43| There's Somewhere Else We'd Rather Be!

NOAH and I had spent most of the day together after finals ended. Since finals had only been a half day and we got out of school at 10:30. We swam and drank our coffee from the coffee shop. At one point when we got hungry, Noah insisted on grilling some burgers for us, and I wasn't complaining. I had been starving.

But still, the entire time I spent with him, I couldn't escape my mind. I was positive by the time I left his house that I loved him. There was no denying or hiding it. But there was one thing: I couldn't tell him. I just couldn't. I mean, he probably didn't even feel that way about me. There was no way he did. So I kept it to myself.

Noah dropped me off at home before he had to go over to Chad's house. Apparently he had offered to watch their dog for the evening while they went out on the lake to celebrate Chad's grades. Thanks to Cayden, he'd passed all of his classes with mostly B's and 2 C's. For Chad, that was impressive as hell. I could barely believe it when Noah told me.

So I went inside and my parents weren't home yet as it was only around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. They usually got home past 5. So I killed some time by cleaning my room (in a wave of inspiration of course) and binge-watching half of Insatiable on Netflix. It was a weird show. But somehow, I couldn't stop watching it.

I heard my parents getting home at just past 5:30. I could hear the garage door open followed by the sound of their shoes on the hardwood floor. It was nearly 6 when they finally called my name and I knew exactly what they wanted.

"Our girl finished finals!" My dad exclaimed right as I walked down the stairs. I entered the kitchen where they were both sitting at the table next to each other. Eagerly waiting, I assumed. "So... show us those grades!"

They got overly excited about my grades, which was expected of them. Like I've mentioned, grades were always the most important thing in their minds. That and then volleyball, of course. So it was no surprise to me that every time I finished finals the first thing they wanted to know was what my grades were. Not even a simple, "Hey honey, how was your day? Oh, you fell in love? That's terrible. Show us your grades." I'd worked it out in my head that that was exactly what they would've said.

I pulled out my phone which already had my grades on the screen. Handing it over to them, I watched their reactions as they scrolled. It was like each time they saw a grade, they internally cheered for me. Although, no "Good job" ever came from their mouths. Again, it was expected.

I watched as their reactions turned from proud to disappointment in a split second when they must have reached my psychology grade.

"A 94?" My dad asked. "You mean an A-minus."

"That's what it says right there," my mom added. "How did this happen?"

"It's still an A," I muttered and I realized that I shouldn't have said it right as the words left my mouth. They both raised their eyebrows at me in the way that told me they were mad.

"Still an A?" My dad asked and scoffed. "Do you see what I mean?" He said to my mom and she nodded.

"I see," she said.

"And what is it this time? What do you see exactly?" I asked, raising my voice a bit.

"Logan, we have tried these past couple of weeks to be more accepting. Especially when it comes to your boyfriend..." My mom said, and she had trouble saying the word boyfriend.

"Again, he has a name. And it's Noah," I said.

"Yes, we know," she said. "We have tried to be accepting, thinking that he might not be bad for you. Thinking that even with you hanging out with him, you'd be able to still stay focused on your schoolwork. How foolish we were to think that."

"Seriously?" I asked. "No, you don't get to say things like that."

"It's just the truth, Logan!" My dad exclaimed. "You run off with that boy nearly every day saying that you're studying with him. But if you were really studying, you wouldn't have gotten an A-minus. This is so unlike you and it's inexcusable behavior!"

"A grade isn't going to determine what happens in my life! It's not a life-altering thing!" I argued.

"It is!" My dad yelled. "If you're going to get that scholarship and go to Stanford, then it is! If you keep losing your focus like this, then next time it's not going to be just an A-minus, Logan! It's going to keep going down! And all because of that... that boy!"

"Holy shit!" I yelled. "You're seriously going to just blame Noah again? You have got to be shitting me!"

"Language!" My mom yelled. "We have tried our best. But we can't let you ruin your life."

I scoffed and stood up. "Please! I'm not ruining my life by being with Noah. If anything, I'm making my life better by being with him!"

"Don't say things like that."

"Well, it's too bad I am, then!" I yelled. "Seriously. I am so tired of you guys treating me like I don't know what I'm doing! And I'm tired of you blaming Noah for ruining my life when you're the ones who are ruining it! It's not him, I love him and he makes things better for me! I don't hate my life nearly as much as I did when I was listening to every little thing you told me to do!"

"Logan, do not talk to us like that! He is brainwashing you!" My dad yelled.

I laughed. "Brainwashing? Are you fucking serious here? That's hilarious! If anything, he's making me realize that you two have been trying to control my entire life! And I'm so sick and tired of it! I'm tired of doing anything and everything you want!"

"Sit down!"

"I'm not going to sit down!" I said, shaking my head. I felt tears daring to fall out of my eyes, but I wasn't going to cry in front of them. "I'm sick of this! I'm sick of you two caring about grades and volleyball and that's it! I'm fully convinced at this point that you don't even care about me. You just want me to do everything Billie did, but you want me to do it to your standards. Grades, volleyball, Stanford, everything. It's like I'm your little puppet, not even a real person."

"Don't say things like that, it isn't true!"

"It is!" I screamed. "And I hate it! I fucking hate it!"

So that was when I ran again. I grabbed my sweatshirt on the way out of the door and ran. Down the street and as far as I could. I had no idea where I was going at first. I mean, where could I go?

I knew the one place I wanted to go to. So I ran there.

