Redeeming LoVe
Chapter 5: Money Shot
Logan
I couldn't get the image of Veronica naked out of my mind. It has been several days since the whole skinny dipping ordeal, but the image of her creamy white flesh sparkling in the moonlight made me forget about my troubles. Aaron was home once again, but my mom had decided to stay behind for a few more days. I hated being alone with him in the same house.
"When are you heading down to Tijuana?" I heard Luke ask Troy as they came into the classroom. I looked up from behind my book as they finalized their detailed plans for the weekend.
"Can I join you guys?" I ask as I see Troy look over at me. I just didn't trust this Troy guy at all, especially knowing he was dating or trying to hook up with Veronica. There was just something off about him, but I was having a hard time pin pointing what it was.
"Um, you have nothing better to do," Troy mutters as Luke looks confused.
"Actually Dick is going out of town with his dad, Duncan is still doing who knows what, and I haven't really decided yet what to think about you," I say as I point to him. He gives me a smirk.
"It could be fun, but you're footing part of the bill," he says as I turn to listen to what the teacher was talking about even though I could care less about all this school stuff. Sure, I could put my foot somewhere for you, I think as I glance at my watch and the boy I was still trying to figure out. I had a bad feeling about this guy, but Veronica seemed smitten by him. I wouldn't usually go to such extremes as going out of town with some jerk I knew hardly anything about, but this was more about his secrets than anything else.
Xoxoxoxoxo
I couldn't believe the Luke couldn't figure out that you don't wait until the last minute to buy a stupid souvenir, but then again I think the only reason he came was to get a fix. I had heard a few of the guys talking about how Luke was getting drugs to pump up for the baseball season. I really didn't care about that; I wanted time to get the dirt on Troy.
I could make out Luke's figure as he made his way toward the car, knocks on the window and laughs at the sound of a groan. Luke climbs into the back seat. I had been faking being drunk to see what the guys would do. This was the worst weekend in Mexico ever, at least Dick would have found something interesting to do. Troy just wanted to go to all these parties and hang out with hot girls. He was a jerk from the get go. I couldn't see what Veronica saw in him at all. He did though make several calls to a girl not his girlfriend. I think her name was Shawa or Shaunda. Not sure, nor does it matter.
"Wake up!" Luke grunts as he opens the car door getting in. I wasn't even in the mood for his crap after listening to Troy gripe all about his dad's stupid car.
"I've spent the past forty minutes listening to Logan dry-heave so you could buy a deformed piñata?" Troy snaps as he looks back toward Luke.
"Dude, everything was closed. It was the cheapest souvenir I could find," he chuckles nervously like he was a great sneak. We both knew exactly what he was in Mexico for.
"I'll say it one more time…Juanita from the Hot Tamale? Aye-yi-yi-yi," I say half gagging as Troy gets agitated yet again with me.
"Whoa! What'd I tell you about drool on the leather? Dad's very strict about the car," Troy says yet again as Luke laughs and I groan at his words. I hated this guy so much. "He's the only one allowed to dry-heave in it," he snaps looking right at me. I roll my eyes at the stupidly of his thoughts as he sniggers. "All right. Have we had our fill of Tijuana?" he questions as he starts the car.
As Troy inches toward the border people are surrounding the car trying to sell us different things. I saw a small little necklace I thought Veronica might like, but declined to buy it since we weren't even together. I might come back at another time a pick it up for her though, once she seems the dick for what he was. Troy is concisely waving the different vendors away as we creep closer to the Border Inspection Station.
"These border checkpoints, man, they always freak me out," Luke says groaning as I look back at him. He is sweating like the dog he was. Of, course he was since he was the one with the drugs.
"Maybe you shouldn't volunteer for the full cavity search," I sneer at him laughing slightly at how nervous he was. As we get to a customs agent, he leans into the driver's side window waving a torch.
"Morning," he says as he waves the light into our faces.
"Morning, sir," Troy chirps at the man acting like the fool he was. We both grin at the agent.
"You, uh, fellas have a good time in Mexico," he asks as Troy and I both answer at the same time.
