Forgiven (JD x Veronica)

Chapter 16

Start A/N
Soooooo I finally have a cover for Forgiven and it was made by the amazing @-TEENAGESUICIDE
Thank you so much!!!
If this didn't tag you I apologize I like never use wattpad lmao but just thank you!!
End A/N

The smoke wisped away into the air, bringing along with it tiny, orange embers that softly lit up Veronica's face. Veronica wanted to burn the book immediately. The second she got out of the hospital type of immediately. Heather insisted that she at least get to an area with a campfire. And so they sat, Veronica crouched down, eyeing the fire with anxious intent, and Heather sitting cross-legged next to her, scared to move or even break the silence with a comment.
The fire finally gave out with a soft blow of air. Veronica fell back onto her behind. Heather gazed at her.
"So, what now?"
Veronica cocked her head, looking towards the sky. "We move on."
Heather offered a smile at Veronica's words, but unease stirred within her. It wasn't going to be that way for Heather. She brought her knees to her chest. The worst was yet to come.
. . .
Veronica hadn't seen Heather in a week. Whether Heather was ditching school or avoiding her was something that Veronica pondered frequently. Occasionally, she'd see flashes of green from the corner of her eyes, but the second she whipped her head in the direction, it was gone. She wasn't in the lunchroom, she wasn't moping outside, and if she used the halls to get to her classes, she was doing a damn good job at avoiding Veronica.
Hell, even Heather hadn't seen Heather in a while, leading Veronica to suspect that Heather was lying about what happened at the hospital.
It was a terribly frustrating situation. One second everything was good, and the next it all fell to shit.
Veronica palmed her forehead, her arms hunched over her legs, staring desperately at the ground. Heather sat next to her, her legs tightly together with her hands softly laying on top. An anxious look across her face.
"What actually happened at the hospital?" Veronica peered at Heather through her arms. Heather looked taken aback. Instantly, her hands started messing with each other, interlocking and intertwining her fingers.
"I'd rather not say."
Veronica snorted, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Fine, keep your secrets."
Heather gave her a lopsided grin.
. . .
Veronica's visits with JD often blended together. Most of the time, they would sit in comfortable silence. Momentarily comfortable. They both were touchy and careful to avoid subjects that would result in the other's mental state being affected. This left comforting silence that they both knew would eventually lead to painful conversations.
One of these conversations, however, could not be avoided.
They were talking about something mundane and bland, when the topic veered off onto what they wanted to do in the next five years. Veronica told JD that she was just focusing on surviving. He told her the same. It was this point when Veronica pensively bit her lip and asked the question he had been dreading since day 1.
"You don't have a place to go after you're discharged, do you?"
JD pursued his lips and shrugged. "Guess I'll figure it out."
She shook her head, crossing her legs together tightly. "How could he do this to you?"
The words JD hated to hear. They played like a screeching sound across JD's mind. The blatant fact that his father left him behind. It hurt even more to think that he left him behind in the same way he left his mother behind. Tears welled. Soon they poured. Veronica was instantly by his side, holding his hand gently. Stroking it softly.
"I promise I'll find something out, I promise."
JD sniffled, wiping his tears. He didn't have a response. He wanted to tell her to not even bother, but the words couldn't come to fruition. He just said nothing as she let go of his hand, stood up, and briskly walked away.
. . .
Relocating JD was going to be a challenge, sure, Veronica knew it. He had no place to live, no income, and half the town either wanted him dead or thought he was dead. Veronica briefly entertained the thought of somehow sneaking JD into her house but quickly put a cap on the thought before it could blossom any further. How would he even get in the house? How would he be able to eat? Where would he sleep? Where would he shower? How would he get to school? What if Veronica's parents caught him? There were far too many variables to make it a sturdy plan.
The thought remained in her head for several days. Plaguing her in class, at home, and even in her sleep. She refused to see him again until she had it all sorted out. She didn't want to return to him with nothing as a plan, she didn't want to return and make him think that he was beyond helping.
