Two Week Stay-cation // (Logan, Veronica, ensemble) G
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It felt like there was a demolition derby crashing around in her stomach. Sounded that way, too.
Backup was curled beside her on the bed as she stared up at the ceiling. Every few seconds, the cloud of silence that surrounded her was punctured by the tumbling, messy groan of a hungry body. Like the tailpipe of a car sputtering out its dying breaths.
Food! her digestive tract screamed out. Food food food food FOOD!- using muscle contractions to bang at the walls of her abdomen like a child smashing its fists against the dinner table. Rattling the cutlery and making the glassware tremble.
As much as she wanted to obey its single sharp demand, she couldn’t. After finishing dinner, her hosts had moved into the living room, turned on the gas fireplace, and pulled out some reading material. Any attempts to infiltrate the kitchen, and she would be caught.
Sure, she could just tell them the truth- Lynne seemed like she would understand. But she’d only been here for two days now, and she didn’t think insulting their cooking was the best way to show her appreciation for their taking her in… even though it wasn’t really their cooking. So, she was doomed to raging hunger until they decided to vacate the room. Her trusty pooch had been kind enough to torture her with this fact by devouring the healthy portion of kibble she’d given him after returning to the pool house.
Her strategy now was to do her best imitation of a sloth. Maybe if she didn’t move, her body would forget that it was hungry. A plan likely to fail, but it was the best one she could think of at the moment.
“Remind me to stock up on snack food the next time we’re near a grocery store, okay pal?” she requested of her pet, reaching over to give him a scratch behind his neck. He groaned with approval when she snuck her fingers under his collar, a region not often tended to since it was unreachable by his own flailing hind limbs.
Veronica had begun to contemplate if it would really be so bad if she ended up gnawing her arm off when her cell phone rang. As much as she didn’t want to drain herself of what strength she had left to get to it, she knew that if it was Lilly- which it probably was -the little plastic device would continue its song and dance routine until she did pick it up. Hauling herself up off the bed, she crossed the room and flipped it open, trying to sound like she wasn’t in a state of ever-worsening agony.
“Hello?”
“Heyyy, Ronnie.”
Why the Hell was he calling her? “Hello Logan. How are you?”
“I’m great. How ‘bout you?”
“I saw you just over an hour ago, Logan. I think you have a pretty good idea how I am.”
“Bet you’re hungry.”
“Oh my God you have no idea,” she groaned, abandoning her pretense of nonchalance and releasing her misery from its cage. Thinking back to their dinner charade, an idea struck her. “Hey! You’re a guy, right?”
“I hope so. Otherwise I’ve got a huge problem on my hands.” Half joke, half innuendo. The usual.
“Yeah, okay, well, every teenage guy I know is pretty much a food vacuum cleaner. So your parents won’t think it’s weird if you go down to the kitchen and get something to eat. Could you maybe make me a sandwich or something and bring it out?”
“I don’t know, Veronica. I’m pretty comfy up here. Tummy full, nice big bed to stretch out on. Plus, I already did you one favour tonight.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks.”
“Tell you what. You come up here first, and I’ll make you the biggest, meatiest sandwich you can imagine. Bring Backup too, if you want.”
“What?” She cocked her head to the side, perplexed by what he’d just said. “Why would I possibly want to go to your bedroom?”
“Look, just come okay?” He hung up.
Veronica sat for a moment with her phone glued to her ear, unable to figure out what he could be doing. Rarely did he use that vague sort of dialogue without there being a plan to either embarrass or otherwise torment someone attached to it. Still… there was something else in the way he’d spoken. Like the words ‘trust me’ should’ve been tacked on the end.
Damn him, tickling her curiosity like that.
Taking Backup along with her as Logan had suggested, she obeyed his fuzzy command. “This way, buddy,” she directed him, giving his ear a little tug as she led him up the stairs. During her ascent, she noticed that there was a familiar aroma infiltrating her nostrils. Mingling with the other scents in the Echolls home though, she couldn’t quite place it. Her only conclusion was that it had something to do with the summons she’d been given, which just made the whole situation all the more mysterious.
Knuckle raised, she tapped the door a couple of times. “Logan?”
“Come in!” It sounded like he was talking with cotton balls in his mouth.
Pushing the door open, she walked inside… and couldn’t believe what she saw.
