If We Have Each Other

Chapter 17

A few minutes later, the bell rang, and Logan was forced to go against the flow to get his coat from his locker. Slipping through a gap, he entered the locker bay, found his locker, and spun the lock. Popping it open, Logan put on his coat, and relocked his locker, joining the traffic out of the building. He found his mom's car, and speedwalked to it, eager to leave the school. Logan got in his mom's car, throwing his backpack in the backseat.

"Hi Logan, how was school?" his mom asked. "Good, I finished my homework except for the AP Euro project," Logan said.

"When is the project due?" his mom asked.

"It's due on Monday," Logan answered.

"Oh ok, so you'll work on it over the weekend," his mom said.

"Yeah, I'll do it on Sunday," Logan said. His mom found her way out of the parking lot, and started the drive home. Logan felt anxious, he wanted so badly to see Dallas again. He wanted to get home and pack.

"Should I pack anything special?" Logan thought. "It's only a sleepover, so I only need a toothbrush and clothes for tomorrow." Logan looked out the window on the familiar route home, watching the other cars go by, and wondered what their lives were like, what their destination was. After all, they aren't just NPC's. 

Logan's mom parked in the garage, and he grabbed his backpack and hurried to his room to pack for the sleepover. He put pajamas, a change of clothes, and a toothbrush and toothpaste in his bag.

"Ok, I have pajamas, clothes for tomorrow, and toothbrush and toothpaste, do I need anything else?" Logan asked himself.

"Oh, chargers. I need chargers," he said, grabbing his charger cable and block.

"Ok, did I forget anything?" He thought about everything he could possibly be forgetting, but couldn't think of anything. Logan looked at the clock. It was only 4:30. He had an hour of extra time he needed something to do with. "What can I do for an hour?" Logan thought. After a useless Google search, he decided to have a soda, but only for the caffeine.

"If this is like any other sleepover, bedtime is around 2 am at the earliest," Logan thought. Unfortunately, this only took up 5 minutes.

"Now what?" Logan thought. He looked over at his desk and saw his Bluetooth speaker there, and decided to play some music. "I can't think of anything else to do," he thought as he shuffled some random Spotify playlist. Halfway through a song, he realized he didn't even have his sleeping bag.

"How the hell could I forget a sleeping bag? That's the only thing you use them for, except camping," Logan thought, rummaging through his closet to find it. After several minutes of searching, Logan didn't find his sleeping bag. He went downstairs, and asked his mom.

"Hey mom, do you know where my sleeping bag is?" Logan asked.

"Have you looked in the basement? It's probably down there somewhere," she said. Logan walked downstairs to the unfinished basement that served as a storage area. He searched through the piles of stuff that had been here when his dad lived here.

"Why would she put my sleeping bag down here?" Logan wondered as he searched through the continuously growing pile of junk. He stumbled on a cylindrical and squishy object that might resemble a sleeping bag. Pulling it out, it was indeed Logan's sleeping bag. He dusted it off, and rolled it out on the floor to make sure there were no rats who had made it their home, and rolled it back up and went back upstairs.

"I found it. Why was it so far in the pile?" Logan asked.

"Probably because last summer I was going through everything, and I went through your room first," she said.

"Why did you go through my things and decide that you can shove them down into a never ending pile of junk?" Logan asked, annoyed.

"I just wanted to clear out some of the things we didn't use," she replied defensively.

"That doesn't mean you get to throw my things down there without asking me," Logan said, his annoyance growing.

"Ok, I'm sorry, I should've asked. Happy now?" his mom said, trying to find a way out.

"Okay, fine. Can you ask me before you throw my things down to the black hole next time?" Logan asked.

"Okay, I will," his mom said.

"Thank you," Logan replied, still annoyed as he walked back up to his room. "I need my pillow too," he thought as he stuffed his sleeping bag in his duffel bag. Since his pillow wouldn't fit, he decided to carry it.

"Ok, I think I have everything," Logan said, looking at the clock. It read 5 o'clock. He set a route to Dallas's house on Google maps, and it showed a 10 minute drive.

"Okay, so we should leave around 5:15 to get there on time," Logan thought. It gave Logan enough time to triple check that he had everything, and to have a quick snack before he left. He took his duffel bag, quadruple checked he had everything, made sure he had his phone, and got in the car.

"Where am I going?" his mom asked.

"I have it pulled up on my phone," Logan answered, setting up his phone on the mount. His mom followed the directions as she drove to Dallas's house. Logan was growing more and more anxious as she got closer to his house.

"Why am I this nervous? It's not like I'm meeting him for the first time," Logan thought, trying to calm himself. He saw himself turn red in the window reflection.

"No no no no no, he can't see me like this when we haven't even seen each other yet," Logan thought, panicking and trying to calm himself down. "Okay, deep breaths," he told himself, inhaling and exhaling as slowly as he could. Logan calmed himself down as his mom pulled into Dallas's driveway.

"Okay, just call me or text me if you need anything, preferably not between the hours of 11 pm and 7 am," his mom said. "Just text me when you want to be picked up."

"Okay, thanks mom," Logan said as he grabbed his pillow and duffel bag. He waved to his mom as she drove off.