“Are you still on about that?” Alex whispered back.
“Can you blame me?” Jae held up his hand and counted with his fingers, “She has blonde hair. She is new in town. She kept asking about Logan. Sounds like a candidate for me.”
Alex nudged his side with her elbow, “I showed you a picture of her before.”
“It was one time. It took me a while to remember it, okay?”
Emily shook her head at Alex and Jae. They talked too softly for her to hear—like they had their own little world. She still couldn’t tell how her cousin became so close to him. He seemed to be the last guy she should hang out with.
She turned back towards Logan, ready to get back into the conversation.
Logan had his eyes on Alex and Jae. With his jaw locked and his eyes squinted, there seemed to be more to things than Emily originally thought.
Either Logan had a problem with Jae or he had a problem with their closeness. Maybe even both.
Emily raised her eyebrows. Could this be jealousy?
She clicked her tongue. Whatever it was, she would find out one way or another.
“Hey, Logan” she said, tapping him on the shoulder, “I kind of need to go to the restroom. Do you mind showing me the way?”
Logan broke out of his reverie and shook his head. He turned his attention to Emily and nodded, “Yeah, of course.”
He led the way back into the school building. As tempting as it was to look back, he didn’t. So what if his brother and Alex were close? He had taken her home the other day. It seemed like a natural thing to have after that.
Emily could see how stiff Logan walked and how rigid his back looked. She peeked over her shoulders. Her cousin and Jae seemed to be having a serious discussion.
What in the world could it be about?
Once they reached inside, Emily checked the hallway. The place seemed deserted. The students here surely didn’t waste their time.
Safe from eavesdroppers, she said, “You do know I’m Alex’s cousin and not her girlfriend, right?”
It worked.
Logan halted in his steps. Her sentence had completely captured his senses, “You’re what?”
“Her cousin? Wait, don’t tell me…” Emily covered her mouth with her hand, giggling, “Did you think we were a real couple?”
Blood rushed into Logan’s ears. Why did she have to make it sound stupid? At this day and age, girls who liked girls weren’t an uncommon thing.
“My cousin and I are 100% blood-related” Emily patted his arm, “No need to worry about that. What you should worry about is tomorrow night!”
Logan scrunched his eyebrows, “Tomorrow night?”
“Yeah” Emily nodded, smiling excitedly, “The dinner with Alex’s parents is tomorrow. Hasn’t Alex told you about it?”
Her question met with silence.
Emily bit her bottom lip. Did she just tell Logan about the dinner before Alex could? It had been days since Aunt Angie mentioned it to Alex, she had expected Alex would have told him by now.
Logan looked down at the floor, slipping his hands into his jean pockets. That certainly came out of the blue. First, Alex had a girlfriend. Then, she didn’t. Now, he had to meet her parents? Could the day come up with more information to mess with his mind?
“It seems like there’s more than one thing I haven’t been told about” Logan mumbled, giving Emily a tight smile.
Then, he started walking again.
Yikes, Emily thought. The whispering really got to him, didn’t it?
She jogged to catch up to him, saying, “Well, it’s like this. Aunt Angie has been worried that Alex spends a lot of time alone. Alex—being stubborn as he is—told them that it would be hard to be close to anyone while he pretended to be someone else. Because of this, Aunt Angie said he could have one friend that knew about his secret. That person happened to be you and so his parents want to meet you.”
Emily had the sudden urge to say Logan had been the chosen one but his mood didn’t seem to appreciate humor right now.
Logan turned around to show her the skeptical expression on his face. Even his voice sounded the same, “You’re kidding me, right? If I knew Alex, he’d pick Lauren as the friend he’d introduce.”
It was exactly how he described it. Emily had to admit that she was impressed. He must have paid attention to her cousin well to know this much.
Any guy who could be that observant had a place in her good books. With the amount of boys she had met, she realized they were rare gems.
“She can’t. The friend Aunt Angie knows is you”
At this point, Emily became nervous. She had predicted Alex might find a way for Logan not to come but she hadn’t thought about what to do if Logan rejected the invite.
Logan thought for a moment. He had never met a person’s legal guardians this formally before. The only times that he met other people’s parents were back in his childhood—when they had play dates during the summer. His mother would talk to the other kids’ parents while they hung out.
He also didn’t have to talk to any of them for more than 10 seconds.
Why did it seem like this invitation sounded more like a job interview instead of a dinner?
But…
… What kind of people were Alex’s parents? He had met Lilly and she turned out to be a great woman. Alex’s mother must be the same as well. Her father…
… Well, Logan figured all fathers with daughters were difficult.
Still… How could someone mentally prepare to meet the Carter family? Logan considered himself lucky to grow up in a simple neighborhood and met simple friends. Based on TV, the amount of drama that rich families go through seemed to be a long list.
“Meeting her parents?” He thought out loud, “Tomorrow? I think this is information that I should have known days ago.”
He shouldn’t be surprised by this. He wanted to stand by his word about being Alex’s best friend. Other than Lilly’s approval, it would only be natural to get her parents’ too.
That meant the dinner would definitely be an interrogation.
He needed his A-game for this one.
But how?
