I sighed.

This was a normal reaction from him now.

After Monday, Mason found out that Logan was staying at Fischer’s house. He hung out with the group so it appeared to others that there was no problem between them, but that was appearances. Mason said that the guys knew there was friction. No one knew what it was about. Logan hadn’t told anyone and we both knew Mason hadn’t either. Nate left the following weekend. He said he decided to go back home. When I mentioned to Mason that it felt like his best friend was leaving him, Mason shot that down. Nate needed to handle his own issues. He was running away and after seeing how Logan’s absence was hurting us, he explained that Nate realized that wasn’t the right course of action.

I still felt Nate should’ve stayed. Mason needed his friend more than anything.

I was at home when Mason drove Nate to the airport. Analise and James had gone to the city for the weekend so when I heard the door shut, I assumed it was Mason. “I’m downstairs.”

I heard him coming down the stairs, and I hit the silence button the remote. “Hey. I was just watching a movie…” I turned around and my voice faded.

It was Logan.

“Logan.” I couldn’t believe it was him. There were bags under his eyes. He looked like he had lost weight and his shoulders were tense. He shoved a hand into his pocket and looked away.

“Hey,” he said. “Mason’s not here?”

“No.” I grew quiet. I’d never seen this side of Logan. I’d seen him angry, cocky, amused, and charming but never this. He was defeated. I had no idea what to say now so I blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

His head lifted. His eyes pinned me down and he frowned. “Sorry? For what?”

“I knew.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You did?”

“It wasn’t right and I feel horrible about it. So does Mason. He hasn’t said much, but I can tell it’s been weighing on him.”

“I know.” He expelled a deep breath and sank onto the other couch. Resting his elbows on his knees, he caught his head in his hands. He scraped his fingers through his hair before he lifted those same haunting eyes to mine again. “I feel horrible about it. He tried to talk to me at school, but I couldn’t. I just,” he took another deep breath, “couldn’t. I didn’t know what to say.”

“I texted you. We texted you.”

He looked back down, and his head bobbed up and down. “I know. I got them. I didn’t know what to say, Sam. I feel horrible about everything and how Miranda spun it. It was wrong. Shit.” He ran his hands through his hair again before letting them fall to his lap with a thud. “Sam, what she was going to say was wrong. I dated her to protect you. I wanted her to shut up and not go after you anymore. She couldn’t if she was dating me and she’d look like an idiot when I dumped her, but I had no idea she would figure out to spin it this way. I mean, seriously, Mason setting me up to do that?”

Wait. What? I frowned.

He kept going, “Then she started spewing about how I had feelings for you and that she told you, I didn’t know what to do. I don’t even know how she figured that part out, but everything else...I had to leave. I had to think about everything and what to even say to you about it.”

He didn’t believe her. He did have feelings for me. Both realizations shattered me. Then I realized the actual significance of it. He left because of him, not because of Mason. I started thinking over the text messages.

Can we talk?

Where are you?

Please call me?

I knew Mason had sent similar ones, but there’d been nothing about Mason’s manipulation. Nothing. There had only been questions from us about where he was, if he could call us, etc.

Oh my god.

I lifted horrified eyes back to him. He had no idea. Miranda had been telling the truth.

“Logan,” I choked out. My voice was hoarse. “Wha--what did she say to you?”

He frowned and anger flashed over his face for a moment. “You mean that bullshit about Mason manipulating me? She didn’t tell you?”

I could lie. I could cover everything. I took a breath. “What did you say to Miranda? She hasn’t said anything to me the last few weeks.”

“Because I f**king told her not to touch you.” He grew heated. “I threatened her, if she didn’t leave you alone, I’d tell everyone her secrets. Trust me. She’s got them. She did some dirty shit with me.”

I grew sick. “You recorded it?”

“Fuck no,” he snorted. “But I remember. I have a photographic memory, so does Mason. I remember every little detail. People would believe me because she told me things about all her little friends too.”

“Secrets about them?”

He nodded, looking away. His hands went back to twisting around each other. “Yeah. I have enough baggage on all them. If it came out, they’d go ape-shit on her. She won’t say a word. I promise, Sam.”

Logan hadn’t believed her. He made her not believe herself. I bit my lip, wondering if that was true, but it didn’t matter. Miranda did know. She was silenced, but she still knew. So did we. I didn’t know what Mason would’ve told me to do, but I knew what to do. With the decision made, I knew what else I’d have to do afterwards.

My stomach shrunk. I grew nauseous. I wanted to throw up, but I couldn’t. My hands started shaking, but I heard myself speak, “Logan,” I paused. This would change everything.

He asked, “Yeah?”

I started saying goodbye to them in my head. I had to prepare myself. Then I said, “She was right.”

His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows furrowed together. “What do you mean?”

My throat was dry. “She was right.” Shit. “About everything. About Mason, about Nate. I knew.”

I stopped and waited. The storm would come.

He grew still, eerily still. A minute passed. Another, then a third. He jerked forward. “What are you saying, Sam? What exactly are you saying?”

“Mason wanted her to be shut down. He used you to do it.”

“Nate? You said Nate?”

My voice started shaking. “Nate told you to date her. He--”

“He set me up?”

My neck was stiff, but I jerked my head in a nod. “Yes.”

“Mason set him up to it?”