A World Apart

Thank you for the reviews. Here\'s another sweet kitty chapter!



Chapter 23



He had kept his promise to my relief. In public we were friends, in private we were boyfriends. I had a hard time accepting that - boyfriends. Even I didn\'t see us as boyfriends, but that\'s what we were. It was weird. But I liked it. On Wednesday night Logan had asked me on our first official date. He never came out and said "date", but I knew it was.



We were going to the park late in the night to watch the meteor shower. I had left around eight o\'clock and headed for the park. It was dark already and I looked around the quiet park for him.



"Raven."



I turned around to find Logan wearing a black peasant shirt and dark suede pants. He had dressed for the occasion, funny. He had a thick blanket resting over his arm and he leant down to spread it over a secluded part in the corner of the park.



"I brought some food too. I thought maybe you\'d be hungry. I got some coffee. Do you like coffee?" He asked nervously.



I nodded and accepted the Styrofoam cup from a local coffee shop, “Thanks."



He invited me to sit with him, so I slowly got down on the blanket next to him. I stiffed when I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders. He glanced at me and was ready to let go of me, but I smiled a bit and moved closer to him.



"I\'m glad you came," He said out of the blue.



"Well you did invite me," I said.



He looked down,” I just wasn\'t sure if you\'d show."



"I did."



"I\'m glad," He responded and took a sip of his drink.



I watched the still and starry night sky and noticed out the corner of my eye Logan was staring at me. I glanced at him.



"You\'re wearing my jacket," He observed.



"Yeah, I got kind of cold," I said and huddled further into his embrace.



He grinned and briefly rubbed my back, pulling me closer to him, “Wanna lie down? We\'ll be able to see better."



I nodded and lay down next to him on the big blanket. I\'d occasionally see a falling star, but nothing too amazing yet. Logan was watching me. He turned onto his side and put an arm around me. I leaned into his shoulder, closing my eyes and breathing in his scent. I released a hot breath close to his neck. He looked at me and smiled, gently catching my lips in a kiss.



We lay under that starry night sky, intertwined in an embrace. We kissed and he held me close. I felt safe, wanted. Everything I had imagined. I let my head fall to his chest and I rubbed my ears against his shoulder. I could hear him purring, a light rumbling from his chest. I smiled, pressing my ear against his chest to hear it. It was sweet. Suddenly I felt an overwhelming sense of affection for him.



"Rave, what\'s the matter?" He asked when I breathed in unevenly.



I took a deep breath and looked at him. I found his hand, resting on my hip and grasped it.



"This is what I want Logan. I do want to be with you."



He smiled and captured my lips in yet another kiss. I felt him fingering with my tail and I started purring loudly. I still found it kind of embarrassing; it was so foreign to hear the strange sound. He chuckled, pushing me backwards onto the flannel blanket. He kissed me again and balanced above me. He rubbed his ears against my forehead in an affectionate gesture. I glanced up at the sky and gasped.



I put a hand on Logan\'s back and shook him, "Look at the sky!"



He rolled over and looked up. Hundreds of stars soared across the sky glittering and lighting up the dark evening. He wrapped an arm around me and I snuggled into his side. I returned to the house a little while after the shower. I had explained to Logan how it wouldn\'t look good if he walked me home, but he had insisted. We said goodbye with a fast kiss a block from my home.



"I\'ll see you tomorrow."



"Yeah. Goodnight," I said.



The next day I walked through the campus with an eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach. I noticed several interested glances had been shot in our direction. I looked over at my brothers with a raised eyebrow. Rhea, who was the closest to me, only shrugged.



"We\'re new, but not that new. Don\'t they know that it\'s rude to stare?" He said the last bit loudly, and that made our small group of onlookers dismiss us immediately.



"What are they staring at?" Robin asked from next to me.



"I don\'t know," I replied, noticing a few more faces had turned our direction.



I spotted Sadie and Beth sitting outside on a picnic table. I approached them quickly and Sadie must have seen me out the corner of her eye, because she turned around with a bright smile.



"Is it true? About you and Logan, because I heard-"



She stopped speaking mid-sentence after noticing the angry look plastered on my face. That bastard betrayed me. He told her. He told everybody. How dare him? He had promised not to spill. We had agreed on it. Even if he hadn\'t approved, he could at least have supported my decision.



I spun around from the table, barely registering Robin\'s completely confused face, Ren shaking his head in distaste and Rhea\'s raised eyebrow. I began running quickly. I knew where he was. Every morning I would find him in the same place - the cafeteria lobby, trying to finish his homework.



I had ran there quickly and pulled open the glass doors. I found him there all right, surrounded by a group of kids asking him questions.



"No! It\'s not true...I don\'t know who you heard it from, but-"



I could hear bits and pieces of Logan\'s conversation as he tried to edge out of the group, who was following him like paparazzi. He looked tired to me. His brown ears were a little droopy and his eyes were becoming dark and baggy. He had pushed the people away and began heading towards the door.



"Raven!" He said suddenly, when he noticed me.



"How could you? You asshole! You promised you wouldn\'t tell. You made it seem like it was perfect - too good to be true. What did you say to them? Why did you do it?" I yelled at him, gaining the attention of the others in the room, “I trusted you!"



He grabbed my arm, dragging me away from the people gawking at us, “Raven. I don\'t know how they found out. But I swear I didn\'t say anything! I wouldn\'t do that to you!"



He had pulled me over to the library and shut the door behind us. I looked around the room of books in the dimly lit room and shook my head.



"I don\'t believe you. Who else would tell? Nobody else fucking knows!" I yelled.



"Shh...I don\'t know! But was not me! “He explained and his dark tail thrashed back and fourth behind him.



I let my head fall back against the wooden door once, and then again.



"Stop Rave. I\'m pretty sure that\'s not going to help," He said softly, his hand fingering through my hair and rubbing against my orange ears.



I pulled myself away from the door and turned my back to Logan. I didn\'t want him to see me like this.



"Rave..."



"I didn\'t want people to know. What exactly are they saying, anyway?" I asked in a weak voice.



"They\'re saying I\'ve been sleeping with you. I don\'t know who started the rumor, but I\'m going to get down to the bottom of it, I promise," Logan said, shaking his head and staring at me, “I never meant for this to happen, Rave. I know that you weren\'t ready to come out yet, but I think this is just going to make the progression even worse."



"Now my brothers are going to know...this isn\'t good. What if they think I really have been sleeping with you?" I asked in a fast, worried voice.



"Didn\'t you tell your brother, Ren?" He asked with concern, “Because I\'m sure he\'d set them straight. He seems like the type that would care for you. Littermates are always protective of each other."



I found his choice of words amusing. Littermates.



"They\'re not going to take it well," I said, not realizing that my ears had wilted a bit.



I felt Logan\'s warm hand rest gently against my cheek, “You look like your kitty just died."



I looked up into his gentle honey colored eyes and noticed a hint of a smile tugging on the corner of his lips. I rolled my eyes, pushing him away, but he only pulled me closer and planted a soft kiss on my left cheek.



"You\'ll be okay," He said against my ear, “But I do think we need to tell people the truth or the rumors will only continue. You know what I mean?"



I nodded, taking a deep breath , “I know."



"Then are you ready to go out that door and face the truth?" He asked and then added, "Because I\'ll be with you through it. It\'s my problem too and we need to set them straight!"



Logan pulled me close to him one last time and I nuzzled his neck, a very feline like gesture that I normally would never have done. He did the same to me, even placing a kiss on my neck and opened the door handle.



"Here we go," He said softly as a small crowd of people anxiously awaited our arrival.