Looking High and Low

Looking High and Low

****

The next day, Logan found himself walking through the small amusement park that stood on the outskirts of Azure Rock. With spring break in full swing, the park was filled with teenagers and young children accompanied by a parent or two. The noise and bustle allowed Logan to walk almost unnoticed among the crowd, something for which he was grateful. This was one of the few places that didn’t remind him of Sharon; they never came here, mainly because she hated the place. 'Too many brats,' she would say.

He barely took in the sights, lost in his thoughts as his mind insisted on playing over and over the events of the last few days and the highlights of his past. Knowing what he knew now, he wondered how he had missed the signs, then again, he reminded himself how could he have known.

He took a ride on the Ferris Wheel and took in the sights of the park from above, the waterslide, the crazy teacup ride, the haunted house, the food trucks, and more. From up here, everything looked so different. Like his life, he reflected.

Yesterday, Bonnie’s information had been an eye-opener for him. He never realized just how much went on in the world. Like Heather purposely dropping hints so that she would show up in TattleRock, the number of rumors running around, and how much went on behind the scenes. Like his parents… affair with Chastity. ‘Is that what it’s called?’ he wondered as the Ferris Wheel climbed.

Last night he had spent a few hours talking with his father. Really talking. He learned that what his parents had with Chastity was very different from what his uncle Robert had with Leah. Robert and Leah seemed to be only interested in seducing other women. They weren't really interested in the women themselves. It was the 'thrill of the chase', his father had called it. With Chastity, it was more like a close friend who was always there to listen and lend a helping hand, and something more.

He still found it hard to understand. Especially after hearing it was his mother's idea. Chastity had been almost as shocking, She had such deep wisdom wrapped in such simple words, it had really hit him in a way he never expected.

Another thing that had haunted Logan was Bonnie’s surprising secret. He had wondered how far he could believe her, or even if he should believe. That was until his father reminded him of their conversation a few years ago, when he had mentioned his plan to distract Dylan from bullying Zack and Chloe and his other classmates. ‘Remember? I told you things like that can come back and bite you in the ass,’ his father had told him last night. And he finally realized that he really didn’t have anyone else to blame for his fame but himself. He had even asked his friends to help spread that same rumor.

How different was that from Heather going out of her way to show up in TattleRock? Besides, he thought, Bonnie was good enough not to publish anything about his few dalliances with some of his classmates and had even held off from writing anything about Sharon and her trysts with Charlie or any of the others. ‘Had she really fucked one of their teacher?’ he wondered and filed away that detail to ask Hannah if she knew if it was true or not.

And he couldn't deny that it felt good when she said he was the only one who could stop Dylan. It really felt good.

The ride finally came to an end, and he got out and started walking around again. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket again. He had avoided answering it all morning; he didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Hello, Logan,” he heard someone call his name. Turning around, he was surprised to see Keiko Nomura and her friend, Akira Saito. Both were wearing snug shorts and tight, cut-off t-shirts that helped show off their curves and put on display plenty of cleavage for him to see.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, a bit surprised that they had shown up here.

“Told you we were traveling, seeing the sights and all,” Keiko smiled and laughed.

“Where friends? Why Alone?” Akira asked and looked up at him as she stood next to him on his left. Keiko slid up to his right. He was suddenly aware of how close both girls were.

“There… around somewhere,” Logan said. It was a lie, but it seemed that something inside his head was poking him, trying to get his attention about the two girls.

“Oh! Really?” Keiko said as both girls started walking next to him. Logan could feel their arms brush against his, as if inviting him to open up to them. For a moment, he felt the urge to do exactly that and wrap his arms around their waist. “Can you show us around while you wait for them?” Keiko asked as she lightly placed her hand on his arm.

“Sure,” Logan said as they started to walk. He felt something was off. No. He knew something was off. Maybe it was his recent breakup with Sharon, or what he had learned from Bonnie, but he knew that this time he wasn’t going to be swayed so easily by a sexy body, or two.

But even as he glanced sideways at both girls and saw the cleft of their cleavage with its flawless skin, he couldn’t help feeling his cock stir in his pants, and he knew it was going to be hard. So very hard.

They walked around, making small talk along the way. Logan pointed out a few places in the park and mentioned a few other places the girls could visit in Azure Rock. A few times, he felt Keiko or Akira brush their fingers against his, as if inviting him to take their hand. He wondered if it was because of the occasional bump from the crowd or if it was on purpose.

