Chapter 28
Logan
The scenes from last night kept coming back to my mind all the time.
I trained thinking about how perfect Charlie's legs looked wrapped around my shoulders.
I sat through class remembering how I fucked her beautiful breasts and spurted onto her chin and neck, while Ethan pounded her hard.
At the library, I alternated between studying and imagining the three of us here, hidden among the shelves of the upper floor where almost no one went.
Ethan would fuck her from behind while I covered her mouth with one hand, sucked her breasts, and fingered her clit until she came good for the both of us.
Then, I'd fuck her pressed against Ethan's body until she saw stars.
Fuck. If I closed my eyes, I could even taste Charlie's release between my lips.
But if I didn't stop dreaming immediately, I'd end up with a terrible case of a hard-on inside the library. Hell.
I shake my head and pinch my own wrist to try to chase away the cloud of dirty thoughts. I really do need to focus on studying today, since I can't let my grades slip.
I take a table near the window and sigh at finding myself surrounded by academic articles, printed graphs, and my laptop open on a data analysis dashboard.
The topic of my assignment was Brand Value and Positioning Strategies in the Contemporary Digital Market, where I had to compare two brands with strategies very distinct from each other.
Since I always find a way to put football into everything, I'd chosen to compare the Patriots, from a branding standpoint, with Apple.
The Patriots were my team of the heart. Having grown up and lived until the start of high school in Boston, not too far from there, it was almost a culture of fanaticism passed from father to son.
Several of my best childhood memories included being at the stadium with my dad and my sister, cheering for every play.
Well, if I wanted to lose my arousal over anything, I was doing a fine job by thinking about my dad.
I let my body drop against the library chair, automatically deflated.
I hadn't spoken to him in almost four years, which was when my sister, then fifteen, came out as trans and my dad's reaction was to try to hit her.
I don't remember ever being as furious as I was when I grabbed his hand before it hit Jamie's face.
Just thinking about it makes me clench my fists and drop the pencil on the table.
There were months of trying to knock some sense into that stupid man's head.
Years, even. After all, it's not like Jamie hadn't given every sign that she didn't identify with the gender she'd been assigned at birth.
My mom and I talked about it several times, in fact, but we waited for Jamie to decide when she wanted to tell us in no uncertain terms.
My dad was the only one who refused to see it and made everything fall apart.
My mom left home that very night of the attempted assault.
We gathered our things and went to Ethan's parents' place, who'd become friends with my mom because of the two of us.
Months later, the divorce was finalized, and my mom bought a beautiful house around the lake in Lake George, in New York state.
I tried to talk to my dad just once after the divorce, but he seemed to have gotten even worse.
He said so much shit that I lost the last bit of faith I had in him.
The excited, involved dad, though never very affectionate, that I thought I had, had taken off the mask of cruelty and prejudice for good.
Even though I didn't want to, I had a few lapses of missing him, but I ignored them, because my sister's happiness was much more important.
And she was happy. Last week she'd called me, bursting with joy because she'd gotten her acceptance letter to Harvard.
My dear genius wanted to be a doctor and care for trans people with the sensitivity she often didn't have herself. And I knew she'd be a truly incredible doctor.
My contemplation of life is suddenly interrupted by a breathless Charlie and an Ethan dumping half a dozen books onto the table. I raise an inquisitive eyebrow at the two of them.
"Good afternoon... How did you find me?" I ask, because I'd been avoiding my phone for the last hour, trying to cut out that distraction too.
Not that it did any good.
"Ever since that time I lost you at the music festival, because you ended up in another town, I've had your location turned on in my phone," Ethan admits, shrugging. My jaw hits the floor.
"Excuse me? You've been tracking me for over a year?"
"Of course. It gives me peace of mind. And I don't sit there looking all the time like a maniac," he says, rolling his eyes, "just moments like this when I need to find you and you don't answer messages," he justifies, and I laugh, indignant.
"You're ridiculous, when did you grab my phone to authorize this?" I ask, but then an even more important point comes to mind. "Hey, how do you know my password?"
My friend breaks into a cynical smile.
"It wasn't that hard, was it? It's your birthday," he admits, and I gasp.
"Wow, you're a real pain in the ass!" I complain, but his smile doesn't fade. "I'm going to disconnect this nonsense right now."
I even pull my phone out of my backpack, but Ethan couldn't care less.
"As soon as you fall asleep I'll turn it back on," he warns, and I glare at him.
"I'll change my password."
"If it's to your sister's birthday, that won't help much," he says, and I get pissed at how well this guy knows me, because it's exactly what I was planning to set it to.
I huff and shake my head.
"You're not my babysitter, Ethan Clarke!"
"Definitely not, or what we did last night would be really indecent," he shoots back, catching me off guard. Charlie even chokes on the water she was drinking. She'd been standing at the edge of the table, just watching this crazy conversation.
My shameless friend gives her a few pats on the back until she catches her breath.
"But I like to be prepared. You lose that phone all the time. Never wondered why it was always me who found it?"
Oh.
Well. I didn't have a valid comeback for that point. I really did lose my phone easily, and Ethan always found it, whether on the floor of a classroom or under the bleacher benches at the stadium.
Damn. I really should have noticed that before.
"Besides, what if you get kidnapped and they ask for all your mom's works as ransom? I can save your life at any time," he claims, and Charlie finally sits across from me, covering her hand so she doesn't laugh. "My location shows up for you too, the activation was two-way."
Knowing the stubborn friend I had, I knew he wouldn't change his mind. I was still kind of indignant about the invasion of my privacy, but in a kind of disturbed way it was also... cute.
Thoughtful, on his part.
Still, as a matter of principle, I shoot him a look of disapproval, which he completely ignores.
"Why aren't you tracking Charlie's steps too?"
That makes him hesitate for a second.
"She hasn't shown signs of being in danger of getting lost, or losing her phone so far."
"Translation, you haven't figured out her password yet," I shoot back, and he has the nerve to look outraged.
"I didn't try!" he claims, looking at Charlie with his hands up. "I swear!"
She stares at him with a closed-off expression for a whole minute, like she's analyzing whether he's telling the truth, or whether she's going to yell at him for even thinking of such nerve.
To my surprise, what she does is burst out laughing.
"Here, you controlling boy, you can activate both of yours. I don't mind. I share my location with Maddie and my mom too," she states, handing him her phone. "The password is my birthday."
The little challenging pout she throws him tells me she's hoping he doesn't know that piece of information. Ethan smiles back and types the sequence of digits without even blinking.
"You know my birthday by heart?" she exclaims, surprised, and he nods, focused on his task on the girl's phone. "Since when?"
"Since the first time we went out. I asked your cousin by message the next day when I couldn't find the information on your social media. What if the date was the next day and I'd get caught off guard, without even a gift to give you?" His justification makes her melt immediately.
"Damn, you're sweet. A control freak, but sweet," she replies, like she'd read my mind minutes earlier.
When Ethan turns off the screen of her iPhone, I steal the device out of his hand before she can take it back.
I type her password and watch the girl's jaw drop.
"You know it too?"
"Of course, I asked him when you moved in. I like parties, I can't go around not knowing people's birthdays, much less my beautiful roommates'," I explain with what I hope is a charming smile. The way her look goes from surprise to affection tells me it worked.
"I really am surrounded by cute idiots, apparently.
Turn your location on there already. I'm going to be stalking you two as well, just out of spite," she assures, and the two of us laugh.
I make the connection and hand the phone back.
"And I'm going to figure out your birthdays too. Don't tell me!"
I wink an eye at her, mischievous.
"Then let it be your dare, princess. Let us know when you find out."