Work Text:
Fascinating.
Veronica Sawyer was simply fascinating. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out a different way to describe her, one that didn’t make him sound like a star-struck, overly philosophical moron. He could say captivating; but that wasn’t enough. Magnetic, maybe, but she was so much more than that. The closest thing he could think of was enchanting, but he wasn’t that moronic (he liked to think so, at least).
JD had never been a people person. How could he? He’d stopped trying to make friend or form connections years ago; they never lasted more than six months, anyway, what with how frequently his dad moved them around. When he got to Westerberg High, he figured it’ll be the same. The same unremarkable people. Same jerky jocks with varsity jackets and dumb insults; same bitchy girls with shoulder pads and side-eyes; same occasional nerds with bowties or glasses or too long skirts and always too many books.
And when he first got to Westerberg High, it seemed that he was right. The school was flooded with idiotic cliques and foolish norms, with kids walking around in groups wearing the exact same outfits and acting in a manner so predictable it made JD roll his eyes. It’s not like it mattered; he’d be moving soon, anyway. He’d lost his interest in his classmates a long time ago, and highly doubted that anyone could change that.
But that’s when he’d met her.
He hadn’t known what to make of her, at first. He barely glanced at her in the hallway on his first day and already thought he knew all he needed to know about her; fluffy hair, shoulder pads, shimmery makeup, a jacket that strategically clung to her waist and chest (get your mind out of the gutter it was an observation, and an obvious one at that), and a short skirt that showed more leg than it hid.
Though, even in the beginning, he had to give it to her; the girl had some crazy legs. Which he definitely did not look at.
For over one minute at a time.
Anyway, when he first saw Veronica, JD already had an idea of her in his head. One of those popular girls, who here in Westerberg apparently all had the same name (in his first three days he was like ninety percent sure they were the Harpers). He didn’t even talk to her until after his first week.
That day, his second Monday, he’d noticed something different about her. She was talking to her friends, but she seemed… distressed. They were talking about some girl; Martha, he’d picked up. It seemed that Veronica wasn’t a bitch, for the lack of a better word. Not like the rest of them. She’d wanted to save that Martha girl, wanted to help out. And now JD was intrigued.
So he watched her, from his little corner behind the water cooler. Curiously noted how differently she moved; she was tenser than her friends, looked less comfortable, but he also noticed she was clumsy. Uncharacteristically so, for a popular girl. She tripped over her own feet twice while talking to her friends, only barely recovering before she hit the floor. Her movements were more cumbersome; like she was trying to get used to her own body, maybe.
Who is this girl? JD had thought.
When her friends (were they her friends? He wasn’t so sure anymore) left her alone in the cafeteria, Veronica, whose name he was yet to know at that point, turned towards his corner. He quickly looked back down at the book he was not really reading so she wouldn’t think he was some sort of creep, but when he saw her walking towards him, he figured she couldn’t see him, anyway. So he looked back up, and that’s when he saw her eyes.
He didn’t look in them, exactly, but even after a glimpse of her big brown eyes he could see something he wasn’t expecting.
He saw a heart. A soul. Something that was missing from all of his classmates’ eyes; something that had been missing from his for a long time now. A shine of something new, something that hasn’t been broken. A hope that hasn’t been stepped on. A dream that still had a chance. A soul that hasn’t been darkened, a heart that hasn’t been shattered.
And that’s when he decided that he couldn’t leave it at that. Couldn’t just watch her, watch that shine in her eyes, from afar. He had to say something, just to keep her eyes in his line of sight for a little bit longer. He had to say anything.
“Shouldn’t have bowed down to the swatch dogs and diet coke heads.”
Okay, maybe not anything. Damn you, JD. Think before you speak.
He could never change the first words he had said to Veronica Sawyer, unfortunately, but at least they weren’t the last. Veronica stuck around with him, for some reason. And it only took him a couple weeks of knowing her to see that behind her big hair and shimmery makeup hid a girl with the driest, most sarcastic sense of humor he had ever seen. A girl who laughed during horror movies but yelped at a thunder crackle. A girl who always had too many books in her bag and not enough time to read them all. A girl with an impossibly low tolerance for alcohol and weird kinks (which he did not complain about) and a surprising interest in old trinkets and the most intoxicating, contagious, weirdest laugh he had ever heard. And of course, the kindest, sweetest soul he had ever come across. Veronica had the kind of soul you could only have before; before the world fucked you up. Before you caught up to society, or society caught up to you. The purity of Veronica’s soul was just about the only thing he found predictable about her.
She kept surprising him, Veronica. She started that night she’d climbed through his window, and she never stopped. She was almost a mystery. A mystery who twisted her ankle three times a day, but a mystery nonetheless. That was the main reason he’d found her so fascinating.
