Right back to square one.

[logan_echolls]

If I had known that Veronica's reaction to me kissing her would be ravishing me right back, despite the fact that she had just broken up with Duncan, I quite possibly would have kissed her a lot sooner

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[logan_echolls]

"Happy new year," I nodded to her with a reluctant breath. "Let's just say that we're talking even less than we already did and that's a feat." It really was. To think that Duncan and I could possibly be talking less was just painful. And it wasn't the only time we'd fought like that, Veronica knew that.

"I'm okay," I insisted, shrugging the concern off. "We have matching bruises. It's possibly better than getting your name permanently tattooed onto us." - and yet we're not bonding over the love and loss of one Veronica Mars. Let's face it: We were both in love with her and we had both lost her at some point.

I gave a small grin to her, it was better than settling back on the idea that I had officially lost my best friend for good - forever. It was better than thinking that way. "I'm moved out. I'm on my dad's yacht for now," I just shook my head and forgot about it. There was nothing else more that I wanted to do than to skip all my classes today and get the fuck out of here. I didn't want to see Duncan and open those fresh wound. Frankly, I was tired of that.

"You know, I think I did see something there about me," I said grinning over to the wall again. Beside one of the stalls I had written our initials in thick black ink, in one of those crappy hearts.

[renewedsoul_v]

"I'm sorry." I said softly, "See, that'd be the part of this I keep not liking. That I messed you guys up - again." That was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do. It didn't even matter how much Duncan knew at this point. He knew enough to get into a giant fight with Logan.

At least we can both be sure of one thing: we aren't lying about how much we love each other if we're willing to have people who mean so much to us just not talking to us because of it. That was sort of comforting. Just a little.

"You're living on your dad's yacht? Well, I guess if they're taking money out for the marina fee you might as well make some use of it. It's definitely big enough to live on." I shrugged slightly. And it was definitely better than having no place to live at all.

"Wow, aren't you a romantic at heart?" I grinned at his handy work on the wall, before kissing him again happily. "I cannot believe you did that." I laughed softly. "Nobody'd even believe me if I told them. Maybe I should get my camera out and record it for posterity?"

[logan_echolls]

"We messed us up again. If we wanted to be friends still, we would have been. It's been over for a while. The two of us were just stupid enough to try to pretend like it worked," I told her.

That sort of sounded like a theme lately with Duncan, didn't it. Just a hell of a lot of pretended and nothing ever being real. I didn't want Veronica to ever think she was the reason we didn't work out. She was just the catalyst to the desecration of the friendship. It would have happened sooner or later. That's something I knew to believe.

The yacht was, truthfully, a mess. I was eating leftover pop tarts and other things from the last time it had ever had food on it. Yeah, I wasn't exactly sure that I could hire someone to buy groceries and clean a yacht. The thought was just tiring.

I returned Veronica's kiss, unable to keep a small smile away. Bright point. Remember that, Logan. She's a bright star. I exhaled. "I don't suppose this romantic at heart could convince you to skip the first day back from winter holidays, could he?" It was a long shot.

[renewedsoul_v]

"That sounds more than a little familiar." I nodded slightly. I kind of had to feel bad for the both of them right now. Especially Duncan. We'd all lost so much since Lilly. At least Logan and I had each other, if not much else. What did Duncan have? He was better at pretending things were fine when they just weren't than anybody in the whole town, I was sure. And he'd keep acting that way even though his entire world was spinning completely out of his control. Just sit there and watch it all happen.

"Hmm, that's a tough one." I stated, a slight teasing edge to my voice. I really shouldn't, but it was the first day back. I couldn't miss that much. Besides, I knew Logan was gonna blow it off whether I went with him or not, and I wasn't exactly wanting to deal with Duncan in over half my classes as it was. And I'd told Wallace what was going on when he was at my house, so he'd know I was fine if he didn't see me. "I think, just this once, I could be convinced to skip the entire day." I told him. "I can help you get the yacht more set up to actually be lived in, if you want?"

Somehow I knew he hadn't bothered to bring any supplies with him, and there was probably stuff that should be stored somewhere else anyway. Least I could do was help with that.

"I kinda need to leave my cell here though, 'cause at this point, I'd bet my car that my dad's got the tracker turned on and he's planning on monitoring it all day. Just to make sure I'm not doing exactly what I'm about to." Sneaking off school grounds with the boy he flat out forbade me to even talk to, probably look at. I sighed slightly. "He'll relax once he actually takes the time to look over the files I gave him. Maybe. Anyway, that means we have to be back here at last bell."

