Saving Logan

“Oh my gods I hate this class so much,” I groaned under my breath. Across the room my friend Christian mimed shooting himself in the head. I smiled despite myself. It was just another day, another boring Spanish class, and another lecture from Ms. Lopez.

As I twirled my pencil around out of boredom I felt my phone vibrate silently within the confines of my book bag. My eyes flickered around the room, trying to figure out who was texting me, but everyone else was either about to fall asleep or doodling. I bent over my bag, pretending to search for another pen as my finger glided across the screen of my iPhone. The text was from my good friend Brandon, who was in Vegas at the moment.

Brace yourself.

“What?” I whispered to myself, confused. Why would he be telling me to brace myself? It was him that needed to watch his back…

BANG!!! The door to the classroom crashed open so hard that the doorknob smashed a hole through the drywall.

Our class jumped collectively and one girl let out a small shriek. Ms. Lopez was so startled that she dropped everything she was holding. I stared at the person standing in the doorway, not believing my eyes. “Alex? What in Hades are you doing here?” I asked, standing up and walking over to her.

“Just in the neighborhood, thought I’d stop by,” she said, out of breath as if she’d just run a mile.

“And perform a shock-and-awe on the door to my Spanish class?”

“Oh, yea, sorry about that,” she said smilingly, half to me and half to Ms. Lopez.

At that point my teacher found her voice, and spluttered, “Mandy, who is this?”

“Oh, sorry. Everybody this is my good friend Alexandra Daddario. Alex, this is my Spanish class.”

“Hi guys. Hey Mandy, is there anyway we can talk in private really quickly?” Alex asked me.

“Oh, yea sure. Ms. Lopez, could we talk in your office for just a minute?”

“Of course Mandy, but hurry,” my teacher said, picking up the books that she had dropped when Alex came in.

“Thanks.” I grabbed my friend’s hand and pulled her through the door of the office, shutting it behind us. “Ok, what’s up?”

Alex plopped down in the chair and started twiddling her thumbs, “Well… It’s Logan.”

My heart stopped. “What? What about Logan? Is he ok?”

“He’s fine,” she said quickly, “But I’m worried about him.”

Maybe I should explain a little bit first. I’ve known Alexandra Daddario since I was eleven. She’s one of my best friends in the whole universe. She’s also kind of famous. Right now she’s filming a movie with two of my other favorite people in the world, Brandon Jackson and Logan Lerman. It’s based on a book called Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It's one of my favorite book series ever, and it's the reason I got into Greek mythology in the first place; hence all of the references to the stuff. I’m kind of super excited for the movie. Anyway, moving on:

“Why are you worried about him?”

“He’s been really down lately. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. It’s like he’s depressed. The last time I saw him happy was in Nashville, and that was almost three weeks ago.” Alex’s eyes shifted, glancing around the office, almost like she was looking for something.

“Well, did you talk to Jen?” I asked. Jennifer Jacobs was Logan’s girlfriend, though I heard they weren’t exactly on fantastic terms right now, but maybe that was just wishful thinking; I wasn’t very fond of Jen. She wasn’t good for Logan.

“No, they’ve been fighting lately, so I didn’t think I should take it to her.”

“Why me? Why not Brandon or Jake?” Jake Abel, another good friend, also filming with Logan, Alex, and Brandon.

“I think he needs you right now Mandy. He needs your outtake on life. Like, a break from being Logan Lerman, the actor playing Percy Jackson. He just needs a few days to be Logan, Mandy’s best friend since Pre-K,” Alex said. Her expression was almost fragile, like if I said no, she would break into a million pieces. Her eyes pleaded; I could read the desperation there.

I sighed, “Ok, when do we leave?”

Alex didn’t answer but grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the office, through the door of the classroom, which was barely hanging on its hinges, and down the hallway. “Alex, what the heck?” I exclaimed, not caring how many classes I disturbed. I dug my heels into the carpet, refusing to be pulled any further.

“Mandy, I was just waiting for you to say yes. We have to go now!” She pulled harder, but I didn’t budge.

“Why? Why do we have to go right now? Can’t I at least go get my book bag?”

“No, we need to go, our plane to Vegas leaves in an hour and a half!”

“What?!?!?” I screeched.

The door to the sophomore honors English class across the hallway opened and my boyfriend James popped his head out to check out the noise. “Mandy? What’s going on?” he asked.

“Alex is trying to drag me off to Vegas to help Logan.” At the mention of Logan, I noticed the muscles in James’s jaw tighten. I knew that James had a thing against Logan, probably just because we were really close and I think he might’ve been a little jealous.

“Vegas?” he asked gruffly. “Why do you need to go to Vegas? Logan” he said, chewing on the consonants in his name, “is almost an adult. He can deal with his problems on his own.” His tone implied that Logan had a lot of problems.

“James, I don’t know what to do. Alex already bought the plane tickets and apparently he’s been out of it for weeks. I’m sorry, but I think I have to go.” I pulled Alex’s hand off my wrist and walked over to my loving, if slightly overprotective, boyfriend.

James sighed, “Please be careful,” he said, grasping my hand. I wound my fingers through his and stood up on my tiptoes to plant a firm kiss on his lips. His arms wrapped around my waist and he pulled me in, his lips lingering over mine. I could feel his calloused fingertips brushing against the exposed skin between my red school skirt and sweater. He pulled me in deeper and I lost the will and ability to think, or feel, or act. I just was, in that moment with James. Him, and me alone, the last two people on earth...

Until…

“Mandy, come on seriously, we need to go now!!!” Alex said, pulling me away from James.

“I love you,” I said, reaching out towards him as Alex pulled me further and further away.

“I love you Mandy,” he whispered, stretching out his hand. Our fingertips brushed against each other and I felt a familiar tingle in my stomach.

“Mandy!” Alex pulled harder.

I submitted to her will and allowed myself to be dragged down the hall, around the corner and out of sight.