Somewhere a clock is ticking.
Veronica Mars wasn't given to nervousness. She had faced too much in the last three years to be easily unsettled, even here and now in this new place. She had, she told herself, nerves of steel.
But nerves of steel don't seem to count for much right now. What I need are a heart and stomach of steel. Maybe a new heart altogether. I never saw things ending like this. Then again, I never saw Duncan and I stranded for eternity on a mystery island in another dimension.
She took a deep breath, sitting on her bed cross-legged, eyes closed, waiting. Duncan was supposed to come see her soon and, even knowing it was the right thing to do, what she had to do, what she owed it to him to do, didn't make the choice any easier. But Didi's words kept ringing in her ear, the same thing her dad had said a thousand times as she grew up: Things may be easy, or they may be right, but they aren't always both.
It was cheesy and trite, but mostly, Veronica knew, it was true. And she couldn't start a new year lying to someone who mattered so much to her. Well. Not lying like this, anyway.
The waiting was the hard part now. Patience might be a virtue, but there was a whole long list of virtues Veronica lacked. That one was right near the top. It was the waiting that turned her stomach, tightened her chest. It was the waiting that made her ache.
Alright, so it was probably a lot more than the waiting. It was the weight of the years, the weight of the memories. It was fear, striking a usually fearless heart. Breaking up was one thing and difficult enough on its own. Losing him from her life would be another, and she still couldn't be sure if that was what would happen.
Whatever the outcome, however, I know I won't rest easy until I've done the right thing.