TITLE: His Friend Too
AUTHOR: arbailey
WORD COUNT: 3,048
RATING: PG-13 for language (This chapter maybe light R for language; Logan's pretty upset…)
SUMMARY: When Veronica catches her best friend and an aging action hero together, everything falls apart.
SPOILERS: Pre-series that quickly goes AU but does spoil the 1st season Lilly/Aaron storyline
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any rights to Veronica Mars, and this story is written as a tribute only.
A/N : This story is currently unbeta'd, and all errors my own. That being said, anyone interested in beta-ing, please feel free to PM me!
Chapter Three: She Just Couldn't Stay Away
Logan wakes to the unsubtle sounds of cabinet doors banging open and shut, ringing through the pool house. The light is too bright and sounds are too loud. Everything has the sharp edges and pronounced borders emblematic of the painful clarity of an epic hang-over. He can hear her muttering tiny exhalations of frustration interspersed with curses as she searches his room. Then a soft sound- like ball bearings rolling in a track- whispers out, and she crows quietly in triumph.
He has no memory of how he had arrived in the pool house the night before, but that isn't unusual. Veronica usually bundled him off to the pool house so as to avoid property damage or noise violations in the main house. He smiles sourly thinking on her; she's always been so conscientious of his parents. Head still buried in the pillow, he gropes towards the bedside table and locates the first step in his hangover remedy: ibuprofen and Gatorade. Veronica completely ignores the Percocet he keeps under the sink, instead pretending that she's badass by slightly going over the recommended dosage on ibuprofen. Only, this morning, there are just two tablets instead of the usual four. And orange Gatorade. He hates orange Gatorade.
But then Veronica didn't tuck him in last night. That would have been Yolanda. This must have been the quick little powwow that Veronica grabbed Yolanda for. He doesn't remember much of last night, but he does remember making fun of Lianne. That was a low blow, and he feels guilty for a second. But she didn't have to be there- she shouldn't have been there. It is so fucking typical of Veronica to just keep pushing until he blows. And then he's supposed to feel guilty when, in fact, SHE is the little traitor who set him up to catch Lily and Aaron in flagrante. He pulls himself up on his elbows to take the two ibuprofen tablets dry. He doesn't feel up to actually getting out of bed to grab a couple extra.
Her back is turned, and instead of the black curls he expects, he sees long blonde locks. It's not Yolanda slamming around the room. For a second he's shocked she'd even show her face here, but then he remembers: she's Lilly Kane. And as her little performance of Hop on Pop yesterday proved, she's pretty much shameless. He collapses face first back into his pillow, unobserved by his ex. He's really not up to this right now.
"What the hell are you doing, Lilly?" he queries, not unkindly, his voice muffled by the pillow. His sudden voice startles her, and he hears the indelicate bump of a hastily shut door. Her head pops up, wide eyed for a split second, before she schools her features into a disdainful smirk. "Good morning, Logan," she pipes in saccharine tones. "Can I get you a glass of water?" Logan sits up, smiling tightly before replying, "I'll repeat myself. What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing. Here. Lilly?"
She is strapped into something red and too short, a bag slung across her body. The strap nestles between her breasts and pulls at the already low neckline, exposing yet more cleavage. It is an outfit chosen to punish. Brightly, she shakes her prize in front of him, like a terrier with a rat. Duncan's old Rumble Pack controller throws out handfuls of dust, glittering in the early morning sun. "Duncan said he needed this back. Something about doing a 'rebuild'. Daddy is in a bonding mood, apparently."
Logan chuckles mirthlessly, "And you're such a good sister you ran right out on that little errand?" Her smile deepens, a little maliciously, as she replies, "Well, I was going to be in the neighborhood." Craning her neck ostentatiously, she peers around the corners of the room and asks, "So… Where's Yolanda?"
