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Veronica hadn’t been by herself in the school library for a while. It had been the unofficial headquarters of the Heathers during the school day because of the plush chairs and easy access to computers. Of course the Heathers knew how to get past the school filters so they could check their various social media sites, while Veronica just did some writing on her laptop. Of course, with the death of their leader, the Heathers had kind of disbanded, leaving the library empty. Veronica didn’t mind this. After all, she had come to the library in the first place because she needed to go somewhere quiet to get her thoughts together. Ms. Flemming wrote her a pass without asking for details because saying Veronica had a shit week would be the understatement of the year.
“If you need to talk to someone, Veronica, my door’s always open,” she said, as she signed the pass. Of course, even if Ms. Flemming didn’t write her a pass, she could have made one up, but she had sworn off that. Now forgery left a bad taste in her mouth.
Gee, I wonder why, she heard Heather Chandler’s voice say in her head. She brushed it off, and began to check her facebook, more to have something to do than to actually see what her classmates were doing. She clicked on the little globe in the corner of the screen and instantly felt her stomach twist when she saw the notification.
Heather Duke invited you to the event R.I.P. Jason Dean on Sunday, November 2nd at 7 PM
Veronica couldn’t say she was surprised. Heather had exploited the deaths of Heather, Kurt, and Ram for her own popularity- as shown by the fact that all three of them were in her profile photo- so of course she would use J.D.’s death to her benefit, too. Still, if she were lucky, she would imagine what he’d say about it.
Of course, Veronica Sawyer was not lucky at all. After J.D. died, he’d joined the strange group of figments (Veronica wasn’t sure if they were ghosts or just hallucinations brought on by her guilt) that provided unwanted commentary on her life.
This is such bullshit, he grumbled. Veronica just sank deeper into the couch, knowing that this was going to last a while. Of course Veronica wasn’t going to get peace and quiet. She didn’t deserve peace and quiet.
Don’t be so surprised, Heather Chandler said. Jesus. Maybe Veronica should have accidentally killed less annoying people.
I’m just saying, J.D. said as he threw his hands up in a gesture that indicated he was backing off, even though nobody believed he actually was, I marked up her copy of Moby Dick for a reason. Heather just rolled her eyes at that.
If you killed her, you’d have to deal with her all the time, dipshit. Heather said.
Plus she doesn’t even put out, Kurt said. Ram nodded solemnly.
You two realize that you’re ghosts, right? Heather asked, in such shock that the usual mockery was absent from her voice.
So? Ram asked. Heather just sighed and turned to Veronica.
This is what I have to put up with, Heather said, gesturing to the other figments, I just want you to know that this is all your fault.
“Yeah, yeah,” Veronica mumbled. She looked at the event page, not really interested in what it said.
Wait, J.D. said, causing Veronica to regain her focus.
“Huh?”
Is she seriously holding this memorial at the football field? Veronica scrolled back up to where the event information was, and sure enough, J.D. was right. Unbelievable. That bitch is holding some bullshit event “in my honor” J.D. made quotes in the air with his fingers, and she’s doing it at the place I fucking died.
Dude, that sucks, Ram said, being oddly empathetic. They did the same thing for us.
That’s because you died in a cemetery, J.D. said.
I wonder how that happened, Heather said, throwing J.D. an icy glare.
It’s because he shot us, Kurt said, thinking he was helping Heather. She turned the death stare on him.
I was being sarcastic.
I didn’t know you knew that. You were dead then, remember? Kurt said. Heather didn’t respond. She just put her hand on her forehead.
This fucking sucks, she hissed at Veronica.
“Everything about this sucks,” Veronica responded.
“Veronica, are you okay?” someone said. Veronica wasn’t alone in the library, like she thought. She realized that she probably looked like she had lost it. Maybe she had, if she was talking to figments of her imagination (possibly- she still wasn’t ruling out the ghost thing entirely).
“Oh, yeah,” Veronica said. She looked up to see Heather McNamara, who apparently just seemed to realize that it was fall, judging by the white cardigan she had on over her yellow dress.
“I’m really sorry,” Heather said. She clarified when she saw the crease in Veronica’s brow, “about J.D. I know you two were a thing, and believe me, if there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s how hard it is to lose someone close to you.”
“Oh, yeah,” Veronica said, “you and Kurt had a thing, right? I forgot about that.”
Hell yeah, we did, Kurt said with a shit-eating grin, PUNCH IT IN! He fist-bumped Ram while Heather and J.D. shared an annoyed look. The only thing that the two had in common was how irritating they found the football players to be sometimes.
“No,” Heather said, “well, I mean, we did, but that wasn’t what I was talking about.” Veronica’s eyes widened as the weight of Heather’s statement dawned on her.
“Of course. Heather,” Veronica said, “It’s weird. It’s like sometimes I can hear her in my head. I almost forget she’s gone.”
Really? Heather said snidely, because I DON’T!
“Yeah, Heather says that, too,” Heather said, but she didn’t say any more about Heather Duke, and that in and of itself spoke volumes.
“It just makes you re-evaluate everything,” Veronica said. Heather just sighed in agreement and they sat in silence for a while.
“I always liked that photo,” Heather said, pointing to Veronica’s profile photo. It was the first time she’d paid attention to it in a while. She forgot to change it once she broke up with J.D. She was holding her phone up to take a selfie and smiling, and he looked up from the Slurpee he was drinking.
