Chapter 38: Is this the staging!?

“Fuuuuuuuuck!” I scream and lay on the ground, “I forgot how much this huuuurts!”

“Logan! What happened!?” Claire rushes into the room as she hears me hit the ground.

“Um… what should I do?” Ashley slowly walks into the room behind Claire.

“Go into the bathroom. On the counter should be an unlabelled bottle of pills. Grab 2 from the bottle and a plastic cup of water. Hurry!” Claire quickly gives orders to Ashley.

“Yes ma’am!” Ashley salutes and runs into the bathroom.

“Logan, what happened?” Claire kneels on the ground beside me and places her hand on my head, gently petting me.

“Ah, I was writing down the plan on my phone and was getting really into it. I heard you unlocking the door, so I started to get up, but accidently used my right arm as I forgot I was injured because of the effectiveness of the pills.” I slowly sit up with Claire’s help, “But, as I was out, when I got back, I forgot to take more pills, so there was an intense pain. I dropped to the ground on my left side, but the vibration caused more pain.” I grit my teeth as I slowly adjust myself.

“You don’t need to move Logan, I’ve got you.” Claire positions herself in a way that I am being completely supported by her on my left side.

Ashley came out from the bathroom with a calm look on her face. Two pills in her right hand, a cup of water in the left.

“I have the requested items.” Ashley hands the pills and water to Claire.

“Thanks Ashley. I owe ya one.” Claire nods her head slightly. After nodding to Ashley, Claire hands me the pills, which I promptly pop into my mouth and take without water.

I then grab the water to help the pills go down the rest of the way.

“Ah. If only the pills were instant. So much pain.” I sigh as Claire then helps me stand up.

We walk over to the bed and she helps lay me down. I really hate needing all this extra care. I hope this heals soon.

“Thanks again Claire, I know you must be quite annoyed with helping me by now.” I sigh as I relax.

“Logan, I wouldn’t be bothered even if I had to do everything for you. I am worried how much you are doing despite you being extremely injured. Cros- I mean, going out with your friends today may have been too much for you.” Claire smile gently.

“Thank you Claire.” I smile gently, despite the pain.

“It’s not a problem. I love you Logan.”

“I love you too Claire.” I laugh slightly as Claire continues to pat my head.

I smile as I stare into Claire’s eyes.

“Um… I’d hate to interrupt… but I would like it to be known that I am still in this room.” Ashley awkwardly speaks up from the corner of the room.

“Sorry!” Claire jumps up and backs away quickly.

“Ah, shall we get back on track then?” I cough to clear my throat. “On my phone, which is on the side table, is the whole plan for what we are going to do, where we are going to do it, and where everyone’s positions are, the extra equipment we will need to ask from the hidden guards, and finally, the time everything is going to happen.”

“Wow… that sounds detailed and I haven’t even read it yet.” Claire smiles weakly as she grabs my phone off the table.

“Yeah, you two can read that. For now I guess, I’ll just relax.” I start to close my eyes when Claire pokes me.

“Um… where is it on here Logan?”

“It should be under the notes… wait… did it not save?”

“Sorry… it doesn’t look like it did.” Claire smiles and laughs slightly.

“Ah, whatever.” I sigh, “It might be better just to tell it to you in person. Hand me my ph-” I get cut off by the sound of my phone ringing.

I tilt my head as I answer it.

“Hello, this is Logan Redwood, how may I help you?” I calmly answer my phone after Claire quickly hands it to me.

“Hey ya fucker, how’s the dimes?” Dominic asks me with an angry tone.

“Ah, the dimes?” I look to the corner of the room with the bags of dimes. “They are being safely stored for now. Anyways, why did you call?”

“I wanted to know if you were coming to get your stuff, you must have gone back to your room without coming here to get your clothes.” Dominic laughs.

“Well, I thought you’d be upset if I went there, so I chanced it and went back to my room.”

“I see. I would have let you change back here safely, I mean, I’m not that much of a dick to deny you your own clothes. Even if it is that girl.”

“Ah… I see.” My voice goes monotone as I think about the trouble I could have saved if I avoided Claire.