Well, that, and that intoxicating shine in her eyes he seemed unable to stop looking at.
Today was relatively unsurprising, though. They spent the evening together, like they did a lot recently; she’d masterfully lied to her parents that she was going to one of the Heathers’ houses for a late-night homework session and snuck out like it was nothing. He’d teased her about it, because he couldn’t help it, saying that she was lame for lying to her parents just to go to a gas station with her boyfriend.
She’d shrugged, but then smirked and said “Well, but my boyfriend wears a trench coat, so I don’t know how pleased my parents would be that I’m hanging out with him this late at night.” He reveled in the little self-satisfied giggle she let out afterwards, so pleased with her own joke, and even more pleased when he tutted and gave her arm the gentlest of nudges.
They went to 7/11, because of course they did. They got Slurpees; he got cherry, she got grape. He jokingly offered to buy corn nuts, and she pinched his arm with a surprising force that only made him laugh. They ended up getting a big bag of pretzels to share (“It’s more romantic that way”, Veronica had insisted, and JD didn’t want to argue) and sat on a bench outside, watching the relatively quiet streets of Sherwood, Ohio at that hour of the night, enjoying the silence of their small town after eleven pm.
Or, well, Veronica was watching the streets and enjoying the silence. JD was more so watching and enjoying her.
She was looking up at the sky like it was the most captivating thing, occasionally sipping on her Slurpee and definitely eating more pretzels than him. Her big eyes were even more alight than they normally were, now with the glow of the moon reflecting in them. She wasn’t wearing one of her school outfits that day, instead in a simple sweater and a pair of jeans, and her hair was messy, like a frizzy halo around her face. She was so beautiful right now, in his eyes. She was always beautiful, of course; but there was something about this version of her, all comfy clothes and messy hair and practical shoes and salt around her lips and slightly purple tongue, that made her even more beautiful. Brought out that gentle glow in her eyes, as they watched the full moon. He noticed that her fingers were tapping on the bench; he knew she did that sometimes, when she was deep in thought.
“Veronica.” he said gently, almost a murmur, softly nudging her shoulder with his own as he sipped his icy drink.
She turned to him, eyes narrowed in something between curiosity and playfulness. “Slurpee Boy.” She said, fully serious.
That was another thing she’d started doing; calling him all these weird nicknames. Slurpee Boy seemed to be her favorite, though Plunger Boy and Psycho Trench Coat Kid were strong contenders (the latter began after Heather Chandler started calling him that, and Veronica joined in as a joke. He didn’t like the name, particularly, but it didn’t sound so bad coming from Veronica’s pink lips in that soft voice she always got when she was half-asleep but still in that jokey mood he enjoyed so much). His favorite way she addressed him, though, had to be his full name. She did that sometimes. Didn’t say JD, like everyone else did; or Jason, like pretty much no one but his mom ever had; or just Dean, the way he called her Sawyer sometimes. No, she’d say Jason Dean. Sometimes she’d say it in that reprimanding, half-teasing way (“Jason Dean, if you make another airplane out of your worksheet I swear to God-“), sometimes in that exasperated way when she didn’t want him to know his dumb jokes were funny (“Sometimes I highly doubt your sense of humor, Jason Dean”), and sometimes when she had the upper hand in, well, anything. Then she’d really drag it out; enjoy it, and he’d let her every time (“Aw, am I making you nervous, Jason Dean?”).
But he liked when she did it in the quiet times. Her weird, murmured compliments when she was half-asleep that she thought he couldn’t hear, in that teasing tone when she tried to take away from saying something smart, in that reflective way when she felt saying JD just wasn’t enough.
She hadn’t called him Jason Dean yet today. Today had a handful of Psycho Trench Coat Kid’s, a few Dean’s, and now even a Slurpee Boy. No Jason Dean yet, though. Oh well. He’ll take what he could get.
Especially now, when she was watching him with those thoughtful, sparkly eyes of hers, like she was half-focused but fully-focused on him at the same time, taking a sip of her drink and slightly cocking her head to the side as if asking him to continue talking.
He smiled gently when he noticed the way a hair fell into her eyes from the slight wind and she gingerly moved it away with her finger.
“What’re you thinking about?” he asked eventually.
She smiled softly. “Things.” She said simply.
“What things?” he asked.
“Words.” She said, a glint of mischief in her tone. “Ideas. Thoughts.”
He rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. “You’re so annoying.” He muttered, looking away from her.
She let out a giggle, and he couldn’t help but laugh as well because that girl had the funniest laugh in the universe, probably. And it was all his.
Veronica took another sip of her Slurpee and looked back up at the sky, watching the moon since the stars were all hidden. Damn light pollution. She started swinging her legs back and forth, despite the fact that they were resting on the ground.
“What do you want to study?” she asked eventually, still watching the sky. “In college, I mean. What’s your plan?”
