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The windows of the flower shop were streaked with water as the rain poured heavily down across the glass. Logan sighed, setting down his watering can before his grandfather placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Son, what’s that mark there on your cheek?” The old man pointed to a slowly purpling bruise just bellow Logan’s cheekbone. The fourteen-year-old flinched harshly before sighing.
“It’s nothing,” He offered a small smile to his father-figure and shakily readjusted his glasses. As if the small movements could distract the former mafia member from his bruise.
“It better be nothing.” The old man huffed, passive-aggressively twirling his spade between his fingers. “Because remember kiddo, your granny and I still have ties to—“
“It’s okay, Grandpa.” Logan smiled softly at the man who’d taken him in. “I’m okay.” The older man softened before moving his hand to affectionately pat his grandson on the head.
It was in fact, not okay. A week later when Logan came limping home his Grandma instantly knew. Unlucky enough for him, he’s a horrific liar. That, combined with his grandparents being particularly great at sniffing out lies meant that he confessed everything immediately.
That their grandson was getting beat up everyday for not doing a kid’s homework and he’s too weak to defend himself. Logan’s grandpa in particular had been seething, fully prepared to call up old contacts until Logan begged him not to.
Then, nearly a year layer and after the trip to Savannah, Logan was wincing for different reasons. Tears and scratches that he could remember so vividly reduced to nothing but blemish-less skin and intense tingling. Sometimes, if he closes his eyes he can still see the phantom ripping into his side.
“Logan, honey, we noticed you’ve dropped out of that astronomy club you used to always mention.” Logan’s grandmother frowned, softly tending to the flower bed next to the teenager. “Not only that, but you’ve been wincing a whole lot more than usual and—“
“Point is, kiddo.” Logan’s grandfather appeared on his other side. “Are those new friends of yours bothering you in any way?”
The fifteen-year-old froze for a moment, eyes widening as he took in the elder man’s words. “What!? No! I promise, they really are my friends.”
The former mafia-member’s frown deepened. “Son, are you sure?”
Logan paused.
-
“What’s that you’re drawing there?” A curious voice asked over his shoulder. The speaker’s mouth was close enough to Logan’s ear to make him jump. Flinching violently, Logan spun around to face a slightly guilty looking Taylor Hernández. The girl raised her hands, as if to prove her innocence before a grin spread on her face.
“Geez, Taylor you scared me!” Logan clutched his chest, eyes still wide before readjusting his glasses and returning to his notebook. Inside the small mole-skin book held gridded paper where he’d been charting some constellations.
“Sorry!” The hispanic girl laughed, sounding genuinely sorry before making a vague motion asking for Logan to explain his seemingly random lines across grid dotted paper.
“My grandparents and I like to watch the stars at night.” Logan moved the notebook so the girl could see his work better. “I like mapping out what constellations I want to search for.”
Taylor took the seat next to him as she examined the small notebook. “Is this so it’s easier for you to find at night?”
Logan nodded excitedly before deflating. “I just can’t seem to get the math right for this one point.” He gestured to the ruler thrown on the table and agressive eraser marks on the bottom right portion of the page.
The brown-haired-girl beside him scrutinized the notebook page closer before gesturing for Logan to pass her his pencil. Quickly, the girl began scribbling math equations on the page and minutes later a problem Logan thought was unsolvable was completed in front of him.
With a dropped jaw, the shorter boy turned back to Taylor as she laughed good-naturally. When she laughed, she had the type of laugh where she threw her head back entirely as her shoulders shook. “I think you forgot I’m kind of a nerd about physics.”
Logan felt a smile blooming on his face. He had forgot. He honestly forgot he even had friends who helped him when he needed. “I guess I did.” The shorter boy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
Taylor just laughed harder. Her laugh became one of his favorite sounds.
-
Logan was sat next to Ben Clark at the lunch table. The other boy had an intimidating stature, being at least half a foot taller than Logan himself. Despite his imposing height and lack of speaking, Ben was one of the most calming presences in his life.
