Hold the phone.
Logan and Alex slept together?!
Lauren opened her mouth several times but no words came out. She put her hands together and pressed them on her lips. She needed to plan this carefully. Her eyes narrowed, inspecting the scene in detail.
The two suspects laid on the bed separately, none of their skin touched. They used their sides and faced each other. A roll of blankets covered Logan. Its ends draped on the floor. On the other hand, Alex had no blankets. Judging by the rumpled sheets under her, she slept on them instead.
They also turned out to be light snorers.
No sign of funny business in sight.
Good.
Lauren tiptoed into the room towards Alex’s side of the bed. She leaned over carefully, shaking Alex’s shoulder.
“Alex? Alex… wake up” she whispered in her ear. Alex stirred a little, making incoherent noises, then, she stopped.
Lauren sighed.
She tried to wake her up again.
But this time, she shook her harder, “Alex, wake up.”
Alex’s eyes fluttered open. She blinked a few times to clear out her vision. In front of her was a handsome male face that slept peacefully. Alex swore that her mind counted to three—like a buffering video—before she screamed.
“Ah!”
Alex sat up, her foot kicking Logan in the stomach. Half of her buttcheek hung over the edge of the bed. She lost her balance when her foot hit Logan and then, she slipped over the bed, landing on the floor.
Lauren stepped back on reflex.
Logan woke up from the sudden pain in his stomach. What in the world could that be? He opened his eyes just in time to watch Alex already fall off the bed. He didn’t even have enough time to grab her.
He crawled over to the other side of the bed and checked on her.
“Alex, are you okay?” he asked, genuinely concerned with his hair disheveled all over the place. His clothes also wrinkled from staying in the same position for too long.
“I’m fine” Alex replied, coughing. Her throat felt dry and her butt hurt a bit but it was nothing serious. Lauren helped her get up.
Logan moved back to his spot for Alex to sit back on the bed. He remembered that her temperature had gone down while she slept earlier and so he read a book from the pile she had near her bed.
On reflex, he pressed his hand on the side of her neck.
“Where’s your thermometer?” Lauren examined the side table, looking for it.
“Bathroom. Medicine cabinet” Alex answered, resting her back on the headboard. Logan still had his hand on her neck. She fluttered her eyelashes at him.
Logan frowned, “What?”
“And how are you feeling huh, Parker?” Alex raised the back of her hand to his forehead, “Burning up, aren’t we?”
“I’m fine,” Logan snorted. He considered fevers to be a minor thing. He had one during a championship game and he still played. He survived that one just fine.
Alex, on the other hand, based on what Logan knew she didn’t do much exercise. Her diet didn’t seem stable either.
She definitely was more fragile so he made sure she was okay.
Those and the fact that the accident with the laundry was partly his fault. He needed to bear the responsibility for the consequences.
“Wait, you’re both sick?” Lauren cut in, pure disbelief on her face. Now, she needed to figure out who to give the thermometer first.
Logan shrugged, “I’m not that sick. I can still drive home.”
He peeked out the only window in Alex’s bedroom. The sun almost disappeared from sight and the moon peeked through the sunset. Soon, night time would come.
He hopped off the bed, did some stretches and jumped a bit. Alex and Lauren both raised their eyebrows at his sudden energy.
“Well, see you later, ladies. I need to go. I have a lot of stuff to do. I got no free time for this.”
“You didn’t even go to school today” Alex pointed out.
Logan stared at her like that the answer was obvious enough, “And that is the reason why I have many things on my list. No need to thank me for my sacrifice. As your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, it had been my duty.”
Lauren gave him a skeptical look, “Aren’t you a DC fan?”
“Can’t I be both?” Logan turned around to face, “Must I only eat one brand of chocolate in my entire life? I think not!”
“Okay, Captain Geek ” Alex rolled her eyes, “You have proved your point. You have enough energy to get yourself home.”
