It was a Tuesday morning, moving day for Logan and his family. Not that he was particularly excited about it though, he was leaving all his friends, favorite places, memories and the people he made them with behind. Apart from that, the idea of moving does not interest him because the topic has always been a bone of contention between his parents and always led to heated arguments.

No matter how hard he tried, Logan found it very difficult to forget a particular night the previous week when the argument led to his dad hitting his mom because she took a dig at his manly ego.

  His dad, Lucas Henderson, was, as usual, trying to show his wife, Melissa how bad an idea it was to move to New York. His point was that it was a really dumb move and that we would be throwing everything away to face an unsure life at the big Apple.

“This is a really dumb move, Melissa. How can we just move to New York without knowing what's in store for us and the kids. I think we need to think this through”.

“We? We are not throwing anything away.” Melissa said with a raised voice, anger and exasperation clearly visible on her face. She looked and sounded tired, and she confirmed that saying “ I'm sick and tired of all this.”
    Logan's dad had a dazed look on his face and he remained speechless looking like he couldn't quite believe what he'd heard.
   Logan remembered vividly how his Mom should have stopped there but she wasn't quite finished.
    “You know that we're moving because of my new job. And who are you to complain, it's not like you contribute in any way to the well-being of this family. You can't keep a job for up to a month because you either steal or destroy something. It's been over a month since you last had a job. All you do is drink and gamble. And you still have the nerve to stand against my efforts to try and give us a better life when you do nothing yourself.”
   Logan recalled vividly how his dad looked stunned, recoiled and staggered backwards as if dealt a physical blow. He was also shocked at that moment. His mom had always been the “gentle as a dove” type, always calm, subservient and quiet.
     But Logan could only give his mom credit though, for putting up with his dad for so long. Many other women would have divorced him a long time ago, but Melissa did not only stay with him, she gave him respect. She was always quiet with him. That night was the first time in Logan's life that he heard his mom raise her voice at his dad.

But that was a bad choice as Logan recalled. His dad recovered and advanced towards her with a menacing look in his eye and she stepped back. Because despite all what she'd said, she still feared him. Who wouldn't, Logan thought. The man was huge. Standing at 6'6, he had a broad body and rock hard abs, huge biceps and muscles all over his body.
   It took only one slap from him to send Melissa crashing to the ground. His palm was broad and thick. Logan remembered stepping out from his hiding place to stop his dad from delivering another blow to his house.

“Leave her alone dad, or do you wanna do some permanent damage to her?”
  
Logan recalls the look of pure shock on his dad's face. He didn't expect him to be there at the time and to be spoken to in that manner. He was clearly annoyed. He gave Logan the most terrifying glare ever which made his insides churn a little. But Logan stood his ground and returned the glare.

Logan's dad then shifted his gaze from Logan to his mom before muttering something inaudible and storming out the door.

Logan moved closer to his mom to comfort her as she was still on the floor sobbing. He held her hand to try and help her up when he noticed the hand marks on her right cheek. It was so deep and was beginning to turn into a dark purple bruise. It was familiar, he had seen one like it before on his mom's body.
   That was when realization hit him like a ton of bricks, and he could recall vividly the sinking feeling he felt at the depth of his stomach. That wasn't the first time his dad would be abusing his mom and the thought seriously angered him.

“Where's my phone”, he rambled,“ where's my f***ing phone?”

Looking up with an apprehensive look on her face, his mom asked in a barely audible voice, “ Why are you looking for it, don't tell me you want to call the cops on your dad.”

“Why shouldn't I”, he asked, “ he's been hurting you.”

“Please don't call the cops on your dad, Logan” she pleaded,“ he's still your dad no matter what he's done.”

He couldn't believe his ears. “ How can you still be defending that asshole”

“ Because he's still my husband and still your dad. And watch your language, young man”, she replied. He helped her to her room that night and she did not allow him to leave until he had promised that he was not going to call the police.

                    *******

Logan shook his head, he wasn't supposed to be dwelling on that night. If he continued dwelling on it, he won't be able to see the good prospects of the move.
   His mom got a better paying job in New York and that brought about the move. Of course, the first option wasn't for the entire family to move to New York, but when his mom found out that the company she was to work for had an apartment building which offered a reasonable discount in rent for employees of the company. Then it was sealed and the move was decided.

   So there he was sitting on his bed scrolling through his phone when he heard footsteps coming towards his room followed by a knock on the door.
    “Come in”, he said to whoever was at the door. He was pleased that members of his family had started giving him privacy. They stopped coming to his room unnecessarily and have started making sure they knock before they enter. The door opened and and his mom entered the room.
   “Good morning mom”, he greeted
   “Good morning Logan”, she replied stepping closer to his bed before placing a kiss on his forehead,“ How are you this morning”

“I'm good mom”, he replied, “ hope you remember not to do that in public especially around my friends”, he murmured referring to his mom's show of affection.