When I got there, I knocked on the door. I had been crying the entire way there but had pulled it together at the last second. I never liked crying in front of people.

Amelia answered the door in her pajamas (they were pink Barbie pajamas that I was slightly jealous of). "Logan!" She said and then must have realized how distressed I looked. "Noah's not here."

"I know," I said and sniffled a bit. "I just... needed somewhere to go and stay. And I didn't know where, so--"

Amelia smiled and interrupted me. "You can stay," she said. "As long as you watch Barbie movies with me."

"Barbie movies?"

"Duh."

✯ ✯ ✯

Dogsitting for Chad was no big deal. Their dog was a little golden retriever puppy and I freaking loved him. His name was Donut. FUCKING DONUT. If that wasn't precious, I didn't know what was.

They got home at just past 10 and I had earned myself 50 bucks. Truthfully, I would've babysat that dog for free. Hell, I would've even paid them to let me dogsit Donut. That was how much I loved that dog. It made me really want my own even though I knew we would never get one. You bet I'd be getting one of those in my future.

So I drove home and got back at just past 10:20. I entered the house to the sound of Amelia watching a Barbie movie. And you bet your bottom dollar I knew exactly which one.

"Amelia! I cannot believe you are watching Barbie Princess and the Pauper without me!" I yelled from the foyer.

"You watch Barbie without me all of the time!" She yelled back and I smiled while I took my shoes off, still in the other room.

"I guess we're more alike than I thought," I said and then started to sing, "I'm just like you!"

Amelia sang back, "You're just like me!"

I sang as I entered the room dramatically, "There's somewhere else we'd rather be! Somewhere that's ours, somewhere that dreams come true! Yes, I am a girl like you! You'd never think--" And I stopped mid-song as I noticed.

Amelia was not alone.

"So you're a girl like her?" Logan asked from the other side of the couch. She was snuggled up under one of our fuzzy blankets not bothering to hold back her laughter. Amelia was laughing like crazy, too.

"Well. That was embarrassing," I muttered.

"I'll leave you two alone. It's past my bedtime anyway..." Amelia said and got up, laughing at me as she passed and headed upstairs. I grabbed the remote and paused the movie. I turned to face Logan, who had stopped laughing but still smiled at me. Although, it was obvious that something was up.

I went and sat down on the ottoman in front of the part of the couch where she sat. "Hey," I said and her eyes were immediately watering. I quickly grabbed her hand. "Hey, what's wrong? What is it?"

Logan sniffled and then laughed a little. "God, it's so dumb," she said, shaking her head. "Can you guess what my parents did when they saw my fucking psych grade?"

I already knew and sighed. "Shit," I said.

"Shit's right," Logan said. "Of course they blamed you. The whole... 'that boy is no good' bullshit that they always pull. The 'you're ruining your life by being with him' load of crap they feed me."

"So you ran here?" She nodded. "I'm guessing it was a full-on fight."

"Oh definitely. There was quite a bit of yelling on my part."

"So what did you say?" I asked.

"I told them I was sick of it," Logan said, wiping away a tear from under her eye before it had the time to fall down her face. "I told them that they were the ones ruining my life, not you. And that I... really like you. And I told them how I feel like their puppet. And I still do. I don't even feel like I'm a real person."

"That's a lot," I said, shaking my head. "You stood up for yourself, though. And that's really good."

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter. I'm their puppet and I don't even matter outside of that. Do I?" Logan said.

I moved to sit beside her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and letting her head fall into my chest. She curled up and wrapped her arm around my torso. "Are you kidding me, Logan? Of course you matter. And you aren't just their puppet. You're you. You're completely your own person and yeah, they've controlled you a lot. But that doesn't take away from who you are."

"It does."

"Don't think things like that, okay?" I said. "I care about you, okay? You're not their puppet or whatever, and especially not to me. You're goddamn Logan Pierce, and I--" I caught myself almost about to say the word love, but didn't let it happen. "--I really like you, too. Okay? Like I told you earlier, remember. I'm here right now, and I'm not leaving. If you need anything, I'm right here."

Logan spoke into my shirt. "You're too good for me."

"No way," I disagreed. "No one is too good for anyone. Especially not me for you."

"Can I stay here tonight?" Logan asked, her voice was shaky and she looked up at me. "Fuck, Noah. I can't go home right now. And I don't want to be with anyone else."

"You can always stay here," I told her. "No questions."

"Thank you," she said. "Fuck, I hate crying in front of people. Can we change the subject to anything else?"

"Of course," I agreed. "Since we're changing the subject... do you think you could forget what you saw? You know, me singing Barbie and all?"

"I don't think I'll ever forget that," she muttered and laughed a little into my chest. "Do you really watch Barbie without your 5-year-old sister?"

"Definitely not," I lied and she just shook her head at me. I lifted her chin up with my hand and bent my own head down to meet her lips. I held her gently as our lips melded together. It felt so right, us being together right at the moment. We were supposed to be here.

And I was so damn in love.

✯ ✯ ✯

^^^ Noah to Logan about her parents.

Her parents suck for real. Like, they just don't understand, you know?

Thank y'all so much for over 1000 reads! It's so crazy and surreal, man. I've been on Wattpad forever, since One Direction fanfics started. So this is insane to me. My little book is growing up!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Everyone has to appreciate Noah for his Barbie-loving. I mean. A man who loves Barbie is a man you have to keep. Literally.

I'm back home today so writing episodes is going to be a lot easier I hope! I want to upload as much as possible! 

Seeya in a few days!!!