Work Text:
Louise strolled the school hallway at her own pace, keeping her icy hands in her hoodie pockets. Now that she was done with detention, her Thanksgiving break was about to start. She didn’t have many plans other than ignoring homework and helping her dad with Thanksgiving dinner, and that’s exactly what Louise looked forward to. Even though she never admitted it out loud, being around her family was one of her favorite things in the world.
The hallway stood empty and silent, various pieces of paper dotting the ground. She had been the only person in detention, which meant Mr. Johnson ended it early. No one wanted to be at school later than they had to, especially with a break right around the corner.
And then, the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Louise slowed her steps, pausing and cocking her head to listen better. The sound of footsteps echoed in the distance, growing with every passing second. Louise turned around just in time to see her arch-nemesis, Logan Bush, darting around the corner. He veered into the lockers, pushing himself off and racing down the hallway. Louise sidestepped out of the way as he neared her. Logan skidded to a stop and leaned forward, pressing his hands to his thighs and gasping for breath.
Louise had absolutely no idea what her enemy was doing at school, after hours, running for his life. She couldn’t help but enjoy it, though. “Running from the consequences of your actions, again?”
Logan peered up at her, a glare threaded through his gaze. He straightened, returning to his towering height. “Like you wouldn’t know.”
She shrugged. “I face my consequences head on. Not all of us are cowards.”
More noise sounded from the direction that Logan had come from. He glanced over his shoulder and his eyebrows creased with worry. Louise didn’t even try to fight the smirk on her face. “Shit, you’re actually scared. What did you do this time?”
Instead of an answer from Logan, a voice roared from down the hall, “BUSH!”
Logan looked around frantically, as if he would be able to hide in any of the locked classrooms or lockers. Then, Louise watched as his eyes landed on the cracked janitor’s closet. He made a mad dash and the door returned to a crack behind him.
She rolled her eyes before turning to whoever wanted revenge on Logan (which could have been anyone, really). “Hey! He’s over here!”
Quicker than a viper, the closet door swung open and Logan reappeared. This time, he didn’t give her the chance to even open her mouth before he grabbed her wrist and yanked her into the closet with him. Louise stumbled into a chaotic mess of brooms and mops and buckets. She nearly tripped, but there wasn’t enough room to fall. Logan slammed the door shut and clasped his hand over her mouth.
“Whathf zhef fhuck?” Louise nearly shouted against his hand. She considered licking or spitting into his hand, and then decided against it when she realized she had no idea when the last time he had washed his hands was. That was something Louise did not want to mess with.
In the dim light, she could make out Logan shaking his head. He shushed her and waited quietly. For several moments, no sound came from the other side of the door. Finally, Logan’s shoulders heaved and he let go of his grip on Louise.
“Ugh,” she rubbed her mouth with the back of her hand. “No amount of showers is going to make me feel better after this.”
Logan rolled his eyes. At least, she thought he did. Despite how close they were in the tight space, Louise struggled to see details. “You did this to yourself.”
“You literally kidnapped me! ”
“Because you were going to give me away! I had no other choice. You would’ve done the same.” Logan scowled down at her. He tried crossing his arms, yet, because they were in a literal closet , he almost accidentally groped Louise’s chest. Logan jerked backwards, slamming his back against the door and wincing.
She chewed on her lip. He wasn’t completely wrong, but she wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. Instead, Louise asked, “Who are you hiding from?”
“Uh, Connor McHale.”
Oof. The star quarterback of Huxley High. The kid was tall and wide, made of pure muscle. He was only a sophomore, and college scouts were already reaching out to him. Louise had never talked to him, but she knew of his reputation. He had a short temper and was not someone you wanted to mess with.
She tsked, shaking her head at her enemy. Her eyes must’ve been adjusting to the dark, as she noticed his intense expression. “How did you screw up that badly?”
He held his hands up in the air in innocence. “It wasn’t even on purpose, I swear! I was just talking to one of my buddies and made a joke about football players. Being dumb. And being held back. Connor overheard.” Logan winced. “Did you know that he’s been held back a couple of years?”
Louise’s eyes widened. No wonder the kid was built like a train. “Dude. You’re dead.”
Logan groaned, leaning against the closet door. “Trust me, Four Ears, I know.”
She put a hand on her hip. This conversation had been dragging on for far too long. The air felt stuffy and with every passing moment, Louise seemed to be closer and closer to Logan. The proximity suffocated her. “But not as dead as you’ll be if you don’t let me out right now.”
“Calm down, Smelcher.” He turned around and jiggled the doorknob. A beat passed, and he twisted it again. Logan began frantically pulling at the doorknob. “Shit shit shit shit!”
