Redeeming Love
Chapter 7:Enemies and Lies
Veronica
Waking up in Logan Echolls arms was becoming a bad habit. I tried to quietly slip out of his arms, but the movement jarred him awake.
"Trying to sneak out," he asks groggily as I can't help but smile.
"I have some things to do, and I don't want to actually be caught sleeping in your bed by your dad. I don't want him..." I pause on what to say.
"I don't think he'd be concerned with me sleeping with a girl, but I do see your point after what I did yesterday," he groans as he rolls over onto his back wincing as he got up.
"Do you want me to put something on the cuts?" I question as he groans once more.
"Not really, but I don't know when I might have your help again," he says honestly as he removes his shirt. I move over onto the bed to remove the bandages. The gashes looked a little better, but now he had a lot of bruising around the areas. I cleaned the cuts, reapplied the cream and recovered them for him.
"Logan I have a question for you," I say as he turns to look at me.
"If it involves Aaron, no, but anything else shoot," he mumbles as I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Okay. I am weirded out by Troy. He seems to be everywhere," I say honestly worried and creeped out by his tactics.
"I know, but I don't know much about him. I honestly thought he was going to be shipped out for the car ordeal. I mean the only thing I can say is maybe talk with your dad," he says as I jump up concerned etched on my face.
"It was only a suggestion," he says as he quickly pulls me in for a hug. "I can see how freaked out you are. The only person who might know more on how to handle him would be your dad," he says softly as I nod my head before moving away from him and getting my things before making my way to the door.
"Logan be smart," I say as he chuckles before flicking the light off.
"I can't make that promise," he whispers as I close the door. I am half way to the front door when the light in the hallway flicks on.
"How long have you known?" Mrs. Echolls sharply whispers to me.
"Know about what," I ask trying to look surprised.
"Veronica, you and I both know what I am talking about," she half mutters moving closer to me.
"Not long. I found out on accident," I say as she nods her head as I walk out the front door leaving her alone in the front of her house. It made me a little upset she didn't ask for help. All this happened almost two weeks ago. I haven't seen much of Logan and his parents are contently out of town for a while.
XOXOXOXOXO
I hated not having a washing machine in our apartment, but dad said we could just use the complexes. It was so much easier when I could do my laundry and leave it in the dryer without worrying about someone stealing it. I was walking to the laundry room as I see the pool man cleaning the filter of the pool hardly anyone uses.
"Hey Rocky," I yell as he is putting the filter back together.
"Hey Veronica," he yells back as he tosses something in the pool before standing up.
"Hi, Neighbor," I say as I notice the girl who lives above us. I hadn't seen her in a while, but she was very pregnant. Her dog was lying beside her as she was leaning against the folding table folding her clean clothes. She looked very sad.
"Oh, hey Veronica," she says tearfully.
"Are you okay?" I asked concerned. I have talked with Sarah several times over the course of us moving here after we lost the house, but I haven't seen her this upset before. She went on to explain that she has been fighting with her boyfriend because she thinks he took her journal. She was headed back to her apartment when I learned that her boyfriend thinks she has a thing for her boss, so he might have taken her journal to find out. She also told me that it had all her sketches in it. She had mentioned once before she had wanted to go to art school, but life got in the way.
I played with her dog Killer while we talked for a little longer. She asked me to take her to her doctor's appointment later in the week, not because she didn't want her boyfriend to go with her. No, she was having some tests done and needed someone's hand to hold. I agreed thinking it was something I would have totally done with Lilly if she were still alive.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I was half thinking about Sarah as I sat in front of my computer screen in Journalism class. Sarah really seemed like she needed help, but I wasn't even sure how to help her. I guess being distracted was how Mrs. Dent totally roped me into helping this lady set up for her high school reunion. This is so not what I wanted to be doing right now. I wanted to talk with Logan about something, but seemed to miss him. Then again every time I do see him Troy pops up. I am totally starting to think troy is stalking me.
Mrs. Dent asked me to keep the lady away from her while I scanned the photos she had tabbed, but the lady was like a bloodhound on a mission. I was lost in thought when I saw my mom's photo amidst the 'most likely to succeed' and 'class sweetheart.' Yet, to me Lianne Reynolds was, 'most likely to disappear off the face of the earth,' as I stare at her yearbook photo with a mixture of disgust and questions.
***LoVe***
Logan
If I had to be honest with myself I had been ignoring Veronica for the past week or so. I was having a hard time coming to grip with the fact that she knows my secret and hasn't turned on me. I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I mean sure things have changed between us, but I still wasn't sure where we stood as friend or even enemies.
"Mr. Echolls I was wondering if I could have a word," the Vice Principle says as I am crouched down looking into my locker. He was leaning over the door as I knew I only had a moment to think. The perfect word came to my mind as I looked up at him.
Logan thinks for a moment.
"Anthropomorphic," I say with a huge cocky smirk on my face. "All yours, big guy," I say as I stand up slamming my locker door.
"Oh," he slowly chuckles totally not understanding the word at all. "Your father has generously offered to donate a pair of boots for a school fundraising auction" he continues as I just want to walk away.
"Not the ones made for walking. God, I love those boots," I say my voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Ah, the pair he wore in 'Hair Trigger,'" he says ignoring the sarcasm.
