A/N: Well, here it is, the next chapter. I've had some pretty mixed reviews about the last chapter; some of you very rightly pointed out that Veronica seemed to have got over her rape pretty quickly. Have no fear, my literary critics, that all comes out this chapter. I really hope you like it. The last bit (the fluffy pointless bit at the end) was inspired by school today, when I did in fact spend my time drawing pirates and moles – very badly, too – and learnt about moles in Chemistry. So I hope you guys like that little bit of life study. Anyway, I only own the plot, nothing else, so enjoy!
Veronica hurries down the empty streets, not caring where she's going or what she left behind at the beach. All she wants to do is forget what just happened at the beach. Unfortunately, the universe is against her.
"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Nosy." The low voice of Aaron Echolls rings out behind her. She realises that she had turned onto Logan's road about five minutes ago, and now she is only a few houses past the Echolls Mansion. "You should know better than to wander the streets at night."
His voice sends terrified shivers down her spine, and she can feel herself flashing back to that awful moment in the Camelot. Having successfully pushed her rape from her mind for nearly two days, all of her memories and fears come flooding back, exacerbated by the fact that Aaron is looking just as aggressive and aroused as he did that night.
He puts a hand on her shoulder. She jerks it off. He puts his hand on her waist. She moves away. He leers at her, and she can feel her heart pounding in her ears. They repeat their creepy little dance several times, and Veronica begins to regret running off so suddenly. Her phone is still on the rocks, next to Wallace, so she can't even send an SOS text. As Aaron approachs her once again, she hears the screeching of tires rounding a corner at speed.
Never has Veronica been so glad to see Logan's glaringly bright 4 by 4, and when he and Wallace jump out of the car and pull Aaron away from her, she is glad that she has such good friends.
"You keep away from her you filthy piece of scum." Logan growls at his father.
"What are you gonna do about it, son?" Aaron laughs, arrogantly. "No one will belive you, just like no one believes that I beat you."
"This isn't about me. This is about you escalating to raping innocent girls." Logan snarls, before bundling Veronica into the back of the car with Wallace and driving off.
The terrified blonde leans into her best friend, shiverring violently. Wallace rubs comforting circles on her back, and whispers to her, trying to calm her down, and Lilly watches helplessly from the front passenger seat, as Logan drives frantically to the Mars' apartment.
They pull up, and Wallace reaches into her jacket pocket for her house key. "Is your dad home?" He asks, tenderly.
She shakes her head, "Bail jumper." It's all she manages to say, before walking into her apartment and collapsing on the couch.
Logan goes into her fridge, and pours her a glass of water, before searching for the liquor cabinet to get her, and himself, something stiffer. Wallace sits beside his friend, hoping to calm her down, and Lilly sits on her other side, unsure of what to do. Tears are streaming down Veronica's face, and both Logan and Wallace are inwardly kicking themselves for letting her bottle up her feelings about what happened to her.
It takes over an hour for Veronica to finally calm down and stop shaking. In that time, Logan has had several glasses of Keith's best whiskey to calm his own nerves, Lilly has explored the whole apartment twice, and Wallace has lost the feeling in his feet from Veronica sitting on his lap for so long.
"It was just all too much." She finally says, her voice hoarse. "I was trying to be strong and move on, and just try not to let it affect me, but then…the beach…" She trails off, unable to go on.
"V, do you think you can tell us what happened to make you react that way at the beach?" Wallace asks, tentatively.
She nods, before launching abruptly into her story.
Shelley Pomeroy's sixteenth birthday
Veronica wandered through the crowd of hostile 09ers. She didn't know what had possessed her to come to this stupid party. She hadn't been invited, and none of the people here liked her anymore. Logan had been the worst. From the moment she walked into the party he had been hassling her. She'd gone to the bar to take the edge off her reactions to his comments, but didn't understand how she could be feeling so – fluffy was really the only word for it – after only one drink.
She was dimly aware of making out with Dick Casablancas, and then Casey Gant, and then Sean Friedrich. She knew that someone had started doing tequila body shots off of her, and that someone else had pulled them off her and helped her to a guest room. She knew that she was alone. That was it. She didn't know what time it was, and she could hardly remember whose house she was in. Before she drifted into unconciousness, she heard the door open and shut, and a possibly familiar voice say "Hey."
"The next day I woke up without my underwear. I left, went to the Sheriff's department and reported rape. And Lamb didn't believe me. Told me to 'go see the wizard'." Veronica finished, bitterly.
"Ugh," Lilly scoffs with contempt, "And to think we used to think he was hot."
"So not the time Lilly." Logan muttered, before turning to Veronica. "So what Duncan said at the beach.."
"What Duncan said at the beach seems to have cleared up the mystery. It was him. It was consensual. Not rape." She answers, shortly. "But if I can't remember something does it mean that I did give consent? If I wasn't in my mind, because I was most definitely drugged with something, then does me saying that I want to sleep with Duncan mean the same as if I said it when I was sober?" She looks tormented and Logan's heart goes out to this confused, troubled girl.
"Sounds like rape to me." Lilly murmurs. "The police said my blood alcohol was at 2.0. that means I wasn't in control of my faculties so even if I gave permission I wasn't in right mind to do it, so it counted as rape. What the Donut did to you is the same thing."
Logan nods in agreement, and Veronica looks gratefully at her former friend. Wallace just sits there helplessly. He comes from a pretty normal family, and the disfunctional lives of the natives of Neptune are uncharted territory for him. He takes Veronica's hand, and is gratified when she leans into him and squeezes his hand. It's weird for him to be the strong one in their friendship – from practically the moment he met her she has been sticking up for him and protecting him. Now it's his turn.
But while he has been musing, Veronica has started speaking again. He'd thought things would be better now that she'd calmed down, but apparently it has only caused her to remember her previous grievances.
