VM: To the Frenchmen and the Indians (Logan; R) 2/?
Title: To the Frenchmen and the Indians...2?
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Characters/Pairings: Logan; Logan/Liz (OFC).
Word Count: 6320
Rating: R, but the other chapters might be higher.
Spoilers: Through 309, plus Getting Ready, Getting Set, Go and Picture of You and the first chapter. This fic goes AU after 3x09.
Summary: Logan finds his way to a new college....
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Veronica Mars. The rights belong to Rob Thomas and The CW. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: Written for rejeneration for the 2006 vm_santa. Beta'd by the lovely starxd_sparrow who was desperate for this as a birthday present. At this point all mistakes are my own. sarah_p also helped hold my hand while telling me that this wasn't a crazy idea in the first place. You can also spot a Sarah section if you know her well enough.
Jen wanted some fic to see Logan in a setting without Veronica, and hopefully this is getting there. I wanted to make sure that I had something posted by the 1st, but this is going to turn into a longer piece for me.
It should also be said that I went to Amherst, and so there's tons of details about it. If you're looking for more information, here is the College's official website.
Logan looked around the Campus Center after walking down the hill with his dorm mates; he needed to get his bearings before beginning his quest to avoid his classmates. He’d noticed that they had this scary herd mentality that had started after the RC meeting with Sarah and John and carried over to the meeting with Deans Fretwell, Lieber and Rockwell. Everyone was so eager to be BFFs with everyone else that Logan’s only thought was to escape them as quickly as possible. It wasn’t just the fifty other people he was living with in Appleton either-it was everyone in his class. No one was able to not look like a sad little puppy looking for a home, and it was making him sick.
He had managed to call Liz during some downtime, and he suggested that they meet at the First-year event run by the Student Activities office so he could leave the herd behind. Keefe offered up a large space where Logan could easily lose his dorm mates and find Liz before getting himself into something decidedly more entertaining that the activities offered up by the event.
Once he arrived, he looked around the building and noted there was plenty of free food-chicken wings, cookies, pizza- as the smell of them wafted around the building. He assumed from the distorted warbling coming from one side of the building that there was a karaoke bar set up. Some other free events were set up around other parts of the building, as well. Logan made a lap around the building, trying to find Liz in the crowd of annoying classmates who were giggling about some guy singing badly to “The Boys Are Back in Town” as another group seemed caught up in some trivial conversation about 24 in another corner. It was only a few hours into his time at Amherst, and he already wanted to hurt a fair number of the people with which he would spend the next four years. He suppressed that urge, though, as he remembered that to everyone else, this was a new experience; his own tainted memories of Hearst were doing him a disservice. He quickly pushed those throughs from his mind and set out to look for his petite brunette friend.
As he walked around the second floor after he hadn’t found her in any of the rooms on the first, he found Liz sitting in one alcove with a plate of cookies, pizza and wings looking suitably bored. The plate of food was full, and it looked like she had just arrived, but her posture suggested that she had been there for more than a few minutes.
“You finally arrived,” she said, picking up a wing from her plate. She lazily placed it into her mouth while waiting for him to respond.
“Well, I did have to look around this building while trying to avoid being sucked into an inane conversation with my classmates; it wasn’t easy,” Logan replied as she continued to eat the wing. He sat cautiously down next to her as he tried to gauge how long she was going to goad him.
“If you say so,” she replied after finishing the wing. She picked up another wing, this time dipping it into some bleu cheese. The bored expression on her face faded, replaced by a small smile as Logan’s mention of his classmates hung in the air. The curves of her mouth were still turned up when she put the second wing into her mouth.
“I do,” he commented emphatically. “So what are you plans to get me out of this Hellhole?”
She looked at him in shock, still chewing. Once she swallowed, her smile grew wider than her previous one. “I’m supposed to get you out of here? I mean, you don’t find your classmates just entertaining? Look at them-walking around like a horde of Valley girls-it’s priceless.”
“You may be correct, Liz, but I need a good drink after having to endure two hours of rules and the name game, followed by Dean Fretwell’s overtly perky speech about my classmates.” He sighed heavily as he remembered the ninety minutes spent in Buckley listening to the statistics about his classmates.
She arched one eyebrow up at him while he repeated the events of his afternoon. “If that’s what you’re looking for, then I might be able to help you out. I’ve got a bottle of Stoli in my room, and a few of my friends are around to get you away from this.” Liz shifted so that she was sitting on the edge of the couch, making her willingness to escape Keefe all the more apparent.
“Sounds perfect.” He quickly stood up and kicked his left leg up while making his way to the stairs.
“You’re far too eager for that drink, Logan,” she said, picking up her plate of food and following him.
“If only you knew how boring I found all of today. I can’t mock people when everyone’s trying to take this shit seriously. I already did this, remember? I’m so over Orientation.”
“Of course, how could I forget? Logan Echolls doesn’t like people,” she retorted snidely as she followed him down the stairs, trying not to speak too loudly and alert his classmates to his presence.
“I don’t hate all people, just the annoying ones. I’m sure you’re friends will be fine.” He called over his shoulder before he took a sharp turn down them and rounded the corner to get out of the building quickly.
He exited the Campus Center without running into anyone who wanted to talk to him and waited outside in the slightly cooler night air. “Where to?” He tapped his foot impatiently on one of the large square ottomans that stood in front of Keefe.
“To the right. I’m living in Moore, next to Valentine this year-my friends and I sort of got fucked in room draw, but I think it can be a good thing. I mean, I don’t have to walk too far after dinner, or on a Sunday afternoon after a bad hangover.” Logan started to hop towards the dorm again, the excitement at the thought of vodka evident in his perky actions.
“What is that thing you keep doing?” she asked while still standing outside the building, watching him go.
“What thing?” he asked as he continued to skip over to Moore.
“That skip-hop thing as you leave,” she replied, waving her hands to mimic some of his energy.
“Oh-that’s just my way of showing some excitement at what I’m doing next. You’ll grow to find it charming, I assure you. Everyone who knew me in Neptune loved it.”
“If you say so.” She followed behind him before managing to fall in step with his brisk pace.
“So who am I meeting now?” He looked down at her, keeping his steps light and carefree.
“My friends, Kevin, Diana and Emily. They’re all here helping with part of Orientation. Kevin’s from South Carolina, Diana is from Staten Island, and Emily is from Pennsylvania. You shouldn’t have any problems with them, I promise.”
“Well, I didn’t hate Sarah, so that’s one check for your other friends.” He stopped skipping as the building he assumed was Moore came into view on his right. He looked out across the street in front of him for a second as Liz walked up the stairs.
“Di, Em and Kevin are like Sarah, if that helps.” She stopped in front of the keypad and entered her code before entering the dorm. Logan followed on her heels as she walked to her room, first up a small set of stairs and then to the right once they passed through a set of double doors.
Liz opened the door, and in the outer room of her double sat her three friends, sprawled on two twin beds pushed together. They were talking about something that Logan didn’t hear, but once he entered the room, the room fell silent as three pairs of eyes regarded him.
“Guys,” Liz said as the silence in the room stretched uncomfortably, “this is Logan. Logan, this is Kevin, Diana and Emily.” Liz directed Logan in the direction of a tall African-American guy who looks like he could be Mr. T, a smallish brunette with a round face and then an Asian girl.
“Nice to meet you, Logan,” Diana replied before taking another sip from her cup. “What’s your poison?” she asked, getting off the large bed in the room, trying to make her way to Logan amidst the sea of bags on the floor in front of the desk.
