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“Let’s get one thing straight,” Wendy said, when the formalities were over and she was showing Logan up to his room. “I don’t want you here, or your mother either, but it’s not like I have any choice right now. Just don’t go thinking this makes us friends or anything like that, because we’re not, we have totally nothing in common.”
“On that we can agree.” Logan nodded. “Hasn’t it occurred to you that it’s pretty crappy for me having to be here for Christmas, in a strange house where I’m not wanted, instead of my own home?”
“Oh.” Wendy looked embarrassed by her rudeness, just as Logan had intended her to.
In reality he didn’t care about going back to his own home. His mother had bought it after her last divorce and Logan had spent most of the time since then at school. He’d only really lived in it that past summer and so it didn’t feel like “home” yet anyway. But that didn’t mean he wanted to spend the holidays with Wendy and her dad. He loved it when it was just him and his mother, and he could be the centre of her world again for a short while.
“Look, Logan, we both know this relationship between them won’t last, neither has the greatest track record. So how about we just stay out of each other’s way and get through this, hmm?” Wendy opened a door and made a gesture to show he should go in.
Logan stopped in the doorway and leaned against it. “Just out of interest, why do you dislike me so much? You always have.”
Wendy spluttered with annoyance at the question. “Because you’re just so freaking shallow!”
“And you’re just a freak.” He smiled and walked into the room.
She slammed the door behind him and then yelled through it, “And don’t even think about knocking on my bedroom door when you get bored in the night.”
He poked his head out. “Which is your bedroom, just out of interest?”
She fumed silently and then pointed to the room opposite. “And you will never ever go into it.”
“Scared I’ll see your cauldron and your broomstick?”
“Yeah, and I’ll shove it so far up your backside you’ll never sit down again.”
“Hmm, so that’s your idea of kinky? Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.” He shut the door in her face again before she could explode.
“Well, for tonight anyway, so no sneaking into my room either,” he called out, then laughed when she kicked his door hard.
A few minutes later he heard music coming from her room. It wasn’t loud but it was painful to his ears.
“Way to live up to the stereotype, Wendy,” he muttered falling on to the bed and covering his head with a pillow. Was there anything worse than angry-girl wailing music?
When he couldn’t block it out, he decided on retaliation. With a wicked smile he set about downloading all the worst Euro-pop he could find, then unpacked his own docking station and cranked up the volume.
For ten minutes they warred with their music, until Wendy’s father pounded on both doors and told them to cut it out.
Logan switched his off, listening to him go back down the stairs complaining about teenagers. At least Wendy had been forced to turn her awful crap off too, he thought.
Five minutes later she switched it back on.
Logan groaned, but didn’t want to upset his host, not on the first night anyway. He hadn’t really got the measure of Daniel Silverman yet, but so far he’d been okay. Daniel was older than Logan had expected, with a short grey beard and silver in his sandy hair, but he was good-looking and seemed relaxed, which would be nice for Logan’s mother. Better than her usual type anyway. Her last few boyfriends had been younger than her, and more bad boy than billionaire.
In the end he selected an audio book, jammed the headphones into his ears and lay back on the bed to listen. Before long he was asleep.
He awoke to find Wendy leaning over his bed shaking his shoulder. It was dark outside and Logan had no idea what time it was.
“Couldn’t resist creeping into my room after all, huh?” he teased.
“Now I know you must be dreaming! Wake up, loser, it’s dinner time.”
He blinked a few times, and looked around in confusion. Of course, it had only been four o’clock when he’d lain on the bed, and it got dark at five in midwinter.
He watched Wendy leave, before moving into his en suite bathroom to freshen up. She was fun to tease, but he would have to dial it back. He didn’t want her to think he was actually interested. She was far, far away from his type. Not that she wasn’t attractive; she looked a bit like a pixie. An angry pixie, with more attitude than stature. He wondered if her natural hair colour was actually blondish like her father. But she was too slim, with dreadful clothes, damn ugly shoes too, and no decent bust to speak of. And the personality of a rabid dog.
Yup, he’d have to be really desperate to consider going there.