"Why is this any of your business, Lilly Kane?"
"Maybe because my brother is the one who raped you?" Lilly retorts.
"When you came after me you didn't know that." Veronica points out.
"Fine. You got me. I came after you because I care. I care because we used to be best friends. BFFEs. NENENE remember? And maybe I regret what I did to you, and I regret that we couldn't work through what happened. I came after you because even though we haven't had a civil conversation in just over a year, I still care deeply what happens to you." Lilly yells, finally sick of Veronica trying to push everyone away.
Logan realises that he's never seen Lilly this serious – not even in the hospital after her rape. She's always been joking around and flirting, but with Veronica she obviously cares enough not to care about her image and just be human.
Veronica is staring at her, open-mouthed.
"Say something Mars. You're making me think my outburst was a bad idea." Lilly comments, wryly.
She still says nothing, but gets up and gives Lilly a bone crushingly tight hug. The buxom blonde returns the hug whole-heartedly, and the two boys are given the satisfaction of seeing a friendship reformed.
"I'm sorry I was such a bitch just now." Veronica whispers.
"I'm sorry I was such a bitch all year!" Lilly laughs, pulling her smaller friend into her lap. "But I totally love the new you. I thought I loved the old you, but this Veronica is way better."
"But don't you care that I thought your dad did all that stuff to you?" Veronica asks, shocked at the way Lilly is blowing past all their problems.
"I'd rather not think about that right now." Lilly admits. "It'll ruin the moment."
"Well, I just wanna say, that I don't think your dad did it. I just know that the dude who got convicted also didn't do it." Veronica tells her, before dropping the subject.
"Aw, how cute. The whole gang is back together." Logan comments, ironically.
"Except for that pig I'm ashamed to call my brother." Lilly points out. "No way is he in our little group anymore."
"But now we've got Wallace." Veronica laughs, pulling her other best friend into a hug.
The next day the new Fab Four walks into school together, elicting whispers on all sides, especially since Logan has his arm slung over Veronica's shoulder, and Lilly is whispering coyly into Wallace's ear. Speculation is rife as people try and work out whether Wallace is Lilly's new guy or if Veronica and Logan are a couple or just friends, but the four of them just let it wash over them and walk to class.
They all have Chemistry first, and make their way to a lab, taking a table of four together. They get more stares, and even Mr Coss, the teacher, looks surprised. He asks if anyone will swap with Veronica so that she doesn't attack Logan and Lilly, but the four of them just laugh.
"We're advocating peace and love, not war and hate right now, Mr C." Lilly calls.
"Alright, Lilly, as long as you're sure you and Veronica won't regress and start fighting while I'm trying to teach you guys about moles." The two girls nod tritely. "Now. New page, new heading: Moles."
Logan scrawls the heading, and waits for more notes to be dictated. While he is distracted, Veronica doodles a pencil drawing of a mole, with an arrow saying 'mole. But not the chem type.' When he turns back to write down what Mr Coss is saying, he catches sight of the unskilful drawing and grins at his friend, returning the favour with a picture of a little pirate with a speech bubble with the word 'yaaarr' in it.
The four friends continue messing around and joking quietly throughout the lesson.
"But the thing you have to remember is that, just like Hydrogen atoms, Oxygen gas atoms are always found in pairs. Never alone." Mr Coss stresses to his class.
"How nice for them." Veronica mutters as he continues explaining.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lilly asks.
"They've always got a pair, right. So there's, like, never a need for them to be lonely or sad. Cos their pair will always be there to cheer them up." She explains to her amused friends.
"Yeah, and we travel in fours now." Logan tells her. "So none of us can get depressed or hurt."
Veronica realises that he is very right, and thanks her stars that she has reformed her friendships with both Logan and Lilly. They troop out of Chemistry, and have to split up for their next few classes. They reunite at lunch, forgoing the 09er table for Veronica and Wallace's usual table.
"So, who wants to take advantage of my pirate points and order Chinese food?" Lilly asks, as they dump their bags and sit down.
"I can't take another day of cafeteria food, I'll tell you that." Wallace moans. "Chinese sounds great."
They order, and their food comes quickly. Although Veronica has ordered more dishes than all of the others, she still feels the need to scrounge from their boxes, and all three let her – glad that she trusts them enough.
"So, Logan. You and I are totally done this time, right?" Lilly suddenly asks, causing Logan to blush and choke on the eggroll he is eating.
"Uh, yeah, Lill. We broke up like three months ago and haven't been together since. I can safely say that I don't wanna get back together with you." He replies, shooting a furtive glance at Veronica as he speaks. She misses this gauge of her reactions, but Wallace sees everything and resolves to hassle his new friend about it later.
"Good. Cos, I was thinking of introducing my current loverr-" She draws out the word, flirtatiously. "as my new boyfriend." She admits.
"Lilly, that's awesome. I have no clue who he is, but that doesn't stop it being any less awesome!" Veronica squeals, and the two girls begin giggling and whispering.
"You can take the girl out of the girly, but you can never entirely take the girly out of the girl." Logan remarks to Wallace.
Suddenly, Lilly stands up and begins circling the quad, making sure that she has everyone's attention before speaking.
"Ladies and gentlemen. 09ers and 02ers. Cool kids and geeks. I would like to introduce you all to my new boyfriend." She announces loudly, and whispers immediately start flying.
Unabashed at the attention she is receiving, Lilly doesn't say the guy's name. She simply walks over to his table and starts making out with him. Veronica gives him credit for the fact that he only falters for a second, before matching Lilly in enthusiasm and confidence. The guy himself doesn't surprise her one bit; she always knew Lilly like boys like him, but it does surprise everyone else.
Logan sums it up pretty well for the whole quad. "Lilly Kane is dating Weevil?"