“Bourbon usually, but I don’t see a case in the room, so vodka.” He nodded at the bottle of Stoli that Liz had mentioned earlier sitting on the desk.
“Excellent choice, if I must say. All we have to mix it with is stuff from the vending machines. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for that. It’s better than nothing at all,” he said, grabbing a bottle of orange juice from the desk.
“Here’s a cup. Sorry we don’t have anything fancy tonight. Half of my shit is still in storage,” Liz said, looking at her room in utter disarray.
“Again, don’t apologize. I’m just happy to escape my classmates.” Logan stepped over the large suitcase he had lugged around campus yesterday and made his way towards the large bed in the corner where he joined the group on a disheveled comforter.
“You must really like it here already,” Kevin quipped as he tried to size Logan up from his seat on the bed.
“I do, actually, but my classmates are far too excited to be leaving home. Then again, I haven’t had a home or parents to worry about in a long time,” Logan mentioned casually before taking a large gulp of his screwdriver.
Everyone in the room, except for Liz, looked at Logan with matching looks of confusion.
“You didn’t tell them about me?” Logan asked Liz as the surprise on everyone else’s faces extended to his as well.
She huffed in response, shrugging her shoulders for added effect. “You said you didn’t want people to know about you, so I didn’t say anything.”
“That only works when I was talking about my classmates. Your friends need to know more about me if you’re going to bring me around for drinks.” Logan rolled his eyes at her briefly before he looked at her again.
“I keep my word, Logan,” was all she said after, her face showing no emotion.
“Then stop bickering, you two, and fill us in,” Emily demanded as she looked between Logan and Liz.
Logan regarded the curious trio a moment before replying. “I’ll leave you with one word and everything should be more clear: Echolls.”
Liz’s friends looked at Logan for a moment before the last word sunk in.
“Oh,” Diana and Emily said in unison. Kevin just sat there for a second, still processing the information.
“You’re Aaron’s kid?” Kevin asked. “Finally decided to get out of that Hellhole?” A hard slap on Logan’s back followed Kevin’s question, and Logan eased the tension out of his shoulders that had developed earlier. Kevin’s motion hurt a little, but Logan sensed the friendly nature of the gesture.
“You could say that, Kevin,” Logan came back wryly, trying to let go more of the fear that had crept into him. “There wasn’t much left in Neptune for me, so I left.”
“Good to have you here,” Kevin said, keeping his tone light and friendly. “You’ll have to hang out with some of my other friends later this week. We have some pretty big games of Halo around here.”
“Thanks. I can tell I’ll need some guys to hang out with that don’t spend too much time being pretentious assholes.”
“Just so you know, we girls also play, but not as often,” Liz chimed in. Diana and Emily nodded in agreement, and things settled back down.
“I don’t doubt it,” Logan replied slyly. “So now that the awkward part is over again, what were you the three of you talking about before Liz and I arrived? I don’t want to ruin the fun.”
“Nothing really, Logan. Just the typical summer catch up that we missed in AIM conversations or emails,” Diana said before she grabbed for her drink once again.
“Right. So, Diana, what did you do?” Logan focused on Diana as he tried to find a good place to sit on the bed. Last man in meant he ended up pushed by the corner of the bed near the window, out of reach of much of the conversation from before. Everyone shifted positions to make room before Diana had a chance to reply.
“Worked at this camp for nerdy kids who love theatre and tried to avoid Staten Island when I was home.”
“I’m guessing that didn’t work too well,” replied Logan.
“Excellent observation,” Diana commented after another sip from her drink. “It doesn’t help that I can’t drive, so getting off the island is an adventure in and of itself.”
“I can imagine. What about you, Emily?” Logan shifted his attention from Diana to Emily, briefly stopping to look at Liz for confirmation of how well he was doing with her other friends. Liz gave him a small smile before he finally looked at Emily.
Emily brought her gaze up from the bed before replying. “I was working at some boring job while Dad kept trying to get me to play more golf.”
“Wow, Em, that makes your life sound so hard,” Kevin said, butting in. “Though, that is a pretty crappy way to spend the summer. You at least got outside more than I did. Sixteen hours a day between Starbucks and my computer company didn’t leave me much free time.”
“That’s too bad, dude. I just spent my time avoiding my ex and willing the days to pass so I could get here. Now I just wish I had less annoying classmates.” Logan sighed at the brief mention of that girl, but let the rest of the room dictate what to do after it. No one, he was sure, knew why he’d just done that, and that was fine for the time being.
Diana, Emily and Liz started to laugh after Logan’s comment. It left the three of them incapable of anything else, and a few second later Liz was curled up on her bed, still laughing uncontrollably.
“You seem to have a way with women, Logan. Welcome to Amherst!” Kevin patted Logan on the back again before he moved off the bed, leaving the girls giggling on the bed. “Just know that I haven’t seen them laugh this much since last 4/20. Consider yourself part of the group.” Kevin looked down at the girls as he tried to maneuver his way towards the vodka and mixers.
Diana stopped giggling for a second. “Please don’t bring up that day; I prefer not to remember how stupid we got at Panda.” She curled into a ball before giggling again.
Logan arched one eyebrow quizzically. “Details, please,” he prompted, still looking at the girls giggling on the bed around him. Kevin’s face revealed just the absurdity of the situation and nothing else.
Emily piped up this time, through her continued laughter, “We all got high off brownies and Kevin’s bong and then we went to this Chinese restaurant in town. The giggles hit right before the food got to us.”
“Oh, that’s good. Far more amusing than my bong story,” Logan replied dryly.
“What’s yours?” Liz asked as the giggle fit finally subsided.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s about her,” he mumbled. Liz looked over at him briefly, just as he looked down at the floor while trying to dig his Chucks into a small dent in the floor by her bed.
"While we're on the subject, anyone up to smoke?" Liz asked. Logan lifted his gaze to meet hers in silent gratitude for the distraction.
Kevin and Diana turned to look at Liz. “Sure,” they said in unison.
“Why not,” Logan replied softly, still trying not to meet Liz’s gaze. He bashfully kept his eyes away from Liz, trying to focus on something else in the room. The bare walls gave him few options, he realized, as the quick survey of the room revealed more boxes and suitcases left unopened instead of posters on the walls and books on the shelves.
Liz got off the bed and looked around her room for her pipe and weed when she finally realized that everyone was interested. A few moments later, she located both in her desk drawers.
“Who’d you get that from?” Kevin asked.
“I have my sources,” the petite brunette replied archly giving Kevin a steely look. She found her lighter, and took the first hit after packing the pipe. Passing it to Logan next, he took a long drag on the pipe, inhaling the weed and looking around the bed at Liz’s friends.
The smoked filled his mouth and lungs for a moment before he blew it out. He hadn’t been high in ages, he realized, not since Dick had suggested it one night before Hearst let out for the summer.
”Dude, let’s get high!” Dick called out, searching around the suite trying to figure out exactly where Logan was.
“What?” Logan yelled backed.
Dick followed the sound of Logan's voice to his bedroom and poked his head in the door. “Let’s. Get. High.” Dick repeated pointedly.
“What prompted this?” Logan asked as he regarded Dick leaning on the doorjamb.
“You’re asking questions when I’m suggesting we get baked? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Dick hunched his shoulders up and looked affronted that Logan would ask such an inane question.
“Nothing, Dick. I just wanted to know.” Logan sighed wearily at having to deal with Dick before tossing thoughts of what Dick could be doing with his time from his brain.
“I’m leaving to go hang with Big Dick soon, and I won’t be back before you leave for that frozen wasteland. Can’t we have one last guys’ night?” Affecting a sad puppy dog face, Dick silently pleaded with Logan for a moment, trying his best to get Logan out of his room.