Logan was sitting on his bed, hands clutching an X-Box controller, eyes pinned to his television screen. Beside and slightly behind him, three large pizzas were gaping at her. One had a mixture of vegetables on it, one a smattering of pepperoni, pineapple, and wedges of onion big enough to surf on, and the last was just a clean landscape of cheese.
“Am I dead?” Once her stomach had time to process the messages being sent to it by her eyes and nose, it bypassed her brain and began moving her feet, marching her toward the divine scenery.
“You’d better not be. There’s no way I can eat this much pizza by myself.” He risked taking his eyes away from his game long enough to shoot a smile her way.
“So I can have some?”
“Veronica, I could hear your stomach growling from up here. I ordered it for you.”
He did? “You did?”
“Nah, I figured I’d spend fifty bucks on pizza to make up for the fact that I ate hardly anything at dinner tonight.”
“Ha. Ha.” She punched his shoulder. “Logan, this is amazing. I’ll definitely pay you back.” Picking up the plate he’d left out for her, she started loading it up with one slice from each pie.
“No you won’t.”
She straightened up. “Yes, Logan, I will. I don’t have the cash on me right now, but-”
“No, Veronica. Don’t.” Setting down his controller, he turned to face her. “Really. It’s my treat.”
“Logan…”
“Don’t make a big deal out of it either okay? Just eat it.”
“Okay.” Although she was trying to suppress it, a smile was creeping across her face, illuminated by a small flame in her soul.
She and Logan liked to tease each other. A lot. It was standard operating protocol. Sarcasm was the brush with which she often painted the words put on display for him. He did the same, usually adding an extra splash of colour with his characteristic cynicism. Each of them knew where the other one’s buttons were, and they liked to push them like a couple of kids trying out a keyboard for the first time.
It was strange… where the social hierarchy was concerned, they were almost perfect opposites. He was the rich son of two movie stars who was given the respect and adoration of his peers without even having to work for it. He was no philanthropist though, and that was the one personality trait that left him as Duncan’s second in command amongst Neptune High’s royalty. She, however, was just hovering in the upper-middle-class tier, allowed access to the world of the inappropriately rich only because Lilly and Duncan Kane decreed it so.
Still, the two of them knew each other. Beneath their constant and sometimes even adversarial banter, despite the fact that he often treated her with indifference, and that she addressed him as though he were nothing but a spoiled rich brat… they were friends, in a weird sort of way. He noticed when she wasn’t at one of the 09er parties, and inquired as to the cause of her absence. She missed him on the days he wasn’t at lunch, or sat bored in class because he’d decided to skip and left her with no one interesting to talk to. They rarely showed it, and when they did it was often in an unorthodox manner, but they cared for one another.
It wasn’t often though that he did something this… nice for her as a way of showing his friendly affection. Usually he just gave her a side-armed hug or offered to share his Jell-O with her when she forgot to get some at the cafeteria. This was a whole new realm of altruistic gestures. Sliding a few tablespoons of coloured gelatin onto her plate was one thing. Spending a good chunk of change on pizza so she’d be able to eat that night was… she didn’t know what. Except for the fact that she couldn’t stop smiling because of it.
“Thanks.” Plopping herself down next to him, she crossed her legs and cradled her plate in the chasm they created. “Oo! Are you playing Soul Calibur?”
“Yup.” Short, clipped answers were all he could give when ninety-five percent of his attention was focused on his television.
“Can I play?”
Now it was down to eighty percent as he looked at her for more than two seconds, fingers still dancing over the control’s joysticks and coloured buttons. “What?”
“Can. I. Play? You have another controller don’t you?”
“Yeah, but… do you even know how?”
“Logan, not only do I know how, but I can pretty much embarrass you at this game.”
“Ha!”
“I’m serious. You’ll probably cry.”
“Okay,” he scoffed. “Where did you learn to play Soul Calibur?”
“Remember when I babysat for my neighbour last summer? This is all we did. Every day. For two months.”
“So you played this game with some bratty little twelve-year-old and now you’re good enough to beat me?”
“Well it’s not that hard- the game, I mean. Besides, that ‘bratty’ kid beat Halo on Legendary about… four days after getting it. That’s with going to school in between. The kid knows his games.”
“All right, Mars.” Stopping the match he was playing, he reset to the main menu. “You want to try me?”
“Definitely.” The balled-up continent of pizza in her mouth disfigured her devious grin.
“Controller’s in the top drawer.” He motioned at his dresser.
“You are really going to regret this,” Veronica warned him, pulling out the device and hooking it up.
