[fic, BTR] All That Counts (Part 2)
Title: All That Counts (Part 2/?)
Word Count: ~4,000 / 40,000+
For bigtimebang
Previous: Part 1
----
An hour later Logan was pushing away from the desk in frustration. James grabbed his arm without thinking. "You're not giving up already, are you?" he asked, a note of desperation in his voice.
Logan sighed, and rubbed at his forehead with his free hand. Somewhere in the back of his mind James noted that Logan wasn't pulling his arm away. "No," Logan said, his face screwed up in a weird of mix of resignation and determination. "I just…need a break. I told you I'm not very good at this."
"No, you're doing great," James assured him, letting go of his arm somewhat reluctantly. "I think this is starting to make sense. A little. More than it did in class, anyway."
Logan gave a slight smile at that, glancing up at James with lifted eyebrows. "Then prove it. Here, this problem," he said, pointing at one of the problems in the book, "is just like that practice one we just did. Follow the same steps, and let me know when you get the answer."
"What are you going to do?" James asked as Logan stood up and stretched. His shirt didn't ride up enough to expose any skin and James had to fight a pout.
"PS3," Logan said, pointing at the TV. "That won't be a distraction, will it?"
James shook his head. Logan himself was more of a distraction than a video game would be. "No, it's cool, go ahead."
"Awesome." Logan grinned and walked away. "Where are all your games?"
"In the desk drawer," James told him before looking down at his homework. He sighed, then narrowed his eyes. He could do this.
Five minutes later he stood up. This actually wasn't going to work. He turned around and was met by the sight of Logan lounging on his bed, and had to forcibly look away to walk across the room. "Hey, wait, where are you going?" Logan asked him.
"Headphones," James said without glancing back, because he really really wanted to just flop down on the bed next to Logan and play games too. Or do…other things.
"Oh," Logan said, sounding surprised. "Sorry, I can turn this down-"
"It's okay." James flashed him a smile as he grabbed his headphones off his dresser, where he'd left them after his run that morning. "I'll just listen to some music."
Logan nodded. "Okay. How's it going so far?"
James shrugged. He really hadn't been able to concentrate over the sound of the TV. "I'll let you know."
Once James was settled back at his desk and listening to music on his phone, focusing was much easier than it had been before. He hummed along to a song, tapping his mechanical pencil against the desk as he looked from the problem he was working on to the practice one and back again. They were pretty similar, so all he had to do was follow what Logan had done on the other one and use the new numbers, right? And he didn't even have to do any long multiplication or division because he could use his calculator. He just had to show each step of the problem.
He was on the final step, so close to the answer, when something touched his shoulder and he jumped slightly. He looked up to see Logan giving him an amused smile. "Sorry," Logan said, though James could just barely hear it over the music. He pulled one of his earbuds out. "Sorry," Logan repeated. "Just making sure you weren't more focused on singing than doing your actual work."
"Singing is my actual work," James replied immediately, because it was. Stupid chemistry problems were just something he had to do to make his mom happy. "And wait-I was singing? Actual words?" James really thought he'd only been humming.
Logan nodded before adding, "You were getting kind of loud."
"Oh." James looked away, embarrassed in a way he'd never been before over singing around someone, accidentally or no. "Um…sorry."
"Don't be, you sounded good." There was a smile in Logan's voice, but before James could say anything else Logan went on. "How are you coming with that problem, though?"
"Almost done," James said, stopping his music. "…I think."
Logan leaned down to get a look at James's notebook, putting his hand back on James's shoulder for balance. James tried not to pay too much attention to that, or the fact that Logan's face was so close to his own now.
He tried, but mostly failed. Logan's hand was warm on his shoulder-stupid tank top, it had seemed like a good idea at the time-and Logan's face was nice even close-up and James could smell-something, aftershave, shampoo, cologne, he had no idea but it was also nice. And unfair.
"Hey, yeah, you've almost got it," Logan said, thankfully giving James something else to focus on.
"Yeah?" he asked with a smile, risking a glance over. Logan's eyes were brown, which James had sort of already known but now he was seeing them-or at least one of them-from inches away and, well. They were nice, too.
Logan tapped on the notebook, bringing James's gaze back to it. "Yeah, you just need to put down the final answer." He straightened back up, taking his hand away, and James refused to frown about that.
"Oh," James said, when it became apparent Logan was standing there waiting for him to finish the problem. He grabbed his calculator and stared hard at his work so far, then started pushing buttons. When he got the number he wrote it down carefully, then looked up at Logan, heart beating faster in anticipation. He wanted it to be the right answer, so bad.
