Of course, Lilly gets her Irish coffee - more Irish than coffee - and Veronica's not sure why she's surprised because Lilly Kane always gets what Lilly Kane wants.
Veronica uses the excuse of getting pictures during the performance to get out of having to watch Lilly be extra touchy, extra flirty and extra mean under the guise of being tipsy.
It's an awkward situation that she's found herself in; a contractually obligating promise to help Logan get back the love of his life that is sure to hurt both Weevil and herself. Or she doesn't help him and he feels the pain of heart break all over again.
"Veronica?" She hears a familiar voice from behind her.
"Duncan?" She blinks in surprised before a smile settles onto her lips. "Came to show your school spirit to the mighty mighty, Tritons?"
"Your pictures in last week's article really did appeal to my musical senses," he jokes and she gives him a smile for the compliment even though she knows his musical senses are next to null.
"Really? I was sure it was the pun filled tagline that caught your eye."
He chuckles, shaking his head and confesses, "Actually, Lilly invited me. Can you believe it?"
For a long time, Duncan's tried his best to win over Lilly's affection to no avail. She's marked lines between them and named him her enemy in a fight for their parents approval for the simple fact that he got it and she didn't.
Veronica wants to believe that Lilly's had a change of heart and decided to bond with her brother but she knows better. She wants to be wrong, she knows she isn't. "Lilly did?"
"Who would have thought that a broken heart would be what fixed my broken relationship with my sister?"
His words sting her more than it should have. She knows he's talking about Meg because Meg is the only one that had his heart but he's looking at her with blue eyes that have longing in them and she's not sure if this is about her letter or the fact that they've grown apart since he's read her letter.
She gives him an awkward smile, trying to hide the uncomfortable feeling that settled over her. "There's that silver lining, huh?"
He lets an uneasy smile fall on his face before it falls of completely. "I kind of told Lilly about the letter you sent me."
She gasps at him, actually gasps because if there's one person besides Meg that she never wanted to find out about the letters, it would be Lilly. "Why would you do that?"
"I didn't know what to do," he confesses. "I was so confused, Veronica and I had no one else to talk to about it. And Lilly helped me, made me see we needed to reconcile before there was too much distance between us before there was no going back."
His words pass through her ears without any processed thought because all she can think of is the possible damage Lilly can now do. "I can't believe you told her, Duncan. I asked you not to tell anyone."
"I know," he lets out, frustrated and apologetic at the same time. "I'm sorry Veronica but I needed to talk to someone, I couldn't talk to you, I tried to and you always just ran away. Who else was there for me to talk to?"
"Duncan -"
"I wasn't gonna tell you but tonight I saw you guys and realized that you look happier with him than I've ever seen you even with Lilly sitting across you," he says with sad eyes and a weak smile. "And as much as I want to believe that Lilly invited me here because of our new found relationship, I think it might have been to break you two up. She's not happy that you're with Logan."
She takes a deep breath and sighs. She wants to be upset at Duncan but she feels the need to get to Logan before Lilly can taunt him about this. Logan knows about the letters but she knows this could hurt the image they want to portray to Lilly.
Her eyes flicker pass Duncan, searching the crowd for Logan, finally spotting him at the corner of the counter and sees him downing a drink.
She swallows and looks for Lilly in the crowd of people because she wants to know exactly what the girl is doing to make Logan look so upset. She sees the green eyed girl grinding along with Weevil on the dance floor and she knows now that Duncan's just here to play a role to distract her from Logan so Lilly can play her own game of torture against the boy.
"Veronica?" Duncan voices, his hand on her arm as he tries to get her attention.
It's then that she meets Logan's eyes and she sucks in a breath. It's this moment that she realizes that she's about to break a rule that she's wanted to for a long while now.
When Veronica excuses herself to get snapshots of the band playing, Logan excuses himself to get some coffee; non-Irish because unlike Lilly, he is driving.
It doesn't take long for Lilly to follow him and he knows what's coming next; it's obvious that Lilly isn't happy with his conditioning their relationship status to strictly friendship. He doesn't understand her - how she could want him and want other guys and think that's perfectly okay? She can't share him so why does she constantly expect him to share her?
