AN Hello, folks. Sorry about the events and the shortness of this chapter. I can still promise plenty of L/V interraction but I can't promise them getting together very quickly. I want to make it reasonably realistic.

Chapter 5 — Logan's P.O.V.

"I'm sorry, can we have this with no mayo, please?" Veronica asked for me because I'd already shoved fries into my mouth. After dropping her rust bucket off at a mechanic's we'd stopped at a burger joint, and I was starving.

"Wait, wait," I mumbled to the waitress, washing down the fries with my Coke. "It's fine."

"Uh, okay," she raised an eyebrow after the waitress had left. "Last I remember you hate mayonnaise."

"Things change."

"During one of the days Mrs. Geller let us write free response journals in eighth grade, you wrote an Anti-Mayo Manifesto."

"Things change a lot," I shrugged taking a bite of my burger. When the gushy, mayo lathered crap rolled around my tongue, I suddenly regretted my inexplicable bravado, and wondered why I'd even lied.

She rolled her eyes and handed me a napkin.

I spat out the food and sipped my coke. "I just wanted fries anyway…"

There was something about her pretending that everything was the same that just bothered me.

Veronica grabbed a packet each of salt and pepper, ripped them open, and poured them into a mound mixing them with her pinki finger.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked and as she licked the blend off her finger.

She grinned and grabbed a fry, dipping it into the little mound and pointing it at me.

"Salt-n-pepper dip. Try it."

"Uh, I'll pass."

"Trust me."

"Yeah, that's what I should do," I rolled my eyes.

She tilted her head to the side and frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"What does it sound like it means?"

Sighing, she slowly shook her head and looked down at her burger.

I took a fry and dipped it into the salt-n-pepper mound, and she raised her eyebrows hopefully as I bit into it.

"What do you think?"

"I think… I can't believe you let me put that into my mouth," I mumbled, spitting it out into a napkin.

She sighed again, her shoulders slumped. "I can't win with you, can I?"

"Look, there's no use pretending it's all the same, Veronica," I told her. It was harsh but I was just being honest. "We're not friends. You're here because I just did you a favor—"

"A favor! You bashed up my car, you prick!"

"First of all that in itself was a favor—"

"Oh whatever."

"And what about you putting a bong in my locker?"

"What about you tormenting me for an entire year?"

"Oh, that again," I replied passively. "Broken record much?"

"Yeah it was nothing to you, but it sucked from my end of the deal"

"Look at me… I'm playing the world's tiniest violin…"

"Logan, first of all, you're an idiot," she retorted, slinging her messenger bag over her shoulder and getting up. "And second, you know I'm not here because you did me any favors."

I got up to follow her as she maneuvered her way around the tables in the outdoor seating area. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"What does it sound like it means?"

"Hey, Veronica!" I grab her arm and turned her to face me. "What the hell are you talking about?"

She looked me pointedly in the eye and said, "I don't know, I got the feeling you didn't want to be at home."

She started to turn away when I pulled her back.

"Hey, whatever you think you know, trust me, you don't know anything. And I don't need you pretending everything's the same and that you know what's going on in my life or that you know how I like my Goddamn burgers—"

"Let go of me—"

"And I don't need your pity, and I don't need your company. In fact I'm pretty sure I don't need you at all."

And with that I let go. Veronica looked at me for a second before blinking and shaking her head at me.

She'd already started to walk quickly away when I realized she still needed a ride home.

"Hey! Wait!" I called out.

"What?" She snapped her head back sharply and glared at me.

"I still have to drive you home."

"Yeah, I just remembered. I don't need you either."