Logan was looking at the notebook, not at James, but he grinned a little-crookedly, again, damn that was cute-and touched James again, shaking his shoulder lightly. "Maybe I'm not a totally crap tutor after all," he said, turning those nice brown eyes on James, who was beaming back at him. It was just one problem, yeah, but he got it right and Logan was totally proud of him. Logan blinked, then stepped away from James and walked quickly behind him to his seat on the other side of the desk.
"Right, so," Logan said, running a finger-great, now James was looking at his hands-down the open page. "Problems 12, 17, 21 and…28 are all pretty similar to that one. Think you can do those too?" He raised his eyebrows at James.
"Give 'em here," James said confidently, tugging the book closer to him.
"Awesome. I'm gonna get back to my game while you work on those; let me know if you have any questions or whatever." Logan clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past again, the touch familiar in a way that took James several seconds longer to figure out than it should have.
Kendall. Carlos. James grew up with people touching him like that-casual, friendly. That hadn't actually happened in like, over a year, but the memories were still there: hanging out and laughing and hockey and video games and-
James shook his head, shaking away the memories because they made him feel stupid and sad, because here he was, he'd followed the two of them to school and he was too afraid to even try to find them, because they were the ones who'd left and what if they didn't want to see him anymore? What if they wouldn't even care that he was there, what if this year was going to be just like last year except worse because at least when they weren't at the same school James could pretend his two best friends actually had a reason for ignoring him? What if-
"I don't hear a pencil moving over there," Logan said, cutting into James's quickly-growing pity party.
"Yeah, sorry, I…I'm gonna get something to drink, you want anything?" James stood up, congratulating himself on his quick save. He stepped over to the mini-fridge tucked under the lofted bed, next to the desk and TV.
"Uh, sure, what've you got?"
"Water," James said, opening the fridge and leaning down to see what else he had. "Um…sweet tea? And sports drinks. So, not a lot, sorry." He frowned, realizing something. "I should've asked you what you like to drink so I could stock up."
"No, that's, that's uh-tea is fine," Logan said, as James straightened up and looked back. Logan was watching the TV sort of intently. When James glanced over at it he could see why; Logan wasn't doing so well.
"You sure?" James asked, hand still on the door to the fridge, moving it slowly back and forth in hesitation. "I could run out and get you something else."
Logan's face went blank for a second, then he was pausing the game and looking straight at James. "Tea's fine," he repeated, before jerking his head towards the desk. "Get back to work."
James scowled, but reached in the fridge for a bottle of tea and a water for himself. He wasn't trying to get out of doing his work, he just wanted to keep his tutor/new friend happy. By having the right drinks.
"I'm starting to see why you could never cut it as a tutor before," James said, tossing the tea at Logan without warning just to see the look on his face.
Logan's eyes widened but he caught the bottle easily enough. James might have been impressed. Whatever. Logan was still a meanie. "Because I encourage you to actually do your work," Logan said, his expression melting into a smirk, "instead of letting you take a completely unnecessary trip to a store that would basically just waste time?"
Hah, making it sound smart didn't change anything. "Because you're a meanie," James answered.
That got a way better reaction out of Logan: he did this weird blushing-while-stifling-laughter-and-sinking-down-further-on-the-bed thing, before focusing back on the TV and unpausing his game. "Get back to work, James."
"See, total hardass," James said as he walked back to his desk. But his tone was sort of teasing and he was sort of smiling and maybe it was a little flirty but that was completely unintentional so it didn't count. And friends teased each other. So. It was okay.
"I'm just earning my pizza and video games," Logan said lightly as James sat down again. James hunched over his desk to hide his laugh. He wouldn't give Logan the satisfaction. Nope.
--
By the time Logan allowed James to stop for lunch he'd actually made really good progress on his homework. Being able to work at his own pace and ask Logan questions when he didn't understand something was so much better than sitting in that awful study group. And yeah, Logan seemed to get a little frustrated when he was explaining things sometimes but then he'd leave James with some problems to work out while he went back to his game, and when he came back he'd be okay. Eventually James figured out that this was Logan's way of trying-he could just have walked out the door when he lost patience with the whole thing, but instead he was keeping his word. He was trying to help. He wasn't giving up on James so easily.
And that…meant a lot. So James was trying too, more than he ever did with subjects that bored him like this. He wanted to prove to Logan, at least, that he was worth not giving up on.
After James ordered the pizza Logan didn't make him get back to work. Instead, he scooted over a bit on the bed and they played video games together for the half hour or so it took the delivery guy to show up. They were totally becoming friends; James could tell.
"Okay, so this is some pretty good pizza," Logan said a few bites in. They were sitting on the floor now, pizza boxes and bottled drinks scattered around them, the TV turned on to some random movie.
