I ended up combining two chapters into this one-I like it better this way! Chapter titles I scratched for this one: Money Like What, Wrecked Routine, Dip it Low, and Cowboy Up.
Hopefully after hearing that, you're not having that sinking feeling like when you go to a movie you are excited about then see lame previews and think, 'this could be bad.'
Enjoy! And I have truly appreciated all of your insights, comments, and reviews! Thanks!
The girls were alone in the suite when they woke up.
"I've seen quite a few skanks stumble out that door, but none as classy as you," Veronica told her friend with a smile as she exited the bedroom. V was sitting Indian style on the couch wearing a T-shirt, boxers, and a fluffy white hotel robe. She looked like a little kid as she held her cereal bowl close to her mouth and lapped up her breakfast.
A bedraggled Mac raised her almost empty Gatorade bottle in greeting as she shuffled over to the couch. She was wearing a long gray tank-top and navy-plaid pajama pants that covered her feet entirely. "Coffee?" was both her salutation and her request.
"I got you, girl," Veronica told her as she poured her a cup from the room service tray.
"Soy milk?" Mac questioned, the surprise and simple joy evident in her voice, as she recognized the familiar container.
"Only the best for my Q," Veronica said as she added some milk to the steaming black liquid. Mac was ready with a spoonful of sugar and she took her cup greedily.
"Want some granola?" Veronica asked her motioning to the lavish spread on the cart.
"No, just coffee." Mac said as she settled in against the big couch holding the cup with both hands and breathing it in.
"Looks like you're well on your way to hangover recovery: blue Gatorade, coffee. I'm guessing you already had some Advil?"
"Yeah, hours ago. And it helped a lot. I'm just tired now."
"Those boys may not make the Dean's List, but they could easily write a The Practical Slacker's Guide to College," said Veronica thinking of all the times their hangover cure helped her.
"Yeah," said Mac smiling and waking up a little more. "Best hangover remedies. Where to scope out the hottest babes. Where to get the best food on campus. How to pass a class without even going."
Both of them thought of Max and stiffened.
"So…how are you this morning, Mac?" Veronica said, deciding to face the topic head on.
Mac thought about this for a second. "You know? I'm good. I'm free," she said nodding, as if realizing it herself. "Max was not the right kind of guy for me—too shady. And as crappy as last night was, it was a clean break. There are no lingering feelings. I probably deserved what I got when I saw them together last night—I knew I should have broken it off with him a long time ago. I just didn't want to be the bad guy."
"You didn't deserve any of that," Veronica said looking her squarely in the eye. "But I'm glad you feel okay about it now." Then Veronica sprouted a maniacal grin, "So, are we going to be plotting any revenge?"
"Already planned and threatened. It will just take a quick email to Nish this afternoon. Max's business affairs are going public."
"Ooohhh, ex-cellent." Mac smiled; revenge approval from Veronica was high praise.
"I'm finished talking about boys who are out of the picture. What about your boy? Bond, you're keeping me in suspense! "
"Whatever do you mean?" Veronica asked in her Southern Belle voice as she leaned back on the couch and pretended to fan herself.
"I mean," Mac's voice filled with sarcasm. She knew her friend's answer by her relaxed reaction to the question. "Do I turn my Logan/Veronica refrigerator magnet to 'On Again' or 'Off Again?'"
"Where can I get one of those? That would make things so much simpler!" Veronica teased back.
"So 'On Again?'" Mac asked with a smile.
"Absolutely 'On Again," Veronica said smiling back, looking a little dreamy. She snapped out of it and said, "But thanks for screaming us out of the mood this morning, Mac. Geez, what a downer."
"Oh, you heard that, huh?" Mac asked, a little ashamed.
"Hey, that was a joke," Veronica said looking at her friend. "Wallace and Logan thought it was because Dick was in your room, but I knew it was probably the nightmares, right?"
Mac looked up at Veronica. "Yeah. I actually didn't even dream this time. I just woke up halfway and knew I was in this awful hotel and started screaming in my sleep."
Veronica looked sad. "But hey," Mac offered, "I really haven't had them in a while. Let's not talk about that, okay?"
The girls were finishing off most of the breakfast when Veronica changed the subject to something much more fun. "As predicted, I went to bed earlier than you and Wallace. Did I miss anything? Did anything happen when the guys got home?"
"No, I don't think so. I was pretty out of it though."