Logan closes his eyes wearily, only to open them again quickly as the image of Veronica's angry expression from the night before paints itself against the inside of his eyelids. "She told you?" he huffs, feeling betrayed. Which is- and he can admit this to himself even in this hungover state- completely ludicrous. As if he had left Veronica in any doubt about the state of their friendship. "Of course," Lilly smiles, showing her eye teeth. "She was trying to get in good with me. Honestly, it's about time I commanded a little loyalty."
A resigned huff of air escapes Logan's lungs as Lilly continues to prattle. "Do you feel better now?" she asks, maintaining that same overly bright tone. "Has your manhood been restored?" Logan casts her a sideways look, suddenly appraising. "Is the great Lilly Kane jealous?" Lilly's lip curls so severely it nearly doubles back over itself, "Oh, please. I just think it's pathetic the way you throw yourself at the first set of tits that stumbles by your drunk ass. And," she continues, gathering steam, "it's so obvious you were doing this for my benefit. I mean, seriously, are you going to pretend there is any other reason you would maul some chick you barely know at a party in front of all my friends? The whole point was you wanted it to get back to me."
Logan exhales mightily, rubbing the back of his neck where he feels knots forming in the muscle. "Why would I bother? Why on earth would I waste another thought on the cheating slut who banged my dad?" Logan phrases his question with all the appropriate anger, but it isn't a rhetorical question. "You tell me, Logan," Lilly replies, something like sympathy in her tone. His rage, always simmering, reignites explosively. "Oh, fuck you Lilly. I'm not pining away for you, okay? It was a party. With MY friends. I got drunk, I hooked up with a chick. That's what you do at parties. I wasn't hoping your little lap dog was gonna run back and tell on me. Because you and me? We're done. Spectacularly done."
"Good to know," Lilly spits back with a satisfied smirk, "but you might want to alert all those 'friends' of yours because they're pretty convinced you're obsessed with me, and they aren't going to let this go. Reveling in his petulance, Lilly's eyes go filmy as she remembers the events of the night before. "God, Madison was pissed when she heard she'd been scooped by Caitlin." Logan stops suddenly, his hand stilling over the aching knot between his shoulders. "Wait. You didn't hear about this from Veronica?"
Lilly's jaw sets, but her tone is flippant. "I'm not speaking to her. We were supposed to be best friends…" She pauses before continuing, "Or it might be that she's not speaking to me. Anyway, we're definitely not speaking. She couldn't do the one thing I asked of her." For all her angry words, there wasn't the heat behind them that Logan expected, and his eyes narrow in suspicion. "What was she supposed to do Lilly?" Lilly demurs, "Well she sure as hell was supposed to be on time."
Logan's jaw drops "You set her up! You made sure we'd walk in on you and Aaron. Fuck, Lilly… Why?" Logan's tone is beseeching, desperate to understand Lilly's mercurial intentions. Lilly is somehow affronted at his accusations and bites out, "You weren't supposed to walk in on anything! She was supposed to help me out! She was supposed to pull her stupid little teary ingénue bit, break the news to you, and show you how this was all for the best." Lilly paused, quieter now, toying with the idea of honesty. She shrugs, deliberately casual, and continues, "Because this wasn't fun anymore."
Logan explodes, "Are you fucking kidding me Lilly? It wasn't FUN anymore?" Lilly crosses her arms over her chest, defensive. "Yeah, it wasn't fun anymore. You were always moping when we were together and drinking yourself into a stupor when we weren't. It was boring, Logan. It got old. You were boring. Did you really think we were going to get married? Have kids? Buy a Labrador? Because if you did, you never knew me at all," Lilly hisses out, her voice steely.
"For God's sake, my dad?" Logan replied, a spreading sadness in the question. Lilly's expression looked almost ashamed for a moment, but she recovered quickly, shaking off the foreign emotion. "I wanted out, but it was never gonna happen if I left it up to you. You'd keep lashing out, drinking yourself into a forgiving daze, and then turning a blind eye. And this was the worst thing I could think of," she said quietly, staring past him. Logan spits out, "You know what he is like, you know what he's done…" But before he can continue, Lilly rushes to interrupt him, unwilling to let him say what they have never said. Not in all the time they'd been together.