James grinned. "Good enough to have for dinner, too?"
"Might not even need to," Logan said with a sort of thoughtful look. "You've been doing well; we'll probably be done with your chem homework pretty soon."
"Oh," James said, trying not to sound disappointed. He should be happy, shouldn't he? About nearly being done with homework? And actually getting things right? But he kind of really liked having Logan around and didn't want him to leave. When Logan left James would be sitting around in an empty room again. He didn't want that.
He didn't want to come on too strong, either-it was probably a little early to start proclaiming Logan his new best friend forever even though he sort of really wanted to-but that prick of impending loneliness was what made James say, in as joking a manner as he could manage, "Well, I still have freshman comp to worry about. And how are you with French?"
Logan groaned. Actually groaned, tilting his head back dramatically and letting out a long "ugh" sound. James couldn't tell if it was supposed to be funny or serious so he didn't know whether to laugh or feel dumb.
"Of course you have more homework. Fine, whatever, I guess I can have pizza again for dinner," Logan said, and again James wasn't sure how he was supposed to take that. James's new friend was kind of confusing. But hey, he'd agreed to stay longer, so who cared. "But next time I'm bringing my own work to get done while you do problems."
James lit up at that, though, feeling a grin spring on his face before he could force it back. "Next time?"
"Yeah, they tend to give you homework every week, not just at the beginning of the semester," Logan replied. "It's sort of a reoccurring thing."
Hardass and a smartass. James sure knew how to pick 'em. He was shoving at Logan's shoulder before he could even think about it. "I know that."
"You should finish your pizza so you can get back to work," Logan said, his mouth twitching like he was trying to hide a smile. "I can't believe you're taking French, ugh. Why wouldn't you pick a decent foreign language, like Latin?"
"Probably the same reason I couldn't pick a nice tutor," James grumbled back.
Logan shrugged. "Take it out of my fee," he said, completely failing to hide his little smirk that time.
He was lifting a new slice of pizza up as he said it, and James, on impulse, reached over and snatched it out of his hand. "Okay," James said, before taking a huge bite and grinning as he chewed it. Logan stared at him, wide-eyed and with his mouth hanging open a little in disbelief, and James couldn't help but laugh. Logan shoved him and grabbed another slice out of the box.
Yep, they were totally friends. It was awesome.
--
When James finished his last homework problem for chemistry, he had a better understanding of the subject than he probably ever had in his life. It still didn't really make any sense, because really, who cared about significant figures or atomic half-lives or any sort of experiment that didn't involve blowing things up (well, okay, Logan did, apparently, but who else), but he at least knew what he was doing now. More or less. Logan had basically retaught him the entire first two weeks of the course, and now when James went back to class on Tuesday maybe he would actually know what the professor was talking about.
Once the chem book was put away and James had closed the cover on his notebook-still feeling stupidly proud of himself for managing to finish all of the problems and knowing they were right-Logan had him pull out his assignment for freshman comp to read over. It wasn't due until Wednesday and James hadn't started on it yet, but Logan made sure he understood what the assignment was asking for and even made him draft a quick outline that he could use when he started writing.
"I can check it for you before you turn it in, if you want," Logan said as James worked on his outline, "but you know there's like, a writing center on campus you can use, right? They'll go over your papers and tell you how to make them better, and proofread them and such."
"Oh, I didn't know that." James thought for a second, then shook his head. "I'd rather you check it."
"Okay," Logan said with a shrug. "It's not exactly my subject, but if that's what you want."
James gave him a sideways look. "What sort of grades do you get on your papers?"
Logan shrugged again, and blushed slightly. "Okay, yeah, I get As, but still."
James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Mr. Genius, that's what I thought. Those writing center people will probably laugh at me just like my study group did. You won't. So you're gonna check my paper."
Logan's face sort of tilted in consideration. "…I might laugh at you."
James punched him in the arm. Smartass. "Ow, damn!" Logan said, rubbing at the injury and furrowing his eyebrows at James. "Those arms aren't just for looks, huh?"
"Oh, these?" James grinned and flexed his right arm. "Pretty and functional. A tan is only as good as the rock-solid muscle it covers, after all. Rock-solid, Logan. Go on, touch it."
"…No thanks," Logan said, sounding a little strained and looking confused and mildly horrified at James's arm.
Oops. Had that been too much?
Logan shook his head, cleared his throat pointedly, and tapped lightly at the paper on the desk. "How, uh, how's that outline coming?"
The outline had to be revised a few times before it met Logan's satisfaction, and then they took a break to eat more pizza and play more video games. After that, Logan-with much complaining and many snide remarks-quizzed James on what he'd learned so far in French. James didn't actually mind that class much; the reading and writing kind of sucked, but speaking a foreign language was cool. And French was supposed to be like, romantic, or something, right? Not that it seemed to be winning him any points with Logan. Not that that mattered, because Logan was his friend.
