Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 03:01:35 -0800 (PST)
From: N L <smplsguy79@yahoo.com>
Subject: Catching Logan 1

DISCLAIMER: Don't read if sex stuff is illegal for you and/or for your
area.  Don't think this is real because it's not.  Don't copy or post this
story outside of Nifty without the author's express written consent.  Don't
expect sex right away--it's better when you work up to it.  And don't flame
me; constructive criticism only, please.

Copyright 2006 by smplsguy79


CATCHING LOGAN
Chapter One

"So, mind if I tie you up and beat you with limp spaghetti?"
	Jack snapped out of his reverie.  "What?"
	Lacy smiled.  Nothing made her quite as happy as giving her best
friend a hard time.  "You seemed preoccupied there, mister, so I thought
I'd offer you something you've always dreamed of."
	"I've always dreamed of bondage and italian noodles?"  Jack asked,
a smirk coming to his face.  Lacy always knew how to make him laugh.
	"How would I know?  You're so sick and twisted, you might like
amputee porn, for all I know."
	"Now I'm officially grossed out.  And you think I'm the sick one?"
Jack was really laughing now, glad that Lacy hadn't surmised the meaning of
his daydreaming.  Or rather, the object.  Telling her who he was thinking
of would only mean he'd actually have to think about it, rather than simply
fantasize about him now and then.  And while his fantasies didn't include
ropes or pasta, they were confusing to him, and more than a little erotic.
	Lacy beamed in triumph.  "I grossed you out?  Yes!  My work here is
done, folks."  With that, she began to shove her books and papers into her
backpack.
	"Wait.  I thought we were going to study for this test."  He was
confused.  She had seemed so adamant about his help earlier in the day.
Hell, she'd even begged him to study with her, and now she was leaving?
	"Jack, we did."
	"We did?"
	Lacy laughed again, and then muffled it when someone sitting a
couple of tables down shushed her.  She could never keep her voice library
quiet for long.  "Yeah, Jack, we did.  We've been here for over two hours.
Don't you remember?"
	Jack thought back, but really couldn't remember much of the time
he'd been there.  Had he been that caught up in his little trance?  Maybe
he had.
	"Besides," Lacy continued, "I'm sick of watching you drool over
Logan Hemphill."  She winked at him as she threw her backpack over her
shoulder and sashayed out of the library, leaving Jack openmouthed behind
her.  So she did know.  He threw his head down onto his books and groaned.

