NINE

I'm sitting on the bed inside the room of Logan Wolfe.

I'm shaking out of my wits here. Just a few minutes ago, I was bawling in front of four brothers who had heard and seen everything that had been going on with my miserable life, and that is something I shouldn't be revealed in front of others.

My brain is always searching around the room, making myself aware of the inside chamber of a boy. I've been inside Ares room once when I was looking for my iPhone because apparently, he broke his during a fight with some guy at the bar and destroyed his phone in the process, so Athena and I had to take turns letting him use our phones until he received the replacement.

Ares's room was different than Logan's - entirely different. But, the one thing that separates my brother and Logan's room is that clothes surround his place. It's a total mess because he goes to work early, then comes home late or the next day, so he doesn't have time to organize. Athena would have to pick up his dirty clothes and scold Ares the next time to clean his stuff up, or he would be gone.

My brother didn't take our older sister too lightly and changed his ways by doing laundry on his days off. However, Logan's room is not a boy's room. I don't think he has barely any stuff he owns in this big-ass room. He has a large flat screen TV hooked on the wall and a king-size bed. For gods know why he needed a large bed, not because of his massive body frame, two large mirrors that slide to the side inside his closet.

How do I know?

When he wanted to change from soaking his shirt, I watched him open his mirror door and go inside to grab a dry shirt. I knew the previous owners had their house renovated, adding more rooms and adding another story to the home; they did everything to make the house look more Beverly Hills.

Logan's room is on the second floor after me crying and wailing on him for being the asshole. He led me into his house, up the stairs, and then into his room, where I was already waiting for him to bring some ice for my swollen ankle.

I looked down and saw how bumpy and red after I sprained it from the fall. I inhaled and exhaled, repeating my breathing as I waited. My whole body stiffened when I didn't hear the door open, and Logan came inside holding an ice pack. I shrink as he walks toward me, bends down on one knee, and places the ice pack next to my ankle. I wince from the cold touch.

"Sorry," he muttered, carefully holding the ice pack, pulling a roll of bandages to wrap it around my ankle until he created a knot to prevent it from falling.

There was such movement from him after wrapping my ankle. His face was down, and all I could see was the top of his hair. I tilted my head to see what is he looking at; I saw that he was staring at the visible scars on my legs. I have them all over my body, only the deep cuts that the window shard was able to pierce through my skin. Some were just scratches, but most were buried wounds. I need to say something before it gets more awkward and becomes a problem.

"Um..." clearing my throat. "Logan, can I go now? My sister might be home already." That is a lie. Athena doesn't get out for another hour today. Tuesday at the Senior homes is an easy day.

He didn't say a word and kept his head down.

I sighed. "Look, I'm sorry I can be a bitch to you, and I appreciate that you ice my ankle. I need to go," I began to shift my leg only to stop by Logan's hand. I tried nudging it away, but he wouldn't let me go.

"Did these scars..." I paused when he finally spoke. "You got these scars when you were in the accident with your parents?"

I sat back down when he raised his head, locking our eyes. He's so eager to know why I have so many scars on my body, and at first, I don't want anyone to know they exist, which is the reason why I wear dark clothes to hide my ugly body. I hated my body for having so many to repent of my sin. Each of these nasty scars represents the guilt I hidden within myself.

"Yes," I said breathlessly as I confessed. "I was the one who caused my dad to pay attention to me because I was a stupid kid who couldn't wait to play on her iPad. Then the stupid truck driver drove on the other side of the road, had rampage towards our car causing it to tip over and roll down the street." Just saying all these made my eyes watery and lipped quiver, thinking of my parents. "I woke up after a short period of coma and learned that my parents didn't survive the crash, but I did, and these scars - the doctor said I was covered in broken window shards. Some were just minor cuts, while others dug deeper into my skin, almost breaking a blood vessel, and I would have died of blood loss. Luckily, I'm alive," I chuckled nervously. I didn't realize that Logan was sitting next to me on the bed; my hands were with his larger ones as he massaged them with his thumb. An electric wave hit my nervous system that I didn't pay much attention to it, but I felt calmer.

"After my parents' death, social service separated my older siblings and me with a different foster family until my older sister, Athena, was old enough to take us back and be responsible. Two years later, she turned eighteen, got a stable job working at the senior center like my mom, and took custody of me and my brother Ares. Then when Ares turned eighteen, he worked in a construction job, just heavy lifting and all that, making minimum wages to support the three of us. I wanted to work, but two things are holding me back. Because of these scars, my sister and brother didn't allow me to find a job."