"Hmmm," I mumble as I turn to walk away totally not caring about the stupid shoes. I remember a very abusive incident where Aaron kicked me repeatedly while wearing the damn things just because I dropped my ice cream cone on accident because I slipped as I was sitting down. He had kicked so many times that I had bruises all over my stomach and back. I hated the shoes with a passion.
"They're a big ticket item. We're hoping we'll be able to pay for our new scoreboard with what we'll make off of them," he says trying to make his point.
"Hope so," I say holding up my hand crossing my fingers as I try to walk away.
"Unfortunately…" he continues as I am totally annoyed now.
"I am not interested in what my dad promises to you. If you want it call his people, or call mine for me to call him. Either way this isn't my problem," I say as I do walk away leaving him stunned. I wasn't in the mood for helping him out since I would have to speak with Aaron. I had been avoiding him as well since Veronica spent the night.
I hated my darn English teacher with a passion he gave us stupid pop quizzes all the time and some of the crap wasn't even anything we had read or went over. I think he just liked to grade his own crap. Today was one of those pop quizzes day. I was sitting next to the PCHer head biker Weevil, who also was Mrs. Navarro's grandson. I disliked him with a passion. There was something about him that just rubbed me the wrong way.
I was writing on my test when I noticed Weevil looking over toward me, so I tried to hide my paper from him. I saw Weevil just shake his head at my actions. I was getting real annoyed by him looking over at me.
"They teach you manners in ESL?" I snap as I see him looking once more toward my paper. He chuckles slightly as I look forward to see where our teacher was.
"If I was gonna cheat, don't you think I'd pick somebody smart?" Weevil sneers at me as if I wasn't worth his time.
"If you was gonna?" I say innocently. Weevil just shakes his head in amusement as our teacher seems to have finally caught onto the little conversation in the back of his classroom. I swear I thought he was out of his mind half the time. Mr. Daniels got up out of his chair walked to where we were and took both of our tests ripping them in half before telling both of us about no talking during tests. I was both amused and pissed that I got caught when it wasn't even my fault.
"I guess Mrs. Daniels ain't giving it up at home, huh?" I mutter slightly louder than I needed to, but it hit where I wanted it too as the teacher turned around to look at me pointedly.
"You know, the glow of your father's wealth and celebrity may be enough to sustain you through high school, Mr. Echolls, but do you know what it will get you in the real world?" he snaps as the whole class is now looking in our direction. Out of spite I clap my hands together in a silent prayer and look back toward him.
"Please say 'high school English teacher'. Please say 'high school English teacher'," I say way too enthusiastically as Weevil laughs at my comment.
"Mr. Navarro. I wonder if you'll find Mr. Echolls so amusing ten years from now. When you're pumping his gas," Mr. Daniels sneers in his direction as I watch Weevil's face go stone cold. "See me after class, both of you. I'll tell you where to report for detention," he continues as I just clap my hands once more as he huffs his way back to the front of the room.
XOXOXOXOXO
I saw Veronica moving toward me, but before she could get to me I darted into the now empty classroom to wait for Mr. Daniels to show up. I had a pack of cards with me so I decided to set up a game of solitaire to pass the time.
"You know what I love? I love that I get a zero for talking, when you were the one who was talking to me. You get detention for dissing the teacher in front of everybody. And I get detention for laughing. Let me ask you something, man," Weevil says to me as he pulls up a desk closer to me.
"Is this detention or hell?" I mutter as I look up toward the skies waiting for light or something to shine down.
"How do you people not make yourselves sick? I mean, it's like you walk on water in this school. For what? It's nothing that you do. I mean, all that matters is who your parents are and the zip code your mom shot you out," he mutters getting a little closer to me. I look toward the door as I see Troy walking past it with Madison on his arm.
"And if I donate to the United Latino Pain-in-the-Ass fund, will you shut the hell up?" I say as he seems to get offended by my comment this time.
Weevil wanted to play for money so I don't know how much time had passed, but for the teacher was taking longer than I expect4ed it to. We both had money on the table as Weevil made a comment about Aaron being a horrible actor I didn't say anything to his comment. I did learn though that Weevil only showed up to school because he promised his grandmother he would. I knew her very well since she worked for my family. She always treated me right. We are both lost in conversation when Mr. Daniels comes busting into the classroom.
He makes some smart ass comment about is this detention or Reno. Well if it was Reno he sure wouldn't be there with me that was for sure. I was amused at how ticked off this man could get and so easily at that. I was a little peeved when he snatched our money off the table along with my cards.
"Aw, come on, man!" Weevil snaps as I just get pissed.
"What the hell? We were playing a game here," I say as I watch him put our money in his pocket.
"This is punishment, gentlemen, not party time," he sneers at the two of us.
"Well, that would explain the absence of blow up dolls and great refreshments," I say as I quickly snatch my money out of his hand.
"You know, the two of you may not have learned respect in the home but you are going to learn it here. And you now have a full week of detention for me to teach you without luxury time for playing cards," he hostility says as he leaves. Weevil looks up at the ceiling groaning.
I guess the joke is on Daniels because he couldn't teach a monkey how to be respectful. Who did he think he was talking to me like that? I could teach him a thing or two about being respectful to people. I always believed that if you gave respect you would get it back. Mr. Daniels is like a wrecking ball, he will be getting his just deserts soon enough.