JD shrugged. “I don’t really have a plan.” He admitted. “I don’t even know if I’ll go to college.”
Veronica did look at him then, eyes brown and deep and thoughtful. “You should.” She said decisively. “You’re really smart.”
He let out a chuckle and looked at the ground. “It’s not that simple.”
She grabbed a handful of pretzels out of the bag. “I know.” She said simply, gingerly taking one out of her palm and placing it in her mouth. God, even the way she ate was weirdly endearing. “But you should try.” She said after she finished chewing.
“You’re such an optimist.” He muttered. He didn’t mean it as something bad, exactly, just an observation.
“I’m not.” She said. “You’re just a sad emo boy who wears a trench coat in the middle of October.”
JD laughed shortly. “What is your thing with my coat, Sawyer?”
“It’s hot.” Veronica said honestly. “Weird, but hot.”
“You’re weird.” JD retorted, mumbling. But he knew she could hear it. She always could, somehow.
“I must be, if I’m hanging out with you.” Veronica said, not missing a beat. JD rolled his eyes and tutted, enjoying the way it made her snort.
“What about you?” he asked after a moment of silence. “You never really told me what you want to study.”
“Psychology, I think.” Veronica said. “I’ve always found it interesting, exploring why people act the way they do. It makes them a lot more… human, you know?”
JD looked at her then, blinking, as if trying to realize if she was real. “Yeah, I know.” He said, delighting in the way it made her smile.
He didn’t. know, that is. But he did know that he made her smile, and to him that was the most important thing.
“I’m not sure where I want to go, though.” Veronica continued. She wasn’t looking at him now, but she took another handful of pretzels as she spoke. “I’d say Harvard, but even I know that’s a bit of a long shot. I’m trying everywhere, really. Duke, Brown…” she trailed off, and JD could see a full list forming in her head. “Let’s hope I get into one of them, I guess.” She sounded different now; more self-doubting. It was quite a funny thing, the way he’d known her for only a few weeks and already knew how to tell when she got in her head. In some ways, he felt like he’d known her much longer.
“You could get into Harvard.” JD said decisively, looking at her even though she wasn’t looking at him. “You’re, like, a genius.”
Veronica half chuckled and half cleared her throat. “Thanks.” She muttered, and even in the dark he noticed the slight crimson blush on the ends of her ears.
They sat in silence for a few more beats. Not uncomfortable, by any means, just contemplating. In the meantime, JD finished his Slurpee and Veronica looked up at the sky again, legs swinging a little and fingers once again tapping on the bench. Like always, JD wondered what she was thinking about. He didn’t have to wonder for long, though.
“You should study philosophy.” Veronica said eventually, looking in his direction.
“Veronica.” He whined, stretching out her name so it was a little bit like a groan. He was smiling, though, and so was she.
“JD.” She retorted, impersonating his whiny tone with a smirk added to her voice. He squinted at her.
“I am serious, though.” Veronica continued. “I think you’d like it. The whole deep questions of the universe that don’t really have an answer thing.” JD had to admit, the whole idea of college didn’t sound too bad with the way she was describing it.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Veronica deflected, “But I think you’d like it.”
JD smiled at her. She’d really thought about this, huh?
“I’ll consider it.” He said eventually.
“That’s all I need.” She said, trying not to sound serious but it was clear that she definitely was.
They sat for another beat, both their drinks and the bag of pretzels now long finished. This time, though, JD was the one drumming his fingers.
“So.” He started, making her look at him. “Harvard?”
She nodded, albeit shyly. “Harvard.” She confirmed.
He nodded, too. “That’s… far.”
Veronica shrugged. “It’s kind of what I like about it.” She admitted softly. “A new start, you know?” he did know, this time, so he hummed in agreement.
“I’ve been moving around my whole life.” He said, and Veronica looked at him curiously. He made sure to catch her eyes when he said “Another one wouldn’t be that hard.”
She barely contained her beam, although to him it didn’t look like she was trying to.
“That’s very optimistic of you, Jason Dean.” She noted, the name rolling off her tongue in a way that made him grin.
“What can I say?” he started, looking at her like she was something out-of-this-world, something fascinating. “I guess you’ve rubbed off on me.”
She shrugged, her beam not faltering in the slightest. “Guess so.”
And then she kissed him. Soft, sweet, slow. Her hand gently messing with the hair at the back of his neck, his thumb tracing shapes on her waist. His head was still spinning, though, because it was her. Veronica Sawyer. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to her, and honestly, he didn’t really mind that fact.
She pulled away first, but her forehead was leaning onto his when she murmured “I like you a lot, Jason Dean.”
He barely had to glance at her eyes, her beautiful, shiny, fascinating eyes, before he pulled her in for another kiss.