Veronica was impressed that Carmen had a much better soul than she did, the taunting and video's spreading around campus were making her regret that she hadn't launched that website herself. Cad deserved to burn for this she thought angrily as she listened to the two guys sniggering behind her.
"It's all fun and games until one of you get's my foot up your ass" She threatened and watched as they scampered away. She hadn't really watched the video herself yet, she had been so busy trying to hatch a plan to block it from going Viral through her mutually assured destruction idea that the content of the video itself had seemed irrelevant, that is… until she noticed the hanging stars and Chinese lamps in the background. She knew this party… it was a year and a half ago at Shelley Pomoroy's house.
The last time she had been the hopeful sad Veronica, the one who still dreamed of home-coming dances and having a perfect life, the girl who had pined away for Duncan Kane. The last night she had been a virgin.
She barely remembered that night, someone had drugged her and she had woken up alone in the guest bedroom the following morning searching for her underwear, the discomfort and pain had made it obvious what had happened the night before. She had stumbled to her car to find someone had written slut on her windshield and it was the first time that someone had slashed three of her tires so she had had to walk to the Sheriffs Office.
It was the night she had been reborn as the girl determined to pick herself back up and stop being the sad girl who was waiting for someone to come and rescue her and catch Lilly's killer herself. She had cut her long hair into a short bob, wielded her camera like her own personal weapon and gotten tough.
Her father's recovery of the missing Duncan Kane was going a lot slower than they had both hoped, but he had confessed about leaving the notice in the paper for her mother. He was leaving himself options to move on… that was always a good idea wasn't it?
Leaving the bad things in the past and moving on?
I mean… if you couldn't really remember it… did it have to dominate so much of your life then? She pondered as she stared at the video file. Except, sometimes you couldn't move on until you accepted certain truths, and there were parts of that night that she didn't know were true… not for sure.
She had been mulling over that very thought when Mac came into the Mars Investigations Office to update her on the fake passport they thought Duncan might have been using.
"Roberto Del Bandien" she smiled.
"Who is he?" Veronica laughed.
"I know who he was.. and that he had his old passport shipped to an Argentinian airport" she explained.
"Dad.. this is Mac" Veronica explained and her father took the details.
"So..10% of your fee?" Mac negotiated.
"You'll get your cut" she smiled. So far Weevil was owed 8% also, and she really wanted to get Mac alone to look at the time stamp on this video. "New question… how do I find out when this was taken?" she asked, showing Mac the file of Carmen in the hot tub.
"December 7th, 2016, 3.33am" Mac told her.
The night of Shelly's party, both she and Carmen couldn't remember the same night.
Suddenly Veronica had a lead, if Cad had roofied his girlfriend that night, then he must know who had supplied the drugs. She was going to use her father's cell phone tracker to hunt him down when she received a small video from Carmen of Cad tied bound and naked to the school flag pole in revenge. Seem's the PCHers weren't as forgiving as Carmen after that video went around of one of the girls in their neighbourhood.
She drove to the school early that morning to leave in her English report before her date today with Logan, and found Cad still tied there. Part of the trouble of being an 09er who ended up on that pole, is that most of the time your parents thought you were off staying with a friend, so he had probably been here most of the night.
"How's it hanging, Cad?" she asked mockingly.
"I guess you and Carmen got those bikers to put me up here" he accused her.
"Nope.. this one oddly enough, was nothing to do with me" she smiled happily. Karma had a way of sorting these things out without her help occasionally it seemed. "But I might be convinced to help cut you down" she offered.
"What do you want from me bitch?" he snarled.
"Information… who gave you the drugs the night of Shelleys Party" she demanded. "Oh that's right.. yes… you roofied your girlfriend… you are all class" she spat at him as his face turned guiltily.
"It wasn't roofies… it was GHB" he corrected.
"You are so lucky she has a better soul than I do.. because I would have taken you down with me" Veronica said angrily.
"Whose going to want to touch her now?" he retorted. "If I can't have her… no one can"
"What a prince" she said sarcastically.
"So what.. you going to cut me down if I apologize?" he queried.
"Nope.. I just want a simple answer to a simple question. Who gave you the drugs?" she asked as she stood in front of him with the small blade in her hand.
"It was Logan…" he sighed. At first she wasn't sure that she had heard him correctly. "Logan Echolls" he confessed and Veronica felt like she was going to throw up.
"Are you going to cut me down now?" he asked but his voice sounded like it was coming from far away.. she couldn't breathe and she was getting tunnel vision. She stood up closer to him and ripped the covering of his tattoo off to reveal a large heart with Sean signed inside it before she stumbled back to her car.