“Awww” Logan cooed, sitting back on the bed and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, “I knew you understood me.”
Alex shrugged off his arm and pushed him off the bed, “Go already or I’ll charge you rent for using my bed.”
“How much?”
“$100.”
“What a rip-off! It doesn’t even have a built-in fridge” Logan argued. He sat at the foot of the bed to put on his shoes. Everything seemed to be in order. Alex’s temperature hadn’t gone up since he last checked. He felt confident that she’d be okay by tomorrow.
He considered that a mission accomplished.
He grabbed his backpack off the floor and walked towards the door. He waved his hand at Alex and Lauren,”Sayōnara, señoritas!”
Alex shook her head slowly, “Those aren’t even in the same language.”
Lauren turned her attention to Alex. With one hand on her hip, she pointed the thermometer at Alex.
“What were you thinking? Sleeping with Logan?” Lauren demanded from Alex. Her words had a hint of sarcasm so Alex knew she didn’t seriously mean it.
Lauren walked over to her side and placed the thermometer in her mouth, “I thought you were better than that”
Alex rolled her eyes. The thermometer still in her mouth, she replied, “I am. You’re the one who told him to come here in the first place.”
She felt like a child being accused of a crime that she did not commit. She wasn’t about to sit there and do nothing. Besides, if Lauren hadn’t told him to come, it wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Lauren laughed nervously.
Alex’s ears perked up, “What is it?”
“About that…” Lauren pressed her lips together and pretended that Alex wasn’t there.
This made Alex raise her eyebrows. Either this would turn out to be good or it would turn out to be very bad.
Alex squinted her eyes at Lauren—which probably didn’t look threatening because of the thermometer in her mouth.
Lauren mumbled her reply as low and as incomprehensible as possible but, by some miracle—maybe because of the cold—Alex picked it up.
“You didn’t send him” she gasped, the thermometer dropping from her mouth.
Alex quickly caught it and put it back in. That was one way to break the mood.
“I know, I know! I told you that I did but…” Lauren finally returned her stare, raising both of her hands in surrender, “The truth is your lover boy came up to me, looking for you. I tried to dodge it. Believe me. But I didn’t think there would be a reason to keep it from him. When I did tell him, he left immediately.”
Lauren held hands together in prayer. She smiled sheepishly, “I truly thought he’d take good care of you. No one could be that annoying if they didn’t care.”
The thermometer chose that moment to beep.
Lauren took it and read the little screen, “Well, you’re still a little higher than normal but that’s good enough, I guess. It’s only been a few hours”
She inserted it back in its case and placed it on the bedside table.
Alex blinked several times, digesting what happened.
First, she felt really touched about Lauren’s concern. It was refreshing, a foreign experience but a good one.
Second, she realized Logan actually came on a whim. Like her, Logan had excellent grades. Missing one day of school could make a difference between valedictorian and salutatorian. Alex had to rethink her absence several times but Logan had made a decision in a nanosecond.
Lastly, as the cherry on top in the whole situation, Alex felt a bit lost for words, “He has a fever, Lauren.”
Lauren frowned, “Yeah, that was really odd. He didn’t look like it when he asked where you were.”
Alex groaned, burying her face in her hands. If what Lauren said was true, it meant that Logan caught the cold when he stayed over. And he stayed over because he decided to look after her. He looked after her because…
… Well, dang. She didn’t know why.
Lauren suddenly gasped beside her, taking Alex back to reality, “I just had a brilliant idea for your guilt.”
“No” Alex rejected. At the same time, she praised Lauren for being able to read her thoughts.
Lauren grimaced and scoffed, “Well, fine then.”
At the bedroom door, a hand knocked three times.
“And who is this?”
Aunt Lilly leaned a shoulder on the door frame, her arms crossed over her chest. She had a gentle smile on her face as she waited for an answer.
Alex’s eyes went wide and her body became stiff like a board. Lauren also felt the same way.
The day just kept getting better and better it seemed.