Logan got off his bed and walked over to Dick. The second Logan was within reach, he ruffled Dick’s hair. “Sure.”
“Score! I’ve got some sitting in my room that I got off Corny the other week.”
Logan turned his head. “You talk to Corny? Since when?”
“Since he still sells, man. I’m not giving up my source just because we left high school behind. He promises it’s the shit.”
Logan just sighed as Dick left for his room. A few moments later Logan heard a loud thud as Dick landed on the couch. Dick sat there, feet on the glass coffee table, looking at the TV.
“It’s not on, Dick.”
“I know, Logan. I was waiting for you so we could find some good porn to watch.”
“Watching porn while we get high, Dick? That’s a new one, even for me.”
“You’re missing out, then. It’s like the best. Thing. Ever. Chip and some of the other brothers showed me the beauty of it earlier this year.”
“If you say so.” Logan clicked on the TV and flipped over to the Grand’s collection of porn.
As Logan scrolled through the menu screen, Dick grumbled indignantly, “I’ve seen these all before.”
“Since when is that my problem? We’re not really going to pay attention, are we?” Logan looked over at his roommate for a moment, trying to understand stoner logic.
“Like I said earlier, best thing ever. You need to pay attention.”
“Okay…”Logan trailed off. He quickly chose something just to keep Dick from complaining about the plot or actors before Dick started to spark up his pipe.
The pair sat in the suite silently smoking and watching the worst porn Logan had seen in years. Dick sat next to him giggling once the two girls started to go at it, and Logan just sighed as he enjoyed the blissful simplicity of spending time with Dick the smell of pot filling the room. After Dick developed a case of the munchies that would have fed the entire cast of America's Next Top Model, the aroma of the room service dispelled the earthy scent of the pot, mingling them into something else entirely.
“Earth to Logan,” Liz said loudly before waving her hand in front of his face. “You need to pass the pipe.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I just remembered something and spaced.” He looked to his left and passed the pipe along to Emily, who took a quick hit before it went to Kevin.
Liz looked at Logan with another confused expression on her face. “You aren’t supposed to get that quiet when you’re high, Logan. Come on! Kevin, hurry up, take your hit and then pass the pipe back to Logan. He needs another one.”
-*-
Hours later, Logan walked back up to Appleton from Moore. Still buzzed, his thoughts drifted back to Liz and her friends while the darkness of campus surrounded him.
He had ended up sitting next to her on the bed while the pipe was passed around after he recovered from his memory’s twisted reminder of Neptune. As she took more hits from the pipe, Logan noticed how much more she wanted to touch him: a subtle tap on the leg to a longer hold of his arm as she giggled about something one of her other friends said. What the fuck did it mean? he wondered. Sure, she was the first person he met here, but what was behind all of those overly tactile gestures?, he mused as the darkness of the hill up to Frost opened into more light from the library and the Freshmen Quad. The changing lighting put more emphasis on the last few hours and what it might mean in the larger sense of his experience at Amherst.
When Logan finally made it up to his room, Jeff was sitting by his desk, looking at something on his computer screen.
“You’re back. We lost you in Keefe earlier,” Jeff said calmly.
“I am. I left with a friend, but I didn’t think I needed to say anything to you,” Logan replied before he’d let the door close behind him.
“Oh, okay, man. I sort of figured we’d find some time to hang,” Jeff mumbled while still looking at the computer, obviously trying to avoid Logan’s stare.
Logan looked at his roommate for a moment longer, trying to figure out how in the day that they had known each other, Jeff had decided they were going to “hang.” The few hours when Jeff’s parents arrived hadn’t been anything spectacular, Logan mused through the combination of pot and vodka.
“Ah, yes, you want to be my BFF. Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not in the mood right now. You just killed my buzz, so goodnight.”
Logan kicked off his shoes before getting any farther into the room. He shucked off his shirt and pants before flopping on the tiny bed and crashed loudly on the plastic mattress.
-*-
Logan woke up the next morning to the sound of Jeff’s annoying alarm clock. He turned over slightly, before realizing that he didn’t have as much space to spread out on this bed as he would have liked.
Jeff grumbled something before turning off the loud buzz. Logan kept his eyes closed, hoping that the light coming in from the south facing windows wasn’t too bright.
“Logan, man, we’ve got to get up. That information session is in an hour and a half,” Jeff said as he shuffled around the small bed on the other side of the room.
“Whatever, Jeff. Give me a push with half an hour to spare and I’ll be fine.” Logan tried to turn around away from Jeff’s view to get another hour of sleep. Waking up early and not having the option of meeting the day with a swim in the Pacific was less welcoming than Logan had realized when he left Neptune.
Logan heard the door shut a few minutes later, and fitfully tried to get some more sleep. The combination of vodka and weed had hit him around three in the morning, and he didn’t have too many options then to remedy the fuzzy feeling from the combination. He didn’t want to fumble for something-anything on his desk-so he just laid there, trying to fall back to sleep without cursing Liz too much.
The door opened again twenty minutes later, and Logan groaned. Jeff, he imagined, was busily running around getting ready, especially with the scuffling Logan heard coming from Jeff’s side of room.
A jab to the shoulder was the next thing Logan remembered. “You’ve got thirty minutes, Logan,” Jeff commented.
“Thanks, man. I needed that sock to the arm.” Slowly, Logan got off the tiny bed before he went to towards the door and his shower caddy. He slipped into his flip-flops and left for the bathroom, grabbing his towel as he exited the room.
The crappy water pressure didn’t help Logan much, as the shower provided nothing to help his mood. The lukewarm water didn’t make it better either, Logan thought, as he quickly dried off after he couldn’t stand the bad pressure and water temperature any longer.
Trudging back to his room, Logan saw Jeff sitting at his computer yet again.
“Don’t forget to check where your meeting is,” Jeff mentioned offhandedly while browsing his email.
“Thanks,” Logan mumbled as he walked to the dresser for some cargo pants and a tee shirt. Once he got those on, he sauntered over to his desk to look for his packet containing all of the Orientation information he needed.
Finding the packet by his wallet, he up-ended it and found the small piece of paper with his location for this next event on it.
“Where are you off to?” Jeff asked cautiously.
“Porter Lounge.”
“Same here. Want to walk over?”
“Sure,” Logan said. He grabbed his wallet, unplugged his cell phone and turned towards the door. “Let’s go. I’m sure this panel is going to be riveting.”
Jeff chuckled and then stood up to head out the door.
The pair walked from Appleton to Converse in silence. Logan spent time sending a text to Liz about when she’d have his bed ready, and Jeff just looked out over the hills leading between the western edge of campus and rest of the valley.
-*-
The panel on academics bored Logan to death. It was too bad he couldn’t hang with the transfer students for this part of Orientation, but he also wasn’t entirely sure that their company would be better than those of his classmates and parents as he listened to some set of parents ask about how often students got ill from their roommates. Sarah’s presence at his panel didn’t even help that much, because no one wanted to ask about anything related to the History department. Instead, Logan twiddled his thumbs while parents asked about the science courses and lab space around.
At various points, Sarah shot him a few cautious glances, but he didn’t pay them much attention until they had a lot of hot wild monkey sex in his mind-fuck!-the weed was still getting to him now. Thankfully, Jeff and his parents had taken some seats on the other side of the smaller room, leaving Logan to think about Liz, the previous night and why Sarah was constantly on his brain. None of those potential internal monologues pleased Logan, but there wasn’t much he could do about it while stuck in a room full of overly concerned parents and students wishing for the panel to end so their parents would leave.
