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Veronica never meant to keep the CD in her car all summer. She found it for .50 at a yard sale the third week of summer, and she couldn't resist. The faded cover shouted: The Greatest Hits of 1966! When she flipped it over, she recognized about half of the songs. The other half caused Mac to ask, her tone wry, "Are those even real songs?"
But Veronica knew it was the perfect present. She was going to attach a note that said: "for my favorite number from 1966." and then wrap it up as part of her Dad's 40th birthday present. She just had to keep it hidden from him until the end of August, and it seemed like the safest place to do that was in the LeBaron.
She hadn't even planned on listening to it, but after Wallace "borrowed" three CDs, she was stuck with nothing else. She figured it couldn't hurt to listen to a single Beach Boys song. She was a California blonde, right? After that, mystery songs and all, The Greatest Hits of 1966! became permanent fixture in her car.
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1. Summer in the City by Lovin' Spoonful
Veronica walked outside the airport, picked up a signal, and listened to her voicemail.
"Sweetheart, Kendall has something I absolutely need to take care of right now. It's," he paused, taking a gulping breath "it's about Lilly, honey. I think, I think we can prove…"
Veronica didn't need to hear the rest.
They rescheduled the trip, and she went back to the office to answer calls.
It cost several hundred dollars extra, but it was worth it when the headlines declared: AARON DID IT AFTER ALL!
They spent an extra week in New York, and went to two baseball games.
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2. Psychotic Reaction by Count Five
He should, like, flip out or something.
Logan had terrorized neighborhoods and shit. And that was just over being beat up. For your brother turning out to be a mass-murderer, you should probably totally flip out.
Only flipping out requires effort. Where the fuck did Beav get the time to be a mastermind? Didn't he just sit around the pool and lock himself in his room with his computer and, yeah, maybe then.
But it's summer. There's girls and parties and Dick doesn't have time to flip out. He's no mastermind. But he's the last fucking Casablancas standing, isn't he?
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3. 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians
Mac stops crying a week and a half later. Well, she doesn't wake up sobbing and she doesn't have panic attacks in the shower anymore, anyway.
"How did he think he was going to get away with it?" She wants to ask Veronica. "Did he think I wouldn't notice he stole everything out of the room, that I'd laugh it off?"
She doesn't want to hear the answer. That maybe after he pushed Veronica off the roof he was coming back to … finish her off, or whatever lame euphemism for "murder" he would have used.
She still cries sometimes.
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4. The Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel
The first rule of surviving in jail is: be fucking quiet, because if you hear some bitch crying or screaming, that just makes it worse for them. It's for the best if you just shut your mouth.
And shutting his mouth is the only way Weevil has a chance of surviving. Because maybe he could help lock up some Fitzpatricks. That might get him out in eight years, with good behavior. But he'd be dead before the deal was made.
He wouldn't go back. He wouldn't change it. 'Cause the second rule of surviving in jail is: no fucking regrets.
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5. Almost Persuaded by David Houston
Wallace writes her letters once a week. There are e-mails every day. It's not like he's being creepy about the whole thing, the letters aren't even usually about her or them, they talk about his brother and visits to Hearst and dealing with Logan being around. They are just reminders that he is in the world and he wants to be in her world.
He doesn't call that often, though, because they both know it would be too hard.
One morning in July there's a package. Inside are a mini-basketball hoop and a tiny Hearst jersey.
Jackie still knows better.
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6. Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers
She doesn't mean to take him along on surveillance. He has the patience of an eight year old with ADHD. But on the third night watching the elevator he uses his grin and charm to their advantage. He flirts with the call girl so convincingly that she doesn't blink an eye when he blithely switches their decoy phone with hers.
"Told ya bringing me along wasn't a total waste," he crows.
"Perhaps you do have the slightest bit of usefulness about you," she answers airily, clutching the phone.
He leans in to kiss her neck. "Don't let it get around."
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7. 19th Nervous Breakdown by The Rolling Stones
The part Veronica remembers the most, from that blurry night, is that Logan never said, "It's going to be OK."
She remembers "I'm here," on the drive to her house; she remembers "I'm sorry," in her hair that first morning. But there was never "It's going to be OK."
And this is why she loves Logan Echolls: because he knows that sometimes life is not OK. She loves him because he knows that false reassurance is nothing compared to his hand holding hers tightly.
Sometimes, life is ugly, and she loves him because he knows it … and is not afraid.
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8. Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys
Veronica won't sleep with him in the suite at the Grand. It happens, instead, one Wednesday when Keith is chasing a fugitive.
She turns the air conditioning off so that when they finally touch, skin to skin, they stick together. There isn't an inch of space between them and when he moves inside her, it's like her whole body is made of nerve endings.
After, he twists his fingers with hers and says, for the first time, (in a clear voice, no gentle whisper) that he loves her.
Neither one wants to admit it, but this is the best part.
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9. You Keep Me Hangin' On by The Supremes
It's such a small scrap of paper; she can't believe the hold it has on her. She wants to take it down, but she can't. Like she can't actually say to Logan she loves him.
Until the night, in between long kisses, Veronica tells Logan about her dream, how he'd called her "sweetie." He doesn't say it, but she can tell he's happy her subconscious found them together. It takes her a minute to realize she is too.
The next morning Veronica walks to the beach and holds the fortune to the sky. She closes her eyes and lets go.
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10. Love is a Hurtin' Thing by Lou Rawls
The funny part is how simple it ends up being.
There's no bloodshed and worlds torn apart. It's just one night curled up in the huge bed in his new apartment.
She murmurs it against his ear before they go to sleep, watching as he becomes very still.
If she had more words, she would tell him that now it's not about hurting each other or something missing and painful. Now it's about Tuesday night pizza with her Dad, movies with Wallace, teasing laughter and hard kissing, and the epic greatness of ordinary life.
But she bets he knows already.
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The summer is almost over by the time her Dad's birthday comes around. He says he'll be home early tonight, for their traditional dinner and cake. She thinks he'll like his presents and she can't wait to see what he thinks of the CD. And she knows he'll like the real gift: the news that she's going to Hearst and not into debt. Once she realized there wasn't much left in Neptune to run away from, it was an easy decision. Besides, Stanford will be great for grad school.
She smells the vanilla from the cake and hears the oven ding at the same time her computer ejects the newly burned CD.
"2006 summer shuffle," she writes with a Sharpie "featuring the greatest hits of 1966."
She clicks the jewel case shut and goes to take the cake from the oven.