“That’s fair enough.” He gave me a reassuring look. “I don’t think anything bad is going to happen anymore. I really don’t, Samantha.”
As he went inside, I felt my phone buzzing and pulled it out. Mason was calling. Realizing the irony from my father’s parting words, I answered and headed down the street. I didn’t want to walk past Cass and Mark, and I didn’t want David overhearing our conversation.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Hey yourself.”
At the sound of his voice, the world righted again, and the knot that was always there started to loosen.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Closing my locker, I was heading to cross country practice Thursday when Logan came up behind me and threw his arm around my shoulder. He hooked it around my neck and pulled me so I was walking sideways as he kept going straight. He flashed me a smile. “Hey there, sister dear.”
I rolled my eyes, but grinned back. Hitting him in the chest, I asked, “What are you doing?”
“Did you hear the news?”
“That you’re awesome? That’s old. Duh.”
He stopped and people streamed around us. No one complained about our abrupt stop, but this was Logan. No one complained about anything that had to do with him. If they did, they made sure he couldn’t hear it. Since we had come back from seeing Mason, the old joking side of him had returned. Everyone took notice. He’d been serious before the trip, more serious than people expected from him, but when someone yelled out from behind us, “Coming up, Kade!” he raised his hand, palm upwards, by his head and one of his friends slapped it with his own, moving past us without breaking stride. Logan never broke eye contact with me. His only reaction was when his smile turned into a cocky smirk. He raised an eyebrow. “You’re being funny, Strattan? I’m pretty sure you need to take a class before coming into my arena of awesomeness.”
He winked and held his hand out to me.
I glanced at it. “What’s that?” As soon as the words left me, I knew I didn’t want to know.
He looked at it, back at me, and raised his hand higher. “It’s for you to pay the fee. No one enters Logan’s Arena of Awesomeness without paying my interest rate. Don’t worry. It’s only sex percent.” He paused and waited.
I got it, grunted, and began moving down the hallway for the lockers. “Seriously, Logan.”
He hurried back to my side and threw his arm around my shoulder again. “Get it? Sex percent?”
I didn’t look at him, but I could imagine the wide smile on his face, waiting for some reaction from me. My reaction was an elbow to his gut. He grunted, but laughed at the same time. “You think Mason would kick my ass if I enforced that? Huh, huh?” Wiggling his eyebrows, he grabbed my elbow and pulled me to a halt before I disappeared into the women’s locker room. “Our coach is going to be late. I’ve got time.”
Placing a hand to his chest, I moved him back a step. “Sure.”
His eyes got wide. “Are you serious?”
I grinned at the person coming up behind him. “Your boyfriend just threatened to make me have sex with him.”
He barked out a laugh and he smiled at Kris. Holding onto her bag, she narrowed her eyes, as she studied both of us with her lips pursed together.
“Hey there, girlfriend. You have time to step into Logan’s Arena of Awesomeness for five minutes?”
“What?”
Another laugh ripped out of him. “Nothing.” He started for the men’s locker room, but turned around and pretended to shoot both of us with his fingers. “Catch you two later.”
A stream of guys were moving behind him into the locker room. One of them threw his arm around Logan’s neck, bent him over, and pretended to tighten his arm in a chokehold. Logan was dragged inside, but it wasn’t long before a roar of laughter filtered from the room into the hallway.
Kris sighed. “My boyfriend can be really weird.”
“Yep.”
Turning as one, we both went into our locker room.
Once we got inside, we parted ways. She went to her locker, surrounded with her friends, and I went to mine in the back row. Coach had kept me running with the guys who were sent off first so I hurried into my running clothes, grabbed my iPod, and was heading out the door when one of the team captains came in. She was standing in the doorway and said, “Hold up, Strattan. Girls are going first today.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “Yeah, he wanted me to spread the word.” Cupping her hands around her mouth, she yelled, “GIRLS, GET YOUR ASSES MOVING! WE’RE RUNNING FIRST!”
There was silence for a split second and then the room filled with shrieks. A couple girls came around to the door. “What?”
She motioned for them to hurry up. “Come on. The guys are running with the football team so we have to take off first. We’re all doing the same trail.”