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"Maybe I'm scared because you mean more to me than any other person. You're everything I think about, everything I need, everything I want"

~Pinterest

Logan's POV

"Logan! Hurry up!"

"Just a minute, mom!"

My feet were fixated on my doorstep, my heart mourned from inside while my eyes scanned my house for one last time. It was my stepfather, Logan's house really but I had spent most of my life here and I attempted to memorise every single detail of it.

"Logan, get in the car, will you?" mom bellowed from the front-yard.

Mom was an extremely capricious individual, her moods changed ever so fast that it was hard to predict how to talk to her at different times. Sometimes she was caring and lovable and the next, she became harsh. During that situation, the 'harsh' part of her personality was very much in action.

Without another word, I obeyed her, dragging my heavy iron-clad feet across the front yard to reach the car she hired, promising that she would ship my brand new Toyota to Paris soon.

My fingers curled around the handle of the car door, feeling the freezing cold steel-blue metal numb my palm. For a few moments, I merely stared at my shivering hands until I was again confronted by mom.

"What're you doing?" she opened the door of the driver's side, glaring at me through her dark sunglasses "Logan, I know it's hard for you but we're late"

Please have mercy on my soul, mother. You have no idea how hard this is for me.

I longed for my father's presence; he used to be the only person on this land who was capable of talking my mother out of things.

Sliding onto the backseat, I shut the door behind me, watching my house for one last time as it flashed by and in a second, we were meters away from it.

It's funny how time goes by so quickly when you're attempting to cherish something.

And then the most horrific thing happened – we passed by Claire's house.

My head whipped in that direction, my hands clutching and crushing the leather material of the seat between my fingers, my nails scraping it furiously.

If my heart didn't slow down now, I was certain I would choke on my own breath.

I followed my gaze as her house went further and further away from me – wretchedly, I could do nothing so I just stared at it from the rear view mirror until my tears were the one blurring my vision.

I looked away to rub my eyes but when I looked back, her house was gone.

I turned away then, resting my back on the seat, feeling the scorching heat travel down my body as it burned the last of my hopes to ashes.

God, I wasn't prepared for this, I didn't know it would hurt so much.

I tried wiping my tears away before mom noticed them and begins to yell at me, teaching me principles to become a man.

I wasn't capable of learning anything at the moment; it was getting harder and harder for me even to learn that fact that I won't be seeing her again.

But I knew it was best that I stay away from her.

But at least I could talk to Addy; I texted her, telling her that I left my house.

She read it but didn't reply.

I wondered why. Maybe she was mad at me and she had all the right to be, after all, I denied listening to her even after she cried so much.

When we reached the International Airport, I got off the car and looked around while mom was on the phone. Everyone around me looked so happy. They hugged eachother goodbye, enthusiastically chatted and gleefully got their bags out of their cars.

Most of them were pretty noisy as they laughed hysterically along with their group, probably awaiting the experience of a tour.

And here I was, mourning my heart out. I ached to see her one last time, ached to kiss her just once again, ached to say goodbye in a proper manner.

"Okay, let's go!" Mom said as she delightfully loaded the bags on the luggage cart.

And I followed her inside.

Instantly, the cold, wintry gale of the air conditioning hit me and I felt frozen all over; a familiar feeling of fear gripped my throat like a hand threatening to gag me.

I took slow steps down the shiny, tiled floors of the gigantic hall, ignoring all the fuss going on around me. My eyes landed on the check-in counters and it was almost vacant at that moment. The guy behind the empty counter waved and greeted us. Mom began the process while my hands twitched impatiently.

Even though I knew I was nothing but a threat to Claire's life – she almost lost her life to a bullet yesterday, because of me – a part of me still wished to be with her.

For a moment, I hoped like a maniac for something ridiculously miraculous to happen and our flight gets cancelled or something even worse.

And then it happened.

"Logan!"

I strained my ears and shook my head a little; I was also hearing her voice now, that's funny.

"Logan!"

I turned around and jumped out of my skin.

My mouth dropped open and words failed me as I saw her saunter up to me from the entrance.

Claire stopped in front of me, gasping and catching her breath. I still couldn't believe my eyes as I gaped at her, trying to calculate if there was a problem in my vision.

It was like a movie, and just as cliché as they are, she would kiss me now.

But instead, she didn't something I didn't expect.

She slapped me.

She slapped me so fucking hard that the burn traveled down my neck and lingered in my heart for a bit longer.

I had no mettle to even look at her after what she did. Painfully, I let my eyes stay fixed on the floor.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she muttered as she gritted her teeth, clutching the collars of my tee "Explain this shit to me, you fuckin' asshole"

She was attracting a lot of attention from the people around and I had no courage to see the condition of my mom, but I didn't give two shits about it at that moment.

"So you're just going to leave me, huh?" she pushed me "I dare you to leave me! You fucking idiot! I hate you! I hate you so fucking much!"

She pushed me again but this time, she reached to slap me again. Before she could, I caught her wrist tightly, looking straight into her eyes, her remorseful eyes.

A tear slipped down her cheeks when I clutched he wrist tighter, drawing it away from my face.

Her face was crimson red, her eye sore from bawling out, I hated to see her like this, this was exactly what I was afraid of, what I've been trying to avoid – I didn't tell her so I didn't have to see her in this condition.

But if I had to face it now, then be it.

I still held her wrist while she broke down in front of me, placing her hand on her mouth. I had tried so hard not to cry but she was coaxing me now and keeping those tears in was harder than any math problem I had ever solved.

She stared into my eyes, breathing out "Explain...please"

My inner-self screamed at me: Explain to her why you're doing this, explain to her why she needs to stay away from you.

"Claire...I..." I fumbled for words even when I knew exactly what to say. I loosened my grip on her wrist but I didn't let it go, fearful that she would run away from me "...I'm sorry...I can't do this. I can't be with you anymore. All this 'love' and shit, it's not for me. I never wanted to do this in the first place"

"Then why'd you do it?" she asked, harshly "Why did you do it, Logan?!"

"Because I didn't want to break your heart! You were so fucking desperate, Claire! I had no choice–"

"Excuse me, desperate?" she spat "I told you I will wait for you! What part of that sounded desperate to you?!"

"Godammit! I'm just trying to stay away from you, can't you see?" I implored, letting go of her wrist "I can't...I just can't hurt you anymore. I'm so tired, I don't want to do this, please, let me go...let me get out of here..."

I squeezed my eyes shut, rubbing my temple to make this pricking pain fade away.

"Logan..." she said and my skin shivered as her hands gripped my face. I hadn't realized that I was crying until she wiped my tears "Logan, you don't hurt anyone. You're a gem, if not for others but for me, you are. Please don't go"

"You almost died yesterday, because of me, if that's not–"

"Carlton is an asshole, he's always been" she came closer to me "It wasn't your fault"

"I need to go, Claire"

"No you don't, I won't let you"

I gripped her hands that were touching my face and drew them away from me "I'm sorry...I love you" saying that I backed away from her and the moment I turned around, she said something.

"I knew you wouldn't listen, that's why I brought someone with me"

The depth in her tone, and the slight nuance of anger that lingered in her voice made me turn around to look at her.

Once again, I had to strain my eyes to perceive what I was seeing as my stepfather walked to her side.

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Do tell me what you thought of this chapter! Could you feel what Logan was feeling?

And about the spin-off, it'll be up after I complete this book but I won't begin writing it for a while.

Congratulations and big thanks to you for making it this far! There are legit only 3 chapters left, including epilogue :)

Do show me love by voting! It really helps me out ^^ Love you guys!

Love, K

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