retro-pure-jdonica

[retro-pure-jdonica]

That’s the tea

[retro-pure-jdonica]

first chapter of TWAU: Season 2 is up on my AO3 @retro_pure_jdonica!!!

[retro-pure-jdonica]

I just wanted to tell you that I loved Milkshakes and Slushies and wanted to ask: will there be something else like that?

thank you very much but sadly, no. im pretty burned out from heathers stuff and don’t expect to really ever get as back into it as I was a while ago

[retro-pure-jdonica]

im back (but not really)

sooooo a few days ago Telltale shut down and a few MONTHS ago I made a post about making a The Wolf Among Us story (which is a telltale game) and the second season of the game was going to come out next year but it been canceled since the company shut down so FUCK IT looks like I’ll be writing season two on my AO3. It's not going to be Heathers related, hence as to why I said it back but not really, but yeah if you’ve played the game and were hoping for a second season too, the first chapter will be up in a few days and I recommend checking it oooouuuuuttt

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 58- the end

Later that night, after I had given gifts to and received gifts from all of my friends, I faced the real challenge that I have had since as long as I could remember: going to bed on Christmas Eve. It was absolutely the most childish thing, but something about Christmas has always just made me happy and excited. Eventually, around eleven o’clock, I am finally able to fall asleep peacefully on a cold, snowy, quiet Christmas Eve night.

My excitement had apparently causes exhaustion, though, because now as I sit up in my bed on Christmas I realize that it’s already ten in the morning. The second I gather my thoughts and realize that it’s Christmas, I don’t even bother changing out of my pajamas before rushing downstairs.

I find mother and father at the breakfast table in the kitchen, drinking their morning coffee. “Merry Christmas, Ronnie.” Mother smiles as she notices me practically run into the room.

“Merry Christmas.” I smile back, spinning around on my toes.

“I guess we can go ahead and start opening presents.” Father laughs as he stands up from his chair and walks over into the living room with me, mother following close behind us. By the end of the day I was left with much more clothes, jewelry, perfume, and makeup than when I started the day. It was hands down my favorite Christmas so far, but I’ve found myself saying that about every Christmas for the past few years.

***

Now that Christmas has passed, winter break is beginning to feel much more sluggish. I’ve already finished all of my assignments for the break, but it’s too cold to go out and do most things that I would normally do. The girls would probably want to go ice skating if I asked, but afterwards that would make me even more sluggish.

Suddenly, the solution to my problems arrives through the ringing of my phone. “Hello?” I ask as I raise my phone up to my ear.

“Hi, Veronica. It’s J.D., how are you?” I hear a voice respond on the other line.

“Well, I’m doing quite good now that you’ve called. It’s been awfully boring in the Sawyer house recently.” I complain to him.

“It’s been awfully boring here today, too. Why don’t you see if you can come over in a little while, maybe around four o’clock?” J.D. suggests and I feel myself begin to smile.

“That sounds absolutely amazing. I’ll go ask and then call you right back, bye.” I respond before hanging up the phone and going downstairs to hunt for mother, which takes slightly longer than usual because she isn’t in her usual lounging area of the living room, but instead outside on the porch. “Mother,” I start up, causing her to lift her head from the magazine she had indulged herself in. “Could I go over to J.D.’s house later today?”

“Sure, do you know what time?” She answers with a question, a small smile forming on her lips.

“He said four.” I respond. Mother nods and goes back to her magazine, a sign that I was excused. I rush back upstairs to call J.D. back and let him know that I could come over. After doing so, I check my clock and see that it was already 3:40, so I decide to go ahead and get ready. I put on proper clothes and fix my hair, as well as put on jewelry, which included the necklace J.D. had given me for Christmas, since I had already deemed it to be a part of the jewelry that I wear almost everyday.

I travel back downstairs and J.D. arrives very soon afterwards. We just say our simple hellos and wait to hold actual conversations until we get to his house. “I do have a little surprise for you today.” J.D. starts up conversation as we walk into his living room.

