While the guys searched their room, Lola and Zoey took to looking outside. They checked under the lunch tables, walked the pathway from the guy's dorm to the quad, and poked inside every bush they came across. So far, they've had no luck in finding the missing wallet. Each grabbing some discarded branches, they use them as makeshift walking sticks to help with their search. The sun had just started to set, which generally made for a beautiful sunset, but for them, it was just a reminder of what little time they had. It would be night soon, making it that much harder to search for the missing item. Dark storm clouds were also beginning to roll in, only shortening the time.
"Why'd those stupid boys have to jack Logan's wallet?" Lola wasn't bothering to hide her annoyance as she not so gently used the stick in her hand to search another bush. Flattening the once lush leaves.
Zoey just sighed, trying her best to remain calm and levelheaded. "I'd say it's just boys being boys, but, in this case, I'd say it's just them being extra stupid." However, the longer they were out looking, the less calm she felt. Pushing hair out of her face, she sighed once more. "Then again, we're not much better." It hadn't taken much for the boys to convince them. Once they learned they had the card and were planning to buy the snacks, they went along with it.
Lola stabbed the stick into the ground, crossing one ankle behind the other as she leaned against the makeshift pole. "I mean, I guess…" she thought. She felt guilty before eating the last of the snacks, but this feeling was much worse. "I mean, I know it's Logan, but he is our friend, kind of, and trying to use his credit card wasn't our best move."
"Not by a long shot," Zoey had to agree; they had messed up. Big time. It wasn't only the guys who had to apologize once the item had been recovered. While searching, they decided that even if they find it and can return it unnoticed, they'll confess to what they did and ask for forgiveness.
Resuming their search, they set back on the path to try and find where the guys said they fell down. They said they had laid down behind the big bushes Quinn and Logan used to hide behind. Too bad the couple had hidden behind many. They never realized until now just how many big bushes the campus had littered around it. They shouldn't have been so surprised that Quinn and Logan managed to keep their relationship hidden for so long. The two certainly had an array of hiding places to choose from. Other people seemed to have caught onto that the bushes gave them good coverage. They had interrupted more than one couple making out behind them.
"What do you think was going through their heads when they were hiding?" Zoey asked, poking at the ground as she and Lola continued on their trek.
Said girl glanced at her roommate beside her, confused, "Who, Chase and Michael? I'm pretty sure not much was going through their brains if this is how things ended up."
Zoey shook her head, "No, Quinn and Logan." She used her stick to point to the multiple bushes they were passing. "I mean, they said they would hide out here to meet up. What do you think was going through their minds while they were hiding their relationship from us." All the sneaking around they were doing right now made her wonder about the couple. They had hidden for months the fact that they were dating from not only their friend group but the entire school. That couldn't have been easy.
"In the case of Logan, I defer back to my original comment." Lola highly doubted much of anything went through that boy's pretty little head. She hated admitting he had nicer hair than her, but it made sense, considering he used shampoo and conditioner that was probably more expensive than her wardrobe. "For Quinn, I don't know. I mean, I noticed something was different about her, but I just figured she was going through the stages of grief from her breakup with Mark."
They had all noticed the change in the girl. She had days where she seemed to be missing in action for hours. Other times she looked upset and lost in thought, but when pressed with questions, she would say it had to do with a science issue she was stuck on. Most days, though, when she finally returned, she seemed to be on cloud nine. When she was mixing chemicals in their room, they noticed she began to hum a nameless melody from time to time. She seemed to put more thought into her outfits for the day and always made sure to grab gum or breath spray before leaving the room. They weren't too sure about the change, but they knew it had to be for the better if she was that happy. Neither wanted to say anything, but they had wondered if she had finally realized that her relationship with Mark hadn't been what she wanted.