His cute, genius-y, hardass-smartass tutor friend. Sigh.
"Thanks for-all of this," James said, only a little awkwardly, when Logan was done quizzing him. "I mean, I know it wasn't the best way to spend a Saturday, but, y'know, I really appreciate it. And I know you said I don't have to pay you but I can, really. You've been-a huge help, and-" I want to be your best friend forever, James blurted in his mind, but managed to keep it there. Luckily.
"No, no, you don't have to pay me, seriously," Logan assured him, standing up from the bed-they had just stayed there after the video game break-and stretching. "It wasn't the worst way to spend a Saturday, either," he added with a smirk. "And your TV is admittedly awesome."
James gave a smirk of his own and stood up as well. "Well, if you ever need to get away from your roommates or just…want to take advantage of the TV, or whatever, just…" He shrugged, feeling nervous about what he was offering and how it would be taken. "Let me know."
"I'll keep that in mind," Logan said, giving James a soft smile. It was stupidly adorable and James had to tell himself don't mess this up, do NOT mess this up to keep from doing something equally stupid like asking his tutor/new-and-probably-straight-friend on a date. "I'm not sure what my schedule for next week will be," Logan went on, "but I'll try to find some time to stop by and help you with your homework. If you want."
"Oh I want," James said with a vigorous nod. "Yeah, no, you're basically the best tutor ever and now that I know you can be bought with pizza and video games you're pretty much stuck with me. Plus you said you'd look over my paper."
"You could just e-mail that to me, though," Logan said, rolling his eyes a little. But he was still smiling, which meant he was totally susceptible to the James Diamond charm. "But okay, yeah, I'll see if I can come by Tuesday? That's when you have chemistry next, right?"
"Yep." James nodded again, more calmly. "And the paper's due Wednesday, so that'd be perfect."
"Okay." Logan raised an eyebrow at him. "You have to actually write the paper, though."
"I will," James told him with a scowl.
Logan grinned. "Good. Hey, so…I don't know if you're busy tomorrow, but my roommates are dragging me to see a movie, so, uh…you could come along, if you wanted."
James blinked. A sudden invitation to a friendly group outing? It was unexpected but James didn't even have to think, of course he wanted to go, but tomorrow, tomorrow was-oh. "I can't," James said, sad now and probably showing it. "Auditions start tomorrow."
"Oh, okay," Logan said, nodding in understanding. Then he blinked. "Wait-auditions?"
"Yeah, for the play this semester. I'm a theatre major."
Logan's mouth and eyebrows twitched. "Oh."
"…What?" James asked, suspicious.
"Nothing," Logan said, shaking his head in a totally fake nonchalant sort of way. While obviously hiding an amused smirk. "That just…explains a lot."
James gaped at him. Should he be offended by that? He stepped forward to punch Logan again, just in case, but Logan dodged out of the way. "Hey now," Logan said, backing quickly towards the door, "you don't want your tutor leaving in bruises, do you? And so wait, they're having auditions on a Sunday?"
"Is that weird?" James asked, giving up on the punishment. It wasn't like he'd planned on hitting him hard.
"I dunno," Logan said with a shrug. "But uh, break a leg, I guess?"
"Thanks," James said, grinning. "Although I'm just a freshman and I've never really acted before, so I'll probably just get stuck in the background somewhere."
"Oh. Is it a musical? Because I know your singing's good, at least."
James's face tried to smile and frown at the same time, which was weird. "No, not this time. The musical is next semester. But by then I'll have enough experience to get a decent part." James paused for a second. "I hope."
"Yeah, I'm sure you'll do great," Logan said with a smile, before turning to open the door. "Well, I'll see you Tuesday, I guess? Unless I get tired of my roommates before then," he joked.
"Yeah, see you." Would walking over and closing the door as Logan left be weird? James stayed where he was and waved, just in case. "Thanks again, for helping me."
"Thanks for feeding me. Bye, James." Logan waved back, and then he was gone.
James waited about five seconds after the door closed before letting out a huge sigh and falling dramatically back on his bed. On the plus side, he had a tutor now-a good one, too-so he didn't have to worry as much about failing his classes anymore. On the minus side, James didn't have the best track record with tutors. At all.
But he was determined not to repeat past mistakes, by placing Logan firmly in the 'friend' category. So it was sort of unfortunate that James already had a major crush on him. This semester was going to be complicated, and James was going to have to barrel through on sheer force of will, natural talent, and incredible good looks.