[logan_echolls]

I brightened the moment she agreed to skip the day. Smiling, I kissed her again. "You know I'd actually be forever in debt to you if you actually helped me clean up the yacht," I said. It had all those things that I had to go through but couldn't stand the thought of actually doing. Maybe would could have a ceremonial burning of my father's things and a drowning of my mom's. It would be fitting, wouldn't it?

Right now it was easier to go about things the Duncan Kane way. Ignore what was happening at school and with the ex-best friend, focus on the things that really mattered now. Okay, so it was half the way he went about things. I was still attempting to tear the thoughts of how much he started to truly hate me in my mind.

"You. Are a goddess, Veronica Mars." There was nothing more that I wanted than a reason to get away with the only person who mattered. The reasons were just conveniently there.

"And, apparently a sneaky goddess at that," I replied after she added in about leaving her cell phone here because her dad was possibly tracking down her every move. I have no doubts in my mind that Keith Mars would kill me if he knew that I convinced Veronica to skip the day with me. "How was the weekend?" I asked as we slipped out of the girl's washroom. I took down the Out of Order sign before we headed over to her locker to drop off her cell phone.

[renewedsoul_v]

"Hey, it's not entirely selfless...I'm going to be spending time there too, right?" I pointed out after returning the kiss. "But I'll take the Goddess title quite happily just the same. The sneaky's not knew." I added with a smirk. The one flaw dad made in telling me there was a tracker in my poor defenseless phone was the fact that I'm smart enough to know how to get around him when I really want to. And the funny part was he taught me all that stuff, too.

"As for my weekend?" I started, as I quickly worked the combination and opened the locker. I put the cellphone on top of my books and closed the door again, "Dad and I barely spoke for the rest of it, and when we did we were acting like everything was fine. Which was kind of weird. Hostile in silence and pretending everything is fine when we spoke. I blame the holiday. There was one good thing that happened, though. Wallace came home." I smiled. It was about damn time, really. Taking off without a word like that.

"So, am I to assume a trip to get some food supplies before we head down to the marina is in order?" I asked, shifting my bag on my shoulder slightly before taking Logan's hand as we headed for the parking lot.

[logan_echolls]

Of course the sneaky wasn't new. She was the queen when it came to deception if she had to be. Though I think we'd all picked up a few things from being around her. There was still the thing that she had that none of the rest of us had. Her dad. She knew that despite anything that happened she'd have him. It was one of those things that Duncan and I used to talk about. Like we could wish for that kind of relationship with our parents who were just too proud or too messed up. Correction: He was the one who kept wishing. I like to think my cynicism was just realism disguised with disgust.

I noticed how she brightened at Wallace coming home. There'd been a few times this Summer that we were all together. Possibly very few, but all the same, I knew that that was possibly the best gift Veronica could have gotten. "Santa delivers, even a little late. You got a best friend? I got coal. I'm thinking of exchanging it at the mall for something better. So, is he back for good?" I asked her as she shut her locker door.

I slipped my hand into hers as we headed towards the parking lot. "And, yeah, I think food would be a nice thing to have. I would have settled for fruitcake, but all we have are pop tarts and dad's onboard supply of champagne." I caught her look, "I don't shop."

No one shopped, excluding gifts from the mall and stuff like that. My food shopping experiences were limited to late night needs at the Sac-n-Pac.

[renewedsoul_v]

"Hey...you got me." I pointed out when he said all he got was coal. That couldn't be further from the truth. "Santa's seriously falling asleep on the job. Both times, pretty much a week late. Maybe we should lodge a complaint?" I teased.

I knew the reasons this time of year was tough for him right now. His dad getting stabbed at the Christmas party...and we were barely more than a week from the anniversary of his mom's suicide. I'll just have to figure out some way to keep him from dwelling too much.

"I think he's back for good, yeah. If not I may have to actually be mad at him. He didn't say one way or another, but he came to my house first. Probably thinking Mrs. Fennel wasn't going to let him out of her sight if he went home first. And he was probably right. He was kinda gone a long time." I shrugged, "I'm just glad he's home, you know?" Hopefully he knew how missed he really was.