“So, you run into Claire before making the switch back to being a guy?”

“Yep. She knows. It was a real hassle to explain the whole thing. I’m blaming you for this. Anyways, why do you refuse that girl, she has her own charms you know.” I look to Ashley, who just tilts her head at my gaze.

“Well… she just isn’t my type. She’s a creepy stalker and gives me no privacy.”

“What if I got her to stop those things you don’t like?”

“Hm… If she did stop being creepy, I think I might give her a chance you know. I mean, hey, flat chest girls have their own perks, am I right?”

“Yeah, no comment.”

“I figured. You have Claire. You don’t even need to worry about the relationship struggles of us puny mortals!”

“Hey! I had to worry about a ton!”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyways. You fix the creepy, I’ll give her a chance.”

“Okay, tomorrow morning, meet us in the lobby. We’ll stay as a group for the day.”

“Fine. But if she does anything too creepy, I’m done.”

“Great. See ya then.”

“See ya.”

I hang up the phone and give Ashley a nice smile. She just tilts her head again, but Claire was close enough to me to hear part of what Dominic said so she is also smiling at Ashley, piling onto her confusion.

“Why are you guys smiling like that? It is creepin’ me out.” Ashley nervously looks around the room so as not to look us in the eye.

“Good news Ashley. The stakeout equipment is no longer needed.” I laugh as she realizes who just called.

“Was that Dominic on the phone!?” Ashley’s eyes go wide.

“Yes…” I make a complicated expression, but take a deep breath and clear my head. “First we need to go over quite the list of things. There’s been a huge change of plans.”

“How huge?” Claire looks at me with a weak smile. “Do we need more duct tape?”

“Ha ha!” I laugh loudly I give a thumbs up, but take a deep breath to calm down. “Sadly, we shouldn’t need more duct tape, instead, we need to do something with her.” I point to Ashley.

“Me?” Ashley points to herself after tilting her head in confusion.

“Yes.” I nod with my eyes closed, “Dominic had one condition for hanging out with you and giving you a chance.”

“I’ll do anything!” Ashley enthusiastically stands up from the chair.

“He said, and I quote, ‘You fix the creepy, I’ll give her a chance.’ So that’s that. We fix your creepiness, and he will give you the chance you have been waiting for.” I smile gently.

“Creepy? I’m creepy?” Ashley frowns. “I don’t think I’ve done a single thing that could be regarded as creepy. I just watch him from a safe distance, confess to him twice a week, and steal his used clothes. Nothing there seems to be wrong.”

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“Oh god.” Claire falls back onto the bed.

“This is going to be horrible.” I bring my left hand to my face.

“What?” Ashley tilts her head in confusion as Claire and I think nothing but pity for the poor girl.

…..

…

“Goo- holy shit. What god forsaken monster attacked you so early in the morning?” Dominic was waiting in the main lobby of the hotel with the rest of the students.

“Well. Training a stalker not to be creepy in one night is a bit too much for someone who is also healing from a large injury.” I slowly stumble into the lobby from the main elevator.

Claire and I had spent all of the night preparing Ashley. Claire and I evenly shared the workload. I told her what she should do to impress Dominic. Claire was working on beautifying her while I was telling her exactly how to act from now on. This is do or die… why you ask? Why am I doing all this nonsense? Why not I retort?

“Oh wow. That must have really sucked man. So, where is the creepy stalker so I can say how much you failed?” Dominic gives me an evil smile, but I only return it to him.

“Look beside Claire. You won’t believe your eyes.” I calmly pat his shoulder as he looks around.

“I don’t see the creepy stalker anywhere. All I see is… no way man! Is that her!?” Dominic’s jaw hits the floor.

Well, when Claire went for it, she didn’t hold back. Ashley had a whole new look.

Ashley was wearing high heels to increase her height slightly, and was wearing a tight fitting grey skirt that went down to her knees. She wore a grey business jacket with a white dress shirt underneath. A thin red tie was fluttering on the outside of the suit. Her hair was braided behind her head, and instead of being multi-coloured like it was before, it was now a deep black colour. She had a dark red lipstick on and some extra makeup to hide the bags under her eyes.

