Two Week Stay-cation // (Logan, Veronica) PG
“So, where were you during the first four hours of the day?”
Veronica didn’t think she would ever fear the sound of that voice. Today was the day of many, many firsts, evidently. Up until that moment, she had been preparing to lie. To say she’d felt sick, or had needed the time to finish an assignment… anything but the truth. When she met that gaze though, she just couldn’t do it. She couldn’t lie. There was too much going on inside her skull without adding even a simple fib to the pile. She wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Slamming her locker door shut, she grabbed Lilly’s hand. “Come with me.”
Barreling into the nearest washroom, Veronica checked to make sure they were alone and then wedged the door shut.
“Okay, what’s up with you? The last time you pulled me in here like this, you confessed that you borrowed my sweater without asking. You know you can just tell me stuff like that, right?”
“No. It’s not that.” Sometimes she wished her best friend didn’t use that slightly mocking tone so often. It could make it difficult to survive moments like these. “I mean, I need to tell you something, but it’s big.” …Me wishing I hadn’t locked myself in the bathroom with you ‘big’, Veronica added silently.
“Okaaay, well…” Lilly crossed to the row of sinks and hopped up onto them, legs swinging. “Then spill. What’s up girlie girl?”
“I…” Deep breaths. Remember to keep breathing. You do not want to faint right now. “Last night…” She isn’t even going to believe you. Just watch. In six seconds she’ll be laughing. “Logan… and I… sort of kissed.”
Images of atomic bomb detonations began flashing before Veronica’s eyes. Shockwaves rippling across an entire city, obliterating everything they struck. She might’ve even winced as she prepared for her best friend’s reaction.
What happened instead was a laugh coupled with a roll of her eyes. “God, finally.”
Veronica frowned. “What?”
“Well, I mean, it took you guys long enough.”
“Took us… Wait. You knew this was going to happen?” Oh God. Oh, God, this was all just a big joke. Some huge scheme cooked up by Logan and his 09er buddies. See if he could get her to fall for him, then spend the rest of the school year laughing at her. Dammit. Dammit, now Duncan was going to find out, and any chance she had with him would be completely demolished.
“No, I didn’t know it was going to happen.” Lilly paused to consider her next choice of words. “It’s more that I was prepared for it.”
Veronica quickly shifted out of DEFCON 1 status. The red splotches in front of her eyes dissolved, and the fiery humiliation bubbling up in her chest dissipated.
All right, so maybe she’d had a slightly insane over-reaction to her best friend’s response. More answers would be good though. “Even still, how?”
“Oh, please. Logan had a girl living a hundred yards from his bedroom for two weeks. At some point he was going to make a move on you. Even if you are the poster child for virginity.”
“Oh.” Well, that was a bit of a punch to her stomach. Lilly thought she’d been nothing more than a convenience to him? A simple reaction to his circumstances…
Numb embarrassment consumed her, and she tried to smile around it. There was no one she trusted to evaluate Logan’s motivations better than the girl he’d known for over a decade, and dated on and off for almost a year.
“Besides, you guys have been acting mega-close all week. And he’s been looking at you like you’re some shiny new toy he wants mommy to buy for him.”
Veronica wasn’t sure how to interpret the second part of her explanation… whether she should take it as encouragement or let it further decimate her mood. “What do you mean ‘mega-close’? I’m pretty sure I called him a soul-sucking jackass yesterday at lunch.”
She shrugged. “I just mean you’ve been acting more friend-ish. Having actual conversations with each other rather than making with the sarcastic jokes all the time.” Lilly leaned in then, grinning. “So what’s the deal? I never would’ve guessed that you would have a crush on Logan.”
Veronica growled in frustration, throwing her arms up. “I don’t even know… that’s the problem! I never would’ve guessed either.” She lifted a hand to her forehead. “I mean, this is all happening so fast. I can’t figure out if I kissed him because I like him, or if I like him because we kissed.”
“And hey, what about Duncan? Are you telling me you’ve forgotten all about your ginormous crush on my little brother?”
Veronica didn’t have a clear answer to that question. One thing she knew for sure was that her attraction to Duncan and Logan were two very different incarnations.
Duncan had been like running a marathon. For months now, all she could think about was Duncan, all the time. She had imagined what their first kiss would be like thousands of times. Pictured where they’d go on their first date and even knew what she would get him for their first anniversary, assuming they made it that far.
But just like a marathon, she’d been plagued with doubts about whether she’d ever even cross the finish line. Some days, she sensed that his feelings for her were just as strong; that he was mere hours away from finally asking her out. Other times he was distant. Aloof. Like he knew she was there, but didn’t see her presence as significant, as if she were nothing more to him than his sister’s best friend.
