"Cos you are a hot mess and I'm falling for you…."
Dick sang along to Cobra Starship blaring over the speakers. It wasn't like Dick to venture further than the top 40 of whatever happened to be on the charts that week.
"Dude, what are we listening to?" Logan asked rolling the stiffness from this afternoons surf from his shoulders.
"Just a band I heard of recently." Dick replied casually tossing aside a surfing magazine and reaching for his phone.
Logan put his magazine aside and began making himself an Espresso. "Expanding your musical horizons?"
"They were on a t-shirt and I got Piz to burn me a CD." his roommate replied evasively.
Dick didn't elaborate that the t-shirt in question was one he had picked up from his bedroom floor while Mac had been in the shower.
"Since when do you talk to Piz?" Logan commented as he reached for the creamer.
Dick had been behaving strangely for weeks, he was always distracted. He was wearing new t-shirts and smelling better. He'd leave with his blonde hair artfully styled, and show up an hour later with sex hair but he wasn't bragging about his hook-ups as usual. He had been out the door to all of his classes this week and he had actually used the fitness suite in the Neptune Grand yesterday.
No… they couldn't be. Could they?
Logan frowned. "You are still sleeping with her, aren't you?"
"Several times a week…" he confessed with a relieved grin. "I'm lucky I can still walk… "
"So it's just sex?" Logan asked taking a sip of his coffee.
"I don't know." Dick shrugged. "We bang."
"So you are listening to the bands she likes because… you don't want to get to know her better?" Logan sighed in frustration.
"I'm like a cat, I get curious…" Dick replied defensively.
"That why you are looking up concert tickets?" Logan as he glanced at the laptop screen Dick had left open on the table. His friend was so in denial about this girl.
"What are you a detective now?" Dick asked as he turned and flipping shut his laptop.
"No.. I'm your friend, man" Logan told him, his brown eyes glaring at his roommate.
"Alright.. I'm into her. Cindy and I are like a house fire and it's a turn on" he admitted. "But it's clear she just wants sex so I'm okay with that"
"Cindy?" Logan repeated incredulously.
No one ever called Mac by her first name except her parents, Logan knew this from the four years they had spent in classes together in High School and she had corrected her teachers each and every time.
"She likes it when I call her Cindy…" he said defensively.
"I'll bet she does." Logan smirked.
"What does that mean?" Dick frowned.
That if Veronica weren't so wrapped up in tracking down Mason and Josh to help her dad investigate Wallace's coaches death, she would have figured out that you two keep giving each other really filthy pre-sex looks behind everyone's back like a game of chicken.
"It's complicated." Logan shrugged.
"Well it doesn't matter because she hasn't spoken to me in two days." Dick growled, tossing his phone onto the table beside his laptop.
Logan sat down on the seat next to his friend. "Trouble in paradise?"
After an afternoon of vigorous, energetic sex they had argued, and even though he had tried to keep his hands to himself, sometimes people found themselves falling in love in the worst of circumstances.
"No, I'm going to deal with it." He replied casually.
Even if she won't.
"Someone replaced the woman's eye solution with a corrosive cleaning fluid." Veronica said reaching for her burrito as she gave her friend the highlights of a case she'd solved over winter break.
"Ouch, talk about not seeing eye to eye!" Parker grimaced.
Veronica watched as Wallace continued to flirt with his new girlfriend Amira, it was nice to see him so content again after he had broken up with Jackie Cook during the summer he had spent in New York.
"So uh… what did you think?" Piz asked as he sat down and smiled his usual lopsided puppyesque grin. He had just been having a debate on air about the recycling policies on campus vs the environmental research projects being refused grants within the science department and the conflict this was having with the schools more religious and secular groups.
"Very… science" she mused. She was tired after having been up most of the evening last night and Professor Landrys exercised today in the FBI profiling exercise had really taken it out of her.
Not easy to focus when she'd spent last night rescuing a one of Wallace's teammates from another student accused of murdering his father.
"Just wait until I get into the Election special.. there's this whole section on how research grants are being refused because of the donators influences for Barkley Hall and the…." He rambled as she began to lose interest. Honestly, she didn't mean to be so rude, it's just he had a habit of talking constantly and his subject range often bled into many different areas, her dad would love it, but sometimes it was just nice to have some quiet at the lunch table.
The difference made her wish Logan wasn't spending his lunch hour surfing with Dick today.
"I think that's totally cool, I used to be a member of my junior Republican Youth Squad back home" Parker smiled, and it was clear to Veronica that Piz was more on the Democratic side… all she would have to do is say Trump for President and she was sure Piz would spend the next hour delving into how Bernie Sanders was the obvious choice.
Piz shifted uncomfortably in his chair again, he always looked so uneasy around Parker but Veronica wasn't sure why.
"Oh Yeah, Speaking of home.. how is the Nephew?" Veronica smiled, changing the subject. Give her pictures of cute babies and kittens any day. It worked, Parkers face lit up with all the joy of any girl with a new cell phone and an excuse to show off her pictures.
"His name is Nathaniel. He can barely fit in a shoe, he's so small" she gushed as she began to show them both the pictures and regaling them with tales of his sleeping habits and how he has her grandfather's nose. Wallace returned to the table, and Amira started to chat to Piz about some of the local church groups on campus and how they were causing problems at her Mosque.
