Louise's Junior Year

I don't like to lie.

Hearing Louise laugh more and more uncontrollable as she went on to tell more stories about her misadventures with this mysterious Logan, the more Elliot felt uneasy. He did his best not to let on. Smiling and laughing when it seemed right. Part of him wanted to know more about this guy, the other part wanted to make her forget him all together.

"Wow. You used to be pretty wild, huh?"

Louise suddenly became quiet. "Used to be?"

Elliot worried he had made a mistake. "I, uh, just mean...I've known you for a couple of months now...but I don't ever see you get into any trouble. I mean...you really spray painted a butt on the school wall? Why?"

Louise sat up a bit straighter then leaded back on her hands. Pressing her finger into the purple carpet. "I don't know? For fun?"

Laughing as he shook his head, Elliot wondered what it must have been like to hide in the bushes with Louise. In his old school, he had always felt most comfortable blending in. He was carful to stay on everyone's good side. Louise was different. She said what she thought and, at least from what he had been hearing so far, liked a bit of mischief.

Just then the phone began to ring. "You guys still have a landline?"

Before she could answer, her father called out, "Louise! Phone for you!"

Without saying a word, Louise hopped up on her feet and ran down the hall. The second she picked up the line from her sisters room, Louise called out for her dad to hang up. She then set the phone to her ear, "Hello?"

"Hello, ma'am. Did you order a blond?"

Louise couldn't help to giddy feeling she got when hearing Logan's voice. "I did and I thought he was going to call here yesterday, but I never heard the phone ring."

Logan put on his most polite voice. "Well ma'am, I am truly sorry. But! What if I told you that in two week that blond would be there at your front door!" The other end stayed completely silent. "Louise?"

"...Logan Berry Bush."

"Yes?"

"...You better not be messing with me."

His voice now became sincere, "I'm coming home, Louise. Just for a long weekend, but still...I wanna see you." Louise could hear him tapping on his desk. "Would that be alright?"

Louise's stomach filled with butterflies. She closed her eyes for a moment and was sure to keep her tone even as she spoke, "Hmm...Well....I may have to get back to you on that one. I maybe just too busy that weekend. You know, I am a very important woman."

"Oh, come on! What would I have to do to make you say yes?"

With a stone face, Louise answered, "Beg."

"What?"

"You heard me, pretty boy!" Louise almost shouted.

Logan leaned his head back and rubbed his face. "Okay."

There was a long pause. "I'm waiting."

Letting out a small groan, Logan went on, "Please, please, please Louise! It'll only be a few days and I just want to see my best friend. Let me come by and at least say hi? I could even just stand outside the window if you want! I'll just yell up to you, 'Louise! Oh sweet and beautiful maiden! I hope to see your face and wish you well before leaving back to the cold and damp hell with my wicked father!'"

"You say even half of that anywhere one of my neighbors could hear you, you'll wake up in the basement missing a limb."

Logan laughed, "Then just say yes! Say we can hang out!"

"Hmm...." Louise tapped her chin with a horse covered pencil she had found in her sisters desk.

"Come on. I really might come by your window and yell all that crap. And we both know you aren't cutting off any arms or legs."

Snorting, Louise clarified, "I never said an arm or leg. I said a limb." Just then Louise heard the door make a small squeak. She turned to caught just a quick glance of brown hair disappearing from the frame. "No way..." she whispered to herself.

"Louise? Did you hear me?"

"Huh? No, sorry what?"

Logan felt his face heat up slightly. "Ah, don't worry about it. It was a dumb joke."

This sparked Louise's interest. She sat up on her shins. "Tell me it anyways."

"No, seriously, I need to be better about that."

"About what?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, come on! Quit being such a big baby, Logey!" Louise taunted.

"Hey! You're the one who said I needed to quit flirting!"

Louise felt herself turning color. Tapping the horse pencil hard on the desk, she spoke without thinking, "Well, I didn't really mean stop all together." Now neither of them knew what to say. The line stayed quiet for so long, Louise wondered if the call had dropped. She began hitting the pencil so hard on the desk that the end broke off and flung over to hit the speaker button on the dial pad. "Shit." Louise shot out her hand to turn it off, but accidently knocked the phone's base off the back end of the desk.

Clearing his voice before speaking, Logan explained, "It was just a dumb joke. 'You would you threaten the part of me you like the most?' See? Stupid." Hearing a bit of muffed noises and a few hushed profanities as the only response, Logan said again, "Louise?"

Louise dove under the desk and grabbed hold of the phone base. The cord was now running from the back end, up around the top, then back down the front where Louise clenched the receiver to her chest. She looked back behind to check if anyone had come to check on the commotion, feeling relieved when she heard Gene and Courtney still working on their jingle.

Now having the speaker off and being sure no one heard, Louise finally answered, "Jesus dude! The phone was on speaker!"

"What?" Logan shouted, now feeling even worse.

Louise chackled, "Man, you're lucky it's always too loud to even think in this house. You might have really lost the limb. No matter how much you think I love it."

Her laughter had given him confidence again, "I never used the word love...it does suit the situation though, doesn't it?"

"Would you like to die? Because I will buy a plane ticket and fly over their to throw you into the pacific ocean."

Logan grinned, "You know, you always make that threat, but have yet to do anything about it."

Louise felt a bit of deja vu. "Yeah, you're right. New threat! I'll sit here and wait two weeks for you to come here and get your ass kicked. Don't worry though, I'll spare your pretty face."

"There you go calling me pretty again."

Curling up more under Tina's desk, Louise set her check on her knees. "Well, you know me. I don't like to lie."