He's trying his best to get through this date, trying to show Veronica that he's moved on from Lilly and to show Lilly that he's moved on from her too.
"Why did it have to be her?" He hears Lilly from beside him. She's settled down on the bar stole, ordering another drink and at this point foregoing the coffee completely.
He takes in a breath, he doesn't turn to her yet, he doesn't want to see the hurt look in her eye that he can hear in her voice. He doesn't know why she's hurt but he doesn't want her to be, no matter what happens between them.
"She's Veronica, Lil. Once upon a time you loved her too," he reminds her. He still doesn't understand where their animosity came from and he wonders if it's possible for them to ever become friends again.
Lilly scoffs beside him. "That was a long time ago before I saw her for who she really was."
He frowns, the answer making less sense than Veronica's reasoning so he turns to her and questions. "Who do you think she is?"
Lilly's eyes snap to his and he wonders for a moment if he's going to get true answers behind the reason why the BFF title had been stripped from Veronica's name.
"Did you know she sent Duncan a love letter?" She asks in favour of answering his question with a arched brow, trying to keep a straight face but losing it to her tight lipped mouth and anger fuelled green eyes.
The question throws him off and he doesn't hide the surprise of her knowledge of the letter well because Lilly's lips turn into a self-satisfied smirk.
"It doesn't matter, Lil. Veronica is with me. Can't you respect that?"
"Duncan likes her too, you know," she continues like she hasn't heard him and he clenches his jaw as he looks pass Lilly at her brother standing too close to Veronica for his liking.
"I don't care about what Duncan feels. Veronica is with me and not him," he emphasizes with certainty that he doesn't have any right to have.
"For how long, lovah?" She taunts, bright green eyes and wicked smile. "From the looks of it, I'm pretty sure Duncan thinks he's got a shot."
He knows without a doubt that even though Veronica might end this thing between them, she'd never leave him for Duncan because Meg Mars was more important than a boy with pretty eyes and a nice personality.
"And it's not like loyalty is something Veronica values," she remarks, as though this is a fact he should know as she downs her drink.
His brows crease, frowning, he asks, "What is that supposed to mean?"
"You know what," she pointedly says.
"I really don't," he snaps because he's really had enough of Lilly making these unwarranted snide remarks of and to Veronica. "Veronica's never been in a relationship before. She couldn't have cheated on anyone," he defends. "You, on the other hand, have vast experience on the matter and I loved you anyway. God, Lil, I'm trying to maintain this friendship because you're still important to me but you're making it really hard."
He wishes he could have a drink.
"Why did you have to choose her? Of all the girls that throw themselves at you why did it have to be her?" Her voice is quieter, the bitterness gone and the vulnerability seeping out her eyes.
He loses the fight in him. He wants to understand. He wants to fix them. He wants Lilly to regain the friendship she had with Veronica because he knows that they could still be great friends. He knows that Lilly desperately needs a Veronica in her life, someone who isn't afraid to be honest with her and someone to keep her grounded.
Because Lilly is Icarus and he's afraid that one day she really will fly too high and find herself burned to ash.
"Why do you hate her so much?"
She closes up at the question, all traces of vulnerability gone as quick as it came. "God, Logan, how can you not know when you're the reason why," she angrily snaps.
She finishes off her drink and he's staring at her trying to figure out which pieces of this puzzle he's missing. He doesn't say anything as she hops of the bar stole and storms away.
He doesn't understand what Lilly means by him being the reason why. What had he ever done to cause the once upon a time best friends to become enemies?
His eyes follow her retreating figure, she's grabbed Weevil and she's pouring all her frustrations into kissing him.
He chugs his coffee, looking away from the couple and he feels frustrated, confused and perplexed.
He doesn't exactly understand the next chain of events that unfold either. He glances at Veronica and sees her still talking with Duncan; he feels irritated beyond compare because why the hell is Duncan freaking Kane touching his girlfriend's arm?
