Hiding Place

A groan escaped my lips as I blindly reached towards my alarm clock to smack the snooze button. Out of habit, I always set my alarm fifteen minutes earlier than I needed to get up so I could justify pressing the snooze button. It was messed up logic, but it worked for me. But having an alarm go off at quarter to six in the morning? That was plain torture. Although, I suppose having a workout at seven could be torture also.

It definitely did not help that Logan and I got back to my apartment at just after eleven and stayed up for an hour talking. I was not built to function on five hours of sleep. I love sleep. If I had the choice, I would get out of bed at six-thirty, throw on my workout clothes and drink the smoothie Danielle made and have a banana in the car on the way to campus.

Of course, I don’t have the choice. I live with the captain of the team and she has additional responsibilities, which have partly become my responsibilities also. I never thought that carpooling would be a terrible thing, but it’s turning out to be so, at least this season it is. The few times our class schedules don’t line up are the only times we don’t carpool.

I rolled over and tried to get comfortable for the last eight minutes of sleep. There was a good chance I could get away with a second snooze button, but Danielle would likely come into my room and yell if I wasn’t out of bed before six in the morning. I decided that I needed to invent a half snooze button. One and a half snoozes would be ideal right now.

The way I slept could be described as anything but graceful, especially when I had a large amount of space to myself. I was on my side on the far side of my bed, away from the door, with my face practically buried into my pillows.

My bedroom door opened slightly. I opened one eye to glance at the clock, it was six forty-eight, I still had six minutes left in my snooze and twelve minutes until I had to be out of my bed. “Danielle,” I groaned. “It’s not even close to six. I can still sleep.” I was tempted to grab one of my extra pillows and throw it at her, but I was too comfortable.

If it was Danielle who opened my door, she didn’t say anything. I heard the door click into place once more and someone was walking towards my bed. If she was going to jump on me, I was going to kill her. No questions, I was going to beat the shit out of her. Somehow I would find the energy to do that now.

The blankets lifted on the far side of my bed and rush of cool air made it’s way to me. I thought about rolling over and smacking her in the face with a pillow but then it hit me. Did Logan just crawl into my bed?

He insisted on sleeping on the couch last night because he wanted me to get a good sleep before the team workout this morning. The two of us were talking and laughing like old friends last night and we didn’t– at least I didn’t – want to jump into a situation that could be awkward. My preference was to take things slow, like he suggested back in May before we went our separate ways.

I realized it was Logan when I heard the faint whir of the blender in the kitchen. Danielle was up and making noise already. It must have been why he got up and came into my room. He didn’t need to be awake before six. Technically, he was still in the off-season.

Logan slid all the way to my side of the bed. He pressed his nose into my neck and wrapped his arm around my torso. “Danielle is really loud,” he mumbled as he made an effort to tangle his feet with mine.

“Mhmm,” I slightly bobbed my head in agreement. A content sigh passed my lips as Logan kept himself wrapped around me. I relaxed back into him despite the fact that my alarm was bound to go off again in five minutes. Right now, I didn’t want to get up and go to the workout. I wanted to stay right where I was with Logan wrapped around me.

Somehow the next five minutes passed at an impossible rate. I smacked my alarm again, but turned it off this time. No more snoozes for me. Logan groaned into the back of my neck and mumbled something that wasn’t in English.

Like clockwork, Danielle banged on my door. On a normal day, Danielle banged on the door and threw it open. She would add threats of dumping water on me if I didn’t get my ass out of bed. Instead she shouted through the door, “Emma get your ass out of bed right now! I don’t care that he’s in your room now. We have to go in forty minutes!”

My next challenge was getting out of Logan’s apparent death grip. I untangled my feet from his no problem, but his grip around my torso was near impossible to break. “Logan,” I whispered. “Logan I have to get up.”

He murmured again.

Desperation was starting to kick in. I didn’t want Danielle to bang on the door again. “Logan,” I spoke with sharpness to my voice. “You have to let me go. I’ve got a workout to go to and I’ll be back in like two hours.”

Reluctantly, he let me go. I nearly fell out of my bed but caught myself at the last second. I rummaged through my drawers and grabbed all the clothes that I would need for the workout before hurrying into the bathroom. Danielle was just about to head down the hall to bang on my door again.

Quickly I got changed and ready for the workout. Having a weights workout was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because I didn’t get a tonne of sleep last night. I felt kind of guilty for letting him sleep on the couch but it is a pretty comfortable place. Plus I was still in shock that he came back to California early to surprise me. Which also meant that weights were a curse. Because we were the same size and had roughly the same abilities, Danielle and I were partnered up for weight lifting. This meant that there would be ample time for conversation during the hour or so workout.

The drive to campus was silent as always. I was finishing the strawberry banana smoothie Danielle made me and she was eating a protein bar. Right now, I was certain that combined we looked like a million bucks as we walked into the athletics facility.