By contrast, things with Logan had been more like a hundred-meter dash. Neither of them realized that the race had begun, and yet they’d already crashed through the ribbon at the end of the track. The staring gun cracked, and they both just took off at mach five. She hadn’t even had time to think about strategy. Yet, despite the flurry of motion and the vortex of confusion that followed her, this taste of victory was just as sweet as if she’d won the long-distance run.
The question she had to answer now was, which tasted better?
“I don’t know,” she said both to herself and to Lilly. “Things with Duncan have always been so… confusing. You’ve told me so many times that he liked me back, and that he was going to ask me out, but here I am… not with him. I mean, what, is he afraid I’ll say no?”
“Yeah, well, my brother’s a dope, Veronica. I’ve also told you that a thousand times.”
“Meanwhile,” Veronica continued, though she shot her best friend a look that said she was starting to believe that opinion of hers. “All of this happened with Logan and…” she sighed, too drained to find words to finish the thought.
“Poor Veronica.” She put on a pouty face. “I bet you didn’t expect your first leap into the world of dating to be so messed up right from the start, did you?”
“No!” she cried out in exasperation, though having Lilly there helped her turn it into a bit of a laugh. “I thought I’d already learned from all of your mistakes.”
Lilly smiled, too proud of her dating record to act as if she were insulted by the comment. “Well, even though I’m your best friend, and an authority on all things boy-related, I’m probably not the best one to give you advice here.”
“Yeah. I know what you’d do in this situation, and… I don’t think that would be the best route for me to take,” Veronica laughed.
“Exactly. But look, I’ll tell you this much.” Hopping off the counter, Lilly strode forward, a concerned look rising to the surface of her face. She crossed her arms. “If you do decide to go for it with Logan, be careful okay?”
“C-Careful? Why? What do you mean?”
“Look, you know I love you right?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but think about where you are in life right now as far as the whole sex thing goes.”
“Okay…” Veronica was pretty sure she knew where this was headed, and that she really didn’t want to hear it, but let her friend continue.
“Now think about where Logan is.”
“Uh-huh…”
“So… all I’m saying is, how long do you think he’s going to be willing to wait for the chance to revoke that V Card of yours?”
“Yeah.” her mood was sinking lower and lower. Like a lead brick tossed into a lake. She looked up when she felt Lilly’s hands on her shoulders.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t give it a shot. I just don’t want to see you crash and burn your first time on the track.”
“Right. Yeah, gotcha.” Again, Veronica attempted to hide her anxiety with a nonchalant laugh and a breezy smile.
“Are you okay?”
Obviously, Lilly was able to see through her pitiful disguise. “Yeah. It’s just been a really long day,” she sighed. Paused before looking up again, a small amount of fear tugging on the angles of her face. “Are you okay? With all of this?”
She frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Why…? Lilly… this is Logan we’ve been talking about here.” She figured saying his name with emphasis was really the only explanation she needed to provide.
Lilly scoffed. “Well it’s not like he’s got my name tattooed on his ass. That was the point of us breaking up. The part where we didn’t want to be together anymore. God, I am so done with the likes of him.”
Veronica’s expression said she wasn’t exactly encouraged by this sentiment.
Hands on her hips, Lilly regarded her for a moment, a sympathetic smile approaching her lips when she seemed to detect her best friend’s emotional turmoil. “Listen. Forget about Logan, and me and Logan. How about we go over to the Hut, jack ourselves up on mochas, and talk some more about our L.A. trip this summer. It’ll be a completely boy-free zone.”
This would’ve normally been an easy suggestion to agree with. Except at the moment, Veronica was torn between wanting to go home and bury herself in a casket of blankets, and a desperate need to talk or think about something other than Logan for even five minutes. “Sure,” she said before she could over-think this tiny decision. True, there was every chance that even taking this route she’d spend the whole time thinking about him. But at least at the coffee shop, there would be a mountainous supply of chocolatey pastries to comfort her.
“Awesome,” Lilly squeaked. “Okay, you go finish what you were doing at your locker before this impromptu bathroom meeting, and I’ll pull the car around.”
“Sounds good.”
After a quick hug, Lilly bounced out of the bathroom, and Veronica was left alone again. Collapsing against the wall behind her, she pulled a long, cleansing breath into her lungs. For a moment everything in her cranium was quiet.
But then she started thinking about the last ten minutes. About how even though her conversation with Lilly hadn’t exactly gone how she’d expected it to, the end result was the same.
It had definitely sucked.
(( End Chapter Seven ))
[ Okay, for those of you who are thinking Lilly’s reaction to this whole thing was just a little too much on the ‘sane’ side, I promise you, there’s a little more to come on that :) …But, didja like it? Comments are a wonderful treat! ]