Chapter 5 - Breaking Down the Options

That same day, Logan continued to hang out with Sebastian and Cody while Ashley spent some time with Heather, and Isabella went out to meet her own friends. But later towards the evening, before she went home, Ashley stopped by Logan’s room on the third floor of the Manor and found him on the comfortable couch in front of the large TV as he played a game. Isabella was lying on his bed next to Orion, lazily kicking her feet in the air.

“Hey, there!” She cheerfully said, plopping down next to the younger girl while her brother paused the game.

“Hi, Ash,” he smiled, standing up and walking closer to the bed. “Thought you had gone home already.”

The young man’s room was spacious, the floor made of hardwood and navy-blue carpet and the walls decorated with a wallpaper of the same color and paneled wood. His bed was large and comfy, and there also were bookshelves, a large desk, and a few couches and armchairs in strategic spots. Glass doors led to a balcony outside, and he had his own bathroom as well.

“Nah, was discussing some cheerleading routines with your cousin,” she replied, and then turning to Isabella, she added. “We should pass everything to you and the others on practice next week.”

Isabella nodded with a grin. Being only a sophomore, she was in the cheerleading squad, though, and was often touted as a future captain. “Can’t wait, I’m enjoying cheerleading more than I thought I would,” she admitted.

“Good, that’s the spirit!” Ashley chuckled, fighting the urge to reach over and ruffle her hair. She often forgot that, even though the brunette was still Logan’s little sister who always followed them around, they were all grown up now.

Not that Logan noticed when he walked closer, she was his little sister, after all. She was already quite beautiful, though, and boys of all ages probably already noticed that. She hadn’t gone on any dates yet, not that he knew of.

“Hope Heather’s not overworking you two,” Logan jested as he stood near the bed, crossing his arms.

“Not at all, but the year’s still young,” Isabella snickered, a few strands of her chocolate-colored hair falling in front of her eyes.

Ashley joined the laughter, knowing that as the year went by and the need to impress at the sports games grew with it, Heather was very likely to increase their practice time. “Anyways, did you take a better look at it?” She nodded at the binder she had given him earlier, lying on the bed next to Isabella.

“Just a little bit,” he relaxed his stance. “Full honesty? It looked a bit overwhelming to me, Ash. How did you find so much about those girls like that?” He asked with a teasing grin. “I’ve never seen you hanging out with some of them.”

“Well, a magician never reveals her tricks,” Ashley proudly declared before her expression took on an eager look. “Do you wanna discuss them? Might help you decide which ones to invest your time into,” she suggested. “Clock’s ticking, you know?”

He let out an amused laugh. “Before we get into that, I was meaning to ask. You had a binder ready for me, but opened it up for Seb and Cody too,” he said. “Don’t you have specific binders for each of them stashed somewhere as well?”

Ashley gave him a sheepish look. “I… might have, but I don’t think they’re ready for that yet,” she admitted. “I hope they prove me wrong, but until they do, let them try their luck with the ones I selected for you. I think Cody and Seb need a more specific kind of girl, so let’s see how they do here first, okay?”

“Makes sense,” Logan conceded, nodding to himself. “So, you wanna start?”

“Let me read it for you guys,” Isabella snatched the binder before Ashley could. “I’m getting bored, anyway, and discussing my brother’s impending love life sounds like it can be fun.”

“Oh, glad we can keep you entertained, Milady,” Logan laughed, getting a tongue stuck at him in return.

Ashley was still laughing softly, but then she put on a more business-like expression and motioned toward Isabella. “Okay, Bella, you can start.”

“Alright, ma’am. From the Music Club, we got… Scarlett Soren,” Isabella began, and then raising a confused eyebrow, she turned to Ashley. “Wait, really?”

“Scarlett…, she’s ho… good-looking,” Logan started, but corrected himself once he remembered he was with girls and not with the guys. “She’s really fun, but I’m not sure I see girlfriend material there.”

Ashley shrugged. “She can surprise you, I think,” she explained, but there wasn’t full certainty in her tone. “Maybe two beasts can tame one another?”

