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  Of what?

  You’re thinking about me in the shower, aren’t you?

  Spaghetti. Cook the darn spaghetti for dinner.

  The water washing over my pecs, down my abs, onto my …

  Have a shower already, Logan.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Logan slid into his desk at our Socio lecture on Monday morning with two disposable cups in hand. He held them both out to me. “English Breakfast or hot chocolate?”

  I met his gaze with a smile. Not only had he remembered my choice of tea, but he’d noticed I had hot chocolate when we were out with Molly and Jordan.

  “Whichever you don’t want,” I said.

  Logan frowned. “Your choice.”

  I accepted the tea and offered him a thankful smile.

  When I took a sip of my steaming drink, the warm liquid that trailed down my throat was delicious. It was raining outside, as it had been all weekend, and the dash into class had left me damp and cold. Shivering, I set up my tablet to take notes. It seemed there wasn’t any time for conversation as our lecturer bustled into the room in his usual rushed fashion.

  The hour passed by pretty quickly, as Sociology generally did. But Logan didn’t seem to be paying much attention. By the end of the lecture, his notepad was filled with swirly drawings and patterns. Also some weird script that looked like a foreign language, maybe.

  “Should I send you my notes, Stalker Boy?”

  Logan bumped my shoulder with his. “If you want to email me, just do it. You don’t need an excuse.”

  “Well, you sure don’t look for one. What was with all that text spam yesterday?”

  “What spam?” He sounded affronted.

  “Oh, you know, the blow-by-blow account of your day.”

  “What? I needed your expertise on my assignment.”

  “And your music choice whilst studying and what you should eat for dinner.”

  “That’s important stuff.” Logan grinned. “Admit it; you love my spam and you spammed me right back”

  “Sure I did.” I shoved my laptop into my bag and stood to move past him.

  “See you at lunch, Liv.”

  It didn’t take long for my good mood to slip into anxiety as I rushed off to my tutorial for Constitutional Law. Along with a few lectures, it was the one tute I’d skipped the other week and I was still trying to figure out a way around the missed test. Then later I had another meeting with Student Services. Setting that up had been the purpose of the missed phone call. This day couldn’t have been any more stressful than if my mother had planned it.

  I walked into the tute five minutes early and got set up. It wasn’t long before Ella slid into her usual seat beside me. She turned my way and offered up a plastic smile which I calmly returned.

  “Fighting at The Bar and naughty night time fun.” She shook her head. “That’ll make my presidential campaign easier.”

  I spun around so fast my neck kinked. The words I was too polite to say pulsing through my mind. You’re a bitch. Instead I said, “If that’s the reason you get elected then ...” I shrugged. “Whatever.”

  My teeth ground together as our professor walked in and sat down. My throat burned as he started talking about a pseudo case we were examining this week. My temples throbbed as Ella answered every freaking question he asked the group in her sickly fake voice. My anger peaked when she said, “Olivia knows about assault. It happens here on campus all the time.”

  Longest tute ever.

  It was still raining when I pulled myself together and headed to the cafeteria to grab lunch. I popped up my umbrella and made the trek across campus, careful not to ruin my favourite DKNY suede boots in the puddles. Wearing them today hadn’t been the best idea, but they kept my legs warm with their velvet lining. After I grabbed a plate of hot food—it looked like some sort of stroganoff on rice—I took a table inside, and it wasn’t long until Molly joined me.

  “What’s with the long face?” she said, glancing past me.

  “Ella freaking Parry. I’m over her.”

  Warm hands cupped my shoulders. “Who’s Ella Parry?” Logan said.

  Groaning, I dropped my head back to look up at him. “Just the meanest chick this side of Mars. Would you believe …” I launched into a tirade of everything Ella had done in the past few weeks—excluding the overheard scene in the bathroom—while Logan’s deft hands kneaded my shoulders. His thumbs worked at the knots in my muscles until I felt all gooey. By the time I had finished my speech, I felt almost lighter. As if somehow sharing all that had diminished my anger, or maybe it was the heavenly massage. Logan plopped into the seat beside me, his knee bumping against mine.

