OOM: Backdated to 1996

[obligatoryass]

Logan's been sulky all day. It's not an uncommon thing for him to be, but there's been a sharp increase in the level of sulkiness since just after lunch. He's also been lying on his stomach a lot since then, but he's playing video games, so again, it's not such a remarkable set of circumstances.

He doesn't look away from his game when Trina enters the room. He does note that she's making more noise than sitting on the couch might actually require. But still, he doesn't comment.

Lynn follows Trina, and Logan does look up when she starts to speak. Mario's paused on the screen, in the middle of ramming King Koopa with his little car, and it's one of those moments where the funny graphics that show the jarring impact are flashing all over the screen.

"So, Trina, you've got everything you need, honey?" Lynn asks. "I just want to make sure, after last time, that you are ready for this kind of responsibility."

Logan tunes her out again and goes back to his crash.

Comments

[dead_hooker_2]

Trina is not exactly unsulky herself. She has much better things to do on a Friday night than babysit.

"Yeah, I think I can handle keeping up with one little brother."

[obligatoryass]

Logan ignores her tone. Logan is pretty good at ignoring Trina, at least until she interferes with his video game playing.

If he's right, she should interfere in about thirty minutes, when she wants to watch Melrose Place on the big TV. She could watch it on the TV in the poolhouse, or in Lynn and Aaron's bedroom, but she won't, just because she likes to piss him off.

Lynn sighs. "I just don't want to have to leave the dinner, Trina. It's very important for your father's charity, and if anything goes wrong, it could be very bad for his career, OK?"

[dead_hooker_2]

"I promise not to call the hotel unless I'm taking Logan to the hospital, okay?"

Just go already. Her show is on in like, twenty-eight minutes.

[obligatoryass]

"That's fine," Lynn says. "Thank you so much Trina. Now you both have a wonderful night, OK?"

When no one responds, she sighs. "Logan, sweetie, come here and give mommy a kiss, please? You know I'm not lucky unless you kiss me first, and it is a casino night fundraiser."

Logan pauses his game, sighs. "Whatever, Mom."

As he stands, an observant person might notice that he's moving a little stiffly for an average 8-year-old boy. Lynn, however, is already tipsy, so she certainly doesn't. She leans over and offers her cheek, which Logan dutifully kisses. "Good luck," he says.

"Thanks, baby," she says. "I'm sure to win now. You'll be good for Trina, right?"

He nods, and she ruffles his hair. "Good boy. I'll come say good night when I get back."

She waves to Trina as Logan settles back into his game. "Bye, Trina, honey. Try and be careful, please!"

And with that, she's gone, vanished in a puff of Chanel No. 5.

[dead_hooker_2]

Trina rolls her eyes, flops on the couch, and opens Seventeen.

A minute or two passes.

"Do you have to play such a loud game?"

[obligatoryass]

"Do you have to be so dumb?" Logan asks. It's the best insult an 8-year-old can really manage. "Of course I do. It's no fun without the sound."

Pause. "You can play. You know. If you want."

[dead_hooker_2]

"You just want to beat me again."

But she leaves the magazine on the couch and sits in the floor next to him.

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

[obligatoryass]

"It's a race game," Logan says in the superior tone of a little brother who, for once, knows something his older sister doesn't. "You get to pick your character and stuff, and then you have to try and push them off the tracks and not get hit by anything they throw at you. But you can throw stuff too, see?"

Logan fires a turtle shell at an unsuspecting Princess, who is thrown off the tracks.

[dead_hooker_2]

Trina sighs. "I'm so gonna die, aren't I?"

But she picks up the other controller anyway.

[obligatoryass]

"Probably," Logan agrees. He hasn't even told her about the vibrating attachment that makes the controller shake when the car on screen gets hit by something.

He starts the game over and picks Mario's car for himself. Want to be Trina picks the Princess? Logan would take it.

[dead_hooker_2]

Since Trina's approach to this is to just start pushing buttons on the controller, anything she picks is happenstance.

"Yeah, I suck at this," she says, three minutes later.

[obligatoryass]

"No, that button," Logan says, demonstrating, "It makes the car jump. And the stick makes it turn. If you want to throw stuff, you push the A button. See?"

[dead_hooker_2]

"Sort of," Trina says.

She gets marginally better, but only marginally.

She starts to laugh. "I think I'm pretty lucky I didn't have to take my driving lesson with one of these things."

[obligatoryass]

"Yeah, no kidding," he says. "You would never have gotten your license this way. And that would totally suck, because who else would take me to McDonald's after tae kwon do?"

[dead_hooker_2]

Since they both know the answer to the question is "no one," there doesn't seem to be any point in answering it.

"You are such a brat," she says, instead, and nudges him a little.

[obligatoryass]

Logan's normal response would be a return nudge and a retort of "I'm not the brat! You're the brat!"

In this case, the nudge hurt too much, and he winces. He tries to hide it, but he isn't quick enough.

[dead_hooker_2]

"Logan? You okay?"

[obligatoryass]

He squirms away from her, but not as quickly as he normally would. "I'm fine," he said, imbuing the word with ultimate scorn.

[dead_hooker_2]

"Did you fall?"

It's as good a euphamism as anything, she supposes.

[obligatoryass]

He glares at her. "Something fell on me, OK?"

If that something is a belt, repeated times, guided by a human hand, it's true enough.

[dead_hooker_2]

"Can I see?"

[obligatoryass]

Logan shrugs, but doesn't move.

[dead_hooker_2]

Not as bad as some, worse than others, Trina decides. Probably nothing broken.

"You think an ice pack and Tylenol would help?" she asks.

If it takes more than that, she really is going to have to drive him to the hospital, and their parents won't be happy about it.

[obligatoryass]

And there's no blood, so really, it's not too bad. Just painful.

He nods, and his face is a studied attempt to appear unconcerned.

[dead_hooker_2]

"Right," she says, getting up and starting for the kitchen. "You want anything else?"

[obligatoryass]

"Cookies," he says firmly as he follows her to the kitchen. "There are Oreos.. And milk, too."

Pause.

"Please."

[dead_hooker_2]

"Sure," says Trina, wrapping an ice pack in a dish towel, before handing it to him.

"You really need to try to be more careful, Logan," she adds, setting the entire package of Oreos on the counter.

[obligatoryass]

Logan carefully pulls apart the cookie and licks the frosting off one half. Then he dunks the cookie parts in the milk and stuffs them both in his mouth. "I know," he says around the cookie. "Thanks, though."

[dead_hooker_2]

"That is disgusting," Trina says around her own Oreo, before sticking her tongue out at him.

Which is also, to be fair, pretty disgusting.

[obligatoryass]

Logan has managed to swallow his cookie before she does it, which is good because it makes him laugh, and no one should be sprayed with bits of Oreo cookie.

Especially no one who is taking care of her little brother so well.

[dead_hooker_2]

She makes another face at him, then picks up the Oreos.

"Come on, you can beat me a couple more times at the thing with the cars.

"And, Logan, if you need more Tylenol or anything later, come find me, okay?"

She won't make the big deal out of it that their parents would.

[obligatoryass]

Logan brightens. "OK," he says. "And I can show you some other cool things, too."

Her last comment, he ignores. He knows. He just doesn't want to ask.

[dead_hooker_2]

Trina nods. "All right.

"But I get to be the princess."

[obligatoryass]

Logan wrinkles his nose. "Fine. I don't wanna be Peach anyway. She's too girly."

He leads the way back into the den, where he lays on his stomach again and settles the icepack onto his aching back, and resumes the video game.

He guesses Melrose Place can wait.