While one of the Writing Center peer mentors talked about the program, Logan thought that he might have been too hard on Jeff last night and this morning. An apology might work later, but then he’d have to blame his caustic moves on Liz, and that wasn’t fair to her either. He could have chalked it all up to not being used to someone around his life other than Dick, but Jeff had no real clue who anyone in Logan’s life was.
Something about his brief relationship with Liz was confusing him, especially after all of the signals she was giving off the night before. No one had made that much of an effort to touch him since…
“Thank you all for joining us this morning. We hope this panel answered some questions for you, and that the parents have a nice lunch before leaving campus.”
Dean Lieber’s voice stopped Logan from finishing that thought. He might have to thank him later for it, but then Logan realized, Dean Lieber might not understand the gratitude.
When most people had left the Lounge, Logan wandered over to Sarah who was busy talking to one of the other panelists. She quickly finished the conversation just as Logan finally got behind the large table she had been seated at.
“You looked bored,” she commented, trying not to giggle, while pulling her jacket back on.
“Just a bit,” he said while holding his index and thumb centimeters apart.
“Not exactly the most exciting panel, I know, but it has to be done.” She shrugged off the panel and the malaise that she felt Logan had due to it. “I’m heading to Vals if you want to join me.”
“Sure. I wanted to ask you something, too,” he said, turning his head away from her.
“Ask away. You know that’s why I’m here. That, and for all of the sex.” She started to walk towards one of the exits, smiling when Logan began trailing behind her like the sex-starved puppy that he was. He chuckled a bit by Sarah’s off-handed comment, but continued to follow her down the stairs and out of the building.
-*-
“Sarah is pretty much the hottest thing ever,” Logan declared, closing his eyes and sinking back onto his pillow. When Liz snorted, he sat back up, confused.
“What?” he pouted. “It’s true! Have you seen that girl naked?”
Liz raised an eyebrow.
“Oh. Right.” Logan grinned. “Well, you should.”
“Are you still high from last night? Or did my bringing you your bed make you forget time and space?” Liz couldn’t help but look at him quizzically as he lounged on his bed.
“No, I’m not high, but I did have a beer with my advisor earlier. That’s something I never did at Hearst.” Logan sighed briefly at the reminder of Hearst, but then ignored the pain he felt at those memories and focused his attention back on Liz as she continued to sit by his desk and stare at him.
“First off, wonderful non sequitur. Secondly, who’s your advisor?” She rocked back and forth on the chair, waiting as it fell over and then back again.
“Westoff,” Logan replied as he rolled around his bed for the first time after putting it together.
“Oh, that’s funny. You two should get along well. He’ll talk to you about beer all the time,” she commented while giving Logan a strange look as he rolled around again.
“Good to know, I think. Should I be worried about his reputation? He didn’t really seem that interested in anything else I was talking about, though,” Logan finally stopped rolling around the queen-sized bed, stretching comfortably across the thick mattress. “Thanks for getting this for me. Hopefully it all fit into the Rover.”
“You shouldn’t worry about Westoff’s reputation; he’s a nice enough guy and he knows his stuff. As for the bed, it did fit into the Rover. The guys at Fly by Night were really nice to help me get this all into the back.”
“At least you didn’t have to lift this all by yourself,” he said dryly.
“Of course, I didn’t. I’d never let myself get injured,” she coyly replied.
“Oh, yes, how could I forget that you never want to do anything? Your suitcases, by the way, aren’t the easiest things to carry.”
“Sorry about that. I was in the rush to get you into the room. I promise I’m not that bad, except it when it comes to heavy looking wood,” she tried to look tough, and all she managed to do was look silly.
“I shall hold you to that, Liz.” Logan hopped off the mattress and crossed over to the desk.
“What has you in such a good mood now?” she asked.
“Firstly, I don’t have to sleep on that thing the school likes to call a bed, and secondly, I have someone to eat dinner with before I’m forced to listen to more pep talks about Amherst.” He rummaged around the desk, avoiding Liz’s body by his computer as he gathered his wallet and keys.
“Is that your idea of asking me to sit with you at Vals, Logan? Did you just become a twelve-year old again? Secondly, after tonight and that breakfast tomorrow, I think the worst of orientation activities are over.” She kept still until her host was by the door she got up and followed him outside.
-*-
Logan sat, bored yet again, in Johnson Chapel next to some random girl in his squad. They were listening to some guy lecture about the book everyone was supposed to have read over the summer. Instead of blowing off the assignment, Logan had actually read the book, but he now found the lecture about it duller than the book itself.
The girl next to him was so wrapped up in the lecture that Logan felt like he could zone out. Instead of paying attention, his mind was drifting back to dinner with Liz, and just how comfortable things between the two of them had become in a little more than two days.
It was amazing to him how much he felt at ease around her, whether they were eating or just walking around campus. He hadn’t felt like this about anyone since…her….
Shocked at his own thought process, Logan shook himself from those thoughts and tried to focus on the lecture. The alum was still droning on about the book and how important it was for them to understand the book in relation to life at Amherst. Letting out a soft sigh, Logan realized that this lecture, plus the inane discussion that his squad had before were just more examples of how much Amherst sought to make everyone feel welcome.
Logan wanted to be welcomed into a new environment, but some of their methods were driving him to want a very stiff drink after.
Seconds after Logan had decided on how best to finish off this day, the alum finished speaking and the room started to empty.
Waiting until most everyone was out of the chapel, Logan slowed walked down the stairs and outside towards Appleton. Most of his classmates weren’t heading towards their dorms, which delighted Logan as the quick walk ended, and he was in front of Appleton.
The dorm was quiet when he finally entered, and he quickly walked up the stairs to his room. Hoping to avoid anyone, Logan quickly opened and closed the door to his room. He’d managed to get a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue into his car before it was shipped across the country, and after the stupidity that he’d been forced to endure most of the day, he looked forward to the measured thumb of amber liquid.
Lounging on his bed, Logan sipped at his drink while letting his mind wander around the small space of his room. Nothing had been set up as he wanted, but from his position on his bed, he could imagine how things would look later.
The bourbon settled in his stomach, and Logan looked around his empty room, trying to figure out how much this place was going to be his home for the year. The room lacked the privacy of his room at the Grand, but there wasn’t too much he could do about that. As the thoughts of Neptune crept back into his mind, Logan focused on anything else in the room-the look of his closet and Jeff’s belongings-the easiest things.
Liz entered his mind for the second time that evening as the furnishings in the room lacked spark, and he couldn’t help but be captivated by her energy and personality. She lit up his days, and that made everything about this new place better.
The previous night still confused him, but at least he had found someone to connect with that didn’t make him regret leaving Neptune. She still hung around the hazy edges of his thoughts, the alcohol mixing with the memories from last night, creating a strange scene.
Slowly, he allowed his brain to take the scene and it played out in the blurred vision taking over the room. Liz was sitting on his bed, shimmying up towards him as he half- laid, half-sat against the pillows and wall.
His right hand, free from the glass, moved down his stomach. Taking hold of himself, his eyes closed again as Liz inched closer and closer to him. She didn’t say anything, only crawled forward, looking like a cheetah stalking her prey.
As she drew closer to him, Logan’s hand continued to slide up and down, working up a tense friction. Her face was mere inches from his, and he could feel her warm breath on his skin.
Pulling harder, Logan worked himself faster, looking for some relief from the image in his brain.
The door creaked just as Logan found release. Jeff walked in the darkened room, flipping on the lights.
“Dude!” Jeff yelped.
Logan shook himself out of his daydream at Jeff’s call. “Yeah, man. Fucking knock, maybe?”