While they couldn't say they disliked the guy, they weren't exactly his biggest fans after what he did to their friend. They still said hi and talked with him around campus and in class when they saw him. During the two years, she was with him, they had heard stories of their dates and witnessed their interactions. From their point of view, it always seemed like Quinn was putting in the effort. She would initiate the dates, ask for kisses and affection of some kind. From what they heard around campus, he seemed more open to Brooke when they were together. Not to say they didn't think he had no feelings for Quinn. From the few interactions they saw, it seemed like he did care for her, but it was on a much different level compared to what she felt. Some days they thought he preferred hanging out with them than he did with her.
For two years, they kept their mouth shut, mostly. A few comments here and there may have slid out, but for the most part, they kept their opinions to themselves. They knew how defensive Quinn would get. Maybe that should have been their first sign that she didn't feel secure in her relationship with Mark.
With Logan, however, it was a completely different story. She seemed genuinely happy with the guy, and he reciprocated those feelings on the same level. He had no issues with expressing how he felt about the girl. They had boar witness to the many, MANY girls Logan had flirted with, taken out, and made out with. He never once declared he was dating anyone and always seemed put off at the idea of settling with one person. Now though, it was like he was a totally different person. He always worked in some way to declare out loud that he was Quinn's boyfriend, and she was his girlfriend. They got together as much as possible and always displayed some type of affection. Her relationship with him was so different from what she had with Mark that you could easily compare them to night and day. Logan was not shy about his feelings for the girl. They were always either holding hands or had their arms around one another, and the kissing just never seemed to end. Their spray bottles were proof of just how often they were kissed.
As much as Logan's behavior put them off, thankfully, he seemed to be mellowing out some; they were happy their friend was in a relationship she deserved to be in. One that had a person who could give her the love and care she would need and give in return. They may be helping Chase and Michael, but they were doing this for Quinn because they knew once she found out, she was going to be so upset with them.
"Zoey!" Lola gasped, picking up her stick to point a few feet to the left of them. Logan's wallet was lying there, fallen in between some of the tall bushes and plants their campus had. The two girls gasped with glee as they rushed to the bush. Relief flooded into their system, but that was quickly dashed away when they came to a screeching halt.
Sitting just behind the bush, back facing them, was Logan. He was sitting on a blue picnic blanket, Quinn in front of him as the two had a spread of mini sandwiches, grapes, chips, cheeses, and more. They both had their backpacks thrown off to the side of the blanket.
Sucking on their teeth to prevent a scream from coming out, they slowly hide behind a tree.
"Why are they here?" Lola whispered harshly. "I thought the guys said they were having a movie date in their room."
Zoey huffed, already pulling out her phone. "I don't know, but I plan on finding out." Dialing a number she knew by heart, she put the device to her ear and tapped her foot while she waited. By the third ring, Chase answered.
"Hello?"
"What are you guys doing?" Zoey hissed into the phone, head peeking out from behind the tree to watch the couple. They could somewhat make out what the two were saying, so she was doing her best to whisper and not be discovered.
She sneered when she saw them hand-feed each other grapes. As happy as she was for Quinn, she swore the couple was sometimes too much with the PDA.
"We're looking for the wallet. What else would we be doing?"
She did not care for his tone; had they not been in such a position, she would be telling him off right now. "Well, we found the wallet in the bushes outside in the quad."
"That's great!" Chase cheered into the phone, but after a moment of silence, he answered back, "So why do you sound so upset?"
Maybe his boy's brain wasn't as stupid as she thought it was. "Because Logan and Quinn are here, and if we try to get it, he'll see us."
"Logan is there? Oh man, of all places, they had to go for their picnic; they had to go there?"
Zoey shook her head because she had to of misheard him. "Wait a second? Are you telling me that you knew Logan had left the room and gone outside to the quad but didn't bother calling to tell us?" She all but hissed into the phone, cupping her hand over her mouth and receiver to avoid the couple from hearing her.
You'll hear Chase gulping on the other line. "That was a stupid move on my part, wasn't it?"
