I slowly sit up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I glance over at the source of the weird snoring noise to find a random guy passed out on the couch. Not a random guy. It's JD. I frown. The alarm suddenly goes off. He twitches, pushing himself up.
"What the- Where-?" He looks around the room in alarm. His gaze settles on me, and he exhales a bit. "Oh. Hey." I feel a smile on my face as I stand.
"Morning, Jason." He yawns into his fist, standing and stretching. I offered for him to stay the night since his hotel was on the other side of town, and he agreed. There's something comforting about having my friend here. I hear a buzz, and he grabs his phone from the TV stand.
"Chandler texted earlier this morning. I think she'll be here in a few hours." I feel my shoulders tense. Chandler. She was a fucking fireball. When she sees me, she'll go rabid. Unless she doesn't care about me, then she'll be calm. Maybe she won't even want to see me. "And Duke is boarding. Her flight'll be a couple hours." I swallow hard.
"JD, I don't know if I can do this," I blurt out. He looks up from his phone.
"What do you mean?"
"I-I can't face them. Why did I come here?" He walks over to me.
"Hey, hey. You okay?" I hesitate, then shake my head. He pulls me into a hug. "It'll be okay, y/n. You know they miss you, right?" I swallow.
"They do?"
"Of course. They mention you so often." He laughs softly. "And they want to see you, I know it." I look down, then nod.
"Okay."
I mean, yeah. I figured they missed me. Back when I first moved, I got texts from them daily asking where I was. I got calls, too. Picked up once, heard Veronica's voice, and then hung up, immediately blocking her number. It hurt. It hurt to hear her voice.
"Y/n? It's Veronica."
I didn't respond.
"I don't know where you are, but... Talk to me. Please. I'm here. I-I didn't expect you to move, but we can make this work, okay? We can-"
Then I hung up. Asshole move, I know. But I was so fed up with trying to keep in touch. All the times I did before, the person would eventually grow bored with me and then I wouldn't have anyone else. Just like before.
"Y/n." I look up at JD, snapping out of my memories. He rubs my shoulder, then stretches out his arms. "Trust me, they miss you."
"JD... When did you get here?"
"A few days ago." Huh. So all of us came back in the same time frame. It's kind of weird, but not unwelcome. Definitely not. Especially since I wanted to see them. I guess they made plans to meet. JD flattens out his shirt, then motions me over.
"What?" He shows me his phone, where a picture of Chandler, Mac, Duke, and Veronica is displayed. It looks like a day when one of them was leaving, judging by the slightly red eyes and disheveled looks. "When...?"
"When Veronica left for Harvard." I blink a few times, then feel a smile melt onto my face.
"She got into Harvard." He nods.
"Oh, yeah. Are you surprised?" I laugh a bit, shaking my head.
"No. Not at all." I smile. "What a nerd." He chuckles lightly.
"You should be proud."
"I am, JD. I really am." He examines me as I look at the picture. They all look the same. Just frozen in time.
"How do you feel about Veronica now?" I look at him. He carefully watches my expression. I swallow hard.
"I..." I look down. What do I want with her? I exhale slowly, looking back up at him. "I don't know."
"Right."
"I just..." I sigh quietly. "There's so much we left up in the air. I don't know." I truly don't. Veronica was such a huge part of my life when I was here before. And right before I'd left, we'd crossed a whole new threshold. We just never had time to explore it. Is that what I want? Or is it too late for us? I have so many things I never got to resolve with her.
"I get that." We fall silent.
"So... What do you wanna do today?" He lets out a laugh.
"You're never gonna believe me."
"What? Tell me."
"Kurt and Ram got decent." I blink a few times.
"No way."
"No, they did. Mac's kept contact with them, and then they started talking to us more." He smiles a bit. "They're actually quite nice, now." I frown.
"So, you just forgave them for being dicks?"
"Well, they started changing in the second half of senior year. Didn't you notice?" I think back to it. Now that I do, I realize that I hadn't gotten picked on by the two jocks as much as I'd first thought. Honestly, a few odd times here and there. And it's not just that, sometimes they almost seemed like stabs of friendly fire.
"... Oh my God."
"I know. It's weird to think about." He grabs his bag from off the wall hanger. "But I'm supposed to meet with them today. We're gonna pick up Duke and Chandler. Wanna come?"
"Are you sure they've changed?"
"Y/n, it's been so long. Hell, even the Heathers trust them." I blink a few times.
"Huh."
"I understand if you don't wanna see them." I shrug it off.
"Might as well. I mean, they're as much a part of Sherwood as the rest of you are." He smiles.
"Plus they sort of hate who they were before. They grew out of it." I nod. We leave the room. As we walk down to the elevator, I realize something. I'm in Sherwood. Most of my most prominent classmates are here or are on their way. It sends an excited shock of energy through my body. We reach the ground floor, and as we head out, I see two guys, one of them on a bench while the other talks over his shoulder, focusing on the road.
"Can't believe that jackass changed locations on us," the first guy says.
"Pft. I know." JD smirks.
"Hey, shitheads." The guys glance at us.
