Chapter 26

**Logan**

I stood at Stephanie’s grave, my hands in my pockets. My fists clenched as I frowned; I didn’t know what to do anymore. I had no one to truly confide in and get answers to the questions I needed to ask. “What should I do?” I muttered to myself as I stared at the silver letters of her full name.

“She isn’t going to talk back,” a woman said behind me. I turned to see my old therapist, Melanie’s mom.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I got a phone call from Carl telling me that you were quickly heading on a downward spiral to your past self,” she explained. And well, I knew you would turn up here at some point,” she states. I didn’t think you would jog it, though,” she says to herself and walks towards me. So what do you need help with?” she asks, still looking at me.

“Megan,” I said quietly. She remained silent and looked at Stephanie’s grave.

“It’s weird how Megan is still alive don’t you think?” I looked at her “I mean she has gone through a lot worse than what Stephanie went through and for a lot longer than Stephanie as her mother only had the psychotic break a year before Stephanie had been put on life support,” she explained.

“What’s your point?” I snapped.

“No point, I was just thinking out loud,” she said and then turned to look at me “now tell me why you don’t know what to do about Megan,”

“It’s not that I don’t know what to do it’s just I don’t know how to stop doing the wrong things,” I took a deep breath “last night she yelled at me, I may have been imagining it as I was high but I think it did happen,” I state “she was upset with me, she said I don’t open up to her,”

“Do you?” she asks. I nodded, and then she tilted her head at me “Do you open up to her like she does to you? Like do you tell her what’s on your mind and how you are feeling and what you have gone through?” she asks. I sigh and shake my head. “So how do you think she’s feeling?” I shrugged, “she doesn’t feel trusted by you, Logan and she’s most likely feeling like she’s living with a stranger that she’s entrusted all her feeling onto, a person she doesn’t even know,”

“But if I tell her everything she’ll never trust me and most likely be disgusted by me,” she sighs “I mean I wasn’t the most pleasant of people before was I?”

“No, but do you really think she’ll hate you?” she asks. I nod and close my eyes. “How does that make you feel?” I smirk. Yeah, I know the most famous question in my profession,” she says.

“I wouldn’t be able to bare it if she ever hated me, even the thought; me makes me want to break,”

“You need her then?” she asks. I nodded “just like she needs you, and you need to start opening up to her because once you do she’ll start to come out of her shell more,”

“She’s already come out of her shell,” I say.

“What do you mean?”

“She has a love bite, three to be exact which means she’s already come out of that shell of hers,”

“Who by?”

“Not by me that’s for one,” I said and looked at her. “And before you ask I am completely outraged and if I find out who, I will kill them with my own hands,” I say. She smiled a little and shook her head while looking away from me.

“Don’t let jealousy get the better of you Logan,” she stated and then started to walk away “Come on you’re not going to find any answers here,” she says, I sigh and look away from her “now Logan,” she snapped. I growled and followed her out of the graveyard to her car. She turned to look at me once we got to her car. “Why did you run it here?” she asks. “Especially with your leg,”

“I needed to be out of that house and well jogging clears my mind, and as for my leg no pain no gain,” I state and opened the passenger door to her car. “Why would you leave your car unlocked?”

“Well it’s a guarded graveyard that’s why,” she said and got in the driver’s seat. She shut the door and then turned to look at me. “You have to talk to her, do you understand me?” she asks. I sigh “There’s no way around it Logan, you know everything about that girl and she only knows the basics of you, if you don’t want her to shut you out, then you need to open up,” she explained.

“Fine,” I said defeated.

“You don’t have to tell her everything all at once, just tell her little bits. Like tell her about Stephanie,” she paused, waiting for me to answer her. I slowly shook my head “Well don’t be surprised when she starts to push you away and let someone else in,” she said and started the car.

After so many minutes she sighs and looks at me. I frowned at her and looked away. “You need a good slap you do,” she suddenly said, making me look at her and frown.

“What?”

