What a mess we've made

It's ridiculous

The whole world's a stage of complete chaos

It gets so funny that we get confused

We don't know where to turn cause we've all been used

Let's get loaded (oh let's be selfish)

Let's get wasted (and lose our senses)

Let's get toasted (don't educate us)

Let's get hammered (yeah paralyze us)

Let's forget it (don't count on all)

The boys wanna fight

But the girls are happy to dance all night

--The boys wanna fight (Garbage)

Logan leaned against his car with his arms crossed, contemplating his next move. Periodically there would be a sudden burst of music when the door to the club opened and every time he tensed up, expecting Veronica to emerge.

She's like five feet tall, dude, why are you so scared?

Because she has the power to shred you. Because she probably hates you. Because she's pregnant with someone else's baby. There is no way this is going to come out well for you.

He rubbed his forehead.

"So are you going to go in or just stare at the door all night?"

Logan gave a start and looked over and found Duncan standing three feet away from him.

"How'd you find me?"

"Wallace called me. He says you owe him four tires." Duncan walked over and leaned on the car beside him. "And you're evicted."

Logan laughed. "Homeless once more. I tell you, I don't think I'm cut out for a life less privileged."

Duncan nodded and then looked down and kicked at the ground. Logan knew what was coming next and it made all of his muscles pull tight under his skin.

"You OK?" Duncan asked.

And so it begins. The pity party.

"As right as rain in the rainforest."

Duncan looked up at him. "I saw the news story."

"You and half the English speaking world by now, what makes you so special?"

Duncan could hardly blame Logan for being defensive. He knew the "I don't want to talk about it" armor would go up before he asked the question. Still, it seemed easier then asking the next inevitable one.

"So what are you doing here?"

And so it begins.

Logan looked back at the club. "Waiting for my girl."

He felt Duncan tense up next to him. He glanced over at him.

"What makes you think she's still your girl?"

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"What should we toast to?" Meg asked, raising her margarita glass, slopping half of it over the sides.

"I think "toasted" is more accurate," Veronica laughed.

"To men, boys, the male population in general," Meg decided. "Can't live with them. Can't shoot them."

Mac lifted her glass. "Where are all the good men dead, in the heart or in the head?"

Meg and Veronica glanced at one another and said simultaneously: "In the heart."

Veronica lifted her glass: "Men suck."

They all nodded, clinked glasses, and each took a drink.

Veronica observed that Meg was getting all moony eyed again. If possible, she got even more romantic and sweeter when she was drunk. She looked up at Veronica and smiled dreamily.

"He still loves you, you know."

Veronica looked into her drink. She contemplated bringing up the fact that Mac was the one that concocted the whole Purity Test that caused Meg such grief just to change the subject but she couldn't bring herself to throw poor Mac under that bus just to get out of a difficult conversation.

"It's all right," Meg said, bobbing her head. "I'm totally OK with it." She hiccuped. "Mostly."

Veronica shifted in her seat and then threw back her drink while she thought back to the beginning of the summer. It had taken Duncan almost three weeks to finally bring it up. It still hadn't been long enough as far as Veronica was concerned.

"You know, I've been thinking about us," he said.

"I knew this movie and cheese corn came with a price," she laughed, trying desperately to deflect the inevitable.

"Have you thought about it," he asked. "About us, you know…"

"Of course I have Duncan," she sighed. "But--"

"But?" He grabbed one of her hands and skimmed the top of it with his thumb. She felt a familiar quiver go up her arm. "Veronica, the only reason we broke up--"

"The only reason you dumped me," she corrected.

"--was because I thought you were my sister. And even with that big, ugly, unnatural thing in the middle of us I still couldn't stop myself from being in love with you."

She looked up into his big blue eyes and couldn't deny how warm they still made her feel.

"We were great together," he whispered, lowering his head. "Remember?"

"Uh, huh," she sighed as his lips brushed over hers.

"No, he doesn't," Veronica said to Meg. "He's in love with what we used to be. I was too, for a long time. But it's not us any more. Duncan knows that."

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Logan chuckled but there was no mirth at all to his laughter.

