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The radio hissed, ruining his favorite song.
"Damn junk," J.D. muttered, rising from the bed to adjust the antenna. A familiar knock on the window threw him off course. He immediately rushed to open it, holding out his hand to Veronica.
It was strange to see her in his room again. They hadn't used that entrance in years, having decided they were too old for climbing trees.
"Hi," J.D. raised his eyebrows in surprise, expecting some sort of explanation for her appearance. But his gaze fell on her feet, causing him to ask another question. "How did you get up to the second floor in those heels?"
"You have no idea what else I can do in these heels," Veronica snorted and kicked off her shoes so the heels wouldn't clatter on the floor. "Listening to white noise? Well, that's original... I thought you like rock?"
"Yeah, I do, but this damn box just hates me," J.D. walked over to the radio and slammed his fist down on it. The radio immediately turned on, playing "Still Loving You". He groaned in irritation and reached to change the song.
"Leave it, i kinda like it," Veronica stealthily walked over and touched his arm, making him stop. As usual, J.D. was given a jolt by her touch, and he recoiled, hoping he didn't make it too obvious.
"Sure. Have a seat?" offered J.D., not thinking about his not much furniture in the room. Of course, Veronica settled down on his bed, tucking one leg underneath her. Then she looked at him, expecting him to sit next to her.
"'You've been fighting again?" sighed Veronica, noticing a fresh bruise on his face; he nodded and carelessly scratched the abrasion on his cheekbone with fingernails. "That's why I haven't seen you at school in a couple of days?"
J.D. smirked crookedly, sitting a decent distance away from her so as not to touch shoulders at conversation.
"Yeah. Someone made a bit too much trouble, so I had to teach him a lesson. It went a little wrong, and I got a suspension. But not for long," he shrugged indifferently. " So you were looking for me? Why?"
Veronica hesitated, glancing down, and started rubbing the bottom of her already short skirt. J.D.'s gaze kept slipping down to her knees, whitening in the early twilight, but he looked away with an effort of will. It didn't help much - his eyes were magnetized back to her.
She grew more beautiful year by year. He remembered the first day he saw Veronica when he moved to Sherwood: a tiny, witty girl with a good punch, sharp eyes and a mop of brown hair that never knew a comb. Now Veronica had doe eyes that made guys lose the last crumbs of their minds next to her, heels as high as the Empire Street Building and carefully curled curls.
Soon they would become a crow's nest again: she had already run her hands through the hair, as she always did when she was nervous. Some habits never change.
J.D. wasn't the type to lose his mind in front of an innocently fluttering eyelash girl, and the lingering crush should have faded away on its own. But sometimes he would catch her sharp gaze hiding behind a faux facade, or see the defiance in her eyes when she confronted the bitchy trio, or hear a sarcastic comment that made him snicker. It was enough to bring his feelings to life each fucking time.
"Yes, I needed to... I wanted to talk to you," he hadn't heard Veronica speak so vaguely for a long time. She giggled nervously, and J.D. barely restrained the urge to hug her: that would have been a total failure. They weren't in the middle of high school anymore when he could still afford to do that.
"About what?" he cleared his throat, noticing that Veronica had moved closer to him. Now she was touching him with her leg.
"I need your help," she looked so lost and confused that J.D. involuntarily felt a pang of panic: he'd never seen that expression on Veronica's face before.
"Did someone hurt you?" J.D. immediately focused: his fists clenched and his eyes took on an infamously familiar predatory squint. It was something he could do for Veronica: a fight would be much safer than sitting too close together like this.
"No, nothing like that," her fingers rested soothingly on his forearm, and she herself leaned close to him. J.D.'s heart raced. Veronica was so close, so he could see every eyelash, every pale freckle under the layer of foundation. His eyes darted to her lips without any command from his brain. God, don't let her notice it, please!
Luckily for him, Veronica looked away at that moment to gather her thoughts and muttered, "You'll think I'm an idiot," and then she pulled away slightly.
J.D. barely held back a sigh of relief, "I never thought of you that way."
"Yeah?" Veronica snorted, defensively crossing her arms over the chest. "Even when I started hanging out with Heather? And turned into all that mascara and lipstick and heels?"
"You're still the smartest person I know," J.D. hummed, giving her a wink. "You just hide it better now."
She giggled and shook her head, letting hair down her shoulders again.
