Communicate or break up.

Wallace had given her that advice once when she mentioned her concerns over Logan's academic devil-may-care attitude during their first semester at Hearst. Her best friend had told her Logan wasnt showing up for their sociology class. The word rattled around inside her head like a warning bell, the ring she twirled between her fingers felt like a plea to ignore the latter.

Logan watched as her eyes hardened like chips of ice at his confession, biting her lower lip as if her teeth could secure the silence of things she tried her best not to say.

Ever since they had fought over that Mercer Hayes trip to Mexico, Veronica had confronted an uncomfortable truth about herself. She could be... tyrannical in her zeal for the truth. Something twisted inside at the idea he felt the need to walk on egg shells because of her.They had avoided the initial discussion when Logan made excuses to help Wallace and collect some of Mac's things from her dorm. The question of 'what do we do about Dick?' could no longer be avoided.

Logan shifted around the room like Veronica had suggested he test out the gallows. Silence and saying nothing was like knowing the ship was sinking but hoping the motion sickness would take you first... anything to avoid opening their mouths and gulping down that bitter salt.

A pattern was a pattern and the one which applied to them often ended in conflict of their habit to advance and retreat from one another.

How counter to one another their instincts ran, with Logan a certain pretence and lies held up his walls but ripping the truth from behind every mask ruled her nature. Each as unrelenting and innate as the other, life could be an exhausting battle when the war existed within oneself. If she found his actions triggering, what possible victory was there in tolerating it to trade that war inside her own skin.

Sacrificing one part to save the other.

Going down this path led to nothing but bad road but they couldn't avoid the conversation. Sun was going to rise on it sooner or later.

He looked pensive as she watched him pace the room, glancing at the closed bedroom door where Mac was sorting through the stuff Logan had brought her from the dorms. He gave Veronica a meaningful look and walked towards his own bedroom, holding the door open for her to follow him.

Leave your verbal guns at the door, Veronica. She thought mindfully and tried to mentally channel Wallace's diplomatic approach. The faint snap of the door clasp ricocheted in the large room. Her fingers curled into her palms but she resisted the urge to fold her arms, opting instead to sit at the edge of his bed. Standing for this conversation felt... combative and she was trying to break old habits.

Stubble shadowed his jaw and honey brown eyes regarded her carefully, unsure whether he should be taking up the space next to her or maintaining social distancing.

'You kept it from me.' Veronica stated simply. No accusations, no blame, it was almost a question. The answer was an unspoken yes.

Little white lies and pretence. Bro Code 101.

Of course their small circle of friends had known about Mac's first hook up with Dick. They had been left seemingly content with her initial requests for an acid bath the morning after that their nerdy friend had agreed with their mutual agreement.

Hooking up with Dick Casablancas, the guy who viewed Neptune High as his own personal brothel, was a temporary madness never to be repeated.

"When they crossed that line and fell between the sheets... Dick stopped falling into a bottle." he sighed helplessly. His golden brown eyes imploring her to understand.

Logan knew why this was so important to her. The last time Veronica wasnt involved in her friends secrets soon enough, they both lost Lily. Cassidy Casablancas was so terrified of his secrets that he killed 8 of their classmates in Senior year. Secrets and lies were like bullets waiting for you in the dark. She didnt trust them, they were dangerous but she was beginning to get the sense now that Logan felt the safety of half-truths and omissions. He had spent a childhood cultivating a poker face to hide his pain from the cameras because his abuser had always been watching, even if his mother had chosen to ignore it.

"I have come so to close almost losing you that part of me wonders if I'm trapped in a Greek tragedy." Logan told her, hands on his hips as he looked at the floor, the words in his mouth tasted like giving up. "I didn't say anything because I was happy and distracted with planning how to put that ring on your finger."

Veronica glanced down at the small band and back to him.

"You and I both know what it's like to have addicted parents. Mimosa with breakfast, a cocktail at lunch and soon that glass of wine at the end of a long day turns into vodka hidden in water bottles and making excuses for not turning up to important events because they were too hungover to get their shit together. You know the signs as well as I do." Logan said sombrely, taking up the space on the bed next to her.