Louise’s jaw dropped. “Bush, don’t tell me we’re locked in.”
He smacked his head against the door once, then twice. “Shit.”
Louise was supposed to be on her way home right now. She would have been practically around the corner from the restaurant. She was supposed to be on break, dammit! Fury bubbled up in her chest and she clenched her fists, counting slowly to ten. As the rage settled into place, coursing throughout her body, Louise stated as calmly as she could, “Logan Berry Bush, I am going to kill you.”
“Get in line.”
She couldn’t help it. Louise swung her hands out in the air and felt her voice raise. “Why did you have to run off your stupid mouth? And why did you have to drag me into it?”
Logan spun around and glowered back at her. “Because I’m stupid! I know, alright? It was stupid of me. Let me call someone to come bail us out.” He whipped out his fancy latest version iPhone and, instantly, he facepalmed. “It’s dead. I forgot. It’s fucking dead.”
Louise gaped. “You have the best phone out there and its battery is already dead?”
“...did you know that Candy Crush really drains phone batteries?”
She pulled out her own cheap phone. Yes, it wasn’t a smartphone. No, she didn’t care. “You’re lucky I’m here, then.”
“I’m the luckiest man alive,” Logan muttered sarcastically, which earned him a punch to the shoulder.
Louise sent a quick text to her older brother, Gene. She knew he was at home, and likely looking for an excuse to leave work.
Louise: locked in a janitor’s closet at school. with LOGAN. pls help asap
Not even a minute had passed before she got a response.
Gene: you, dear sister, always have the best timing. omw
She slipped her phone back into her pocket and took off her backpack, shoving it onto one of the shelves. Louise maneuvered the mops and brooms around so that she could sit on the ground in the most comfortable position possible for such a situation. “Gene is on his way,” she grumbled, crossing her arms.
Logan plopped down across from her. His lanky legs were too long to fit anywhere. He sat criss-crossed, but his legs still nearly overlapped Louise’s. She glared at him and Logan snarled back, “You don’t get to be the only one who’s comfortable.”
Seconds drifted at an agonizingly slow pace. They sat wordlessly, refusing to meet each others’ gazes. Louise knew she was justified in her silence. None of this was her fault. Logan would owe her so much after this. What would she force him to do? Pay her for her silence? Get her a good fake ID? She knew he had a guy for that. Whatever it was, she would hold the threat of reminding Connor of what Logan said, and Logan would have to give in to demands. She almost smiled at the idea.
Logan shifted, jolting Louise from her enraged thoughts. “Are you going anywhere for break?” he mumbled, as if he was held at gunpoint to talk to her.
Louise eyed her nemesis. It had been a while since they had a civil conversation. Probably since the homecoming football game. “Uh, no. Going somewhere would require money, which I do not have.”
Logan’s fingers tapped rapidly against his knee. “But isn’t your family, like, big into Thanksgiving?”
She snorted. How did he even remember that? “Yeah, my dad is.”
“So? Is he gonna do anything special?”
Louise cocked her head, thinking. “Well, we’re going to try spatchcocking the turkey this year. I’ve never done it, so he’s going to show me how.”
His fingers stilled. “Spatch-what now?”
“Ugh, don’t tell me you don’t know what spatchcocking is.”
“Four Ears, I wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference between a spatula and tongs.” He began to shake his leg up and down rapidly, as if he had to go to the bathroom. Logan never really stopped moving, did he?
Making an attempt to ignore how much it agitated her, Louise said, “It’s a way to make the turkey cook more evenly and taste better. Basically, you rip out its spine so you can flatten it down.”
Most people cringe at the description, but Logan cracked a grin. “Ew, rip out its spine? That’s dope.”
Louise couldn’t take it anymore. His constantly fidgeting leg wouldn’t. stop. moving. Her hand shot out and held down Logan’s leg, keeping it from shaking up and down anymore. “For the love of God, stop moving.”
Logan’s grin turned into a sly smirk. He leaned forward until his face was only inches away. Louise tried leaning back, but her back hit the shelves and she was trapped. His warm hand covered hers and she noted that it felt much smoother than this skater boy’s hands should have felt. “Geez Louise, if you wanted something, you could have just asked.”
Louise ripped her hand away from him and shoved him back. She debated slapping him as he snickered, falling back against the door again. Then Louise exhaled, only to realize that she had been holding her breath. “No, you’re simply driving me insane. Stop fidgeting.”
Logan’s sly look never faded. “Sorry, Four Ears. No can do. Got the ADHD.”