---
Feedback is appreciated.
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Characters/Pairings: Logan; Logan/Liz (OFC).
Word Count: 6320
Rating: R, but the other chapters might be higher.
Spoilers: Through 309, plus Getting Ready, Getting Set, Go and Picture of You and the first chapter. This fic goes AU after 3x09.
Summary: Logan finds his way to a new college....
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Veronica Mars. The rights belong to Rob Thomas and The CW. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: Written for rejeneration for the 2006 vm_santa. Beta'd by the lovely starxd_sparrow who was desperate for this as a birthday present. At this point all mistakes are my own. sarah_p also helped hold my hand while telling me that this wasn't a crazy idea in the first place. You can also spot a Sarah section if you know her well enough.
Jen wanted some fic to see Logan in a setting without Veronica, and hopefully this is getting there. I wanted to make sure that I had something posted by the 1st, but this is going to turn into a longer piece for me.
It should also be said that I went to Amherst, and so there's tons of details about it. If you're looking for more information, here is the College's official website.
Logan looked around the Campus Center after walking down the hill with his dorm mates; he needed to get his bearings before beginning his quest to avoid his classmates. He’d noticed that they had this scary herd mentality that had started after the RC meeting with Sarah and John and carried over to the meeting with Deans Fretwell, Lieber and Rockwell. Everyone was so eager to be BFFs with everyone else that Logan’s only thought was to escape them as quickly as possible. It wasn’t just the fifty other people he was living with in Appleton either-it was everyone in his class. No one was able to not look like a sad little puppy looking for a home, and it was making him sick.
He had managed to call Liz during some downtime, and he suggested that they meet at the First-year event run by the Student Activities office so he could leave the herd behind. Keefe offered up a large space where Logan could easily lose his dorm mates and find Liz before getting himself into something decidedly more entertaining that the activities offered up by the event.
Once he arrived, he looked around the building and noted there was plenty of free food-chicken wings, cookies, pizza- as the smell of them wafted around the building. He assumed from the distorted warbling coming from one side of the building that there was a karaoke bar set up. Some other free events were set up around other parts of the building, as well. Logan made a lap around the building, trying to find Liz in the crowd of annoying classmates who were giggling about some guy singing badly to “The Boys Are Back in Town” as another group seemed caught up in some trivial conversation about 24 in another corner. It was only a few hours into his time at Amherst, and he already wanted to hurt a fair number of the people with which he would spend the next four years. He suppressed that urge, though, as he remembered that to everyone else, this was a new experience; his own tainted memories of Hearst were doing him a disservice. He quickly pushed those throughs from his mind and set out to look for his petite brunette friend.
As he walked around the second floor after he hadn’t found her in any of the rooms on the first, he found Liz sitting in one alcove with a plate of cookies, pizza and wings looking suitably bored. The plate of food was full, and it looked like she had just arrived, but her posture suggested that she had been there for more than a few minutes.
“You finally arrived,” she said, picking up a wing from her plate. She lazily placed it into her mouth while waiting for him to respond.
“Well, I did have to look around this building while trying to avoid being sucked into an inane conversation with my classmates; it wasn’t easy,” Logan replied as she continued to eat the wing. He sat cautiously down next to her as he tried to gauge how long she was going to goad him.
“If you say so,” she replied after finishing the wing. She picked up another wing, this time dipping it into some bleu cheese. The bored expression on her face faded, replaced by a small smile as Logan’s mention of his classmates hung in the air. The curves of her mouth were still turned up when she put the second wing into her mouth.
“I do,” he commented emphatically. “So what are you plans to get me out of this Hellhole?”
She looked at him in shock, still chewing. Once she swallowed, her smile grew wider than her previous one. “I’m supposed to get you out of here? I mean, you don’t find your classmates just entertaining? Look at them-walking around like a horde of Valley girls-it’s priceless.”
“You may be correct, Liz, but I need a good drink after having to endure two hours of rules and the name game, followed by Dean Fretwell’s overtly perky speech about my classmates.” He sighed heavily as he remembered the ninety minutes spent in Buckley listening to the statistics about his classmates.
She arched one eyebrow up at him while he repeated the events of his afternoon. “If that’s what you’re looking for, then I might be able to help you out. I’ve got a bottle of Stoli in my room, and a few of my friends are around to get you away from this.” Liz shifted so that she was sitting on the edge of the couch, making her willingness to escape Keefe all the more apparent.
“Sounds perfect.” He quickly stood up and kicked his left leg up while making his way to the stairs.
“You’re far too eager for that drink, Logan,” she said, picking up her plate of food and following him.
“If only you knew how boring I found all of today. I can’t mock people when everyone’s trying to take this shit seriously. I already did this, remember? I’m so over Orientation.”
“Of course, how could I forget? Logan Echolls doesn’t like people,” she retorted snidely as she followed him down the stairs, trying not to speak too loudly and alert his classmates to his presence.
“I don’t hate all people, just the annoying ones. I’m sure you’re friends will be fine.” He called over his shoulder before he took a sharp turn down them and rounded the corner to get out of the building quickly.
He exited the Campus Center without running into anyone who wanted to talk to him and waited outside in the slightly cooler night air. “Where to?” He tapped his foot impatiently on one of the large square ottomans that stood in front of Keefe.
“To the right. I’m living in Moore, next to Valentine this year-my friends and I sort of got fucked in room draw, but I think it can be a good thing. I mean, I don’t have to walk too far after dinner, or on a Sunday afternoon after a bad hangover.” Logan started to hop towards the dorm again, the excitement at the thought of vodka evident in his perky actions.
“What is that thing you keep doing?” she asked while still standing outside the building, watching him go.
“What thing?” he asked as he continued to skip over to Moore.
“That skip-hop thing as you leave,” she replied, waving her hands to mimic some of his energy.
“Oh-that’s just my way of showing some excitement at what I’m doing next. You’ll grow to find it charming, I assure you. Everyone who knew me in Neptune loved it.”
“If you say so.” She followed behind him before managing to fall in step with his brisk pace.
“So who am I meeting now?” He looked down at her, keeping his steps light and carefree.
“My friends, Kevin, Diana and Emily. They’re all here helping with part of Orientation. Kevin’s from South Carolina, Diana is from Staten Island, and Emily is from Pennsylvania. You shouldn’t have any problems with them, I promise.”
“Well, I didn’t hate Sarah, so that’s one check for your other friends.” He stopped skipping as the building he assumed was Moore came into view on his right. He looked out across the street in front of him for a second as Liz walked up the stairs.
“Di, Em and Kevin are like Sarah, if that helps.” She stopped in front of the keypad and entered her code before entering the dorm. Logan followed on her heels as she walked to her room, first up a small set of stairs and then to the right once they passed through a set of double doors.
Liz opened the door, and in the outer room of her double sat her three friends, sprawled on two twin beds pushed together. They were talking about something that Logan didn’t hear, but once he entered the room, the room fell silent as three pairs of eyes regarded him.
“Guys,” Liz said as the silence in the room stretched uncomfortably, “this is Logan. Logan, this is Kevin, Diana and Emily.” Liz directed Logan in the direction of a tall African-American guy who looks like he could be Mr. T, a smallish brunette with a round face and then an Asian girl.
“Nice to meet you, Logan,” Diana replied before taking another sip from her cup. “What’s your poison?” she asked, getting off the large bed in the room, trying to make her way to Logan amidst the sea of bags on the floor in front of the desk.
“Bourbon usually, but I don’t see a case in the room, so vodka.” He nodded at the bottle of Stoli that Liz had mentioned earlier sitting on the desk.