"Look," says Lilly, suddenly conciliatory, "I know you two don't get on, or whatever, but he's fine. You just have to know how to handle him. You're always baiting him, making him snap. You just need to learn how to read him better." Logan just stares at her, dumbstruck. He watches her for an indication she is joking, but genuine pity spills from her eyes. And in that moment, Logan realizes how right Lilly is. How little they truly understand each other.
His voice is husky, a throat constricted and dry with the effort of holding back tears he WILL NOT shed for Lilly Kane. "You couldn't just tell me?" Lilly looks uncomfortable, twisting the game controller in her hands nervously and repeating a little desperately, "You weren't supposed to even be there. If Veronica had just been on time… God I even had to move the action out of the pool house on to the actual patio deck. She totally fucked me on this… Anyway, telling you wouldn't have been any fun either," she mutters, attempting flippancy. But it wouldn't have been fun. And Lilly doesn't do things that aren't fun. "Why Veronica?" Logan manages to spit past the choking dryness. Another empty shrug. "Because she's your friend too. Because I thought she could console you. Because you would believe her. She wouldn't lie. Not about something like this. Not even for me."
Logan really looks at Lilly for the first time in a long while. She squirms a little under his scrutiny, but she refuses to let him cow her. "She really didn't know, did she," Logan says, considering. Lilly laughs, genuinely surprised by the question. "Are you kidding? There's no way she could have kept that from you. The guilt would have caused her head to implode." Logan shakes his head, bemusedly asking, "How could you do that to her? Put her in that position? She's your best friend."
Lilly sneers, "Oh please. I mean, come on, I knew she'd pick her moral high horse over me, but the fact that I knew she would doesn't make it okay. And besides, some part of her would have been thrilled to be breaking us up. She loves the drama, the angst, the schadenfreude. Plus she always had this stupid little thing for you. Always taking your side. 'What about Logan, Lilly? He loves you, Lilly!'" she imitates Veronica in an unflattering singsong.
Logan stares at Lilly, dumbstruck. "Veronica likes me?" Lilly seems to sense her mistake and backtracks, "Liked. Past tense. And don't get too excited there, Tiger. It wasn't you, exactly. She had a need to rescue strays. Your pathos appealed to her." Logan still can't seem to process this turn of events, "But she never said anything, she never…" Lilly interrupts, her voice matter-of-fact, "She knew better than to fight me for things I wanted. In the end, I'd win anyway. It was much easier for her to back down. I mean, it can't have escaped your notice that she was dating my brother, AKA the only guy in school I am legally obligated not to sleep with." Something about this remark seems to tickle her, and she giggles quietly to herself.
Logan had anticipated that a time would come where he knew all of Lilly's tricks. When she could no longer surprise him. He now doubts that day will ever come. "But I had a thing for V when I first met her- you knew that! You forced as much out of me at Homecoming!" Lilly's eyes narrow dangerously, "No, you thought she was HOT. Don't act like it was more than that. You thought I was hot, too. Or am I misremembering the 'standing ovation' you gave me while I practiced my dives? Then you took me back into the pool house to 'critique my form'," she licks her lower lip lasciviously, but Logan is too preoccupied to really notice. An angry cloud begins to form on her brow, but she seems to shake it off with an effort. "I thought she'd see this as the chance to help me that it was, but the two of you completely ruined my plans. She was just supposed to smooth the rough edges, chill you out, and then we'd all have a good laugh!"
"She was so just bummed out by Duncan, and I was so tired of your bullshit," Lilly gives him an insincere smirk as she continues, "this would have been perfect. She would have forgotten all about our stupid brother with a bit of new drama to liven up her life." Logan's brow creased as he begins in on a tirade, "She's not like you Lilly! She doesn't get distracted by every… Wait. What?" Logan rapidly loses steam. Lilly's grin becomes huge and dangerously toothy, "Isn't it delicious! Apparently Daddy Dearest and Lianne Mars, nee Reynolds, had a thing back in the day."