“Holy shit. I had no idea she could look like that.” Dominic was slowly recovering from his initial shock as I signalled for Claire to start making her way over with Ashley.

“Well, if that surprises you, wait until you see the progress we made. She still has a few quirks, but hey, it’s part of her charm.” I shrug my shoulders as I pat Dominic using my left hand.

Ashley walks over carefully as she is not used to walking in heels. Claire supports her as they walk, but I’m the only one other than them that knows that. No one else has to know either.

“Greetings Dominic. I would like to apologize for making you uncomfortable the last three years following you around.” Ashley bows her head slightly towards Dominic.

“N-no problem.” Dominic stutters slightly, as her tone surprised him more.

“Oh no, it was a problem. I have seen the error of my ways and wish to make it up to you. From now on, I will follow your command to the best of my abilities. I am confident in almost every task.” Ashley keeps her head down slightly.

“P-Please raise your head. It makes me feel awkward.” Dominic pleads Ashley.

“Of course.” Ashley smiles brightly as she raises her head, “Would it be too much trouble to ask if I could accompany you for the day? As much as looking from a distance is fun, being together consensually would be much better.”

“Um… sure. If that’s what you’d like to do… I guess…” Dominic felt awkward due to the hidden meaning of the statement.

“Thank you sir.” Ashley bows her head slightly, but before Dominic could ask her to raise her head, she raised it on her own.

“Um… give me a second.” Dominic smiles to Ashley before grabbing me and huddling over to whisper so they would no hear, “Oi, seriously? What is the trick here? How badly does she want to be with me?”

“Oh man.” I sigh, “She really, and truly does like you man. She just has a slightly twisted sense of morals. We can’t change that overnight you know. If you want to change her morals and teach her what’s right, do it yourself.”

“Okay…” Dominic takes a deep breath and swallows his saliva nervously, “I don’t want to know how you knew I would like how she dressed, but I won’t complain. Fine. I’ll give her a chance. Today she and I will walk alone together, if it works, that’s great. If not, oh well.”

“Great!” I stand up and smile. “Claire, our work here is done!”

Claire walks over and gives me a high five.

“Ashley. The rest is up to you. Remember to do exactly as Logan told you. Good luck!” Claire smiles at Ashley as the two walk away into the group of slowly gathering students.

Claire and I walk to the side and sit down on a bench.

“Logan, do you think this is going to work?” Claire leans on my left shoulder, yawning.

“No idea, but there is only one way to find out, am I right?” I laugh slightly as I lean my head on top of Claire’s.

“She was willing to do so much for him. It’s going to be really sad if Dominic doesn’t open up to her.” Claire smiles weakly.

“Yeah, it would be sad. However, I know Dominic from a little while back, he should have enough common sense to see how much she has changed just to even be near him. Not even mentioning the fact that she wants to be with him as more than a following secretary.”

“I hope you’re right. All we can do is wish her luck.” Claire smiles and turns her head slightly to look me in the eye. “I love you Logan.”

“I love you too Claire.” I smile happily as I give her a quick kiss.

The sound of a student being whipped can be heard in the distance, but no one dares look, for they may be next.

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Wow. It's been another month. My poor life, it's going down the drain!

Things can change a lot while a person is gone. It might just be me, but I've noticed a lack of quality in the most popular fictions on this site. Yes, there are some great fictions on here. However, recently, it feels like people are just pushing out chapters faster and faster, getting top view counts at the cost of a better plot.

I'm no better, I will not say my plot is perfect, nor is it even really all that ground breaking. However, I miss the days where you could look at the top fictions list and a lot there would be good, now all we have are stories of OP main characters full of grammatical errors that make even the non-English speaking people cringe.

Oh well though. I got a good PC and everything has calmed down slightly... but soon things will start to pick up again. I have to look for full time employment, and study my ass off to get into the program I want at college. 

For those wondering, my sister still has no feeling below her knee in her left leg.

Also, fuck you single life! I am now out of the single's club! Relationships are work, and I'm rather lazy, so let's see how long it lasts.

Actually, we've made it quite far down this author's note, but do any of you even remember who I am?

Have a great day/night!