The Lies He Spoke

SEVENTEEN

LOGAN 

"How was your test?" Olivia asked the next day when Logan came to pick her up from school. She sat sideways on the back of his bike and held onto his shirt with one hand and shifted on the seat behind him.

"It was fine, there was only one question I didn't know how to -" Logan caught a glimpse of staring students and glanced back at his sister. "Olivia, what the - hang on, wait - shit, don't tell me you're taking off your tights again!"

"You know what? If your legs were stuffed in these tight itchy torture devices all day long in seven hundred degrees, you wouldn't even get through the day!" she snapped at him. "Be grateful I'm not pulling off my skirt too!"

"Oh my god," he groaned, letting his forehead fall onto the handlebars.

"There. Done. That wasn't too painful for you, now was it?"

"Just get on the bike."

They'd discovered that morning that they were out of cereal and down to their last slice of bread, and since that was all they could manage to find for breakfast and lunch most days, they were heading to the grocery store to get some things.

At the store, Logan rested his elbows on the shopping cart handle and flipped open his list while Olivia ran her hand down the loaves of bread lining the aisle. "Get the white bread," he told her.
"And the wheat bread. Wait, no, how much are they?"

Olivia read the tag to him and he grimaced. "Just the wheat, then."

She did as he asked. "Do we not have any money?"

"If Elijah comes back to find that I've drained all his savings, he's going to kill me. I need to get a better job."

"You have a job? I've never seen you."

"I work at a college research place but it's minimum wage and only ten hours a week."

"I can get a job."

"You're only fifteen. If anyone's getting a job, it's me."

They'd made it to the produce. Logan let Olivia get whatever fruits she wanted while he put in the vegetables they needed. She wandered off a few feet away while he bagged potatoes. As he turned around to put the clear bag into the cart, he caught sight of three large men near the opening of the produce square. They were wearing leather jackets with a green patch on the right shoulders.

"Logan, is this alright?"

"Hm?" He turned to look at the oranges, apples, and strawberries Olivia had put in and was relieved to see that she hadn't gone overboard with her pickings. "Yeah, that's fine," he said absently, glancing back at the black-clad men. They were suddenly nowhere in sight.

"What else are we getting?" Olivia said from behind him, and Logan shook his head to clear it of his fog.

"Tomato sauce and beans."

"I liked the beans you made last week."

"You better have. That's about the only thing besides pasta I can do."

"Once, Mom made a really good chili from some online recipe. She said it was easy. Do you think we can make it?"

Logan felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He turned around, but there was no one there.

"Logan? Why do you keep looking behind you?"

"Nothing. No reason. What were you saying?"

After the beans and tomato sauce, they were passing through the snacks aisle when Logan saw them clearly.