She ignored his excuse and glanced at her phone’s clock. It had been twenty minutes. Gene should have been there by now. Where the hell was he? Louise sent a quick text, cussing him out just a lil bit, before returning to glare at Logan. She considered their previous conversation and forced out a question. “Are you doing anything for Thanksgiving?”
His cocky expression melted into confusion. “Who, me?”
“No, the other kid that’s stuck in here with us.”
“I mean, can you imagine my family doing anything as a family?”
Throughout their many years of nemesisery, Louise had certainly run into Cynthia and Tom Bush several times. Every instance was painful and awful and made Louise even more grateful for the closeness she had with her own parents and siblings. It wasn’t a secret that Logan despised his parents and their lack of concern and awareness for him.
Still, Louise knew of his mother's obsession with their family’s image, which led to her asking, “But don’t rich families always have some big dinner? With a bunch of other rich families or relatives?”
“Cut it out with the questions, Four Ears,” Logan snapped. Without giving her the chance to retort, he asked in the same sharp tone, “Where the hell is Gene?”
“How the hell should I know? He’s not responding,” Louise snarled back. “And, you know, if you don’t want to talk about something, you can just ask, dingleberry. You don’t have to be an asshole about it.”
Logan pressed his lips into a flatline. His glare burned on Louise’s face as his eyes flitted back and forth, as if he was deciding if he wanted to punch her or cuss her out. Louise straightened her shoulders, ready for either option. But instead, he did something that nearly made her speechless.
Keeping his gaze, Logan said, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Louise gaped at him. Did she hear him correctly? “What?”
Finally, he looked away and studied something on the ground. “I said, you’re right and I’m sorry. It was just a question and I got all defensive because, well, you know why.”
Something in the air shifted. Louise stilled as the warm, yet tense, feeling wrapped around her. He must have felt it, too, because Logan began tapping his fingers again. The feeling that hung in the closet with them was so thick that there wasn’t enough room for banter or jokes. Louise knew this, yet she couldn’t bring herself to say something serious to Logan.
Instead, she made a weak attempt at humor and said, “Who are you and what have you done with Logan Berry Bush? Because the Logan I know would never apologize.”
He turned his head away with mock pretension. “ Some of us are working on ourselves so that we improve. Unlike others.”
Louise leaned back, a faint smile threatening to take place on her lips. “And some of us don’t need to work on ourselves. We’re perfect the way we are. Well, I am. I’m talking mostly about myself.”
A beat of silence, and then Logan snorted. The smile broke through and Louise grinned, laughing quietly to herself. For a moment, they were just a couple of normal teenagers. No rivalry, no hatred, no pent up issues. Just two giggling teenagers stuck in a janitor’s closet at school because they were stupid. It was like there was a glitch in the universe, like something had been altered. Hell, they could have been friends in that moment.
And in that moment, in that glitch, Louise found herself asking, “Are things…worse right now? With your family?” Immediately, as soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could suck them right back in. Did she actually ask that out loud? To Logan’s face?
He considered her carefully for a few seconds. When Louise was ready to burst out with a backtracking excuse, Logan said, “Well, it’s me. I’m the problem. I--”
A burst of light swept through the closet as the door opened. Logan fell backwards into the hallway, landing on Gene’s shoes. Louise squinted at the suddenly blinding light, blinking as her brother came into view. He was grinning down at her, his eyes flitting back between Louise and Logan.
Gene waggled his eyebrows. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt?”
Logan sat up and locked eyes with Louise for only a brief second, yet in that moment, an understanding passed between them. Their conversation had never happened. Logan had never apologized and tried being vulnerable. Louise had certainly not been open to listening and new potentials. The fleeting instance of being normal had never happened. It was simply a glitch in the universe.
Louise stood up quickly and stepped over Logan, ignoring his outstretched hand for help. “You only interrupted the worst form of torture. What took you so long?”
Gene put a hand on his hip. “I’ll have you know, I had to catch up with a very important friend of mine. Mr. Branca, who gave me the keys.”
Logan hoisted himself up and brushed off his jeans. He stepped past Louise and into the hallway, sparing Gene a swift glance. “I guess I should thank you, but I’ve vowed to never thank a Belcher.” He turned to Louise, gave a curt nod, and said, “Later, Four Ears.”
Gene and Louise watched him walk away, rounding the corner and disappearing. Her brother wrinkled his nose at the sight. “You’re right, sis. I should’ve been quicker. You were stuck with that for an hour.”
It had been a whole hour? Louise hadn’t even realized. She shook her head, hoping that all thoughts of the weird moment she had with her enemy would fall out of her memory. “Yeah,” she muttered. “It sucked.”