"Yes, sir," Troy repeats.
"Wanna go ahead and hand over your contraband?" he asks after a long moment. Troy looks over to me with huge eyes and then back toward the agent with a smile. I didn't dare look back at Luke who no doubt was getting ready to piss himself. I was laughing on the inside at how dumb some people were. "It works sometimes. Pop the trunk," he says as he moves around to the back end of the car. I can hear Luke let out a huge sigh as the agent comes back around to wave us through. It was amusing as he was really sweating like a dog.
"Anybody else hungry?" Troy asks as he looks from me to Luke. I couldn't believe he was actually hungry at this hour as he ate not more than 2 or 3 hours ago.
"Sure," Luke says as he leans back against the seat probably just now starting to relax. I bet he won't be doing that kind of a run anymore.
"Yeah," Troy says as he looks over to me. I just give him a small nod not really in the mood to talk. We stop at this little diner. Troy excuses himself halfway through the meal to use the restroom leaving Luke and me at the counter. Once Troy came back we paid for our food and headed out to his car to drive home.
Troy was walking ahead of us as we were still discussing some things about some chick at one of the dive bars in Mexico. It was a debate that I wasn't going to let Luke win at all. He was totally a wuss.
"All right, settle something for us, partner. Didn't Luke look kind of scared last night when that senorita started working her milkshakes on him," I ask as I turn to Troy to get his opinion on the situation, but somehow the answer was lost as we stood before an empty parking space that once held the car we had arrived in. I knew something fishy was up now, but wasn't sure what it was.
Troy was having a panic attack as he began pacing and going on about how his father was going to kill him for losing his precious car. I was thinking about all the ways to murder him as he called someone begging them to come pick him and his friends up. I was laughing at the fact that this dick was going to be leaving pretty soon since there was no way his father's car was going to be found. I am sitting on the curb counting down the seconds that seemed to turn into hours when I see a very familiar blonde's car pull up in front of us.
"Dude! Where's your car?" Veronica smirks as I watch Troy's grin turn quickly into a frown as he shakes his head clearly not amused as Veronica was with the irony of the situation. "Sorry," she replies softer. We all head forward to get in. "Ah…" she says as she points toward me, "Your monkey's gonna have to ride in the back," she finishes as she points behind her.
"Ha-ha. Nice car," I say as I climb into the back of her LaBaron. I make sure that as I am getting situated that I kick the back of her seat several times just to annoy her. "God, it must have been a huge cereal box," I smirk at her as she gives me a look in the rearview mirror. I wait for the retort that I know is waiting on the tip of her tongue, but she never says it.
"Now, let's let that go. Cherish these moments. Because they will probably be the last ones that we spend together," Troy says ending any comments that might have been lingering in the air as he gets into the front seat.
"Hey, I don't mind dating a guy that rides a bike," she says smiling at him as she puts the car in gear to leave.
"How do you feel about a guy who's being sent to Catholic school in Albuquerque?" he replies as I watch her facial expression. No, she wasn't cool with that idea.
***LoVe***
Veronica
As I was driving to pick Troy and his friends up from some run-down border diner I kept thinking there was something wrong with me. Troy was a very nice guy who my dad seems to like, but I just couldn't see myself getting too attached to him. I remember what the heartache felt like when Duncan dropped me without any warning. I also was thinking about Logan because he was in a sense a part of my life again somehow. I wasn't sure in what affect but he was.
I must admit I was a tiny bit surprised to see Logan with Troy and Luke when I pulled up to the diner. Then again Logan has a way to get himself into situations where he isn't wanted or needed. I was intrigued no to know why Logan had gone to Mexico with the boys. I could tell from the lack of his spark when he got into the car that he either was hung over or had a headache.
"I think I am going to fill up here," I say pulling the LaBaron into the first gas station I saw. Troy and Luke both got out leaving me with Logan. I got out and went to the trunk to pull out my 'Logan kit'. I hadn't thrown it out; Lilly had given it to me one time after Logan was so hung over that he got sick in her car. The kit contained his favorite Gatorade, aspirin and a few granola snacks. "Here," I say as I toss the bag of things into his lap.
