my mom actually invited him to come to the park with us to have a picnic on Sunday afternoon.

A couple of days later Logan was at our door wearing a v-neck and khaki shorts. I mentally sighed, still wondering why he didn't dress like this to school. He helped my mom pack up the snacks and blanket while Tomas and I got the girls ready. Everyone was excited and the weather couldn't have been better if it had tried. After eating and running around with the girls, Logan and I went off by ourselves to swing.

"I bet I can swing higher than you!" Logan yelled to me as he ran over to the closest swing.

"Logan, no offense, but you suck. I could swing higher than you without using my legs!" I took the swing next to him and we started laughing as we swung. Ten minutes later, Logan and I were both breathing heavily and somehow he had managed to beat me.

He looked over at me as we both came to a stop and smiled, "I told you I'd win." He stuck his tongue out and I leaned over to punch him.

"Don't be a jerk punk."

He rubbed his arm and stuck his bottom lip out, "Ouch Los, that really hurt. I'm gonna get you back."

"Lo you'd have to be able to catch me for that to happen." Just when I finished talking I jumped up and started running away. I heard Logan scramble to his feet and I could hear him running behind me.

"I'm gonna get you Los!"

I turned around and saw Logan had actually almost caught up to me. He was fast and I was surprised.

"In your dreams Lo!" I shouted back before tripping over a rock on the ground. I landed on my stomach and just when I went to roll over Logan tripped over my feet and landed on top of me.

"Fuck, sorry Los, didn't mean to land on top of you bud." Logan was still on top of me and our faces were just a few inches apart. I could feel my face turning red as I pushed Logan off of me and sat up in the grass.

"It's no big deal man, I wouldn't have tripped you if I had seen that stupid rock."

Logan laughed and playfully hit me on the back, "Hey don't call the rock stupid. It could have feelings." I looked over at Logan and rolled my eyes as he winked at me. "Come on, let's get back to your family Los." Logan stood up and extended an arm to me, he helped me up off the ground and as soon as he let go of my hands I wanted him to grab them again. Logan turned his head to the side and raised an eyebrow at me, "You okay? You seem a little spacey."

I chuckled and started walking back to my family, Tomas looking at us and smirking. Of course he probably saw what just happened, I mentally sighed as Logan caught up with me. "Yeah I'm fine, probably just need a drink of water or something."

I was right about Tomas. As soon as we got over to my family he walked over to me and whispered in my ear, "Like the view Los? Try not to give yourself away so easily if you don't want him to know. Even though I promise he likes you too."

I shook my head, "Not right now Tomas."

Logan walked over to us, "Not right now what?" He was smiling at me and Tomas and he held out a water to me.

I took the water and unscrewed the cap, "Oh nothing, right Tomas?"

Tomas laughed and started to walk away, "Right Los, nothing."

Logan raised an eyebrow at me and I just mumbled, "Don't ask." Logan nodded and my mom yelled for us to start helping her clean up.

On the way home Logan was unusually quiet and I didn't understand why. I hoped that I didn't hurt his feelings earlier or that he wasn't mad. I saw he was texting someone on his phone and I felt my stomach tighten up. I couldn't help but think he was getting tired of me and my family and that he was texting another person he had met at school. I pulled my phone out and sent him a quick text while we were in the van,

Hey, sorry about earlier. Tomas was just being an asshole. -C

When Logan got the text I saw him smile a little before tapping back.

It's okay. Hey I just asked my mom and she said it was okay, so if you want to you can come over later and spend the night!:D

I had to resist the urge to scream yes at Logan, but instead I just spoke up, "Hey mom is it okay if I go spend the night with Logan today?"

I saw her look at the two of us in the rearview mirror with a raised eyebrow, "Carlos you know you have school tomorrow..."

"Oh, my mom said she'd make sure we didn't stay up too late and that we go to school on time!" I looked over at Logan and smiled, this was really nice of him and his mom to do.

I heard my mom sigh as she pulled into our house, "Fine I'll let you go."

Me and Logan high fived and I whispered, "YES!"

