They were running out of time. She could see what she was looking for in the distance. Laying flat on the ground, quite unconscious, laid the man she would do anything to save. No matter how fast she ran, she knew she wasn’t going to make it. But she *had* to. She had to save the man that meant everything in the world to her. Even as she got closer she could hear the ticking of the clock. She could hear the beat of her footsteps as she ran for dear life. The sound grew louder and louder. Like a pounding noise, penetrating her ear drums. Dum-dum. Dum-dum-dum. DUM-DUM-DUM.
Marie shot up in her bed with a jolt. Her breathing was accelerated and she could feel sweat on her face and neck. Putting a hand over her heart, she discovered the source of the noise was coming from her door. Someone was knocking rather impatiently. When she finally realized it had only been a dream she was shocked at how vivid that dream had seemed. It had felt like he was actually about to die and Marie was the only one who could save him. While she was thankful that it was indeed just a dream, she was still confused about it.
Her attention was drawn back to the knocking sound at her door when the banging grew more persistent. Glancing at her clock she realized it was way too early to be having any visitors. She could barely see the sun on the horizon. Hoping that her intruder might give up and decide she was asleep, she sat there motionlessly, waiting for something to happen next. When there hadn’t been any knocks for over a minute she was about to lay back down when she heard a voice speak from the other side of her door.
“I know you’re awake, kid. I can smell it.”
Logan. Her heart gave a jolt as the object of her dream made his presence known. What the hell was he doing here at seven in the morning on a Saturday? But Marie didn’t care, suddenly realizing that Logan was actually visiting her, in her bedroom. She jumped out of bed, scrambling for her slippers, running a few fingers through her hair. Really hoping that her morning breath wasn’t too bad, she made her way to her door. Turning the knob she took a deep breath. She opened the door to come face to face with a very sexy looking Logan. Well, then again, Logan was always sexy in her mind. But whether it was his recently showered hair or his leather jacket slung over his shoulder, something about Logan looked especially appetizing to Marie today.
“Hey, kid,” Logan said, looking a lot less impatient than his knocks had sounded. He had a smile on his face and Marie couldn’t help but feel happy at the sight of him.
“Hey yourself,” Marie drawled, returning his smile. “Is there something I can help you with at this lovely hour?”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “As a matter of fact, there is. You know anythin’ about motorcycles?”
Marie’s smile faltered momentarily and she hoped Logan didn’t notice. “M-motorcycles?” She was terrified at the thought of riding one and she prayed to all things holy that Logan didn’t have any intentions of getting her on one. “You mean like…riding them?”
Logan laughed at Marie’s facial expression. “Don’t get all excited over nothing, kid. I ain’t talkin’ about gettin’ you on one of those things. I was just wonderin’ if you wanted to help me fix one up. I got it from this garage a few weeks ago and I just haven’t had the time to work on it. How ‘bout’ it?” Logan looked at Marie nervously, waiting for her reply. Marie had a feeling that it took a lot to make a man like Logan look nervous. While the exact subject of his invitation sounded distasteful, the thought of spending some quality time with him was something she couldn’t resist. Forcing a smile onto her face, she answered him honestly.
“I’d love to help out,” she said.
Logan’s smile lifted again. “Cool. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.”
Marie nodded, and then yawned. A sudden thought occurred to her. “Wait, were you planning on doing this now?” The thought of manual labor at seven in the morning made Marie shiver.
“Well, yeah. I’ve been busy with classes, runnin’ the school, other stuff…this is kinda the only time I’m gonna get,” Logan said nonchalantly. “Is that gonna be a problem?”
Marie shook off her worries about the early hour. Logan’s break from responsibilities was more important than her wanting to sleep in. “No, that’s fine. Just give me twenty minutes to get ready, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Take your time. I’ll be down in the garage gettin’ things started,” he reassured her. He winked at her and then turned to leave. He was halfway down the hall when Marie called his name.
“Logan?” She said, hoping he’d be able to hear her.
He turned at the sound of his name and stared at her questioningly. “Yeah?”
