Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

“Mom, I'm out!”

I called the words over my shoulder as I shouldered my bag, my feet half-crammed into a pair of hefty boots. As I paused at the hall mirror to pull my beanie lower over my ears, my mother appeared in the hallway.

“And where are you going?” she asked frigidly. She'd been angry at me since the night before, when Logan dropped me off in the middle of a snowstorm that she sent me out into.

“I told you,” I sighed. “Aubrey's in town for a week, so we're going to go meet with her.”

“Where?”

“Butler. She's staying with a friend over there.”

Pensive uncertainty appeared on my mother's face, and she wrung the dishtowel in her hands tightly. “Fine,” she said. “I'll be at work in the city until later this evening, but I expect you home by six o'clock, understood?”

I mumbled an unintelligible response, rolling my eyes as I turned away. I felt my mother behind me, hovering, but she didn't speak again until I had already opened the door.

“Say hello to Aubrey for me,” she said haltingly, before turning on her heel and striding back into the kitchen. I stared after her, my face contorted in baffled amusement, before shrugging and slipping outside.

The Saturday morning air was chilly as I hurried out to Logan's car, parked right where he said it would be. It had stopped snowing late the night before, leaving the ground covered in the sludgy gray-white aftermath. My neighborhood didn't look much like a winter wonderland, but somewhere more along the lines of the way it would look if a snowman puked all over the sidewalks. And in the midst of it all, Logan's old car, a scuffed bright blue, stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Hey,” I said, ducking into the car through the passenger side.

“Hey.” Logan's voice was awkward, strained. We eyed each other sideways, stretching for a level of comfort that was out of our reach.

“So...,” I began, twiddling my thumbs with downcast eyes. My words petered into a still silence, permeated only by the soft brushstrokes of our breathing. Then Logan keyed the ignition, starting the car with its usual sputter, and I knew we wouldn't be talking about what had happened the evening before.

Noon found me and Logan at a corner Starbucks in the city, the busy cafe where Aubrey had agreed to meet us for a belated breakfast. We walked in at a safe distance apart and merged with the line that twisted through shop and nearly reached the door. I scanned the room for a moment, finally spotting Logan's sister seated at a table toward the back, her eyes glued to the screen of her phone.

After a few seconds of frantic arm-waving and name-shouting that earned me more than a few odd looks from the customers, Aubrey finally looked up, catching my eye and smiling as she rose. She darted lithely through the crowd, her small frame allowing her to duck under elbows and snake past chairs.

“Parker!” she cried, enveloping me in a coconut shampoo-scented hug.

“Hey, I missed you!” I grinned easily, brushing my hair from my eyes. “My mom says hi, by the way.”

“Give her a hug for me!” Aubrey smiled, not seeming to notice my grimace at the idea as she turned to her brother. “Hey, short stuff,” she said, using her old nickname for him—the one she coined when Logan wasn't a full head taller than her. She reached up, standing on tiptoe to ruffle Logan's hair. The siblings embraced, Logan's expression immediately relaxing.