Veronica knew he referred to that uncomfortable conversation they'd shared during their summer together before start of Senior year when she told him about needing to work at Java the Hut to earn back the college money her mother had wasted on not attending Rehab and took off stealing $50,000 of the Kanes payout in the process.

"Maybe it's my fault, you know? When he showed up here... I knew he'd been struggling, I knew he should go and talk to somebody instead of enabling him or looking the other way when he partied with Pi Sigs all the time, was hungover and craved a beer like Med Students need coffee. But I didn't." he admitted, finally meeting her gaze.

Because I didn't stop Cassidy...

Part of it was the guilt he'd felt in not stopping the younger Casablancas brothers suicide and fear in not knowing exactly what He would would have done to him had Cassidy not jumped after hearing Veronica's anguished cries.

Nodding Veronica stood from the bed and began to pace slowly around the room.

Logan envied his girlfriends inner compass, even when her judgement could be biased and perhaps on occasions hypocritical, she always knew the truth in her personal convictions, she didnt waiver from it. Things werent so clean cut for him. Aaron Echolls taunts and venomous words still echoed in his ears after all this time, still whispered in the dark. Logan understood the need to drown it all out, to sink into bottle until it disappeared, or at the very least until the world was numbed.

How could he explain that since his roommate and Cindy Mackenzie were together, Dick stopped sounding like a motivational calendar? That Dicks smiles were real, the juvenile bro-jerk behaviours like tossing cock shot Polaroids off the balcony and the Fraternity pranks and flirting with anything female had stopped?

He had been genuinely optimistic and at ease. The way his face lit up when he got a text and how happy they'd both been that morning he found them on the balcony. Logan couldn't understand how they had gotten to this point. He had seen hints of this darker side of Dick in the past.

The day he had hunted down Chardo Navarro for sleeping with his girlfriend, it had been Dick who protested when Logan made a deal with Weevil to let the PCHers deal with their disgraced brother. Dick had never retaliated on Veronica for destroying his surfboard but that may have been because Logan had declared Veronica his girlfriend later the same night. His friend had a destructive streak, when Logan had thought about burning down the public pool as revenge for the PCHer harassment, Dick has been the one to buy the gas for their match.

Richard Casablancas had raised his sons to be ruthless, the first time he'd pressed a gun into Logan's palm, he had seen first hand how much Dick had taken his fathers teachings as Gospel.

"He'd been doing so much better... no more trips to Vegas, he didnt skip out for days to Tijuana and not one complaint from Campus security about him passed out in some chicks dorm room. They were figuring things out... I just never imagined it would come to this." Logan confessed with a shake of his head, scrubbing a hand down his face.

The light dusting of stubble and dark shadows beneath his eyes reminded Veronica of how short a time it had been since they were with the Galens on the boat. She had been planning to have some real talk with Mac about her relationship with Dick when she returned but events had conspired to delay that conversation.

"I get it but hes gone too far this time. You asked me to let you handle him but I can't..." Veronica replied firmly.

It had been a well known fact in Neptune High after some jocks ended up tied to the flag pole for messing with a student called Mandy that Veronica Mars didnt tolerate abusers or bullies and right now, that's exactly what his best friend had become.

She couldn't ignore it, and neither could he.

The sickening familiarity crept in with a comparison which had set Logans teeth on edge as Veronica told him about the details in the documents. He knew those kind of threats, his best friends threats sounded like the poison Aaron Echolls had spoken to his mother the last time Logan had ever seen her.

He couldn't save his mother that day and he wasnt sure if his attempts to talk Cassidy off the ledge had been genuine, but Logan wouldn't allow Dick to continue across this line with Mac, in that regard, he and Bobcat were in complete agreement, even if it cost him his friendship.

Dude, Voicemail. *eyeroll emoji* You have a ridiculously handsome face, and it's right there on your head but... I haven't seen it all day, might need some reminding of what that looks like. selfies are proof of life, so like reply or whatever. Its Dick.