Smile

Chapter 19: The 6th

"... And as you do this, you will find that—"

"Shit."

My eyes darted across the classroom to finally settle on Logan, who was rapidly gathering his papers and shoving them into his bag as he swore repeatedly. He seemed completely ignorant of all the attention he'd attracted to himself.

"Mr. McCloud!" a baffled Mrs. Parkinson exclaimed. I understood her astonishment, as I'd never heard Logan speak during class myself. Well, not unless he had to, that is. Logan looked at her for half a second before going back to fumbling around with his school material. "Such language will not be tolerated in my class. I have no other choice but to ask you to quietly make your way to the principal's office."

With nothing more than a quiet apology, Logan grabbed his backpack and made his way out of the classroom. I was quick to follow, as I knew something was terribly wrong. Logan wasn't the kind of student to interrupt a lesson just for the hell of it.

"Miss Mallark, can I ask you what in Heaven you think you're—" Mrs. Parkinson's voice was cut short as I shut the door behind me. I spotted Logan already far ahead, so I had to jog to catch up.

"Logan, hey!" I called. He didn't stop. "Wait! What's wrong?"

"Go back to class, Chloe," Logan's voice was unsteady. He didn't even glance back to see if I was still following. "I just have something to do."

"You're not ditching, are you?" I asked, completely bewildered. This was so not like the Logan I knew.

"Listen," he finally stopped and turned to face me. His jaw was clenched, his hands were shaking, and he had this weird look in his eyes. A crazy, unstable look. I took a minor step back. I'd never seen Logan like this. I didn't like it. "Do you know what today is?"

"Wednesday. What does that have to do wi—"

"February 6th!" he cut me off. "The 6th!"

I frowned, now completely confused. "Okay, so... What? What's so bad about the sixth?"

"Clara. I-I'd promised myself to go visit her the 5th of every month." He was pacing now, biting on his thumb's nail. "I can't believe I forgot. I'm such a bad brother," he mumbled, his words slightly muffled by his thumb that was wedged between his teeth. "She's never going to forgive me. What have I done? How could I do this? How did I forget? How will I ever make it up to her? Oh my—I don't understand..."

"Logan," I said, grabbing his arm to stop him from making a dent into the floor. "It's okay, you can go visit her after school, I'm sure she won't mind if you go a bit later. She won't be mad, it's going to be fine. Just come back to class—"

"No, you don't understand!" he exclaimed, snatching his arm right out of my grip. "I have to go now! She'll be worried—She'll... She'll think that I forgot about her. I think about her all the time, Chloe, I don't know how I forgot. She's been gone for three months! I mean, how could I forget?"

"It's alright, Logan. You've been busy. You didn't forget about her, you just lost track of time, that's all."

"No," he shook his head, slowly backing up. "No, I have to go. I have to..."

"Logan," I tried for a strict tone, but I knew there was no stopping him. He was already gone. I went back into the room, only for Mrs. Parkinson to direct me to the principal's office. Under the curious eyes of my fellow classmates, I quickly got my things before making my way out.

"Clara Mallark," the principal, Mr. Smythes, seemed surprised to find me at his door. "Why aren't you in class?"

I cleared my throat. Needless to say, I hadn't been here often. "Mrs. Parkinson sent me. I... My boyfriend left class very suddenly and I knew something was wrong, so I went after him." I decided on the truth. Someone would eventually find out Logan had ditched anyway. "I tried to make him stay, but he was on a bit of a rush."