Fall Out Boy

by Wynn

Cassidy goes out on a date with Mac. And has the worst day of his life. A fic about role reversals, rug burn, stupid older brothers, and the pacifistic uses of Dr. Pepper.

Title: Fall Out Boy

Author: Wynn

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Veronica Mars. They are owned by Rob Thomas, UPN, Joel Silver, etc. and are used for non-profit, entertainment purposes only.

AN: Mac/Cassidy embarrassing fluff. Embarrassing for Cassidy, fluff for everyone else. Spoilers up to 02.09.

Fall Out Boy,

Or The Emancipation of Beaver

By: Wynn

Cassidy was an idiot. If he hadn't known it from the five million times Dick told him so on so regular a basis Cassidy wondered if Dick considered it an essential part of his day- get up, take a piss, scratch his balls, call Cassidy an idiot before embarking on a riveting quest of self-discovery in front of the TV playing Grand Theft Auto- then he would definitely have known it now, now, right this very second as he stood before Mac like a slack-jawed idiot unable to string together more than a few mumbled vowel sounds as she patiently waited for him to not be an idiot anymore and answer her question.

Her question.

Oh, god.

Maybe he'd heard her wrong. Maybe he'd taken one too many shots to the head from Dick and Logan over the years and his brain now only functioned ninety-five percent of the time. When he wasn't around Mac. Which he was. Now. Around her. In front of her, actually, in the middle of the hall at school, and he was pretty sure he was getting some really nasty stares for blocking the hallway between classes, but Cassidy really didn't care about everyone else at the moment. Just about Mac.

Mac.

And her question.

Maybe he hadn't heard her right. Maybe he should ask for clarification. But then it would seem like he hadn't been paying attention and Cassidy knew from every girl that ever dated his father or his brother that girls hated it when guys didn't pay attention to them. And even though Cassidy was sure that Mac wasn't like most girls, especially the girls that dated his father or his brother, he figured she'd still be a bit miffed at him not paying attention to her because nobody likes being ignored.

But he couldn't keep standing there staring at her and not say anything. Because Cassidy knew that was the one thing worse than not paying attention to girls. Girls were big on talking. Girls liked talking. At least that was what Cassidy thought. All the girls he ever dated talked so much that Cassidy wished for a mute button for his brain so he didn't have to hear about Brad and Jen anymore or the relative artistic merits of Lindsay Lohan vs. Mischa Barton.

"You know-"

"Yes."

Mac glanced down at the ground and then back up at him. She smiled then and Cassidy thanked every higher power in existence for kick starting his brain into gear so he didn't blow this moment.

"Really?"

"Yeah- Yes. I mean, yes. Definitely."

The smile got bigger and Cassidy felt his heart kick start along with his brain.

"Okay. Okay, good. I'll, um, see you around seven then?"

"Yeah. Great. Seven sounds great."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They stood there staring at each other for a few seconds, and Cassidy knew he still looked like an idiot because he could feel the grin stretched across his face and he knew he must look like a short, less pale version of the Joker. But Mac didn't run away screaming. She just sort of drifted down the hall, pausing at the double doors to glance back over her shoulder at him, and Cassidy knew without a shadow of a doubt that he just made the biggest mistake of his life.

He was going to go out.

On a date.

With Mac.

Tonight.

Alone.

He was such an idiot.

…………

"I need the car tonight."

"No can do, Beave."

"Why not?"

"I got plans."

"Doing what?"

"Spending some quality time in the backseat with Gia."

His brother smiled, a broad, smug grin that made Cassidy throw up a little in his mouth. Glad to know that Dick was continuing to live up to his name in every possible way. "Can't you, like, do it in your bed? Like a normal person."

"Gia likes the car. Chicks dig cars."

No, Dick dug cars. And for some reason unfathomable to Cassidy, girls dug Dick. Still, Cassidy needed that car. Like seriously needed. His life depended on getting the keys to their car, and Dick, unfortunately, was the Key Master. "Can't you do it in her car then?"

Dick paused his game of Grand Theft and shot Cassidy a glance that clearly told him he was an idiot. "Let the girl drive? Are you fucking nuts?"

No. He was fucking screwed if he didn't get that car. "Dick, come on, man…"

Dick tossed his controller onto the floor and leaned back against the bed. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Cassidy, and Cassidy knew he really was fucking screwed now. "Why do you need the car so bad, Beave?"

In Cassidy's next life, he was going to be an only child. Because living with an older brother, an older brother who lived and breathed to make Cassidy's life as inconvenient and uncomfortable as possible, sucked beyond the telling of it.

"I just do, Dick. So can I have it?"

"If you tell me why you need it."

"It's none of your business."