“Why”, she asked smiling ever so sweetly, trying to look 'in the dark' as if they were having such a discussion for the first time.

   “Because it's embarrassing, mom”, Logan groaned, “ besides we've had this conversation more times than I could possibly count and I recall that we have come to an agreement.”

   “ An agreement? What kind of agreement was that?”, she asked keeping the smile plastered on her face along with the ‘ I'm in the dark’ look.
  
   Logan knew what his mom was doing that morning. She's trying to guilt trip me and make me feel bad again, he reasoned in his head. Well, if she's going to do that again this morning, I'm not gonna make it easy for her. I won't answer her questions because I know that she's only going to use the answers against me as a means of blackmailing me. Not this time though, she would have to raise it herself.

   “ I'm not answering that mom”,he groaned once more louder and deeper this time,“ you know the agreement we have.”
  
   His mom, Melissa, chuckled inwardly knowing that he had already detected what she was planning to do. How could he not anyway, she always did the exact same thing whenever the topic of discussion was approached. Knowing she was busted, she decided to go on with it anyway.
    “ Oh now I remember”, she said feigning a look of recollection,“ the agreement where I'm not entitled to show my son affection in public especially around his friends”

“Seriously mom, now you remember, that's what you're going with?” Logan said with a smirk on his face.

Ignoring Logan's earlier remark, she said,“ But I don't understand why my son is ashamed to be associated with me in public, he doesn't want his friends to see him with me. It really hurts”, she concluded feigning a hurt look.

   Logan let out a sigh of exasperation and thought to himself how good an actress his mom is. She had managed to bring the discussion to this despite his carefulness. The woman is very good, he thought.
  “ Mom, you know I love you”, he started clearly frustrated,“ but I'm eighteen for crying out loud not six. You don't need to be giving me good night and good morning kisses any more. I'm a grown man now. Who knows, if I allowed you, you might still be reading me bedtime stories and singing me lullabies every night.”

  “Of course not, how would I do that?”, she stated vehemently. Although deep down she knew that even if she wouldn't be reading him bedtime stories and singing him lullabies, she could stay at his bedside and watch him fall asleep. But she isn't allowed because apparently, it's creepy.

“Yeah, yeah” Logan snorted,“ who are you fooling? But seriously mom, you've got to stop all your fussing. I'm a grown man like I said earlier. If you wanna fuss someone, there's Emily. She's younger, she's a girl, she might enjoy it”, Logan said with a note of finality and seriousness in his voice. Although it was fake and he was secretly hoping that his mom would buy it and leave him alone.

“ Okay, whatever you say son”, his mom says holding up her hands in surrender before giving him another peck on the forehead.
    Logan let out another groan as his mom chuckled to herself before making her way over to the door. “I love you too, son”, she said with a grin plastered to her face.
    She stopped at the door and turned back to face him. “Get up Logan, go brush your teeth and get ready. The moving company will be here in an hour, and when you're coming down, bring your bags down with you”. She reeled off her instructions and left the room.
  Logan just sighed. His mom could be a real pain sometimes. And she could be very stubborn too. Logan always thought he got the trait from his dad but on looking at it from another angle, it was obvious that part of it came his mom.

   He reached for his phone on his bedside table and switched it on. According to the phone, the time was 6:53a.m . Logan let his mind flick back to his mom's instructions to be ready in an hour because of the moving company. But the appointment was most likely 8:00a.m and not in exactly one hour as people don't usually set appointments for 7:53a.m.
   He decided to sit back and use his seven minute headstart to check his phone for messages. Scrolling through his phone, he saw one that made him groan. It was from his best friend, Gregory Gallagher, the time of the message 6:49a.m

Greg(a.k.a Idiot)
    Hey Logan, I've had a lot of unsuccessful attempts to call you. How a guy is still asleep at 6:45a.m is beyond me. So since you'll be moving away today and all, I'll just finish up at home and I'll be at your house soon to say my goodbyes.

   “Ah geez”, Logan murmured. He knew that Greg coming over would make the morning more eventful than it was originally meant to be, to say the least.

   He struggled to get off his bed and went into the bathroom. After about 30 minutes, he was ready. He took one last look at his room, it looked bare. A couple of weeks before, the room was literally crowded. The walls were filled with posters, calendars and a clock. There was a reading table filled with books and medals and laurels. His now empty bookshelf was once filled to the brim, the laundry hoop behind the door and other things for the small space the had to spare a huge portion of it had been taken up by the bed.
     Logan took his bags and stepped out of the room which he was really going to miss, and headed out hoping for the best in the whole new life he was soon going to be faced with.

Author's  note:
Well, that's the first chapter fellas, hope you like it. Just so you know, there'll be a lot of stuff regarding Logan's family
 
Well you know the drill,

vote

Comment if you have any suggestions or criticism

Happy reading

P.S:- I've noticed that the reads on Wattpad are always far greater than the votes, that's not really encouraging for the writers who have put in a lot of hard work

Also, can anyone help me make a cover