DISCLAIMER: Don't read if sex stuff is illegal for you and/or for your area. Don't think this is real because it's not. Don't copy or post this story outside of Nifty without the author's express written consent. Don't expect sex right away--it's better when you work up to it. And don't flame me; constructive criticism only, please.
Copyright 2006 by smplsguy79
CATCHING LOGAN Chapter One
"So, mind if I tie you up and beat you with limp spaghetti?"
Jack snapped out of his reverie. "What?"
Lacy smiled. Nothing made her quite as happy as giving her best friend a hard time. "You seemed preoccupied there, mister, so I thought I'd offer you something you've always dreamed of."
"I've always dreamed of bondage and italian noodles?" Jack asked, a smirk coming to his face. Lacy always knew how to make him laugh.
"How would I know? You're so sick and twisted, you might like amputee porn, for all I know."
"Now I'm officially grossed out. And you think I'm the sick one?" Jack was really laughing now, glad that Lacy hadn't surmised the meaning of his daydreaming. Or rather, the object. Telling her who he was thinking of would only mean he'd actually have to think about it, rather than simply fantasize about him now and then. And while his fantasies didn't include ropes or pasta, they were confusing to him, and more than a little erotic.
Lacy beamed in triumph. "I grossed you out? Yes! My work here is done, folks." With that, she began to shove her books and papers into her backpack.
"Wait. I thought we were going to study for this test." He was confused. She had seemed so adamant about his help earlier in the day. Hell, she'd even begged him to study with her, and now she was leaving?
"Jack, we did."
"We did?"
Lacy laughed again, and then muffled it when someone sitting a couple of tables down shushed her. She could never keep her voice library quiet for long. "Yeah, Jack, we did. We've been here for over two hours. Don't you remember?"
Jack thought back, but really couldn't remember much of the time he'd been there. Had he been that caught up in his little trance? Maybe he had.
"Besides," Lacy continued, "I'm sick of watching you drool over Logan Hemphill." She winked at him as she threw her backpack over her shoulder and sashayed out of the library, leaving Jack openmouthed behind her. So she did know. He threw his head down onto his books and groaned.
It had all started innocently enough, or so he thought. Jack had first caught sight of Logan from across the quad the first week of his freshman year. He'd been feeling a little homesick and a lot out-of-place at the big school he'd chosen for college, and seeing Logan, playing frisbee with his friends and just generally enjoying the warm weather, had made him feel a little better. Nothing wrong with a little eye-candy, as his sister had always told him, and seeing someone like Logan, beautiful and happy, made Jack feel like maybe he'd find his place after all.
It went on like that for months. Jack would see Logan (he'd learned his name from the freshman directory) here and there around campus, smile at the comfort just seeing him could bring, and then continue on with his day. And things HAD gotten better for him. He'd found a great group of friends (including Lacy), gotten into his classes (well, most of them--his history class was probably the worst thing he'd ever experienced, and he'd loved history in high school), had fallen into working for the newspaper, and was enjoying college life. So he began to think of Logan as a sort of good luck charm. Whenever he saw the attractive boy, Jack's day would go a little better.
Fast forward a few months, to the middle of spring semester, and everything for Jack went to shit. Less than twenty-four hours after catching his then boyfriend sleeping with the hall director of his dorm, Jack got a phone call. His father had died. Heart attack at the age of 48. Lacy found Jack a couple of hours later, sitting on the floor of his dorm room and holding a pillow while he rocked back and forth, whispering "He's gone. He's gone." When she was finally able to get the story out of him, she packed his bags, called his professors, called his friends, called the airline to arrange his ticket home, and called his family with his travel itinerary. Then she patiently held him while he cried his first tears, the shock wearing off and leaving nothing but extreme grief in it wake.
When he could finally stand without bursting into fresh sobs, Jack kissed Lacy and wandered to his dorm window, desperate to see people getting on with their lives, for anything to take him from his pain. And there was Logan, walking down the path to the Union Center and laughing with friends. It hit Jack like a ton of bricks. He wanted Logan, not Lacy, to be there comforting him. He wanted to be crying on Logan's shoulder. He wanted Logan to be holding him. He wanted Logan, pure and simple. Then he erupted into tears again at the pettiness of his desire. His father was dead, and he was thinking about a boy. Lacy got up to hug him again, and he gratefully fell into her arms.
He returned to campus a month later. His mother had insisted, and despite his protests, Jack was glad. He wouldn't have minded staying home to help his mom, but she didn't want him putting his life on hold for her, and secretly, his being at home was suffocating him. All he could think of was his father, and he couldn't stand it anymore. He needed to get out, to focus on something else. So, even though the school had given him automatic "A's" for the semester and told him to take his time coming back, he packed up his stuff and returned to college. He threw himself into his studies, making up all his homework from the missed month. He spent time with his friends, usually just sitting back and letting their banter wash over him. He went to coffee shops and parties. Jack did everything he could to act like everything was back to normal. And slowly, it began to feel that way. By the time finals were over--which he took and passed with flying colors, even though he was exempt--life felt like it might one day be good again.
Through it all, he never forgot about his realization that he was attracted to Logan. But he also never told anyone. He just didn't know what he was going to do about it, and felt that sharing his feelings would serve no purpose. Plus, he liked that he had a little secret. His Logan sightings made him feel like he had something special of his own, and he treasured that.
