Post finale, [probably] set sometime during Veronica and company's sophomore year.

Mentions of Veronica/Logan, Lilly/Logan (past), and Lilly/Weevil (past).

I don't know if I would categorize this as a dark!fic, but it's at least close.


Never Look Back

When Lilly came back, everything had changed. She wasn't Veronica's best friend anymore, wasn't Logan's girlfriends. She wasn't even Duncan's sister, or her parents' child. Everything had changed while she was dead and she wasn't really sure she belonged in Neptune anymore.

It wasn't just that they'd changed, or that she'd changed, it was their memories of her, too. They had built her up into someone she never was. They all loved the memory of Lilly Kane, but Lilly Kane herself was someone they didn't know anymore.

But what was worse, was that her three best friends remembered her exactly as she was. They had missed her so deeply, but… they were who they were because she was dead. Her death, missing her, that had shaped who they were now. They didn't need her anymore.

Veronica, her best friend, forever she'd thought, had new best friends. And Logan, the man she'd thought would always be her's, no matter what, his heart now belonged to Veronica. And Duncan, her beloved brother, she hadn't even seen him, but everyone had told her he'd run away with his child, the child of his dead ex-girlfriend.

Everything was wrong. So completely and horribly wrong. She was supposed to be the one away at college, not them. She was supposed to come back, and have them fall at her feet like the goddess she once was. Instead, she was standing back and watching, because, while they had been happy to see her alive, they didn't need her anymore, they had moved on.

So she just stood, watching as the life that should have been hers passed by. Veronica having lunch with the black guy, Wallace. Someone sat down with them, someone, based on the looks on their faces, that neither knew. But they talked to him for a little while, then he got up and left, looking very grateful. No doubt a soon to be client of Veronica's, because that was he life now, solving other people's problems. She was good at it. Really good. So good she'd practically been handed an internship at the FBI, which only served to make her better.

Two girls approached the table and sat down with them, Mac and Parker, if memory served. A moment later, the tall, dopey boy, Piz, joined them as well. When had Veronica become so good at making friends? What happened to the days when she only had Duncan and Logan and Lilly? What happened to the girl who clung to them because without them, she had no one?

Oh yeah, Lilly died and Veronica grew up.

Logan approached the table, too, and sat down, wrapping one arm around Veronica and giving her a soft kiss. Lilly could feel bile rising in her throat at the sight, but she did not look away. Veronica continued with the conversation she'd been having with Parker, while Logan played with her hair.

How could they have done this to her? How could they betray her like this? This was her best friend and her boyfriend, and now they were 'hopelessly in love', as Wallace had coined them. A girl does not do something like that to her best friend, dead or alive. And Logan! How could he just forget how much he had loved her, and move on to Veronica. Veronica couldn't compare to Lilly; she was boring and ordinary and wouldn't be anything if she hadn't followed Lilly around like a lost puppy for all those years.

"Lilly?" a voice asked from behind her, forcing her to look away from the sickening scene that was playing out before her. She turned.

"It really is you," Weevil said. "They told me you were alive, that you were back, but I hadn't really believed it. It's really you."

"Get out of my way, Weevil," Lily said carelessly, pushing past him. He was just another man who was supposed to have loved her, a man she could have cared less about, whose only purpose was to piss off her parents. The last thing she needed was for this lowlife to show her how little he needed her, too.

She walked away, not looking back at Weevil, or her former friends. She walked and walked and walked, never looking back. Neptune didn't need her.

And she didn't need Neptune.