Redeeming Love

Chapter 3: Remorse Feelings

Veronica

I was running behind time as I saw Troy, but didn't stop for him making him run to catch up with me as I made my way into the school.

"Guess what I'm doing this weekend," Troy asks as soon as he catches up to me.

"I'm guessing it involves autoeroticism," I say really not caring what he was doing, but played along to keep his ego in check.

"Close. I will be cruising the marina in my dad's Sabre 386. That's a luxury sailboat. You know, wind through my hair, Strokes blasting through the speakers, and, with any luck, a wide-eyed, impressionable vixen by my side," he smirks at me as I realize he is just another 09er flaunting his wealth.

"Impressionable, me? Ha," I joke praying he wasn't really referring to me at all.

"Wo-wo-wo-whoa. I said "impressionable." Not-not you. You know, you might want to check your ego at the door there, missy," he says with a cocky smile as he walks on leaving me there looking after him smile as a running student collides with me. My books fly out of my hands all over the place.

"Thanks, man," I snap as I bend down to pick up my things just as Duncan does the same thing. He looks strange as he stands up walking away with Logan.

The weird thing about going to high school with your ex is they're inescapable. Everywhere you turn, there they are.

Logan looks back at her as she stares after Duncan.

I wasn't having a good day at all as I was called into the counselors' office once again about my attitude and handling people. I was sure to hear about it once I got home.

"So I got a call from your guidance counselor today…," he starts as we sit down for dinner. "And she wants to see me. Any idea what for?" he continues as I look anywhere but at him.

"Nope," I say quickly stuffing a piece of salad in my mouth. I knew exactly why he had been called, but didn't want to willing have the conversation about getting along with people.

"Have you been playing nice with the other children?" he asks with a slight nod of his head.

"You know, Dad, I'm Old School. An eye for an eye," I say trying to remind him of his age.

"I think that's actually Old Testament," he says softly as I realize that he was right.

"Hm," I mutter.

"Come on! No help? You're not gonna give me any idea of what to expect?" he asks.

"Honestly, I haven't a clue. Can I ask you a question?" I lie as he nods his head for my question.

"What do you think Mom was doing at the Camelot motel with Jake Kane two weeks ago?" I ask as he sags his head getting a little frustrated with me.

"I told you to stay away from that case," he snaps at me.

"I just don't understand. She's only in Arizona. Why haven't you been looking for her-" I start but he puts a hand up to stop my rant.

"Veronica! Please," he says upset. I decide that I really didn't want to have him upset so I try to lighten the mood.

"How 'bout those Padres?" I say gleefully, but it doesn't work. My dad wordlessly collects his plate, and leaves me behind to think about what just happened.

I decided to look up some information about John Smith the father of Justin Smith. Justin was the local video store clerk, and he had asked me for help while my dad and I were renting a movie. He was also a student at Neptune High. I hated that he didn't have much to go on and boy were there a lot of John Smiths in the Los Angeles area.

"Hello. You've reached the administration office of the Stanford summer program," I say into the answering machine the next afternoon. I hold up a finger to tell my dad not to say anything until I was finished. "No one's here to take your call right now but leave us a message and we'll call you back.

She finishes the recording, then apologies," I finish the message as I look to my dad, "Sorry."

I watch as Wallace stands and turns to face my dad as he surveys him for a moment, and then holds out his hand. They shake hands manfully.

"Keith Mars," my dad says as if he was just going for style.

"Hi, sir. Wallace Fennel," Wallace says looking back at me.

"Wallace is a friend of mine," I say boastfully making a martial arts gesture with my hands. "Take that, high school guidance counselor," I continue as my dad gives me a strange look.

"Well, hello, Wallace. Now what's going on here?" he says motioning at all the envelops and letters lying all of my desk.

"Helping a kid at school locate his deadbeat dad, the somewhat inconveniently named John Smith," I say as he goes toward his office and I follow him. "But I've narrowed the field down to 440 John Smiths. So I'm sending each of them a letter addressed to his son congratulating him on his scholarship and I figure if our John Smith has any conscience at all, he'll see the name of his son, open the letter and call to say he's got the wrong address," I say as he looks half way proud and worried.

"Part of me is proud…and let's just leave it at that," he says trying to hide his amusement. I give him a grin. He takes his jacket off and dumps it on the chair coming back into the main office going to one of the file cabinets.

"Oh, I used one of the dedicated phone lines. I hope that's all right. We're gonna trace all the calls that come in," I say as he looks to Wallace.

"So how did she rope you into this?" my dad says as he turns to Wallace. I hoped he didn't reply with the truth.

"She promised me all the answer keys to-" he starts but looks at me as I give him a warning look. "She's promised to be my friend," he back steps.

"I'd of held out for a better offer," my dad says with a smile as he shrugs. Wallace and I both hide our amusement behind grins. "I'll be in my office," he continues walking back to his little office.