The thought of seeing Logan, even over his friends, got Jack through the summer. Being at home without his father was difficult, as was watching his mother try and cope with life after losing the love of her life. His sister and he tried to make the best of it, and each even got summer jobs, despite the fact that their father's life insurance had paid for their educations. Jack knew his was just an excuse to get out of the house, and backbreaking landscape work numbed his mind. By the end of August, he had made a pretty penny. So he set some aside for spending cash at school and used the rest to buy himself a car. He knew that it would give him the freedom to escape from things when he needed, which was more and more since "D-Day", as he'd taken to calling the day his father died. Plus, he'd get to take a road trip back to school.
His sophomore year started, and Jack fell into college life again. He was living with his friend Ryan, and spent all his free time with Lacy, Ryan, and Lucas, his best friends. He still worked a bit for the paper, starting a humor column on the back page that he shared with another writer, James Kennedy. He even joined the gay group on campus, occasionally attending meetings and helping with fundraisers and group activities. And his classes were even better than his freshman year, as he was beginning his major courses in Math. His father, the accountant, would have been proud.
He saw more and more of Logan, as they now shared two classes, Calculus and Intro to Theater, his fine arts credit. He tried not to stare, and he tried to keep from salivating in class. He even tried to push Logan from his mind, as his feelings for the beautiful boy threatened to overwhelm him. But despite his best efforts, he still yearned for the boy. And he still kept his feelings to himself.
"Yo, Jack. You okay?"
"Huh?" Jack jerked from his thoughts to find Logan Hemphill standing right in front of him. The object of his affection was peering at him quizzically, and was all the more beautiful for it. A thin but built 5'9", Logan had a mop of thick, straight brown hair that he wore messy, and a handsome face with a clear complexion. His eyes, a blue-green that contact makers would make billions on if they could duplicate the color, were bright and deep, showing an intelligence not matched by his 20 years. He had an easy smile, wide and contagious, and a dimple on his left cheek. Jack suddenly felt anxious, hating his simple jeans and t-shirt when Logan was standing in front of him wearing a black short-sleeved button down with matching tie, ripped jeans and a black belt with a massive buckle, looking like he was about to hit the clubs.
"Are you all right, man? You looked kinda lost there." Logan smiled, and Jack tried not to melt into a puddle in front of him. Hell, he didn't even know if Logan was gay, much less into him. He had to play it cool. But wait, Logan was talking to him. And he knew Jack's name. He had to forget playing it cool and just manage to string words together in some form of sense.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jack replied, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Just got lost in my thoughts."
Logan chuckled. "Happens to me all the time, man, especially in class."
"I know what you mean." Jack gave a chuckle of his own.
"Hey, was that Lacy Randall with you?"
"Yeah. She's one of my best friends."
Logan frowned a bit, and Jack felt like he'd just kicked a puppy in front of him. "Damn. She's in one of my classes, and I wanted to ask her about the homework for tomorrow."
"Oh." Jack felt like the conversation was spiraling out of his control, even though he hadn't known he'd been trying to control it.
"Well, maybe you can help me. Have you taken Calculus yet?" Logan smiled hopefully.
Jack's heart stopped beating completely, leapt into his throat, and then dropped back into place and rhythm. "I'm actually taking it now. I'm in your section. I sit a couple rows back from you." He barely stopped himself from saying he chose that seat so he could watch Logan and the professor at the same time.
"Really? That's fuckin' great. I can't for the life of me remember what problems we had to do for tomorrow. Do you have them with you?"
Jack forced a grin, even though his heart had now taken to tap-dancing around his chest. "Yeah, I've got the assignment right here." He grabbed the paper with the completed problems from his folder and handed it to Logan. "I've got the problems listed on the top."
Logan sighed with relief and began to jot down the numbers into the notebook he'd been carrying. "Thank God, man. You're a lifesaver."
"No prob."
Logan finished, handed Jack's homework back, and straightened up. "Hey. I feel kinda dumb asking this, but are you any good at this math stuff?"
Jack finally was able to give a genuine smile, his nerves calming a bit. "Yeah, I'm pretty decent. It's my major and all."
"Really? Do you think you could help me sometime, maybe go over some stuff. Calc's a prerequisite for the statistics course I need for my major, and I'm kinda lost at this stuff. It would be awesome if you could help me get the hang of it."
"Sure," Jack agreed, before he could even think. "I'd love to." He winced to himself. He couldn't believe he'd just said he'd LOVE to.
Logan gave another relieved sigh. "Fuck, that's great, man. Here's my number." He quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper, ripped it from his notebook, and handed it to Jack. "Call me tomorrow, maybe we can set up a time to study."
Jack took the scrap, attempting to hide the shaking of his hand. "Sure. Sounds great."
Logan beamed, his dimple threatening to swallow Jack whole. "Awesome. I'll talk to you tomorrow then." And he walked away.
Jack packed up his stuff as quickly as possible and bolted from the library. He couldn't believe that Logan had just asked him for his help, that he was going to get to spend time with Logan one-on-one. He had to tell someone. Wait, he couldn't tell anyone, he hadn't told any of his friends about his little crush. Then he remembered Lacy's comment before she left the library. She knew. Of course she knew. She'd read him like a book and figured out he had the hots for Logan the entire time. He'd tell her. She'd love to hear about it.
Then he remembered something. Lacy wasn't taking Calculus.
TO BE CONTINUED
Well, what do you think? I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I promise there will be sex eventually. Just gotta set it up right. If you liked it, didn't like it, or have comments or questions, please just hit me up. My e-mail: smplsguy79@yahoo.com