Logan pauses for a beat before he begins laughing uproariously. "That's just stupid Lilly. There's no way." Lilly loses her big smile and grimaces in irritation. "It looked pretty legit to me. Celeste had this year book. They were prom king and queen. Plus, there were all these doofy letters from Lianne, including some dating back to, oh" she pauses for effect and looks at her watch, "just under 17 years ago. The last one was kind of panicky," Lilly finishes, tapping her chin contemplatively.
"Fuck," Logan says, the terrible awe apparent in his voice. "I KNOW!" Lilly practically shouts, her huge grin in full flower once again. "We always had a connection that was way deeper than best friend necklaces, you know? And thank God Duncan is such a blushing little virgin… That could have been bad." Logan hadn't even considered Duncan's reaction until this moment. "Oh, man… Are you going to tell her?" Lilly looks at him like he has lobsters crawling out of his ears. "Are you nuts? No way. She's such a Daddy's girl, it'd crush her." Logan is angry all over again. "You can't just not tell her! This is huge!" Logan's attention drifts as he began to process all of this.
"Jesus," Logan mutters to himself bemusedly, "You're doing my father, Veronica is your sister… And she liked me." Lilly pokes one well-manicured finger into his chest, hard, in annoyance. Her conversation is being hijacked by Logan's descent into topics that unjustly exclude Lilly. "Well she doesn't like you anymore, so I guess you can stop worrying about it!" Lilly says with malicious cheer. Logan snaps back into focus on Lilly, as he inevitably must. "What? Why?" Logan asked blearily and with a barely detectable hit of alarm at the back. Lilly crosses her arms over her chest, protectively, and idly dangles the controller from her hand, showing another fleeting flash of remorse.
She shakes off the melancholy creeping into her posture and replaces it with fiery scorn, "Do you even need to ask that question? Last night you destroyed her in front of everybody! I thought she'd help you. I thought you two were friends. How was I supposed to know that you'd send her off to gulag?" Logan crinkled his brow in confusion, "What the hell are you talking about?" Lilly rolls her eyes in her trademark style. "You threw her to the wolves, asshole. Duncan dumped her- and she and I are obviously incommunicado right now- but we didn't say anything to anyone else. But you told Dick. And after all, he is the soul of discretion. Of all people, DICK!"
Logan sighs, impatient. "I didn't tell Dick anything, okay, but it didn't take a whole lot of insight to see I wasn't doing so hot last night. What about your little chat with Shelly? That stoked the fires more than anything I did! And besides, it was just a little prank, Lilly. So she got pushed in the pool. It's not a big deal." "Maybe not," Lilly counters, "but it sets a dangerous precedent. Your little lackeys have taken up arms against Veronica for you. It's only a matter of time before they really hurt her." Logan scowls at her, "And you care? This is your fault!"
Lilly's spine stiffens and her entire expression ices over. "You should know better than anyone that being angry with someone, feeling betrayed by someone, doesn't keep you from caring about them. She picked you yesterday. She left me standing in your driveway like an afterthought. She has made her choice, and maybe I won't forgive her. Or maybe she won't even give me that chance. Anyway, you should try to do something to deserve that level of loyalty."
Logan bows his head slightly, a curt nod his only acknowledgement of her words. Whatever Lilly believes of the 09ers, it is hard for Logan to imagine anyone actually looking to hurt Veronica. But his friends are idiots with the occasional cruel streak. It is certainly not an impossibility. Logan lets out a long put upon sigh, "I'll talk to them about it." As she turns to leave, Lilly's lip curls, "Don't strain yourself. She doesn't need your help." She stalks towards the door, insisting on having the last word, "I'm not sure you even really know her. Veronica is all red satin and sharp teeth, and the whole world is about to learn that…"
A/N: Any and all reviews and concrit would be most deeply appreciated!