Cassidy tried hard to keep his face as blank as possible because Dick could be scarily observant when he wanted to be. Like every time Cassidy had a secret that he didn't want Dick to know. Like now. Especially now. Because if Dick found out Cassidy was going out on a date with Mac… Cassidy didn't even want to think about the consequences. They were too disturbing to contemplate. So he thought blank thoughts instead and pressed his lips into a firm line to keep his face from twitching like it always seemed to do whenever he had a secret he wanted to hide.

But Dick smiled and Cassidy knew he needed a hell of a lot more practice on perfecting his poker face. Maybe he could pay Phil Gordon to give him a few private pointers because, obviously, just watching Celebrity Poker wasn't cutting it on the whole tutelage front.

"What's up, Beave? You got plans tonight or something?"

"Yeah. Or something. So just give me the car keys, okay?" Dick didn't say anything. He just continued to stare at Cassidy, who tried not to squirm, but his older brother had fifteen years down to perfect the art of making him squirm. It was, like, Dick's speciality in life, and Cassidy hated him for it. "Look I'll do your homework for the next week… Two weeks. Just give me the car."

Dick leaned back even more and locked his fingers behind his head. "You know, with Dad gone, I'm in charge around here, and I just don't feel comfortable letting my little brother, he of the suspended license, take El Car-O de Dick out for a spin without knowing the details. It wouldn't be the responsible thing to do." Dick paused and his grin widened and Cassidy felt the urge to grab Dick's controller and smash it into his stupid, smiling face until it broke. The controller, not the face. Although breaking Dick's face sounded pretty damn good right about now. "So, Beave, you know the rules. You want to play, you got to pay."

Maybe he could work on the whole only child thing in this life. They didn't give the death penalty to minors. At least Cassidy didn't think so. And he thought he could handle life in prison, especially if it was a life far, far away from his stupid, smug older brother.

In his silence, Dick leaned forward, a blond shark smelling younger brother blood in the water. "Dude. Beaver has a date. With a girl." Dick chuckled to himself and reached out to ruffle Cassidy's hair. Cassidy smacked his hand away and did a dive bomb for Dick's pockets, hoping to find the keys in there. His fingertips brushed metal and then Cassidy got a face full of carpet as Dick sat on him.

"Not cool, Beave. Haven't we had the talk about respecting your elders?"

"Fuck off."

Dick mashed his head into the carpet for that, and Cassidy fought harder, fears of rug burn on his face fueling his pugilistic spirit. His hands knocked against the abandoned controller, and Cassidy grabbed on and yanked with everything he had. He heard crashing and crunching and then Dick swearing, and suddenly he was free. Cassidy scrambled up from the ground and found his brother standing open-mouthed over his cracked Playstation.

Cassidy felt a momentary thrill of triumph before he realized the extent of the hell he had just brought on himself by destroying Dick's second pride and joy, runner up on his Ultimate Favorite List of Dick right behind his surfboard. His brother turned to look at him, hands fisted, jaw tight, and Cassidy made a mad dash for the door, managing to squeak through and slam it shut before Dick made murderous first contact. Dick crashed against the door as Cassidy tore down the hall for his room. The door opened and Dick bellowed out, "I'm going to fucking kill you!" as Cassidy reached the relative safety of his room. He caught a quick glimpse of enraged blond before he closed and locked his bedroom door.

Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit.

Now, he really had just made the biggest mistake of his life.

…………

"Hey, Cas-"

"Go. Go. Just go."

Mac stared at him wide-eyed as Cassidy peered out her car windows for any sign of his brother. He thought he saw a flash of Dick behind the front door and shrieked, "Drive! Drive! Go! Now! Now! Now!" Mac jumped but shifted her car into gear, whipping down the Casablancas drive in five seconds flat. Cassidy continued to stare out the rear windshield until six full blocks had passed, partly out of fear that his brother had followed them and mostly out of knowing how fucking embarrassing his behavior in the past few minutes had been. He resisted the urge to smack his head against the window and mutter 'Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.' continuously under his breath, turning instead to face a confused Mac.

"Um, Cassidy?"

"Yeah?"

"Is there something I should-"

"I'm not crazy."

Silence met his completely unintentional outburst, and Cassidy closed his eyes. Okay, so the brain to mouth barrier was down apparently. Cassidy wished he would have known that before he agreed to go out with Mac. He steeled himself for the inevitable shoot down, the sudden headache that just popped up and Mac really didn't feel up to seeing a movie with him tonight, maybe some other time, she'd call him, don't call her, bye-bye now when she said, "I, um, didn't think you were. I just- Is something wrong?"