I sighed, looking straight. "Once I turned eighteen and finished high school, I planned to take a job if I had the confidence. I never thought of college, not one bit once I started high school. My mind drifted to all the possibilities of working in a stable job. It would be best if you thought how selfish of me not to think about myself, but my older siblings had done enough for me, and it's my fault that they didn't go to college. Athena wanted to work at a big company that involved computers, and Ares wanted to be a cop. I took their dreams and replaced them with my burden because I had our parents killed. Getting a job and paying them back is the only way to repay them for all the things they had done for me."

Letting all that I've feeling never felt so much better telling someone other than my family. If I were to tell Athena and Ares this, they would say to me it's not my fault that they are working their butts off to pay bills and everything, and I shouldn't worry. But I am worried. I'm so afraid that I'm starting to have white hair underneath my natural hair color, which is terrible.

"Aphrodite," he whispers slowly, prolonging each letter of my name on his tongue just made me shiver there for a second. His voice felt solid and husky. "You can not put yourself down like this. Your siblings chose to work. They decided because your parents are no longer here, it's their job as the eldest to work hard and support the family. Please don't blame yourself for your parents' death because they don't. They are glad you stayed alive, or else they would have lost both you and your parents in the crash."

"That's what Athena said to me," I sniffle, wiping my eyes.

"See," he chuckles softly, tightening his grip on my hands to reassure me that the whole guilt over my parents' death wasn't my fault. "Now, show me a smile."

I looked down, embarrassed, shaking my head.

"Baby girl, if you don't smile. I will miss you, and I mean it." I cringed my body making him laugh. "Please, show me a smile."

I shook my head again, and when I did, Logan pushed me back on the bed with him hover me making my heart beat fast.

The room became quiet once he had me lay on my back. The only noise I could hear was downstairs, where Logan's brother was playing Xbox on their smart tv, and I could tell this must be a lively home compared to my haunted house next door. I felt his stare on me, and as I turned, a part of my hair fell over my face. With a free hand brushed back a strained hair behind my ear, and I could feel his fingers on my cheeks tingle from his touch, which turned into heat waves traveling like a river all over my body until the sensation went straight down in between my legs.

Oh boy, that is not good.

I land my eyes on him, and we keep it there, looking at one another. I began to get a reading on him. What is it with this guy that makes me feel like I never thought I could have? Yesterday he was a jerk to me, and now...I don't know. This whole thing that is going on is new to me. I mean, I never had any close guy friends, let alone a boyfriend, but I have a brother. Just this between Logan and me is not easy to obtain.

I never wanted the attention of someone I thought won't be a perfect match for me, but yesterday, Logan with his twin brother had every single class with me and stuck for the rest of my senior year, and I feel doomed.

Every day, I expect my life to be the way it is; a teenage outcast girl who the whole school calls Sadako because of how she acts and dresses lives in fear that if I become with anyone, they will be cursed and die from it. The Wolfe twins missed the message and still sat next to me. I expected them to sit somewhere else, but they didn't.

My attention was entirely focused on Logan, and I could feel some electrical waves running through my body.

Logan moves his head closer to mine, and I could feel my heart hammering to each beat against my rib cage that something is going to happen, and this isn't just something - Logan is about to kiss me.

What should I do? Do I wait? Do I lift my head to make the first move?

I had never kissed a guy before, I didn't know how to kiss, and Ares is an exception because I remember I was three, and to get my doll back, I attacked him with my sloppy kisses to return the toy to me. And it worked. Anyways, that is not important; right now, at this very moment, I'm going to be kissed by the hottest guy currently at the school.

The closer he got, the more my body and mind became stiff underneath him. My heart was the only one rampaging against my chest of fear and excitement. I lay frozen from both anxiety and nervousness that my heart won't stop pounding, and I bet he could hear it because it was so damn quiet in the room.

I closed my eyes shut just waiting, then flashbacks from yesterday when I spotted him zipping up his pants, and the girl with the brunette hair said she enjoyed her lunch meant she didn't eat food, but something else made me realize the mistake. I'm about to make that I would regret for the rest of my life.

"Wait!" I jolted my head up, colliding with his.