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The question confused Heather McNamara. She had smiled loads of times when Veronica was around, right? Sure, she wasn’t smiling a ton when her friends were dropping left and right, but there had to have been times before that. “What do you mean?”
Veronica had to take a second to think. “You know how when Heather Chandler used to say something funny, and you had to pretend to laugh?” The blonde nodded. “And you know how you always had to flirt with boys at parties, even though they were totally gross? I think you ended up conditioning yourself into a mindset where all your reactions and emotions were just… fake. Uh- calculated, but I don’t think it was intentional or anything.”
The car was silent. It was two weeks since high school graduation and they were no longer just seventeen. Summer was their last hurrah before they had to part ways and go to college- Veronica was going to Harvard, of course, while Heather was going to a community college a few towns over. Veronica knew she was going to hurt by their separation, far more than Heather would be, for a reason she still wasn’t very comfortable admitting.
Sure, yeah- Kurt and Ram’s death made Sherwood a hell of a lot more gay friendly, but girls loving girls was still something just made up by porno magazines as far as the general population was concerned. It was something Veronica came to terms with a long time ago, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready to express those emotions yet- not to one of her best friends, at least.
That night in the parking lot did a number on Veronica’s heart. It was about a month after the... explosion. Things were looking up; cases of bullying went down, people stopped caring about popularity, and everyone was friends with everyone else. It was the happy ending Veronica fought for, even if it would only last for a few years at most.
There was no reason for them to hang out that night. There weren’t any new movies or even a party to go to. It was their first time alone together since the incident in the school bathroom; Veronica wanted to reconnect with Martha, and Heather wanted to work on herself. It was entirely on impulse too: Veronica just felt the urge to call her up one night, and a few minutes later they were on the way to their local 7/11.
That place was still a hard location for Veronica to go to as JD’s obsession with it was hard to just up and forget about. Still, she felt determined to reclaim the spot and make fresh memories with someone good to and for her. In hindsight, it was probably one of the best ideas she’d had in a long while.
After getting some snacks and drinks (Veronica opted for fruit wrinkles while Heather got some diet coke) they parked at the local “nature preserve” (it was more like a glorified park, in Veronica’s opinion). It was a nice hangout since it was pretty secluded from the outside world. Sometimes kids from school would host parties there if they couldn’t wait for their parents to go out of town. People also used it as a make-out spot for horny teens with strict parents, but on this night there were no other cars there. It was perfect.
A few lamp posts illuminated the parking lot, one of which Veronica parked under. It was about 11 pm at that point, so the lights shined into the car. Veronica took notice of how the beams of light reflected off of Heather’s face in such a way that made her look oh, so beautiful. She suspected she had a crush on her friend, but this just outright confirmed it.
She didn’t remember what they were talking about. It was most likely some stupid conversation about a cheesy movie that came out a week prior- a talking baby movie that John Travolta agreed to do for whatever reason. What she remembered was how Heather laughed when she talked about how bad it was.
Something about her laugh just hit Veronica much harder than it ever did before. There was no noticeable restraint in her actions. To her, it seemed like Heather felt comfortable for the very first time. And she was beautiful.
“I think you might be right.” The blonde’s words snapped Veronica out of her memory. What felt like an hour of reminiscing was just a few seconds. “I feel freer than I did before, all thanks to you.”
“To me?” Out of all the things Veronica expected her to say, that definitely was not one of them.
“Yes, to you.” Heather smiled that smile at Veronica. That genuine smile that makes your heart kinda flutter and makes your eyes kinda blur. “You mean a lot to me, you know that right?”
Veronica smiled back. “Of course I do. You mean a lot to me too.” And so much more than you’d ever know.