"BUT-" Logan and I both groaned, "you have to promise you won't stay up late."

Everyone was climbing out of the van now and I ran around to give my mom a huge hug, "You won't regret this I promise!"

I ran into the house with Logan close behind me and as soon as we were in my room we were laughing, "Dude it's so awesome I finally get to meet your parents! I'm really excited but I'm kind of nervous, what if they don't like me?"

Logan plopped down on my bed next to the bag I was packing quickly, "Los chill, they'll love you! I've told them all about you and your family. My mom just wants to meet this friend I spend all my time with. She thinks that if I let you come over I won't be gone all the time. She's even cooking tonight, she never does that."

I was putting a shirt for school the next day into my bag when Logan said that and it caught my attention, I looked over at him, "Really?"

Logan laid all the way back and started to look up at the ceiling, "Yeah her and my dad are usually so busy at work she never has time to cook. I normally make food for myself and a little extra for the two of them."

I had never thought about anyone's parents never making dinner, my mom had almost always cooked for us. She would never take a job where she'd have to be away from us that much. After putting the last things in my bag I laid next to Logan, "So Lo, you normally just have the house to yourself? What do you do all day?"

Logan sighed, "Really I just try to find ways to occupy my time. That's probably why I'm so far ahead in school. I didn't really have anyone to talk to so I just studied. And then I got friends...well kind of...and they started coming over a lot."

"Any reason why they were only kind of your friends?"

Logan sighed and looked over at me, "Los, I really don't want to talk about them right now. Can we focus on just us and being happy with our real friendship right now?"

I instantly felt guilty about asking, "Sorry Lo, didn't mean to pry. It's none of my business anyways. So happy thoughts!" I smiled at Logan who was still looking at me and I rolled over on top of him, "Dude I'm meeting your mom!"

Logan laughed and threw me off of him and the bed playfully before jumping on my back, "You are so excited for this. I don't even know why. " I carried Logan back over to the bed and let him jump off before crawling on the small mattress.

"Well don't try to understand why I'm so excited and be excited with me!"

Logan hit me in the arm and grabbed my bag and started walking towards my door, "Okay, okay. I'm just glad you're okay with going tonight. Don't you still have homework?"

I grabbed my backpack and followed Logan out the door, "A little but I figured my lovely best friend who likes studying wouldn't mind if I did it at his house."

I said goodbye to my mom, the girls, and Tomas who wouldn't stop chuckling and Logan and I were on our way to his house. It didn't take us too long to walk there and as soon as we walked in I could smell what his mom had been cooking. "Lo it smells really good in here..."

"Yeah, she doesn't cook often but when she does it's pretty great." Logan started taking his shoes off by the door and when I raised an eyebrow at him he just shrugged, "Habit I guess." I followed Logan's example and soon we were in the kitchen with his mom. "Hey mom I'm back, and this is Carlos!"

Logan's mom turned around from where she was cooking and ran over excitedly to me and Logan. She gave Logan a quick hug and turned her attention to me. Suddenly she had her arms wrapped tightly around me, "Carlos it's so good to meet you! Logan always talks about his new friend Carlos and I hated that he always had to go over to your house and you had never been over here." I wrapped my arms around Logan's mom and let out a sigh I had been holding. At least she liked me so far.

"Mom, please, you're suffocating him." Logan chuckled as his mom let me go in a hurry.

"Sorry honey. Why don't you two go upstairs while I finish dinner, I'll call you down soon."

When I walked into Logan's room, it was like I was getting a whole new view of my new friend. His room was painted a dark blue, and he had several academic posters hanging. In one corner there was a larger book shelf, filled with books large and small. I tried to take everything in as quickly as I could as I followed Logan over to his bed and I placed my bags down before speaking up. "Man this is awesome Lo. Your room is huge, and it totally looks like you. Well, the smart part of you."

