The Logan Brothers

Chapter 9 - Beach Day

Chapter 9 - Beach Day

"What the hell are you doing here?!" I screeched, pushing myself up from the floor. Grayson was staring at me, with either confused or upset eyes. When it came to Grayson, I never had been able to tell.

Suddenly, he smirked, "Well, I came over here to apologize for kissing you because I realized that was probably the wrong thing to do. But it seems like I don't have to, seeing as you enjoyed it and all." My cheeks flushed a bright, crimson red. Well s**t, he had heard the whole thing. I was mortified; never in my whole life had I been so embarrassed.

"Well, you should apologize!" I argued, crossing my arms over my chest. "Thanks to you Leah is pissed at me, and I don't even know why." At that, Grayson let out a harsh bark of laughter, furthering my feeling of confusion. There was definitely something I wasn't understanding.

"That would be because you made it sound like we had s*x, Ginny," He laughed, giving me a pointed look. Another wave of embarrassment rolled over me, that word had always made me uncomfortable. Especially when it was involving me and the Devil standing right in front of me.

My mouth hung open, lips parted slightly, as I thought back to the heated argument I had just endured. Things were said that maybe had eluded to something more, things that at the time I hadn't realized sounded so physical. All of a sudden Leah's anger made sense. She thought Grayson took my virginity.

"f**k," I hissed, slamming a clenched fist down on the kitchen counter. How the hell did I not see it before?! Of course, Leah wouldn't have been that upset over a kiss!

Grayson looked slightly surprised, "I'm still not used to you cussing so often," He said, "But I'll admit, it's kind of sexy."

"Shut up, Grayson," I muttered, ignoring the words that surely would've made me blush all kinds of red if I had been in my right mind. "Get out of here, I'm expecting friends and I need to call Leah before they get here."

He rolled his eyes dramatically, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going. But when you get back, come and find me. We need to talk." Well damn, he used those dreaded four words. 'We need to talk' was never a good sentence. In fact, it was among my top five least favorite.

Yes, I did have a list.

I gulped, "Okay, sure." I barely managed to whisper the words out, but he seemed to think that was good enough. After one of his brooding, incredibly sexy head nods, he turned and exited my house. I was flustered and panicky, but I didn't have time to waste. Bending to pick up the knife Leah had dropped, I set it on the counter and quickly scooped up my phone. There was a text from Elsie.

What's your address? We started driving and I realized I had no clue where you live. LOL!

"Thank god," I muttered to myself, thankful that she didn't know where I lived. She had known so much about me before that I had been slightly afraid I had a stalker on my hands. Quickly, I sent her my address and then dialed Leah's number, rushing out to my front yard to see if she was still nowhere near. As expected, he had left the premises long ago.

After three rings, the call went straight to voice mail. Great, she was ignoring me. "Leah, I know what happened, all right? You're mad because you think me and Grayson hooked up. I didn't sleep with him, all right?! You know me better than that! He just kissed me, that's all. I really need you right now, everything's falling apart and I need you to help me make sense of it all. You've always been better at it then I am. Please, call me back."

I was starting to panic, but there was nothing I could do. Leah probably just needed to calm down, time to herself so she could realize that I wouldn't actually have s*x with Grayson. Yeah, that was the logical thing. Just let her have space and she would come around in no time. At least I hoped so because I couldn't bear one more thing blowing up in my face.

Suddenly, a minivan screeched to a stop in front of my house. There was music blaring from the speakers, the front windows rolled down so I could hear it perfectly. Elsie was behind the wheel, although she didn't look like she was paying much attention to driving. "Imogen, come on! Let's get this show on the road!"

“Hey,” I called, waving as I jogged over to the car. “My friend couldn’t come so it’s just me.”

The back door swung open, revealing more girls crammed in the back. When Elsie had said they only had room for two more, she did not mean there were two more seats. The whole thing was packed to the brim.

“Hop on in,” The girl nearest me smiled, and motioned for me to climb in next to her. I did so hesitantly. Being crammed into the back of a car like sardines in a can was not what I had in mind when I agreed to go to the beach. The door slammed shut behind me, narrowly missing my ass which was still hanging out slightly. “Okay Elsie, let’s go!”

†

It was a forty-minute drive to the beach from my house, a drive that I usually enjoyed. But with this group of girls, I was ready to stab a screwdriver in my neck after twenty minutes. They were loud, obnoxious, and for the most part fell under the category of “dumb blondes,” - Even if they didn’t have blonde hair.

The girl's lap I was practically sitting on was probably the worst. She had this horrible, donkey-like laugh that went on for ages. She never stopped talking, not even to breathe. Her name was “Candy,” although I doubted that was the name on her birth certificate. Candy was the epitome of a beach blonde cheerleader; blonde hair - obviously - spray-tanned skin, way too much makeup, and nice, big t**s.