Scarlett was one of Paris’ closest friends, Logan briefly thought as he began to slowly pace through his room. They flirted heavily with each other whenever the guitarist came to the mansion to visit Paris, but he couldn’t remember ever seeing her with a boyfriend, so perhaps she was all about having fun? Either way, it was hard to tell, and he said so.

“Hmm, hard to tell, I guess,” he conceded. “But if she’s up for it, maybe it can be fun?”

“That was my logic on her,” Ashley nodded. “Go on, Bella.”

“Alice Phillips, from the newspaper,” the younger girl obeyed before her face took on a pensive expression, her fingers rubbing her chin. “Hmm, you know, I can see this one. If… Victoria doesn’t put up any objections. I know they’re not that tight.”

“Yeah, but another one of Paris’ friends, Ash?” Logan chuckled.

The blonde cheerleader grinned as she shrugged. “Can’t help it if your cousin has a good finger.”

“I’ll tell her you said that,” Logan laughed, causing his sister to burst into laughter as well, while Ashley just shook her head in a mix of amusement and disapproval.

The young man then nodded to himself. Alice had an air of sophistication about her that intrigued him, and coupled with her good looks and brains, made for quite the fetching combo in his opinion. Logan often figured that if Vicky was better friends with her fellow rookie reporter, he probably would have made a move already. That is, if Paris didn’t make any objections to him sniffing around her closest friends.

“Let’s just say she checks out a lot of boxes for me,” he said, throwing a grin toward his blonde friend. “I’ll keep her in mind.”

“That’s why I picked her, I knew you two would match,” Ashley agreed, and it kind of looked like she wanted to say something else but stopped herself just in time. She then turned to Isabella, a satisfied expression in her cute features. “You know what? This is fun! Hit us with another one, Bella.”

“Alright,” Isabella chuckled, kicking her feet a bit faster. “Third one comes from the soccer team. Here, Ashley picked two options. Bonnie Schmidt or Chloe McRose,” she said. “Hmm, from those two, I’m only a bit familiar with Bonnie. Again, Par is friends with her.”

Ashley’s eyes widened. “I swear this wasn’t intentional.”

Logan laughed at that. “No worries. Well, alright, my take is similar to Bella’s. I know Bonnie through Paris and she’s kinda interesting…, good-looking too,” he stopped himself in time again before he could say ‘hot’ or ‘sexy’. “As for McRose, I don’t think I ever talked to her. She’s really cute, though…, determined…, scores lots of goals.”

“I was kinda friends with Chloe in elementary school, if you can remember,” Ashley commented. “We drifted apart later, but she’s always been a sweet girl.”

“Kinda different from Scarlett and Alice, though, don’t you think?” He inquired, wanting to hear her logic on this one.

Ashley kicked off her sandals and pulled up her bare feet on the bed, changing into a cross-legged position. “That’s the point, we gotta get you different kinds of girls that might also be compatible with you,” she explained, giving him a pointed look with her baby-blue eyes. “You’d do well to consider that when picking the ones you’re gonna approach.”

“She’s got a point, Loggy,” Isabella nodded, agreeing with that train of thought.

“I can see that,” he conceded, gesticulating at his sister. “Hit me with another one, Bella.”

“I’m not sure this is a group, I think it’s more like a clique, though I’ve never seen her hanging out with them,” Isabella pondered. “From the Rich Girls, there’s Margot Montclair.”

Logan let out a whistle at that name. “Okay, now there’s a really good-looking one.”

Ashley giggled at her old friend’s assessment. “Bella is correct. The Rich Girls aren’t exactly a clique, though most of them seem to circle around Veronica Stone and Portia Lennox. Margot doesn’t, though.”

“She’s really quiet too,” Logan added. “I talked to her a few times at those parties the families throw all the time, but she’s just polite and… yeah, quiet. Loves her music.”

“Heather says she never saw her with a boyfriend or anything resembling one,” Ashley commented. “So, yeah, it might be hard if you pick her.”

I know something that’d be hard near her, Logan thought with a smirk.

“Don’t make those faces, there are kids in the room,” Ashley warned in a teasing tone.