It had all started innocently enough, or so he thought.  Jack had first
caught sight of Logan from across the quad the first week of his freshman
year.  He'd been feeling a little homesick and a lot out-of-place at the
big school he'd chosen for college, and seeing Logan, playing frisbee with
his friends and just generally enjoying the warm weather, had made him feel
a little better.  Nothing wrong with a little eye-candy, as his sister had
always told him, and seeing someone like Logan, beautiful and happy, made
Jack feel like maybe he'd find his place after all.
	It went on like that for months.  Jack would see Logan (he'd
learned his name from the freshman directory) here and there around campus,
smile at the comfort just seeing him could bring, and then continue on with
his day.  And things HAD gotten better for him.  He'd found a great group
of friends (including Lacy), gotten into his classes (well, most of
them--his history class was probably the worst thing he'd ever experienced,
and he'd loved history in high school), had fallen into working for the
newspaper, and was enjoying college life.  So he began to think of Logan as
a sort of good luck charm.  Whenever he saw the attractive boy, Jack's day
would go a little better.
	Fast forward a few months, to the middle of spring semester, and
everything for Jack went to shit.  Less than twenty-four hours after
catching his then boyfriend sleeping with the hall director of his dorm,
Jack got a phone call.  His father had died.  Heart attack at the age of
48.  Lacy found Jack a couple of hours later, sitting on the floor of his
dorm room and holding a pillow while he rocked back and forth, whispering
"He's gone.  He's gone."  When she was finally able to get the story out of
him, she packed his bags, called his professors, called his friends, called
the airline to arrange his ticket home, and called his family with his
travel itinerary.  Then she patiently held him while he cried his first
tears, the shock wearing off and leaving nothing but extreme grief in it
wake.
	When he could finally stand without bursting into fresh sobs, Jack
kissed Lacy and wandered to his dorm window, desperate to see people
getting on with their lives, for anything to take him from his pain.  And
there was Logan, walking down the path to the Union Center and laughing
with friends.  It hit Jack like a ton of bricks.  He wanted Logan, not
Lacy, to be there comforting him.  He wanted to be crying on Logan's
shoulder.  He wanted Logan to be holding him.  He wanted Logan, pure and
simple.  Then he erupted into tears again at the pettiness of his desire.
His father was dead, and he was thinking about a boy.  Lacy got up to hug
him again, and he gratefully fell into her arms.
	He returned to campus a month later.  His mother had insisted, and
despite his protests, Jack was glad.  He wouldn't have minded staying home
to help his mom, but she didn't want him putting his life on hold for her,
and secretly, his being at home was suffocating him.  All he could think of
was his father, and he couldn't stand it anymore.  He needed to get out, to
focus on something else.  So, even though the school had given him
automatic "A's" for the semester and told him to take his time coming back,
he packed up his stuff and returned to college.  He threw himself into his
studies, making up all his homework from the missed month.  He spent time
with his friends, usually just sitting back and letting their banter wash
over him.  He went to coffee shops and parties.  Jack did everything he
could to act like everything was back to normal.  And slowly, it began to
feel that way.  By the time finals were over--which he took and passed with
flying colors, even though he was exempt--life felt like it might one day
be good again.
	Through it all, he never forgot about his realization that he was
attracted to Logan.  But he also never told anyone.  He just didn't know
what he was going to do about it, and felt that sharing his feelings would
serve no purpose.  Plus, he liked that he had a little secret.  His Logan
sightings made him feel like he had something special of his own, and he
treasured that.
	The thought of seeing Logan, even over his friends, got Jack
through the summer.  Being at home without his father was difficult, as was
watching his mother try and cope with life after losing the love of her
life.  His sister and he tried to make the best of it, and each even got
summer jobs, despite the fact that their father's life insurance had paid
for their educations.  Jack knew his was just an excuse to get out of the
house, and backbreaking landscape work numbed his mind.  By the end of
August, he had made a pretty penny.  So he set some aside for spending cash
at school and used the rest to buy himself a car.  He knew that it would
give him the freedom to escape from things when he needed, which was more
and more since "D-Day", as he'd taken to calling the day his father died.
Plus, he'd get to take a road trip back to school.
	His sophomore year started, and Jack fell into college life again.
He was living with his friend Ryan, and spent all his free time with Lacy,
Ryan, and Lucas, his best friends.  He still worked a bit for the paper,
starting a humor column on the back page that he shared with another
writer, James Kennedy.  He even joined the gay group on campus,
occasionally attending meetings and helping with fundraisers and group
activities.  And his classes were even better than his freshman year, as he
was beginning his major courses in Math.  His father, the accountant, would
have been proud.
	He saw more and more of Logan, as they now shared two classes,
Calculus and Intro to Theater, his fine arts credit.  He tried not to
stare, and he tried to keep from salivating in class.  He even tried to
push Logan from his mind, as his feelings for the beautiful boy threatened
to overwhelm him.  But despite his best efforts, he still yearned for the
boy.  And he still kept his feelings to himself.

