The Fine Line (5 page)

An entertained expression came over him. “Chloe’s just a friend, and she knows it.” 

That sparked my interest, and I wondered if he had a conversation with her about it.  If he did, it obviously didn’t stop her from trying to get more out of him than friendship.  I reminded myself that this was none of my business, and dipping my spoon into my caramel sundae, I let it go.

Isaac, Jess, and Logan were done eating, and they began to get up to leave. 

“Hey, we’re going back to Gavin’s.  You guys want to join us?”  Isaac asked.

Melody and I looked at each other, and I gave her a quick shrug and head-shake, indicating that I did not really want to.  She seemed to agree.  We both had school in the morning, and it was tough to get through the day on little sleep.

“No, we’ve got school tomorrow, but let’s catch up this weekend!” Melody replied.

*

My parents were already asleep when I got home.  They must’ve had the night off from the pub.  I slipped into some comfortable shorts and a tank top and crawled into bed.  After plugging my iPod into the speaker on my bedside table, I curled up under my comforter and dozed off to my favorite rock ballads. 

Shortly into my dream state, I began to hear what sounded like thunder.  It was constant, never silencing, and it kept getting louder.  Stirring awake, my eyes opened, and I realized there was a tapping noise coming from my balcony door.  Someone was knocking on its window.  My body sprung up to a sitting position. 

Mace.

Pulling open the drawer on my bedside table, I grasped the bottle of pepper spray that I had purchased a week after my parents opened the pub.  Even though we lived in a safe neighborhood, I learned that when you’re alone in the house late at night and you’ve fallen asleep after watching a scary movie, the pitter-patter of animals scurrying across the roof can sound more like axe murderers and rapists trying to scratch their way in.  The pepper spray made me feel more in control.  Besides, you can never be too safe, and bad things happen everywhere.  Even in safe neighborhoods.

I looked at the balcony window and saw a man’s silhouette in the moonlight through the sheer curtain.  I watched a hand rise up and tap at the window again, and I gripped the mace tightly.

“Who’s there?” I called.

“It’s Logan.”

I released the air that I had been holding in my lungs, and after a moment of regaining my composure, I put the mace back in the drawer. 

The thunder noise must’ve been his car.  I hoped it didn’t wake my parents.  They wouldn’t be too happy about a boy on my balcony.  I got out of bed and opened the door to see him leaning, with his hand against the door jamb.  Our eyes met immediately. His glowed in the luminescence, and his features were shadowed in all the right places.  I may have even gasped at the sight of him and before I knew it I was holding my breath again.

“Hey,” he said simply.

Hey?  He came here to say hey?

“What are you doing here?” I scolded in a half-shout, half-whisper as I held the door open.  “I’m sleeping.  My parents are home.  I’m sleeping.”

He smiled and poked his head in the door, looking around.  “So, this is your room, huh?”

“Hey, get out!”  I nudged him.  Keeping my eyes on him, I scanned my brain to make sure there was nothing embarrassing in my room that would be in his view.  I didn’t think there was.  “What do you want?”

He chuckled, entertained.  “I feel like racing tonight.  You wanna come?”  Then he looked down at what I was wearing, and I immediately crossed my arms, realizing that I wasn’t wearing a bra. 

“You woke me up for
that
?”  The last race was exhilarating, and I wanted to go with him, but I had school in the morning.  Looking over at the green glow from the alarm clock by my bed, I found out just how late it was.  “You’re going to a race at midnight on a Thursday?  You just say you want to race and you find people who will race you?  Just like that?”

He shrugged.  “Pretty much.  I get a lot of offers, so it’s not hard to find a race when I want one.”

“Yeah, well, some of us have responsibilities,” I teased.  “I have school in the morning.  I can’t.  Why don’t you go ask Chloe?  I’m sure she’d be happy to be your escort.”  It came out more bitter than I intended, but it didn’t seem to faze him.

“Chloe’s cool, but…you make an awesome flag girl…”  He raised one brow.  “C’mon, it’ll be fun.” Then he gave me a flirtatious smile which melted my irritation. 

I sighed.  “I really can’t, Logan.  Maybe next time.”  I began to close the door on him.

He looked up at the sky for a moment, then back at me.  “Hey, will you come out here for a minute?”

