Personal Narrative-Drilly In America
Veronica heard the doorbell on her end.
“Celeste! Ravishing as ever, and Jake- how’s business? Is Duncan home?” The show, Logan’s always been good at. Veronica closed her phone noiselessly, ready to move.
She remembered being fourteen and sneaking in and out of Lilly’s house. Silently, she thanked Lilly for encouraging that mischievous streak in her; who would she be without it? After slipping out the window, Veronica shimmied down to the roof’s angled landing, thankful she’d decided to wait until night and cursing the height deficiency everyone was always teasing her about. Without Lilly to remind her to bend her knees, Veronica reminded herself, and it isn’t very dignified or graceful but she made it to the ground with little …show more content…
noise and little pain.
The lawn’s fairly expansive, but fairly exposed in an uncomfortable way. It’s be the quickest, but…
Half-nostalgic, half-erring on the side of caution, Veronica followed the path against the fence her and Lilly used to take to and from the street. Once she could see over it, Veronica scraped herself along the side like she was miserably out of practice, and swung her legs over the street, and jumped down to the sidewalk. Out of curiosity, and okay, pride- she checked her phone; four minutes and change. Her car was around the corner, but Logan’s was barely out of view of the house. Twinge of regret starting to settle in her, now she would owe Logan for help with something she could’ve done on her own. Insurance. Well, he’d at least certainly been that, she put her back on the XTerra and waited for him to reel himself back in.
When he emerged, arms swinging by his sides, smirk a mile wide, Veronica knew she was in trouble. Maybe not dead-best-friend’s-heel-digging-in-your-ass-as-you-break-into-her-house trouble, but trouble nonetheless.
“Tell me, Veronica Mars, why did I just have a lovely chat with our friends, the Kanes?” It’s not that he’s surprised to see her by the curb when he gets there after a solid ten minutes of being the diversion. It just sort of means she was serious, that was a real thing he just helped her with, and he wanted every detail.
“Thank you,” She muttered. “For doing that. For coming at all. It’s sort of a long story,” She started, trying to remind herself that this was Logan Echolls, notorious (yes, that kind of notorious) bad-boy, known for less-than-upstanding deeds. She hardly owed him an explanation, and she definitely didn’t owe him her embarrassment; probably not, anyway.
“Believe me, I have time for this.” Opening the passenger door for her, he swung his arm in invitation to a more private conversation. He thinks she still looks sort of shaken, like that cat in the trap; glad to be free but aware of it’s number of dwindling lives. Again, there’s the thought that it feels good to help her, and this had actually been fun in a way he really liked.
Veronica held out for another second, hating the way her heartbeat still flared from the adrenaline.
It was embarrassing; she liked being the calm one, especially in situations other people would be scared.
“Okay. It really started this morning. When I woke up…”
When Veronica woke up, Lilly’s voice in her ear was singing about a secret, screaming about it, and when her eye caught on the air vent, Veronica had a moment of devious inspiration. Thanks, Lilly. Like Logan, or apparently because of, if he was to believed- Lilly kept a stash of secret items from Celeste’s prying eyes or Duncan’s curiosity up behind the vent in her room. Of course her dad, or any other less competent Sheriff-shaped people, wouldn’t have looked there after her death for anything clue-worthy or sensitive. But Lilly had a secret and Veronica needed to know if it was worth dying for.
Admittedly, staking out the Kane house while she knew Duncan was on an assignment for the Newspaper… privileged, insider information put to good use. With no sign of Jake or Celeste, Veronica snuck in through the garage’s side door-
“You know the security code to the side door on the garage?” Logan interrupted, half-incredulous, half in awe. New Veronica could be a little terrifying, he had to face that
fact.
“It’s Duncan’s birthday, only backwards.” Biting her tongue a second too late, she wondered if maybe it wasn’t a good idea to give out people’s security codes. “If there’s ever a break in, I’m pointing them your way from now on,” She smiled.
“What, as like, a diversion?” He watched her roll her eyes, but he thought he at least earned that one.
“Have you, um. Have you been in her room, since…?”
“Once.” When he had snuck in during a sleepover with Duncan; just to feel her sheets, remember her in a tactile way. They’d been cleaned, of course, scrubbed of all their Lilly-type-scandal, but they felt the same as he remembered them. Soft, comfortable. “Just once.”
“This is going to sound.. Less than kind, but I think out of all of us; you, me, Duncan, Lilly, I think it would’ve been the hardest to lose her, no matter what.” Hadn’t she lost all of them? Lilly’s absence hurt the most, but she had lost all of them year, even herself. “She made us better, I think.”
