I woke up early again the next morning and set about doing the clean-up I’ve been interrupted during the day before. The place had a fug of cigarette smoke hanging over it, and I coughed slightly as I emptied the mug that had served as an impromptu ashtray.

I seriously needed to start putting my foot down about what I would and wouldn’t allow in this place - no matter how often I told people they needed to take their smoking outside, they always ignored me once the drinking got going.

I showered and dressed for work, this time taking a little extra time over my hair and make-up. Was it because I was spending time with Logan later that day?

That probably had something to do with it, though I wouldn’t have wanted to admit that to myself. Maybe I was subconsciously trying to piss off Ellis after our dumb argument last night.

He’d probably made out with at least a couple of girls last night, and I couldn’t bring myself to care beyond being glad I had a reason to be pissed at him.

The day was cooler, much to my relief, and work was busier too - the day went by a lot quicker, and before I knew it, it was five and I spotted a car sitting outside the shop.

My heart fluttered slightly, and I checked my reflection in the metal of the till fluffing my curls and running my finger under my eye to catch any mascara fall out. I quickly switched out my work shirt for a cool t-shirt in the back office and ducked outside to check if it was him.

The car was nice - a sleek, clean, dark green convertible with the hood pulled down. He had one elbow draped over the edge of the door, and he glanced up when I opened the door.

“Thank God, I did get to the right place,” he grinned, hopping out of the car to open the door for me. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, slipping into the seat next to him. “Nice ride.”

“Thanks,” He replied proudly. “She’s my baby.”

As we pulled away, I hesitated before I spoke again, not sure if I was going to go down this route with him.

“Any other special women in your life?” I asked, trying to sound casual and, I imagined, failing dismally.

He tapped his fingers on the wheel for a moment, leaving me in awful, awkward silence until he spoke again.

“Uh, no,” he replied eventually. “What about you? You seeing anyone?”

“Yeah, but he’s kind of a dick,” I shrugged.

“So your dad wasn’t all wrong when he told me that you didn’t exactly pick good boyfriends?”

“No, he wasn’t all wrong,” I agreed. I ran my fingers through my hair and tilted my head back, letting the window ruffle through my curls.

“Ah, that feels good.”

“Yeah, on a day like this there’s nothing better than a cool breeze,” he agreed. He glanced over to watch me, and I enjoyed the feeling of his eyes on me. I felt observed instead of scrutinized.

“So, where are we going, then?” I wondered aloud. “I’m assuming Mom told you.”

“Yeah, I’m not just taking a wild guess,” he laughed. “It’s a gardening store across town, about a fifteen-minute drive away.”

“And she asked you to go all the way across town just for some compost?” I shook my head. “You’re making things too easy for her.”

“I think she could use it right now,” he shot me a look. “Besides, I’m not convinced she wasn’t just doing it to get us to spend some time together.”

“See, that’s what I thought!” I exclaimed, vindicated. “But she denies it, said she just thought whoever went could use some company.”

“Well, I guess that’s sweet,” he shrugged. Then, he glanced over his shoulder at the shop we’d left behind. “How long have you been working there, then?”

“Since I left high school.”

“Which was…?”

“Almost three years ago,” I replied.

“God, don’t say that,” he rolled his eyes up to the heavens. “That makes me feel so old.”

“Hey, we were at high school together, you know,” I reminded him.

“Oh, I remember,” he glanced over at me. I wrinkled my brow at him, and he quickly corrected himself. “I mean because we lived across the street from each other,” he shrugged. “No big deal. I just remember seeing you around high school.”

“All my friends had a crush on you,” I blurted before I could think about how weird it would sound coming out of my mouth.

He laughed, a warm, full sound that was dangerously addictive.

“Is that so?” He shook his head. “That’s crazy.”

“Why?” I cocked my head at him. “I mean, you can’t have been short on female attention. Stupid teenagers like that whole bad boy thing.”

“I was pretty oblivious back then,” he replied with a softer voice. “I didn’t notice much of what was going on.”

“Seriously?” I raised my eyebrows. “I always pictured you as going through ladies like cigarettes.”

“Hey, give me some credit!” He protested. “I wasn’t that bad. I only dated, like, two people in high school.”

“Really?” I wrinkled up my nose. “I remember it as a lot more than that.”

“When I was away in juvie I think there were a lot of…rumors going around about what I was and wasn’t doing,” he replied. “When I got out, the shit I heard about myself, you wouldn’t believe.”

“Seriously?” I shot him a look. “I guess I just…it was high school, and I was a freshman. I pretty much-believed anything anyone told me about you guys.”

“Yeah, I’ve been there,” he flashed me a smile. “So, what have you been up to since you left high school?”

“Oh, next to nothing,” I responded breezily. “Work, partying, boys. Not much in between.”

“Sounds fun,” he remarked.

“You?”

“Oh, the same,” he teased. “Maybe fewer boys, though.”

“Really?” Sitting opposite him now, I couldn’t see him as much of a partier.

“Nah,” he shook his head. “After juvie, I pretty much quit partying. I just felt so…I don’t know, I didn’t want to miss any of the rest of my life out, you know?”

“I guess,” I mumbled, looking at my nails. This was all hitting a little too close to home for my liking.

“I would just be drunk or high all the time, and that didn’t feel like the best way to live my life,” he continued. “No judgment, I know loads of people can handle their substances. I just didn’t like who I became when I was on them.”

“Yeah, I get it,” I sighed, and I did. I could relate to all of that more than I cared to admit to.

I had spent so much of the last few years blitzed out of my fucking brain, and it was starting to get…old.

Maybe it was Dad passing, but I wanted to make the most of every second I had on this Earth while I still could.

I had assumed all this time that Logan would be the biggest party animal on the block, but here he was telling me that was the last thing he wanted - it was a surprise, a wake-up call. I slid down in my seat, my brain ticking over.

“You okay?” He frowned out at the road. My silence was obviously more telling than I’ve have liked it to be.

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” I assured him.

I didn’t want him reporting back to my Mom that I was having some kind of spiritual awakening because the two of us had gone to pick up compost together.

We spent the rest of the car ride laughing about all the crap we remembered at high school - all the teachers we’d both fallen out with, all the notorious students who’ve ended up written into legend, all the clubs, and the sports clubs and the teams we’d been a part of.

I spent most of my time with people who hadn’t known me in high school (and with good reason, considering the pointedly nerdy credentials I’ve accumulated as a teenager), and there was something comforting about talking to someone who knew what I was talking about for once.

“…I can’t believe I forgot about him,” Logan shook his head in disbelief after I reminded him of a shop teacher with a goatee that he would occasionally dye different colors because of his “quirkiness”.

“Oh, hey, we’re here!”

Logan opened my door for me again - it was kind of sweet how gentlemanly he was being, how sweet and kind.

I was used to the dudes around me only acting with any kind of decency when there was something in it for them - well, if as long as that something was sex or drugs.

Logan caught my hand as he helped me up, and I felt a little jolt pass between us as soon as our skin touched.

I thought about all the times that teenage me had dreamed of something like this going down between us, and smiled to myself. So, I would be doing something that she was proud of.

“What are you grinning at?” Logan asked teasingly, and I shook my head.

“Oh, nothing in particular,” I nodded in the direction of the store. “So, what are we getting?”

“Well, she said just compost yesterday, but then she said if we were both going, we might as well…” Logan trailed off as he produced an enormous list from his pocket, along with a handful of notes. I raised my eyebrows.

“Well, then,” I strode towards the store. “Looks like we’ve got some shopping to do.”