Red, White, and Black | Heathers [ JD x Reader ]

prologue

word count | 1,217
-tags; mention of suicide and murder (its stuff that happens in the movie, mostly), mild language

murder was like an addiction. a drug.

no one knew this better than veronica sawyer. she had watched the addiction develop with her own eyes, she had watched as he slowly became more and more addicted to the point where the only step to fulfill his addiction was to experience what it was like to die himself.

in short, she watched him die by the hands of his own hand-crafted bomb on that friday afternoon. as she watched, she almost bit through the cigarette in her mouth before the impact lit the thing between her lips.

there was no body. there was nothing left from him except the thermals still upstairs and the wound in veronica's heart. she'd never admit it, but she still loved him that day she watched him die. the biggest evidence she carried of him was a set of photo booth pictures she kept stuck between two pages in her diary.

when she took the red scrunchie from heather duke, she vowed to never let anyone at westerburg die again. she vowed to make sure all the students would get to live a long life: including the football team, the remaining heathers, and the yearbook committee. heather chandler had died, and that was her fault, but she wasn't going to let any of the others get fed a cup of liquid drainer.

by the end of the year, veronica didn't miss him anymore. when she walked in to school on september 1st of 1989, bearing the same red hair piece the original reigning queen of highschool once held, heather almost immediately grabbed her arm and pulled her off to the side of the building's front doors. she still beamed with yellow, from the ribbon tying her hair into a ponytail to the worn yellow flats she'd had since junior year. "veronica," she greeted her.

"heather." veronica greeted.

"have you heard the rumors about the new kid?" she looked serious, almost disturbed.

"what? there's a new kid?"

"no, that's the point. there is technically a new kid... but he's not new," she crossed her arms across her chest, "you follow?"

veronica looked at her, confused. heather duke paraded up to the pair, "heather, don't be such a pillowcase," heather murmured something under her breath and heather turned away from her, "veronica, your dark horse isn't dead and he's sitting behind the school on his motorcycle. what, does he think he's cool or something?"

veronica stood for a second. she was in shock. "what? you're kidding."

she noticed that heather had gone back to green. she noticed that there was a crumpled autumn leaf on the ground by the door. she noticed as many things as she could so she didn't have to think about her dark horse prom contender. she didn't want to think about the boy who left her with nightmares, the boy she had to spend 5 months trying to erase from her heart. heather and heather continued to talk, but veronica didn't listen. she dropped her books on the floor next to her.

before she could stop herself, she was running through the school to the back doors. she stopped dead in her tracks at least two feet before the rear entrance of the school, close enough for her to see through the windows and straight to the parking lot. sure enough, heather was right. there he was, leaning against the motorcycle he used to drive them all around on. he looked up after he lit a cigarette and saw the girl staring at him from inside the school building. he smirked at her.

suddenly, veronica was angry. she was angry for him making her think he was dead, she was angry at herself for not doing this sooner. she was angry for keeping him around after he killed heather.

the door flew open and her own harsh footsteps carried her to the boy. he looked her up and down, "greetings and salutations, veronica sawyer."

"oh don't do that to me," she scowled, "do you really think you could just walk back into westerberg and nothing would be wrong?"

"babe-"

"don't 'babe' me. did you really think that i'd just let you back into my life like nothing ever happened?"

he took the cigarette between his two fingers, breathed out a wad of smoke, and handed the thing over to veronica. she took it while rolling her eyes at him, ultimately putting the thing between her own two lips. "are you done now? you going to let me talk?" he asked her. she said nothing. he took this as a yes. "i broke a couple bones... landed myself in the hospital for two months. do you know why everyone thought i was dead all summer?"

"i watched you blow up! of course everyone thought.." she rambled. he held up his hand in a silencing motion and cut her off.

"veronica. do you know why no one was told about this? about me?"

she rolled her eyes and turned slightly away from him, "why?"

"because my father called me a pussy for trying to kill myself. he didn't even tell my grandparents that i was still alive. my mom's parents... they.. they heard about it too. the news coverage went down to where they're at, and they called my dad. he told them i was dead."

"what's your point? you were only in the hospital two months. you could have called or something!"

"because i knew it would be easier to get you to come back once you had time to get over everything."

"fuck you."

"you'll come back, the same way you came back after heather died. but you know what, veronica? you know what?" he stood up and got closer to her. he was angrier now, and veronica was reminded of that friday afternoon in the boiler room beneath the gym. "you can't come back anymore."

"what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" they were both yelling now.

"i mean, i'm cutting things off! you can try and come back and stop me as much as you want, but you, veronica sawyer, are not allowed back in my life. you were too weak. we could've done so much more! heather duke, heather mcnamara... what's that asshole who's trying to get into harvard? god, is it even harvard?"

"fuck you! i can't believe you thought i'd want to come back. did you really think that you were the one to cut things off. i did that! i did that back in may, before you blew yourself up!"

"you can say that as much as you want, sawyer, but you and i both know that i'm the one in charge here." before she could scream a response back at him, he was on his damned motorcycle and halfway out of the parking lot.

"stay away from westerburg." she yelled, hoping he would hear. she knew he wouldn't. his ride was too loud and he was too far from where she stood to hear her at all.

by the time the first bell rang, veronica shoves the keys in the ignition of her dark blue station wagon. she didn't come to school for the next two days. she didn't want to.

not until heather told her about the other new kid.