***LoVe***
Veronica
I hadn't been home for more than ten seconds as I fumbled with my keys I could hear the yelling coming from Sarah's apartment. I am a nosy person by nature so instead of doing the right thing, and heading into my apartment I go over to the railing to look up. I can hear Sarah and her boyfriend shouting and carrying on about something, but I wasn't sure what it was.
"She is the l-last person I want to know about the baby! I can't believe you told her where I was!" I heard Sarah crying as I watched her boyfriend move closer to her.
"Stop it. You're just being hormonal," he snaps at her as I he notices me out of the corner of his eye. I see him move away from her and head toward the gate to leave.
"Shut up! Why don't you go spend the night with Joanna? Maybe then she'll…stop calling here all the time!" Sarah yells at him as she grips the railing before storming back into the apartment.
"Get over it, Sarah! Grow up!" he says as Sarah slams the apartment door. As he moves down the steps I drop my head hoping he doesn't decide on questioning me. He just shakes his head as he walks through the gate and leaves. I went onto my apartment and cooked dinner for my dad before setting out on looking up info on Troy.
I was sleeping soundly when a woman's piercing scream makes me jolt awake. I am barely sitting up when I hear a loud thump above my head. I stare up at the ceiling for a few moments before I pull the covers over my head and bury myself into them.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I knew waking up in the middle of the night was going to affect my morning, but I wasn't sure just how until I looked up at the clock and noticed I overslept. As I quickly dressed and pulled on my shoes, I grabbed my bag before heading to the kitchen. My dad was just pouring himself a cup of coffee when I walked in.
"Did you hear anything strange or out of the ordinary last night?" I ask as I grab a banana.
"Can you describe this out of the ordinary for me," he half jokes like I was imagining the whole thing. He picks up his coffee and a bowl off the counter before sitting down as I head to the fridge to see what was in it.
"It was like a loud thump and a woman screaming," I mutter as I shut the door. "The noise sounded like it came from upstairs," I added as he looked up from his paper.
"Well, no, but you know me. I can sleep through an earthquake. Why?" he says not ashamed one bit that if the apartment were on fire he would no doubt die because he wouldn't hear the alarms going off.
"I don't know. It really freaked me out. I had a hard time getting back to sleep," I honestly say as he raises his eyebrow at me before I look at the clock and begin to rush toward the door.
"Oh, sweetie, don't sell yourself short I think you'll be just fine. I do find you completely entertaining at times, why are you rushing off," he says as I go to open the door.
"I'm taking Sarah to a doctor's appointment before school," I say as I pick up my keys.
"Oh, well that's mighty neighborly of you," he mocks me in a western accent that sounds so off.
"Well, I'll see you back at the ranch, partner. I have places to go and people to see," I mock him right back with the western accent as I blow him a give him a wave goodbye.
I felt this odd feeling as I was walking up the stairs to Sarah's apartment. I don't know how to describe it, but it was like déjà vu. I knocked on her door, but there was no answer. I could hear her dog barking though. I called out her name, but still nothing. There was a crack in her curtain and I could see the front area looked like a tornado went through it. I try to call her on my cell, but still no answer so I head to school instead.
I spent the majority of the day trying to get a hold of Sarah, but always got her voice mail. I was starting to get really concerned for her. I was currently stuck with the lady putting together the reunion things for the Class of '79. I wondered if someone from our class would be doing this same thing soon for us. God, I really hated high school.
I was flipping through the yearbook thinking, 'the people that say high school years are the best years of your life are usually on the yearbook staff or part of the cliché 09er zip code. I just hoped that bake sales and pep rallies aren't as good as it gets for us, and that the prom isn't the most magical night of my life like it was for this golden-'. I am looking at a few of the pages as I open it to a page that has the heading "Love is Thicker Than Water." I am stopped in my thoughts as underneath the heading is the top half of a heart, with crowns and other junk, but the names are what caught my attention Jake Kane and Lianne Reynolds. 'Oh, my god.' I think as I stare at the two kissing in the yearbook page.
As if my day couldn't get any weirder than this. I wondered if my dad knew that my mom once dated Jake Kane. I mean could this have been why he went after him during the murder investigation. No, if he was a vindictive man my dad wouldn't have allowed me to be friends with them, no there has to be another explanation.
I decided to put this whole incident on the back shelf once I saw Duncan and Troy walking down the hallway. I hurry to catch up to them.
"Hey," I say as Duncan slows down slightly while Troy groans at the slower pace.
"Hey, what's up?" he says as I see Troy roll his eyes before walking off in a different direction.
"I've got a little Neptune High trivia for you," I say as he turns slightly to look over at me as he continued down the hallway.
"Yeah?" he says as I want to pull him into the bathroom and yell at him for being so disconnected, but I hold off doing so.
"Did you know that your dad and my mom were King and Queen of the prom?" I ask as he stops walking and turns to really look at me as I see a flicker of something, but not sure what. "Which, I guess, means they were like a couple or something? Did you know about that?" I continue as he looks away for a moment before looking back at me.
"Uh, no. It's weird, huh?" he replies in a monotone with an unreadable expression. He moves away from me, without letting me ask anything else. It seemed like he was hiding something. I had to admit that boy had a magical gift of evasiveness. If anyone would know it was me. He ended things with me without even telling me.
