the rivals play ━━ logan huntzberger

3| drive me crazy

THERE WERE THREE TRUTHS Logan Huntzberger would rather die than admit to Audrey Wilde.

The first truth was that his parents approached him the night before with an offer. You need to be class president, Logan, like your father and his father before him, his mother urgently warned him. I managed to pull some strings, and found out that it was a tie between you and Neil Wilde's daughter. I can bribe one more professor into voting for you, just say the word and it's a done deal.

He did not— refused to, even. Logan admittedly wasn't sure why he didn't let his mother do it, she's bribed teachers before without him protesting to it. Perhaps it was because it relieved him that there was someone else to balance the work with him, since he was forced into it by his parents. A small part of it, he would refuse to acknowledge, involved his slight enthusiasm of being around her.

     This leads us into the second truth. Logan didn't view her as a rival at all, although he did have a brazen disliking to the girl. Their rivalry in academic clubs was evident, but he wasn't threatened by her the way she was to him, but that traced back to her being more ardent in academics than him, who has always been pressured into these activities.

     Her irritation towards him when he'd win at something was his only motivation in a field he was coaxed into by his parents to secure their family's dynasty. Or, more specifically, her eager aggression and comments to him was his motivation. Audrey would especially be flustered at his lack of reciprocation to these passive aggressive comments, which she didn't realise was his way into irritating her. It was almost enticing to him, in a way.

"Logan, hey!" A girl— Natalie, he recalled, exclaimed eagerly. "I haven't seen you since Goldberg's midsummer nights party!" There was a sexually suggestive twinkle in her eyes, and it was then did he remember the night they spent together earlier in the summer. "You should come to Amy's dorm party today, i'll be there and maybe we could..."

     "Akh, i'd love to." He dramatised an apologetic groan. "But I have to go to a gathering with my parents tonight."

    The disappointment on her face was evident, and Logan visibly cringed at how uncomfortable he felt at the unreciprocated energy. He almost felt bad, that although he warned her that their night spent together was a one time thing, she assumed he was talking in code, or playing hard to get. To his luck, this didn't happen often, as most girl's he'd hook up with shared his disinterest in anything more than a fling.  "What about tomorrow? At Taylor Kingsley's party?"

    "I'll be there!" It was a blatant lie. It wasn't a big deal, he mentally noted to text an apology to her tomorrow night as well as an excuse. Logan didn't do two night-stands, in fear that it would develop into a friends with benefits situation. There would be too many feelings involved from two people that see each other so often— an emotional vulnerability in it that he didn't wish for. What he figured was better was for flings to be the furthest he'd go on the commitment spectrum.

     He roamed off to the coffee stand on the entrance to the university building, getting handed his coffee and telling the man to put it on his tab. "Logan! Thank the heavens— this is Brandon's little brother!" Finn said it with his usual heightened enthusiasm at the smallest of things. "Collin and I are showing him around campus, but we're skipping to the party schedule propaganda. Taylor Kingsley has Tuesday's, Sebastian and the senior council have Friday's, and our dorm's an open house."

     "Brandon's brother, of course." Logan grinned greetingly, shaking Joshua's hand. "Well, for starters I wouldn't take their advice on any of the academics, they're both failing their Regional Economics class."