  “She’s a bitch. Forget about her,” Molly scoffed. “So, Loges, we going to Central Night tomorrow or what?”

  Logan’s gaze cut to me, his eyes questioning.

  “I already told you guys I’m not going.”

  “Why not?” Molly whined.

  “I just don’t want to.” What I didn’t say was that I had no desire to either drink or hang out with my fellow college dwellers when I’d just be the butt of all their jokes for the night. Sure the teasing had died down a little, but I was certain that given the mix of alcohol and my presence they’d start up again, and I sure as heck didn’t want a repeat of the open door incident.

  “Come on, Liv. It’ll be awesome.” Molly prodded my hands with her fork.

  “No means no, Molly.” Logan smirked at my friend, no doubt proud of the innuendo.

  ****

  I came out of my last lecture of the day and Logan was leaning against the concrete wall outside my class, his arms braided across his chest, and his blond hair curling in waves that almost brushed his shoulders. Gosh, the guy had nice hair. His gaze caught mine and his lips curled up. “You’re not walking home in the rain.”

  I couldn’t stop my smile at the surprise of seeing him for the third time that day. “You really have to stop stalking me. It’s getting kind of creepy.”

  Logan chuckled. Maybe he knew there was no truth in my words; that I really kind of liked having him around and to be honest, I was grateful I didn’t have to face what had turned into a torrential downpour.

  Rain pounded against the roof and walls of the building as the crowd of students filled the hallway, clearly waiting for the deluge to abate. Logan eyed up my flimsy umbrella. “We’d better sit this out for a bit.”

  I rested my shoulder against the wall, facing him. “I heard back from your Student Services friend.”

  “Yeah?”

  I slumped back, my other shoulder hitting the wall too, so I faced out toward the terrible weather. “She can’t help me. The board said they won’t lift it. Doesn’t matter that I was the victim, they can’t be seen encouraging undesirable behaviour.”

  “That’s bullshit. The behaviour wasn’t undesirable, it was self-defence.”

  “Doesn’t matter anyway,” I said, picking at my cuticle. “The vote’s this Friday. It’s not like I would have stood a chance anyway. Not with joining the running so late—and I’m not exactly Ms Popular around campus these days, so it would be hard to get voted in.”

  Logan pushed off the wall, his gaze finding mine, studying my expression. “Are you okay with that?”

  “Sure,” I said, even though it was a lie. Everything else I’d said was true though, so maybe it was best that I didn’t go into the vote and lose abysmally. That would be far worse than not going in at all. But still, I felt as if I’d failed. As if by not even being in the running, I’d lost something important, and the lack of campus politics on my CV was a real concern. Sure I could try again next year, but with the mark on my record maybe they wouldn’t let me run again. A student council position such as president was one of the few things that on its own made a massive difference.

  Logan’s hand snagged mine, and he pulled me off the wall. His fingers pressed their way between mine and his grip tightened as he tossed me a smile that made my heart thud. Then before I ha
d time to respond, he tugged me out into the rain and started to run.

  “Logan!” I screamed, but he didn’t stop, just looked back at me with a stupid grin across his face as we jogged through the pouring rain. By the time we reached the car, we were both soaking wet, which was utterly ridiculous. Logan pulled open the passenger door and slid his free hand under the strap of my bag, removing it from my shoulder. He tossed it into the car, and we were both laughing. Water trailed down his cheeks in tiny rivers that disappeared into the stubble on his jaw and his hair was plastered to his head. His eyes, though, they looked like sparkling pools of fun.

  “Hop in already,” he said, because crazy me was just standing in rain staring at him.

  Laughing even harder, I climbed into the Corolla. Logan jogged around the front and slid behind the wheel. We were so soaked that if the car wasn’t old, I would have been seriously concerned for the upholstery. Pushing his wet hair back from his face, Logan gunned the engine.

  “You’re insane.” I laughed.

  “You love it.”

