A.N. This chapter is a little short. It's a flashback. I hope you'll like it! See you at the bottom!
A.N. 2 A big hug to CloudyDream, she is a fabulous BETA.
2. The promise
[Flashback to the summer following the transfer of Logan in Neptune]
Logan came out of the water with his surfboard. He smiled at Lilly and Veronica who were sunbathing on the sand and stuck his surfboard next to them.
"What you think girls?"
"You're sexy on the surfboard, Logan," said Lilly giggling.
"Thanks, Lilly, but I was talking of my performance on the surfboard, not my looks."
"You were fantastic, Logan, even Dick was impressed and he's The surfer around here..." said Veronica smiling sincerely.
"She's right, dude, you rock!"
"Thanks, Ronnie and Dick," he bowed exaggeratedly.
Logan lay down on the towel between the two girls and pressed his cold arms on theirs stomachs making them scream.
"Logan!"
The boy laughed and stood up.
"Wanna go for an ice cream?" he asked his friends.
"No, dude. I think that chick want a piece of Dick..." said Dick looking at Madison Sinclair that was watching him from afar with Shelly and Carrie.
"I can't, Logan. If I want this fabulous body to stay the way it is I must suffer..." she said almost serious. "And I pigged out at lunch..."
Veronica laughed at her best friend and shook her head.
"I'll come, I'm starved."
"When you're not, Veronica Mars?" asked Lilly giggling.
"You have a point, Lilly. So, come on lets go, Logan. Feed me!" she said with an obnoxious air.
Logan bought the ice creams and brought them to the table where Veronica was waiting him.
"What?" he asked seeing his friend with a frown.
"You have something on the collar of your t-shirt, Logan," said Veronica, trying to reach his back. Logan had the hands occupied by the cones and couldn't stop her.
"No, Ronnie..." it was to late. Her hand touched his back and he flinched away in pain.
"Logan?" Veronica looked at her hand and saw that her middle finger had something red on it.
"Ronnie..."
"It's blood..." she looked again at his black t-shirt, it had a big wet spot on the back, Veronica had thought that it was water but now she know better. "You're bleeding..." she said, worried by the amount of blood.
"It's nothing, I fell of the surfboard and cut myself," he tried to cover but Veronica knew that he was lying, she was the daughter of the sheriff, his dad taught her to spot a lie before she was ten.
"You're lying, Logan," she lifted his shirt and saw the bleeding lashings inflicted by his father's belt. "These are cuts, Logan."
"Ronnie..."
"Who did this, Logan?" she asked, taking him for his arm and walking toward the parking lot.
"It's nothing."
"It's not nothing, tell me, Logan!"
"It's my dad, ok? Dad got angry because I skipped school."
"Stay here," Veronica walked back where their friends were sunbathing and joking.
"Hey, Lilly, Logan is taking me back home, my mom is sick and daddy wants me there."
"Yeah, we'll try to live without you," she joked.
"What a horrible thing."
Veronica took theirs bags and after asking Dick to bring Logan's surfboard to his home returned to her friend.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"We'll go to my house and I'll take care of these wounds and after we'll talk."
Logan didn't protest and walked beside her for the fifteen minutes that took them to reach her home.
"Where are your parents?"
"Dad's at work, Mom I don't know, her car isn't here," she took him in her bedroom. "Lay down on my bed, I'll take the first aid kit and come back,"
She went in the bathroom and came back after one minute.
"Take off your shirt."
"If you wanted to see me naked you could have asked. I would have did it with pleasure," he joked.
"Ah ah.. it was so fun that I forgot to laugh," she deadpanned.
Logan rolled his eyes but did as she asked.
"Happy now?"
Veronica didn't answer, there were three big cuts on his back, some bruises and countless scars. Some old, some new but all visible if you knew where to look.
She used the disinfectant on the open cut and Logan hissed from the pain.
"Sorry... it stings a bit."
After all the cuts were clean she patched him up with some clean bandages.
"I'm done."
Logan sat up and Veronica took place beside him. She didn't say a thing, she waited.
"It's the way he punishs me. If I do something that he thinks can make the family looks bad he whips me or punch me or kick me," he said in a whisper.
"How long?"
"Since I was five. The first time was because I spilled some juice on a Persian carpet. Most parents would have scolded me, some would have spanked me, my daddy, he slapped me hard and punched me in the gut two time screaming how I was a piece of shit," he was crying. "I was five!" he screamed.
"I'm sorry, Logan," Veronica tried to hug him but he flinched away.
"I don't want your pity," he said harshly.
"It's not pity," she answered sincerely. "My mom drinks a lot, she always did but in the last year her drinking habit worsened. My dad says that she is sick, that she has the flu but I know the truth. He is the one that teach me how to spot a lie and now he lies to me! I found some bottles in the trash. And when she's not drinking she is away. I think she has an affair and my dad knows but he's in denial."
"I'm sorry, Ronnie,"
"I don't want your pity" she mocked him with a little smile.
"Ok, I understand, you're not pitying me, you are concerned,"
"Look how smart you are, Lolo," she mocked again.
"You are so funny, Mars,"
"Want to watch a cartoon?"
"No"
"Please?" she asked tilting her head and pouting.
"Ok, you win," he rolled his eyes. "Which one?"
"The Lion King!" she ran in the sitting room and put the tape in the recorder before Logan could say something.
Later on they were watching the scene in which Simba run away from the hyenas.
"You know, sometime I wish that I could run away... from the lies, from my mom, from all this mess, be free for a little bit."
"Me too,"
Logan tried to watch the cartoon but a plan started to take form in his brain.
"We can!" he exclaimed.
"What?"
"Run away. Not now, you are thirteen and my birthday is not before three months, but in the future we could. When we'll pass for sixteen years old we'll steal one of my daddy car and run away till my eighteen birthday..."
"Yeah!" she liked the idea. "When the day comes in which will not be able to withstand it, we'll run away..."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
A.N. 1190 words
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Spoiler... in the next chapter we'll see how they plan their escape and the start of their journey.