"God, why have we had so little contact with you these years? I'm so tired of dealing with guys who do nothing but talk and talk to me about my own looks, like I don't have a mirror for it. Your compliments are so much nicer," Veronica playfully slapped his sore shoulder, and J.D. grimaced. "Oh, sorry... that sounded kind of bitchy, yeah?"
"No, it's nothing like that, you just still have a great punch," J.D. hastened to reassure her, as he rubbed his shoulder. If it had been any other girl, he'd sure as hell that she'd been flirting with him. But it was Veronica, and everything about her made him confused.
"Sorry again," she giggled, drawing closer to him one more time and crossing every possible personal boundary. "J.D., will you teach me how to kiss?"
" W-what...? " he heard a strange high-pitched voice, and only a couple of moments later realized that it was his.
"I'm sorry, I know this is an extraordinary request, but... You know," Veronica shifted awkwardly, starting to nervously twist a strand of hair around her finger. "Heather has a double date with college guys tonight, and I definitely can't go wrong this time. Last time I got nervous and threw up on a guy right before we kissed. So Heather is mad as hell at me. One more mistake and she will make my social life a living hell! So please, I really need your help!".
"Why me?" his voice shook slightly, and it sucked. "There's a bunch of guys who have a lot more practice than I do. Not that I'm keeping you in the loop on my romantic life, but trust me, it's not... uh... much variety."
Veronica chuckled a little embarrassed, and he exhaled noisily, stopping his humiliation and shutting up.
"Around you, I don't bother at all... Which means I don't get puked on. I think that's really important in kisses," Veronica laughed loudly and awkwardly, averting her gaze to the side. It was fucking lucky: she didn't see J.D.'s face twist at her words. Even dorky frat boys made her care. He didn't. It was a clear enough answer to the question J.D. sometimes wondered: what would happen if he found enough courage to ask her out.
When Veronica turned to him again, he had already pulled himself together and put a defensive smirk on his face. J.D. might have felt like shit, but if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. He wasn't going to turn down Veronica's kiss. It seemed unlikely that J.D. would get another chance to kiss her, so he wasn't going to miss the shot.
"Yeah, I think 'no puke' is really a big plus in this whole kissing thing," he grinned, looking her over from head to toe with interest. Veronica playfully tilted her head to the side.
"So you've never kissed before?" J.D. asked, climbing up with his feet on the bed and facing her.
"Well, only once, when I was twelve," Veronica laughed lightly, casting a sharp look at him. The memory was unexpectedly bright and warm; he smiled at her, forgetting for a few moments the need to hide his emotions.
"I remember that day," J.D. reached up to tuck a loose strand behind her ear, but stopped quickly, "except it hardly qualifies as a kiss."
"Well, that's all I got," Veronica spread her hands and chuckled slyly. "Can you work with that? We have about thirty minutes before Heather picks me up."
The reminder of why they were going to do this darkened his mood a little, but J.D. didn't show it.
"I can, but first some more disclaimers and fine print, okay? You do realize this will be your first kiss, right? I remember what you said back then," he wanted to remind Veronica of all the romantic crap that filled her head five years ago, but she snorted and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Stop it, I was twelve! And I already had my first kiss, no matter what you say," she rolled her eyes, pulling J.D. closer. "Come on, I'm sure we can do better this time!"
"Okay, okay! I'm a shitty theorist, so let's get right to practice," he put hands on her waist and pressed lightly, pulling her toward him. Veronica moved in and they stopped before their lips were touching.
"It's so uncomfortable," she whispered, looking at him with wide-open eyes. Her pupils dilated enough that he could see his own reflection in them.
"'Yeah," J.D. nodded, backing away from her with a quiet chuckle. "We'll have to sit a little differently, or we'll fall onto the bed. And it's going to be a little more than you expected."
Veronica flashed. He had almost forgotten how easily she blushed before... Ever since she had become one of the popular girls, Veronica had gotten much better at controlling herself. But now her self-control was clearly failing, which only made things worse for him, making his heart race.
"Um... so how do we sit down?" she mumbled confusedly, pressing her hands to the cheeks.
J.D. sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled Veronica to him, throwing her legs over his, so that she was almost sitting on his lap.
"So you mean it's not 'a little more'?" her voice was indignant, but her hands rested meekly on his shoulders as J.D. turned toward her.
"It's more handy, and you're still not sitting on my lap, so propriety is observed," J.D. replied mockingly, resting his hand on the bed behind Veronica's back.