---

After that workout, I knew I was going to feel sore either later tonight or tomorrow morning. DOMS was out to get me again. Usually I welcomed the feeling, it meant that I worked hard and did my part to get better at my sport, but sometimes I didn’t want any part of it. Today was one of those days.

It was almost eight-thirty as Danielle and I headed back to her car. She was talking to Kirsten about something; the two of them had a class together as Kirsten’s emphasis was the same as Danielle’s. I pulled my phone out to check my email. The start of the semester meant a lot of emails from professors and their student assistants.

I stopped in the middle of the parking lot. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I let my head fall backwards and stared up at the slightly cloudy but blue sky.

“What’s wrong?” Danielle asked after she said bye to Kirsten.

“My class this morning was cancelled because the professor had to go down to San Diego last night. Now I don’t have class until noon,” I whined as I continued to walk to catch up to Danielle. Whenever my earlier classes got cancelled on days where we had early morning workouts, it made me whiny. I hated having a massive gap in between my schedule and this only made it worse.

She shook her head but there was a smirk on her face. “Actually this is perfect timing for you. Now you can go back and crawl into bed with Logan. Was that planned? Make me think that he slept on the couch all night but really he slept in your room?”

I punched her in the shoulder. “No, he didn’t sleep in my room. I was just as surprised as you were probably when he came into my room. I thought it was going to be you telling me to get up.”

We both opened the doors to her car and climbed inside. “Still, you can go back and crawl into bed with him right now. Assuming he’s still in your bed.” Danielle winked before starting up her car and backing out of the spot.

“Yeah because I’m sure that this is what he wants in the morning. A gross sweaty girl who just lifted weights for an hour and fifteen minutes, that’s obviously my idea of sexy,” I rolled my eyes.

“Shut up,” she deadpanned. “He would take you any way you wanted to be I’m sure.”

A sigh escaped my lips before I squirted more water into my mouth. “Oh really? And what makes you so sure about that?” This was so not the conversation I wanted to have this morning, but as always with Danielle, we were having it anyways.

Danielle let out one laugh before she went on one of her patented rants of wisdom; at least that’s what she called them. “Okay, let’s review here. One, you didn’t think he would be back in California until next week. He’s here now. Two, what did he do when he came back out here early? He came to see you. Three, he watched one of our soccer games. Enough said with that. Four, he took you to see the fucking Giants as a peace offering for whatever happened between you two last month. And finally, five, he crawled into your bed this morning when I was apparently making too much noise slicing bananas and strawberries.”

As usual, Danielle made several good points. I hated when she did that but it always happened. Somehow, out of the blue, she would pull all of this logic and sensibility out of her ass and make me realize something. Except right now, I wasn’t sure what she was trying to make me realize.

We pulled into her spot beside my car and jumped out. It looked like it was going to be a warm day in San Francisco, which made it even better that I had to wait around for class today.

“You know I’m right Emma,” her voice echoed as we went up the stairs to the third floor rather than wait for the elevator. “Thank god I have class at ten because I do not want to be around when whatever goes down between you two.”

I stopped in the middle of the stairs. “Will you shut up? You don’t know if anything is going to happen okay? So stop assuming that something will. For all we know, he’s still sound asleep.”

Danielle smirked. “He sleeps in just his boxers. Did you notice that? Cause I did when he dragged his feet to your room this morning. You’re a very lucky girl Emma Kennedy.”

“I am warning you right now Dan. One word out of you and I’m leaving you alone with him until you have to go to class.” I wasn’t exactly sure why I said that. It was an empty threat, it’s not like I would leave Danielle and Logan together. Where would I go?

Naturally my best friend saw right through it. “Yeah, yeah. Empty threats as usual Em.” She pushed past me and opened the door to the hallway where our apartment was. We were close enough to the stairway but far enough from the elevator. It was the perfect location. She slid her keys into the lock and opened the door. We were greeted with the smell of some sort of breakfast cooking.

The two of us piled into our apartment and looked right into the kitchen after I shut the door. Logan was standing there in a t-shirt and pair of shorts cooking some eggs on the stove. There was also the smell of bacon. I didn’t remember seeing bacon in our fridge. He turned and smiled at us both, “Good morning ladies. How was your workout?”

Danielle elbowed me and whispered. “You better make something happen between you two or you’re losing out big time.”

I was too stunned to move. She walked over to our dishwasher and put her smoothie container inside and smiled at Logan, “That smells great. I’m just going to hop into the shower.” She directed the last part of her comment at me and added a glare as she walked by.

Carefully I walked into the kitchen and put my container in the dishwasher. “Um, what spurred all this on?” I asked softly as I leaned against the counter.

Logan shrugged. “It’s nice to have breakfast waiting for you when you finish a workout. So I looked in the fridge and saw that I could make bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. I know it’s not crepes like you can make.”