I had learned that we were broken up from his sister. Lilly told me that Duncan was done with me. The jerk didn't even have the guts to deal with me for himself. I was upset that he even ignored me at school, and took Logan with him. That was hard, but I was over him, way over him. I headed for my next class.
After school I headed for Sarah job to check in with her employer. The guy was rude to me all the way like I was some piece of crap or something. I hated when people thought they were better than you just by what you wore or how you acted. Andre her boyfriend was of no use as well. He said that this was something Sarah did to process things. He even had another woman in his studio painting her naked. Ugh!
***LoVe***
Logan
"Is this a joke because I do not like jokes?" I question as Weevil and I carry buckets with soap in them to a small blue car parked in a space marked "Daniels."
"No, Mr. Echolls, this is detention," Mr. Daniels says half annoyed as I set the bucket down near the driver's side door. Weevil moves further along than me.
"I meant the car," I say with a huge smirk as I see he was actually confused, so I act halfway embarrassed. "Oh, my God!" I put my hand up to my mouth before pointing back toward the teacher and his car adding, "It's not yours, is it?"
I watched as Weevil set his bucket down laughs at my comment. I go to the back of the car and draw a heart on the freaking nasty car. I mean as I rubbed my finger over the dirt I had a hard time doing it like the car never got cleaned. I can see Mr. Daniels isn't impressed once so ever with my attitude. "You know, seriously, I don't think its school policy to have students do chores just because the teacher is too lazy to wash his own car," I snap as I wave my dirty finger at him.
"Seriously, would you like to hear the school's policy on gambling, Mr. Echolls? It's considerably detailed," he sneers at me as he swipes his own finger along his window then rubs it with his thumb before glaring at me. As he turns his back and begins to walk away I spit on his window. This was freaking jacked up. I have never been so ticked off as I was right now.
Weevil pours his whole bucket of water on the hood of the car with a sarcastic smile.
XOXOXOXOXO
I couldn't believe this jerk thought he had the right to not only have us wash his stupid car, but now he wants us to clean his classroom and organize his books. Does he not even know who the hell I am? I have people who do this. I can't even look at the guy without wanting to punch him so I keep my head down.
"…by author and then by title…" he is saying as he moves toward a large bookcase before continuing "…for example, Shakespeare would come after Poe and before Wordsworth and then within Shakespeare, "Macbeth" after "Hamlet." Should I draw a diagram?" he mutters as I notice Weevil leaning against the bookcase with his arms folded looking ticked off.
"Aw, please. That would be helpful," I say sarcastically as I rub a finger on his desk.
"If you get this wrong, I'll simply have you do it again," he snaps as he shoves the book he was holding into my arm as he leaves.
"Well, amigo, let's get to it, huh?" I mutter as Weevil and I get started by moving desks to reach the top shelves. I am surprised when weevil throws the book he was holding in his hand onto the ground.
"Oops! Heads up! My bad!" he yells out as several more books land on the ground.
"You obviously have no appreciation of literature," I mock as I look at the hardcover book in my hand. My mother would kill be if she saw be being this disrespectful to a book. Yet, as I watch Weevil tossing the books I decide to join in as I drop a book before kicking it across the room. "Would that it were Mr. Daniels' head!" I say in a Shakespearian tone.
"I was thinking more like that scene in 'Casino'," Weevil mutters as he sits on the desk he was just standing on. I was totally interested in what he was about to say next. "With the vice grip," he says as I lean back against the case.
"Ah, see I'm more of a purist, you know, less blood, more emotional distress. I'd rather see him locked in a room, padded, crapping himself in the corner. You know, he's an English teacher. He'd appreciate the poetic justice," I say as Weevil lifts an eyebrow at me. He then tosses the book he was holding. I wanted to back away from him as he leaned closer, but something told me he had a plan. Yes, he had a great plan on how to get even with Mr. Daniels. I loved his plan as well. I give him a thumbs up with a huge grin as our teacher walks by the room talking with Troy.
"Well are you in or do you not have the cojones to pull it off," he snaps once I look back at him.
"Never underestimate the size of my cojones, Vato," I say with deliberation as I wink at him. Yes, I had the cojones to help pull this off.
***LoVe***
Veronica
I am trying to get my homework done, but Killer is upstairs barking like a mad man. I know the dog has to know something, but what was the other question. I decide I need to do a little B&E. I go to my desk opening the drawer to get out the flashlight I had in it before heading upstairs to the apartment. I tried the door, but of course it was locked. The window on the other hand was open, so I climbed in.
Killer is happy to see me, so I pick him up. I turn on the light as I make my way further into the apartment. I can see a large painting of Sarah on the wall, but keep moving toward the bedroom. There are opened drawers everywhere, the room looks like someone made a mad dash out of the place. I am looking over the bed and the painting there creeps me out. It's a large painting of an extreme close up of frightened eyes and nose. The picture seemed to be of a scared person, but whom.
I spotted Sarah's phone on her dresser with missed calls from me and some Dr. Delmont. I was going to look some more around the apartment when I heard the keys in the door. Great someone was here. I see a gun peeking out from under a pair of underwear. I want to take it with me, but I know my dad would have a field day with that. I barely have time to make into the bathroom before the front door opens. Andre is calling for Killer so I let him down as I push the curtain to the shower back for him to leave. I don't want to be caught so I slowly open the window to climb out. I make it on the small edge with only a nano second to escape as I hear footsteps in the bathroom. I let out the breath I was holding, until I felt a hand reaching from behind me as I made it around the corner of the building.