His other hand was on her neck, and his lips finally touched hers in a so far innocent touch. He kissed her gently and slowly, keeping his breath steady. Veronica's eyelashes fluttered and she pressed her whole body against his, wrapping her arms tightly. She was warm and soft and supple. It was so much better than he had ever imagined.
His hand slid down her back, lightly tickling her ribs, and J.D. felt her smile through the kiss. He took that as permission, and pressed even harder against her lips, pulling them apart to capture each one separately. And then J.D. didn't hear, but rather felt, Veronica make a sound. It caused him to dazedly open his eyes and look at her without stopping to kiss. There was no doubt that that soft moan was coming from her, and J.D. had to make her do it again.
He squeezed her hair into a fist, gently tilting Veronica's head to the side. She opened her mouth to let his tongue slip inside. Her another short moan rolled down his spine.
Daringly, J.D. picked Veronica up in arms and placed her on his lap; she straddled his legs. His hands slowly slid up and down her body, not being cheeky, but not stopping for little things like her clothes being pulled up. Veronica let out another moan, louder and longer than the last. He echoed her, lightly clenching her lower lip with the teeth.
"Damn it, J.D.," she whispered as the kiss broke.
"Veronica," he whispered back her name, and in that moment he understood that he was totally done. Because her name sounded like a confession, and it was desperately obvious to both of them.
They froze apart, flushed, breathing heavily and avoiding looking at each other. Then Veronica slowly slid off his lap and sat down next to him.
"Well," J.D. cleared his throat, adjusting his shirt, somehow tucked out from behind the waistband. "I hope I've been helpful. You should probably get going."
"Chasing me away just like that?" there was resentment in her voice, and it wasn't what he wanted to hear in it.
"Veronica," J.D. whispered with some kind of stupid desperation. "I don't... I can't take it anymore! There's Heather, the college guy, all your popular shit waiting for you outside. Leave me alone, please! I need to pull myself together somehow, and that's completely impossible with you around. Just go away!"
"Why?" she asked in a broken voice, trying to take his hand, but he yanked it away.
"You're smart, Veronica," J.D. didn't look at her, picking a spot on the floor and staring at it. "You've already figured it out, don't make me say it out loud."
The radio was still playing something silly and about love, not catching the change in air. When Veronica leaves he'll throw the damn junk out the window.
"I'm not very smart about feelings," Veronica admitted with a bitter chuckle. "Give me a minute to explain myself, and then if you want me to, I'll leave."
"I think I can bear it for a minute," J.D. hummed, feeling her fingers still touching his hand. She'd always been stubborn... or maybe it was the fact that he could never say no to her.
"Thanks," Veronica nodded and fell silent, gathering her thoughts. He didn't rush her, though the minute, judging by his internal clock, was almost up. "I lied to you. A little..."
Okay, she managed to get his attention. J.D. squeezed her hand, urging her to keep talking.
"The date already happened. And I ran away, sending both the guy and Heather to hell," she laughed anxiously and buried her face in his shoulder. "And tomorrow you can see the consequences of Heather's anger... Lord, give me the strength to get through this!"
"I don't understand," J.D. shifted his frowned gaze to her; it just didn't make sense. "Then why?"
"I needed a reason," Veronica looked directly at him, her eyes sharp and nervous. After a second, his eyes widened with understanding, and then she moved closer to him, gently touching his lips with hers. J.D. responded gustily, placing a hand on her neck.
"Wait, hold on!" J.D. pressed his forehead against hers to stop her.
"Hmm?" Veronica murmured reluctantly, catching her breath. Her hands gripped the collar of his shirt, not letting him pull away.
"You said you didn't care for me," he whispered quickly. That thought kept rolling around in his head.
"That's not what I said!" snorted Veronica, teasingly kissing the corner of his mouth. "I'm not bothered, because I always feel so much more comfortable around you. Because it's you," he saw that her cheeks flushed slightly, which contrasted with her confident tone. "J.D., are you going to keep asking for compliments, or are you going to cut to the chase?"
"Veronica, someday you'll drive me crazy," his lips stretched into a wild smile.
"Your father's home, we'll have to wait a little while on that," Veronica climbed on his lap again, and he instantly pulled her into a hug.
"We can always turn the radio up louder," J.D. suggested, before her lips pressed almost irritably against his, knocking all thoughts out of his head.