Cassidy sighed and slumped down in his seat. Everything was wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. His brother was a major league asshole who hoarded their car and who was going to kill him dead the next time he laid eyes on Cassidy. He had rug burn on his face and, quite possibly, a shiny new reputation as a raving lunatic. And, not only had Mac asked Cassidy out on this sham of a date, she was driving the car. Not him. Cassidy felt like that kid from the Peanuts that had the dirt cloud permanently attached to his head.

"I had a fight with my brother," he said, staring out the window, waiting for Snoopy to fly by as the Red Baron.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Yeah. Me, too."

"We don't have to go out tonight if you-"

Cassidy shot up and said, "No! No. I want to go out. I really do. I just… I wish… I- Shit. Sorry. Not shit. I just, I don't know- I…" He trailed off, face hot, palms sweating, staring helplessly at Mac, his brain and mouth struggling to form some form of a coherent connection. "You look nice- Pretty. You look pretty tonight." And she did. Her hair was up in those cute little buns on the top of her head, and she had on shimmery eye shadow that made her eyes sparkle. And Cassidy wasn't sure, but it looked like she was wearing a dress, and that was… that was hot.

Really hot.

Cassidy risked a glance at her face, dreading to find the sort of disdainful confusion directed his way on a daily basis by Kendall, but finding instead a pleased smile that made his face hotter and his palms wetter.

"Thank you. So do you."

All thoughts of Dick and Kendall faded from his mind as Mac smiled at him, and he thought for the first time since she had come up to him in the hallway at school and asked him out on a date that things might just be all right tonight. And then she said, "I thought we could go see Aeon Flux, if that's all right with you," and Cassidy knew without a shadow of a doubt right then and there that he was in love.

"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. It sounds perfect."

…………

"Oh, fuck me."

Cassidy could not believe it. Actually, he could and that was the problem. He could believe it because it was happening, really happening, after everything else that had happened that day, this had to happen, too. He wondered what he had done in a past life, or in this life, hell both freaking lives, to earn this utter embarrassment of a day, a day capped off with this latest, greatest catastrophe.

He had left his wallet at home.

In his mad dash to escape his house with his sorry little life intact, Cassidy forgot his wallet on his bureau. His wallet with his money in it. All of his money.

He, and his life, sucked.

"I'm really sorry about this."

"It's okay. Don't worry about it. Really." Mac looked like she was trying hard not to laugh, and Cassidy wondered if it would seem too odd if he just crawled in a ball over by the popcorn stand and died.

"Two for Aeon Flux, please."

Cassidy wandered away from the ticket counter, unable to watch Mac pay for their date with her money. He stopped before the poster for King Kong and wondered if there was some giant lonely ape out there that he could be sacrificed to and put out of his freakish misery.

"Do you want some popcorn or anything?"

He shook his head and Mac walked away. Maybe. Cassidy wasn't altogether sure; mesmerized as he was by Kong and the extent of the suck that was his life. Some time passed, and Cassidy was just beginning to form a mystical Darrowish connection with Kong when he felt a hand on his arm and a small tug away from the poster. Mac led him to one of the waiting tables and sat him down in a chair. She took the seat opposite him, folded her hands on top of the table, and stared at him a few moments in silence, her head cocked to the side like she was examining some rare creature in a science exhibit somewhere.

Meet Cassidy, the human cricket, destined to perplex and amaze with his feats of utter patheticness.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I want to go back in time and start this day over again."

"I don't know. It hasn't been so bad."

"Are you freaking kidding me? This has been the worst day ever. I mean, youasked meout. And then you drove. And then you paid. And my brother's going to kill me the next time he sees me. He's, he's probably in my room right now ripping all my clothes to shreds and stuffing them into the garbage disposal as we speak. And, and I have rug burn on my face from when he sat on me and you probably think I'm a raving psycho and never want to see me again. And I… It's just… This day sucks."

Cassidy dropped his head down onto the table. He felt a hesitant pat on the top of his head and Mac said, "The day isn't over yet. It might, you know, get better."

Cassidy looked up and Mac smiled at him, which made him feel like a dick for being all me, me, me with his stupid problems when Mac was here with him still even though he was the biggest spaz in the world. He shifted in his seat and wiped his hands off on his cords and then set them on the table next to hers. He shifted again and inched his hands closer. His heart pounded in his chest; he wondered if it sounded as loud to her as it did to him. His fingertips grazed her skin when the smile faded from her face and he heard his brother say, "I thought I'd find you here." Then Dick yanked Cassidy out of his seat by his shirt collar and dragged him out of the movie theater.

Outside on the sidewalk, Cassidy stuck his foot between his brother's legs and sent them crashing down to the ground. Dick cursed and punched Cassidy in the side; Cassidy twisted his fingers into Dick's hair and yanked as hard as he could.

