HARD TIMES ━ lip gallagher²

05 | false promises

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"I AM WAY TOO drunk to be stumbling after you like a lost puppy," Amara called from a couple feet behind a fuming Logan, who had somehow found the information to George's dormitory and was now stalking to the next building over. "Can you slow down? Maybe we can talk about this?"

"There is nothing to talk about," Logan replied, spinning on her heel to face Amara, who finally caught up to her. "Did you see her fucking face?"

"Of course I saw it-"

"He did that to her. He hurt her. And I'm going to hurt him."

"Look," Amara tugged on her sleeve. "I want to beat the shit out of him too, okay? But there are better and more legal ways to get revenge. Trust me, I would know. So let's just go back to the dorm, and plan something that'll make him wish he'd never done anything in the first place, and something that'll make him fear ever doing it to somebody else."

Logan raised a slender brow. "What kind of southside shit tricks do you have up your sleeve?"

"If you promise not to kick the shit out of him, I'll tell you them all."

Logan clenched her jaw and stared past her head for a moment, almost as if she was searching for Payton through the windows of the building behind them. "Fine," she said after a long, silent moment. "But if he tries anything, like talking to her or-"

"Then you have my permission to kick his balls into his stomach."

Logan huffed. "Fine. I won't do anything."

"Good, because I don't think making him swallow a mouthful of his own teeth is a good way to impress Payton," she threw over her shoulder, watching as how Logan's eyes widened as she hurried to walk next to her.

"You know?"

"Of course I know."

"How?!"

"Logan," she gave her a look. "It's kind of obvious."

Logan glanced away. "Like how obvious? Because I haven't... Nobody knows. Not even my parents."

Amara shrugged. "I mean, it's obvious to me because I know you. And I know you like her."

Logan kicked a pebble and it rolled away onto the grass. "Sucks that she'll never feel the same. You know, I would treat her so much better. She doesn't deserve what happened today. I mean, nobody does, but especially not her. She's too sweet."

"I think she does," Amara nudged her shoulder. "Feels the same, I mean."

"Fuck," Logan threw her head back to look at the sky. "Don't say that. You'll get my hopes up. Besides, you heard her. She doesn't swing my way. That's what she said at the party."

Amara fell silent at that, but her mind whirled with thoughts, and as she turned to Logan again, she caught that glimmer of hope in her eyes, and decided that it was her who was going to be playing matchmaker, she could only pray that things would work out.

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"How'd you get her to do that?" Payton asked quietly in the dorm room, gesturing to the sleeping Logan, and Amara cocked her head to the side.

"To sleep?"

Payton snorted quietly. "To calm down. I mean, I've seen her get angry before, but never like that. How'd you manage to stop her from marching over there and kicking the crap out of him?"

Amara shrugged. "My boyfriend is the same way. Sometimes you've gotta make false promises to get them to think clearly."

"What was your false promise?"

"Well, in this case, it wasn't exactly false. We are going to get him back," she told Payton firmly. "Maybe not in a physically harming way, but he'll definitely regret what he did to you, one way or another."

Payton played with the hem of her shirt. "Don't want you guys to waste your time worrying over me. I'm fine."

"You're not fine," Amara rolled her eyes. "Besides, it's you. You're not a waste."

Payton sighed, and stood up. "I gotta call my brother. Make sure he's okay. I'll see you two in the morning?"

"Yeah," Amara shot her a weak smile. "Sure."

Payton saluted her. "Try not to do too much planning without me."

Amara's smile widened. "Now you know I'd be lying if I told you I wouldn't."

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"I am going to need way more coffee if this is only just the first part of our plan," Logan stated, yawning loudly the next morning as they sat in the cafeteria. "And not any of this fake shit, either."

"Well, my hands are tied," Payton said, peering over her laptop with a smirk. "This one looks realistic as fuck."

Amara snorted into her cup as Logan leaned across the table to see her progress, before pulling back laughing. "That does look real."

Payton bowed her head. "Thank you."

Logan looked to Amara, who was writing a mock essay that went along with their plan. "Do you have a license?" She asked curiously.

"No car," Amara answered without looking up.

"Take mine."

"Huh?" She raised her head. "What?"

"I want Starbucks, but I need to finish my part of the plan. You're almost done yours so..."

"You want me to drive your car."

"Yeah," Logan tossed her the keys as well as a twenty. "Just don't crash it. Want anything, Payton?"

"I'm good," was her reply.

Logan turned to Amara again with a pleading look, and she suddenly caught the gist on what this little Starbucks run was really about. She sent a subtle nod, and then stood. "Right. Be back in fifteen?"

Amara definitely took longer than fifteen minutes. The line at Starbucks was long, and they seemed to take hours until they finally gave her the order (which she had added on a cake pop to, but ate it so Logan would never figure that out) before she was finally back at campus.

She walked to the cafeteria, quickly realizing that neither of her friends were there anymore, and shrugged to herself, making her way back up to her dorm room. She hesitated, but then knocked on the door. "It's meeee," Amara sang. "Announcing my arrival so you two can stop the naughty things you're doing to each other."

"And you say I need the NSFW label," Logan mused, pulling open the door. "You're lucky she's not here."

Amara handed her the coffee. "Where did she go?"

"She's doing the technical stuff to our plan now," Logan gave her a once over. "You know, you're a genius."

Amara grinned. "Yeah, I know."

"Your ego pisses me off."

"Your face pisses me off."

Logan flipped her the bird. "Well now I'm going to go cry."

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