"Really?" asked Veronica with a sneaky smile. "Nothing happened? Nothing fun? Nothing scandalous? "
"Um, hello—unconscious, drunk, newly single," Mac was pointing to herself."I wasn't exactly in the position to be reporting on the events of the night."
"So you didn't dance for the guys?"
Mac tensed remembering Dick saying something about You Tube. She didn't think she remembered dancing. "Um…no?" she said weakly, as though it was a question.
Veronica saw her friend was uncomfortable, so she decided to cut her teasing short, "No lap dances? No sexual favors?"
"What the hell, Veronica? Sick!" Mac said shocked and very confused. She thought of Logan, Wallace, and Dick and shuddered.
"A girl like me just gets suspicious, you know, when I see money like that lying around."
Mac recognized her friend was smiling, like this was all a joke, but she couldn't put it together. Her headache started to come back. "Money like what?"
"Like the big fat check my boyfriend wrote you! The one that's on the ledge by the door."
All confusion dissipated. Veronica was just giving her a hard time. Logan must have written her a check for her cut of the website money. In the same second she realized all of this, Mac was up and skipping to the door.
"Don't look at it yet!" yelled Veronica.
"What? Why?" Mac yelled back. Mac was excited to see how much her work had paid off. Veronica was even more excited to see her friend's reaction.
"'Cause I want to see your face!" She said running over to her. "Okay, now think of what you know the average start up website makes on advertising in its first quarter. Think of your tensy-wensy cut of that. Got that number in your head?"
"Yes," grumbled Mac, looking annoyed, but playing along and holding the check away from her.
"Okay, now look at it!" Veronica knew she was going to flip out.
Mac inhaled sharply. $67,500.
She leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. That was more than she made all summer. It was more than both her parents made all summer. Maybe all year. "That's a lot of lap dances, V."
"And here I was thinking you were just that good. I was ready to ask for pointers."
Logan and Dick returned to the Presidential Suite of the Neptune Grand with heavy hearts and aching bodies. Usually they surfed for 90 minutes, sometimes a couple of hours. Today they had gone at least 4. Both had a lot on their minds, but even after Logan felt like he had calmed down and sorted his issues out, Dick was tireless. It made sense, Logan thought about Mac and Dick and Cassidy some, but his main issue was Veronica; and no matter their past, he knew he had to be with her, end of story. And he had left her happy and in his bed. Today alone, his issues weren't all that complicated.
Dick was nothing but complicated. Dick's mind wasn't used to being on overdrive and his surfing suffered because of it. He was usually the stronger surfer of the two. This was probably because Dick was more daring. He felt like he had nothing left to lose. But today, he kept wiping out, and not even on the noteworthy waves. Logan spent most of the morning monitoring Dick from a respectable—but safe enough to swoop in and save him, if needed—distance.
The long night of a partying with the Pi Sigs was catching up to them. Both men could handle their liquor and, in all honesty, each had slowed down his reckless drinking considerably. Usually a couple of hours of sleep, even after a raging kegger, was enough to power-up before hitting the waves . They had a weekend routine: Party, Nap, Surf, Eat, Sleep the day away. And they did the latter with the kind of swagger and disregard for the sun that only uber-weathly, never-employed, college guys could display. Their weekend routine in Neptune was perfected as it became their daily routine in South America. The boys did not function well when it was disrupted.
Today, there were two snags in their routine.
First, neither of them napped. In the golden hours between 4 and 7am, when every other resident of the Neptune (save the heroes of the night) was sleeping, Logan and Dick were wide awake.
Logan was ensorcelled. After seeing Veronica asleep, he planned to snuggle up to her and fall into the easy and deep sleep only her presence, her safety, allowed. But all he could do was stare at her, mesmerized. The events of the previous day left him wondering if him holding her is what she would want. Did she love him? He thought so; he was almost certain of it, but was waiting on a signal from her this time. Instead, he just watched her. Like a fascinating movie or a page-turning book, he was captivated and couldn't possibly go to sleep. Veronica Mars: wise ass, smart aleck, spit-fire, firecracker—he chose to focus on the euphemisms—all of that was gone when she was sleeping. He loved those things about her, for certain, but during the day those features too often overshadowed the woman she really was. All the drama that surrounded her was gone as well; no FBI, no PI cover stories, no lies, no pain. Now, she was simply beautiful. Peaceful. Lovely. Safe. He watched her delicate features rise and fall with her gentle breaths. And she was back. Back in town and back with him. Wasn't she? She was, he was almost sure; she was here now at least, and that was all he needed to make a start with her again. He was surprised, no—shocked, to realize later while surfing, that he hadn't once thought about sex all those hours of longingly looking at her. Though Logan surely thought about that on the ocean, when he was far away from her, tired of chasing his friend. Several hours in, he sorely regretted leaving her kisses behind.
