Warning: This chapter contains content involving violence/abuse
Logan was glad he'd chosen not to attend the beach party. Dick and Cassidy had begged him to go, but he just didn't feel into it. When he'd come down for dinner, his mother said that she was dropping him off at the Mars' for the night. She and his dad had a last minute meeting for an upcoming movie tour and they wouldn't be home until late. She reminded him that they were having a party the following day and he needed to try not to do anything to upset his dad. She'd joked that an evening with Keith Mars would keep him on his best behavior but he wasn't sure she was entirely joking.
When he arrived at the house, Veronica and her dad were making homemade pizza for dinner.
It smelled delicious and, since they knew he was coming, they'd made a personalized pizza just for him too. As they waited for the pizzas to come out of the oven, Veronica and Logan told her dad about Dick's prank earlier that day.
"You should've seen it, Mr. Mars. Dick had Cassidy float Veronica out to just the right spot and when he hit the edge of the inner tube, he doused everyone on the edge of the pool. The girls were all squealing and yelling at Dick. It was hilarious."
"Yeah Dad, it was like riding the rapids. I had the best seat in the house." Veronica was giggling.
At that very moment, the front door opened and Veronica's mom stumbled through the door. Veronica's giggles stopped abruptly as Mr. Mars stood up to meet his wife at the door. He took her purse and coat, then hung them on the hook by the door and wrapped his arm around her waist. "Kids, I'll be back with you in a minute. Don't eat my pizza." Veronica's dad had a hushed conversation with his wife as he walked with her up the stairs.
After dinner, Veronica grabbed her laptop and joined Logan on the couch, where he'd been reading a book as he waited for her to return from taking the dog out. They were sitting in companionable silence when Mr. Mars entered the room and sat in the chair closest to Logan. Out of the corner of his eye, Logan could see Mr. Mars watching them. When Logan looked up, Mr. Mars asked Logan what he was reading. "It's the new book from A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Vile Village."
"That's the one you were waiting for, isn't it?" Logan nodded. "How is it?" Logan closed the book on his lap, keeping his thumb on the page he had been reading.
"So far, so good. I'll let you know when I get further into it. Are you reading anything right now, Mr. Mars?"
"1st to Die by James Patterson. It's about women solving murders." Logan could tell Mr. Mars' light small talk was forced from the strained look he had on his face. Mr. Mars wore that look a lot lately. He was really worried about Mrs. Mars' drinking. They all were; they just didn't talk about it. Since she'd come home, Mr. Mars had checked on her several times. Logan assumed she was passed out for the night.
The ringing phone interrupted their brief exchange. It was obvious that it was his mom calling from the way Mr. Mars kept glancing back at him with sad eyes. That was never a good sign. She was probably making some excuse for why he couldn't come home tonight but Logan knew the truth. His dad was in a bad mood and it was best if he wasn't around to irritate him. Logan often wondered if Mr. Mars suspected anything but he never showed any signs of it so Logan chose to think that he didn't. He was sure though that if Mr. Mars knew how much trouble Logan caused at home, he wouldn't let him spend so much time with Veronica. As he realized this fact, Logan felt his good mood from the evening draining away.
Veronica knew something was going on; Logan's whole demeanor had changed. Trying to distract him from whatever was bothering him, she asked Logan if he wanted to play a game. She had been surfing online the other night and found Charmed trivia. He agreed to play without asking any questions and Veronica jumped at the chance to spend the rest of their evening teasing Logan about Alyssa Milano. "In the episode about the deadly sins, Phoebe is infected with which sin?"
"Veronica..." Logan whined. "Are we really going to play this game?" Veronica struggled not to laugh at him. "Either you know it or you don't, Logan."
"Oh, I know it. I just don't understand why you have to torment me about it." Logan fiddled with the edge of his shorts.
Veronica worked hard to keep a straight face. "I don't know what you're talking about. It's just a random trivia question."
"Lust, Veronica, she's infected with lust." Logan blurted out the answer and Veronica burst into a fit of laughter.