  I couldn’t deny that running through the rain was fun, so I kept quiet as he pulled out onto University Drive. The two-minute drive home wasn’t long enough. Even so, we’d both calmed down when he pulled into Oxley’s car park, and that stupid grin was still stuck in place.

  “Thanks for the ride.” I turned to face him.

  Logan reached out, sliding a clump of drowned hair from my face which he tucked behind my ear. “What time do you start tomorrow?”

  “Not until ten.”

  “Perfect. I’ll pick you up at half nine. We can grab a drink on the way to class and maybe tomorrow night we can do something?”

  I smiled again as I climbed out of the Corolla. “I’d like that.”

  It was nice to have real friends, ones that cared about me, not just about my popularity. It wasn’t until now that I realised that with the exception of Savannah, I’d never been surrounded by friends, but rather by people who wanted something from me. And this was so much better.

  ****

  “I’m not going,” I told Savvy for what felt like the hundredth time.

  “You have to, it’s the last function of the term,” she whined then exchanged an eye roll with Molly. “And what are you going to do instead? Sit in your room and mope, I bet.”

  I paused while Savvy yanked open my food stash cupboard and shuffled everything around. “Haven’t you got any fun snacks?”

  “You ate them all and I’m not moping.”

  “Then what do you call it?” She flicked the doors closed and flopped back onto my bed.

  “Actually … I have plans.”

  “You do?” Molly’s eyebrows shot into her Pollyanna fringe. “No way. It’s about time.”

  “Yes way,” I said. “So give it up, I’m not going.”

  “Plans with who?” Savvy fought a smile.

  Molly wriggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Stalker Boy.”

  “Stalker Boy?” Savvy squealed. The girls had picked up my nickname for Logan and ran with it like it was an Olympic torch.

  I worried the edge of my doona. “It’s not like that. We’re just hanging out.”

  Molly and Savvy exchanged a strange look then both burst out laughing.

  “What? We are.”

  “Whatever you say, Liv.” Molly dropped her voice to a deep octave when she said my name, then snickered.

  “You let him call you Liv?” Savvy squealed. “Oh my, Olivia, this is serious.”

  “I don’t let him, he just does.” And truth be told, I like it.

  My pillow thwacked into my head and Molly laughed. “What are you doing?”

  “Yeah. What?” Savvy sang.

  “Geez, we’re just watching a movie.”

  “At his house.”

  “NO!” That was far too comfortable.

  “Why not?”

  “Just no, Savannah.”

  “Very serious.” Savvy raised her eyebrows.

  Molly mimicked the gesture. “Extremely serious.”

  “Please tell me you aren’t wearing that,” Savvy said, turning her attention to Molly who was dressed in loose jeans and a love heart logoed t-shirt. It was probably mean, but relief flooded through me that the attention had shifted elsewhere.

  “Umm, yeah, this is what I’m wearing.”

  Savvy waggled her finger. “No, it’s not.”

  “I’m not a doll, Savannah. You aren’t playing dress-ups with me.”

  A laugh bubbled out of me as Savvy hooked her arm through Molly’s and tugged her out the door. Molly shot me an exasperated look and I said, “Have fun, you guys.”

  The door closed behind them and I went to my computer to squeeze in a little work. It seemed like there was always so much. I clicked onto my emails and deleted all the spam. I was neither a man ‘wanting a bigger member’, nor looking to meet ‘a Siberian prince’, but there was one real message and it was from my cousin Bethanie.

  Hi Olivia, I sent your wedding invite to your parents. I’ve allocated you a plus one, so make sure you bring someone exciting! Like maybe that guy you were raving about at Christmas. See you soon. B x

  Ha. It was months away yet, and no way in hell would I bring Christian.

  The courtyard noise was just starting to die down when a knock sounded on my door. Everyone must have been swarming the buses to town. The social committee would have organised one or two to ferry everyone in to the Central Hotel and back home. I wouldn’t know, though, having missed the last meeting. I was still annoyed about that as I opened the door to find Logan standing in the hall with an armload of bags. He glanced past me before his gaze flicked back to mine.