Dick was conflicted. The instant he saw Mac on his couch, his life changed. And the feelings intensified, or were at least confirmed consciously, when she touched his hair and looked in his eyes. Whatever Logan had been talking about—all the rumblings of attention to her and intentions toward her—had gone completely unnoticed by Dick. But now he knew for sure. He liked Mac. Beautiful, gifted, sassy, independent, brilliant, Mac. He liked his dead brother's girlfriend, Mac. And as soon as the yearning began, so did the torment. Did that make him a monster? He treated her so badly. Would Mac ever see him like he wanted her to? Could he ever deserve her? What would Cassidy think?—he had a faint memory of this answer, but it wouldn't surface yet. But the opinions of Logan, Wallace, and Veronica were crystal clear in his mind. Then the self-loathing began in full force—there was no way it would ever happen. He could charm dumb and/or gold-digging girls into bed easily. Mac was nobody's fool and money, he knew from her time with Beaver, had no appeal. But he didn't want to charm her into bed, well, he did, but he wanted to charm her into a life with him too. Yet, Dick knew he could be an awful boyfriend. Would she even consider him after Cassidy? After Max? With no muse to focus on, Dick's eyes stared straight ahead, fixated on the designs in the ceiling of the hotel suite, waiting to see her again, torturing himself until then. How long did he have to wait until Logan wouldn't slit his throat?
And the second snag in their Party, Nap, Surf, Eat, Sleep the day away Routine came when they arrived home after stumbling through brunch at their favorite beachside café.
Music was blaring from their suite. Dick and Logan exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Logan unlocked the door and peeked inside.
His eyes were big and his surprise and enjoyment were evident as he whispered to Dick, "Shhh! If this doesn't cheer you up, nothing will."
The guys slowly cracked the door open again and snuck inside, staying tucked behind the small entryway divider.
Dick saw Logan bite down on a curled up index finger and, not understanding this action, he followed his friend's glare: Mac and Veronica were dancing in front of the television!
Nothing could have prepared him for that sight. "Oh, have mercy," he groaned through his hand that had covered his mouth without conscious thought. Mac and Veronica were doing a synchronized dance to "Dip it Low." Dick couldn't make sense of the scene at first, but soon figured out from the girls' conversation they were learning the dance from Logan's Dance Central Xbox game.
"She's going too fast!" Mac laughed while trying to keep up with the arm movements.
"I think it's like this," Veronica told her as she repeated the steps slowly, not watching the screen.
Mac caught on right away. "You're way better than her! You're shoulder's got to be back to good if you can do this!"
When the song got to the chorus and the girls were almost on the ground, Dick, still with his mouth covered, gripped Logan's forearm to keep himself in place. Logan ignored him and bit down harder on his finger. Usually Logan would be overprotective of Veronica in a situation like this, but he saw his friend only had eyes for the other girl.
Dick couldn't believe how hot Mac looked in his clothes. She had cuffed his long pajama pants and he was glad he had chosen a tightly shrunken gray undershirt to give her.
Minutes later the girls were freestyle dancing when Veronica called out, "You know we saw you guys come in! Wipe off the drool and show yourselves!"
Logan and Dick looked at each other and laughed as they straightened up from their hiding spots. Despite what Veronica said, Mac had no idea anyone else had entered the suite. She stopped abruptly. It didn't matter, Veronica was already turning off the console.
"'Ronnie likes an audience, kinky," Dick said as Logan playfully shoved his shoulder.
"No, I like participants," she said, loving beating him at his own game, "but if you guys weren't going to come dance with us, then you don't get a show."
Dick smiled a wicked smile at Veronica. He was ready with a lecherous retort. But he dropped the smile and the retort when he saw Logan's ice cold warning glare. Instead he said, "Don't you girls have, like, homes or something? You've lived here for a whole day, but I don't remember anyone inviting you."
"Acutally, I'm headed home right now, I'm dead tired" said Mac. "But which one of you do we get to thank for our dance party? Who here has the taste of 14 year old girl?"
