“Well, if Anna isn’t working, how will you pay for us both to go to school, Daddy.” Bottom line was I had been told I could go anywhere I wanted. Now with two of us to pay for, if that was going to change, she needed to work.
“The dealership is doing well. There is nothing to worry about, Leah, everything will stay as is. Same goes for you too, Logan.”
I breathed out a sigh and was just about to say something when I heard Logan clear his throat.
“May I be excused?” Logan asked.
“Logan, you barely ate anything,” Anna said looking worried. “Are you not feeling well?”
“I’m not hungry.” He didn’t wait, he pushed himself away from the table and headed upstairs.
I helped Anna with the dishes and then spent the rest of the evening watching TV with Anna and Dad. At 9:30 I made my way up to my room. I had school tomorrow and I was tired. Trudging up the stairs, I walked into my room to find Logan sitting on my bed with my diary open in his hand. He looked up from the page he was reading and gave me a sly smile.
“Give me that!” I shouted practically running across the room. I went to grab my diary from him, but he stood up and held it over his head. It was impossible for me to reach.
“Oh, Gingersnap, why? Don’t want me to know about Aaron or Matt, guess you’re not into girls after all,” he said looking down into my face.
I shoved him against the wall and tried to reach for my diary once again. “Don’t call me that, give me my diary back.”
“Don’t call you what?”
“You know what!”
“You better be careful, Gingersnap, I wouldn’t want you to get turned on by pressing up against me like you did when Aaron accidentally brushed against you in gym class.” He laughed grabbing hold of me, wrapped his arm around my back and pulled me against him while he ground his hips into me.
My cheeks burned with embarrassment and I pulled away. “Give me my diary back, Logan.”
“You know there is a lot of great material in here.” I watched as he flipped to another page and read the lines I had written. Tears were threatening to pour down my cheeks as I finally ripped the diary from his hands.
Logan chuckled to himself. “Oh, Gingersnap, it’s all right, don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody.” He laughed and walked out of the room, as he crossed the hall he repeated what he had read.
I slammed my door shut and hid my diary in one of my drawers. Thank god he had started at the front and not the more recent entries, I would have died if he read about him. I got ready for bed, cracked open my bedroom door, crawled under the covers and opened the book I had been reading. A while later I heard Logan talking to one of his friends.
“Yeah, I took the damn room, I fucking hate the color pink.” I could feel the anger boil in me, he had done it on purpose. “I only took it because then she couldn’t have it. Yeah, I know, I expected her to cry like a little girl too.”
I threw my book down, got up, slammed my door shut and crawled into bed pulling the covers up over my head. I hated everything about this move.
The rest of the week I tried my best to ignore what had happened and what I had heard, and Logan barely looked at me again, never mind mentioning anything else. The following Friday, Dad and Anna left for a weekend away with friends, which meant Logan and I were alone together for the first time.
“Now please tell me you two won’t kill one another while we’re gone,” Dad said as he grabbed Anna’s coat from the hall closet right before they left.
“No, sir. I’m just gonna play my video games, and I’m sure Leah will do whatever girly things she normally does. You know, write in her diary, cry over some guy.”
I walked into the living room carrying a bowl of popcorn and a can of soda and sat down in the living room chair across from Logan, ignoring his snarky commentary. “When will you be back, Dad?” I asked picking up my book.
“Sunday morning. Oh, and for tomorrow night’s dinner, I left you guys money for pizza,” Anna said. She kissed us both on the top of the head and then walked out the door with my father.
A while later I sat munching on popcorn, texting with Jenna, ignoring the idiot across the way from me who sat there engrossed in his stupid video game. After an hour, Logan shut the game off, and we watched a stupid show about deep sea fishing.
“Hey, Gingersnap, what’s your phone number and your email address?”
“What do you want those for?” I had given up about asking him not to call me that, the more he knew I hated it the more he used it. It wasn’t just the nickname I hated, I had hated the color of my hair since I was a child, so it bothered me that he called me that.
“Well, if you ever need a ride home, you can text me. Seriously, I think it’s time we buried the hatchet.”
“Only if you promise not to call me Gingersnap.”
“No problem, Leah.” He smiled at me.