  “I’m not inviting you in,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  A small smile grew on his face as he stepped back to make room for me to join him in the hallway. And that’s exactly why I wasn’t inviting him in. We were friends, nothing more.

  How was it that dressed in sweat pants he still managed to look like he’d stepped out of a catalogue?

  “So, what’d you get?” I asked as we traipsed down the stairs.

  Logan kept pace with me all the way to the common room. I figured we’d pretty much have it to ourselves with the whole dorm being in town at the Central. And I’d guessed right, as we walked into the small games room that doubled as another common room. I was glad to find it empty. Logan tossed his grocery bag onto one of the chairs and delved into a second bag, pulling out a stack of movies.

  “I figured you’d be a chick flick kind of girl, so I got a few of them. But I also got the latest Bond, a new superhero show, and a couple of comedies. Take your pick.”

  “You hired seven movies, Logan? Seven?”

  “Ya huh. What’s it going to be?”

  “Seven?”

  Logan glanced up from his perusal of the back covers and blinked wide blue eyes. “Seven.”

  I smiled as he handed them off to me. They all looked kind of good, but I wasn’t clueless to most guys’ tastes, so I wouldn’t make him sit through a rom-com. I held up the superhero movie. “What about this one?”

  Logan shrugged. “Sure, I don’t mind.”

  I popped it in the player, flicked off the lights, and turned to find a good position. Logan already looked at home scooched down in one of the double armchairs with his long legs propped on the chair in front that he’d spun around to face us. An assortment of junk food was strewn over a low table he’d dragged nearby. I looked around, trying to decide where to sit. If I chose one of the single chairs, I’d be a mile away, but there wasn’t a lot of room to squeeze in beside him. It’d be pretty close.

  As if he knew what I was thinking, Logan patted the other side of his chair and shot me one of his cheeky grins. “I don’t bite, Liv. Unless you want me to.”

  Taking a deep breath to steel myself against the affect that being so close to him was sure to have, I plopped into the double chair. As the opening credits started, I settled down into my seat, for once feeli
ng happy with where I was—not forced to be the life of the party when I’d rather be alone, nor hiding out in my room wondering what people were saying.

  “What’s Jordan up to tonight?” I asked.

  “Working,” Logan answered.

  “Yeah, where’s he work?”

  “He makes pizza. I’ve gotta be out of here by eleven thirty to pick him up.”

  “On a school night?”

  Logan shrugged. “We don’t have a lot of choice. Thursday’s the only weeknight he works. His other shifts are on the weekends.”

  We settled into comfortable silence, both watching the screen. After a while, Logan stretched his arm out over the back of the chair. Warmth radiated from him onto the back of my neck and prickled down my side, even though we weren’t touching. I kind of wished we were. I wanted nothing more than to relax by pulling my legs up onto the seat and snuggling in. But I didn’t. The boundaries needed to stay firm. We had a good friendship, and I didn’t want to spoil it when he didn’t want more.

  No matter how hard I tired, I couldn’t get into the movie. It probably had something to do with the hunk of a guy sitting next to me, sprawled out like he owned the place. Or like this didn’t bother him at all. We were so close I could hear each breath he took. Was that normal? You couldn’t generally hear people breathe. Could you? Cripes, maybe it wasn’t his breathing, maybe it was mine. I could sure hear my heart hammering against my chest.

  Darn it. I was here to watch a movie.

  Kicking my feet up on the chair in front of us, I forced myself to focus on the screen. The hero was taking a whooping from some random villain and really, I had no idea what had happened in the overall story because I hadn’t paid a lick of attention up until now. As he snuck up on the bad guy’s lair, the music grew tense and so did I. The good guy would save the day for sure, but maybe it’d be a hard fight to get there. And his girl was in danger. The eerie glow cast through the common room from the lights being out only enhanced the atmosphere. He was almost there and the tension was palpable.

  An explosion rocked the screen.

  I screamed.

  Logan’s hand dropped onto my shoulder and he pulled me into his side, tucking me under his arm. Trembling, I let out a tiny laugh as I curled in.