Fallen Crest Alternative Version (Fallen Crest High #2.1)(85)

When we got into the car, Mason started it up but he didn’t reverse. He let it sit there, and he looked at me. We were thinking the same thing.

Logan knew.

Mason said, “He did something to her.”

I nodded. It was the only thing that made sense. “But what?”

“She told him what we did, and he still covered for us.”

“That means something, doesn’t it?”

Mason sighed, putting the car in reverse now. “I have no idea what it means.”

He took us home and when we got there, there was still no sign of Logan. A girl was next to Nate on the couch with a blanket over both of them. A movie was on the television screen. Both looked up when we went down the stairs. “Any word?”

Nate shook his head. “Nothing.” There wasn’t any more traces of the easygoing attitude he had before. He had the same concern in his eyes now. It was bad. It was really bad.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

I canceled my birthday dinner. There was still no word from Logan, and I couldn’t handle our parents without him. Mason was quiet. He’d been quiet since Peter’s party. Things at school were calm. I had been nervous about what I was walking into, but there had been no isolation or humiliation. Whatever Logan had done, it kept Miranda off my back. The entire Elite stayed away. When they passed me in the hallway, Emily nodded at me. The next day was a wave, and then she began smiling at me. By the end of the next week, she started spending time at my locker. Once people saw that she was still friends with me and there was no backlash from the Elite, other people began warming up to me again. Well, others except for Becky. Adam followed through with his threat. Whatever he said to Becky worked. She was a permanent fixture to his hip. Mason told me that she broke up with Rex. He heard the rumor from his school. When I asked about Logan, Mason grew quiet. He stopped talking after that.

I sighed.

This was a normal reaction from him now.

After Monday, Mason found out that Logan was staying at Fischer’s house. He hung out with the group so it appeared to others that there was no problem between them, but that was appearances. Mason said that the guys knew there was friction. No one knew what it was about. Logan hadn’t told anyone and we both knew Mason hadn’t either. Nate left the following weekend. He said he decided to go back home. When I mentioned to Mason that it felt like his best friend was leaving him, Mason shot that down. Nate needed to handle his own issues. He was running away and after seeing how Logan’s absence was hurting us, he explained that Nate realized that wasn’t the right course of action.

I still felt Nate should’ve stayed. Mason needed his friend more than anything.

I was at home when Mason drove Nate to the airport. Analise and James had gone to the city for the weekend so when I heard the door shut, I assumed it was Mason. “I’m downstairs.”

I heard him coming down the stairs, and I hit the silence button the remote. “Hey. I was just watching a movie…” I turned around and my voice faded.

It was Logan.

“Logan.” I couldn’t believe it was him. There were bags under his eyes. He looked like he had lost weight and his shoulders were tense. He shoved a hand into his pocket and looked away.

“Hey,” he said. “Mason’s not here?”

“No.” I grew quiet. I’d never seen this side of Logan. I’d seen him angry, cocky, amused, and charming but never this. He was defeated. I had no idea what to say now so I blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

His head lifted. His eyes pinned me down and he frowned. “Sorry? For what?”

“I knew.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You did?”

“It wasn’t right and I feel horrible about it. So does Mason. He hasn’t said much, but I can tell it’s been weighing on him.”

“I know.” He expelled a deep breath and sank onto the other couch. Resting his elbows on his knees, he caught his head in his hands. He scraped his fingers through his hair before he lifted those same haunting eyes to mine again. “I feel horrible about it. He tried to talk to me at school, but I couldn’t. I just,” he took another deep breath, “couldn’t. I didn’t know what to say.”

“I texted you. We texted you.”

He looked back down, and his head bobbed up and down. “I know. I got them. I didn’t know what to say, Sam. I feel horrible about everything and how Miranda spun it. It was wrong. Shit.” He ran his hands through his hair again before letting them fall to his lap with a thud. “Sam, what she was going to say was wrong. I dated her to protect you. I wanted her to shut up and not go after you anymore. She couldn’t if she was dating me and she’d look like an idiot when I dumped her, but I had no idea she would figure out to spin it this way. I mean, seriously, Mason setting me up to do that?”

Wait. What? I frowned.

He kept going, “Then she started spewing about how I had feelings for you and that she told you, I didn’t know what to do. I don’t even know how she figured that part out, but everything else...I had to leave. I had to think about everything and what to even say to you about it.”

He didn’t believe her. He did have feelings for me. Both realizations shattered me. Then I realized the actual significance of it. He left because of him, not because of Mason. I started thinking over the text messages.