…At least college didn't suck so much anymore?
Part 3
Word Count: ~4,000 / 40,000+
For bigtimebang
Previous: Part 1
----
An hour later Logan was pushing away from the desk in frustration. James grabbed his arm without thinking. "You're not giving up already, are you?" he asked, a note of desperation in his voice.
Logan sighed, and rubbed at his forehead with his free hand. Somewhere in the back of his mind James noted that Logan wasn't pulling his arm away. "No," Logan said, his face screwed up in a weird of mix of resignation and determination. "I just…need a break. I told you I'm not very good at this."
"No, you're doing great," James assured him, letting go of his arm somewhat reluctantly. "I think this is starting to make sense. A little. More than it did in class, anyway."
Logan gave a slight smile at that, glancing up at James with lifted eyebrows. "Then prove it. Here, this problem," he said, pointing at one of the problems in the book, "is just like that practice one we just did. Follow the same steps, and let me know when you get the answer."
"What are you going to do?" James asked as Logan stood up and stretched. His shirt didn't ride up enough to expose any skin and James had to fight a pout.
"PS3," Logan said, pointing at the TV. "That won't be a distraction, will it?"
James shook his head. Logan himself was more of a distraction than a video game would be. "No, it's cool, go ahead."
"Awesome." Logan grinned and walked away. "Where are all your games?"
"In the desk drawer," James told him before looking down at his homework. He sighed, then narrowed his eyes. He could do this.
Five minutes later he stood up. This actually wasn't going to work. He turned around and was met by the sight of Logan lounging on his bed, and had to forcibly look away to walk across the room. "Hey, wait, where are you going?" Logan asked him.
"Headphones," James said without glancing back, because he really really wanted to just flop down on the bed next to Logan and play games too. Or do…other things.
"Oh," Logan said, sounding surprised. "Sorry, I can turn this down-"
"It's okay." James flashed him a smile as he grabbed his headphones off his dresser, where he'd left them after his run that morning. "I'll just listen to some music."
Logan nodded. "Okay. How's it going so far?"
James shrugged. He really hadn't been able to concentrate over the sound of the TV. "I'll let you know."
Once James was settled back at his desk and listening to music on his phone, focusing was much easier than it had been before. He hummed along to a song, tapping his mechanical pencil against the desk as he looked from the problem he was working on to the practice one and back again. They were pretty similar, so all he had to do was follow what Logan had done on the other one and use the new numbers, right? And he didn't even have to do any long multiplication or division because he could use his calculator. He just had to show each step of the problem.
He was on the final step, so close to the answer, when something touched his shoulder and he jumped slightly. He looked up to see Logan giving him an amused smile. "Sorry," Logan said, though James could just barely hear it over the music. He pulled one of his earbuds out. "Sorry," Logan repeated. "Just making sure you weren't more focused on singing than doing your actual work."
"Singing is my actual work," James replied immediately, because it was. Stupid chemistry problems were just something he had to do to make his mom happy. "And wait-I was singing? Actual words?" James really thought he'd only been humming.
Logan nodded before adding, "You were getting kind of loud."
"Oh." James looked away, embarrassed in a way he'd never been before over singing around someone, accidentally or no. "Um…sorry."
"Don't be, you sounded good." There was a smile in Logan's voice, but before James could say anything else Logan went on. "How are you coming with that problem, though?"
"Almost done," James said, stopping his music. "…I think."
Logan leaned down to get a look at James's notebook, putting his hand back on James's shoulder for balance. James tried not to pay too much attention to that, or the fact that Logan's face was so close to his own now.
He tried, but mostly failed. Logan's hand was warm on his shoulder-stupid tank top, it had seemed like a good idea at the time-and Logan's face was nice even close-up and James could smell-something, aftershave, shampoo, cologne, he had no idea but it was also nice. And unfair.
"Hey, yeah, you've almost got it," Logan said, thankfully giving James something else to focus on.
"Yeah?" he asked with a smile, risking a glance over. Logan's eyes were brown, which James had sort of already known but now he was seeing them-or at least one of them-from inches away and, well. They were nice, too.
Logan tapped on the notebook, bringing James's gaze back to it. "Yeah, you just need to put down the final answer." He straightened back up, taking his hand away, and James refused to frown about that.
"Oh," James said, when it became apparent Logan was standing there waiting for him to finish the problem. He grabbed his calculator and stared hard at his work so far, then started pushing buttons. When he got the number he wrote it down carefully, then looked up at Logan, heart beating faster in anticipation. He wanted it to be the right answer, so bad.