Logan Echolls?
Hottest kiss of my life… let's go to Catalina Island and I'll buy you an I Wuv You Beary Much… can't wait to see you tomorrow.. Logan Echolls?
Surely if it had been Logan… her body would have remembered?
Unless her body did remember and that's why she responded to him like she did?
She climbed shaking back into her car and drove home, she was grateful that her father had left this morning to chase down a lead to go and find Duncan Kane in Havana, Cuba. She had the place to herself. She could curl into a little ball and wrap Backup protectively around herself and cry herself to sleep, trying desperately to shake the odd memories of sensations of that night, the way her limbs had refused to respond, the weightlessness. Veronica hadn't even touched anything alcoholic since that night, she hadn't really even been properly to a party.
Most of the day she alternated between uncontrollable crying and throwing up… one way or another she told herself as she looked at the fourth missed call from Logan on her cell phone and she dried herself after third shower she had taken.. she just couldn't seem to scrub herself clean… she felt sick and dirty… was that whoever did this to her.
They were going to pay.
Logan had woken up Friday morning and picked up breakfast for Trina and his dad as a thank you for allowing him to use his boat that day. It was worth it making more of an effort with them both if it helped him to be able to do things like this with Veronica more often, she texted him last night that Duncan's fake passport had been found and that her father was probably going to be bringing him home soon in the next few days, so Logan wanted everything to be flawless today… it might be the only chance he really had to prove to her that he wasn't just an obligatory psychotic jackass… that he was actually head over heels for her… that he was someone worthy of dating even if she wasn't still fully over his best friend.
He just wanted her to give him a fair chance and if Duncan came home and she ended things… he really just wanted to be able to remember one perfect day with her.
"Aww look at you all eager and horny" Trina had teased him.
"Ha ha very funny…" he retorted as he fussed over the sandwiches again that Nadia had spent the morning making for him.
"Naw.. It's cute" Trina smiled. "You're like a little puppy who just wants to bury his bone" she said trying to squeeze his cheek.
"Will you stop?" he pleaded. "I'm nervous enough as it is…"
"Then you should wear the white one" Trina suggested.
"What?" Logan asked as he looked down at his blue shirt. Veronica liked blue…
"You are less likely to have bad posture if you wear something that you don't want to end up with coffee stains all over… you should wear the white one" Trina explained before she headed back off out to the pool.
What was wrong with his shirt? Logan fretted. She was a terrible actress, and an awful big sister… but she was also a bit fashion obsessed… he hated that she could get into his head like this sometimes… Logan sighed as he headed to his bedroom to change out of the shirt into his white jumper they had gotten him yesterday.
He got down to the yacht about 8am, checked the engine three times, and made sure there was enough gas. He checked the satellite phone was on board and that he had the list of emergency radio listings encase something went wrong and he had to call for help.
The sea air was calm and Logan watched as the sunlight bounced off the water ahead on the horizon… it was a good day for a trip out on the boat. He smiled as he put the ice into the wine cooler and chilled the champagne, he arranged the table setting about four different ways until he was happy with him. He couldn't stop pacing.
Since when did he get this nervous?
Maybe since this is the first time since Lilly that something like this has actually mattered to you?
He waited eagerly to see the familiar blond teen detective as she would make her way down to the marina. She was a little late, but that was okay, he had said 10-ish.. she would get here soon. She probably had some work to do or something…
It was around 11.35am that Logan started to wonder if she had had car trouble again?
"Hey.. It's Logan… do you need me to come pick you up? If we don't head soon we are going to miss the movie.. unless you want to just rent a DVD on the way over and we can watch it here? Let me know" he said leaving her a voicemail.
"Engine trouble?" Antonio McCoy asked as he came back in from his afternoon fishing trip with his two son's.
"No.." Logan smiled politely and watched as they tied up their boat and headed out of the marina.
He looked at his watch, 3.12pm. The ice in the bucket had completely turned to water and the bottle was bobbing about expectantly and he felt something in his heart twist. She wasn't coming.
She hadn't replied to his texts, she hadn't called him back.. she had stood him up?
Had her father found Duncan? Was she having second thoughts now that he was coming back?
Maybe she had gotten cold feet and the date just made it too real?
Had he pushed for this too fast?
He pulled the lid off the bottle and sat there the rest of the afternoon drowning his sorrows wondering what he had done wrong too miserable to even sample the food that Nadia had spent the morning preparing for them.
"Oh what's the matter? You pre-mature early?" Trina teased as he called her for a ride home.
"Just don't…" he sighed and did his best to ignore her for the rest of the drive home.