"I cannot believe you still have one of these," he jokes as he quickly opens the Gatorade and aspirin.
"I guess I thought I might need it one day," I smirked as he laughed.
"Lilly had made sure each of us had one of these," he said softly looking up at me. I noticed Troy giving me a thumbs up signal from inside the station.
"Yeah she did," I say as I put the pump into the gas tank. "Why do you have you bag?" I questioned noticing that the other two didn't have theirs.
"Oh, I only had a change of clothes. I had some work to do, so when we were eating I was looking over my notes to get a rough draft in my head to write a paper," he says not even looking up at me. I knew Logan was one of those people who didn't trust many people, but I had learned some of his tellings if he was lying, and at this moment he either has gotten better at lying or he was being honest with me.
The ride back to Neptune was a silent one as Logan slept while the Luke and Troy were both quiet. I wanted to flick the radio on, but didn't really want to disturb Logan. I didn't know why I cared about him or not, but I just had this slight urge to be kind for the moment. I was happy when I pulled up in front of Troy's house and saw Logan's jackass yellow SUV. It was a sight for sore eyes, but a welcoming one at that.
"Thanks for the ride. Does this mean you're gonna play nice now?" Logan asks as he gets out of the car followed closely by Luke.
"Walk in front of the car, we'll see," I say because it was too damn tempting to just forgive and forget right now. I can tell Troy is watching amused as Luke laughs. Yet, Logan doesn't back down he walks right in front of the car, so I decide to tempt him by revving the engine. Logan turns to me with a huge grin on his face and slaps the hood of my car with his jacket. I shake my head as he gets into his SUV with Luke and speeds off.
Troy and I spent the afternoon looking into what might have happened to his car. Troy though was frantic in the beginning to find the car seems to be more worried about something other than that. I can't put my finger on it, but he seems distant to me. Luke came to me asking for my help the next day in school in finding the drugs he bought while in Mexico. Of course the whole trip was a ruse just to get some drugs. I was having a crappy day to begin with, but the bombshell was when I was listening to the answering machine messages.
"Hi, Keith, it's me. I might be a little late to dinner since I came into work- Oh, wait a minute. Um, I'm sorry. I'm just going to call your cell," the female says as I try to place the voice. I knew it from somewhere, but wasn't sure where. I then decide to just punch in the code to call back the last caller.
"Hi, you've reached Rebecca James in the Counseling Office at Neptune High School. I'm away-," Ms. James's says as I quickly disconnect the phone. I can usually predict what is going to happen, but I wasn't able to see something like this a mile away. My dad was seeing the counselor of my school. Ugh! We needed to talk about this at some point, but right now I was going to hide.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
"Morning, honey," my dad says as he is putting some things into a box right as I come out of my bedroom.
"Whatcha doing?" I ask as I see some of the things look like moms.
"Nyah, I figured I'd put the rest of your mom's stuff in storage. I don't think we need the reminders anymore, you know?" he says softly trying to probably soften the blow to me. I just walk over to the cupboard and pull out a bowl and get some cereal.
"Yeah," I say trying not to think about how he was just giving up so easily.
"You wanna take a look?" he asks as he places the box onto the counter by me.
"Not so much, no," I quickly say as he moves around the counter to pour himself another cup of coffee.
"Well, I'm gonna leave it here for now. I've got an eight o'clock," he says as he makes his way to the door holding his briefcase and coffee. I watch him as he looks back at me before taking a step closer.
"So, you and Miss James, huh? I wouldn't have pegged that one," I say trying to make light of the situation. He looks like a deer in the headlights.
"Yeah, well, we only went out a couple of times. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it," he says softly probably hoping for me to let it go.
"So, don't. I get it. Companionship, needs, yada, yada, yada. It's fine," I stutter out even though it wasn't fine with me at all. I still had hopes that my mom was going to come home.
"I'm sorry you didn't hear about it from me first," he says as I just shrug.