Granted, he just might've.
Veronica let out a massive groan as she buried her head in her sheets. This shouldn't have even been a problem. Veronica's fist tightened. If she had the opportunity to choke JD's father, she would take it without hesitation.
She flipped onto her back, staring at the ceiling.
"Who the fuck just leaves their kid like that?"
And then it hit her.
A place that JD could stay at? And wouldn't be easily caught? And could get to school without being caught?
A person whose parents were never around? A person who was the only person living in her gigantic mansion?
Veronica shot up in her bed instantly, tumbling over her sheets and struggling to reach her nightstand. She managed to grasp the edge of it and tried pulling herself forward, resulting in her dumping off her bed and landing on the floor with a loud thud.
"Veronica?" Her mother immediately yelled.
Veronica straightened herself out before yelling back an excuse. She reached for the phone and pulled it into her lap, hastily dialing Heather's number.
It rang once.
Twice.
Three times it rang before a soft click was heard and Heather's cheery voice came through.
"Hello?"
"Heather, hey."
"Veronica! What's going on?"
Veronica inhaled sharply. "Could you help me out with something?"
"Anything. What is it?"
"Something," Veronica paused. "Big."
Heather was silent for a moment. "What is it?"
"Alright," Veronica took a moment to form the words in her mind. "Would you mind it if after JD is discharged that he were to, oh, I don't know, stay with you?"
Silence. Veronica started absentmindedly twirling the phone cord around her finger. She started looping it another her entire hand. She did this three times before she got a reply.
"Veronica." Heather's voice was pleading, as if she was begging for Veronica to find some other option.
"I've tried everything I could, I can't have him in my house, what if he gets caught? And Heather has completely gone missing-"
"Veronica." Her voice had a weaker pleading to it, as if she didn't know how nor want to fight Veronica on this.
"And your father is always at work and your mother," Veronica froze on that statement. Heather's father was always off on some business trip, sometimes traveling to different countries. He would return home from his trips for a maximum of a few days before embarking on another trip. And Heather's mother. Well, Heather hadn't seen her mother in several months. She was finally sent away to rehab and had been there ever since. Veronica winced. It would be wise to ditch that point and make a fresh one.
"Wouldn't it be nice to have some company?"
Heather let out a small sigh and something that sounded like a choked giggle. "Veronica, I don't really know."
"It'll only be a few months, I just," Veronica rubbed her temple. "I don't know what else to do with him. I don't want to leave him on the streets."
"Where are his parents?"
"I-I," Veronica stuttered, taken largely aback. She was definitely unsure as to how to go about this. Would JD be comfortable with other people knowing about his relationship with his parents? With what happened to his mother? "I don't think I should share that?"
"They're not there, are they?"
Veronica sighed. Why did Heather have to be so fucking good at observing things? "No, they're not."
Heather sighed. "Fine, but I'm not too excited about it."
Veronica let out a sigh of relief. "Oh my God, thank you, Heather."
"You're welcome, Veronica."
The line went dead with a satisfying click. For once in Veronica's life, she happily put the receiver back onto the phone. She crashed into her bed sheets, taking a moment to simply breathe.
. . .
It took eight rings for Heather to pick up.
"Hello?" Heather's voice was muted, quiet, and tired.
"Heather?"
And instantly the phone line went dead with a click.
Heather called Heather eight more times before Heather finally picked up again.
"You are a persistent motherfucker, you know that, right?" Heather snarled. Heather halfway expected the line to go dead once again, but to her pleasant surprise, it didn't.
"Heather, I'm so sorry about what happened at the hospital, you were right, I didn't understand what you were going through and I genuinely want to apologize."
"And?"
"And?" Heather stuttered for a second. "I've been worried about you! I haven't seen you at school at all, where have you been?"
Heather let out a silent chuckle. "Heather never taught you about the back halls?"
Heather shook her head before realizing that Heather couldn't see her. "No?"