“Excellent choice, if I must say. All we have to mix it with is stuff from the vending machines. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for that. It’s better than nothing at all,” he said, grabbing a bottle of orange juice from the desk.
“Here’s a cup. Sorry we don’t have anything fancy tonight. Half of my shit is still in storage,” Liz said, looking at her room in utter disarray.
“Again, don’t apologize. I’m just happy to escape my classmates.” Logan stepped over the large suitcase he had lugged around campus yesterday and made his way towards the large bed in the corner where he joined the group on a disheveled comforter.
“You must really like it here already,” Kevin quipped as he tried to size Logan up from his seat on the bed.
“I do, actually, but my classmates are far too excited to be leaving home. Then again, I haven’t had a home or parents to worry about in a long time,” Logan mentioned casually before taking a large gulp of his screwdriver.
Everyone in the room, except for Liz, looked at Logan with matching looks of confusion.
“You didn’t tell them about me?” Logan asked Liz as the surprise on everyone else’s faces extended to his as well.
She huffed in response, shrugging her shoulders for added effect. “You said you didn’t want people to know about you, so I didn’t say anything.”
“That only works when I was talking about my classmates. Your friends need to know more about me if you’re going to bring me around for drinks.” Logan rolled his eyes at her briefly before he looked at her again.
“I keep my word, Logan,” was all she said after, her face showing no emotion.
“Then stop bickering, you two, and fill us in,” Emily demanded as she looked between Logan and Liz.
Logan regarded the curious trio a moment before replying. “I’ll leave you with one word and everything should be more clear: Echolls.”
Liz’s friends looked at Logan for a moment before the last word sunk in.
“Oh,” Diana and Emily said in unison. Kevin just sat there for a second, still processing the information.
“You’re Aaron’s kid?” Kevin asked. “Finally decided to get out of that Hellhole?” A hard slap on Logan’s back followed Kevin’s question, and Logan eased the tension out of his shoulders that had developed earlier. Kevin’s motion hurt a little, but Logan sensed the friendly nature of the gesture.
“You could say that, Kevin,” Logan came back wryly, trying to let go more of the fear that had crept into him. “There wasn’t much left in Neptune for me, so I left.”
“Good to have you here,” Kevin said, keeping his tone light and friendly. “You’ll have to hang out with some of my other friends later this week. We have some pretty big games of Halo around here.”
“Thanks. I can tell I’ll need some guys to hang out with that don’t spend too much time being pretentious assholes.”
“Just so you know, we girls also play, but not as often,” Liz chimed in. Diana and Emily nodded in agreement, and things settled back down.
“I don’t doubt it,” Logan replied slyly. “So now that the awkward part is over again, what were you the three of you talking about before Liz and I arrived? I don’t want to ruin the fun.”
“Nothing really, Logan. Just the typical summer catch up that we missed in AIM conversations or emails,” Diana said before she grabbed for her drink once again.
“Right. So, Diana, what did you do?” Logan focused on Diana as he tried to find a good place to sit on the bed. Last man in meant he ended up pushed by the corner of the bed near the window, out of reach of much of the conversation from before. Everyone shifted positions to make room before Diana had a chance to reply.
“Worked at this camp for nerdy kids who love theatre and tried to avoid Staten Island when I was home.”
“I’m guessing that didn’t work too well,” replied Logan.
“Excellent observation,” Diana commented after another sip from her drink. “It doesn’t help that I can’t drive, so getting off the island is an adventure in and of itself.”
“I can imagine. What about you, Emily?” Logan shifted his attention from Diana to Emily, briefly stopping to look at Liz for confirmation of how well he was doing with her other friends. Liz gave him a small smile before he finally looked at Emily.
Emily brought her gaze up from the bed before replying. “I was working at some boring job while Dad kept trying to get me to play more golf.”
“Wow, Em, that makes your life sound so hard,” Kevin said, butting in. “Though, that is a pretty crappy way to spend the summer. You at least got outside more than I did. Sixteen hours a day between Starbucks and my computer company didn’t leave me much free time.”
“That’s too bad, dude. I just spent my time avoiding my ex and willing the days to pass so I could get here. Now I just wish I had less annoying classmates.” Logan sighed at the brief mention of that girl, but let the rest of the room dictate what to do after it. No one, he was sure, knew why he’d just done that, and that was fine for the time being.
Diana, Emily and Liz started to laugh after Logan’s comment. It left the three of them incapable of anything else, and a few second later Liz was curled up on her bed, still laughing uncontrollably.
“You seem to have a way with women, Logan. Welcome to Amherst!” Kevin patted Logan on the back again before he moved off the bed, leaving the girls giggling on the bed. “Just know that I haven’t seen them laugh this much since last 4/20. Consider yourself part of the group.” Kevin looked down at the girls as he tried to maneuver his way towards the vodka and mixers.
Diana stopped giggling for a second. “Please don’t bring up that day; I prefer not to remember how stupid we got at Panda.” She curled into a ball before giggling again.
Logan arched one eyebrow quizzically. “Details, please,” he prompted, still looking at the girls giggling on the bed around him. Kevin’s face revealed just the absurdity of the situation and nothing else.
Emily piped up this time, through her continued laughter, “We all got high off brownies and Kevin’s bong and then we went to this Chinese restaurant in town. The giggles hit right before the food got to us.”
“Oh, that’s good. Far more amusing than my bong story,” Logan replied dryly.
“What’s yours?” Liz asked as the giggle fit finally subsided.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s about her,” he mumbled. Liz looked over at him briefly, just as he looked down at the floor while trying to dig his Chucks into a small dent in the floor by her bed.
"While we're on the subject, anyone up to smoke?" Liz asked. Logan lifted his gaze to meet hers in silent gratitude for the distraction.
Kevin and Diana turned to look at Liz. “Sure,” they said in unison.
“Why not,” Logan replied softly, still trying not to meet Liz’s gaze. He bashfully kept his eyes away from Liz, trying to focus on something else in the room. The bare walls gave him few options, he realized, as the quick survey of the room revealed more boxes and suitcases left unopened instead of posters on the walls and books on the shelves.
Liz got off the bed and looked around her room for her pipe and weed when she finally realized that everyone was interested. A few moments later, she located both in her desk drawers.
“Who’d you get that from?” Kevin asked.
“I have my sources,” the petite brunette replied archly giving Kevin a steely look. She found her lighter, and took the first hit after packing the pipe. Passing it to Logan next, he took a long drag on the pipe, inhaling the weed and looking around the bed at Liz’s friends.
The smoked filled his mouth and lungs for a moment before he blew it out. He hadn’t been high in ages, he realized, not since Dick had suggested it one night before Hearst let out for the summer.
”Dude, let’s get high!” Dick called out, searching around the suite trying to figure out exactly where Logan was.
“What?” Logan yelled backed.
Dick followed the sound of Logan's voice to his bedroom and poked his head in the door. “Let’s. Get. High.” Dick repeated pointedly.
“What prompted this?” Logan asked as he regarded Dick leaning on the doorjamb.
“You’re asking questions when I’m suggesting we get baked? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Dick hunched his shoulders up and looked affronted that Logan would ask such an inane question.
“Nothing, Dick. I just wanted to know.” Logan sighed wearily at having to deal with Dick before tossing thoughts of what Dick could be doing with his time from his brain.
“I’m leaving to go hang with Big Dick soon, and I won’t be back before you leave for that frozen wasteland. Can’t we have one last guys’ night?” Affecting a sad puppy dog face, Dick silently pleaded with Logan for a moment, trying his best to get Logan out of his room.