That’s probably my favorite photo of us, J.D. said with a bit of a smile. For the first time in a while, Heather didn’t have any sarcastic responses.
“Huh. I forgot about that,” Veronica said, “I don’t check Facebook that often.”
Why did you break up?” Heather’s eyes got big the second after she asked the question, and she immediately threw her hands up over her mouth, “shit! Sorry, I wasn’t thinking! You don’t have to answer that if you want.”
“I’d rather not talk about it right now,” Veronica said, looking at a random bookshelf on the right side of the library, desperate not to make eye contact with Heather, “it’s messy, and complicated, and kind of a long story.”
I’ll give you the gist. He wanted to blow up the school, you didn’t. Heather Chandler said. Kurt and Ram shrugged and nodded in agreement.
You’re forgetting the part where the school was full of assholes, J.D. said, looking at Heather angrily.
But I’m still right, Heather said. Her bright red lips curled into a smirk as J.D. remained silent, proving her point.
“Hey, if you need someone to tell that story to, you can talk to me,” Heather said, “I know all about mixed feeling about dead exes.” Heather looked down at her hands, which were curled in her lap. Veronica put a hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, nothing that happened was your fault, okay?” Veronica said, “You know that, right?” Heather nodded her head gently.
“Yeah,” she said, her voice was light, as if she didn’t really believe what she was saying. Veronica was considering calling her on that, but decided against it.
“Hey, do you like Frozen?” Veronica asked. Heather looked a bit confused, but she didn’t look as disappointed as before.
“I love it,” Heather said as a smile slowly formed across her face, “why?”
“Well, Martha and I have a movie night every Saturday, and since it’s her turn to pick, we’ll probably be watching Frozen,” Veronica said. She sounded annoyed, but she loved belting along to “For the First Time in Forever” more than she cared to admit. She turned to Heather, “Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to come along.” Heather’s eyebrows rose, and then a smile slowly spread across her face.
“Sure! That sounds like a lot of fun,” Heather said, looking excited. Veronica couldn’t shake the feeling that Heather’s social life had died with Heather Chandler.
“Okay, I’ll text you when I get more details later,” Veronica said.
“Veronica?” Heather asked. Veronica glanced over at her.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry,” Heather said, and her face sank a little. Veronica frowned, puzzled.
“About what?”
“Everything. Ignoring you after Ram’s homecoming party, volunteering you for date rape, not stopping those three way rumors, making you come after me in the bathroom- just-“ Veronica noticed that Heather had tears forming in the corner of her eyes, and the brunette’s stomach dropped a little, “I feel like I’m the worst.” Heather started openly sobbing. The librarian glanced over at them, as if she was going to say something, but decided against it, when she saw Heather crying into Veronica’s hoodie.
“Hey, hey, you’re not the worst,” Veronica said, pulling Heather off of her shoulder to look her in the eye, “yeah, you might have done some crappy things. Texting me to get Kurt away from you was definitely not cool, but I can’t say I’ve done my fair share of crappy things.”
“I don’t think you’ve done anything that bad,” Heather said, her big brown eyes cast downward.
“You’d be surprised,” Veronica said, “but the point is, the crappy things you do don’t define you. As long as you’ve stopped doing them- and you’re not going to volunteer anyone else for date rape, right?”
“God, no,” Heather said, sniffling, “that was just something I did to get Kurt off of me.”
Don’t say anything, Heather Chandler said, shooting J.D. a look.
I feel like I at least deserve this “I-told-you-so” moment, J.D. said. The dead Heather just shot him one of her expert glares.
I swear to God, if we weren’t already fucking dead, I would strangle you with that douche-y trench coat.
Woah, Ram said, looks like someone’s on her period.
Can ghosts get periods? Kurt asked, frowning. Hey, Veronica, can you google if ghosts get periods? He said, turning towards her. She didn’t answer him, because she didn’t want Heather to think she had completely lost it, even if she actually did. Instead, she just shot Kurt a warning glare.
“Well, that’s what you do. Y’know, you just try to be a better person, and that’s what really defines you,” Veronica said, pulling the smaller girl towards her. She didn’t know what came over her, but she decided to kiss Heather on top of her head. Heather didn’t say anything, but just scooted closer to Veronica.
“Is it bad that I don’t like being friends with Heather Duke?” Heather asked. Veronica just shrugged.
“Nah,” Veronica said, “I didn’t like being friends with her, either.”
“Well, yeah, but you have other friends,” Heather said with a bit of a sigh.
“You do, too.”
“Yeah, but they’re dead.”
“I’m not dead, dummy.” Veronica said.
“We’re friends?”
“I thought so, I mean, if you-“
“No, it’s fine. I, um- yeah, friends works,” Heather said, with that strange giggle she would always do whenever Heather Chandler said something she thought was funny. Veronica side-eyed her, but didn’t comment on it.
“Speaking of Heather Duke, want to skip her bullshit memorial and have a sleepover at my house?” Veronica asked. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears, awaiting Heather’s answer to a question that had just slipped out of her mouth without any thought.
“That sounds like fun,” Heather said, hugging Veronica, “I have to go to class, but we’ll definitely hang out this weekend, ‘kay?”
“Sounds very.” Veronica said, packing up her laptop as the blonde rushed off. No one could deny that Westerberg had a lot of rebuilding to do, but Veronica thought they were off to a good start.