Chapter 3 WTF, Logan?
Logan steered me away from the girls and toward the quieter end of the hallway. I looked up, expecting that stupid smirk plastered across his face.
To my surprise, he looked concerned. He adjusted the jacket draped over my shoulders, his jaw set.
I shrugged it off at once. "I don't need your filthy jacket."
He caught it before it hit the floor. "Filthy?" One eyebrow rose, genuinely offended.
"Ugh." I turned and started walking, water still dripping from my hair. Who was he trying to fool, pretending he cared what I thought of him?
"Chloe."
I ignored him.
"Chloe."
I spun around. "What?!"
What the fuck did he want? Why couldn't he just stay far, far away from me?
"After that, everyone's going to think we're dating. We should get our story straight and set some rules."
"RULES?" I snapped.
"Yes." He reached for my hand, and I snatched it away.
His expression shifted. "Wait. Someone's recording."
"Who?" I stiffened and tried to look around.
"Don't look." He stepped closer.
Before I could question him, his arm was around my waist, pulling me against him.
My mouth fell open. "What are you—"
"Just smile." His other hand came up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing my lips, his eyes locked there as if hypnotized.
What was this bastard up to? I narrowed my eyes.
"Smile, Chloe."
I forced my mouth into something weird and stiff. Logan chuckled and drew me closer, my lower body pressed to his. I gulped.
Every thought in my head vanished as I became fully aware of his hard-on. Was this bastard so horned up he was reacting to me?
"You—"
"Shhh."
My heart betrayed me by racing. I didn't know why I wasn't pulling away from this madness. Was someone watching really a good enough reason to allow it?
"Just play along," Logan whispered, and brought his lips down on mine.
He kissed me hungrily, as if he'd been starved for years, his fingers digging into my waist.
At first I didn't know what to do. Then I couldn't stop thinking about how soft his lips were. A faint sweetness of strawberries clung to them, and his cologne flooded my senses.
Before I knew it, I was kissing him back. Somewhere in the back of my head, forgotten in a haze, was the fact that I was fucking kissing Logan. My nemesis. My tormentor.
His grip tightened and the kiss deepened. I met it just as fiercely, my fingers curling into the front of his shirt, then sliding up into his hair.
Stop, my brain screamed. Pull away.
A memory cut across my mind: Logan's laughing face, and then a younger Logan glaring at me, anger in his eyes. "I don't know why, I just don't like you, Chloe."
FUCK. NO.
I tore away so fast I stumbled. How could I kiss my enemy so passionately?
Logan's breathing was as ragged as mine. His eyes dropped to my lips again and he leaned in.
I planted both palms against his chest. "Don't you dare."
I fought the urge to wipe my mouth and turned, searching for whoever had been watching us.
No one. No students, no phone cameras. The hallway was empty. I even checked the stairwell door and around the corner to be sure.
Nothing.
I turned slowly back to Logan, venom in my eyes. "You lied. You said someone was recording! You—" I jabbed a finger at him. "You absolute bastard!"
He laughed, light and easy, as though fooling me were the best part of his day.
If I stayed one second longer, I might actually kill Logan Carter. I stormed away. What had just happened had shaken me, and I flatly refused to think about why.
I hid in my dorm room for the rest of the day.
My phone buzzed over and over on the bed. I groaned and reached for it.
Missed calls and messages from Max, Carl and Dejon filled the screen. They'd seen the video of Logan calling me his girlfriend.
I opened Dejon's first.
‘I KNEW THAT BOY WANTED YOU! Call me NOW!!!’
I sighed. It couldn't have been further from the truth.
Max's was next.
‘I NEED THE DETAILS LIKE YESTERDAY.’
Then, ten minutes later: ‘REPLY MY MESSAGES BITCH!!!!!!’
I took a deep breath and opened Carl's.
‘Tell Logan to introduce me to his hot teammates. I got my eyes on hottie Nathan Turner.’
My brother? I gagged. Carl deserved far better.
The gag turned into guilt. I'd lied to them for months about not being related to Nathan. They'd noticed the surname and the resemblance, and I'd laughed it off. How could I possibly be related to "the" Nathan Turner?
I typed back: Tomorrow at Land's Quadrangle. I'll tell you everything.