Lola reached for the phone. "One of many you've done today."
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Zoey took her phone back. "Look, we'll get Quinn to distract him. You guys just stay in your dorm, and we'll come to you so we can put this stupid wallet back where it belongs." Slamming her thumb on the end call button, she cut off the call before the other on the line could say anything more. Maybe that was rude of her, but she was so mad at him right now. They could have been more prepared to deal with the couple being outside if he had communicated better. Of course, if he had just not stolen the credit card in the first, they could have just avoided this whole mess in the first place.
Sensing the anger rolling off her friend, Lola took the chance to ask. "What do we do now?" Logan had his back directly to the bush they needed to get to in order to retrieve the wallet. They couldn't just walk up to them without him noticing. Even if they could somehow sneak up, he would hear them rustling in the bush right behind him.
"I'll message Quinn to distract him while you and I try to grab the wallet as quickly and quietly as possible." They would need the help of their roommate for this. As Zoey typed out the message, she could only hope the boys had stayed true to their word and told Quinn what was going on.
Unbeknownst to the couple of what was happening only a few feet away from them, the two were in a world of their own. After leaving the guy's dorm, they stopped off to pick up a few supplies for a sunset picnic. The storm clouds rolling in didn't bother them so much that it blocked their view of the sunset. So long as they were together, they were happy.
However, unlike most of their dates, this one had a serious topic.
"So, you're really thinking about going to Caltech?" Logan asked, one hand fiddling with one of the sandwiches they were munching on. He knows she had been offered early enrollment years back when Paige had come to do her weird energy thing, so he didn't doubt she would get in this time too.
She nodded; the plate of food on her lap was only half eaten. "It's kind of always been my dream school."
He took a long slow bite of his sandwich, seeming to almost count every chew he made of it. "It's a good school."
"So, is your top pick in New York." If anyone ever asked, Logan would tell them that he was going to become a male model right out of high school. He had the looks and connections to pull it off. However, he told Quinn a different story. Growing up with a father who was a hotshot producer meant he was practically raised in the entertainment industry. It's where he felt the most comfortable and could see himself being in. He had been looking at a few schools that could help him better understand what was needed of him to one day take over his father's production company and expand it. Quinn helped him find one place he felt could help him do what he wanted, but it was in New York City.
This meant there would be over eight hours of a time difference between their schedules if he went there. "Yeah, but some of the places we found here in California had good programs too. Plus, if I go to school here, it means I can be right in the action of my dad's company and learn things firsthand. And it means we'll be able to make out in one of the many offices my dad has." He winked at her, giving her a flirtatious smirk, hoping it was enough to hide the anxiety he was feeling.
His act didn't fool her for a second. "It's sweet you want to be so close," placing a comforting hand on his knee, she rubbed soothing motions with her thumb on his exposed skin. "But I don't want to be the thing that comes between you and your future."
He held his tongue, wanting so badly to say that she was his future. They may be young, but he can see himself with her until they grow old and gray. The things he feels for her, he doubts he'll ever feel them for anyone else. "You wouldn't get in the way." Instead of saying what he felt, he said that instead. It was too soon for them to be talking about their long-term future. Their one-year anniversary was coming up, but he didn't want to scare her off. They still had time together at PCA, time when he could easily walk to her dorm and see her before class. Time he wouldn't need to calculate to call her or plan around a set schedule in order to see her. One day he would tell her his hope for the future, a future he wanted her to be a part of, but for now, he would stick with talking about college.
Quinn gave him a heartfelt smile. Leaning forward, she kissed his pouting lips, a face he probably didn't even realize he was making. "Logan, being away from you will probably be one of the hardest things I'll ever do, but I know this is what we need. I don't want you to look back in ten years and regret not going to the school of your dreams," he may not always voice the fears he felt, but after being with him, peeling back some layers of his pompous attitude, she realized he was just a boy trying to make a name for himself. He had grown up in the shadow of his big-shot movie-producing father, and the fear of never living up to the legend haunted him. It's why he acted the way he did, trying to be a big shot on campus so he could feel like a big shot around his father. "Besides, I have full confidence that even 2,785 miles won't be enough to break us apart."
