Chapter Eleven
That night, Veronica slept like the dead in spite of the all too real dreams she had that made her restless. In her first dream, she was at the reunion and all these people she knew were around her. No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn't find who she was looking for. For the longest time, she couldn't figure out who it was she wanted to find. Initially, she thought she was desperately seeking Wallace or Mac, maybe even Piz. She knew he was supposed to be her date. One by one she found each of them. After hovering around them for several moments, she found herself glancing through the crowd again, still searching. Panic and concern grew in her gut when she didn't find who she was looking for. Finally, when she just couldn't take it anymore, she turned to her friends and her date and asked them frantically, "Why can't I find him? Shouldn't he be here by now?"
Suddenly, the dream changed and she was running for her life from something but she had no idea what. She simply knew that if it caught her, she'd be dead. As she ran, she was still frantically looking for someone. Her dad found her, caught her, held her, but even that didn't calm her terror. She simply shook her head and said, "You can't save me, Dad. You have to let me go." She pulled away from him and continued running. Looking over her shoulder, she stumbled along until finally, strong and familiar arms stopped her. She fought them, trying to get away. It was more habit and instinct, though, than a feeling of being unsafe in that embrace. In fact, she thought to herself as she stilled, she was afraid but knew she was safe. Taking in several deep, tremulous breaths, she was about to look up into the face of her 'captor' when the dream changed again.
This time it was a pleasant dream. She was somehow back at the 80's dance at Neptune High. She was slow-dancing with...wait, who was she slow-dancing with? She kept her head on the shoulder of her date and glanced around to try to eliminate options. There was Duncan, dancing with Meg. Wallace was there with Mac, which seemed odd to her. Weevil was by the punch bowl with Leo. Her brow furrowed and she frowned. Hadn't she been at this dance with Leo the last time? Then she moved slightly to get a peripheral glimpse of the person holding her. When she shifted in his arms, he shifted as well as if gently urging her to look him in the eye and let him know this was all for real. The way they fit together, the way they moved, it was familiar, so so familiar. Her breath caught in her throat before her eyes met his because she knew, she just knew whose dark eyes she was going to meet. The eyes were covered with dark glasses, though. She giggled when she realized he was in his Tom Cruise costume from Risky Business. He slowly smiled down at her while she leaned up on tiptoes to kiss him but he disappeared before their lips met.
She whimpered in her sleep, tossing and turning until the next scene formulated in her mind. Now she was at a concert. Her brow furrowed as she looked around and tried to figure out what concert it was and who she was there with. The second question in her mind was easily answered. Directly to her left was Piz, out-of-sync clapping and cheering at whoever was coming out on the stage. Curiously, she faced the stage and squinted, wishing she had a pair of her binoculars. A dark-haired woman with an interesting fashion sense energetically bounced her way to center-stage. Veronica had to give up and turn to Piz, shouting near his ear, "Who is that?!"
He looked at her as if she had two heads and answered, "You don't recognize her from the cover of Entertainment Weekly?!" His words brought the headline back to her mind and her eyes darted immediately back to the stage. Not bothering with the woman singing, she scanned the wings, trying to find Logan. She had to talk to him. She had to tell him - tell him what? When she caught sight of him, watching from stage right, she was glad for the sound of the concert around her. She was sure that otherwise the entire place would have heard her loudly beating heart. She turned to Piz to tell him she needed to go find Logan, that there'd been some mistake. Somehow, some way, it was no longer Piz standing there. She swallowed hard, fighting back the startled but pleased look when she realized it was Logan there instead. "I need to talk to you," she said. He gave her that intensely hypnotizing gaze of his and only managed to say, "I know," before the scene changed again.
Now they were in a club and the scene was easy to take in. She was seated in the VIP area, to her right was Piz with his left arm around her. On the loveseat to their right were Mac and Wallace, and directly across from her sat Logan and his pop star girlfriend. Veronica frowned as she looked between Piz and Logan. Piz's eyes were only for her. Logan was leaning attentively toward his girlfriend and that annoyed Veronica. She knew she had no right to be jealous but she was. It hit her then what the problem was. She was probably the only person in the world who would consider it an epiphany but that didn't matter. She turned purposefully to Piz and told him in a clear and unmistakable tone, "I'm sorry, Stosh. You deserve better than this. I love you but I'm not in love with you and I never will be."
By then, the others in their group were watching her curiously, including Logan's girlfriend. Logan himself, however, still only had eyes for the brunette beside him. Veronica was sure he'd been paying attention, though. She knew his body language well enough to know that although he looked absorbed in his date, there was every possibility that he was just as intent on finding out what Veronica's next move would be.
She rose and went to him, seating herself on the armrest of the two-person sofa he and the starlet were sitting on together. Gently, she cupped his cheek and chin in her hand, coaxing him to turn and look at her. Veronica saw the burning liquid brown depths of Logan's piercing gaze just a fraction of a second before she caught the outraged glare of the woman he was now facing away from.
Ignoring the other female, Veronica kept her hand tenderly cupping Logan's face, bringing the other to join it. She tilted her forehead forward to meet his. Her eyes closed involuntarily as she murmured the words she'd fought for years to keep from saying: "Logan, I messed up. I thought I could live without you but I can't. I need you. Life without you is no life at all." She took a shaky breath before opening her deep blue eyes to look pleadingly into his dark brown ones, "I love you. Will you please take me back?"
It was the most vulnerable she'd ever felt in all her life and he looked like he was about to respond. The charlatan behind him spoke first, however, and her words were harsh, "You gave him up. You didn't appreciate him when you had him. You mistreated him and abused him. You don't deserve him. He's mine now and I won't let you have him without a fight." Before Veronica knew what had happened, Logan was somehow chained against the wall. The dark-haired woman who had been challenging her was now cackling like a shrew. She stood menacingly several feet in front of him while outrageously twirling a broomstick. She looked like the Wicked Witch of the West, Veronica thought.
Desperately trying to look past the woman to see what Logan would have her do, Veronica frowned in annoyance and frustration. What she saw was a blurry image in the background. She could no longer catch sight of his precious face. She looked back at her friends frantically and they all nodded encouragement to her. Even Piz gave her an approving look and said, "Go on, Veronica. Fight for him. Save him. You're the only one who can." His words brought a final image to her mind, a memory she'd nearly forgotten. The scene was ethereal as it played through her subconsciousness. Her, standing at her locker, trading out books. Logan, tapping her locker lightly and pleading his case. "Help me, Marswankenobi. You're my only hope."
She gasped and her eyes sprang open as she tried to make his haunting image disappear from her mind. She battled the blurry line between her dream world and reality until she shuddered imperceptibly. What in the world was she supposed to do with a dream like that?!