Two Roads Read Free

clear as day, but without once betraying any emotion in his features.
    Shit. I need this guy’s poker face.
    “Isn’t it?” I yawn loudly, stretching my legs farther onto the table. Jaden is still grinning from ear to ear, glancing between us like we’re live TV. He seems to enjoy watching us almost as much as we enjoy hating each other.
    Next I glance around the table, looking for something else to bully Logan with, and my gaze automatically fixates on his hot chocolate. My eyebrows narrow. “Give me that,” I say suddenly, shooting a hand out to snag the mug, and before he can protest, before he can knock it away, it’s in my possession. Logan doesn’t look fazed, though. He just straightens up in his seat and lets a smirk flicker across his lips.
    Goddammit.
    I stare at the mug, lying there in front of me, then back up at Logan. His eyes are trained on mine, and he looks way too confident considering I have his prized hot chocolate in my possession. As I watch the mug, I know I should just leave it, drop it, let it all go, but that would be too unlike me. That would be letting him off the hook.
    And let me tell you: Logan is not going to be let off the hook.
    Ever so slowly, I lean in toward the hot chocolate, pretending to examine the poor excuse for a drink--a coffee-wannabe, if you ask me--and then I wrap my hands around it and lift it up.
    The mug is cold.
    I roll my eyes. Of course it’s cold. Poor nerd boy can’t drink hot chocolate hot , or even warm, because it’ll burn his precious little tongue. So instead he has to drink it like it’s been cooled for hours, as you would do for a small child, if even. I can’t believe I used to have a crush on him four years ago.
    He’s watching me closely now, and I feel my smile grow because I know what to do. I lean my mouth into the mug and take a long, exaggerated sip.
    It tastes as terrible as it looks. All overly sweet and cold and childish; I can’t believe someone would drink this. But just to make a show of it, I roll the liquid around in my mouth a few times, pretending to savor it, but when I look back up, I hate how Logan doesn’t appear the slightest bit bothered.
    “This is awful,” I say to him. Still no reaction--god, he’s good.
    “I appreciate the input,” Logan says after a while, not taking his eyes off of me for a second. Red hot hatred pulses between us, and I swear if someone dropped a match right now the tension in the air would make this whole place explode. But as composed as Logan appears, something is there--something that can only be rage. I see it in the intensity of his stare, the tightness in his jaw, the way he does not move an inch during this whole thing.
    There’s a pause, and I decide to take another sip of the wretched liquid for good measure. “So what were you all doing before I dropped by?” I say, making sure my tongue drags out the word ‘doing’ just a little too long.
    “I’d love to tell you all about it on your way out,” Logan says, batting his eyelashes in the most fake flattering way I’ve ever seen. I bite back a laugh, because really, I love this. I love going at it with him. It makes everything else--all of my problems, my fears, my guilt--fade away, until it’s just me and Logan and our mutual hatred.
    “Is that so?” I ask, taking another drawn-out sip and hoping he snaps.
    He doesn’t take the bait. “It is,” he says. His gaze still has yet to falter, so I make sure mine doesn’t either.
    “Well.”
    “Well?”
    “ Well .”
    Logan’s gaze is searing, and as we stare each other down, my whole body feels on fire. The hatred and guilt and tears and everything of the last four years surges up all over again, and I feel it crushing the space between us. Jaden keeps whipping his gaze from Logan to me, waiting to see what the next move is going to be, and so do the two other Unimportant and Nameless Logan Geek Friends.
    “Oh,” Logan says after a minute, a small smile passing across his