---
CHAPTER 17
> Apartments
Logan climbed the stairs to his apartment; from above he could see the shadows stretching over the empty streets…
Every step felt heavy. Tonight he was exhausted.
He reached his door, sliding the key into the lock.
Darkness swallowed everything.
He quickly turned on the lights and looked through the window of his living room. It looked like it was going to rain again…
He pulled off his damp clothes and dropped them to the floor.
He grabbed a hand towel hanging by the drying rack and headed toward the bathroom.
Passing by the mirror, he finally saw himself clearly…
Dark circles under his eyes, a tense look…
His body had changed—more defined muscle, clearly a few centimeters taller.
His jaw was stronger.
His hair, longer and messier…
Should I cut it?
He asked himself.
Slowly, he stepped into the shower and let the hot water wash everything away.
Today wasn't his day…
After dressing quickly in a tank top and shorts, he sat by his window.
From there, in the darkness of his room lit only by a lamp and the streetlights outside, he watched the rain soaking the glass…
Water slid down the window, warping the yellow light from the streetlamps…
He reached into his pocket and pulled out an old music player and some earbuds.
And he let the music clean his soul.
(MP3 PLAYER)
I'll walk among the stones
Until I feel the tremor
…in my legs
Sometimes I feel fear, I know
Sometimes shame, oh~
I'm sitting in an empty crater
Still holding the tremor
In my body…
Logan ran a hand over his face, as if trying to hide from someone…
Why had he acted like that?
That wasn't normal, not even when his powers awakened for the first time had he felt so much anger…
He'd heard that shapeshifters felt things more intensely…
But never like this.
Only when his parents died… but he wasn't even sure. That was so long ago…
He got up and went to his bed. His phone displayed the time: 11:30 PM.
It was already late. He turned to the side and let the music cradle him into sleep, using it like a shield against his emotions…
(Vibration)
His eyes opened. He felt his phone vibrating.
With a heavy hand, he unlocked it.
The notification twisted his stomach.
—TEXT MESSAGES – Bella—
Bella — 11:32 PM
Hey… are you awake?
Bella — 11:40 PM
Can we talk? Please…
Logan — 11:42 PM
Yeah.
Bella — 11:42 PM
You left so suddenly. I saw you and… I don't know… you seemed different.
Logan — 11:43 PM
Just… tired.
Bella — 11:44 PM
Are you okay? Really.
Logan — 11:45 PM
Not exactly.
Bella — 11:45 PM
Do you want me to call you?
Logan — 11:45 PM
…No.
He turned off the phone and settled into bed again.
He didn't have the strength to talk to her—not tonight…
---
> The next morning.
Logan looked out the window, holding a hot coffee.
He stared at Forks' gray sky when something distracted him—
Bella was calling.
PHONE CALL —
(Rain hits Logan's window softly. He answers after three rings.)
Logan: hello.
Bella: Hey…
Bella: Sorry for bothering you… I just couldn't stop thinking about last night.
Logan: You shouldn't have worried.
Bella: That's not what I meant.
(brief silence)
Logan: Things happened. Not good ones.
Bella: At your house? With someone?
Logan: With some people. (He avoids the details.)
Bella: Jimmy… I think you're breathing weird.
Logan: Yeah.
(Another silence, heavier this time. Bella waits a second.)
Bella: Do you want me to come get you? It's raining a lot today. You don't have to go to school alone.
Logan: I don't know if I should—
Logan: I don't want to bother you…
Bella: It's not a bother. I just… I'd like you not to go alone today.
(Logan closes his eyes. His voice drops slightly.)
Logan: Bella… yesterday that wasn't me, I don't know what happened, I just—
Bella: Then let me be there. Even if it's just so you don't shut yourself in again.
Logan: …Okay. Come.
Bella: I'll be there in thirty minutes.
Logan: Thanks.
Bella: Logan… (serious tone)
Logan: Yeah?
Bella: Whatever it is you're going through… you don't have to carry it alone.
The call ends.
Logan stares at his reflection in the window, the gray morning light filtering through the rain.
---
Logan left his apartment, walking slowly down the stairs.
At the entrance, he grabbed his umbrella.
The rain still poured down…
In the distance, he saw a red truck pulling up fast.
A faint smile formed on his face.
She was here…
Bella honked once, greeting him with a teasing smile from inside the car.
He ran through the rain; the weather didn't bother him the way it used to.
A quiet smile touched his lips.
He silently thanked the cold rain—today it felt like his problems were lost somewhere in the vast gray sky…
---
"I missed you," Bella said with a slightly uncomfortable look.
He stayed silent.
"Jimmy… you don't know everything I have to tell you," Bella added, looking away.
Logan looked toward the road; words failed him…
"Bella… I'm sorry for how I acted yesterday."
He couldn't look her in the eyes.
Bella started driving toward the school, an odd silence growing between them.
"No, no, Jimmy… I'm the one who should apologize," Bella answered.
A strange atmosphere began forming.
Logan noticed. He didn't want that… not again.
A knot tightened inside his chest. Something dangerous stirred deep within him—
he needed to tell her his secret…
He had a theory.
He was different—always changing.
That's why the tribe feared him.
Why he couldn't control himself the first times he transformed.
His inner animal always evolved.
But not this time.
He wouldn't be controlled.
He would take the power for himself.
He shook his head.
How stupid…
I'm not like that.
I'm not that person…
And I can't tell her what I am.
A smile formed on his face, his mood lifting.
He looked at Bella.
"I didn't think you and Edward Cullen were already dating," he teased with a shameless grin.
Bella stared at him with an odd expression.
She looked at his face, his smile, the warm look in his eyes…
This was Logan.
Her Jimmy—
the boy she used to force to eat dirt when they were kids.
Warmth wrapped around her and the pressure vanished as if it had never existed.
"Come on… are you just jealous because we didn't invite you?" she teased back. "If you want me to take you somewhere, just say it, you little stray."
They smiled, their eyes meeting.
The awkward silence dissolved.
For a moment, they were kids again…
And the road to school felt far too short.
---
To be continued.