Feeling hope rise in his chest, he covered the hand that was resting on his knee with his own and returned the smile she gave him. "Oh yeah, and why's what?"
"Because we love each other." She answered honestly and truthfully. Maybe she was naïve in thinking this, but she truly believed their love could help them make it through college apart. This was his first serious relationship, and she didn't want to scare him with talks about the future, but she can see herself being with this man for many years to come.
Smiling so wide, the tips of his mouth reached to his ear; Logan was now the one to lean forward and kiss her. "Who knew the great genius Quinn Pensky was so corny." He teased, rubbing the tip of her nose against his.
She giggled, "Better to be corny than be a spazz, I say." She gave him a sassy smile.
Sucking on his teeth, Logan suddenly had a flashback to himself wearing a tight-fitted orange dress and some very uncomfortable heels. "Yeah, sorry about that. I swear I didn't know that word bothered you so much." Back then, they hadn't been dating or even that good of friends, but even so, had he known she would get so angry and vengeful because of that one word, he never would have used it. He's always made sure to never utter that word in her presence again.
"It's okay; I forgave you a long time ago." She would never tell him that she had secretly taken photos of him in the dress that day. A hidden camera was placed along the court for her to print out and tease him with later. When she had printed out the copies, she deemed that to be too mean and burned them all. However, the file was still saved on her computer. "Sorry, I went a little overboard with my revenge on you. I knew you didn't know what that word meant to me, but I couldn't help myself." Had it been any other person, she probably would have told them off with a rude warning, but it had been Logan. The guy who had teased and mocked her from day one. That anger and resentment she felt towards him had been building up, and all came crashing down when he called her a spazz.
Biting his lower lip, he rocked his head back and forth as he tried to think of his next words carefully. "I know it was mean, but I'm kind of glad I called you a spazz."
"Excuse me?" She pulled back from him, squinting her eyes as she tried to decide whether to let him continue or just zap him with her watch for good measure.
He held up his hands in defense. "Let me explain!" He could tell from her expression that she wanted to zap him. "Before I called you a spa…that word I called you," he had almost said it, but from her expression alone, he shut his mouth. "You and I never really hung out one on one like that. When we did hang out together, it was always in a group, and you usually stayed away from me." She didn't want to say it was because she couldn't stand being around him and only hung out with him because he was friends with her friends. "But during that time, I got to know you a bit more and realized you weren't just some weird science girl. You knew about basketball; you were sassy and had no problems talking back to me or laughing at me. You just seemed…so not what I thought you were that after you told me about the elbow thing, that I kind of couldn't get you off my mind." He gave her a shy look, shrinking in on himself somewhat.
Quinn sat there for a moment, stunned, mouth open partially from the shock of what she heard. "Logan, are you…are you telling me you started crushing on me before we kissed?"
He shrugged, trying to come off as carefree and unbothered but was failing. "Maybe,"
Shuffling on her knees, she cupped his face to plant a kiss on his lips. With her head titled down, he moved his chin upwards to meet her pace as they kissed. "I'm glad you called me a spazz, too, because I can't imagine what my life would be like without you in it." She whispered against his mouth, thumbs rubbing small circles against his cheeks as his hands came up to cover hers.
Had the couple been paying a bit more attention to their surroundings instead of each other, they would have heard the soft awe coming from the tree behind them. Zoey and Lola stuck out their bottom lips as they watched and listened to the heartfelt moment before them.
Settling back down in her seat, Quinn adjusted her skirt just as her phone rang out, indicating she had a message.
"So, tell me." Logan inched his head forward, giving her a suggestive smile.
Taking out her phone, she flipped to her message app to see it was a text from Zoey. "Tell you what?" She giggled, glancing up at him before she started reading her message.
