Ten;

Left your t-shirt in my room; still smells of you

(Make-Up Smeared Eyes- Automatic Loveletter)

Veronica had met Jay officially earlier in the Summer when he had helped her fix a flat tire before she headed to Craig's house. They didn't say much but casual small talk and she was grateful for his help. He had told her to stop by Tony's Garage where he worked and he'd hook her up with a new tire. When she got said tire was the second and last time they had spoken.

She rolled down her window and he peered in, resting his left arm on the roof of the car for support.

"You okay? Before school year meltdown?" He chuckled lightly.

Veronica wiped at her eyes, "I'll be fine."

Jay obviously knew about her involvement with Craig. "He messed up, didn't he?"

She could only nod.

There was a loud prolonged honking noise that seemed to catch Jay's attention.

"Look, I'm on my way to a car show, it's just me and Spin, there's room if you want to tag along and maybe take your mind off things. How does that sound?"

Veronica was quiet for for a minute, "Sure."

He tapped her car quickly, "Sweet! You'll have a blast, promise."

Jay backed away from the window and she rolled her window back up before turning the ignition off and getting out. They walked over to his car and met with Spinner, who was waiting with the car door open.

Spinner exchanged looks with Jay before moving the passenger seat forward to let Veronica in. She got in and Spinner guided the seat back.

"Manning is an idiot, dude," Jay told Spinner before they both got into the car.

"Figures," Spinner scoffed.

While Veronica was on her way to the car show, Craig hadn't moved a muscle. He felt as if he had slept with his eyes open, they felt dry and sore. He heard his bedroom door creak open for the third time, Joey had been in and out checking on him since he and Angie got home.

"Craig, there's pizza waiting downstairs when you're ready," Joey said.

Craig slowly rolled over to face Joey, he was probably making him a nervous wreck.

Joey stayed in the doorway, "You want to talk about it?"

"I-I," Craig tried before clearing his scratchy throat, "I never told her about Ashley…"

"And she found out?" Joey crossed his arms. He wasn't fond of everything Ashley had put Craig through and he could tell how happy Veronica had made him.

"Ellie called me out on it," Craig sat up, "I was going to break up with Ash when she got back to town, though. I didn't want to be the bad guy by doing it over E-mail."

"It'll work out if it's meant to be," Joey tried to show him the silver lining of the situation, "She'll be back in a couple days to get her last check for babysitting Ang."

That gave Craig a little bit of hope, "Maybe I can fix things then."

"I hope so," Joey motioned for him to come with him, "It seemed like you really cared about her. Let's eat."

Craig heard Joey go downstairs before he rolled out of bed. When he got up he noticed her yellow shirt on top of the rest of his clean clothes. She had worn it the day they had an impromptu water balloon fight with Angie. The shirt got soaked and he offered a green t-shirt of his in exchange. He picked up the shirt and held it to his face. Despite being clean, it still smelled heavily of her of her coconut shampoo and her vanilla perfume she always wore.

It hit him hard. He already missed everything about her. Craig tossed the shirt on to his bed before going downstairs. He didn't want his sadness to effect anyone else but him. So he would put on a front and only be upset when he was alone. At least for now. At least until he fixed it. At least until there was nothing to be sad about.