Four hours, thirteen pizza slices, and several moments of hysteria later, Logan was standing in front of his opponent, controller in hand, begging her for another chance. “Come on Veronica. One more game.” He held up his index finger in demonstration of his request.
So far, he had a tally of exactly five wins in comparison with her twenty-something. More than once he’d requested a short ten-minute break to regroup. Eat a slice of pizza, give his fingers a rest, and maybe run downstairs to grab a can of pop. For the most part, he just couldn’t believe that he was losing to Veronica. To a girl.
Backup had been a witness to the entire tournament. He saw the look of astonishment on Logan’s face when he suffered his first loss. Heard the frustration in his voice after his tenth consecutive defeat. Watched as he paced around the room, trying to understand why he was still unable to win a single match.
At one point, there had been a lot of screaming and shouting going on, when Logan was just a half-inch of health away from beating her. Intrigued by the human couple’s excitement, Backup walked over, tail wagging, to see if they’d include him in the fun. Except he’d accidentally tugged Logan’s cord out of its socket, which only made him yell louder. So the canine went back to his little patch of carpet, getting up only when the energy in the room abated. Veronica was nice enough to scratch him behind his ears, or let him rest his head on her lap when he visited, assuring him that although he wasn’t getting much attention, he was still welcome at their private party.
There had been more than one wrestling match between the two teens as well. Willing to try anything for a victory, Logan would reach over and start mashing different keys on Veronica’s controller. She’d rip his control out of his hands in retaliation. He would then tackle her in an attempt to reclaim his property.
And so they would dance, trying to avoid the pizza boxes while staying balanced on the bed. It didn’t always work though, as each of them ended up on the floor at multiple points in the night.
For all the angered, chauvinistic posturing he did though, there had been laughter. Buckets of it. Several mercy pauses had occurred in the action of the game when one of them lost the ability to breathe. One of Logan’s wins had come when, after being slaughtered by his tickling hands, Veronica had run to the washroom so as to save his bedding from the wrath of her bladder. During her absence he unpaused the game and murdered her helpless character.
Overall, she couldn’t believe how much fun she was having. How she and Logan Echolls had actually spent this long in a room together, alone, and every second had been better than the one that came before it.
“Logan…” Still, it had to end some time. “I’ve destroyed you. It’s one o’clock in the morning, and we have to be at school in seven and a half hours. I think it’s time we both went to bed.”
“But Veronica, we could just-”
“Logan. No,” she asserted with a light laugh. “We need sleep, okay? Let it go.”
“Fine.” He sighed, pushed a pizza box out of the way, and flopped back onto the mattress while rubbing his eyes. “I can’t believe I just got royally spanked by little Ronnie Mars. Please don’t tell anyone.” He was peeking out at her beneath a half-closed eyelid.
“No one needs to know,” she assured him, giving his thigh a light pat.
“So you good to leave around eight tomorrow?” he asked, sitting back up as she unhooked and started wrapping up the cord on her controller.
Yet another perk to her current living arrangements: carpooling to school. “Yup. Not sure if I’ll be entirely conscious at the time, but we’ll hope for the best.”
“Yeah. Mondays suck as it is,” he laughed airily. “‘Night, Veronica,” he said as she started heading for the door.
“Good night Logan.” She’d taken two steps when she stopped, turned around, and dove forward to throw her arms around his shoulders. “Thanks.”
He reached up to pat her arm. “No problem. I’ll try and get them to make something that actually resembles food next time.”
Veronica laughed as she stood up. “That would be great.”
“See ya.”
“Bye.” She waved, heading for the door again. She then addressed Backup. “Let’s go pal. You probably want to go outside, don’t you?” His ears perked up when he heard the word ‘outside’, and seeing that she was moving in the right direction, he jumped up to follow her.
Both teenagers went to bed with a warm feeling permeating their chests that night. Neither was fully aware of it, but they could each sense that something was… different. Something had changed in the climate of their friendship during those few hours. Something important.
Something that made Logan fall asleep strangely content, and left Veronica with a smile on her face as she sank into the world of unconsciousness.
(( End Chapter Three ))
[ Gimme a ‘C’!… “C!!!”… gimme an ‘O’!… “O!!!”… gimme an ‘M-M’… “M-M”… all right, I’m sure you all get the point, right? Enough with the lame chanting. Hehe. Comments are awesome, but even if ya don’t leave one I hope you come back for the next chapter. Thanks for reading! :) ]