“You heard,” she said looking back onto the road “you need some sense knocking into you and well if I could take you Logan I’d gladly slap you silly,” she says.

“Are you even allowed to say any of this to me?” I ask .

“I don’t care if I am or if I’m not, you’re not going to report me anyway,” she said and glanced at me “you don’t seem to realise anything, you never realise when you’re wrong or what you’re doing is wrong,”

“Urm excuse me I realised that falling for my student was and is wrong,”

“Do you really think so?” she asked and glanced at me “even if you and her became lovers you’d be the best man she’s had in her life for a very long time. Because let’s face it her ex-boyfriend wasn’t exactly a saint to her,” she muttered.

“What do you mean?”

“Stop changing the subject,” she snapped while slapping my leg, my bad lag at that, I winced a little “did that hurt?”

“Not at all, that’s why I’m wincing in pain,” I say.

“Good I’m glad it hurts because that’s what you deserve,” she snapped and then the car was silent.

She drove into the driveway of the house I was living in with Megan and turned the engine off. I sigh and look towards the door of the house to see her talking to a dark haired guy. “What the hell is he doing here?” I heard Susan say. I looked at her, “I don’t see him all weekend and I find him here, great,” she huffed and got out of the car.

“That’s your son?”

“Yes, it’s Brendan,”

“How do you even know?” I ask, getting out of the car.

“Because a mother knows what her son looks like from behind and well that’s his motorbike which he shouldn’t be riding,” she said and walked towards the house.

I sigh and walk around the car to the house. Megan and Brendan both turned to look at us and Brendan muttered something which caused Megan to smile a little.

“What are you doing here?” Susan snapped at her son.

“I was on my way home, I was just leaving,”he said, frowning a little and looked at Megan.

“It’s my fault you haven’t seen him all weekend,”

“No it isn’t I saw you Sunday. Saturday and Friday I was just avoiding home,” he said and then looked at his mom. “Yeah it’s entirely her fault,”he says.

“Get home,”

“I’ve been home though and well dad knows I’m out,” he said and then frowned once more “why am I even explaining this, I’m not 12,” he said to himself.

Megan sighs and looked towards me, she was dressed now and it seemed she had noticed the love bites on her neck as she was now wearing a turtle neck jumper.

“It is my fault,” Megan said looking at Susan “something happened and I needed someone to talk to and well I had no one, so I phoned him,” she said and Susan sighs “sorry,” Megan said and then folded her arms.

“And now?” Susan asked.

“And now well he just turned up, that's none of my doing,” she states.

“It is, because we were texting and I asked you how you were and you just put; ‘been worse,’ so when I asked you if you wanted to talk you said yes hence why I signed out,” he says. Susan sighs and rubs her temples.
“Anyway why are you asking me why I’m here, why are you here?” he asks.

“She’s my psychologist,” I said and walked up the steps “and she was giving me a lift home,” I said and then walked past Megan. I now knew who the person was that gave Megan the love bites. I walked up to my bedroom and into the bathroom while taking my top off.

“I thought you were off to the gym,” I heard Carl state.

“I changed my mind and went for a run instead,” I paused and looked at him “Why do I look like I need to go to the gym?” I ask

“Yeah, you’re getting a belly,”

“Where,” I said, looking down at myself.

“It’s underneath that amazing hot six pack of yours,”

“Why did you phone Susan?” I ask .

“Because I’m worried about you, you're not exactly the best person to be around right now,”he states.

“Yeah well if you don’t like it you know what to do,” I say.

“Why do you have to hurt my feelings like that,” he fake cried “all I do is care about you and this is how you treat me, I won’t be surprised if I come home one day to find you in bed with another woman,” he fake cried and then did a dramatic huff and stuck his nose in the air while folding his arms and walking off. “Don’t think you’re getting any tonight,” he called.

“Aww boo who,” I said to myself and walked back into the bathroom to get a shower.

After my shower I walked into my bedroom with the towel wrapped around me and saw Megan sitting on my bed. I gave her a confused look and she stood and then without giving me warning hugged me.