Chapter 2 - House Meeting

"Veronica, where are you going now?" My dad asked me.

Should I say 'oh you know, over to Dick Casablancas's house...' no probably not. "Just over to Meg's for school stuff. Be back around 10!" I said to him, kissing him on the cheek.

I pulled into Dick's driveway at 8:13pm, almost 15 minutes late, but I figured he might get ideas if I showed up right at 8, or even before. Instead of calling him, I texted him saying that I was here, and to hurry because I had a schedule. He texted backing with a simple okay, and came out of the front door about 5 minutes later. He tapped on my window, and gave me the motion to roll it down.

"Let's go to the pool house." He said, like we were on a date or something.

I looked at him funny. "Um...?"

"To talk Veronica, gheez. I don't want to stand here in the driveway."

"Okay, well whatever." I said, getting out of my Le Baron.

I followed Dick to the pool house. It looked like the only person home was Beaver and he was probably in his room working real hard on some 8th grade project. Beaver didn't even know who I was, so I wasn't real concerned with the fact that I was here now, but still, it was awkward enough just thinking about me and Dick, but now that we've been together privately twice to talk, it makes it twice as bad. Summer was approaching so I wasn't exactly sure why Dick was all in a bustle to make sure that everyone was in the all clear about me and him having that hook-up at Shelley's. There was basically a few days left for seniors, and a week and a half left for the rest of the students. I pulled myself away from my own thoughts this time, and looked up to find Dick pacing the pool house back and fourth like a dog in search for a treat.

"Ahem... Dick?" I ended up saying.

He looked up at me and both of our big blue eyes made contact and it stayed like that for a few seconds. Then, I pulled myself away from thoughts again realizing how awkward and abnormal of a situation it was for me to be in Dick's presence at all, and then outside of school, privately.

"Do you need to talk to me about something, or what? Cause... I am getting tired and still have homework to do, and..." I was dragging on, but I was uncomfortable, and wanted to leave.

"Yeah.. I just.. Well, I don't know how to... really, say it..."

I had never seen Dick be at a loss for works, but the last 3 or 4 times that I had seen him, here he was Dick Casablancas, in the search for something to say to me, Veronica Mars.

"Well, I mean, if it is about Saturday night at Shelley's, and everything... I can just tell people it was my fault Dick. I'll just tell them that we were the only two people drunk enough to stay inside when there were fireworks outside and I just started everything. Everyone hates me already so it's not like I don't have another thing that their just waiting to pounce on me for. This way Madison can blame the me and forgive you, and it will be fine." I stood up and headed for the door. "No worries." I said softly patting him on the back and turning the knob.

"That isn't what I want you to do, Veronica." Dick said to me.

I turned back around slowly, unsure of what to say next.

"I didn't pull you into the closet, or ask you to come here for that. I would have just texted you that, or called you about that. I wanted to talk to you about this in person."

He took a deep breath like he was getting ready to give a live speech in front of everyone, and he knew it had to be perfect or someone was going to die. I still stood at the door with my hand on the knob my head slightly titled towards him. He looked back at me with those big blue eyes, and I was so tired of looking at Dick as a good person that it hurt. I didn't know why I could just look at him and stop seeing the jackass that had been my sarcastic enemy since 6th grade.

"Are you just going to stand there and not even look at me?" He asked me.

I turned around and sat back on the pulled out futon where I was before. I looked up at him and we made eye contact again. I didn't know what it was he could be thinking about talking to me about.

"Well, what is it Dick?" I asked, but nicely this time. "I mean, you're acting like you're scared to tell me, so I mean.. If you're wanting to tell me just tell me cause what is going to make it different by telling me now or telling me in a week. I'm dying with curiosity, just talk to me."

He looked down at me again, and came and sat by me. "Well, the other night when we kissed, or like... whatever. I realized that the attraction that I always had for you was real and it wasn't just a like 'she's kind of hott,' thing. I mean... I really like you. I have always had some sort of feelings for you, but I think I really do like you. And it confuses me cause I am NEVER like this, and it is so hard for me to talk to you right now, but it is all spilling out easier then anything. I just, I know that summer is coming up, and I know that I want to hang out with you... a lot."

I was STUNNED. Dick had basically taken the thoughts that I wanted locked deep inside my head, out, and said them to me. I didn't know what to say. I knew that I couldn't have felt the chemistry by myself, but what was I going to do, go tell one of the biggest assholes at school, one of the people who would be mean to me most that I thought I liked him... um, NO.

"Oh my God, Dick. I..." He stopped my talking with a kiss.

I accepted the kiss, but it didn't last long, I pulled away. "I just want you to know that I feel the same way... I really do. I just didn't want to confront you about it, so I was going to try and forget about it. Especially, cause I thought you and Madison were still together, or getting back together."

He looked at me like I was the only girl in the world. "Well, yeah I knew that I couldn't have felt that by myself. And basically I knew that I could talk to you about private stuff if I needed too, so I did, it just happened to be private stuff about me and you." He kissed me again.

Why did it feel really wrong to be kissing Dick soberly in his pool house. Maybe it was because just earlier that day I had dodged him to ensure that people didn't think it meant anything. Or that I had been insulted at least 300 times that day by just Madison. I pulled away and just looked at him weird, then I got up and headed for the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" He asked in a caring voice.

I looked back at him. "It's weird, don't you think... I mean I just feel like Madison is going to kill me. And I.. I don't know maybe we should hang out more first." I gave him another look and walked out the door.

He must have sat there thinking about what he did wrong. The thing is, he didn't do anything wrong. Dick is gorgeous, whether you hate him or you love him, you have to admit the boy looks good, and even if he and I didn't get along, and we did sarcastically attack each other all the time, I always had an attraction to him. You tend to hook-up with random people you're attracted too when you're drunk, and I guess we did. It just feels all wrong. I feel like Madison is going to slit my throat, all of her friends are going to laugh and walk over my dead corpse, and Dick is going to be in deep shit. I feel like me and Dick kissing caused a lot of problems, the main one being that me and him want to be around each other now. I was thinking so much that I had actually stopped and sat on the side of the pool and dipped my feet in and didn't really realize it. Dick finally walked out of the pool house about 15 minutes later.

"Kendall?" He asked.

I looked up knowing he must have thought I left in a hurry, and I was his step-mom. He got closer and found out it was me, and sat down next to me, but not too close.

"I don't want this to be weird..." he said. "But... it has to work.

Next Chapter(s):

How will V react to D's last statement?

Will summer embrace them?