"Don't sweat it. You know how many things I don't tell you? I'm kidding. It's cool. Just next time, could you shoot for an actual teacher? Because this has no potential benefit to my grade point average," I quickly say changing the subject before he could ask if I was hiding anything. I had a list of things he didn't know about like being raped, drugged and maybe getting into things that were out of my league.
"You sure you feel okay about this?" he asks me again as I nod my head lying to him. "Good. I like her," he says chuckling. I hadn't seen my dad this happy in a long time. Who was I to take away something he deserved.
"Cool," I say as he smiles and leaves. I give him the peace sign as he walks out the door. I put down my cereal bowl and walk slowly over to the box. I pick up a framed picture of the three of us in happier times. It was one of the last family photos we took right before everything changed. I find and open a small red jewelry box, inside there is a small envelope which I open only to find a safety deposit key. Now what was my mom hiding in a safety deposit box. I looked at the clock to find that I was running late for another great day at Neptune High. Ugh!
Of course the moment I thought I was alone in the Journalism room Luke asks me if I had found anything out about his missing drugs. I wasn't in the mood for his crying, but asked to let me know everything he remembered about the other night. He did tell me that he was with Logan most of the night, and only Troy left the group when he used the bathroom at the diner. I told Luke I would talk with Logan to see what he knew and go from there. Once he left I made the death certificate for my mother so that I could get into the safety deposit box.
I decided to cut out for lunch to head over to the bank. I knew I would have to go to a teller, but I wasn't looking where I was going and I ran into the one person who seemed to be everywhere now days.
"Veronica," Logan says as he moves out of my way motioning for me to continue on to the teller he was just leaving.
"Hi. May I help you?" he asks as I look back at Logan who seemed lost in conversation with another person.
"Hi. My mom died last year and I just found this," I say as I pull out the safety deposit key. I can tell Logan is now looking right at me with an amused look. The teller reaches for my key and motions for me to follow him as he opens the gate. He opens the vault and I follow him to a back room where he then unlocks the little box for me. He moves out of the room leaving me alone. I open the box to find several bundles of cash. I couldn't believe my mom had this kind of cash, but never told my dad or me. I see a file folder under the cash.
I drop the file allowing all of the black and white photos of me to scatter all over the floor. I couldn't understand who in the world would take these photos. I was finding it hard to breathe as I felt two arms wrap around me.
"Veronica, you need to breath; in and out," the voice was saying behind me as I began to struggle against it. I turned around to see Logan there. I bent over trying to quickly shove the photos into a pile out of his prying eyes, but he had already picked one up. It was of me exiting a building with a huge bulls-eye over my head.
"Give that to me," I snap as he hands it to me only to pull the folder out of my hand. He is flipping through the photos, and I can tell he is getting upset. "Logan it's nothing," I say softly. This box was in your mom's, so I guess your dad doesn't know about these," he snaps holding up the photos in one hand.
"It's not just the photos, my mom was hiding money away as well," I say opening up the lid of the box to revel the stacks of money.
"That's a lot of money," he says eyeing it up. "I would say close to $100,000 grand give or take," he says as I just look up at him. Of course he would be able to eyeball money and tell how much there was.
"Logan I thought all this time my mom bolted because she couldn't handle losing everything. Maybe she just couldn't handle losing me," I say as I fell him wrap his arms around me once more.
"Well you are a tough cookie to let go of," he says softly as I just nod my head. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say to that. I could tell though the person who took the photos was a professional, it looked like they used a 300mm on them. "Are you going to take the money?" Logan asks as I begin to put the photos in the folder slipping it into my bag. I look at the money and feel like it wouldn't be right to take it, but I guess it was my dad's now.
"Yeah," I say as I slip it into my bag as well. Logan walks me out to my car as I just go through the motions. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.
I asked Logan what he knew about the drugs Luke was buying. At first he wanted to deny anything about it, but he came clean saying he knew about it, but had nothing to do with it. I believed him on that fact. He did collaborate Luke with saying Troy had been the only one to get away to use the bathroom.