"Oh, that would be Logan," Dick told her as their eyes met for the first time since they walked in. He looked apologetic—he had meant to be rude to Veronica, not both of them. Mac looked embarrassed about dancing in front of them. Dick wanted to assure her not to be, but didn't. He continued, "He has regular video game sessions with a 13 year old girl. He's actually pretty good at this one, aren't you Echolls?"
"That I would love to see," Veronica said to Logan with a tight smirk.
"Plus, I lost a bet," Logan defended himself. "Heather beat me in Call of Duty best of 7, so I had to buy us both this game."
"Well, the reason we were dancing is that we were celebrating. Logan!" Mac said, finally focusing on him after getting over the abrupt arrival of the suite occupants, "Is this for real?" She held up the check.
"It's all yours, Mac. Nice work."
"I'm a thousand-aire! " she said beaming and everyone else smiled at her. "Do I need to put some of it aside for taxes or anything?"
"Nope," Logan replied. "I had my accountant already hold your portion aside, if that's okay. He'll take care of all of that. You just focus on spending it. And get ready for more of the same next quarter."
Mac turned to Veronica, "Have you paid for this semester yet? Can I help with your tuition?"
Veronica was touched that her first thought was of her friend, but didn't want Mac to spend her money on her. "Mac, that's really, really generous of you, but no thank you."
Mac knew Veronica would turn her down, but she was already thinking of a way to get around that. "How about Wallace then? How can I get him to accept some help with tuition?"
"Wallace is easy," Veronica said, "Just make an anonymous scholarship donation to the registrar's office specifically for him. Have them say it was from a basketball fan or a supporter of humanitarian work or something."
"Brilliant," said Mac. Logan and Dick watched this and were both a little uncomfortable. Mac just received what must seem to her like a large amount of money and was trying to give it away in the first few minutes. They had much larger amounts of wealth, but neither had been very generous in quite some time.
"Do you think the bank is still open on a Saturday? I'm too nervous to keep this check around!"
"The one we go to on Fourth Street is," said Veronica.
"Okay, well, I'm going to head out," said Mac. "Logan, thanks—we got to stay in your fancy suite and use all of these accommodations for free last night. I'd say we're even."
"Not even close, Mackenzie," said Logan. "I promised creativity and sacrifice. I offer booze and shelter to any drunk party-goer, so this was nothing special. I am still indebted to you one favor. Plus, everything last night was on Dickie; you forget, this is his place now."
"Thanks, then, Dick," Mac said looking over at him. She felt like he was looking at her so intensely, she quickly looked down . She saw she was still wearing his clothes. "And, uh, I'll get these back to you soon."
"You're welcome. You don't want to wear your dress home?" he asked in hopes of seeing her in it again. Though his clothes were a good second choice.
"Nope. I prefer to mock those doing the walk of shame. Not be among them."
"And you Miss Mars?" Logan said, "I hope you're not planning to go home. I was really hoping to learn those dance moves. Want to accompany me in here," he gestured towards his bedroom, "and you can help me with them?"
Mac and Dick groaned at his pathetic attempt.
"What?" he asked them with a smirk, "I'm shy."
"No thanks. I'm still pretty tired after staying up all night. But I'm not ready to leave yet. I think I'll go lie down," she told him with a wink.
"In the middle?" he asked with a grin.
"Nope," she said, then whispered, "your side," in his ear before she crossed the room and headed into the bedroom.
"Aaannddd, goodnight folks!" Logan told them as he followed after her.
"For real?" Dick yelled after him, "We partied all night, surfed all day, and you're still raring to go? Logan Echolls, you're my hero!"
They all laughed . Logan stopped at the door and turned back towards Dick. "After a summer apart and a semester of Piz, this is the exact reason the term 'man up' was invented."
"Cowboy up, Echolls!" Veronica corrected him from the bedroom.
"Yee-haw," Logan said as a parting greeting to the pair.
Dick walked straight over to Mac who was headed toward the door. He covered her ears with his hands. "You do not want to hear this," he told her as he walked behind her ushering her to the door.
"What?" she said laughing as she stopped at the exit and took his hands off her ears.
"You don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear this. They're what you'd call….vocal. Seriously, I need to leave now. Let's move along."
"You're leaving too?" Mac asked him.
"Oh yeah," Dick said nodding emphatically, "They've been away from each other too long. My ears were scarred long ago. I know better than to stick around."
"Do you care to give me a ride back to the dorms then? And maybe loan me some shoes without death spikes?" She asked, holding up her heels, realizing she was about to walk into the hall barefoot.
"Anything you want, Mackie."