Bringing up Lilly’s an instinct he usually fights, especially with Veronica.
“She definitely made me better.” Exhaling, Logan scratched his head, and glanced in rearview mirror at the flash of strawberry-blonde he thought he saw. Sitting in his car, too close to her, it felt strangely like bonding with New Veronica, and he swallowed a joke about how any minute she was about to snap her fly-trappy jaws on him and forget his existence again. “Why’d you walk away from me in school yesterday?”
Being honest with himself, he’d only gone to school for her, or maybe because of her- because she seemed to believe he was innocent; if she could believe him, when he’d gone out of his way to punish her, to be awful to her, to be cruel…why couldn’t anyone else? But the way she’d snapped her focus away from his eye contact in the hall stung more than he knew it had a right to. Sure, the question sounded desperate, but for once, Veronica actually needed him and maybe now she actually owed him.
“Why wouldn’t I?” She didn’t want to laugh, she really didn’t, but they’d had like five minutes of civility since Lilly’s death, and she doesn’t understand how that could’ve all been fun for him. She remembered moments in his face where it definitely wasn’t. Neither of them had pulled their punches when they were being honest, and she may not have initiated it, but they had been less than friends for a year. “You said so yourself, when we followed Missy; it’s not like we’re friends.” Silence overtook the car for a minute, while she was painfully aware of him intently looking at her face.
Her body’s gone tight again, he noticed, like before she left his house, and he wanted to know so badly what that meant. Like deciphering a goddamn decoder ring, he wanted to get out a paper and pencil and make the corresponding charts.
“I mean, look, if I’m off-base just say so, but why’d you help me that day with the camera-guy? Why not just leave me on the floor in the gym? Why sleep on my floor and why call me now? Why’re you even sitting in this car?” Anger was the last emotion he wanted to play, but the clip of her shielding him from the cameras and pushing him towards his front door, kept playing in his head. She looked worried. She looked like they were friends.
“Well, why’d you drive me home before that? Why’d you talk to Weevil about fixing my car? Why’d you want your mom to call my dad and why did you- god, Logan just tell me when other you comes back, then.” After a year of conditioning, a year of competing traumas and betrayals and seeing the worst of humanity, she’s definitely not going to let herself lose it in front of him, now.
“The other me?” His mouth twisted into a pained expression, fairly confident he deserved whatever came next.
“Celeste! Ravishing as ever, and Jake- how’s business? Is Duncan home?” The show, Logan’s always been good at. Veronica closed her phone noiselessly, ready to move.
She remembered being fourteen and sneaking in and out of Lilly’s house. Silently, she thanked Lilly for encouraging that mischievous streak in her; who would she be without it? After slipping out the window, Veronica shimmied down to the roof’s angled landing, thankful she’d decided to wait until night and cursing the height deficiency everyone was always teasing her about. Without Lilly to remind her to bend her knees, Veronica reminded herself, and it isn’t very dignified or graceful but she made it to the ground with little …show more content…
noise and little pain.
The lawn’s fairly expansive, but fairly exposed in an uncomfortable way. It’s be the quickest, but…
Half-nostalgic, half-erring on the side of caution, Veronica followed the path against the fence her and Lilly used to take to and from the street. Once she could see over it, Veronica scraped herself along the side like she was miserably out of practice, and swung her legs over the street, and jumped down to the sidewalk. Out of curiosity, and okay, pride- she checked her phone; four minutes and change. Her car was around the corner, but Logan’s was barely out of view of the house. Twinge of regret starting to settle in her, now she would owe Logan for help with something she could’ve done on her own. Insurance. Well, he’d at least certainly been that, she put her back on the XTerra and waited for him to reel himself back in.
When he emerged, arms swinging by his sides, smirk a mile wide, Veronica knew she was in trouble. Maybe not dead-best-friend’s-heel-digging-in-your-ass-as-you-break-into-her-house trouble, but trouble nonetheless.
“Tell me, Veronica Mars, why did I just have a lovely chat with our friends, the Kanes?” It’s not that he’s surprised to see her by the curb when he gets there after a solid ten minutes of being the diversion. It just sort of means she was serious, that was a real thing he just helped her with, and he wanted every detail.
“Thank you,” She muttered. “For doing that. For coming at all. It’s sort of a long story,” She started, trying to remind herself that this was Logan Echolls, notorious (yes, that kind of notorious) bad-boy, known for less-than-upstanding deeds. She hardly owed him an explanation, and she definitely didn’t owe him her embarrassment; probably not, anyway.
