I sat on the couch and watched as my mother tried to come up with the right words to use in this situation. Soon, James got tired of waiting...
"Ren, what in the blue hell were you thinking?" he asked , throwing his hands up in the air. "You ditched school! You never ditch school!"
"Dad, I-" I began in a small voice only to be cut off by James.
" I do not care, Ren! I wanted you to tutor him because I thought you were responsible, but you're out ditching like it's okay! With one of my players, no less!" he said, the bass in his voice filling the living room.
"I am responsible! It's because of me he's even able to play! You saw his test, he got an 88% on it! My assignments are done for the next two months and I don't see why it's such a big deal that I didn't go to a class that I have over a 100% average in to help someone that you need to play every Friday! Look at his grades, obviously I must be doing something right." I fumed, quickly growing frustrated with being chastised like a child.
"Honey, it's not that we think you're irresponsible. We've never doubted you and we won't start now. It's just that we feel that you're not being yourself, lately, that's all," my mom said softly trying to break the tension between James and I. "I saw you and Logan and his car this morning, kissing and whatnot. If you want to have a boyfriend, fine... just don't get sidetracked, okay?"
I nodded my head and gave my mom a hug, she was awesome. After I smoothed things over with my parents, I went up to my room and laid in my bed and thought about what all happened today:
~*~*~*~
"Fuck! It's Coach Jameson!" Logan said fearfully. "Babe, hurry up and grab your clothes and go to the backseat. Put them on as fast as you can and I'll stall him." He said as he laid his Biology test in his lap and sprayed a spritz of cologne.
I quickly obliged, grabbing all of my clothes but my socks and shoes. Logan rolled down the window. "Yeah, Coach, I'm in here," he said as I scrambled to get dressed.
"What the hell are you doing out here, Boy? Practice doesn't start for another few hours," James said, with a chuckle. I was dressed by now waiting for my cue.
"I was just studying English and being out here by the field helps me keep focus," Logan said shrugging his shoulders. "Look, Coach, this is the Biology test I took on Friday."
James took the paper from him and looked it over. "Hot damn, Logan! If you keep this up, any college'll take ya!" he said, slapping him five.
"Yeah, I know... it's all because of Lauren. She's really helped me out, Coach," Logan said sincerely.
"Oh yeah, Ren's definitely something... I hope she's helping you in English as much as she did in Biology," James said, handing the test back to Logan.
"She is, she's actually in the back getting extra paper," Logan said, gesturing to the backseat.
I took his cue and grabbed some notebook paper out of my backpack and crawled back up to the front seat and sat down.
"Ren? Don't you have a class?" James said, surprised to see me.
"Yes, it's just Trig with Mrs. Oricelli. The assignment's already done, I'll turn it in to her tomorrow. I think all Logan has is an elective," I said as if none of this was a big deal, though my heart was going a million miles per hour.
"So you're ditching?" James asked. I was honestly unable to decipher his feelings at the moment.
"Well, yeah, not ditching per se because this is still school related... Let's face it, Dad, I could get struck with some sort of horrible disease and sit at home for almost an entire semester and never miss a beat," I said, shrugging my shoulders like Logan.
"Logan, get my daughter back to school, please? Ren, we'll talk about this when I get home," James said too politely... he was pissed.
"Yes, Sir... will do," Logan said as he started the vehicle. James watched us the entire time until we disappeared from his view. "Whew! That was fucking close, Babe!" Logan exclaimed, grabbing my hand and kissing it.
"Yeah, it was... too close," I grumbled, looking out the window.
"Lauren, I'm sorry... I really am. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" he said looking at me at a stoplight.
"You can be a pallbearer at my damn funeral because he's gonna kill me," I said glumly. Leave it to my idiot stepfather to ruin one of the most perfect and memorable moments of my life.
"Aww, no he won't. Are you mad at me? You gonna break up with me?" he said in a mocking voice until he reached my face and kissed my cheek.
"Of course I'm not going to break up with you!" I said, kissing his lips.
The rest of the day seemed to go by way too fast because I was in anticipation of getting my ass chewed. Logan drove me home and before I got out of his car, he got out and wrapped me in a tight hug and told me to call him if I needed anything. He tangled his fingers in my hair and pulled me into a kiss and he headed back to the football field for practice.
~*~*~*~
Now, here I was, laying in my bed unable to think of anything but Logan. As if on cue, my cell phone started ringing. It was him.
"Hello?" I said, trying to act as if I didn't know who was calling.
"See, Babe, I told you he wouldn't kill you," he said with a laugh.
"He would if he knew what really happened," I whispered into the phone.