"Veronica! Can you quiet down a little? Your mom's sleeping." Her dad came in the room, looking tired. He clearly wasn't in a good mood any longer either. "Logan, you need to spend the night. Something came up and your parents are staying in LA tonight. I'm going to drop you off tomorrow on my way to work. I'm headed up to bed but I'll set up the guest room for you. Don't stay up too late, you two." With that, her dad turned out of the room and she watched as he climbed up the stairs, looking as if he had aged ten years in the last few minutes.
"I wonder what that was all about?" Veronica looked at Logan with sad eyes. She just wanted everyone she cared about to be happy. It didn't feel that way anymore. Her mom was passed out drunk. Logan had a look of despair on his face and her dad was clearly exhausted by the day's events. She was relieved when Logan gave her a small smile.
"It's been a long day, V. Maybe we should just call it a night too."
"It's only 8:30 PM, Logan. It's summer vacation. Can we at least watch a movie before we go to bed? No more games. We don't even have to talk. Please?" Veronica really wasn't ready for the night to end. If she went to bed now, she knew she'd just end up sulking in bed thinking about all the things everyone avoided talking about. She wasn't stupid. She knew Logan's home had as many problems as hers did.
His smiled widened. "Yeah, sure. What do you wanna watch?"
Veronica couldn't help returning his smile. She always could count on Logan. She tilted her head at him and raised her eyebrows and he stood up from the couch to walk to the entertainment center. "I know, I know." He started the movie and sat down on the couch next to her as the beginning of South Park played.
Logan was in a great mood when Mr. Mars dropped him at home the following day. Despite the irritable mood he'd gotten into worrying about his messed-up life, curling up with Veronica on the couch, laughing at South Park, made everything feel better. At least for a little while. He didn't know when his parents were coming back from LA so he went straight to his room to finish his book and enjoy the quiet before the storm. A few hours passed and Logan snuck down into the kitchen to see what Mrs. Navarro had made for lunch. When Mr. Mars woke him up, he'd been in a hurry so they'd stopped for bagels and coffee on the way to his house but that hadn't been enough to last him until the dinner party.
"Mr. Logan, I'm very busy but there's a sandwich and a fruit salad in the fridge for you. Sit at the table and eat. I expect your parents to be home shortly. When you're finished, please stay in your room until your Mama comes for you."
Logan knew what the tone in her voice meant. "Okay, Mrs. Navarro." They were in damage control mode. Logan tried to think of what might have happened to put them in this predicament. He'd been on his best behavior. He was sure of it.
Logan washed his dishes for Mrs. Navarro, then returned to his room. After finishing his book, he assumed his parents still weren't home so he started playing video games. Mrs. Navarro always had his best interests at heart so if she said to stay in his room, he would stay in his room. He hated this part. It was better to just get the drama over with and deal with the pain rather than waiting for the unknown.
There was a knock on Logan's door. He instantly tensed up, then took a few breaths to calm himself down before answering. "Come in." Logan busied himself with the video game, hoping his casual behavior would defuse the situation and keep him out of trouble. He glanced at his visitor, expecting to see his mom, but instead Dick was standing there with Cassidy.
"What are you guys doing here?" He had expected his mom to summon him for his dad. He couldn't have company when they got back, it would just make things worse. "You can't be here, guys, my parents have this party tonight."
Cassidy spoke first. "We get it, man, your parents are cool. Your dad let us in. He said we just had to make it quick." Logan didn't understand; he'd been waiting for explicit instructions on how he was to represent the Echolls name this evening. Receiving reminders to ensure he acted in the best interest of his father's career. He wondered how long his parents had been home?
"Yeah, okay, so what's so important? " Logan wanted them out as quickly as possible. Anything Cassidy or Dick did during this crucial time, Logan knew that he would be the one who would be taught the lesson.
"Cas and I were at dinner last night with our dad and his new girlfriend. So we could get to know our new future 'step-mom'." Dick used air quotes to emphasis the new title. "We saw something we probably weren't supposed to see." The brothers looked at each other.