Logan got off his bed and walked over to Dick. The second Logan was within reach, he ruffled Dick’s hair. “Sure.”
“Score! I’ve got some sitting in my room that I got off Corny the other week.”
Logan turned his head. “You talk to Corny? Since when?”
“Since he still sells, man. I’m not giving up my source just because we left high school behind. He promises it’s the shit.”
Logan just sighed as Dick left for his room. A few moments later Logan heard a loud thud as Dick landed on the couch. Dick sat there, feet on the glass coffee table, looking at the TV.
“It’s not on, Dick.”
“I know, Logan. I was waiting for you so we could find some good porn to watch.”
“Watching porn while we get high, Dick? That’s a new one, even for me.”
“You’re missing out, then. It’s like the best. Thing. Ever. Chip and some of the other brothers showed me the beauty of it earlier this year.”
“If you say so.” Logan clicked on the TV and flipped over to the Grand’s collection of porn.
As Logan scrolled through the menu screen, Dick grumbled indignantly, “I’ve seen these all before.”
“Since when is that my problem? We’re not really going to pay attention, are we?” Logan looked over at his roommate for a moment, trying to understand stoner logic.
“Like I said earlier, best thing ever. You need to pay attention.”
“Okay…”Logan trailed off. He quickly chose something just to keep Dick from complaining about the plot or actors before Dick started to spark up his pipe.
The pair sat in the suite silently smoking and watching the worst porn Logan had seen in years. Dick sat next to him giggling once the two girls started to go at it, and Logan just sighed as he enjoyed the blissful simplicity of spending time with Dick the smell of pot filling the room. After Dick developed a case of the munchies that would have fed the entire cast of America's Next Top Model, the aroma of the room service dispelled the earthy scent of the pot, mingling them into something else entirely.
“Earth to Logan,” Liz said loudly before waving her hand in front of his face. “You need to pass the pipe.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I just remembered something and spaced.” He looked to his left and passed the pipe along to Emily, who took a quick hit before it went to Kevin.
Liz looked at Logan with another confused expression on her face. “You aren’t supposed to get that quiet when you’re high, Logan. Come on! Kevin, hurry up, take your hit and then pass the pipe back to Logan. He needs another one.”
-*-
Hours later, Logan walked back up to Appleton from Moore. Still buzzed, his thoughts drifted back to Liz and her friends while the darkness of campus surrounded him.
He had ended up sitting next to her on the bed while the pipe was passed around after he recovered from his memory’s twisted reminder of Neptune. As she took more hits from the pipe, Logan noticed how much more she wanted to touch him: a subtle tap on the leg to a longer hold of his arm as she giggled about something one of her other friends said. What the fuck did it mean? he wondered. Sure, she was the first person he met here, but what was behind all of those overly tactile gestures?, he mused as the darkness of the hill up to Frost opened into more light from the library and the Freshmen Quad. The changing lighting put more emphasis on the last few hours and what it might mean in the larger sense of his experience at Amherst.
When Logan finally made it up to his room, Jeff was sitting by his desk, looking at something on his computer screen.
“You’re back. We lost you in Keefe earlier,” Jeff said calmly.
“I am. I left with a friend, but I didn’t think I needed to say anything to you,” Logan replied before he’d let the door close behind him.
“Oh, okay, man. I sort of figured we’d find some time to hang,” Jeff mumbled while still looking at the computer, obviously trying to avoid Logan’s stare.
Logan looked at his roommate for a moment longer, trying to figure out how in the day that they had known each other, Jeff had decided they were going to “hang.” The few hours when Jeff’s parents arrived hadn’t been anything spectacular, Logan mused through the combination of pot and vodka.
“Ah, yes, you want to be my BFF. Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not in the mood right now. You just killed my buzz, so goodnight.”
Logan kicked off his shoes before getting any farther into the room. He shucked off his shirt and pants before flopping on the tiny bed and crashed loudly on the plastic mattress.
-*-
Logan woke up the next morning to the sound of Jeff’s annoying alarm clock. He turned over slightly, before realizing that he didn’t have as much space to spread out on this bed as he would have liked.
Jeff grumbled something before turning off the loud buzz. Logan kept his eyes closed, hoping that the light coming in from the south facing windows wasn’t too bright.
“Logan, man, we’ve got to get up. That information session is in an hour and a half,” Jeff said as he shuffled around the small bed on the other side of the room.
“Whatever, Jeff. Give me a push with half an hour to spare and I’ll be fine.” Logan tried to turn around away from Jeff’s view to get another hour of sleep. Waking up early and not having the option of meeting the day with a swim in the Pacific was less welcoming than Logan had realized when he left Neptune.
Logan heard the door shut a few minutes later, and fitfully tried to get some more sleep. The combination of vodka and weed had hit him around three in the morning, and he didn’t have too many options then to remedy the fuzzy feeling from the combination. He didn’t want to fumble for something-anything on his desk-so he just laid there, trying to fall back to sleep without cursing Liz too much.
The door opened again twenty minutes later, and Logan groaned. Jeff, he imagined, was busily running around getting ready, especially with the scuffling Logan heard coming from Jeff’s side of room.
A jab to the shoulder was the next thing Logan remembered. “You’ve got thirty minutes, Logan,” Jeff commented.
“Thanks, man. I needed that sock to the arm.” Slowly, Logan got off the tiny bed before he went to towards the door and his shower caddy. He slipped into his flip-flops and left for the bathroom, grabbing his towel as he exited the room.
The crappy water pressure didn’t help Logan much, as the shower provided nothing to help his mood. The lukewarm water didn’t make it better either, Logan thought, as he quickly dried off after he couldn’t stand the bad pressure and water temperature any longer.
Trudging back to his room, Logan saw Jeff sitting at his computer yet again.
“Don’t forget to check where your meeting is,” Jeff mentioned offhandedly while browsing his email.
“Thanks,” Logan mumbled as he walked to the dresser for some cargo pants and a tee shirt. Once he got those on, he sauntered over to his desk to look for his packet containing all of the Orientation information he needed.
Finding the packet by his wallet, he up-ended it and found the small piece of paper with his location for this next event on it.
“Where are you off to?” Jeff asked cautiously.
“Porter Lounge.”
“Same here. Want to walk over?”
“Sure,” Logan said. He grabbed his wallet, unplugged his cell phone and turned towards the door. “Let’s go. I’m sure this panel is going to be riveting.”
Jeff chuckled and then stood up to head out the door.
The pair walked from Appleton to Converse in silence. Logan spent time sending a text to Liz about when she’d have his bed ready, and Jeff just looked out over the hills leading between the western edge of campus and rest of the valley.
-*-
The panel on academics bored Logan to death. It was too bad he couldn’t hang with the transfer students for this part of Orientation, but he also wasn’t entirely sure that their company would be better than those of his classmates and parents as he listened to some set of parents ask about how often students got ill from their roommates. Sarah’s presence at his panel didn’t even help that much, because no one wanted to ask about anything related to the History department. Instead, Logan twiddled his thumbs while parents asked about the science courses and lab space around.
At various points, Sarah shot him a few cautious glances, but he didn’t pay them much attention until they had a lot of hot wild monkey sex in his mind-fuck!-the weed was still getting to him now. Thankfully, Jeff and his parents had taken some seats on the other side of the smaller room, leaving Logan to think about Liz, the previous night and why Sarah was constantly on his brain. None of those potential internal monologues pleased Logan, but there wasn’t much he could do about it while stuck in a room full of overly concerned parents and students wishing for the panel to end so their parents would leave.
