Metanoia: A Sequel

Chapter 9: What Are You Doing?

Rory was still confused as to why Logan was outside the penthouse in the narrow hallway, roughly kissing her. He was clearly out of his mind. Lena was dating him, Ashton was dating her, and frankly speaking, this was outright cheating. Still, she followed the basic guidelines of kissing-toning down the tension level, closing her eyes, the usual. Her worries flew away like birds-for the moment, at least.

It seemed like a millennium of constant osculation for Rory. She still could not fathom why he was kissing her, let alone the fact that she was submitting to him or that they were doing this outside. But she waited it out. It had been a long time since she and Logan had exchanged a motion of intimacy, and she, partially, wanted to savor the moment.

Logan gradually pulled away. His lips departed hers, but his eyes stayed. He tucked a loose strand of Rory's wavy, brown hair behind her ear and caught his breath. Rory did so as well.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Rory said. She was afraid to commit to Logan because firstly, they weren't dating like old times. Secondly, Ashton could find out. She didn't want to upset him. On the other side of the coin, Lena could find out as well. It was like a government-Ashton and Lena were the police officer-lawyer bond, and Rory and Logan were the criminals. Rory put a hand to her head to stop the throbbing of her mind.

"Why not?" Logan challenged. "Are you scared?"

Rory was shocked to hear his words. "O-of course not," she replied weakly. "No."

"Then why are you shivering? You used to do that all the time when your parents didn't approve of us," Logan claimed. Before Rory could stop him, he planted his lips on hers-again.

Rory could sense footsteps approaching. She tried to pull off Logan, but he continued, either unaware of his surroundings or purposely enforcing the kiss.

Clop. Clop. Clop.

Rory expected the next few seconds to be a moment of doom. Please don't kill me, Lena...he did this first.

Rory finally succeeded in pulling off Logan. "Control yourself," she firmly whispered as she turned her head to face...Francine?

Francine eyed the two of them. "Oh, I'm sorry," she began. "I didn't mean to intrude." She turned to Rory and handed her a water bottle. "You left this downstairs. I came up to deliver this to you. I understand you have come to visit Mr. Huntzberger?"

"Y-yes, that's right," Rory stated, stuttering. She was still breathless from all the kissing and inquisitive to know how Francine tracked her at the right place and at the right time. It was creepy just thinking about it.

Francine handed the water bottle to her and exchanged unreadable glances with Logan, much to Rory's spark of curiosity. But she cleared the thought out of her head. This was enough drama for one day. She couldn't take in much more. Positioning her laptop bag correctly, she headed for the elevator.

"Rory! Wait!" she heard Logan call. But she didn't turn back. She proceeded calmly walking like a normal, nonchalant person, pressing the button like nothing was wrong. She could sense through her keen ears that Logan was running after her, but she didn't face him as she stepped onto the elevator floor and promptly pushed the "close" button. This time, she did capture Logan's face like in a camera-a photo of him shockingly goggling at her, expression showing that he felt deceived, and that photo coming into action, like a video in slow motion, when the elevator doors started to close, masking the view of his face.