My lips curled into a smile as I recalled that day in May. It was pretty much perfect apart from my running away from Logan after explaining why I did so the day before. Making breakfast with him and curling up on the couch to watch baseball all day was perfect.

“Do you want some help?” I watched as he shifted his attention back and forth between the bacon and the eggs. He was making scrambled eggs and the bacon was sizzling. Normally when I had two things that needed attention on the stove, I got Danielle to help me.

He shook his head, “It’s okay, I’ve got it. Besides you have class in what? About an hour and a half?”

“No, it got cancelled. I don’t have class until noon now. Dan has class at ten though.”

“Why was your class cancelled?”

I shrugged. “Professor had to go out of town. The email didn’t say much more. At least he thought to send out an email. I’ve had profs cancel class only by leaving a note on the door. It’s the worst when you go all the way there to find that.”

Logan laughed. “Yeah that would be frustrating. Do you want to scoop out the eggs and put them on a plate? I’ll finish up this bacon.”

Easily I moved past Logan. I grabbed a plate out of the cupboard and picked up the spatula off the counter to scoop the eggs out onto the large plate. I didn’t want to know how many eggs he used but there was a mountain of scrambled eggs that actually looked delicious. “Did you put cheese in these?”

He put a finger over my lips. “Shh, that’s my secret ingredient.” He had a smile on his face like he was holding back a laugh.

I laughed. “Oh it’s a real secret alright. I can see the cheese.” I pointed to a large chunk of cheese that managed to not be surrounded by egg.

Logan laughed again. “Putting all my secrets out in the open. Am I that bad of a guest?” He feigned shock.

“No, you’re a pretty good houseguest so far. Making breakfast will only help to put you in Danielle’s good books.” I put the eggs into the microwave to keep them warm. “I’ll start some toast. The bacon is almost done, right?”

He nodded and continued to dodge flying grease that would shoot out of the pan. I wondered why he didn’t cook the bacon in the oven like I had been taught to do or at the very least in the microwave. There was no need to play dodge the grease, it hurt like a bitch when you got hit too.

As soon as the last piece of toast was buttered, Danielle and I were in need of a new loaf now that six pieces were being used, Danielle came down the hallway with her hair wrapped up in a towel but ultimately dressed for class. “God I could get used to this,” she announced as she came back into the room.

I was still in my sweaty workout clothes. I decided it was a good time to have a shower, I wasn’t super hungry and if need be, I could always heat up my breakfast after I was done if it got too cold.

It was probably the second fastest shower of my life, only because Danielle was still in the apartment to keep Logan company. Quickly I dried off and got changed. My hair was twisted up in a towel like Danielle’s but I was not dressed for class. Therapeutic exercise was cancelled and biomechanics was a lecture, so I didn’t need to be in loose clothes for activity. Instead I pulled on a V-neck t-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans. I was keeping it simple today.

Logan noticed me first when I came back towards the kitchen. Everything was put away or in the sink soaking. “I made you a plate and put it in the microwave,” he called out. I smiled and retrieved my plate and grabbed some cutlery before joining my best friend and Logan at the table.

His plate was empty as was Danielle’s. I sat down across from Logan with a shy smile on my face. He grinned back at me. A sigh of relief escaped my lips because Danielle didn’t say a word about how Logan and I were acting.

As soon as I relaxed, I stretched my legs out a little bit so my knees weren’t completely bent. Of course, my feet collided with Logan’s. He smirked. I retracted my feet slightly as I could feel the heat rising on my cheeks. His response was to extend his legs a bit more and tangle our feet together.

“Okay, I’m out. You two are silently flirting now and that’s fucking weird. Besides I want a good parking spot seeing as I’ll be on campus until four this afternoon,” Danielle announced as she pushed out of her seat. She picked up the empty plates and dropped them off in the kitchen before heading down the hallway to get her stuff.

Logan leaned forward, “What does she mean silently flirting?”

I shrugged, “I have no idea what she’s talking about.”

Danielle came back down the hallway with her backpack and stopped at the couch. “What I mean is that you two keep looking at each other all googly-eyed and don’t think I haven’t noticed the ‘subtle’ attempts at physical contact. You two can’t fool me.” She unzipped her backpack and went to the fridge to get her lunch. “All I ask,” she continued. “Is that you two get whatever this is straightened out and out of your system so I don’t have to come home hearing you two. Got it?”

Logan and I nodded. It was kind of weird to have Danielle lay down the law like that, but it was what she did. She fixed things or made things right. She didn’t like the whole ‘will they won’t they’ crap. It was either yes or no with her.

“Good,” she looped her backpack over a shoulder. “Cause I’m getting sick of this Ross and Rachel thing you two have going on. See you later!”

When the door shut, Logan looked at me curiously. “What does she mean Ross and Rachel? I get the reference, but how are you and me like that?”

Of course Danielle had to leave the two of us with that comment. Of all the things that she could have said when leaving, she had to go with Ross and Rachel. Looks like clear everything up day has been moved to today.