"What the hell?" I snapped as I elbowed the person behind me.
"Why did you do that?" Logan gasps out holding his side. I turn around and give him a good punch to the shoulder.
"That was for scaring me half to death," I say as I wiped at the tears that were falling from my eyes.
"I didn't mean too. God Veronica I'm sorry," Logan says as he pulls me into his arms. "I was driving over to talk with you about something when I saw Troy lurking around your apartment so I came up to see if you were okay," he says as I walk closer to my apartment.
"Yeah, my neighbor upstairs disappeared but I'm worried about her so I broke into her apartment. Her boyfriend came back and he almost caught me," I say as Logan laughs.
"Only you would be dumb enough to climb out onto a ledge smaller than the one you were one," he says as I realize what he meant with his words.
"So what did you need help with," I ask as he says he'll talk with me another time, he had somewhere to be. I watch him leave as I stand up and go into my apartment. I swear Logan was getting crazier by the minute.
XOXOXOXOXO
I was being driven insane by this lady. She had all these pictures she wanted plastered everywhere as well as little sayings about different people. I think the whole idea of actually putting a reunion together was a really dumb idea. She did though give me a lot of details on my mom and Jake Kane. It seems they were the perfect couple. Everyone thought they were going to get married after high school, but little did they know how wrong they were. It was strange to hear about my mom from someone other than her. It made me wonder about the fact that I was once part of a perfect couple, or so I thought I was.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I was just returning to the apartment when I saw an older couple with Andre who looked like they were leaving, "Excuse me. Are you Sarah's mother?" I asked as the woman was almost by me.
"Yes. I'm Emily and this is her stepfather, Randall," she says softly pointing toward the man beside her.
"Um, my father's a private detective. And he's really good at finding missing people," I say as I watch the two of them exchange a curious look. "I can give you his card," I continue as I pull out one of his business cards and hands it to Emily. She smiled at me as she took it. I felt better knowing that Sarah's parents were in town, maybe she would be found soon.
XOXOXOXXOXOXO
I was walking toward the office to get something filled out when I saw several students around the flagpole. I hoped it wasn't someone I knew up there, but as I got closer it wasn't a person up there. No it was something more interesting.
"All right, people break it up, break it up. What's the big attraction?" I hear the English teacher say as some of the students scatter while other lingers around to watch. "Son of a b-," he gets out as he sees what must be his car. I don't know how someone got the car there or why it was done, but it rocked. He opens a door showing the flagpole was right in the middle of his car. He slams the door before yelling, "Get back to class. Go on. Move it. Go to class. Go to class, people!"
I am walking toward my class as I see Weevil with a few of his friends, walking my way.
"Mr. Navarro!" Mr. Clemons says causing Weevil to stop. I notice as Weevil turns he doesn't seem to worried about the security guard.
"Interesting artwork you left at the flagpole this morning," Mr. Clemmons says as I look toward Weevil who just smirks.
"Artwork? I don't think it is artwork, no it looks to me like Mr. Daniels has a little drinking and driving problem," he mutters as I can see the hint of pride in his voice.
"Spare me your indignation, Mr. Navarro, we have a witness," Mr. Clemmons says as he motions to Weevil.
"Yeah, sure you do," he mumbles as I watch them walk away, but I see Weevil look right at Logan as he is coming out of the room. I had to do a double take as I watch Weevil gives him a head's up gesture which Logan barely even looks at before moving away from the room.
"You thought I was a bad apple. Man Logan just let your friend Weevil hang out to dry," Troy says as he leans up against the locker next to mine.
"Whatever," I snap before walking off. Did Logan let Weevil take the fall for something he had helped do? No, Troy was lying.
***LoVe***
Logan
"I didn't even know they expelled…" Duncan is saying as he stuck a piece of pizza into his mouth before continuing, "…people at our school," he finishes as I look over at Veronica sitting with her friend. Dick was sitting across from Troy; who was flirting with Madison.
"Well at least not our people," Dick says as I just shake my head, no wonder people thought we were so vain. I wondered if that was really what we sounded like to someone who wasn't as privileged as we were. I really wondered if Veronica thought that.
"Yeah, I guess it would take a whimp to let someone else take the blame for them," Troy sneers toward me as I look away. I didn't understand what Troy had against me. I mean I knew Veronica way before he did, but I didn't do anything to break them apart or anything. I mean he has already gotten me back if this was revenge.
"They expelled him?" I muttered in a low voice. I mean it was only a prank. I never thought Weevil would even take the fall either.
"They had security escort him off the grounds. I was in the office getting my schedule changed, and you could hear Daniels just blowing a fuse," he mocks the tone and all jabbing his finger toward Troy. "Tell-us-who-helped-you. Tell-us-who-helped-you!" He says laughing as Dick jumps up standing by our table.
"If he starts selling oranges in front of my house, I'm gonna be pissed," Dick says really looking agitated. Duncan and Troy laugh, but I can't find it funny because Weevil got all the blame. I look over at the car still impaled on the flagpole, and I knew what I had to do to make things right. I got up to head toward my Xterra when I heard steps behind me.
"Is the rumor true," Veronica snaps as I turn around to look at her.