"Hey, would you do me a favor?" I ask quietly to prevent my dad from over hearing.

"Why did all the hair on the back of my neck just stick up?" he asks half joking.

"It's not that big of a deal, just…the next time you're in the Administrations Office, could you borrow my permanent file? I want to see what that counselor is telling Dad," I say innocently as he just shakes his head at my words.

"Oh yeah, no big deal. I can get expelled for that," he mutters as I give him a face where he just nods his head very resigned

I ended my afternoon with a date. I had finally agreed to going out with Troy and was currently sitting at a table by a window with him.

"So we get the idea to make it onto America's Funniest Home Videos with this fake shark plan," he says trying to lighten the mood around the whole date.

"Oh, my God, I remember that. That was you?" I say remembering the funny video from a few years ago. I loved it for quite some time.

"The plan was to cut off the dorsal fin, nail it to a board, strap the board to my back and have me swim around the public beach. And Duncan's gonna stand on the shore and videotape the mob scene. But it never happens. I'm swimming out there for like, fifteen minutes. No one even notices," he is saying as I just laugh.

"You guys were idiots," I say laughing at the whole ordeal.

"Yes. Yes, we were. Finally, lifeguard, he spots me. The clod pulls out a rifle. Okay, lucky for me Duncan spots him. He goes sprinting towards the lifeguard tower. He was bawling his eyes out, I might add. So, h-he's running, he's shouting, he's saying "No, no-no, don't shoot, that's my friend, that's my friend."

Troy says pausing for a minute. "Saved my life," he continues.

"That's one way of looking at it," I say wryly. There is some background notice that makes Troy grimaces slightly.

"I'm kinda-I'm kind of tired of this song," he mutters. He bangs his fist on the mini-jukebox with no effect. "I would have expected sex had that worked," he grins at me. It made me feel a little strange. I hadn't thought of that as an activity at all on a first date.

"Had that worked, you would have gotten it," I said cringing with the thought of sex with him at all. "Try it again," I say trying to change the topic. We both laugh as Troy just looks around.

"Check!" he says lifting his hand for the waiter. I have to laugh at his strange behavior. We walk through the small patio area toward our cars.

"Let me see your phone," Troy says as I hand him my phone unsure of what he was planning on doing with it. He starts pushing some keys before handing the phone back to me.

"What are you doing?" I question as he gives me a small smile.

"It is now booty call enabled," he smirks at me as I give him a puzzled look.

"In case I need a little late night action?" I say softly trying to hide my awkwardness.

"Action. Investment advice. Whatever," he says smugly as he hands me back my phone stopping at me car. "So…" he says as he moves closer angling his head as if he was going to kiss me.

"I should really get home. I'd invite you over but it's a school night and my dad owns a handgun. He says he can look into a guy's eyes and tell his true intentions which I know sounds like a myth, but I-" I say as I start talking really fast. I wasn't ready for Troy to kiss me, especially when I was hung up on someone else at the moment.

"Aah, o-kay then," he says as I flinch away from him. He gently takes my hand for a handshake, and makes a flourished bow. "And a good night to you, madam," he states as he opens my door for me. He even closes it after I get in. I watch as he walks away regretting the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to like him more, but I was still hung up Duncan's betrayal and someone rapping me, then the stupid new crap with Logan. I try to sneak into the apartment, to no avail as my dad has waited up for me.

"How was your date?" he asks.

"Oh, you know. Lousy conversation but the sex was fantastic," I half mutter the ending as I see him flinch.

"That's not funny," he smirks at me knowing nothing happened.

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure it was," I say as I walk to my room, shutting the door behind me as I flopped onto my bed.

Veronica goes to her bedroom, shutting the bedroom door.

What's wrong with you, Veronica? What are you waiting for? I think of all the good qualities Troy has, but then I also worry about how he knows nothing about me or me about him. I am terrified he would hurt me in the end. Ipick up a pillow, and cover my face with it as I scream into it frustrated with how my life was turning out. I was letting previous notions dictate my choices right now.

I was able to solve my case as well. Justin's dad had changed into a woman. She was actually a regular at the video store where just worked. She would make the long drove just to spend a few moments with her son. I decided that I needed to find my mother to learn why she left me after all. I needed to know why I wasn't good enough for her to stay.

After my case I decided to drive to the last known address for the car that was registered to my mother. I had the photo of the license plate, so I looked up the address and drove to it. I found myself in a trailer park as I pulled up I saw a blonde woman watering plants in the front yard.

"Mom? Mom?" I yell out as I jump from my car running up to the woman. "Mom!" I cry out as the woman turns around. I stop as I realize it wasn't my mom.

"Can I help you?" she asks as she looks me over.

"I'm looking for Lianne Mars," I say staring at her.

"Veronica? I'm Adrianna," she says as she pulls me into a huge hug. "A college friend of your mom's. I feel like I know you. Your mother talks about you all the time," she whispers the last part.