Logan was looking at the notebook, not at James, but he grinned a little-crookedly, again, damn that was cute-and touched James again, shaking his shoulder lightly. "Maybe I'm not a totally crap tutor after all," he said, turning those nice brown eyes on James, who was beaming back at him. It was just one problem, yeah, but he got it right and Logan was totally proud of him. Logan blinked, then stepped away from James and walked quickly behind him to his seat on the other side of the desk.
"Right, so," Logan said, running a finger-great, now James was looking at his hands-down the open page. "Problems 12, 17, 21 and…28 are all pretty similar to that one. Think you can do those too?" He raised his eyebrows at James.
"Give 'em here," James said confidently, tugging the book closer to him.
"Awesome. I'm gonna get back to my game while you work on those; let me know if you have any questions or whatever." Logan clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past again, the touch familiar in a way that took James several seconds longer to figure out than it should have.
Kendall. Carlos. James grew up with people touching him like that-casual, friendly. That hadn't actually happened in like, over a year, but the memories were still there: hanging out and laughing and hockey and video games and-
James shook his head, shaking away the memories because they made him feel stupid and sad, because here he was, he'd followed the two of them to school and he was too afraid to even try to find them, because they were the ones who'd left and what if they didn't want to see him anymore? What if they wouldn't even care that he was there, what if this year was going to be just like last year except worse because at least when they weren't at the same school James could pretend his two best friends actually had a reason for ignoring him? What if-
"I don't hear a pencil moving over there," Logan said, cutting into James's quickly-growing pity party.
"Yeah, sorry, I…I'm gonna get something to drink, you want anything?" James stood up, congratulating himself on his quick save. He stepped over to the mini-fridge tucked under the lofted bed, next to the desk and TV.
"Uh, sure, what've you got?"
"Water," James said, opening the fridge and leaning down to see what else he had. "Um…sweet tea? And sports drinks. So, not a lot, sorry." He frowned, realizing something. "I should've asked you what you like to drink so I could stock up."
"No, that's, that's uh-tea is fine," Logan said, as James straightened up and looked back. Logan was watching the TV sort of intently. When James glanced over at it he could see why; Logan wasn't doing so well.
"You sure?" James asked, hand still on the door to the fridge, moving it slowly back and forth in hesitation. "I could run out and get you something else."
Logan's face went blank for a second, then he was pausing the game and looking straight at James. "Tea's fine," he repeated, before jerking his head towards the desk. "Get back to work."
James scowled, but reached in the fridge for a bottle of tea and a water for himself. He wasn't trying to get out of doing his work, he just wanted to keep his tutor/new friend happy. By having the right drinks.
"I'm starting to see why you could never cut it as a tutor before," James said, tossing the tea at Logan without warning just to see the look on his face.
Logan's eyes widened but he caught the bottle easily enough. James might have been impressed. Whatever. Logan was still a meanie. "Because I encourage you to actually do your work," Logan said, his expression melting into a smirk, "instead of letting you take a completely unnecessary trip to a store that would basically just waste time?"
Hah, making it sound smart didn't change anything. "Because you're a meanie," James answered.
That got a way better reaction out of Logan: he did this weird blushing-while-stifling-laughter-and-sinking-down-further-on-the-bed thing, before focusing back on the TV and unpausing his game. "Get back to work, James."
"See, total hardass," James said as he walked back to his desk. But his tone was sort of teasing and he was sort of smiling and maybe it was a little flirty but that was completely unintentional so it didn't count. And friends teased each other. So. It was okay.
"I'm just earning my pizza and video games," Logan said lightly as James sat down again. James hunched over his desk to hide his laugh. He wouldn't give Logan the satisfaction. Nope.
--
By the time Logan allowed James to stop for lunch he'd actually made really good progress on his homework. Being able to work at his own pace and ask Logan questions when he didn't understand something was so much better than sitting in that awful study group. And yeah, Logan seemed to get a little frustrated when he was explaining things sometimes but then he'd leave James with some problems to work out while he went back to his game, and when he came back he'd be okay. Eventually James figured out that this was Logan's way of trying-he could just have walked out the door when he lost patience with the whole thing, but instead he was keeping his word. He was trying to help. He wasn't giving up on James so easily.
And that…meant a lot. So James was trying too, more than he ever did with subjects that bored him like this. He wanted to prove to Logan, at least, that he was worth not giving up on.
After James ordered the pizza Logan didn't make him get back to work. Instead, he scooted over a bit on the bed and they played video games together for the half hour or so it took the delivery guy to show up. They were totally becoming friends; James could tell.
"Okay, so this is some pretty good pizza," Logan said a few bites in. They were sitting on the floor now, pizza boxes and bottled drinks scattered around them, the TV turned on to some random movie.
James grinned. "Good enough to have for dinner, too?"
