(Song for this Scene – Two Feet – I feel like I'm drowning)
The first inklings that she wasn't alone was the feel of someone else warmth curled around her like a second skin and Veronica only became aware of the strong arm holding her when she tried to sit up and it cuddled her closer. She ground her teeth against the brain fog, the sudden nausea that flipped her stomach as she tried to untangle herself from the body next to her.
She was naked… and so was this other person…
She opened her eyes and felt a well of panic when she didn't recognise anything in the room she was in. Confused and disorientated, her body felt eagerly aware of the man curled beside her… intimately so.
This can't be happening to me again…
Veronica felt her eyes well with tears as she began shaking, feeling the unseen stranger shift and kiss her shoulder. He moaned happily against her ear. She was paralysed, where were her clothes? She didn't want to turn around. She wanted try to get out of bed without disturbing the other person until she could figure out what was going on.
The fog in her brain was freaking her out she didn't even have a vague recollection, her head was pounding and it felt like her temples were throbbing, she was dizzy. She didn't feel hungover… and that sour taste from the last time she had woken up from being drugged at Shelley's party wasn't in her mouth.
This was something else, she was unable to remember the past 24 hours, everything was hazy.. maybe it was longer? She was hyperaware of the masculine hand between her breasts, holding her against his chest. She took a deep breath and tried to control the urge to scream. She knew she'd had sex, something inside her felt warmer and swollen, sensitive, stretched, her hips ached a little from where her legs had been spread, it wasn't soreness, but she felt a little fatigued.
She feel how snuggly the unconscious amorous stranger was, summoning up her courage she steeled herself. Veronica gripped one of the fitted bedsheets that was coiled around her leg and pulled it around her body as she removed the arm from around her and slid out of the bed, chancing casting a brief glance over her shoulder she almost yelped in shock.
Logan? Logan Echolls?
Her eyes darted around the room; it was beginning to look more familiar now the décor had changed a lot over the last year but a quick glance out the window… she was at the Echolls estate.
What was she doing here? In bed of all places?! With LOGAN!
She looked around frantically for her clothes, the only thing she could find was a black pair of panties and a teal silk evening dress… in her size?
What was going on? Where are my clothes?
Oh God… How much time was missing?
Veronica tried to piece together the last things she could remember to try and stifle the rising panic attack threatening to send the floor up to meet her. Painfully aware of how compromised her position now was, she pulled on the black underwear and buttoned the white shirt she found on the floor.
Where was her phone?
She grabbed the small silver clutch bag and frantically looked at the date. December 9th 2017.
This had to be a mistake… the last thing she remembered was… a case… her dad and Cliff McCormack had been working on a case involving another student at her school… Weevil… and a missing credit card?
That had been in early October..
She didn't have her car keys… how did she get here?
Veronica crept into the bathroom and closed the door over, trying desperately to call home.
Come on… Come on… Dad pick up….
No one answered and her dad's cell phone went straight through to his do not disturb message like it did when he was on a stake out.
"Veronica?" Logan's voice called out sleepily, his tone was warm, and the way he said her name sounded so… intimate... so familiar… like the way someone might call out for their lover.
She took notice of her bed ruffled unkempt blond hair and her swollen lips… she looked like a woman who had just spent the night having sex. She heard him get out of the bed and clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent the sob from escaping but she couldn't stop the first few tears.
What was she doing here?
Had this been an after party? That dress… Had they been to a Premiere with his dad? Was this a case?
She searched through the silver clutch again and found a photograph of the two of them standing together smiling… Homecoming?
This didn't make any sense… the last time she'd woken up like this… had been after Shelley's party… when someone had…
"Veronica?" he asked again. "Everything okay?"
The question made her want to cry out loud hysterical.
No… everything was so far beyond okay…
She bit her lip and opened the bathroom door to see him standing in pair of sweatpants, an appreciative lopsided grin as he saw her standing in the doorway in his shirt.
Okay.. this morning she looked adorable Logan thought.
"Hey" he smiled cheerfully.
She didn't say anything at first, she just averted his gaze and it was then the first notion of disaster spiralled through him, not a full blown realization, just a bizarre deduction of something too terrible to entertain. It was in the way she held her arms across her chest protectively… had she been crying?