"Where is she?" I ask as she explains my mom left a few weeks ago. She tried to reassure me that my mother still loved me, but I was going to be skeptical about that since she was nowhere to be seen. How much could she really love me if she left me? I ended up outside of the one person's house I thought I could trust.

"Hi. I'm outside your house," I say on the phone as I move to the front of my car. A light comes on in the drive way as the person makes their way out to me.

"It's about time," the person says as they pull me into a big hug.

***LoVe***

Logan (same time frame different events his point of view)

I hated seeing Veronica with Troy. I felt like he was up to no good, but couldn't really just say it. I saw Duncan moving up the hallway so I joined him.

"Hey, did you hook up with Shelley last night?" I ask as he looks over to me.

"Uh, she's a talker. She's a talker, you know. Turns out she has conflicted feelings towards her new step-mom and the color scheme the woman's chosen for the family rec room-" he mutters as he looks over toward Veronica as well.

"I hate it when they talk," I mutter stopping by the locker to watch the people.

"Yeah, I know it," he says as we watch Veronica and Troy talking by her locker.

"Hey, have you noticed that the new kid in town has, uh, been all over your trailer-park ex?" I ask trying to get a reaction out of him.

"Let it be, Logan," he snaps at me. I look over at him to see he looks really sick and almost white like a sheet.

"Dude, you don't look so hot," I say as he holds up a hand and breaks for the bathroom. He drops his bag in the process and I pick it up. "You okay?" I ask when he returns looking a little better.

"Never better," he replies.

"Okay," I say picking up my bag just as Veronica comes around the corner pushing a boy into the girls' bathroom. Duncan actually laughs, and shakes his head. "That girl is seriously whacked," I half smirk as he smiles and we head to class.

Instead of heading to the quad for lunch a group of us head to the bleachers to watch the lacrosse team practice. There are about 8 of us yelling and whopping as the guys play below us.

"Go Pirates," Duncan yells as I see some life of my former friend in him. There are more shouts and much laughing and clapping from all of us.

"Hey, uh…" I say as I tap Duncan with the flask I had just taken out of my jacket pocket. "I thought your boy toy Troy was going to join us for Happy Hour this afternoon," I ask as I open the flask and take a drink before continuing, "You don't suppose that, uh, he got waylaid by Veronica, do you?" I finish as I tale a huge swig. Duncan whips round abruptly and grabs the flask. I try to take it back from him but he jokingly mocks me.

"Ooooh, Grasshopper too slow for Kung-Fu Master," he says as he waves his hands at me and speaks with a fake Chinese accent. I am totally relieved to see he is actually joking and playing around. It was nice to see Duncan so free willed. I have missed my friend.

"If you can take the flask out of my hand then you will be…" je says as he backs away from me. I lunge for the flask but Duncan holds it out of my reach.

"Hey, check it out," Dick yells as we all turn to look at what he was talking about. John climbs onto one of the railing as does a backwards flip over the side we all race over to see what happened. John fell on the mats below as we all congratulated him. What he did was stupid and reckless, only an idiot would try that.

"Crazy is as crazy does. Bravo!" I say watching Duncan as he lingered in his spot. I can see that he is spying on Veronica and Troy. I see Duncan turn back toward us as if he was going to join us only to toss me the flask. I then watch in slow motion as he runs for the railing doing a back flip like John had just done. I run to the railing once again peering down at my fallen friend as I see Veronica and Troy running over as well.

"You okay, man? What was that, a triple klutz?" I ask laughing as I look down. Duncan wasn't on the mat all the way. Veronica is on her knees, holding Duncan's head. Troy stands by them.

"Hey," Duncan says cheerfully for the first time in a very long time. He even laughs as I notice Veronica removing her hand from behind his head where there was blood.

"He needs to go to the hospital," she says very concerned. So I do the only thing I can think of.

"Hey Duncan, open your mouth. This'll help," I yell down to them as I open the flask and sprinkle them with the remainder of the alcohol as Veronica looks up at me with an unimpressed look.

"Come on," she mutters as Troy helps her lift Duncan up. I watch them as they go before joining the guys. I don't know what came over Duncan to do that. I did hope he was okay though.

I was at home when Duncan called me to let me know how he was doing. I could hear Celeste in the background yelling with his dad. I had to shake my head at how some people could just yell for nothing. I looked outside my bedroom window and saw Aaron jogging on the treadmill in the pool house. I hated when he was at the house. I wished he could get jobs far away until I turned 18, but I had to think about my mom as well. I knew she wasn't the best, but she was mine.

"Hi. I'm outside your house," Veronica says as I look out the window before heading downstairs. I saw Mrs. Navarro in the kitchen making something as I turned on the lights to the driveway before heading out.

"It's about time" I say as I make my way toward her. She reaches for me just as I wrap my arms around her. She begins to shake and cry in my arms. I wasn't sure why, but this just felt right. It felt great to have her in my arms, but I knew reality was just around the corner.