I stared at the message before sending it. Tomorrow they'd know, and they'd probably hate me.
I hit send, dropped into my desk chair, and opened my nursing textbook. Nursing at a competitive college like Northside was hard enough without Logan Carter invading every corner of my brain. I couldn't afford to throw this away.
By evening, empty chip packets covered my desk and the book was still open to the page I'd started on twenty minutes earlier. I hadn't absorbed a word. Somehow, despite everything, all I could think about was the taste of strawberries.
I dropped my forehead onto the desk.
This was ridiculous. Logan should be a feral creature to me. I should loathe having kissed him. I shouldn't be wondering how his lips tasted, or wanting to smell his cologne again.
Sleep didn't come easily with my brain firing off and refusing to quiet. How was I supposed to fake-date Logan Carter? Why had he kissed me? Why hadn't I hated it? Damn it, why had I liked kissing that jerk? Was I losing my mind?
I squeezed my eyes shut. Eventually, exhaustion won.
"…yeah." A male voice drifted through my sleep. "…thanks, man."
"…alright. See you later."
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. My gaze landed on a pair of shoes, then a familiar face.
"Logan?" I whispered, certain I was dreaming about him.
He grinned, looking completely at home, as though he'd lived there for years. A black suitcase lay open beside the empty bed across from mine, clothes spilling over its edges. Two duffel bags were stacked next to it.
"Morning." He picked up a shirt and tossed it onto the bed.
"What the fuck are you doing in my room?"
He spread his arms like it was obvious. "Moving in."
"This is Kensington Hall. It's for students with a 4.0 GPA."
"I know." He smiled. "I'm an honour student, Chloe."
My jaw dropped. I'd forgotten that Logan used to rank near the top of our class, about three places behind me.
He went back to unpacking.
"Who fucking assigned you to my room?"
"You're the one who put no roommate preference on your application."
I had. I'd originally applied with Max, but he'd cancelled after I'd already submitted mine and moved in with his boyfriend. And applications for Kensington Hall had been closed for months. I'd been so sure I wouldn't get a roommate this semester.
"Applications are closed," I said slowly.
Logan sat on the edge of his bed. "They made an exception."
"Why?"
"I'm an honour student and a star basketball player." He smiled smugly.
"Why move into my room?"
"To help with the ruse." He stretched out across the mattress. "We're so in love that we're rooming together. Helps, doesn't it?"
I clenched my teeth. "You can't stay here! I'm putting in a request for another roommate!"
"Are you sure you want to do that?" He held out his phone.
I frowned, suspicious, but I stood and took it. The screen showed a stream of comments.
‘Why are they actually kind of cute though?’
‘Wait, Nolan cheated first?’
‘Logan and Chloe went to the same elementary school. They've been in love since.’
‘Awww.’
‘We support you Chloe.’
For the first time since the video went viral, it didn't feel like the whole school hated me. It was still tied to one idiot named Logan, but I glared at him and kept scrolling.
‘Logan is mine! That bitch doesn't deserve him!’
‘Logan deserves better than that slut.’
‘WHY ARE PEOPLE SUDDENLY SWITCHING TO THAT WHORE'S SIDE?’
I sighed. Of course I wasn't escaping the hate completely. I'd only acquired a different set of enemies: Logan's fan club.
But others were defending me in the replies, telling them to touch grass.
‘Logan said he loves her. Get a life!’
I blinked and read it again. Then I looked at the post the comments were under. It was from Logan's own Instagram account.
‘I just want to address the rumours. Chloe and I are childhood sweethearts. We reconnected recently because Nolan cheated on her, and things are going great for us. Please stop sending hate her way. I love Chloe. Please respect that.’
I looked up at him. "How did you know Nolan was cheating on me?"
"I saw him with girls all the time." His smile faded slightly. "I didn't even know he had a girlfriend."
My fingers tightened around the phone. That asshole Nolan had always told me his teammates were awful to their girlfriends. He'd said he didn't want them hazing me. That was why he'd kept our relationship private.
Nolan really wasn't worth the oxygen he wasted. He should go apologize to the trees.
I looked down at the screen again, at the words Logan had posted for the whole campus to see.
I love Chloe.