"There are halls in Westerburg that go to unused classrooms and link back to the rest of the school. Hardly anybody ever goes down them. Very discrete."
"That's...interesting, I guess?"
"Thanks. She made me use them whenever she thought I looked awful. That's why I was always on time to my classes Junior year."
Heather had pondered that. With how congested the halls at Westerburg got, Heather was always seemingly on time. "I'm sorry she forced you to go through that."
"It's...whatever. You called me eight times when I clearly didn't want to talk to you, so what do you want?"
"Oh, uhm, I," Heather briefly paused, measuring carefully the words on her tongue. One wrong step and the conversation would be ended with a cruel click. "I really," Heather sighed. "Who am I kidding? I now understand what you mean with you being upset with Veronica, that's all I wanted to say."
Heather made something that sounded like a muffled laugh. "What did she do?"
Heather let out a forced laugh. "Let's just say I'm going to have a new guest for a while."
Heather let out a scoff. "She did not."
"She didn't what?"
"Oh my God, she roped you into this too?"
Heather moved her head from side to side before realizing that Heather couldn't see her. "Not really. I did agree to it, I'm just not the biggest fan of it?"
"Heather."
"Yes?"
"She's making Jason Dean," Heather emphasized his name. "Stay at your house."
"It's not like that, Heather, he had nowhere else to go, okay?"
"And he couldn't stay with Veronica?"
"Because that would be a good place to live?"
Heather went silent for a moment before softly muttering her defeat. "Good point."
"It's not that I wanted to say no, I just wished there was a different way it could be handled."
Heather went silent for a bit. "I understand."
"Thanks, Heather."
And the silence blanketed itself over the both of them, wrapping around them tightly, only breaking every so often for either one to take a breath.
"I suppose I can stop using the back halls."
A smile found its way onto Heather's face. "That would be nice. I've missed you, you know."
A blush burned its way from Heather's neck to her face as Heather replied in a soft voice, "Me too."
. . .
Opened swiftly, slammed shut. JD's tiredness outweighed his excitement. It had been a long while since he had last seen Veronica, but on the other hand his last few nights of rest weren't exactly peaceful. Keeping his eyes shut, he waved a limp hand in her general direction. Immediately after he dropped his hand, something started scraping against the floor. It stopped next to his right side. He peeked open his eyes to see Veronica plopping herself in the chair, with a smile she was desperately trying to suppress.
"I've got it all figured out." He raised an eyebrow and twisted his body to face her. She nodded, confirming that he had heard correctly. "Now all we do is what."
"Do you want a 'definite' date?" JD air quoted definite. Veronica rolled her eyes and nodded.
JD's body was actually healing much faster than expected. Much, much faster. They had originally anticipated him needing several months of physical therapy to get his body back into working condition. Considering his rocky start it wasn't unreasonable to say they were justified in thinking that. It was terribly difficult to relearn the basics of human function.
Every object he lifted felt like a chore. Every step he took was a nightmare. Every time he lifted his arm felt like Hell.
And yet, it only fueled him further.
Lifting things became less painful and more enjoyable. The ability to rotate his wrist without screaming pain was a luxury. The basic function of walking had never seemed like more of a privilege.
He had only a few more things to relearn before they could consider him a 'functional' human being.
"A week, though, that's subject to change."
Veronica's eyes widened at the date. That soon? It felt like only yesterday had she walked into this room and seen him struggle to pick up a cup. And now here he was, ready to reenter society and the Hell that was high school. She cocked her head. "How so?"
"I have to be reevaluated before I can leave, touch over a few bases, make sure I won't kill anyone the second I leave," He nodded his head. "Y'know, the basics."
Veronica shared a soft snort at his comment. "Well, try not to fail it." She reached out and grabbed his hand. His gaze connected with her. They both seemingly shared soft smiles. She squeezed his hand before briskly standing up, moving her chair back to its original position, and leaving.
It wasn't too much longer now.