"You fucking bitch! I'm going to fucking kill you!"

"Not if I kill you first, you dumb, retarded jackass!"

Dick tried to roll them over so he could sit on Cassidy again, but Cassidy squirmed out of his grasp and got to his feet. He launched himself at his brother, knocking him back down to the ground and sending them both rolling across the sidewalk like a couple of loose bowling pins. Dick grabbed onto Cassidy's nipple, twisting hard and fast, and Cassidy bent down and bit into Dick's arm, trying to get him to loosen his grip. Dick twisted harder and Cassidy started smacking him upside the head and then they were apart and lying on the ground, wheezing and gasping with faces full of- Cassidy licked his lips- of Dr. Pepper while a pissed off Mac stood above them with an empty cup in her hands.

"Are you two finished?"

Cassidy scrambled to his feet, wiping the Dr. Pepper from his eyes with the cuffs of his shirt. "Mac, I am so sorry-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Beave. You're on a date with her? Blue hair girl? No wonder you didn't want to tell me. I wouldn't have told me either."

Cassidy didn't look at his brother, only at Mac, and he saw her mouth tighten as her eyes dropped down to the ground. Dick broke out into that stupid fucking hyena giggle of his right then and Cassidy saw red.

"Shut the fuck up, Dick," Cassidy said as he whirled back around and shoved his brother over again. The giggles stopped and Dick reached for Cassidy with murder in his eyes, but Cassidy batted his hand away and stepped on Dick's chest, pinning him to the ground with a boot to the neck.

"No. You stay there and you listen to me. Yes, I am on a date with the blue hair girl. Her name is Mac, by the way, and you should remember that in the future because if I'm really lucky, I might be able to go out on more dates with her and take her out someplace nice because she deserves to be taken somewhere nice and I want to be the one to do that for her, so you're going to treat her with respect or else I'll tell Gia how you spent quality time in the backseat with Madison last weekend instead of going to the baseball game with her and her dad. Now go home, Dick, and leave me the hell alone before I break your face along with your Playstation."

Cassidy removed his foot and stepped back. He turned toward Mac, but she wasn't there. Shit. Shitshitshit. She left. He'd blown it and she left. He felt his stomach go cold with dread and he closed his eyes, rubbing a hand over his sticky face as he muttered, "Idiot. Idiot. Idiot," continuously under his breath.

"Um, Cassidy?"

Cassidy looked up and found Mac standing in front of him, one eyebrow raised in confusion. "Mac! I, um, I thought you left."

Mac shook her head. "No. I just moved over there. The light was better."

"The light?"

Mac lifted her arm. She held an open camera phone in her hand, the tiny screen turned toward Cassidy to display his just finished confrontation with Dick. "It's not everyday I have someone actively defending my honor with some old fashioned fisticuffs. I wanted to capture it on film."

"So… you're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad?"

"Because I ruined our date."

"I wouldn't say ruined exactly…" A slow smile broke out on her face, and the cold ball of ice in Cassidy's stomach melted a bit.

"Really. What would you say then?"

Mac cocked her head to one side and closed her eyes in mock concentration. She stood on the sidewalk with Cassidy in her hot dress and shimmering eye shadow, with her dripping empty cup in one hand and her hair still twisted into the cutest little buns on the top of her head. Cassidy leaned forward and kissed her then, under the marquee of the movie theater, out on the sidewalk in front of Dick and the rest of Neptune. Her eyelashes brushed against his skin as her eyes flew open. Her lips were soft and tasted like watermelon, and she smelled good, like flowers and sunshine. Her lashes fluttered against his as she closed her eyes and relaxed against him, moving her mouth beneath his and kick starting Cassidy's heart into overdrive.

He pulled back but didn't move away, hanging in the space between them, breathing in her watermelon flowers and hot sunshine and his sticky Dr. Pepper and CK cologne. The cup dropped from her hands as she opened her eyes, and Cassidy reached out and grasped her hand with his own.

"So, you think we could try this again tomorrow night? Without all the fighting and Dr. Pepper?"

She stared at him, silent, mouth parted slightly and shimmering with gloss and the remnants of their kiss. Cassidy smiled and Mac blinked once, shaking her head as she said, "Uh, yeah- Yes. Yes, definitely."

"Good."

"Good."

Mac led them back inside the movie theater and Cassidy broke off, heading for the bathroom to clean up, knowing without a shadow of a doubt he just made the best mistake of his life.

He was out on a date with Mac.

And he was going to go again tomorrow.

Alone.

Without his brother, Dick, the car loving idiot.

It sounded just about perfect to Cassidy.

…………

end