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hadn’t shown up in the hal , maybe things wouldn’t have gone that way with Brady. If Logan hadn’t come to school in the first place, maybe she would have bumped into Brady sometime after school, instead of having to endure detention in math. If Logan hadn’t been there to beat al those guys senseless, warning them to stay away from her, maybe she’d stil had a chance with Brady. The rational part of her brain told she couldn’t blame Logan entirely. It told her that Brady was an asshole, and that she shouldn’t feel heartbroken over him. But she did. Years of utter infatuation over him weren’t swept aside just like that. She found herself being overwhelmed completely by her emotions, and it wasn’t a feeling she was familiar with.
    How was it that Brady had become such a jerk? He was so nice before, so quiet and wel -meaning and polite. She couldn’t believe what he tried to do to her. Could it have been his friends, the three guys he was with, pressuring him into doing something like that? And was she a special target, or would they have done the same to any girl they found that day?
    Or, for that matter, had they grouped up on lone girls like that before ?
    Laura wouldn’t believe it. Not out of Brady. He wasn’t like that. She knew that.
    Or… she thought she did, were it not for a smal voice tel ing her that yes, he was like that . She refused to listen. She had held out for him for so long, lusted after him for so long, that she couldn’t just flip a switch and forget about it al .
    She buried her head further in her pil ow and sobbed. Brady was like that, and he had tried to do things to her. Along with three of his friends. Anything her imagination had conjured up before about what he was like was coming face to face with reality. And reality was winning.
    Stubbornly, she pushed herself up from bed. Reality was winning, and she couldn’t just hide from it. And reality was that Logan, of al people, had rescued her from her assailants. And that one of her assailants was Brady .
    She nearly broke down again after that last thought. Instead, she shut her eyes tight, and wil ed the pain to go away. After a moment, it did subside, and Laura could open her eyes.
    The reality of things was that Logan had saved her, and if he hadn’t been there she couldn’t say what might have happened. But it would have been much, much worse.
    Logan had saved her, and she repaid him by punching him in the gut. Idiot! Complete and utter idiot! Logan had risked his wel being, had risked himself , just to help a girl he saw was in distress. He had faced four guys much bigger than him without blinking, al for her. How could she have been so blind, exploding at him like she had?
    She stood up. It was because she let her emotions take hold of her in that moment. It happened so rarely to her that she didn’t know how to react. But now she knew. If she ever felt even the tiniest shred of emotion trying to come to life within her, she would push it down as harshly as she could. Push it down and keep it there, locking it away forever. She never wanted to be vulnerable enough to do something stupid again. And she knew she had to thank Logan. It was going to be hard, but she had to do it. She was determined to, now. It was too bad she didn’t have his phone number, so she could text or even cal and apologize.
    The apology could wait until tomorrow, at least. She though it would be an awkward, uncomfortably tense moment for her. And after the way she reacted to his rescue, she doubted very much he would want to listen.
    She heard scratching at the door, and opened it to let her dog in. The great thing jumped up to her, and she caught him in her arms, letting him lick the trails of her tears away.
    --Laura woke up late the next morning, and had to rush to school. She arrived fifteen minutes late despite her best efforts.
    She got a stern look from Mrs. Mil burn when she opened the door to interrupt lecture. But her eyes instantly