"I don't know what rumor you are talking about," I half snap as I am sure it has something to do with the car and Weevil.
"Weevil and you did that," she snaps pointing to the car in the middle of the quad, "yet Weevil was the only one holding all the blame," her voice was full of disgust.
"I'm going to fix it," I say honestly pushing her hair behind her ear.
"Awe, look it's the lovers," Troy sneers as he gets closer to us.
"Troy mind your own business," Veronica snaps as I pull her closer to me away from him. She gives me a questioning look, but doesn't make a comment or try to move away.
"Well I mean this is kind of my business seeing the two of you together since Veronica and I haven't really broken up," he sneers as I am about to punch him in the face.
"Troy the moment you thought you could allow someone else to get beaten to a pulp for your own selfish reason we were over. You do not own me. I am a human being so get over it," Veronica snaps at him as he just smirks.
"You are mine Veronica until I decide to let you go. I would try not to commit too many B&E's because next time you might not be so lucky," he coldly tells me as he walks away laughing.
"Veronica I think you should really talk to your dad," I say softly as she shudders when I touch her shoulder.
"I'll tell my dad about Troy when you tell him about your dad," she mutters walking away. Damn it! I couldn't possibly tell her dad about mine. She was asking for something that would never happen.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I knew I had to deal with what Veronica had said to me, but right now I only had time to focus on one issue. I needed to get home and find the one thing that could get both Weevil and me out of serious trouble. As I pulled up the long driveway I dreaded what I might be walking into, but I had to go inside. I opened the door walking in slowly only to see Mrs. Navarro working in the kitchen.
"Mr. Echolls, shouldn't you be in school," she questions as I walk into the kitchen to see what she was doing. She was putting frosting on a cake.
"Yeah, I needed to get something," I say as I stick my finger in the frosting before she swatted my hand away.
"Is your little friend going to be coming over again?" she questions as I turn to walk away. I knew she was talking about Veronica, but I really didn't have an answer to that.
"I don't know. Our relationship is very complicated," I say as she smiles at me before handing me a small bag.
"If she's worth it, you'll uncomplicated it. You deserve to have someone like her," she says as she pushes me out of the kitchen. I head to my dad's office to find the item I was looking for. I knew he had two of them so if I took one, he wouldn't really be able to complain. I took the unwrapped pair knowing they were the extra set he never wore.
I decided to just walk into the office like I owned the place. As I opened the door and moved into the office Clemmons looks up at me with a puzzled expression.
"You got a sec?" I say as I walk over to a chair and sit down before he has a chance to say 'no.'
"Mr. Echolls. What can I do for you?" he asks as he waves his hand out in front of his desk.
"Man, I tell you Mr. Clemmons, I am pissed off! I am absolutely ticked off about an issue that is really upsetting," I say angrily getting into the role.
"I need for you to use appropriate language in here, Mr. Echolls," he tries to scold me. I decide to play nice and adopt an ashamed demeanor. "Now, what's got under your skin?" he says.
"It's, uh, it's that Weevil kid," I snap as he sits up more in his chair.
"He is no longer a student here. I don't see where that will be an issue any longer," he says as he picks up his pen to begin working again.
"Yeah, I know that. But the problem is, he's getting all the credit for sticking Mr. Daniels' car on the flagpole," I say as I see him looking up at me with wide eyes as if I had grown a second head or something. "And all of the sudden, he's like the biggest badass in-"I am saying as he casts me a warning look. I roll my eyes, but continue with a different wording, "…rad dude here at Neptune. I mean, people are gonna be talking about that punking for years," I say because I knew they would actually do so.
"I don't think I understand. You're confessing to helping Eli Navarro?" he questions as I smirk at him. I guess I was; I mean what was the worst he could do to me.
"You can't just get away with this, young man," he says sternly as I just smile because the reality was I would be walking out of this office without one consequence.
"Yeah, I didn't think I could," I say as I let out a breath before making a face that said I was ashamed of myself. I wanted to laugh thinking about how my dad would be amazed at how well I could act when I wanted to.
I smile as I swing my left foot onto the edge of his desk before the right one. I have on the one thing Clemmons wanted more than anything else. I was wearing the stupid pair of black boots with red stars all over them. Clemmons stares at the boots on his desk as if he was about to have a panic or heart attack.
"So, I was thinking that Weevil would be unexpelled with a warning and that would be the end of this whole issue with Mr. Daniels. I mean the way he treated us might just be leaked to the media if he pressed the issue," I say as he continues to star at the boots I had on. He only nods his head as I take them off handing them over to him, but not before saying, "this means nothing goes on my permanent record or his as well," then I walk out before he has a chance to say anything.
***LoVe***
Veronica
After my dad talked with Sarah's parents and I promised not to get into any trouble he let me stay on the case with him. I was only allowed to do paperwork or make calls, but I knew something was up when I remembered the call from the doctor office. I ducked into the bathroom a little shaken up after the run in with Troy. I hated how he got under my skin. It use to be Logan doing that, but now it was him. I hated him so much, but couldn't really deal with my dad about him right now. Dad just wanted to be sure I stayed away from Andre. I promised him that.
I was going to call the doctor to maybe get some answered, but before calling him I checked all the stalls to make sure I was alone. I didn't need any more crap from Troy.