"Dean! What's good, man?" I focus on the guy walking towards us, the one who first spoke. It's Ram, I realize. He examines me. "New lady friend, huh?" JD laughs, patting Ram's shoulder.
"No." I clear my throat. Out of the process of elimination, I guess the other guy is Kurt. He glances over, standing up and brushing off his windbreaker.
"No? Who's that, then?" He asks, joining Ram. I smile.
"Y/n l/n," I say. The former jocks make eye contact.
"Shit," Ram mutters under his breath. He slowly turns to me. "Um. Y/n. Hey."
"Sweeney." He clears his throat.
"Look, high school was really different, yeah?" I nod. Kurt scratches his ear.
"I'm sorry for all that bullshit I did to you," he blurts out. "It was all so immature." I glance at Ram.
"Yeah," he mumbles. "I'm sorry, too." He finally meets my gaze. I feel a smile tug at my lip.
"I should apologize as well." They both focus on me. "I kinda treated you badly, too." Kurt gives me a half-shrug.
"It was warranted. Don't worry about it."
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Y/n, we treated you like shit. Don't worry." I rub my neck.
"Fine." JD lets out a quiet laugh.
"Well, we all beat each other up, how about we call a truce?" He says. Ram snickers behind his hand. Now there's something that reminds me of him during senior year.
"Truce, Dean." They bump fists. I smile.
"So long as you give me a pretty damn good reason to keep it," I say. Kurt grins.
"We'll try." I glance around.
"So, why are you all back?" Ram shrugs.
"Mac had the brilliant idea to gather everyone here. We all had to agree, because who could say no to Heather McNamara?"
"No one," I say with a grin. This is comforting to me. I mean, sure, two of the guys here would be constantly targeting me, and maybe I was a bit of an ass to them, but growing up has proved to make us all more mature.
"We gotta go before Chandler beats our asses," Kurt says as he checks the time on his phone. "C'mon, you two." He pulls out car keys and we follow him to what looks like a rental car. We all get in.
"You two hear back from Veronica yet?" JD asks as we start driving.
"Nah," Ram says. "The dork is too engrossed in studying to reply to us these days." I scratch my neck.
"She's always been like that, huh?" I say, smiling a bit. "How has she been?" Ram glances back at me from the passenger seat.
"Good, I think." He shrugs, turning back to the road. "Apparently she has a shitty ex now." I feel a wave of panic. Ex? She dated people. I shouldn't be surprised, she probably moved on from me years ago.
"Three of them," Kurt says as he turns on the turn signal. "A guy and two different girls. Those Harvard people are snobs. Think she'd stop us if we showed up and beat 'em up?" A guy and two girls.
"Oh, really?" I say, my voice slightly off. "That's interesting." JD raises an eyebrow, looking intently at me.
"Is it?" He asks. I swallow. Well, if she's dated girls and guys, I assume she figured it all out. I feel a pang in my chest. She figured it out without me. She doesn't need me. Why do I keep thinking that she hasn't moved on?
Maybe I haven't.
"I dunno," I mumble. I mean, sure. I've had a few relationships in the past few years too. So why do I feel so weird to hear about this now? "I guess I just hadn't considered it."
"Dude, we could've been good together in high school," Kurt mutters. JD reaches over and hits his arm. "What?"
"Kurt, shut it," he says, a slightly sharp tone in his voice.
"What?" Kurt asks defensively. "Not like she was interested in anyone when we were seniors. Right?"
"Dude, stop it," Ram says. He seems to realize something is up, but I don't know if he knows it was me.
"... Right?" Kurt asks, sounding slightly uncertain. The car falls silent. I clear my throat.
"We kissed," I blurt out. The car is still quiet as everyone seems to absorb my words. "Prom night. We left the dance and she told me she thought she was gay. Then I drove her back and she said she thought she liked me. Then we... Then she kissed me."
"Really?" Ram says, breaking the silence. I nod once.
"I-I mean, we never got together or anything, I left right after, but-"
"That's why she never flirted back!" Kurt bursts out. I blink a few times. We stop at a red light, and he meets my eyes in the rearview. "Shit, l/n. That's a lot."
"What?"
"God, that must've hurt, huh?" He mutters. "Jesus, and here I am talking like I had a chance with her when you were her knight in shining armour." He barks out a laugh. Ram snickers.
"Fuckin' idiot," he coughs. Kurt reaches over and punches his friend's arm. "Ow! The hell, man?"
"Shut up, moron." The light turns green. "Anyway, y/n, how did I not know that earlier? Veronica never said anything!" I look out the window.
"I guess she didn't feel like sharing." If I'm honest, I didn't, either. Now that I think about it, I haven't told anyone else about that night since it happened. And now Kurt, Ram, and JD were able to worm it out of me. Odd.
"Now that you mention it, she was pretty into you," Ram says, glancing back at me. JD laughs.
"Oh, you have no idea." He smirks at me. "She wouldn't shut up about you back then." I feel a smile on my face upon hearing this.
"Really?" He nods. Sadness seeps into me. "Not anymore, though. Huh?" He clears his throat.
"Well..." I sigh.
"I don't wanna hear it. Let's just catch up on us four, okay?"