Ryan and Jason were sound asleep and the house was silent, apart from the scrape of my pencil against the paper. It was only nine, but Jason was
conked out from the meds and Ryan was exhausted from his soccer game, which left me to do the bills. I froze when a quiet knock came from the front door. Opening it a crack I saw Logan standing there with his hands shoved into his pockets, a back pack draped over his shoulder and a nervous look across his face.
"Logan?" His eyes snapped to my face and he gave me an embarrassed smile.
"Hey...can I come in?" I raised my eyebrow in confusion.
"Uh, yeah sure. Just be quiet, my brothers are sleeping." He nodded and I opened the door wider to let him in before locking it again. Sitting down at the kitchen table, I motioned for Logan to do the same.
"What's going on?" He unzipped his bag and handed me a large folder.
"Here's the work for the day."
"Oh my god, thank you so much." He grinned.
"Anytime." It was silent for a few seconds before he scratched his head, the cheerfulness dropping.
"Um, so I have to tell you something." I focused on him, my concentration drifting away from the work that my teachers had assigned.
"Go ahead."
"I broke up with Ali." My mouth opened in surprise.
"Wh-What?"
"I broke up with Ali today." I needed to stay calm, to be professional or rude or cold or normal or ANYTHING.
"Uh oh. Okay." He put his head in his hands and I moved my chair closer unconsciously and put my hand on his shoulder, asking, "Why?"
Logan swallowed and rubbed a hand across his face.
"I-I don't know. She- I saw her with him and I- I'm not sure and I barely could stand- and I'm not doing well- class-" His words were coming out a jumbled mess so I put a hand up and stopped him.
"Whoa whoa whoa. Hold on." He was having a hard time collecting so I stood up and hurried to the stove. Logan kept his head in his hands as I rummaged around and made some steaming hot chocolate. Sliding it across the counter, he held it gratefully and took a sip, closing his eyes and enjoying the sweetness.
"Thanks."
"Always." I sat back down in my chair and placed a hand on his back, creating light circles with my fingertips. It took him a few seconds, but Logan seemed ready to express his feelings.
"Okay so this morning I picked Ali up and she was pretty snippy so I asked what was wrong. She told me that her, Sydney and Eva got so drunk last night that they passed out." I felt my stomach clench. Those girls were drinking for freakin fun while my mom was drinking because she couldn't stop. Logan sighed and took another long drink of the steaming cocoa and continued.
"I don't know if she thought I would find that hot or something but it disgusted me to the point where I told her that what she did was stupid. Then she got bitchy again because of her obvious hangover. We got to school and stuff and things were normal until she looked at me and randomly got mad, I don't even know why and-" By this point Logan was ranting quietly, so I just listened to him let all of his anger out. "She decided to go up and started flirting with Caleb who didn't do anything about it! He literally just let it happen." He sipped more of his hot chocolate but I stayed silent and waited for him to keep talking. "So I just ignored her and she got pissed even though she had no right to. Then in Math I got a test back and it was a C so I asked to meet with Mrs.Andleman to correct it, Ali heard and said that it was because I didn't want to spend time with her which wasn't even on my mind so I just got fed up and told her it was over. Then she said that I was a dick with no feelings, that she didn't like me anyway and that she had hooked up with Caleb twice within the last three months." I sucked in a breath as he finished. "I-I don't know what to do Charlie. I thought I loved her, I thought- I'm not even sure what I thought but I didn't think this." I rubbed his back before speaking.
"Do your parents know you're out?" He nodded.
"They think I'm at Brian's."
"Okay, we have some flexability then. Let's start with one thing at a time." Logan looked up at me and I saw sadness within his blue eyes.
"What?"
"Let's start with Math. What don't you understand?" He gave me a small smile and while he was pulling out his green binder he said quietly,
"You're the best Char." I grinned with him and shrugged.
"I know."

We had just finished correcting his test when there was another knock at the door. I checked my watch and it read eleven. Closing my eyes, I prayed it wasn't who I thought it was.
"You can grab something to eat, I'll be right back." Without even looking at him, I rushed to the door and opened it slightly. There was a man with a thin mustache and a bald head.
"Who are you?" He rubbed his head before answering,
"Your mom's my barista."
"Mr.Johnson?" He nodded.
"That's me." I looked back and saw Logan staring curiously back at me. I held my finger up to signal that I would be one more second before turning to my mom's boss.
"What do you need?"
"You're mom hasn't shown up to work in three days. I wouldn't have bothered coming but a bartender on the weekend shift told me that he saw Sally with some druggies on the street. I normally like to stay out of my workers' business,
but I just wanted to let you know. She's told me before that she's got a little one at home." I shook my head, slightly exasperated.
"Thank you for telling me. I'll let her know what you said and I'll let you know when she comes home." He nodded and placed a hat over his bald head.
"I appreciate it-" He waited for my name.
"Charlie."
"I appreciate it Charlie. You seem like a mature girl." I smiled slightly and started to close the door. Before it shut all the way I said quietly,
"Three." Mr.Johnson glanced at me quizzically.
"Excuse me?"
"She's got three of us. Not one. Three." With that the door locked and I headed back to my newly single best friend.