"Might not even need to," Logan said with a sort of thoughtful look. "You've been doing well; we'll probably be done with your chem homework pretty soon."
"Oh," James said, trying not to sound disappointed. He should be happy, shouldn't he? About nearly being done with homework? And actually getting things right? But he kind of really liked having Logan around and didn't want him to leave. When Logan left James would be sitting around in an empty room again. He didn't want that.
He didn't want to come on too strong, either-it was probably a little early to start proclaiming Logan his new best friend forever even though he sort of really wanted to-but that prick of impending loneliness was what made James say, in as joking a manner as he could manage, "Well, I still have freshman comp to worry about. And how are you with French?"
Logan groaned. Actually groaned, tilting his head back dramatically and letting out a long "ugh" sound. James couldn't tell if it was supposed to be funny or serious so he didn't know whether to laugh or feel dumb.
"Of course you have more homework. Fine, whatever, I guess I can have pizza again for dinner," Logan said, and again James wasn't sure how he was supposed to take that. James's new friend was kind of confusing. But hey, he'd agreed to stay longer, so who cared. "But next time I'm bringing my own work to get done while you do problems."
James lit up at that, though, feeling a grin spring on his face before he could force it back. "Next time?"
"Yeah, they tend to give you homework every week, not just at the beginning of the semester," Logan replied. "It's sort of a reoccurring thing."
Hardass and a smartass. James sure knew how to pick 'em. He was shoving at Logan's shoulder before he could even think about it. "I know that."
"You should finish your pizza so you can get back to work," Logan said, his mouth twitching like he was trying to hide a smile. "I can't believe you're taking French, ugh. Why wouldn't you pick a decent foreign language, like Latin?"
"Probably the same reason I couldn't pick a nice tutor," James grumbled back.
Logan shrugged. "Take it out of my fee," he said, completely failing to hide his little smirk that time.
He was lifting a new slice of pizza up as he said it, and James, on impulse, reached over and snatched it out of his hand. "Okay," James said, before taking a huge bite and grinning as he chewed it. Logan stared at him, wide-eyed and with his mouth hanging open a little in disbelief, and James couldn't help but laugh. Logan shoved him and grabbed another slice out of the box.
Yep, they were totally friends. It was awesome.
--
When James finished his last homework problem for chemistry, he had a better understanding of the subject than he probably ever had in his life. It still didn't really make any sense, because really, who cared about significant figures or atomic half-lives or any sort of experiment that didn't involve blowing things up (well, okay, Logan did, apparently, but who else), but he at least knew what he was doing now. More or less. Logan had basically retaught him the entire first two weeks of the course, and now when James went back to class on Tuesday maybe he would actually know what the professor was talking about.
Once the chem book was put away and James had closed the cover on his notebook-still feeling stupidly proud of himself for managing to finish all of the problems and knowing they were right-Logan had him pull out his assignment for freshman comp to read over. It wasn't due until Wednesday and James hadn't started on it yet, but Logan made sure he understood what the assignment was asking for and even made him draft a quick outline that he could use when he started writing.
"I can check it for you before you turn it in, if you want," Logan said as James worked on his outline, "but you know there's like, a writing center on campus you can use, right? They'll go over your papers and tell you how to make them better, and proofread them and such."
"Oh, I didn't know that." James thought for a second, then shook his head. "I'd rather you check it."
"Okay," Logan said with a shrug. "It's not exactly my subject, but if that's what you want."
James gave him a sideways look. "What sort of grades do you get on your papers?"
Logan shrugged again, and blushed slightly. "Okay, yeah, I get As, but still."
James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Mr. Genius, that's what I thought. Those writing center people will probably laugh at me just like my study group did. You won't. So you're gonna check my paper."
Logan's face sort of tilted in consideration. "…I might laugh at you."
James punched him in the arm. Smartass. "Ow, damn!" Logan said, rubbing at the injury and furrowing his eyebrows at James. "Those arms aren't just for looks, huh?"
"Oh, these?" James grinned and flexed his right arm. "Pretty and functional. A tan is only as good as the rock-solid muscle it covers, after all. Rock-solid, Logan. Go on, touch it."
"…No thanks," Logan said, sounding a little strained and looking confused and mildly horrified at James's arm.
Oops. Had that been too much?
Logan shook his head, cleared his throat pointedly, and tapped lightly at the paper on the desk. "How, uh, how's that outline coming?"
The outline had to be revised a few times before it met Logan's satisfaction, and then they took a break to eat more pizza and play more video games. After that, Logan-with much complaining and many snide remarks-quizzed James on what he'd learned so far in French. James didn't actually mind that class much; the reading and writing kind of sucked, but speaking a foreign language was cool. And French was supposed to be like, romantic, or something, right? Not that it seemed to be winning him any points with Logan. Not that that mattered, because Logan was his friend.