After all, Ben had been the one to patch everyone up after nasty phantom attacks. Ben had also told Logan how pissed off he was at Logan’s bullies and offered to “take care of them,” damned all consequences.
Ben was also one of the calmest people in the friend group, and that would always be a plus for Logan.
Logan sighed, glancing over at the rest of their table. He’d dozed off and it seemed everyone else had decided to start screaming at each other. “What are they arguing about now?”
Ben looked up from his drawing before smiling, amusement in his eyes. The dark-haired-boy quickly wrote his response in his book.
[Who knows? Its so derailed from their original conversation]
Logan laughed, knowing that the yelling would eventually turn to giggles. “Do we think they even know?”
Ben shook his head before passing his sketch-book over. On a fresh page was a newly drawn tic-tac-toe board. Logan grinned, pulling out his pencil case.
After all, this was slowly becoming his favorite way to spend his time.
-
Aiden Clark was an enigma that needs to be studied in labs, Logan decided. That or he needs to be put down.
“COME ON LOGAN IT’LL BE FUN!” It was nearly 10 PM at night and the blond-haired-boy was about to wake up the entire neighborhood as he screamed at Logan from the back yard up to his second-floor-bedroom. He’d spent the past thirty minutes pleading in the group chat for someone to hang out at the park with hum.
“Wasn’t there anyone else you can ask?” The fifteen-year-old whined, pulling his pillow dramatically over his head and praying the other teen would be gone by the time he reopened his eyes. His prayers went unanswered.
“Well no! Otherwise the others would be with me right now!” Logan could practically hear Aiden’s grin from bellow. Groaning with annoyance, he grabbed his glasses and wrapped his blanket around him as he waddled to the window.
Aiden’s blond hair made it easier for Logan to distinguish the other teenager from the dark ground of his backyard. Seeing the glasses-wearing-boy appear in the upstairs window only made Aiden’s grin wider as he enthusiastically waved.
“So… are you coming?” The boy asked, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side.
Logan narrowed his eyes, sighing dramatically before opening grabbing his sweatshirt. As he opened his bedroom window wider to fit through, he could hear Aiden’s cheers of delight from the ground. Before meeting his new friends— Aiden in particular —Logan was never big on sneaking out. Now it seems a certain red-eyed-lunatic wanted to make this a nightly occurrence.
“Hooray! Super glad you can join me on a star-lit adventure to the park!” Aiden beamed, grabbing Logan’s wrist the second his feet touched the ground. The teen grinned wildly as they took off. There was always a slightly deranged look in the blond’s eyes that Logan wasn’t quite sure if he’d ever get used to. Nor was he sure he could handle these nightly outings.
But, taking one look at Aiden’s smile— his real one that wasn’t covered in secrets, Logan knew he’d follow the extemporaneousness without fail.
-
Logan sat down carefully next to the red-haired-girl, poking her on the shoulder to alert her of his presence. Though, Logan wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d saw him walk over anyway. Ashlyn Banner was just like that, always having some part of her brain present and alert.
Though, he supposed you’d need to be in a situation like theirs.
Ashlyn turned her head slightly toward’s him, a small glint of amusement in her green eyes before she looked back at their math homework. Logan soon pulled out his workbook and calculator, clicking away to finish the burdensome problems.
The boy fought back a laugh when the red-haired-girl tossed down her pencil, biting her lip in annoyance at a particular problem. Wordlessly, Logan slid over his workbook watching as Ashlyn’s eyes scanned the page and widened in realization.
Quietly, the gentle yet agressive sounds of graphite being dragged against paper resumed.
Logan had never been a fan of silence. Silence used to mean emptiness. Like a dull void with nothing large enough to fill it’s gaps. Logan found he hated feeling empty. All his life seemed to be before was empty. He assumed Ashlyn’s had been the same. With her seeming to have always been her own bubble.