"So I was right. You brought me back to--what? Bear witness to you and Veronica's happily ever after?"

"No," Duncan said, pushing himself away from the car and facing Logan. "I just think you have a lot of nerve calling her your girl after what you did to her."

"What I did to her? She had me arrested for murder! I had a right to be peeved don't you think?"

"And that's how you justify it?" Duncan shouted, his fist clenched. "She doesn't think I know what happened but I do. I know how you treated her."

Logan remembered that last day on the beach when he confronted Veronica about having him arrested. He had been pretty brutal to her but Duncan's reaction still seemed a bit extreme.

"And how did I treat her?"

"Like dirt! You treated her like dirt." Duncan shouted. And then he shook his head. "And you know what the real kicker is? It's you she still wants."

And now we get to the heart of the matter.

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"Well who needs guys anyway?" Mac said, trying to cut through the sudden silence at their table.

"Well we do if we want to get home," Veronica said, pushing her sleeve up to look at her watch. "We called Wallace like half an hour ago. By the time he gets here we'll be sober enough to drive ourselves."

"Well let's not let that happen," Meg said. She reached over for the pitcher of drinks then she stopped and reached out and grabbed Veronica's arm. "My God, Veronica, what have you been doing to yourself?"

Veronica tried yanking her arm back but Meg was surprisingly strong.

"It's--it's---" and maybe if she wasn't feeling quite so lightheaded she would have come up with something but the mixture of the blood draw and the alcohol was making her head spin. And she was tired. Tired of keeping so many secrets. So she told them.

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Logan blinked at Duncan.

It's you she wants?

Duncan shoved him in the chest and he stumbled back.

"What are you talking about," Logan said. "You're the one she's been with all summer."

Duncan shook his head. "In body, but definitely not in spirit."

In body…

Logan hauled off and nailed Duncan in the jaw. Duncan staggered back but got his footing again almost immediately. He didn't waste any time launching himself forward and tackling Logan to the ground.

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"Oh my God," Meg whispered. "How could he do that to you?"

Veronica shrugged, trying to hold back tears. "I accused him of murder. Then I had his dad arrested. Let's face it, on a scale of one to ten on the girlfriend scale my hero is zero."

"His dad tried to kill you," Mac cried. "He murdered Lily Kane. Did he expect you to overlook those small facts because you were dating?"

Veronica shook her head. "Don't get me wrong. He's a jerk. He takes jerk to all new levels of--jerkdom."

"But he's the jerk you're in love with," Meg sighed.

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Logan had had one of the most humiliating days of his life. But getting his ass kicked by Duncan Kane really was the topper. Under most circumstances Logan would have been able to take Duncan easily but he was so damn exhausted. And Duncan had definitely had his Wheeties that morning because he had Logan pinned to the ground, one hand wrapped around his throat and the other one pulled back to pummel him with. But then he stopped. Logan would have liked to think it was because he came to his senses but he got the disconcerting feeling it was because Duncan caught sight of the bruises already on his jaw.

Duncan stood up and backed off and it made Logan that much more furious.

"What's the matter," he shouted, scrambling to his feet. "Feeling sorry for the abuse victim? Why not finish what daddy started? You couldn't do much worse!"

Duncan just shook his head and turned around and walked away.

"The little gray boxes on the news don't do me any good when half the town already knows what you look like, right?" He shouted after Duncan's departing back.

Logan turned and kicked the nearest car. He really, really wanted to punch something.

And that's when Veronica, Meg and Mac stumbled out of the nightclub. They were singing spectacularly off key.

"Everybody have fun tonight! Everybody wang chung tonight!"

They are making fun of me. How perfect.

Veronica was having a hard time walking with both Mac and Meg's arms wrapped around her shoulders. She stumbled with a laugh but when she looked up she choked on it.

Logan was standing in front of her looking exactly as she pictured he would. Mad as hell.

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Author's note: I'm sorry, I know I promised Veronica and Logan would finally touch base and you can't say I lied exactly, they actually see each other. I had planned to put their first meeting in this chapter but every thing leading up to it took more time then I originally planned. They will finally have a chat in the next chapter.