His cute, genius-y, hardass-smartass tutor friend. Sigh.
"Thanks for-all of this," James said, only a little awkwardly, when Logan was done quizzing him. "I mean, I know it wasn't the best way to spend a Saturday, but, y'know, I really appreciate it. And I know you said I don't have to pay you but I can, really. You've been-a huge help, and-" I want to be your best friend forever, James blurted in his mind, but managed to keep it there. Luckily.
"No, no, you don't have to pay me, seriously," Logan assured him, standing up from the bed-they had just stayed there after the video game break-and stretching. "It wasn't the worst way to spend a Saturday, either," he added with a smirk. "And your TV is admittedly awesome."
James gave a smirk of his own and stood up as well. "Well, if you ever need to get away from your roommates or just…want to take advantage of the TV, or whatever, just…" He shrugged, feeling nervous about what he was offering and how it would be taken. "Let me know."
"I'll keep that in mind," Logan said, giving James a soft smile. It was stupidly adorable and James had to tell himself don't mess this up, do NOT mess this up to keep from doing something equally stupid like asking his tutor/new-and-probably-straight-friend on a date. "I'm not sure what my schedule for next week will be," Logan went on, "but I'll try to find some time to stop by and help you with your homework. If you want."
"Oh I want," James said with a vigorous nod. "Yeah, no, you're basically the best tutor ever and now that I know you can be bought with pizza and video games you're pretty much stuck with me. Plus you said you'd look over my paper."
"You could just e-mail that to me, though," Logan said, rolling his eyes a little. But he was still smiling, which meant he was totally susceptible to the James Diamond charm. "But okay, yeah, I'll see if I can come by Tuesday? That's when you have chemistry next, right?"
"Yep." James nodded again, more calmly. "And the paper's due Wednesday, so that'd be perfect."
"Okay." Logan raised an eyebrow at him. "You have to actually write the paper, though."
"I will," James told him with a scowl.
Logan grinned. "Good. Hey, so…I don't know if you're busy tomorrow, but my roommates are dragging me to see a movie, so, uh…you could come along, if you wanted."
James blinked. A sudden invitation to a friendly group outing? It was unexpected but James didn't even have to think, of course he wanted to go, but tomorrow, tomorrow was-oh. "I can't," James said, sad now and probably showing it. "Auditions start tomorrow."
"Oh, okay," Logan said, nodding in understanding. Then he blinked. "Wait-auditions?"
"Yeah, for the play this semester. I'm a theatre major."
Logan's mouth and eyebrows twitched. "Oh."
"…What?" James asked, suspicious.
"Nothing," Logan said, shaking his head in a totally fake nonchalant sort of way. While obviously hiding an amused smirk. "That just…explains a lot."
James gaped at him. Should he be offended by that? He stepped forward to punch Logan again, just in case, but Logan dodged out of the way. "Hey now," Logan said, backing quickly towards the door, "you don't want your tutor leaving in bruises, do you? And so wait, they're having auditions on a Sunday?"
"Is that weird?" James asked, giving up on the punishment. It wasn't like he'd planned on hitting him hard.
"I dunno," Logan said with a shrug. "But uh, break a leg, I guess?"
"Thanks," James said, grinning. "Although I'm just a freshman and I've never really acted before, so I'll probably just get stuck in the background somewhere."
"Oh. Is it a musical? Because I know your singing's good, at least."
James's face tried to smile and frown at the same time, which was weird. "No, not this time. The musical is next semester. But by then I'll have enough experience to get a decent part." James paused for a second. "I hope."
"Yeah, I'm sure you'll do great," Logan said with a smile, before turning to open the door. "Well, I'll see you Tuesday, I guess? Unless I get tired of my roommates before then," he joked.
"Yeah, see you." Would walking over and closing the door as Logan left be weird? James stayed where he was and waved, just in case. "Thanks again, for helping me."
"Thanks for feeding me. Bye, James." Logan waved back, and then he was gone.
James waited about five seconds after the door closed before letting out a huge sigh and falling dramatically back on his bed. On the plus side, he had a tutor now-a good one, too-so he didn't have to worry as much about failing his classes anymore. On the minus side, James didn't have the best track record with tutors. At all.
But he was determined not to repeat past mistakes, by placing Logan firmly in the 'friend' category. So it was sort of unfortunate that James already had a major crush on him. This semester was going to be complicated, and James was going to have to barrel through on sheer force of will, natural talent, and incredible good looks.
…At least college didn't suck so much anymore?
Part 3