"Veronica?" he asked tenderly as he stepped forwards.
"What am I doing here?" she choked.
Her words took him by surprise, like a pit-bull going for his throat.
"What do you mean?" he replied confused at first but that's when he noticed what was wrong… her eyes were full of distrust and suspicion… that warm look in her eyes from last night was gone…
That's when the Earth fell off its Axis… it was like a glacial wall between them now… she was staring at him like the Old Veronica used to.
"I mean…. Why did I wake up bed… with you?" she demanded.
No… No… No… she didn't forget…
"Veronica…" he said desperately stepping forwards.
She had to remember… this couldn't be happening to him again….
"Don't touch me!" she yelped and backed away from him towards the bedroom door.
Don't… touch..?
"Wait… we need to talk…" he told her. "W-what's going on…?"
Veronica please… last night had been everything… she couldn't have forgotten..
"What's going on is that apparently this nightmare I'm having where I woke up naked and alone in a bedroom with you is reality…" Veronica told him coldly. "How did I get here?"
Nightmare I'm having?
"Homecoming… we went together… Veronica…" he pleaded. "You don't remember me?"
"I remember you just fine... you're Logan Echolls… Neptune High Schools own personal obligatory psychotic jackass… what I want to know is… how did I get here?" she snapped, anger was easier to grasp onto than the helplessness she was feeling.
"You don't remember…" he said faintly and he looked like she had punched the wind right out of him. "You've been having… memory problems lately…" he tried to explain through lump forming in his throat.
"Really! You think so?!" she scoffed defensively, why did he keep looking at her like that?
"Look… you wanted to be here…" he assured her desperately.
Please remember Veronica… look at me…
"Whaat?" She asked in disbelief. "Did I develop memory problems or did I lose my damn mind?" she exclaimed angrily.
"It wasn't like that…" he croaked.
"I'd like to be able to agree with you but I'm a little fuzzy on the details!" she snapped. "So what.. you waited until I couldn't remember what an asshole you are before you made your move?"
"No… I love you… we are dating…" he begged. "Call Daisy… call Wallace or Meg…"
"Daisy?" she asked. "We are dating?"
Veronica felt sick again… how much time was gone? Her head was pounding and nothing he was saying was making any sense…
"Your dad's assistant… Please... one of them can confirm what I'm saying…" he pleaded.
"Really? They all know I spent the night having sex with you?" she demanded as she stepped back from him again, and the nausea came back when she noticed the discarded condoms on the floor.
She had to remember… if she'd just let him touch her… she had to remember last night…
"Not that part.." he admitted "but they can tell you that we are seeing each other"
His brown eyes looked so earnest… he believed what he was telling her.
"Please Veronica…" he choked, his eyes were welling with tears. "We should get you checked out… call your dad…"
"I did… he isn't answering" she told him.
She'd already tried to leave?
"He's in LA…" Logan explained as something in his chest twisted in pain.
"And your parents?" she asked finally, there's no way they were here with all this yelling going on.
"San Diego" he elaborated.
"And my car?" she added, pursing her lips.
"We took a Limo" he told her quietly.
Of course they did.. because there was absolutely no other way to make her feel more trapped right now than she already did…
"Then a cab it is…" she said as she hugged her dress tighter to herself. Where were her shoes?
"Can we figure this out? Veronica… you need to go to a hospital…" he said, worry was all over his face.
"I need to get away from you… and to go home" she scolded him.
The words sliced through him.
"Did I bring anything else?" she sighed helplessly while she held the dress in her hands, scanning the room for her shoes. She needed to alone… she needed space to breathe.. to process to think…
"No… last night wasn't planned…" he told her.
"Like that makes me feel so much better…" she said as the first tear escaped her eyes and he felt like she had slapped him when he tried to put his arms around her again and she backed away.
"I'll get you something of Trina's" he said quietly as he motioned for her to let him past and she nodded gratefully stepping aside.
It wasn't until he got into his sister bedroom that he buried his head in his hands and cried.
She was gone… last night… erased… she was herself again it seemed..
"Because I knew in a million years she'd never look at you!" Duncan had snapped… and he'd been right.
Why had he believed even for a second that it might be otherwise?