Logan chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck as he went to sit down on his bed. "You can look around if you want, I really don't mind. "

I nodded in his direction and went straight to the one thing that had held my attention, the bookshelf. I looked through all the titles as quickly as I could, noticing many of them were medical related. I was thumbing through a shelf and couldn't help but ask, "Do you want to be a doctor Logan?" I looked over my shoulder and offered him a small smile as he blushed and walked over to me.

"Yeah I do, I know it's a lot of hours, but my dad has really inspired me to become a doctor. I love helping people and there are so many things to read up on, and it kept me occupied when I was little and home alone." Logan pulled a book off the shelf and showed it to me, "This is my favorite to read, I know it's a bit long, but the terms are really fascinating."

I reached up and grabbed the book from Logan and realized it was a medical terminology book, like a big dictionary but for doctors. When I looked up at Logan he was blushing again and he softly took the book back and placed it on the shelf, "You probably think I'm a huge nerd now.." He paused and I could tell he was getting sad.

I pulled him in for a long hug. "Mierda de toro. Creo que es genial que eres tan en ser un doctor." Realizing I was speaking Spanish I spoke up again, "I'm sorry, I meant bull shit, I think it's cool that you're so into being a doctor. I want to be a police officer myself. Mi padre was one before he passed. I want to help people just like he did. So I know how it is to want to be like your papa."

When I pulled away Logan was smiling at me, although his cheeks were still red. I was wondering why he was still so embarrassed...hoping it wasn't because he didn't like the way I smelled or something. Just when I was about to ask, called for us to let us know dinner was ready.

On our way down the stairs, Loan looked over at me and smiled that lopsided grin that gave me that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and whispered, "Thanks for telling me that Los." I just smiled and nodded as I followed him into the kitchen and took a seat next to him at the table.

Dinner went surprisingly well. only asked about school and my family, and she was very apologetic when I told her how mi padre had passed. I told her that it was okay, and that every day it was a little easier to handle. She smiled at me and began talking about Logan's father and how he was sorry he had to miss dinner tonight because he was caught up at work on a case. Overall I decided that Logan had to be most like his madre, because they both shared that same grin and from the way he had talked about her in the past, I knew he loved her very much. It made me happy to see how well Logan got along with his madre because it reminded me of my own madre.

After dinner, Logan and I told his mom that we would clean up so that she could go rest. Once she was out of the kitchen I watched Logan take plates to the dishwasher as I grabbed the cups and silverware, "You were right Lo. Your mom is an excellent cook. I wouldn't mind eating here all the time" I chuckled as I placed the dishes into the dishwasher and Logan laughed a little with me.

"I told you Los, dinner here isn't cooked like that often, but I'm glad you like it." After that we fell into our comfortable silence until we went back to Logan's room. HE looked around for extra blankets and told me I could have his bed and he would sleep on the floor.

"But Lo it's your room, I don't mind sleeping on the floor." I went to get the blankets form him and he simply shook his head.

"Los you're the guest!"

I paused, and for a moment I lost all of my worry about Logan, for some reason being alone with him didn't make me nervous. It just felt right, like this was how it was supposed to be. I shook my head trying to get the thoughts of what a future with Logan might be like from my head and I didn't realize he was looking at me with a strange face. "You okay Los?"

I smiled at him, "Yeah I'm fine Lo, I just had an idea though, why don't we just split your bed? It's big enough for the two of us!" I mentally kicked myself as soon I spoke. There was no way Logan would want to share a bed with me and I was sure that I had creeped my new amigo out. I could feel my face burning and Logan's was doing the same.

He came a little closer to me and gave a weak smile, "You sure Los?"

I smiled back at him and went to grab my pajamas to change, "I'm sure I don't mind at all Lo, Hortencia and I used to do it all the time when we were younger and he would come over."

So that was it, that was how I ended up next to Logan in bed that night, listening to his breathing and trying hard not to watch the slow rise and fall of his chest as he slept. I still didn't understand my feelings for him, but it was obvious that the rest of my family thought they understood. Maybe Logan was what I needed to pull me away from feeling so sad about my padre all the time. I smiled as I fell asleep that night, because I knew my padre was proud of me, proud of his hijo.