Cassidy spoke up, ripping off the band aid. "Veronica's mom was having a romantic dinner with Mr. Kane." Logan was shocked. Of all the things that these two could be telling him, this wasn't something he would have ever guessed.
"How do you know it was a romantic dinner? Maybe it was just dinner," Logan questioned.
"Just dinner doesn't usually include holding hands and making out," Dick stated.
Logan was dumbfounded. "No, it doesn't. But, what are we supposed to do? Do we tell Veronica?" All three boys just looked at each other, no one sure of the answer to that question. "Later, guys, we're gonna have to figure this out later. Just keep this between us for now, okay?" Logan ushered them out of his room, worried about Veronica, but right now, he had to play the good son.
Shortly after Dick and Cassidy left, his mom came to get him. She asked how his night at the Mars' had gone and suggested the clothes he should wear for the evening. Logan tried asking his mom what he'd done to agitate his dad but she assured him not to worry about it, between Mrs. Navarro and herself, they had distracted him enough to subdue the issue. He was glad he had the sense to listen to Mrs. Navarro and had stayed in his room all day.
The dinner party, so far, had been a success. His dad was in good spirits and Logan had made himself available when he needed to. He finally felt like he just might get through this day without incident. As Logan walked around the pool, past the food bar, smiling and nodding to his parents' guests, someone bumped into him. Unable to catch his balance, he tumbled into the pool with a splash. He surfaced, sputtering, and looked up to see his dad glaring down at him. That was not a good sign.
"Logan, you destroyed the food. It's doused in pool water. What are our guests going to eat now?"
He'd spent the entire day tip toeing around and walking on eggshells for nothing. He'd let his guard down for a split second and everything was ruined. He climbed out of the pool silently and walked into the house to change clothes. He saw the worried look on Mrs. Navarro's face as she threw food into the garbage cans and he felt sick. She did what she could to protect him and he let her down.
Logan didn't return to the party. Instead he curled up on his bed and wondered if he would ever get things right. Why did he always end up causing so much trouble? It felt like bad luck followed him, waiting for the right moment to reach maximum carnage. He knew what would come next. It was inevitable. No matter how hard his mom or Mrs. Navarro worked to keep it from happening, he always found a way to screw it up without even trying. Logan heard the door to his room open. He didn't roll over to see who was there; he knew.
"Logan, go to my closet and then meet me in my office."
Logan took a deep breath and let it out shakily. He got up reluctantly and headed down the hall to the master bedroom where he opened the narrow closet revealing belts made of different materials. He ran his hand down the length of the last one he'd picked. The black leather hurt more than he'd thought it would. He wasn't going for that one again. He reached back to the next one. It was wider so he hoped the distribution of the blow wouldn't hurt as much. Logan pulled it off the hook, wrapped it around his hand and closed the door. He was in no hurry to get to the office. He took his time walking down the hall. When he looked up, his mother was sitting on the bench under the window with a drink in her hand. She looked at him sadly but didn't say a word.
Logan moved past his mother and knocked on the office door. Aaron jerked the door open and said with a sneer, "You can't help yourself, can you? Why can't you stay out of trouble?" Logan hung his head in shame and headed into the office.
"I'm sorry, Veronica, Logan isn't feeling well. I don't think he should be swimming around in the ocean today. Maybe tomorrow, dear." Logan sat at the breakfast table and listened to his mother lie to Veronica about why they couldn't hang out today. Truthfully, he was pretty sure that being around his friends would make him feel better than hiding out in this house but he didn't think he had a lot of choice in the matter.
"Come on, Mom, can't I just go hang out with them? I'll sit on the beach and watch them surf or maybe we could just go to the boardwalk."
"I don't think that is a good idea. You need time to heal a bit first. It's one day, Logan." Logan sulked at the table but he knew it was his own fault that he was in this situation. He screwed everything up. And it might be better not to be around Veronica right now anyway. Dick and Cassidy were so sure of what they saw and Logan wasn't sure he could keep this kind of secret from her. They had to figure out what they were going to do. Mrs. Mars and Mr. Kane? How did that happen?