"Hi. This is Sarah Williams. I'm just wondering if I can get my test results over the phone," I say as calmly as I could while I listened to what the nurse was saying on the other end. "Right, the DNA test. Could you explain to me what that means?" I ask not really sure what I had just learned. Once she did I realized the baby Sarah was carrying didn't belong to Andre. That could be why they always fought he knew it, or maybe not.
I decided that I needed to see Nathan once more, but this time I would bring some back up. I called someone I knew wouldn't have any trouble getting their hands dirty for me.
"I'm not really understanding your question," Nathan says as if he was very clueless. I mean how was he Sarah's boss when he was having a hard time following a simple question.
"Well, if Andre's not the baby's father, do you know who is?" I ask as he turns a little white under the skin.
"It's not mine, if that's what you're suggesting," he snaps at me quickly. I already figured he wasn't the dad.
"No, I'm not, but you work with her every day. I thought you might have picked up something. I mean you spent a lot of time with her when she was here," I say waving my hand around the store.
"I hate to even think this, but maybe the guy that raped her is the baby's father," he says as if I already knew this or it was just too damn easy for him to share her secret like that. "Yeah. It's one of the reasons she left her hometown and followed Andre here," he said smugly. I just wanted to slap him.
I asked him if she told him about it, but he turned to the left as if he was hiding something. He then told me that she did. It was like I said they did spend a lot of time together. I was almost to the door when it suddenly hit me. Sarah didn't tell him, no she wouldn't tell that kind of thing to someone. I knew that for a fact. It was a dark secret you left alone, but she might have written it down.
"You stole the diary!" I say as I am standing at the door looking out to see if Weevil and his guys were out there.
"What?" he chokes out.
"Of course she was sleeping at your house one stormy night and…there it was, just poking out of her bag. You couldn't resist. You just had to know what she thought about you, if she even had a thing for you," I snap as I let the pieces fall into place.
I tried to make it easy for him, but he decided he wanted it the hard way. He had the audacity to tell me I was paranoid. Wrong thing to tell a girl who could relate to what Sarah had gone through. I decided to call my back up. The door of the shop opens as Weevil and his friends enter. I smile at Weevil as we bump fists.
"We heard there was sale!" Weevil says as I stand there watching the guys pick up different articles of clothing sizing themselves up.
"Yeah!" his friends all cheer as they spread out.
"Everything's on clearance!" Weevil yells as Nathan turns as white as a sheet horrified with the bikers all over his shop.
"What-what do you guys want?" he mutters at Weevil as he turns to look at me. Nathan is hysterical trying to keep all the guys from demolishing his shop. I just had to have some fun.
"Remember! No white after Labor Day!" I say as one of the guys looks at me with puppy dog eyes.
"Aww..." he says as he tosses the white shirt into the air with a chuckle before moving onto the next table. I watch is amazement at how easily the bikers can reign their anarchy while Weevil looks on.
"So Nathan, do you happen to know where I could find that journal?" I ask as he looks from the decimated store shelves and tables defeated as he tells me what I wanted to know. I take the journal outside with me as I watch the bikers get on their bikes while Weevil hangs back.
"Logan got me unexpelled," he mutters as I look up at his face to see a mixture of agony and remorse.
"Is that a good thing or bad," I ask hoping it was a good thing.
"I'm not sure just yet, but I'll let you know. My grandma didn't know why I was expelled, but she knew it had something to do with trouble," he says chuckling.
"You're not going to tell her, are you," I ask already knowing the answer to my question as he gets on his bike and takes off.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I ended up back at dad's office looking at the different sketches in Sarah's journal. I just felt bad for what she went through, she has to deal with all that emotional baggage every day. I just couldn't fathom why she would write it down like she did; she had to have known at some point someone might find out what happened to her. I would have hated someone to be privy to your every intimate secret. At least, that's what I told myself as I pored through Sarah's private thoughts.
There were no details of the sexual assault, only its aftermath. I could relate to the aftermaths situation Sarah felt because I couldn't remember the details of my rape just the day after. I was so sore and embarrassed about what had happened. I hated it even more when I went to Sheriff Lamb thinking he would help me and all he did was laugh in my face. Yeah, I could see her reasoning of running away; I wondered why I never left after what had happened to me. Right, my dad! One of her sketches caught my eye, 'Paradise.' It was a beautiful sketch of the coast. I also knew where the place was.
I realized that Sarah did run away from everything she ever knew to get a fresh start. She probably lived out of her car, until she met Andre. She then followed him here. Andre in a way saved her, but she was willing to let him fully in. It was like she was waiting for her happy ending to crumble.
I found Sarah on the beach sitting in a collapsible lawn chair with a sketchbook in front of her as she sketched the ocean out. It was actually pretty good. She was able to capture the waves and the way the sun glistened off of the water. It almost looked liked an actual picture only in black and white. I explained how everyone was worried about her. She asked if her parents were here, I told her they were. She muttered how she was going to miss all of this. The drive back to the apartment was a quite one as Sarah followed me up to her apartment.
I was washing up when my dad walked into the apartment with a sad smile on his face.
"I found her," I say with a smile.
"I know. Word's out in the complex. I'm very impressed," he says giving me a bigger smile. I had my doubts, but I did make the right choice staying. I would have missed my dad if I had left. He was all I really had left.