"Has anyone seen Mac?" Veronica asked.
"Probably off with her new mystery man..." Parker said conspiratorially.
"What makes you say that?" Piz asked quietly.
"Well she is getting down with somebody because there's no way someone comes home with that much new underwear unless you plan to be showing it off" Parker mused.
Wallace spluttered, as he choked on his grape soda.
"Hey… whatcha talking about?" Mac smiled as she sat down happily with her lunch.
"Babies…" Piz answered.
Mac looked a little ashen. "Babies?"
"My Nephew" Parker gushed and she handed Mac the phone full of the latest Facebook updates of her latest family addition.
"Yeah… Apparently there's more to it than an eggplant emoji and a cabbage patch." Veronica smiled as she regarded her friend, the flush in her cheeks and the awkward way she evaded the question when Wallace started asking if she was feeling okay.
"Never better…" Mac nodded.
Unless you counted the last few hours being sick. She excused herself after the second round of baby photographs from Parkers Instagram and went back to the Student IT centre, part of her scholarship funding required her occasional services as student IT support worker.
Opening up her computer she groaned at the familiar email tag.
Student ID - D-Casablancas-at-Hearst.
Subject: Hard Problem.
Nothing a few key strokes can't fix.
She had to stop this madness... Mac swallowed glancing at the server room.
The cave of all bad decisions...
Her body growing hot at the memory of his fingers digging into her hips as he pulled her closer and thrust into her.
"Need more RAM Cindy?" he'd ground out.
Blushing she clicked delete.
Student ID - D-Casablancas-at-Hearst.
Subject: Penetration Testing
Do you need my dongle?
"I'm going on a Dick Diet." she muttered, grabbing her phone. She needed to be saved from herself.
Student ID - D-Casablancas-at-Hearst.
Subject: You had me at Data
I'd like to unzip your files.
Mac fired off a quick text to Parker confirming that she would definitely be joining her roommate for Pilates after her shift this afternoon.
"Five points to Gryffindor." Veronica grinned as she glanced at her camera, saving the pictures.
There's the money shot. Enjoy the alimony payments, you dirty cheater.
"We can go now?" Wallace asked.
He had to admit, the girl was good. The last two hours of Gilmore Girls chatting about his recent date with Amira and Logan's puzzling attempts to spend as much time as possible with Veronica AND her dad. Lance Bauer was indeed having an affair when his wife thought he was at the gym with his business partner. Co-founder of Neptune C-list property radio personalities Bauer & Menapace Realty, John Olsen had been convinced his business associate was attempting to edge him out of their partnership. Turns out it was his wife who had been re-evaluating their arrangement and seeking out other opportunities.
Love was savage.
"Sure, but I still get to pick." Veronica replied sweetly.
"I thought part of our deal was I got to choose the movie?" Wallace said.
"Sigh" she said dramatically and reached forwards for her black leather back, placing the camera safely inside.
"So you were just buttering me up?" Wallace asked. The girl in his lap was hot, but even half naked almost two years of friendship had made him immune to her charms.
"Strangely it seems you are the last one to know it…" Veronica answered looking scandalized.
Wallace was far too familiar with the best vantage points of the Camelott motel than he ever wanted. He ducked his head towards Veronica, placing a hand behind her head, and lingered feigning a kiss as the curtains twitched.
"This last-ditch effort to talk me into watching some lunkheaded and stylishly violent movie where the script must have been written with a paint roller. Will. Not. Work." He said placing his hand on her cheek and giving it a playful pinch.
This was nice, since starting college they hadn't found much chance just to hangout the two of them. All his high school jokes about a wild nights out on the town when he hit college were ridiculously ambitious now. Between the football team, dates with Amira in her skimpy baby-doll mini-dresses, his class schedule and successfully getting access to the dorms laundry room, he would happily take a few hours at his best friend's house.
Did that make them co-dependent?
"Some mechanical critically-panned drama it is." She leaned forward to whisper in his ear, knowing that the gesture looked intimate to those who might be observing from outside of her car.
The chills that ran along his skin lasted only a few moments as she looked down at him. His palms grew sweaty as she almost straddled him, leaning closer and she reached over his broad chest, his heart pounding faster. Her perfume filled his nose and his usually brain skipped away those thoughts but it fogged as she dropped the bag onto the passenger chair. His breath caught, almost chest to chest, his eyes flicking to her lips as Veronica's hand travelled lower, sliding over his stomach and he watched her bold expression.
Veronica… his best friend in the whole world... undercover love...
Wallace debated whether or not to say something, to ask if her thoughts were as dangerous as his own... there would be so many things to say.
One of them should protest before it was too late… when a loud click pierced the heady silence, he blinked, realizing he'd fallen for her ploy to confuse him. She grinned and slipped off his knee.
She really was pro at getting into someone's head.
"Come on, Boy scout!" Veronica chided while she headed for the convenience store to get their snacks. He scrubbed a hand down his face, sighing in relief.
"You're definitely Slytherin." Wallace grumbled and fell into step behind the petite blond.
"Or am I Sistering?" she retorted, giving him a giddy grin, and just like that the weirdness was gone.
Back to easy jokes and teasing about matching outfits and floral arrangements because their parents were dating.
"Friendship agreement!" he groaned.
