t h i r t y t h r e e ;

Louise packed her belongings as quickly as she could, not that she had much to pack in the first place. Her wardrobe was mostly a few pairs of jeans, a couple of sweatshirts, and some comfy band shirts. Her other clothes were comprised of school uniforms, physical education uniforms, and soccer uniforms. She wouldn't be needing those back home. She packed two changed of clothes, knowing she had more than enough to choose from in her bedroom back home. Plus, Annie and Aimee were always showering her with presents in the form of clothes, shoes, accessories. Louise tried to steer clear of those things though. As much as she appreciated the twins and no matter how much they meant well, the clothes they picked out for her was just not her style. 

It was more preppy and cute. Tennis skirts, knee high socks, and crew neck sweaters. Above all pink. Lots of pink. And that was Louise's least favorite color. Yes, she had her bunny ears. But that was the only pink item she could bear to be around. Her favorite color was green. Like a bright, toxic dump green.

She left with Annie and Aimee with their driver to the airport, where he left them for a moment to see about the arrangements for them to get on the family's private jet. He returned about fifteen minutes later, and instructed that they would have to walk across the airport to a private section where there were private air crafts. Annie and Aimee nodded as though it were nothing new to them. Louise was a little surprised, as when she was sent to the east coast for school, she took a regular flight. Nothing fancy like the twins were used to.

The driver led the girls through the busy airport where they ran into none other than Logan Bush. Louise was trying to keep up while the twins weaved expertly through the crowds, having done this before a thousand times. At one point, she was having to pick up the pace as she almost sprinted past people. She came to a halt when she felt herself collide with someone, her small suitcase that was dragging on its wheels behind her dropped with a thud. She quickly reached for it once more, her eyes trained on Annie and Aimee so as not to lose them. They hadn't even yet noticed that she had fallen behind. As her hand grabbed the handle on her luggage, another reached for it at the same time and their hands grazed each other.

Louise looked up to meet the eyes of her chemistry professor. Instantly, she gave something of a look of annoyance. "It had to be you, huh Logan?"

He rolled his eyes, immediately matching her tone and her energy. "Nice to see you too, Louise."

"What are you doing here?" She wondered, as though it weren't already obvious. It was the afternoon before Thanksgiving holiday. People were trying to travel to other parts of the country to celebrate with their families. It was precisely what she was doing, and it was also exactly what he was doing. 

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He challenged. The words just fell out of his mouth without him being able to stop them. It was just the behavior she brought out of him. What he actually wanted to do was ask her if she was okay. He had seen her looking upset ever since the incident with Dieter had happened at the diner. But right now she was acting like her old self, and maybe that was what she wanted. To go back to how things used to be. 

She huffed, trying to see over the crowd. She could still find Annie and Aimee in her line of sight. But they were getting further from her. Grabbing her luggage once more, she pushed past him. "I don't have time for this right now, Logan. Happy Thanksgiving." She said the latter in a half hearted mutter as she tried to make it towards the twins. 

Logan was going to let it go and go on his way. But there was a part of him that wasn't going to let him rest easy at night if he knew he had encountered her walking  through the airport by herself and he didn't make sure she had gotten to her terminal okay. She was by herself, and was young. Anyone could try to take advantage of her. Then there was the fact that she was Louise Belcher. That alone should have been enough to convince him from the very beginning. Louise was always getting into trouble. As he debated with himself, he almost lost her in the crowd. But he had an advantage over her. He was tall, almost a whole foot taller than her, and he spotted her easily.

He rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh as he followed after her.

Louise could feel his presence and huffed in annoyance, turning around to face him with an unimpressed look on her face. "Can I help you?"

"I'm just trying to make sure you get to your flight okay." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. The expression on his face was one of someone who was burdened with a task they didn't want at the moment. 

"I can take care of myself, thanks." She said sarcastically.

They were in the middle of their bickering when Louise felt a light tug on her arm, followed by the relief filled words of Annie Arriola. "Oh my gosh, Louise! We thought we lost you. Now come on, we have to head this way."

Logan took one look at the blonde haired twin, then at Louise, and connected the dots. Louise wasn't there by herself. He had heard from mindless side conversations when he gave the students free time that Annie and Aimee were originally from San Diego in California. Louise was from the Los Angeles area, just a couple hours from there. It made sense that she would travel with them for the Thanksgiving holiday. Logan thought it was likely her parents couldn't afford to bring her back home for Thanksgiving, since their burger restaurant was always struggling. But Aimee and Annie definitely had the means to bring their friend along. 

As though barely realizing he was there, Annie offered her chemistry professor a polite but shy smile. "Oh, hey professor Bush." She greeted him, and merely from that only polite greeting, he knew which one of the twins was there with them. It was Annie. Logan seemed to relax a bit, as he knew Aimee was the one constantly trying to flirt with him. Annie was indifferent and just not interested in him. 

"Hi Annie." He said back politely. "I was on my way to my terminal when I ran into Louise and I just wanted to make sure she got to her flight okay." Then he referred his attention back to Louise, now filled with a sense of relief. Louise was always getting into trouble. But Annie Arriola was a good student, and kind. He hardly ever had to worry about her making trouble. He knew Louise would be okay as long as she was around them. "Well since I see you're here with your friends, I can rest easy and go search for my airport terminal. I'll see you girls on next Monday. Happy Thanksgiving."

Louise rolled her eyes, arms crossed over her chest, while Annie replied in kind. "Oh, that's nice of you. Happy Thanksgiving!"