“Believe me, I have time for this.” Opening the passenger door for her, he swung his arm in invitation to a more private conversation. He thinks she still looks sort of shaken, like that cat in the trap; glad to be free but aware of it’s number of dwindling lives. Again, there’s the thought that it feels good to help her, and this had actually been fun in a way he really liked.
Veronica held out for another second, hating the way her heartbeat still flared from the adrenaline.
It was embarrassing; she liked being the calm one, especially in situations other people would be scared.
“Okay. It really started this morning. When I woke up…”
When Veronica woke up, Lilly’s voice in her ear was singing about a secret, screaming about it, and when her eye caught on the air vent, Veronica had a moment of devious inspiration. Thanks, Lilly. Like Logan, or apparently because of, if he was to believed- Lilly kept a stash of secret items from Celeste’s prying eyes or Duncan’s curiosity up behind the vent in her room. Of course her dad, or any other less competent Sheriff-shaped people, wouldn’t have looked there after her death for anything clue-worthy or sensitive. But Lilly had a secret and Veronica needed to know if it was worth dying for.
Admittedly, staking out the Kane house while she knew Duncan was on an assignment for the Newspaper… privileged, insider information put to good use. With no sign of Jake or Celeste, Veronica snuck in through the garage’s side door-
“You know the security code to the side door on the garage?” Logan interrupted, half-incredulous, half in awe. New Veronica could be a little terrifying, he had to face that
fact.
“It’s Duncan’s birthday, only backwards.” Biting her tongue a second too late, she wondered if maybe it wasn’t a good idea to give out people’s security codes. “If there’s ever a break in, I’m pointing them your way from now on,” She smiled.
“What, as like, a diversion?” He watched her roll her eyes, but he thought he at least earned that one.
“Have you, um. Have you been in her room, since…?”
“Once.” When he had snuck in during a sleepover with Duncan; just to feel her sheets, remember her in a tactile way. They’d been cleaned, of course, scrubbed of all their Lilly-type-scandal, but they felt the same as he remembered them. Soft, comfortable. “Just once.”
“This is going to sound.. Less than kind, but I think out of all of us; you, me, Duncan, Lilly, I think it would’ve been the hardest to lose her, no matter what.” Hadn’t she lost all of them? Lilly’s absence hurt the most, but she had lost all of them year, even herself. “She made us better, I think.”
Bringing up Lilly’s an instinct he usually fights, especially with Veronica.
“She definitely made me better.” Exhaling, Logan scratched his head, and glanced in rearview mirror at the flash of strawberry-blonde he thought he saw. Sitting in his car, too close to her, it felt strangely like bonding with New Veronica, and he swallowed a joke about how any minute she was about to snap her fly-trappy jaws on him and forget his existence again. “Why’d you walk away from me in school yesterday?”
Being honest with himself, he’d only gone to school for her, or maybe because of her- because she seemed to believe he was innocent; if she could believe him, when he’d gone out of his way to punish her, to be awful to her, to be cruel…why couldn’t anyone else? But the way she’d snapped her focus away from his eye contact in the hall stung more than he knew it had a right to. Sure, the question sounded desperate, but for once, Veronica actually needed him and maybe now she actually owed him.
“Why wouldn’t I?” She didn’t want to laugh, she really didn’t, but they’d had like five minutes of civility since Lilly’s death, and she doesn’t understand how that could’ve all been fun for him. She remembered moments in his face where it definitely wasn’t. Neither of them had pulled their punches when they were being honest, and she may not have initiated it, but they had been less than friends for a year. “You said so yourself, when we followed Missy; it’s not like we’re friends.” Silence overtook the car for a minute, while she was painfully aware of him intently looking at her face.
Her body’s gone tight again, he noticed, like before she left his house, and he wanted to know so badly what that meant. Like deciphering a goddamn decoder ring, he wanted to get out a paper and pencil and make the corresponding charts.
“I mean, look, if I’m off-base just say so, but why’d you help me that day with the camera-guy? Why not just leave me on the floor in the gym? Why sleep on my floor and why call me now? Why’re you even sitting in this car?” Anger was the last emotion he wanted to play, but the clip of her shielding him from the cameras and pushing him towards his front door, kept playing in his head. She looked worried. She looked like they were friends.
“Well, why’d you drive me home before that? Why’d you talk to Weevil about fixing my car? Why’d you want your mom to call my dad and why did you- god, Logan just tell me when other you comes back, then.” After a year of conditioning, a year of competing traumas and betrayals and seeing the worst of humanity, she’s definitely not going to let herself lose it in front of him, now.
“The other me?” His mouth twisted into a pained expression, fairly confident he deserved whatever came next.