"You know," he playfully walked two fingers up her arm. "When you started crushing on me." He expected her to blush and playfully slap his hand away or maybe even confess that she fell for him around the same time. He would very much like to hear that she had a crush on him from the very beginning but never did anything because she thought he was out of her league.
Only she did none of that. She was staring with wide eyes at her phone, glued to her message screen, before slowly looking up and over her boyfriend's shoulder. Her eyesight may not be the best, but she could easily make out the shy, awkward waves of her two best friends standing directly behind the tree no more than a few feet away from her and Logan.
He picked up a handful of chips and noticed her strange and almost panicked expression. "What are you looking at?" He begins to turn around, trying to see what caught her attention.
"Baby," Quinn calls out, making him look back at her while she gives him a seductive stare. "Did you know that I can put my legs behind my head?"
Logan stared; this time, his eyes were the one to grow as wide as dinner plates. His cheeks heated up as his mind shut down, his hand clenched into a fist, crumbling the chips he held. "You're so hot," He surged forward to kiss the daylights out of her.
"Go!" Zoey gave the command hushedly, pushing Lola forward as they silently but swiftly walked toward the bush. Getting down on her hands and knees, she slowly but carefully reached into the bush. Eyes shifted from the wallet to the couple only a foot away.
Logan lay on top of Quinn, her hair sprawled out on the blanket as the two kissed, holding each other closely and letting out soft gasps and moans, making Zoey and Lola extremely uncomfortable as they witnessed this event. Finally, her fingers brushed against the leather, and she was able to pull it free without making much noise. Standing up in triumph, Zoey and Lola didn't waste much time in the spot and instead took off running towards the boy's dorm.
"We got it!"
Michael and Chase were pacing inside their room when the girls came busting in. Gleeful smiles on their faces as Zoey proudly held the black leather wallet in her hand. Cheers rang out in the room as the four friends hugged out their victory.
"Thank god, it's all over." Michael all but collapsed on the couch in relief but then remembered what had been going on before in this room and quickly sprang back up.
Ignoring the sudden jump, Zoey handed over the wallet to her boyfriend. "One stolen wallet for you." She chuckled, giving him a playful smile. However, when he went to take it, she grabbed his wrist with her other hand. "Just know, if you ever do something like this again, I'm gonna let Quinn remove all your hair."
"She has a formula ready and waiting to go in our dorm room." Lola added in on that threat. She wanted the boys to feel such fear that they would never even think about doing something this stupid again.
Giving an uncomfortable laugh, Chase freed his hand from Zoey's hold and took a half step back. "Right," he wasn't sure what he should be more afraid of. The wrath of his girlfriend or the knowledge that Quinn had come up with a concoction to make all his hair disappear. Why would she even make that? "Really hope you're kidding about the whole hair thing," he was planning on being extra nice to Quinn just in case they weren't. "But I swear this will be the first, last, and only time we ever do something this dumb." He didn't doubt they would do more dumb things down the line but nothing ever like this.
Michael patted his friend on the shoulder, "That's right, because Chase and I are giving up a life of crime. We are good boys who refuse to be tempted. We are-?" He stopped mid-sentence when he saw his roommate open the wallet but looked completely horrified. "We're still in trouble, aren't we?"
Chase let out a noise they thought only goats could make as he pulled out the cash and other cards in the wallet to the ground. "The card is gone! It's not in here." There was other stuff, but the brand-new card was not among them.
"That's impossible!" Lola cried, reaching down to pick up the wallet and give it a search herself. Her eyes grew in size when she pulled out the stack of cash.
Zoey had disbelief written all over her face. "Lola and I searched all over the quad and only saw the wallet, so the card has to be in there!"
"Well, it's not." Chase was thinking he wouldn't need Quinn's concoction to remove his hair because it was about to fall out from all the stress he was feeling.
