She knows she should return the jacket. But that would mean facing him in the bright, blinding sunlight. And that's too embarrassing to consider.
So she hacks on to the college's server and finds a list of employees. She sees his picture and smiles as she reads his name—Elias Navarro—much better than Weevil. She thinks it's the curse of Neptune that after going to school together their whole life and having a mutual friend she still didn't know his first name. Or he hers.
He's schedule to work in her dorm Friday. Since there's yet another frat party she knows it will be deserted. The perfect place to drop the jacket and run. No embarrassing discussions necessary.
She gets out of the party by telling Veronica that she needs some sleep. Logan frets over her and Dick tried to cure her with beer before Veronica finally dragged them out. She waited twenty minutes to make sure they cleared the building. She's slightly nervous as she moves though the building looking for him. Weevil had always seemed nicer than the other PCHers and he was a friend of Veronica's and he had been nice to her the other night, but he was still the ex-leader of a motorcycle hang and an ex-con who may or may not have killed someone so she didn't feel bad for her slight trepidation.
"Hi" she says as she stands awkwardly in front of him. One had holding the jacket and the other giving a slightly stunted wave. He looked shocked for a moment that someone is speaking to him. Then he nods his head and her and returns to his mop.
She takes a deep breath, and says a little louder, "I have, uh, your jacket." He'd looking at her likes she's an alien of some kind and its making her nervous so she holds out the jacket desperately waiting for this horribly tense moment to be over. He leans his mop against the wall and comes over to take the jacket. He looks up at her eyes for the first time and she has to force herself not to gasp—his eyes are broken—they look so much like she feels it makes her ache. He takes the jacket and she smiles—its small and unsure, but its there—"Thanks," she finally says, "For the jacket and, uh, just thanks, Eli." She turns to walk away when he finally speaks, "You know my name."
"Yeah."
"From V?"
"No, I, uh, hacked in and found out when you were working so I saw it."
He nods, "Seems like an awful lot of work over a jacket."
She opens her mouth to argue when she realizes that he's teasing her and she laughs and shakes her head in annoyance, "Well I borrowed it so I retuned it. Just trying to be nice. And to thank you."
"You know I could think of much more interesting ways of thanking me." He leers and she can feel her face heat up. She says nothing and its awkward again before he says, serious again, "So your okay? The other night you were…" he trails off.
"Completely and totally hysterical," she fills in.
"Well I didn't want to say anything but—yeah. Did you have a spat with the new rich boyfriend?"
"No, and I don't have a new rich boyfriend,." His mood shifts too fasts—she can't keep up.
"Well I've been working here a month now and it seems like your always with Surfer Dick. I figured you were all like, the 4 Musketeers," his voice takes on a mocking Valley girl quality.
Suddenly she's angry—she can't remember the last time she was and she enjoys spitting her next words at him, "Listen you don't know me or anything about me. For you information, Dick was Cassidy's brother. Cassidy, was my boyfriend and he left me naked in a room at prom while he tried to kill Veronica and Logan before splattering himself all over a brand new BMW. So like I said, thanks for your jacket and feel free to go to hell." She runs off blindly, back to her room where she pounds her pillow like its her worst enemy.
As her anger turns to tears she wishes she was still wrapped in the jacket—how could such a small think bring her such comfort., And when would she stop need to be comforted. When would it all just—stop?