Marie was suddenly at a loss of what to say. She didn’t know how to put her feelings into words. She was so grateful that their friendship was back and she wanted him to know that. “I—I just wanted to say, um…Just, just that—”
Marie trailed off and met Logan’s eyes. A flicker of emotions showed themselves on his face for a few seconds, and she had to wonder if maybe he was thinking the same things that she was. Her silent question was answered momentarily. “I know, kid. I know,” he said with a sad look in his eyes. He kept his gaze on her for a few more moments before turning around and continuing on his way to the garage.
******************************************
Twenty minutes later and Marie was making her way down the stairs to the main level. The mansion was unusually quiet because of the early hour and it kind of freaked Marie out. She was so used to kids running around, then Storm yelling at them to slow down. She discovered she missed the sounds of the mansion and had grown attached to it. Shaking off the weird feeling, she walked through the main hallway towards the garage. When she was only a few feet from the door she could hear Logan on the other side moving things around. She heard a great thud and a clang and then a curse coming from Logan’s mouth. This made Marie smile as she opened the door.
Logan was standing in the center of the garage. He had a tight white tee-shirt on and an even tighter pair of jeans. There was some dirt and oil here and there on his body from the motorcycle. Marie had to take a deep breath to keep from drooling at the sight of him. No man is allowed to look that sexy, she thought. It just wasn’t fair.
The source of Logan’s swearing was from the big metal piece of scrap that had fell onto the floor and appeared to have fell on his left foot. Marie made her way to Logan to make sure he was alright.
“You okay?” She asked him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Logan half-smiled, half-grunted. “Fine.”
Marie looked around at the motorcycle he was working on. Or what was left of the motorcycle. To her, it just looked like a bunch of pieces of metal thrown together into some kind of odd looking creation. She glanced up at him confused. “This is the motorcycle?”
He grabbed a cloth to wipe some oil off his hands. “Yeah. Granted, she’s not in the best shape. But a little time and patience and she’ll be good as new in no time.”
Marie gawked at Logan now. Was he serious? Did he really think he was capable of taking some pieces of metal and transforming them into a decent bike? Did he really think *she* was capable of doing something like that? Marie began to doubt her decision to join Logan on this project.
“I’m not sure, Logan…it looks pretty hopeless.” Then again, what did she know about motorcycles.
“Aw, come on, kid. It won’t be that bad,” he said, suddenly looking nervous again. He was probably worried that Marie would back out on him.
No.
After their conversation last night, there was no way in hell she was going to abandon him. Even if it was for something as silly as fixing a motorcycle, she wasn’t going to give him a reason to believe that she would ever back out on him.
“Okay. Let’s do this,” she said, suddenly feeling excited. She would make this fun. She had to. For Logan, for her, and for their friendship.
Logan smiled and rubbed his knuckle through her hair. “That’s the spirit.”
Marie ruffled her hair out from under him and slapped him playfully on his shoulder. “Hey! No fair!” But suddenly they were both laughing, tickling each other, poking one another in the sides. Marie laughed so hard until her sides started to hurt. She loved seeing Logan like this, with his guard down, laughing and having fun. It just seemed so much more…normal. Like the way things were supposed to be.
When they had finally settled down enough Logan began to instruct her through working on the motorcycle. He explained all the tools and what their purposes were. Marie caught on pretty quickly and in no time they were working as a team to fix up the bike. Marie liked working with Logan. He was someone who worked silently and didn’t need to talk a lot to fill the silence. This way Marie could concentrate more on her work. The silence wasn’t awkward or anything, but nice and relaxing. The only time they spoke was when she had a question or he commented on something she was doing.
“You don’t wanna choke the screw driver, Marie. Just make sure the screw’s lined up and then turn normally to the right,” Logan said, trying to help her when she was having a difficult time screwing two pieces of metal in place. She found his guidance to be reassuring and she didn’t mind it when he corrected her. He was a great mentor to her.
At around noon Logan said they should stop for the day. When Marie protested, he said, “We can always come back another day. We ain’t gonna be able to fix this baby up in one day, kid. It’ll take some time.”
Marie’s heart lifted at the thought of spending more days with Logan in the garage. She enjoyed working on the motorcycle and she couldn’t wait for more. “Okay, sounds good.”
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