Invincible
Disclaimer: I don't own any of it. Not even the computer I wrote it on.
Summary: Veronica Mars is invincible. Despite what you might claim one night in the back of a limo surrounded by your best friends, that's the only thing in your mind the first time you see her.
Feedback: Reviews are fun. Like a barrel of monkeys. Why anyone would put monkeys in a barrel…I don't know, but it's supposedly a lot of fun.
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in.vin.ci.ble
-adjective
1. incapable of being conquered, defeated, or subdued.
2. insuperable; insurmountable.
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Veronica Mars is invincible.
Despite what you might claim one night in the back of a limo surrounded by your best friends, that's the only thing in your mind the first time you see her. It's not the shorts or knee socks that capture your attention. It's how untouchable she is. She weaves her way past every person on the field, always staying just out of their reach. And for a second you wonder if just maybe she'll slow down long enough for you to touch her, but then Duncan's next to you and the way his eyes immediately lock on her tells you you'll never even get close.
--
She's invincible.
You remind yourself of this over and over as you get closer to her locker. And you may be mad that she's the reason for your most recent breakup, but the way her face falls when the two of you walk past her makes you want to shove Duncan against the lockers and demand an explanation. But he's been your best friend since you were eleven, so instead you laugh at your own jokes and keep those two words on repeat in your head.
--
She's still invincible.
That's your mantra as you fall apart outside her apartment. After she slams the door in your face. After she throws accusation after accusation at you. After she tells you about the party. About the drugs. About the rape. About how it was your fault. You keep muttering it to yourself. And you have to believe what you're saying because she survived. She survived Duncan's turned back, Lilly's death, her mother's abandonment, your punishment. And this. And you need to tell yourself that even though her hair, and her clothes, and her attitude changed, this one thing didn't.
--
But she's invincible.
She sits on her couch and tells you she can't handle what you've turned into, and that sentence is all you can think. Because she can handle anything. The past summer you watched her entire life collapse around her. Her father was in the ICU with second and third degree burns. Her entire college fund diasppeared when her mother walked out for the second time. Her best friend left town without so much as a goodbye. You went on trial for a murder you can't positively say you didn't commit. And she handled it all. Because she's always been stronger than you.
The morning after your lawyers bailed you out of the county jail, you found out exactly what your father did to her, to Keith, to Lilly. And while you obsessed over every bruise, every cut, every burn on her skin, she sat next to you on the couch and told you it was okay. Two months later you find out it was a lie. And as Keith Mars slams you into his living room wall, you realize if she can't handle it, then there's no way you can.
--
She's supposed to be invincible.
Her tears soak the front of your shirt as you tighten your hold on her. And, even though you listen intently for it, she never says it's okay. She doesn't tell you the burn marks from the taser don't even hurt any more. She doesn't explain that she can live with it even though it really was rape. She doesn't tell you that she can forgive a broken little boy for handling things the wrong way. And even though Cassidy is the one lying in the morgue, you think she's the one who lost. But suddenly she's in her father's arms, and you think that maybe you were wrong all those years ago. She might not be invincible. But apparently he is.
--
I thought she was invincible.
You answer the phone with a cheery greeting when you see her number, but your smile disappears when words you don't understand start tumbling from her father's lips as if he's repeated them a million times. Stakeout...shot...four times...bled out...dead...dead...dead. You listen to every word even though they don't mean anything. Because you know it's impossible. But you still choke on every word that tries to make it past your lips. You still let your phone fall from your hand and crash on the tile floor. And you still stumble backwards, landing on your too expensive couch in a heap of broken sobs.
Because Veronica Mars was never invincible.