He's so absorbed in his thoughts, in his glare that he's unfocused when he realizes that Veronica is moving away from Duncan and towards him with this look in her eye that makes him feel all sorts of fire stirring within his soul.
His eyes follow hers until she reaches him, she doesn't say a word and his mouth is dry as she grabs his t-shirt and yanks him down towards her, kissing him like their lives depended on it.
He's holding tightly onto her waist, drawing her into him as he kisses her just as hard and deep as she's kissing him - can she feel how badly he wants her? Can she feel how much he loves her? Can she feel that she's the only one that he wants to be kissing?
His whole being is filled with hope because she's said very clearly and contractually that when she's making out with a guy it's gonna be real. She fought him on it and left no room for arguments about this condition so the only reason she's kissing him right now is because she wants to, right?
She's pulling away, her eyes are heavy with a dazed off look as she tries to catch her breath.
Before she can move or say anything his hand moves up to cup her face and he presses his lips back onto hers. He tugs at her upper lip with his teeth and slipping his tongue into her mouth.
He doesn't want to stop kissing her. He doesn't want to find out whether this really is real or not. He just wants to live in this moment forever.
Her fingers uncurl from his shirt and she lets go of him, sucking in much needed air and he's just staring at her, stunned, mesmerized and hopelessly in love.
Her eyes move from his face to behind him and she lets out a breath with a triumphant remark, "Mission accomplished."
He closes his eyes and it kills him that this was a show for someone - Duncan - he presumes because why else would she do this?
"I'm sorry I broke the rule," she softly says, biting her lip that was just seconds ago being pulled by his own teeth. He wants to do that again and he doesn't want her to be sorry at all. "I just couldn't keep letting her hurt you like this."
He realizes then that Lilly is the reason for this sudden turn of events. The irony would be funny if he wasn't still reeling from the kiss they'd just shared.
He forces a smirk, breaking away from his kiss induced fantasies. "Feel free to kiss me whenever you want, Veronica."
She lets out a breath, letting a little grin form on her mouth as she quips, "Think you can handle that, Echolls?"
He grins and he throws back, "Want me to show you just how much I can handle that?"
"Okay, buddy boy," she laughs, forced and flustered. "How much have you had to drink?"
"Did you taste any alcohol on my breath?" He arches a brow, knowing he hasn't had a drop of it. "Or do you need another go at it just to be sure?" He winks, grinning and focusing on the way her eyes dip to his lips.
His grin widens and he revels in the fact that it looks like Veronica Mars wants to kiss him again, which means that Veronica the-next-time-I-kiss-someone-I-want-it-to-be-real Mars enjoys kissing him. For real.
"Okay, I'm so driving," she lets out a chuckle, choosing to ignore the obvious tension between them.
"Veronica, I haven't had anything other than coffee and it's not of the Irish kind," he says with complete seriousness.
"Mmmhmm," she hums out, unsure of what to do or say or how to not focus on the way her mind is still revolving around the kiss and the way her body is tingling from head to toe, begging her to wrap her arms around him and kiss him again and again and again.
He smiles, feeling satisfied that she's gone this far for him. He truly does know how much it took for Veronica to kiss him this way. It might mean that she really does like him for real or it might mean that she simply didn't want him to further get hurt by Lilly like she'd claimed. He's not entirely sure. But he is sure that either reason means that she cares deeply about him and he appreciates that because there aren't many people that truly do care for him.
"Hey, Veronica?" He lets out, they've been staring at each other and he wants to kiss her and confess his love to her right then and there but he wants to be sure that she'll reciprocate because she wants to and not because of their audience.
She hums out, somewhat lost in a daze for a second before refocusing and saying, "Yeah?"
He gives her a soft smile, touching her arm with sincere brown eyes staring into her deep blue eyes and says, "Thank you for caring about me."
She returns his smile, leaning into his touch and nodding her head. She wants to say something to him but her voice is dry and she feels herself getting lost into his brown eyes all over again.
A/N Thank you guys for reviewing and thank you so much for the good luck messages! I have two more exams this week and then I'm done for the year. Yay!
All the best to everyone that's writing exams!