Logan turned back to leave in the opposite direction when the three of them heard the loud and excited voice of Aimee Arriola. "Professor Bush! Hi!" She waved her arms high above her head to catch his attention. 

He stopped in his tracks and debated on whether to turn around and acknowledge her, or to pretend he didn't and keep walking. After a moment of debating, he knew the latter would not work. They had already seen him stop walking. They knew he heard her. And so, he turned around slowly, and offered her a small wave of his hand. 

"Hello Miss Arriola." He said with an awkward smile. He felt like he was walking on egg shells around her. He didn't even want to call her by her first name out of fear that she would take it the wrong way and further fuel her delusions about them actually having a thing. 

She pushed past her sister and Louise and cut the distance between them, a wide smile forming on her lips. "Its so nice to see you here!" She beamed.

Logan nodded slowly, and then gestured to the two girls behind her, explaining. "I was on my way to my terminal when I ran into Louise and I just wanted to make sure she got to her flight okay." 

Aimee's smile was wiped clean off her face. "Oh, that's nice of you."

He said the same thing to Annie Arriola just moments earlier and had gotten a positive reaction. Now he was getting the opposite reaction from her twin. They were the same words, even. But Annie had said them to him cheerfully, while Aimee said them like she didn't mean them at all.

"I should be going." Logan insisted.

"Okay." Aimee replied.

He waved a small goodbye at them and turned to walk away to another part of the airport where his flight would take off. His parents had invited him over for Thanksgiving dinner, and told him to bring Maria Valentina along. Since his girlfriend was still busy with the pageant stuff, she told him she would be taking a flight to meet him in California on Thursday morning. He thought it would be difficult for her to get a flight on Thanksgiving day, but she was a famous super model, former Miss Universe. She probably had the connections to get a private jet to get her out to California just like the Arriola twins did. They were rich and also had a famous athlete older brother. 

Logan wasn't looking forward to it. Every time he saw his parents, his mother always asked him when he was going to ask Maria to marry him. Then she would proceed to tell him about how she wanted to be a grandma already and she wanted to do it before she got any older. Which was a stark contrast to what she would say when he was younger. She was always warning him to be careful and not do anything stupid, like getting a girl pregnant. Logan knew that Maria wanted him to pop the question as well. But Logan wasn't sure about it. He knew he liked Maria Valentina, but he definitely wasn't in love with her. Sometimes he wondered if it was time for their relationship to end. It didn't seem like it was going anywhere and he didn't want to hold her back from finding someone who would love her like she deserved.

He soon made his way and found the terminal, thinking about the many things in his life.

-

Logan caught an Uber into the nice part of town, by the beach, where his parents lived. The route the driver took passed by Bob's Burgers, Louise's family restaurant and he found himself peering intently to see if he could spot her. They passed in five seconds, but he managed to see Teddy who was always there. Other than that, the restaurant was empty, further amplifying his thoughts about how they managed to stay afloat all these years. He relaxed back on his seat in the car and it was a couple of minutes until he was back home to see his parents.

He got his small luggage out of the car and walked up the steps leading to the front door. He hadn't been there in almost a year. He only came back for the holidays and had moved out when he was eighteen and went to college. He set his luggage down on the floor and rang the doorbell.

There was movement heard throughout the house and soon the door opened to reveal his mother, Cynthia Bush. When he was a teenager, he was rebellious and hardly got along with her. But now that he was older, they got along pretty well and he realized that even thought she was a bit shallow and materialistic, she loved him and only wanted what was best for him. His mother smiled and pulled him in for a small hug.

"Hello Logan. Its so nice to see you." She said to him, and led him into the house.

He smiled at her. "Its nice to see you too."

As they walked into the house, he saw his dad was sitting on the couch with his glasses on, overlooking some paperwork. He was a doctor and never stopped working. But now with his tenure at the hospital, he was at the point where he didn't have to work most holidays unless it were some sort of dire emergency. Still, he knew his dad liked to keep busy and liked to bring some of his work home sometimes. 

He looked up from what he was reading to greet Logan, their only son. "Hello son." He said.

Logan nodded towards him. "Hey dad."

Cynthia led him up to his old room, even though he already knew the way and when he opened the door, he was greeted with the renovated version of it he had known since he was eighteen and in college. The moment he moved out, his mother packed his things up in boxes and took it up to the attic. She had changed everything in the room now to fit her likes. Logan didn't mind it. It was their house and he didn't live there anymore. He also was no longer interested in a lot of things he was into as a teenager.

He got settled in and then went downstairs for dinner. The conversation was minimal and it was mostly quiet. But he was used to it. It had been that way his whole life. 

After dinner, he excused himself and told his parents he would be going for a walk. 

He didn't have a specific place he wanted to get to, and he didn't have a plan when he left his house. He just walked down the streets he remembered from his childhood.

Logan walked aimlessly until he found himself stopping at the one place he didn't think about going to while back in his home town.

Bob's Burgers.

-

an extremely filler chapter. but i wanted to post something because i have been working on this update for about a week.

i have a lot of ideas for this story. its just difficult to put them into text. its been so long since i last wrote full time. now i have a full time job and a life. its difficult to find the time. but i want to try to finish my stories. alsoo, i feel like my brain isn't wired the same anymore. 

before, i would have an idea and i would just type and the words flowed out so naturally. now it takes me a moment to express the thought im trying to express. like my brain is all dried up and rid of ideas. but i want to get the creative juices flowing again. so lets hope that works out.

please continue giving this story lots of love guys.

it means a lot.

-clary