I looked into his glowing eyes.  Why did he have to be so irresistible?  I supposed it wouldn’t hurt to spend a few minutes outside with him.  I went to my closet to grab a sweater while he waited at the door.  Once we were on the balcony, we leaned on the rail overlooking the neighborhood. 

He didn’t say anything, and I wondered what his true intention for coming to my house was.  He couldn’t possibly have a thing for me.  I was much too ordinary for someone like him.  Not to mention, he didn’t seem like the type to have to chase after girls.  He seemed like the type to have girls knocking on
his
door at late hours of the night, not vice versa.  Just in case, I figured I would set him straight from the start.

“Logan, there’s something you should know.”  I dreaded what I was going to say next.  The truth was I liked him, and the thought of alienating him so soon was…strangely disturbing.  Hopefully, he would accept what I had to offer.  Maybe it’s even what he wanted, too. 

“Oh, really now.  And what would that be?”  His interest had clearly been sparked. 

I took a deep breath.  “I don’t do the boyfriend/girlfriend thing.”  Before I could say anything else, a stifled laugh escaped him, and he turned himself to face me, seeming genuinely interested in what I would say next as he leaned his side against the balcony rail.  He appeared to force himself to stop the laughter, but he couldn’t get rid of that grin and look of wonder in his eyes.  He didn’t say anything, so I continued.  “I like you, and I had fun with you last weekend, but I’m just not looking for more than friendship…What’s so funny?!”  By now, several laughs had escaped him.

“Nothing, I’m sorry,” he replied as he shook his head and let out a few more chuckles.  “It’s just…do you know how many times I’ve given the ‘I don’t want a relationship’ speech?  This is the first time I’ve been on the receiving end of one.  It’s kind of ironic.  Trust me, I’m totally fine with being friends.”  He rubbed his chin, giving me a thoughtful look.  “Since we’re being so open, maybe we should define our friendship.”

He said ‘our’ friendship.  He’s okay with this!

My elation from the fact that he wasn’t resentful or running away from what I said overshadowed his words.  “What do you mean
define
?” 

“Well, you don’t do relationships, right?”  He cocked an eyebrow.  “What is it that you do?” 

I knew then from his tone exactly what he meant, and I proceeded to smack him in the arm.  “What the hell?  I’m not some whore, Logan!”

Rubbing his arm in mock pain, he continued to chuckle.  “Well, that’s why we’re talking about it, right?  We don’t want any misunderstandings.” 

“I’m not talking about friends with benefits.  I’m talking about straight up friends.”  Cringing at my Paula Abdul reference, I sighed and rolled my eyes.  This type of embarrassment was new to me.  Something about this boy brought out things in me that I had never experienced before. 

He gave me a reassuring look.  “Well, friends it is then, Olivia Evans.” And he reached out to shake my hand.

It surprised me that he knew my full name.  I placed my hand in his, trying to ignore that thing that happens to me when I touch him.  “Friends it is, Logan Tanner.”

He turned to climb down from the balcony, but before he did, he looked at me one last time.  “You know, the race tonight was just an excuse.  I was planning on coming here to sweep you off your feet and find a way to kiss you passionately in the moonlight.”  He pointed up, directing my attention to the brilliant full moon that I hadn’t noticed until now.  My attraction to him seemed to have intensified in the single moment it took me to look back at him.  “But I think this will be much more interesting.”  He smiled just before he turned away from me.

My legs were cement blocks as I watched him climb down from the balcony.  The man had guts, that’s for sure.  My elbows leaned on the rail and my hand found its place on my chin, which was a good thing because my jaw needed to be lifted from the floor. 

Just before getting into his car, he turned around and looked in my direction with an expression I didn’t expect.  It was disappointment at first, but then when he noticed me watching him, it melted into warmth.

I stood on the balcony for several minutes after watching his car drive away.  Finally, I slipped back into my room, and with the mental image of Logan’s intention still fresh in my mind, I drifted to sleep.

Chapter Six

I was glad to have a day off from Frank’s on Friday.  Mel and I stood at our lockers at the end of the school day, stuffing our backpacks.

“Do you work tonight?” Mel asked.

“No, why?” I replied.

“Let’s grill out at your house.”

“What?  Mel, I don’t know…”

With my mom and Jeff being gone in the evenings, my house was the perfect place for a gathering, but I had made an agreement with them that I wouldn’t have more than a few people over at a time when they weren’t there. 