Zoey huffed, "If the card isn't in the wallet or the room or the quad, where else could it be?" She didn't bother trying to hide her annoyance.
Michael felt like crying all over again, hands locking together on top of his head. He started pacing again. "The lounge!" He cried out, spinning around to look at his three friends. "When Logan first came in, Chase and I had the card out, but we must not have put it in the wallet. It has to be in the lounge if it's not in here or the quad. That is the only other place we had it before we met up with you girls."
The two girls just frowned and stared at them. "You couldn't have thought of that before we hiked all over the quad and had to watch the two love birds, along with many other love birds, suck face." They had seen more people than they needed to kiss today.
Zoey grabbed both wrists this time, saying, "Come on, let's go look."
Dragging the two boys out of their dorm, they made their way over to the lounge. Running as the skies had now opened up and it was raining. Speeding inside the building, they walked towards the lounge but stopped at the entrance when they saw Logan sitting on the couch, watching TV. His and Quinn's backpack was lying by his feet, the picnic blanket sticking out of the girl's bag while the remainder of the food was spread out on the table.
Cursing to themselves, they heard footsteps coming up from behind and saw Quinn coming with two sets of towels the building kept in storage.
Seeing her friends, she gave them all a worried glance. "Please tell me you're congregating out in the hallway because it means you found Logan's wallet."
Zoey gave her a half smile. "Kind of," she pointed to Lola, who was still holding the empty wallet. "We found this, but the card is still missing."
"We also found money." Lola laughed, thinking of all the pretty things she could buy. Only for Zoey to take the wallet and money away from her, giving her a sad boo.
Quinn joined them as they all groaned. "You guys, this is really bad!" Sneaking a glance inside, she saw that her boyfriend was looking at the TV, but his eyes were glancing at the clock, wondering where she was. "We need to tell him the truth."
"No way," Michael grabbed her, pulling her further away from the entrance so there was less of a chance Logan could hear them. "If we tell him the truth, Logan will end us. I don't know how, but that boy is really creative when it comes to making other people miserable." The guy knew how to make you regret things. It was one of his strange but many talents.
Chase gave her a pleading look. "Look, we're positive that the card is inside the lounge somewhere. Can't you just take Logan back outside and continue your picnic?"
"No," she shook her head, holding up the two big fluffy towels in her arms. "The whole reason we came inside is because it started to rain." She didn't care what they needed to do; she was not about to go outside and risk catching pneumonia.
"Okay, so take him back to your dorm and keep him in there until we find the card." Chase said but instantly regretted it when three angry girls glared at him. Sometimes the females of their friend group terrified him.
She ran a hand over her face, making her glasses shift. "Guys, come on. I love Logan, but my lips are starting to get chapped." She and her boyfriend made out on a daily basis, sometimes more than once a day, but all this distracting was putting her lips through more work than usual.
"Please!" The four beg, pleading puppy dog eyes surround her.
Quinn sighed, "Alright, I'll keep him busy," she held out her hand to her roommates. "Give me your keys to the room. I'll let you back in when it's safe." Zoey and Lola opened their mouths with disgust, each giving the other a sad look before they reluctantly handed over their keys. Their stares turned toward the guys as they watched Quinn put on a new coat of lipgloss and their keys in her pocket. The two boys shuddered under the angry glares they were receiving.
Walking back into the lounge, towels hanging loosely in her hands, Logan smiled when he saw her. "Hey, you got the-!" Throwing the towels on the table, she grabs at his wrist and pulls him off the couch.
"Come with me," she all but drags him out of the lounge.
"Where are we going?" He asked, letting her pull him. He had just enough time to grab their two bags and sling them over his free arm.
"My room to make out." She told him without looking back at him or their friends as they passed.
"Okay!" Logan didn't argue there and let her pull him along.
Watching the couple go, the group of friends acted quickly.
"Find that card now!" Chase cried out, everyone running into action as they started to tear the lounge apart.