“Oh my god,” Candy squeaked, “I can not believe they’re actually getting back together.” Yes, this was actually happening. “They’ve broken up like twelve times now!” The worst part was that I was forced to listen to every word; even if I had wanted to move I don’t think I would have been able too. I had counted somewhere along the way, and there were twenty of us crammed in this car. Elsie and whoever the chick sitting up front was had it easy.

Out of sheer boredom and almost physical pain, I pulled out my cell phone. There wasn’t a call from Leah like I had been expecting, just a plain, simple text from Wesley.

Hey.

Despite myself, my gut dropped a little. He didn’t know Grayson had kissed me, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him. Given our current situation, that would make things even more awkward than they already were.

Hey, I responded hesitantly, quickly shoving the phone in my lap. I had no doubt that every single one of the girls in the car would snoop and read my texts if given the chance. They seemed to be sneaky that way.

His response was faster than normal, for him at least. What up? Want to hang 2day?

“What’s that about?” Candy chimed, suddenly right next to my ear. I jumped slightly, barely managing to hold onto my cell phone. “Ooo, who’s Wes? I like that name, it’s sexy.”

“Quit reading my texts!” I squeaked, quickly pressing the iPhone to my chest.

“Oh come on, Imogen,” She giggled, nudging my shoulder playfully, “Tell us about your boyfriend.” Oh my god, kill me now.

“He isn’t my boyfriend,” I groaned, “Elsie, how long ‘till we’re at the beach?” If it wasn’t soon, someone would be missing a limb by the time we got there. Through the rearview mirror, I saw her shoot me an apologetic look. That meant we were still a good ways out.

“For not being your boyfriend, you sure are defensive.” Candy observed, using her not so clever skills to pick up on my server uncomfortableness. After a moment I just decided to ignore her, eventually, she would get bored. Right? “We’ve got to teach you to lighten up, Im.”

Not with the nicknames, internally, I groaned. Why did people even think it was okay to give me nicknames the second I met them? It was very annoying.

Wish I could, stuck going to the lake with friends. Friends might have been a bit of a stretch, but if I told Wes that I was with a bunch of strangers he probably would’ve gotten worried. He was sweet like that, and any other time it would've been cute, except my tolerance for anything even slightly annoying was growing smaller by the second.

“Tell him he can come to the lake with us, I’d love to meet Wes.” Candy squealed, bouncing up and down in her seat. That meant I also bounced up and down, almost hitting my head on the top of the car. “Come on girls, wouldn't that be fun?!”

“No!” I exclaimed, pinching the bridge of my nose in exasperation. “He doesn’t like the beach. He isn’t coming.” They sounded fairly disappointed but didn’t pick up on my obvious lie. Who didn’t like the beach? Finally, when I was about to pull out my hair, the sparkling ocean water came into view.

Elsie pulled up to the sand and turned off the car, silencing the loud music that had been pounding through my skull. In one mad dash, I hopped from the car, almost getting trampled in the process. Everyone was in a hurry to get down to the water, and no one seemed to care much who they stepped on in the process. Within a matter of seconds I was the only one left standing by the car, Elsie still in the front seat.

“Sorry about that,” She smiled sweetly, biting her bottom lip. “Those girls aren’t really my friends, this whole trip just got out of hand.”

“It’s fine,” I waved her off, checking my phone again. Wes still hadn't responded, and I was starting to worry that I had upset him. Surely he knew I would’ve hung out with him if I could have.

“If you’re upset about the Wes thing, they were totally kidding. It’s your business if he’s your boyfriend or not.” Elsie swung her stick skinny legs out of the car, smiling shyly at me. Her apologies were cute, although unnecessary. She hadn’t been the one annoying me.

After a moment of silence, I said, “Come on, let’s go down to the water.” The beach was fairly empty, although couples and families were still scattered everywhere. The girls who had been in the car were gone, and I had a feeling I wouldn't be seeing much of them until it was time to go home.

The sun was blazing down harshly, biting into my pale skin. Already I could feel a sunburn coming on, and only then did I realize I had left my bag at home. I didn’t have a towel or a change of clothes. Well, that's just great.

“Look, I wouldn’t blame you if you called Wes to come and get you,” Elsie said, speaking suddenly, “That car is crazy, I’ll get it if you don’t want to ride home with us.”

I sighed, “It’s fine, Elsie. Really.” She grinned up at me, clearly pleased by my response. The poor girl didn’t seem to have many friends.

“Great. Come on, then.” And with that, she ran out to the water. Her shorts were still on, but she didn’t seem to care as she dove head first into the shallow waves. After stripping from my over clothes and wrapping my cellphone in my shirt, I ran after her.

The water was warm, although not uncomfortably so. Actually, it was sort of calming.

Elsie came up from under the water with a gasp. “This feels so good,” She sighed, wiping the hair from her face. “It’s just what I needed.”

“Yeah,” I admitted, “It’s just what I needed too.” Okay, so that wasn’t the complete truth. What I needed was to hang out with Wesley to get rid of some awkwardness, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon; so relaxing was the next best thing.

And who knows, maybe, if I was lucky enough, I would forget all about my problems. Even if it was only for a little while.