“C’mon, Liv.  It’ll just be a few people, no big deal,” she said, as if she read my mind.  “Don’t worry, I’ll help you clean up.”

It did sound like fun.  “Fine, but it can’t be a big party, and we have to stay outside.  I don’t want the house trashed.”

Mel grinned from ear to ear, unable to control her excitement.  I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and started texting invites when Logan popped into my mind.  I wanted him to come, but I hadn’t gotten his number.

Mel noticed my hesitation.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”  I didn’t want her to think I had a thing for Logan, so I stayed silent about it.

*

Nate was the first to arrive at my house, and then came Isaac with Jess and her friend Hailey, who immediately took a liking to Nate.  Melody and I were in the kitchen, preparing the sides, while the boys grilled the burgers outside.  Each time Hailey let out a giggle, Mel looked up with a murderous face.

“Mel…” I said.  “Nate loves you.  You love Nate.  He doesn’t care about anyone else.”

“I know,” she huffed.  “I’m being stupid.  It’s just…Those bitches didn’t even offer to help us.  They’re just sitting out there, flirting with my man.”

“Hey, if you want me to kick them out, I will.  It is my house you know,” I said, raising my eyebrows.  

She laughed, putting her hands up in the air with the knife she had been using still in one of them.  “Whoa, no need to go to extremes.  Jess seems cool, actually, and I’m not going to cause drama for Isaac.” She pointed the knife at me.  “Would it be fair to just kick Hailey out?”

“Just say the word, sister.”  I pointed to what she was holding and smiled.  “Maybe you should let me slice the tomatoes now.”

My attention digressed to the sound of a low rumble in the distance.  The second I heard it, I knew what it was.  The corners of my mouth curled up as I bowed my head down so that Mel wouldn’t see my excitement.  The rumble came closer until I could hear it in my driveway, and then it stopped. 
How did he know?

I looked up at Mel.  A huge grin spread across her face.  She heard the rumble too.  “Did you tell Logan about this?” I asked.

“I may have mentioned to Nate that he could tell Logan about our little get-together tonight,” she shrugged.

“Seriously, Mel, you’ve got to stop trying to set me up with people.  It’s not going to happen.”

“Well, who am I gonna double date with?  I need you to get a man so we can all hang out together!”

I rolled my eyes then headed to the door, catching Logan’s eyes through the screen door as we both approached it at the same time.  Gavin was with him.  I opened the door.

“Hey, come on in!  The grill’s out back, help yourself to drinks in the coolers.  Nate and Isaac are back there.  Grab a chair, grab a drink, and make yourself at home.  Bathroom is over there.  Mel and I will be right out.”  The information spewed out of me at the speed of light.  I needed to talk and point to things to keep from making a fool of myself by staring at those heart-stopping hazel eyes and perfect face.  I really needed to get a grip and stop thinking about the mental image that Logan left with me last night.

Logan looked around, then grinned. “You’ve got a nice place here, Liv…When do I get a tour?”

“Not sure.” I became instantly annoyed at the insinuation in his tone, all nervousness ceasing.  “When are you going to stop using cheesy lines?”

“Oh!  Burn!” Gavin laughed as he headed out the back door to join the others. 

Logan’s expression was one of confusion at first then it morphed into amusement.  He looked towards the kitchen to make sure Melody wasn’t listening then he leaned toward me.  “Liv, I wasn’t trying to get you into a room.  We’re just friends, remember?”

“Friends don’t use lines on friends.”

He laughed, “Ok!  I get it.  No more pick-up lines, I promise.”

“Thank you.” 

We grabbed the side dishes and condiments and headed outside.  Melody let out a single sarcastic laugh when she saw Hailey sitting on the patio bench next to Nate so close that their arms touched, gazing at him with a flirtatious smile.  In true Mel fashion, she placed her items on the table, then casually walked over to Nate and found her own seat on his knee.

“Hey, baby,” she whispered to him just before she wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her lips on his in a passionate kiss.

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I watched Hailey look down in defeat, then get up and take a seat next to Gavin, transferring her full attention to him.  It didn’t take long for the two of them to get comfortable with each other, and the next time I looked over, Hailey was sitting on Gavin’s knee.