"Yo, Jack.  You okay?"
	"Huh?"  Jack jerked from his thoughts to find Logan Hemphill
standing right in front of him.  The object of his affection was peering at
him quizzically, and was all the more beautiful for it.  A thin but built
5'9", Logan had a mop of thick, straight brown hair that he wore messy, and
a handsome face with a clear complexion.  His eyes, a blue-green that
contact makers would make billions on if they could duplicate the color,
were bright and deep, showing an intelligence not matched by his 20 years.
He had an easy smile, wide and contagious, and a dimple on his left cheek.
Jack suddenly felt anxious, hating his simple jeans and t-shirt when Logan
was standing in front of him wearing a black short-sleeved button down with
matching tie, ripped jeans and a black belt with a massive buckle, looking
like he was about to hit the clubs.
	"Are you all right, man?  You looked kinda lost there."  Logan
smiled, and Jack tried not to melt into a puddle in front of him.  Hell, he
didn't even know if Logan was gay, much less into him.  He had to play it
cool.  But wait, Logan was talking to him.  And he knew Jack's name.  He
had to forget playing it cool and just manage to string words together in
some form of sense.
	"Yeah, I'm fine," Jack replied, taking a deep breath to calm his
nerves.  "Just got lost in my thoughts."
	Logan chuckled.  "Happens to me all the time, man, especially in
class."
	"I know what you mean."  Jack gave a chuckle of his own.
	"Hey, was that Lacy Randall with you?"
	"Yeah.  She's one of my best friends."
	Logan frowned a bit, and Jack felt like he'd just kicked a puppy in
front of him.  "Damn.  She's in one of my classes, and I wanted to ask her
about the homework for tomorrow."
	"Oh."  Jack felt like the conversation was spiraling out of his
control, even though he hadn't known he'd been trying to control it.
	"Well, maybe you can help me.  Have you taken Calculus yet?"  Logan
smiled hopefully.
	Jack's heart stopped beating completely, leapt into his throat, and
then dropped back into place and rhythm.  "I'm actually taking it now.  I'm
in your section.  I sit a couple rows back from you."  He barely stopped
himself from saying he chose that seat so he could watch Logan and the
professor at the same time.
	"Really?  That's fuckin' great.  I can't for the life of me
remember what problems we had to do for tomorrow.  Do you have them with
you?"
	Jack forced a grin, even though his heart had now taken to
tap-dancing around his chest.  "Yeah, I've got the assignment right here."
He grabbed the paper with the completed problems from his folder and handed
it to Logan.  "I've got the problems listed on the top."
	Logan sighed with relief and began to jot down the numbers into the
notebook he'd been carrying.  "Thank God, man.  You're a lifesaver."
	"No prob."
	Logan finished, handed Jack's homework back, and straightened up.
"Hey.  I feel kinda dumb asking this, but are you any good at this math
stuff?"
	Jack finally was able to give a genuine smile, his nerves calming a
bit.  "Yeah, I'm pretty decent.  It's my major and all."
	"Really?  Do you think you could help me sometime, maybe go over
some stuff.  Calc's a prerequisite for the statistics course I need for my
major, and I'm kinda lost at this stuff.  It would be awesome if you could
help me get the hang of it."
	"Sure," Jack agreed, before he could even think.  "I'd love to."
He winced to himself.  He couldn't believe he'd just said he'd LOVE to.
	Logan gave another relieved sigh.  "Fuck, that's great, man.
Here's my number."  He quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper, ripped
it from his notebook, and handed it to Jack.  "Call me tomorrow, maybe we
can set up a time to study."
	Jack took the scrap, attempting to hide the shaking of his hand.
"Sure.  Sounds great."
	Logan beamed, his dimple threatening to swallow Jack whole.
"Awesome.  I'll talk to you tomorrow then."  And he walked away.
	Jack packed up his stuff as quickly as possible and bolted from the
library.  He couldn't believe that Logan had just asked him for his help,
that he was going to get to spend time with Logan one-on-one.  He had to
tell someone.  Wait, he couldn't tell anyone, he hadn't told any of his
friends about his little crush.  Then he remembered Lacy's comment before
she left the library.  She knew.  Of course she knew.  She'd read him like
a book and figured out he had the hots for Logan the entire time.  He'd
tell her.  She'd love to hear about it.
	Then he remembered something.  Lacy wasn't taking Calculus.

TO BE CONTINUED

Well, what do you think?  I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I
promise there will be sex eventually.  Just gotta set it up right.  If you
liked it, didn't like it, or have comments or questions, please just hit me
up.  My e-mail: smplsguy79@yahoo.com