They shared that in common. In fact, they shared a lot in common. Enough so that despite their lack of words they always found some way to gravitate towards each other. Like calls to like as Logan’s grandpa used to say.
But even though she’d also been alone and empty Ashlyn held a different type of silence. One that was calming and comforting. She preferred silence but for her silence never meant emptiness.
Logan used to hate silence. But silence was good now, at least with Ashlyn.
-
Tyler Hernández was the exact type of person Logan thought he would never be around. The type of loud, agressive, hotheaded, jock that he’d unabashedly stereotyped as mean .
But Logan was wrong.
Sure, Tyler had his moments and will have his moments of blunt words and brutal snips. But just as much, and if not more, he was soft and kind in ways Logan never thought a human could be. From soft smiles and gentle pats to the fact that he played acoustic guitar was enough to tell Logan all that he needed to know.
Then Tyler helped him stand up to Barron, Logan’s bully. And despite things getting out of hand, Logan was grateful.
“What’re you thinking so hard about?” Tyler elbowed the shorter boy. A small smile was on his face as he watched Logan fake groans of pain. Dramatically, the glasses-wearing-boy was clutching his arm where Tyler’s elbow swung at him.
“I was just thinking before your sharp elbows embedded themselves in my shoulder!” Logan huffed. He was grinning. Tyler’s hair looked perfectly swept at that current moment. He wore a beam that made his entire face light up.
“Well, don’t think too hard.” Tyler teased, “After all, we need that insanely smart brain of yours.” The taller boy, laughed before turning to talk to one of their other friends. Logan silently prayed his blush wasn’t as bad as his burning face made it seem. It was almost embarrassing how strong his crush on his friend was.
But, as long as Logan wasn’t imagining things, he might’ve just seen a soft pink dust Tyler’s cheeks too. Logan’s blush deepened.
-
“Do you think we’ll ever find a solution?” Logan whispered. It was almost midnight and the group was camped out in their school bus. He sat, almost dozing off in his signature tire. The rest of the group was beyond exhausted. He guessed every night of fighting for your lives tended to do that to you.
“I don’t know.” Ashlyn muttered back, her face was concentrated but he could see it in her eyes that she was tired. Aiden had his arm wrapped around the shorter girl, leaning his head on hers. The blond sported his never disappearing grin, but even that lacked it’s typical shine.
“I have something kind of crazy to say.” Taylor wrung her fingers together, looking nervous from where she was squished between Tyler and Ben.
“Good thing this group is used to crazy.” Aiden laughed, a teasing glint in his eyes. The tension diffused from Taylor’s shoulders as a smile spread across her face. Tyler chucked the nearest item toward’s the blond haired boy, freezing at the glare sent his by Ashlyn. Ben rolled his eyes fondly at his cousin’s antics.
“Well, speaking of which.” Taylor smiled, crossing her legs as she looked between the group. “Even though what we’ve been going through is obviously terrible, and I’d do anything to make it stop, I’m not that upset it’s happened in the first place?”
“What are you talking about Tay?” Tyler spun around to face his twin, eyes hard with bafflement. “We’ve been going through hell every night and—“
“No. She’s right.” Logan sat up straight. “If Savannah never happened, we never would’ve became friends.”
The group sat quietly for a moment, the only sound being the soft ticks of Logan’s watch.
“Well, I think me and Ash would’ve been best friends either way!” Aiden grinned, swinging his arms around until Ashlyn wacked him on the shoulder. The red-eyed-boy’s jaw dropped in offense. “Rude!”
The group laughed, and Logan knew that despite the demons they fought every night, he’s irreparably grateful for this group. From across the bus, Logan made eye contact with Tyler and his smile widened.
-
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Logan grinned at his grandfather. “They’re my friends through thick and thin.”
Seeing, his grandson’s smiling face, the older man relaxed. Logan would be okay.
“That’s good, son. Now help me with these daffodils.”