To hell with pride. The coat was warm, he’d beaten the snow, and he still had all his money. Maybe now he could buy some good boots, or a pair of gloves.
“Don’t you have a truck you can drive in the winter?” Cody asked as he climbed into Logan’s Camaro.
“Hey, as long as the roads are clear, I’m sticking with this one.” He started the car and turned it around in the dirt lot that counted as Cody’s front yard. “You gonna talk to Nate tonight?”
Cody shook his head, trying not to chuckle. “Gee, I’m so anxious to discuss Nate for the eight hundredth time this week.”
“You know he’s going to be there, right?”
“How would I know that?”
“Don’t pretend like you didn’t hear them talking about it in social studies.”
“I don’t listen to anything he says.”
“Liar.” Cody kept his gaze averted as they drove under the train tracks and surfaced on the more respectable side of the trailer park. “Have you talked to him at all?”
Christ, Logan could be persistent. It was hard to fault him for it, but they seemed to have this conversation over and over. He was tired of talking about a relationship that only existed in Logan’s imagination. “Why would I?”
“How many times do I have to say it? He misses you.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“I think he’s trying to find a way to break the silence.”
“By what? Switching desks in social studies. So what? It doesn’t mean a goddamn thing.”
“There’s something else. Something I didn’t tell you before. Last week—”
“Logan, stop. I know you’re trying to help, but seriously, let it go, okay? Concentrate on your own lousy love life, and leave mine alone.”
Logan braked at the stop sign at the entrance to the park. There was nobody behind them, and they sat there for a minute. Cody didn’t look over, but he felt the weight of Logan’s gaze on him. He squirmed a bit under the scrutiny. Maybe he’d been too harsh. Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe—
“Okay,” Logan said, his voice quiet. “I won’t mention it again.”
For some reason, Logan’s acquiescence didn’t feel as good as Cody had hoped. Having Logan actually drop the subject felt like giving up on Nate all over again. It felt like finally admitting defeat. But it was what he’d asked for, so Cody forced himself to say, “Thanks.” He hated the awkward silence though, so he cleared his throat and said, “How’d the game go last night?”
Logan smiled. “It was awesome. I mean, we lost, but only because our defense sucks, and I actually had a pretty good game. I was afraid knowing the scouts were there would make me nervous, and I guess it kind of did, but it seemed like a good kind of nervous. I threw for two hundred and twenty-seven yards, and rushed for one touchdown. Coach thinks I’ll hear from the university by Christmas.”
“That’s great.” He couldn’t even envy Logan his success, although he couldn’t help but wish somebody would offer him a ticket out of Warren too.
Cody felt like an idiot walking into the dance. He was sure everybody would see him and wonder why he was here, but if anybody noticed, they didn’t make a big deal out of it, and an hour later, Cody grudgingly admitted it didn’t suck nearly as much as he’d expected. It helped that Logan was there, trying to keep up a good front despite watching the girl he was crazy about rub herself all over some guy who was old enough to legally drink.
“Forget her,” Cody said, in an attempt to cheer Logan up. “Ask somebody else to dance.”
“Maybe.” Logan eyed the group of girls huddled in the corner to their right. “If you do.”
“No way.”
“Why not?”
“You know why.”
“Yeah, but they don’t. Have you ever thought about trying to prove the rumors wrong?”
Cody looked up at him, trying to search Logan’s face as the red and blue lights from the dance floor flashed across it. “Are you serious?”
“Sure. Just a couple of dances, maybe take one of them on a date or something, and then all the trash talk might go away.”
Cody pondered that. Maybe Logan was right, but it wouldn’t change the facts. Even if he could find a girl willing to date him, how long would it take her to figure out that he had no interest in her? “I’d hate to put one of them in the position of having to tell me no.”
“What if they said yes?”
“That’d almost be worse.” Because he knew without a doubt that it’d never go further than that. He’d had plenty of time to consider the fact that girls had no effect on him whatsoever.