"I think I've got a future in the PI biz?" I say super excited as he frowns at me.
"Not so fast young one; I think you've got a future as a highly priced overly-paid, Ivy League educated executive of some sort who never thinks about private investigation again in her perfect life. Now, let's do something normal fathers and daughters do," he says ending the conversation for now, but I will revisit this moment sometime in the future.
"Buy me a pony?" I say smiling at his humor.
"It wouldn't fit in the apartment. No, I was thinking more along the lines I'd watch TV and you'd rub my feet," he says chuckling as I was clearly not impressed with his idea of fun.
"Hmm. Yeah, as tempting as that might be it is not normal at all," I honestly say as I head toward my bedroom.
XOXOXOXOXXOXO
We settled on having pizza for dinner and watching a movie, "I have to say…" I started as my dad turned to look at me. He was sprawled out in his chair while I was sitting on the couch next to him, "…I still really don't trust Andre," I say honestly as I voice my concern, but he did make a logical explanation out of things for me. Yet, the whole idea of a man staying and raising another person baby knowing it wasn't his made me question things slightly. I was thinking about what he had said and was no longer listening to him as I poured myself some juice.
"I admitted to my dad that Sarah had been raped," he got up to pace very angry and agitated.
"Why didn't you tell me she was raped?" he snaps at me as I looked hurt by his tone.
"I just found out," I say trying to stay calm. Then we heard Sarah's voice yelling that 'he raped me.'
"Oh god," my dad says horrified as we here the truth.
"Your husband raped me!" Sarah cries out after her mom yelled she was lying.
"Just stay here," he says as he points directly at me as he hurries out of the apartment leaving me worried and looking up at the ceiling above me. I am racing out our door and up the stairs the moment I hear the gun shot. I knew there was a gun in the apartment. I see my dad lowering his gun just outside of the window. He moves toward the door slowly and deliberately.
It doesn't take long for the ambulance and police to show up. There is a lot of official people all around as I watch the man who hurt Sarah on a gurney being loaded into the waiting ambulance. I sit on our balcony watching. My dad walks over toward me as he looks back at the scene that was unfolding before us.
"How is Sarah?" I ask worried. He looks over at me like a father who could have lost his child.
"She's resting. She's gonna be okay. She's going to head back with her mom when this is all over with for a little while to clear her head," he says softly pulling me closer to him.
"So, I guess I'm grounded," I half joke as he looks over at me pondering what to say next.
"I'm gonna let you slide on this one, only because I probably would have reacted like you had if the roles were reversed," he says as he puts his arm around me keeping me close to him as we watch the police gather up evidence and talk with the neighbors.
But for some reason I am finding it hard to let myself slide? Sure, the real tragedy happened long before I came along. I just brought it to the surface. But are some things better left buried? I was thinking that at least Sarah was going to get the help she needed, but at what cost. Then I was thinking about Logan. He was still stuck in a situation that I could help him with, but he wouldn't let me. Could I just stand by and watch him bury the secret of what his father did? Wouldn't his life be better, if he was out of his situation as well? I needed to have a serious talk with Logan at some point.
***LoVe***
Logan
"I would like to take this opportunity to remind you both that you're getting off easy," Clemmons says as he leads us to a graffiti covered wall, holding a couple of paint rollers. Weevil looks over at me as we both waited for him to tell us what we were in for. He hands the rollers and points to the paint as I give him a questioning look.
"I thought we had an agreement," I snap as I look back at him.
"You're lucky this isn't going on your permanent record, and you're extremely fortunate that you're not being suspended or expelled," he says as I look back at him half ticked off by him breaking the agreement.
"Um, does it-does it go on my-my permanent record that I was un-expelled?" Weevil asks honestly as I half chuckle at the way he asked.
"Don't push your luck, Eli," he mutters as he leaves us. I watch as Weevil reaches for one of the rollers from me stunned that I was going to have to actually do this.
"I'll take this one," Weevil says as he moves toward the right side of the alcove we were in. I could see a lot of Weevil's tattoos since he was wearing a wife-beater, but one stuck out to me. It situated between his armpit and the expanse of his back. It was of a heart with 'Lilly' bannered across it. I was livid as I saw her name on him. I went over to him pulling his shirt down to make sure I saw it right.
"Hey, man, what are you doing?" he sneers at me half pushing me away from him.
"Hey, what the hell is that?" I snap at him as I point to the tattoo. "What…why do you have Lilly's name on your arm?" I half stutter not knowing what he was going to say.
"You really wanna know?" he snaps at me as I step up to meet him.
"Yeah!" I say getting closer to him.
"You really wanna know?" he asks screwing around with me. I was getting ticked off by the freaking game he was playing. It was a simple question answer type thing.
"Yeah, I really wanna know!" I say aggravated. We are both being overly aggressive and at a standstill neither one willing to step down.
"Lilly's my little sister's name, man. That okay wit'cho?" he finally says. I don't drop the stance or my attitude because if I knew one thing it was Lilly was not a typical Hispanic name nor did I believe he had a sister. No Weevil was lying to me.
"You put your hands on me like that again, you'll lose one of 'em," he says as he goes back to painting the wall. I was intimidated at all.
"Yeah, I think I just peed myself," I mutter as I go to my side of the wall to paint. I would ask Mrs. Navarro about her granddaughter Lilly and see what she had to say about her.