While one of the Writing Center peer mentors talked about the program, Logan thought that he might have been too hard on Jeff last night and this morning. An apology might work later, but then he’d have to blame his caustic moves on Liz, and that wasn’t fair to her either. He could have chalked it all up to not being used to someone around his life other than Dick, but Jeff had no real clue who anyone in Logan’s life was.
Something about his brief relationship with Liz was confusing him, especially after all of the signals she was giving off the night before. No one had made that much of an effort to touch him since…
“Thank you all for joining us this morning. We hope this panel answered some questions for you, and that the parents have a nice lunch before leaving campus.”
Dean Lieber’s voice stopped Logan from finishing that thought. He might have to thank him later for it, but then Logan realized, Dean Lieber might not understand the gratitude.
When most people had left the Lounge, Logan wandered over to Sarah who was busy talking to one of the other panelists. She quickly finished the conversation just as Logan finally got behind the large table she had been seated at.
“You looked bored,” she commented, trying not to giggle, while pulling her jacket back on.
“Just a bit,” he said while holding his index and thumb centimeters apart.
“Not exactly the most exciting panel, I know, but it has to be done.” She shrugged off the panel and the malaise that she felt Logan had due to it. “I’m heading to Vals if you want to join me.”
“Sure. I wanted to ask you something, too,” he said, turning his head away from her.
“Ask away. You know that’s why I’m here. That, and for all of the sex.” She started to walk towards one of the exits, smiling when Logan began trailing behind her like the sex-starved puppy that he was. He chuckled a bit by Sarah’s off-handed comment, but continued to follow her down the stairs and out of the building.
-*-
“Sarah is pretty much the hottest thing ever,” Logan declared, closing his eyes and sinking back onto his pillow. When Liz snorted, he sat back up, confused.
“What?” he pouted. “It’s true! Have you seen that girl naked?”
Liz raised an eyebrow.
“Oh. Right.” Logan grinned. “Well, you should.”
“Are you still high from last night? Or did my bringing you your bed make you forget time and space?” Liz couldn’t help but look at him quizzically as he lounged on his bed.
“No, I’m not high, but I did have a beer with my advisor earlier. That’s something I never did at Hearst.” Logan sighed briefly at the reminder of Hearst, but then ignored the pain he felt at those memories and focused his attention back on Liz as she continued to sit by his desk and stare at him.
“First off, wonderful non sequitur. Secondly, who’s your advisor?” She rocked back and forth on the chair, waiting as it fell over and then back again.
“Westoff,” Logan replied as he rolled around his bed for the first time after putting it together.
“Oh, that’s funny. You two should get along well. He’ll talk to you about beer all the time,” she commented while giving Logan a strange look as he rolled around again.
“Good to know, I think. Should I be worried about his reputation? He didn’t really seem that interested in anything else I was talking about, though,” Logan finally stopped rolling around the queen-sized bed, stretching comfortably across the thick mattress. “Thanks for getting this for me. Hopefully it all fit into the Rover.”
“You shouldn’t worry about Westoff’s reputation; he’s a nice enough guy and he knows his stuff. As for the bed, it did fit into the Rover. The guys at Fly by Night were really nice to help me get this all into the back.”
“At least you didn’t have to lift this all by yourself,” he said dryly.
“Of course, I didn’t. I’d never let myself get injured,” she coyly replied.
“Oh, yes, how could I forget that you never want to do anything? Your suitcases, by the way, aren’t the easiest things to carry.”
“Sorry about that. I was in the rush to get you into the room. I promise I’m not that bad, except it when it comes to heavy looking wood,” she tried to look tough, and all she managed to do was look silly.
“I shall hold you to that, Liz.” Logan hopped off the mattress and crossed over to the desk.
“What has you in such a good mood now?” she asked.
“Firstly, I don’t have to sleep on that thing the school likes to call a bed, and secondly, I have someone to eat dinner with before I’m forced to listen to more pep talks about Amherst.” He rummaged around the desk, avoiding Liz’s body by his computer as he gathered his wallet and keys.
“Is that your idea of asking me to sit with you at Vals, Logan? Did you just become a twelve-year old again? Secondly, after tonight and that breakfast tomorrow, I think the worst of orientation activities are over.” She kept still until her host was by the door she got up and followed him outside.
-*-
Logan sat, bored yet again, in Johnson Chapel next to some random girl in his squad. They were listening to some guy lecture about the book everyone was supposed to have read over the summer. Instead of blowing off the assignment, Logan had actually read the book, but he now found the lecture about it duller than the book itself.
The girl next to him was so wrapped up in the lecture that Logan felt like he could zone out. Instead of paying attention, his mind was drifting back to dinner with Liz, and just how comfortable things between the two of them had become in a little more than two days.
It was amazing to him how much he felt at ease around her, whether they were eating or just walking around campus. He hadn’t felt like this about anyone since…her….
Shocked at his own thought process, Logan shook himself from those thoughts and tried to focus on the lecture. The alum was still droning on about the book and how important it was for them to understand the book in relation to life at Amherst. Letting out a soft sigh, Logan realized that this lecture, plus the inane discussion that his squad had before were just more examples of how much Amherst sought to make everyone feel welcome.
Logan wanted to be welcomed into a new environment, but some of their methods were driving him to want a very stiff drink after.
Seconds after Logan had decided on how best to finish off this day, the alum finished speaking and the room started to empty.
Waiting until most everyone was out of the chapel, Logan slowed walked down the stairs and outside towards Appleton. Most of his classmates weren’t heading towards their dorms, which delighted Logan as the quick walk ended, and he was in front of Appleton.
The dorm was quiet when he finally entered, and he quickly walked up the stairs to his room. Hoping to avoid anyone, Logan quickly opened and closed the door to his room. He’d managed to get a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue into his car before it was shipped across the country, and after the stupidity that he’d been forced to endure most of the day, he looked forward to the measured thumb of amber liquid.
Lounging on his bed, Logan sipped at his drink while letting his mind wander around the small space of his room. Nothing had been set up as he wanted, but from his position on his bed, he could imagine how things would look later.
The bourbon settled in his stomach, and Logan looked around his empty room, trying to figure out how much this place was going to be his home for the year. The room lacked the privacy of his room at the Grand, but there wasn’t too much he could do about that. As the thoughts of Neptune crept back into his mind, Logan focused on anything else in the room-the look of his closet and Jeff’s belongings-the easiest things.
Liz entered his mind for the second time that evening as the furnishings in the room lacked spark, and he couldn’t help but be captivated by her energy and personality. She lit up his days, and that made everything about this new place better.
The previous night still confused him, but at least he had found someone to connect with that didn’t make him regret leaving Neptune. She still hung around the hazy edges of his thoughts, the alcohol mixing with the memories from last night, creating a strange scene.
Slowly, he allowed his brain to take the scene and it played out in the blurred vision taking over the room. Liz was sitting on his bed, shimmying up towards him as he half- laid, half-sat against the pillows and wall.
His right hand, free from the glass, moved down his stomach. Taking hold of himself, his eyes closed again as Liz inched closer and closer to him. She didn’t say anything, only crawled forward, looking like a cheetah stalking her prey.
As she drew closer to him, Logan’s hand continued to slide up and down, working up a tense friction. Her face was mere inches from his, and he could feel her warm breath on his skin.
Pulling harder, Logan worked himself faster, looking for some relief from the image in his brain.
The door creaked just as Logan found release. Jeff walked in the darkened room, flipping on the lights.
“Dude!” Jeff yelped.
Logan shook himself out of his daydream at Jeff’s call. “Yeah, man. Fucking knock, maybe?”
---
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