You Again ('Brothers' book three)

Chapter 9: Pizza Picnic

Chapter 9

"Hey." I grinned as I got into Logan's truck.

"Hey." Logan said happily, giving me a smile as I buckled up.

"So where are we going?" I asked, folding my hands in my lap.

"You're going to kill me, but it's a surprise." Logan said with a laugh as he pulled out of the driveway.

I groaned, leaning back against the seat. "You know I hate surprises..."

"Trust me, you'll like this one." Logan smiled. "Now stop asking questions because you know I can't resist."

I sighed, crossing my arms.

"Fine." I admitted defeat, shaking my head. "But I have to be home by 5:30."

"Don't worry, this won't take long." Logan smiled as he turned off of my street.

I quietly sat back in my seat, not wanting to be the first to start conversation about something.

"So how has your birthday been so far?" Logan asked, starting a conversation.

"Pretty good actually." I nodded. "I met Heather, she's cool, she convinced my dad to let me hang out with you. And then I just have a family dinner tonight."

"Sounds exciting." Logan teased, glancing over at me.

"Yea totally. A table full of my family, including my dad, his ex wife, and his girlfriend." I laughed, shaking my head. "Not the best mix."

"See your family is fun enough as it is, I feel like tonight's just gonna be off the scale crazy."

"Oh for sure. Yea someone's gonna cry, someone's gonna get in trouble, and someone's gonna end up throwing something you just know it." I nodded.

"And all three of those will probably be you and Mark." Logan teased, giving me a wink.

I laughed. "The sad thing is, is that you're probably one hundred percent right."

"I don't know how you guys survived an entire summer without fighting." Logan shook his head, his eyes focused on the road.

"Well it wasn't necessarily the whole summer without fighting. We had a few fights. I shoved his face in the sand, quite a proud moment." I grinned.

"And then?"

"And then he shoved mine in the sand." I mumbled, crossing my arms. "But I still got him first."

"Classic." Logan laughed, pulling into the parking lot near the practice soccer field.

"What are we doing here?" I raised my eyebrows.

Logan grinned. "Well I was talking to Kent about good date places, because I didn't want to do anything too advanced for a fake first date, but I didn't want to do something lame like a dinner, and he suggested a pizza picnic." Logan smiled as we got out of the truck.

"A pizza picnic?" I raised my eyebrows as Logan pulled a box of pizza from the bed of his truck.

"Hell yea." Logan nodded.

I grimaced. "And you kept it in the bed of your truck?" I questioned as he grabbed a blanket.

My heart immediately skipped a beat at a memory of one night in May when we snuck out and spent the night in his truck, cuddled under that blanket in the surprisingly cold weather.

I pushed the thought away as Logan started talking again.

"It was like 5 minutes." Logan laughed, locking the truck behind him as we walked to the field. "And it's still warm."

"You better not eat more than your half." I gave him a look.

"Hey you're the one who has a huge dinner after this." Logan laughed, setting down the blanket.

"Oh come on we both know I could easily eat that whole pizza." I rolled my eyes as we sat down.

"That is very true." Logan nodded, opening up the box as we sat down.

"Oh my gosh delicious." I grinned, reaching for a piece.

Considering both of us were extremely hungry, we didn't talk much as we each ate our half of the pizza.

Four pieces later I was laying on my bak with my hands on my stomach, wishing there was more pizza.

"That was damn good pizza." Logan sighed, laying down next to me.

"Pizza is almost always good." I replied. "We're having it for dinner again tonight."

"Lucky." Logan laughed, turning his head to look at me.

I sighed, turning to look at him as well.

"Do you remember when I called you guys after the storm?" Logan asked softly.

"Yea you went to hang out with Jenny afterwards." I said quietly, my eyes meeting his.

Logan shook his head.

"No I just didn't want you to think that I was too clingy." Logan said softly. "I did honestly call to make sure you were okay."

"Well I was fine." I nodded, taking a deep breath. "From the storm, not from what happened with you."

"Why did you go out with that Chris guy?" Logan asked softly.

I sighed. I didn't think we'd really have this conversation so soon in our newly forming relationship, but I guess it was better to just get it over with.

"A distraction." I shrugged. "And he's a really nice guy, I mean nothing compared to you, but he's still a great friend."

"Did you guys uh... Did you sleep with him?" Logan asked quietly, his eyes scanning my face.

And this is when the regret caught up to me. This is when I wished that I didn't give myself up so easily.

I slowly nodded, biting my lip. "But it didn't mean anything, honestly, I was drunk and missing you..."

Logan sighed, turning to look straight up rather than at me.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, honestly it's fine." Logan sighed, looking back at me. "We weren't together and you had the right to do absolutely whatever you wanted."

I took a deep breath.

"It doesn't mean I didn't love you." I whispered. "It doesn't mean that I didn't think about you every damn day."

"No Marley, don't say it if you don't mean it okay? It's already gotten us into enough problems." Logan shook his head, looking extremely upset. "It's fine that you don't love me but-"

"But I do!" I said quickly, sitting up. "Oh my gosh you have no idea how much I love you. You have no idea how much it hurt every single day this summer when we weren't together. And I feel so bad for how I treated you. Because I've loved you all along, but I just didn't realize it. And then we got home and you didn't seem interested in me at all and it's been killing me because I love you still but you don't seem to really care."

"You think I don't still love you?" Logan said softly, sitting up as well. "Do you honestly think that my feelings would go away so suddenly?"

I nodded. "It's understandable, I mean this summer I realized that I was awful to you. And I mean I'm nothing special anyways."

"Nothing special? Marley you're perfect." Logan sighed, reaching to push my hair back. "Everything about you is perfect, and I still love you."

I sighed, looking down at my hands.

"But I want to take it slow this time. I want to go out on a few dates before we make it official, if that's okay with you?" Logan said softly.

I nodded, laying back down.

"Sounds like a plan." I mumbled.

But something just didn't feel right...

We still had some unresolved issues, but I just couldn't place it...