"Wow, you know, sometimes I wonder what it's like to actually be able to say that - to have going to a grocery store and not just having to afford what you buy, but having to go in, pick out what you need, and buy it yourself be this experience that you just don't have." I shook my head. "Do you even know how to cook?"

I was suddenly wondered if he'd actually survive this living on the yacht thing if I wasn't helping him get organised. I mean, stale pop tarts? You can't live off that. Well, you could, but it's about as healthy as living off stale cookies. At least I was well schooled in the art of doing for myself. I could pass on a few tricks.

[logan_echolls]

"So, you were gift wrapped from Santa? He forgot the card." I teased lightly. It would explain the unwrapping her. "I guess you are better than the new rims I got last year for the X-Terra." We both knew I was thankful, just distracted.

I gave her hand a tug before unlocking and getting into the driver's seat of my SUV. I think I will be writing a complaint to Santa, though I'm actually thinking that the gift is better this year than last year. At least we didn't have anymore suicide notes on Blackberries. That's a plus, though I'm trying to think of the other things I had left to lose. Stumped? Me too.

"Well, I'm sure he was going through Veronica withdrawal," I told her as I put the car into gear. "We all need our fix of you." I grinned briefly to her. He'd be crazy to leave again, but from the rumors I heard it was just tough stuff at home that drove him away. I'm guessing that only Veronica knows the real story.

"Especially for shopping needs right now," I joked. I could have choked when she asked me if I knew how to cook. She's kidding isn't she? We all took the same junior home economics class that was required. "The toaster works just fine," I said wryly. If I hadn't known how to cook I'm pretty sure there would be a grave out there for Logan's death by "Aaron's Extra Special Crab Cakes" - my father's love of shellfish was not gone unnoticed.

When Veronica looked at me for more beyond the clear sarcasm, I nodded. "I know how to cook. We just had out groceries done for us before. I had it when I was living at the house too and when I was at the hotel it was extreme room service."

I had this sinking feeling in my stomach again and I was pretty sure that it was a little more than the stale pop tarts.

[renewedsoul_v]

"Veronica withdrawal?" I couldn't help but laugh. I'm sure Jackie would just love that idea. Or maybe she would. It would prove her little tirade at Homecoming true, wouldn't it? At least I'd made a clear choice of who I wanted to be dating. But Wallace is my best friend and nothing Jackie says or does can change that. "As much as I'd like to believe that's true, I'm not quite that self-involved. Most of the time."

"Well, I'm pretty much an expert at negotiating my way around the grocery store by now. I think we can manage to find you something a little more edible than stale pop tarts." I smiled.

I was still slightly mystified at the idea of simply never having to shop for food, but the economic standings of our families weren't even on the same scale. That - the money - didn't matter at all to us, though. And I had to admit the idea of going grocery shopping with my boyfriend had a certain amount of appeal. It'd be fun. And most definitely better than suffering through FBLA today.

"And you know, maybe something that doesn't come prefab from a factory...some fruit?" I teased. I'm guessing with how much his dad likes to cook that the cabinets are already well-stocked with the necessary cooking implements, so it was really just a matter of what he'd have space to store.

"Okay, I'm done making fun of you purely for my own amusement now. Sorry." I apologised with a soft smile as a leaned over and kissed his cheek softly. He was dwelling on the endless amounts of negative stuff and I had to make an attempt to distract him some. "Your loving girlfriend is now totally here to help make your new digs as comfy as possible."

[logan_echolls]

"I'm sure I won't notice the signs telling me what's in what aisle, either." I deadpanned towards her. I may have been spoiled out of going to the grocery store many times, but it's not like I was never there. I wasn't at a complete loss for what I was going to see. It's food. How hard could food shopping be anyway? I was feeding, let's see, me. So basically put food in the cart, buy food, and stack food in yacht.

Simple.

At least she looked amused at the idea of shopping. And she didn't seem to want to stop teasing me with my lack of shopping experience. "I hope you mean fruit as in maraschino cherries, Veronica."

I had no problem one day showing her that I could cook something, though I was thinking that it had to be one day when she wasn't so grounded/forbidden to see me. That sort of put a downer on things as seeing her each and every day in school just to make out with her in the bathroom wasn't exactly taking her out for a date. Like something simple: A movie, maybe.

"Well, I'm glad that my loving girlfriend has decided to do that. It does help," I insisted. "I'll have a new cleaned place, with fresh food, that you're not horrified to step foot onto."