“It’s actually on short notice” Emily explained, “It would have happened sooner but Alex mentioned you were sick. Instead of a meetup, Aunt Angie wanted her to go and visit you.”
Logan’s thought process headed towards a different direction. Emily’s words had given him a new light.
“You mean the person who made Alex go to my house and cook me soup is her mom?” He asked.
It seemed that he already left some sort of impression. Judging by the warm taste of the chicken noodle soup in his memory, it had been a good one.
He only needed to maintain it.
“Basically, yeah” Emily could see a small smile peeking through Logan’s lips.
Then, the smile blossomed into a full grin, “I should definitely thank her in person. Perfect timing too. There’s a football game tomorrow so basketball practice is cancelled. Speaking of which…”
Logan glanced at his wrist watch. If another five minutes had gone by, his coach would have him run extra 10 laps around the court. He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, “Aw, shoot. I gotta go.”
Emily instantly shooed him away, “No worries. See you tomorrow at 5pm sharp.”
“Got it. Thanks” Logan replied. Satisfiedd, he ran out of the hallway and headed for the gym.
“Oh, and don’t forget your tux!” Emily shouted after him.
===
Back outside, Alex hardly noticed that Emily and Logan had left. Jae, on the other hand, didn’t let the chance pass by and asked Alex what he yearned to know.
“Anyway, did you find out where Logan went to that night of the party?” Jae changed the topic.
“Uh, yeah…” Alex mumbled, scratching the back of her neck.
She bit her inner cheek. She wasn’t sure if it would be okay to tell Logan’s secret. Heck, he didn’t even tell her right away after he promised he’d go to the party. If she told Jae that Logan had been stuck in the principal’s office overnight, she’d also have to explain why Logan went there in the first place.
Even if she didn’t have to, the incident would still raise a lot of questions.
“So?” Jae prodded when she didn’t say anything, “What is it?”
“I don’t think I have the right to tell you about it” Alex’s shoulders slumped, “What I can tell you was that he didn’t spend it with a girl.”
Jae sighed. He should have known that Alex would withhold the information. Logan probably said it with confidentiality. What kind of trouble did his brother get into now?
“Did he spend it with a guy?” He asked.
Alex shook her head, “No, I don’t think he spent it with anyone.”
“Did he drop by the cemetery?” The question was a shot in the dark. He thought that if he guessed right, maybe Alex would tell him.
“Why the cemetery?”
Jae shrugged. He switched his gaze towards the sparse parking lot, “I don’t know. Sometimes he visits our mother’s grave. It’s the only place I could think of that he’d go alone.”
Alex pressed her lips together. She recalled the photo on Logan’s nightstand. There were probably moments when he really missed her a lot. It made sense that Logan would drop by her resting place.
“I doubt staying there until midnight sounds appealing though” she told Jae.
“Are you sure you can’t tell me?” Jae tried again.
“Yep.”
“Are you sure he had been alone?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, that’s good enough, I guess” he sighed. Although Alex didn’t tell him the whole story, at least he still had half-answers, “I need to head to practice now. Take care.”
He started to walk back to the school, waving a hand at Alex.
She gave him an apologetic smile, “Thanks.”
“Take care of Logan too.”
Alex rolled her eyes, “Oh, go break your leg.”
While Jae crossed the parking lot, Emily had come back out of the building alone. He smirked at the sight of her. There was a new spring in his step as their paths met.
“As for you, m’lady” he called out to her, “Anyone who gets near your binoculars should take care.”
“Get out of here” Emily replied, purposely looking anywhere else but him until they split up.
“Nice to meet you too” Jae chuckled from behind her.
Emily ignored him and focused on her cousin. Alex stood lazily underneath the tree. She had taken Emily’s backpack and carried it over her shoulder.
“Had fun interrogating Logan?” Alex teased once Emily reached her side.
“I didn’t really get the chance” Emily huffed. Logan clearly didn’t have the right mood. She’d have to wait until tomorrow.
Alex raised her eyebrows, “Why not?”
She figured her cousin would have pounced on him by now.
Emily took the backpack away from her and wore the straps over her shoulders, “We had more important things to discuss.”
“Like what?”
She gave Alex a pointed look, “Like dinner with your parents tomorrow?”
Alex widened her eyes, “That’s tomorrow?!”
Emily had the sudden urge to facepalm. That explained why Logan didn’t know about the dinner yet, “Oh, heavens, Alex. You’re so hopeless. You probably don’t even have a dress yet.”
“No?”
She grabbed her cousin’s wrist and quickly dragged her out of the parking lot, “Come on, we need an emergency shopping trip.”
Alex flinched, “Why not tomorrow?”
“Because tomorrow we’ll get your hair done” Emily said. She mentioned it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Why?”
She rolled her eyes, “You’ll need some extensions this weekend, couz. It’s grandma’s birthday.”
Ashen horror covered Alex’s face. How could her mother not tell her about the party? Out of all the people in their family, no one disapproved of Alex’s disguise as a boy more than Jaime Greenwood. Her wonderful grandmother only wanted to see her as the girl she’d grown up to be—if she hadn’t spent the last few years as a male that is.
Alex groaned, “Oh my gods, you’re right. I need to get a gift too.”
Emily sighed. Her cousin finally got the picture. Then, she said, “Well, that’s not the only thing you should prepare for.”
“It’s not?”
Emily tugged on Alex’s wrist and looked into her eye, “Don’t tell me you haven’t figured out that Aunt Angie will find a way to trick Logan into coming with us?”
“Over my dead body” Alex replied immediately. Meeting her parents was one thing, meeting her grandparents was another thing. Her grandmother would be okay but her grandfather would have something to say or two about girls having male friends.
If Alex’s hunches were right, this weekend would surely be one hell of a disaster.