Isabella giggled. “I’m just two years younger than you two, I know why he’s making that face,” the younger sister jested. “Let’s move on… ohhh,” she laughed hard. “Good luck with this one, bro!”

Ashley caught a peek at the page she had landed on and snickered as well. “Oh, yeah. I just added her to have an option from each club,” she admitted. “I don’t expect you to go for her. You’d be just wasting your time.”

“Damn, who is it?” Logan inquired, impressed at both of them denying that option so hard. It only made him curious.

“The last one in Par’s closer clique, Grace Smith,” Isabella announced with some poise. “But last time I checked, she hated your guts for some reason.”

“Uhn, yeah… that one’s not happening… at all,” Logan awkwardly admitted, and when the two girls looked pointedly at him for details, he relented. “She already hated me, as Bella said, but… she was kinda the one who caught me and Shar.”

Ashley chuckled and covered her mouth with a hand. “Holy shit, Logan!”

“Language around the kids, Miss Woodsen,” he couldn’t help but banter back.

“Hey! No kids in the premises,” Isabella pouted again. “Unless you mean Orion,” she reached back and patted the napping cat’s head.

Ashley bit her bottom lip, knowing now that her two close friends had been regularly having sex for the past couple of years made her a bit hot and bothered, and she had to readjust her sitting position to quench that thought. She knew that Logan was active, obviously, but she unconsciously thought of it as if she just had a sexually active brother. It wasn’t like her real actual sister wasn’t a bit of a wild child either. Now, confronted with reality, it was kind of difficult to keep thinking like that. Maybe I can just say I’ve got a hot brother? She wondered, her medium-sized breasts rising and falling under her tank top.

Oblivious to the silence, Bella let out a brief sigh and continued. “Next we’ve got the drama club. Oh, a couple different names here.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve actually sounded out Maddie for this one,” Ashley admitted, shaking the cobwebs off her brain. “We’ve got Collette Kimble and Penelope Tisdale. Both sweet girls, but Penny’s a bit more reserved and standoffish and Collette’s actually quite sweet.”

“Hmm, I’ve talked to Collette in class a few times. She’s quite beautiful,” Logan tried to summon up memories of past interactions. “Penelope’s insanely gorgeous, but yeah, I don’t think I ever saw her talking to people other than her close friends and very rarely to Brandon and his buddies.”

Brandon and Madison Cole were twin siblings that were acquaintances of Logan, Heather, and their inner circle, their parents being old friends with the twins’ mother, but they weren’t exactly in it, having their own groups of friends instead.

“Collette’s in the dance team too, so keep in mind Heather might not like you going for her,” Ashley warned. She thought the rivalry Heather had established with the dance captain was a bit silly. Didn’t the cheer squad and dance team exist for the same reason, after all?

“I’m curious, no Madison in this list?” Logan inquired with a smile. “She’s a top name in the drama club.”

“Let’s just keep going through the list,” the petite blonde grinned enigmatically.

“Oh, and we’re actually in the dance team now, color me impressed,” Isabella giggled as she flipped to the next page. “Donna Morrison! Damn, Ashley, that’s freaking bold of you,” she laughed even harder. “And Lydia Spade, that’s our cousin!”

Logan raised a teasing eyebrow. “Did Hannah smuggle you something from Mistwood when you wrote this list?”

Ashley rolled her eyes. “I know Heather would definitely give you hell for considering this, but I’ve seen how you and Donna are often flirting around. IF she’s not just trying to wind your cousin up, then it can be a similar situation to Scarlett’s, two… beasts taming each other,” she explained, going a bit breathless when saying ‘beasts’. “And Lydia is a very distant cousin for it to really be a dealbreaker. I’ve heard she’s a pretty normal girl, and maybe normal is what you need, Logan.”

Logan sighed, Lydia was a beautiful girl, but even with the family connection, he hadn’t talked to her at all for several years. Her or her cousin who recently came back to town. Her mother was from the same family as his mother, the Bishops, but they were like fourth or fifth cousins, if that was even a thing. As for Donna, she was quite fun and insanely sexy, yes, but something always stopped him from really making a move. Perhaps his unwillingness to possibly make Heather sad.