When I left the bank I headed to the office. I was lost in thought once again as Ms. James entered my dad's office startling me. She had come to meet up with my dad who was going to dinner with her. She was evidently early, but they tried to have small talk with me, but my mind was somewhere else. Troy came by shortly after they left and we had a small conversation, but I wasn't getting any closer to figuring out what happened to the car. We went to the company that provides the tracking service for the car, but it was a dead end. I decided I might have to ask my dad for help on this one.
After failing with the tracking company I dropped Troy off at his house and headed back to the apartment to talk with my dad. I wasn't expecting to find Ms. James rummaging in the cupboards with Backup. I couldn't believe how my dad was letting this woman into our lives while my mom was out there. I was a little upset that he thought it was fine for her to be in our home. They both offered for me to join them, but I wasn't in the mood to 'play family'. I headed to meet up with Weevil.
Weevil took me to see his uncle at the junk yard or one might call it the scrap yard. Troy's car had gone through it. It was sold by a person who had all the proper papers for it. I knew this was going to be a dead end, but thought it was worth a try. The uncle did tell us that the piñata was still in the car, but one of the guys took it home for his kid. We found the piñata, but no drugs.
My dad and I was having one of our moments since I snooped and got all the nitty gritty on Ms. James. I thought he should know the person he was bringing into our lives. He didn't like that very much, but I felt it was my responsibility to keep him from doing something stupid. Luke was able to sell some baseball to get the money Ziggy loaned him to do the drug run for him, but Ziggy wasn't willing to play nice. Luckily I had a backup plan and took his photo to post on flyers to send to the border letting them know what he did while he was in Mexico.
I even figured out where the drugs went. It wasn't until I realized how calm Troy had been or the fact that both Luke and Logan had been together most of the night. The only person who could have gotten away with the whole thing was Troy. I went back to the small diner and went into the bathroom; sure enough I found the drugs in the air vent. I swapped the steroids for candy and left him a note. I confronted Troy about the information my dad gave me, and he just thought I was over reacting. I though thought he should have been up front with me about all of it.
My day ended with my baking my dad a birthday cake. I was waiting for him when he got in, but was surprised he came home alone. I wasn't expecting him to break things off with Ms. James because of me, but he did. I knew my dad loved me, but the things he did to keep me happy proved how much he cared for me. I have always said, 'the hero is the one that stays and the villain in the one that splits.' My dad stayed while my mom ran. She could have addressed the situation as a family, but no she took off.
I was lying on my bed listening to the radio when my cellphone rang. "Hello," I mumble into it.
"Veronica, I just got a call from Troy," Logan says a little upset.
"Okay," I say as I can only think that he was calling in regards to the drugs.
"Yeah, it seems his dad isn't sending him away after all," Logan continues as I look up to see my dad standing in the door.
"I have to let you go, my dad is here," I say hoping to end things before they got strange.
"Veronica, please be careful," Logan says as I shake my head. Yes, things were getting strange with Logan.
"I will. I will talk with you tomorrow. Logan please keep yourself out of trouble," I say as my dad looks up from the ground.
"I try, but it still finds me," he mumbles as I hear the click and then the dial tone.
"Logan and you," my dad asks as I sit up.
"It's complicated. Logan is trying I think to be a friend, but it… Did you need something?" I ask changing the subject.
"Veronica, I wanted you to know I love you very much, but your mom walked out on us. I can't sit around waiting for her to come back when she is ready. I need t live my life as well," he says as I just nod my head.
"I know, it's just that I was hoping mom would find her way back," I honestly say as he chuckles.
"You have been mad at her ever since she left, and I know it's not fair. Yet, you only got mad at me for dating after that. Honey I will always care for your mom, but I really think it is time to put that life away, and for us to move forward," he finally says.
"Okay," I manage to whisper as he kisses my forehead and leaves me. I put my ear buds in and try to process everything that has happened over the last week. I had a new goal and it was to find out why my mom got pictures of me with bulls-eyes on them. I drift off to sleep by the second song.