Then, his eyes caught something, a glimpse of gold among the crowd. He felt a wave of relief. “Sorry Keiko, Akira, I just saw my friends over there,” He said, taking a few steps away from the two Asian beauties. “I’ll see you around later! Bye!” he left the two women watching him in confusion as he hurried away.

“Thank god you two came here,” Logan said with relief as he approached Bonnie and Scarlett. “What are you two doing here?” he asked.

He wrapped his arms around their waist as he led them away from the other two girls. Scarlett, true to form, was again decked out in her usual rock-style, boots with a band t-shirt, but she had switched the ripped jeans for a short denim skirt that showed off he toned legs. Bonnie had left behind her Bavarian waitress uniform for a pair of tight white and red stretch pants and a red and white loose-fitting cut-off sweatshirt. But she still wore her thick blond hair braided in matching tresses.

“Looking for you,” Bonnie said, wrapping her own arm around his waist.

“Really?” Logan asked.

“Well, we wouldn’t have to come looking for you if you’d answered your phone,” Scarlett said, mimicking Bonnie’s action from the other side.

“Thanks guys, you didn’t have to track me down,” Logan feebly tried to protest, “but I’m really glad you did.” Still, he couldn’t deny it felt nice having both girls next to him. It felt so different from having Keiko and Akira at his side. This felt natural, it felt comforting.

“Hey, we were worried about you,” Bonnie added, a bit worried from her side. “We thought you didn’t want to talk to us, after... yesterday.”

“Yeah, we did,” Scarlett agreed, “Then we thought you were sleeping in,” she added.

“But Grace tracked you down here, and we thought we’d come find you,” Bonnie added.

“Wait?” Logan asked a bit confused, ”Why was Grace tracking me?”

“I, er, we, em,” Bonnie started to say, but Scarlett cut her off.

“We were looking for you, but we couldn’t find you, so we asked Grace if she could, ya’know, track you down,” Scarlett explained with a bit of a nervous smile that looked cute on her.

“Well, you found me, and I’m glad that you did,” Logan said with some relief.

“Why? What happened?” Bonnie asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Logan quickly explained his unusual encounter with the two exchange students and Scarlett also remembered that she had seen them their night at the Siren’s Song and thought she saw them near the beach house but hadn’t given it much thought.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Bonnie said, raising her eyebrows, “be right back!”

Logan and Scarlett watched Bonnie dash off with her phone in her hand. They started following her, but a few minutes later she rejoined them with a grin, “Got a picture of them,” she said triumphantly, taking her place at Logan's side once more, “Maybe Grace can whiz up her magic and see who they really are.”

“Okay, but what was so important that you had to come looking for me?” Logan asked.

“Like we said, first we were worried about you,” Scarlett said.

“Yeah,” Bonnie said, “Then Grace called us. She couldn’t get in touch with Vicky or Heather, and for some reason, she couldn’t get Gavin either, so she asked me if I had any news about Chloe or Zack.”

“I couldn’t get in touch with them either,” Bonnie continued. “Have you heard from Heather? Last thing anyone heard from them was like two days ago.”

“Well, there was that storm last night,” Logan offered.

“Yeah, we mentioned that to Grace,” Scarlett added, “But Grace said she couldn’t get a _ping _on Gavin’s satellite dish, whatever that means, so we thought we’d ask you.”

Logan took out his phone and saw he had a bunch of messages from both girls and a few from Grace and a text message from Sharon asking where he was and not to enjoy Scarlett too much. But nothing from Heather or her friends.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bonnie asked, looking over his shoulder.

“We,” Logan started to say, “Well, Scarlett thought that if she came with me yesterday Sharon and the others would think I had gone off with Scarlett somewhere.”

“Oh,” Bonnie said dryly, but she managed to see Scarlett mouth the words, ‘tell you later.’

“She doesn’t know we caught her with Charlie,” Scarlett said, her voice laced with bitterness, “Why let the traitors know we know.”

“So nothing from Heather?” Bonnie asked, seeing the pain in Logan’s eyes and steering the conversation away from the redhead.

“Nothing for the last...two or three days,” Logan said, “that’s not like Heather.”

“Let’s get back to Grace,” Scarlett offered, “maybe we can all find out what happened.”

“Let’s go,” Logan said, and the three of them walked out to the parking lot, their arms around each other’s waist, and climbed into Scarlett’s car.

“Will it start?” Bonnie grinned at Scarlett after it failed to turn over the first time.

“Harr! Harr! Very funny,” Scarlett growled back without any malice as she pumped the gas a bit, and the car roared to life. "YEAH!"