“We’ll see, Donna is… something, and Lydia…, I have other options,” he said. “I guess we’ll see what happens.”

“Honestly, I think not even you would be this crazy, but well… what do I know?” Isabella winked at her brother, still kicking up her feet. “Which finally leads to our turf, the cheer squad, woohoo! I can definitely see you with this one.”

“Let me guess,” Logan interjected before Ashley could speak. “Madison?”

Ashley softly laughed, pushing a strand of her blonde tresses behind an ear. “Yeah, I saved her as the cheer squad option for a few reasons. Sharon caused all of this, and reflecting on it, I think you two would already have gotten together for real if it was going to happen. I can be wrong, though.”

It hurt for Logan, hearing such honesty about Sharon. From another old friend, no less. He knew she was right, though.

“There’s Tanya, but I know you’ve been with her at least once, so that crosses her out. Amber has real feelings for you, as you well know, so just for the possibility of hurting her if this doesn’t work, we can’t really consider her,” the blonde began explaining. “Heather’s your cousin, so she’s out by default.”

“What about you?” Isabella asked, as if it was the most obvious question in the world.

Both Logan and Ashley spluttered at this, but he recovered sooner, so he just awkwardly grinned at his little sister. “Bella… uhn, Ashley and I would be kinda like me dating you.”

The younger brunette shrugged, noncommittally. “So? It didn’t stop you with Sharon.”

Logan exchanged a quick look with Ashley, failing to notice how she blushed and fell quiet at the question and the sudden scrutiny. “Ah, hell…,” he scratched the back of his neck, suddenly nervous about the answer. Heather had asked a similar question the day before and he left it unanswered. “It’s hard to explain with Sharon. I think rules don’t apply when it comes to her,” he tried to choose his words. “When you fall for someone, you’ll understand, I think.”

“So, Madison?” Ashley interrupted, eager to put that subject behind them. “What do you think?”

Logan quickly switched the gears in his mind, happy to focus on something else as well. “Well, she’s really fun, gorgeous, I know her well, there’s not the same level of closeness that I have with you guys…,” he counted on his fingers, smiling as his dick stirred at the thought. “I dunno, I think the idea has potential. Her dad could be a problem, though.”

“Well, I know you’re not afraid of angry fathers,” Ashley leaned in with a challenging grin.

Isabella smiled as she watched it, her head cocking to the side. “She has a point.”

“But I think Madison would require more time to do this properly. I’d never want her to think I just took her for a one-and-done date,” Logan explained. “If I went for Maddie, I’d need to focus solely on her, and I don’t have much time in case it doesn’t work.”

Ashley clicked her tongue and scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, I think you might be right,” she admitted, possibilities running through her own mind. “How many days do we have until the dance, anyway? We’ve been saying a month, but it’s not exactly A month, is it?”

“It’s more like forty days. Forty-five, tops,” Isabella explained. “They still need to schedule the Homecoming Game to know when the dance’s gonna happen.”

“So…, it can be a month and a half, then,” Logan pointed out. “Not as suffocating, but still not a lot of time.”

“Can give you more chances,” Ashley shrugged with a sympathetic smile toward her old friend.

“This is all of them,” Isabella reached the last page. “Why’s this one all covered up and redacted?”

“Uhn…, that’s the failsafe option,” Ashley fidgeted, a tone of uncertainty in her voice. “If none of the others work, I’m like 80% sure this one will. I just… don’t think we should consider this option yet, it needs to be a last resort.”

Isabella snorted, and then cocked her head to the side again with a suspicious look. “Is it you?” She repeated the question.

“Goddammit, Bella, I’m not in the binder!” The blonde blurted out, blushing a little bit again.

Logan was very curious about what girl his co-best friend thought was so compatible with him, but that she needed to hide who it was unless it was really necessary. He decided not to press, though, as he knew it made the petite blonde nervous. “It’s okay, Ash, you gave me a lot to think about already. Thanks for everything, you might just be a lifesaver.” He grinned wolfishly at her.

