West Coast Shuffle (Part Two)

I had overlooked a particular aspect of bringing guests over to my house for the summer. One guest more than the other to be more specific. Laura.

I hadn't taken into account what the other people around me would think when they found out that she was spending that long with me by ourselves. My first warning should have been when my mom mistook her as the girlfriend I had recently informed her of the day we came to San Francisco.

The next clue came when I'd called Eddie out of the blue, just to see how my wingman was getting along at home. When my circumstances became known, he didn't let me off the hook.

"Dude, you don't get it. Pixie's gonna stab you when she finds out you have another girl staying at your place."

Once he mentioned it, it hit me that somehow the issue had not come up in the three times we'd spoken since summer break had started. For one of those times, Laura had been around, but when she overheard that it was Megan calling me, she made herself scarce.

How the hell had I held three hour-plus conversations over the phone with her without talking about having Saberwolf and Laura around? That was amazing.

"Megan's not gonna stab me. She doesn't even do that," I defended, for both her sake and my own, "What's the problem here, anyway? What if I had you and Hisako over for the summer instead? Would it still be the same thing?"

"No, because I'd be the buffer between you two, or you would be between me and Hisako. But here, it's just you and Laura. Haven't you ever heard two's company, three's a crowd?"

"Wolf is here."

"He doesn't count. You know he doesn't count." Eddie shot back confidently, "I normally trust your judgment, Bel, but I can't say much about this executive decision of yours."

"Well, it wasn't all my decision. Mister Logan kind of strong-armed me into it."

"Ooh, that's good. Use that as an excuse when it comes up with Pixie. Not much you can do with the Wolverine giving you an ultimatum."

No, I couldn't use that as an excuse. It wasn't really much of an ultimatum I had been given. Mister Logan had just acted tough because he didn't know how to ask a kid for a favor, and it wasn't like I had a whole lot of problems with having Laura at my family's house. Besides, I didn't need an excuse. I could do what I wanted. No one controlled me.

I didn't see what the big deal was.