Logan shakes me awake. I look at him for a moment, trying to decide if he is a dream or not.

"What?" I ask, my voice is a bit hoarse.

"Your parents are up, and I gotta take a piss. What do you prefer? If I use your cocoa mug or emerge from your room in your clothes?" And he smiles. Like actually smiles, impishly and broadly. Either he's been restored during the night here with me... with my small shining, I mean. Or... he has been fine all along...

I rub my face, prop myself up on my elbows, and again feel the pain in my shoulder.

"Your clothes should be dry by now..."

"Adam? Did you forget about camping?" mom's voice is coming from behind the door. I glance at Logan; he still has a smile on his face. I think he enjoys my nervousness.

"No!" I shout. "I'm up! Up!"

She comes closer to the door.  I try to push the mattress under the bed and gesture for Logan to hide behind the bed, right on our kissing spot. Reluctantly but he does it, and I sigh with relief. Mom opens the door.

"Did you get caught in the rain yesterday? I saw your wet clothes in the bathroom. And I told you a thousand times not to leave it like this."

"Yeah... sorry... I just went outside for a bit... and got... Mom, I need to get ready, ok? I promise I will take them away."

"I put them in a laundry. Come on, breakfast's ready. And your friend can stop hiding under the bed." Mom gives me a meaningful look. I'm shocked and don't even know what to say. Logan gets up, he's wrapped in a blanket; it keeps his shining hidden.

"Good morning, Mrs.Stone..." Logan says, standing behind me.

"You too, Logan," says mom, but she keeps looking at me.

"I just.... need," Logan makes a few steps forward and walks past my mom and into the hall. "...a bathroom".

"Next door", says mom. Logan leaves the room.

"Adam, I thought we were past lying," mom says, a note of disappointment in her voice.

"I haven't lied. I just... I didn't want to wake you up... Logan had troubles at home, so I offered him to stay here... I wasn't going to lie to you."

"That's why you hid him here?"

"How would it look like otherwise?!"

Mom shakes her head and looks at me reproachfully.

"Mom, please, don't be mad at me. I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't necessary. I swear."

We keep staring at each other when Logan comes back.

"Go down to breakfast, and then I'll drive you to school."

"It's Saturday," objects Logan.

"We go camping," I say. He squints at me as if trying to figure out if I'm lying or not.

"Oh, yeah... right," he exclaims facetiously. Mom leaves.

Logan starts to change into his clothes, and for a moment I just watch him, and then I realize it and turn away. But I had time to notice that his shining became as it had been before.

I take my clothes and go to the bathroom to dress, and when I come back for Logan, he stands in the middle of the room, looking at my shelves with action figures. I don't have many - I can't say that I'm into collecting. But I have a few I quite like.

"You know that's nerd, right?" He asks when he sees me coming in. I approach him. His question doesn't sound like a sneer, more like a jest.

"So?"

Logan looks askance at me and licks his lips.

"So when you said you were into books you meant comic books?"

"Not really... I've read comics but... The story... It's kinda building up endlessly. And too many MacGuffins, really... It's just..."

"Neeeerd!" laughs Logan.

"Oh shut up!"

"Oh, I know this guy!" Logan pokes in one of the figurines and takes it. "He is from Cap America movies."

"Winter soldier," I say.

"Why not Cap?"

I shrug. "Just... Cap is... very straightforward... I don't mean it's bad but..."

"But?"

I'm surprised that Logan is actually interested. Is he mocking me again?

"As a character, the Winter soldier seems more complicated. And the pain he went through made him deeper as a person. And... "

"Boys!" Mom's voice interrupts me. "Breakfast!"

"Come on," I say.

We come down to the kitchen where mom and dad are sitting at the table. Dad looks surprised a bit when he sees Logan.

"I didn't know we had a guest," says dad.

"Hello... sir." Logan sits in the chair, and I sit beside him.

"It's Logan, my classmate," I say and take a fork.

"Nice to meet you, Logan."

"Logan, I heard your school has a very good football team," says mom in a cheerful voice.

"True. We have been champions three years in a row," Logan answers stiffly.

"Really?" Dad looks at him with interest.

"We actually hoped that Adam would play one day," mom smiles at me.

"Why would I?" I reply, my mouth is full of pancakes. "I never liked football!"

Dad rolls his eyes and asks Logan, "Are you playing?"

"I was dropped off last year," Logan replies. And I throw a glance at him.

"How so?"

"Injury."

"Sorry to hear that," says dad.

For a while, we're eating in silence. Mom's reading something on her phone, dad - on a tablet.

"Oh, do you remember I told you about Jeanne?" says mom, turning to dad; he looks up from the tablet. "Her daughter does have shining after all."
 
Logan and I are exchanging glances.

"I heard that couple of my colleagues have it too," dad shrugs.

"Do you know someone with shining at school?" mom asks, turning to us.

"Um... well... I think there are few..." I reply, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"And how are they?" mom continues.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"How do they feel? How do they study?" mom specifies.

"I... don't know," I shrug. "I never asked. But they feel fine, I guess, and they are not different from the others."

"Will we ever know what it is, I wonder," mom sighs.

I finish my breakfast and get up, Logan does too.

"Take your things. I'll wait in the car," says mom. Logan and I go upstairs.

"Do you have a copy of parental permission," Logan asks suddenly. "For the camping trip."

"Um... well... yes, I guess." I open the drawer of my desk and take out a blank. "Here."

Logan sits at the table and fills out the form quickly, signing at the end, obviously forging his father's signature.

"Have you decided to go camping?" I ask.

"What does it look like?"

"But you don't have things..."

"What things?"

We end up stopping at Logan's house on the way. After a moment's thought, I also get out of the car and follow him. Logan glares at me as I catch up with him at the entrance.

"I don't need an escort," says Logan with no particular emotion. I don't know what to reply, so I don't and silently go into the house with him.

The corridor is dark. The door to Logan's room is open, and I recall last night vividly. My shoulder is even starting to ache. The house is quiet. Logan doesn't look nervous, but I can see him listening carefully as he slowly walks down the hallway. There is no one in the living room, only a mess in Logan's room. Things from the table are now lying on the floor.

Logan's room is full of memories, but all of them are unpleasant. Logan closes the door, and I feel uncomfortable. After that, he starts to move more freely, collecting things and stuffing them into a duffel bag.

We come back to the car.

Mom drops us at school where our classmates start to gather. Logan's friends are there too. They notice Logan and come closer to us.

Mitch whistles in surprise.

"How did you two end up together, huh?" he wiggles his eyebrows.

 "My mom just spotted him with a bag and offered to give him a ride," I answer like a robot, then pick up my backpack and move away from them.

"Are you alright now, firefly?" I hear Mitch's voice behind me. "We thought you would bail on us again!"

The strangest thing is that it hurts...

I squint at Logan and his friends. Well, now I know for sure that everything is ok with him, he isn't dying... I helped him yesterday and... I think I completely atoned for my words that time, and my conscience is clear... as for Logan... he doesn't seem to care about such things... that's why it never occurred to him to apologize to me.

Hell with it.