The cute cheerleader grinned back at her friend. “You’re welcome, I appreciate it,” he replied, crossing her arms for a moment. “I just knew I couldn’t let you suffer if there was a way I could help. I know you would’ve done the same for me.”

“You can bet your sweet little ass I would,” he laughed.

Isabella craned her neck to the spot Ashley was sitting. “Doesn’t look so little from where I’m standing.”

“Bella!” Ashley gasped, causing Logan to laugh even harder. “You’ve been hanging out with Heather too much. We gotta get Lori here and balance it out!”

The sophomore just stuck her tongue out and then turned to her brother. “Just so you can’t say I haven’t contributed with options, I know Holly would be pretty game to dating you.”

Logan smiled, nodding at her. “Thanks, Bella, but as great as Holly is, I don’t think I’d have the first clue on how I should act on a date with a younger girl.”

Holly was one of Isabella’s two best friends, and she had a huge crush on her friend’s older brother.

“I think you’d do great,” Ashley piped in. “But yeah, your self-control would need to be very much in check.”

“That’s exactly why I prefer not to,” Logan admitted. “Holly’s quite gorgeous, and I’m not sure I’d be able to stop her if she came at me with… all guns blazing or something like that.”

The two girls laughed at the mental picture, and then Isabella was the one who blushed this time. “I suppose this is also the reason I shouldn’t make an effort to have Sebastian asking me on a date?”

Logan and Ashley exchanged a panicked look and he quickly sat down next to his sister, with his blonde friend scooting closer from the other side. Ashley gave him a warning glance and he let out a long sigh.

“Bella,” he affectionately said, a hand landing on her shoulder. “I had no idea, d-do you… like Seb?”

The younger girl just shrugged for a moment, and then sighed as well. “I don’t see imaginary fireworks, nor my heart stops when I see him, if that’s what you’re asking,” she shyly answered, tilting her chin down a bit so her hair could hide the pink blush on her cheeks. “I just get a bit flustered around him sometimes, like earlier when he was shirtless downstairs.”

Logan wanted to scream in anger, the fact that his beautiful little sister was interested in a guy sounded plainly disgusting to him. But then again, this was Seb, one of his best friends, and then on the other hand, he knew what Sebastian liked in girls, because he could be the same sometimes. Honestly, he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole if it meant the end of this conversation.

“Oh,” Ashley nodded in understanding, making the situation even worse. “Uhn…, it might be just a physical thing, a reaction to a good-looking guy half-nude. Is Sebastian the first one you react to in this way?” She asked because sixteen was a little late to go into puberty. Yeah, this was definitely not puberty.

“I dunno, maybe,” Isabella shrugged again, unwilling to bring up older fantasies. “Is this just me reacting to him being sexy, then? Is that it?”

“Sounds like that, yeah,” Ashley chuckled.

At that moment, Logan felt a little bit lighter, and was grateful for his sensible friend’s presence there. He definitely wouldn’t be able to have that conversation with his sister. Or worse, for Heather to be the recipient of Isabella opening up herself. As much as he loved his cousin, he was sure Heather would tell her to wear an even shorter skirt and just plop herself down on Seb’s lap. He shivered in disgust at the mental picture.

“I get that way sometimes too, you know,” Ashley added, feeling like she could share and make Bella feel better. “Think it was easy for me to step into the gym earlier and see the two hunks I have for friends shirtless, with their muscles all out for anyone to see?” She meant it as a joke, but the memory of shirtless Logan made her squirm a bit on the bed.

“Oh, glad I could entertain,” Logan dryly said, crossing his arms.

Isabella laughed. “She’s right, you know? Watch where you do that kind of shit.”

“Language,” laughing, Logan and Ashley said in unison, causing his younger sister to grin widely.

Ashley just smiled, happy that she could help and act as some kind of big sister figure for Isabella, even if the girl had quite a few others in her family. Her own older sister, as annoying as she could be sometimes, had always been there for her, and the petite blonde loved playing the same role for another girl.

“So, is this meeting of the ‘Find Logan a Real Date’ operation adjourned for today?” The dark-haired boy inquired with a smirk as the two girls returned it with a smile of their own.