“And what would that be?” I ask nervously, although his tone suggested that this was a good surprise.

“I got accepted into Ohio State.”

“J.D., that’s amazing!” I smile as I hug him. Seeing how happy he was about the subject made me happy too, but once I thought about it more I began to have very mixed feelings. He would be able to live on his own and have more control over his life, as well as get away from his father which is amazing, but he would also be away from me for a year.

“What is it?” J.D. asks as he pulls away from me, probably noticing my change in facial expression.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just- you’re going to be gone for a whole year.” I remind him.

“It’s not like I won’t visit on weekends or anything.” He laughs, lifting my spirits slightly. “Besides, I won’t be leaving for, what, another year and a half? We don’t have anything to worry about just yet.”

His words do help out a decent bit as I realize that we’ve only been together for about three months and we have a whole year and a half before he leaves. “You’re right. So, what are we doing today? Because my vote is on movie night.” I smile, attempting to forget about him moving.

“Well then, I guess we’re having a movie night.” J.D. smiles back before leading me into the kitchen. We get the usual snacks of sodas and popcorn before heading over to the couch where J.D. takes on the job of finding us movies to watch. “Just our luck, this channel just started playing Creature from the Black Lagoon no more than five minutes ago.” J.D. comments before coming to sit down by on the couch. We had pretty much gotten to the point where we didn’t have to ask the other if they like a certain movie. We had a decent understanding of each other’s taste; that taste being pretty much any sci fi movie.

“So, do you have any plans coming up soon?” I ask J.D., striking up a conversation amid the movie.

“Other than preparing for the return of school, not really. What about you?”

“Heather McNamara wants me to sleep over on Friday, so that’s where I’ll be spending my night.” I sigh with a light smile.

“Now that is the one that you are actually friends with, correct?” J.D. asks me. We don’t really talk about each Heather individually, I tend to refer to them as a whole, so his confusion was justified.

“Yes. Then there’s Heather Chandler who is the leader, also the one who threatened to kick me out a few weeks back, and then there’s Heather Duke, but I never really talk to her, at least I haven’t really since that one trip to the drive in. Oh, yeah, she was the one who invited me to that. I don’t hold it against her or anything, we just lead very different lives.” I explain to J.D.. Similar conversation is held throughout the rest of the evening: our social lives, our school lives, and our home lives. And for that one shimmering moment, all was well.

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 57

“Heather, your room is so pretty.” Heather Duke gushes, and sucks up, as we all enter Heather Chandler’s room for our friend gift exchange.

“I try.” Heather Chandler smiles back, picking three small boxes up from her bed and placing them down next to her on the floor where we sit in a circle. On a regular day, Heather Chandler probably would have had a more egotistical or snarky response, but I suppose the fact that we were about to shower her in gifts had lightened her mood. “Veronica, I guess we’ll be nice and let you open up all of your gifts first this year.” Heather smiles as me, and as she speaks the other two placed their gifts for me in front of me.

All three of my gifts had blue ribbons tied around them in some manner. As I looked around, I noticed that all three of us had noted which gift was for who with a certain color of ribbon. “Well, are you going to open them or what?” Heather McNamara smiles, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, sorry.” I smile, picking up a long thin box with a tag that read “from Heather Chandler” in beautiful cursive. I slide off the ribbon before unwrapping and opening the small box to reveal a gorgeous gold bracelet with large circle cut blue gems all across it. “Heather, it’s amazing. Thank you.” I smile, looking back up at Heather Chandler in hopes that she can see my sincerity.

“Let me see.” Heather Duke chimes in so I lift up the box so that she and Heather could see it.

“Huh, Heather always said you couldn’t accessorize for shit.” Heather McNamara smiles, causing all four of us to laugh.

“Mine next.” Heather Duke requests, pointing to a small gift bag with a blue ribbon tied in a pretty bow on top. I throw out all of the tissue paper to reveal a matching set of a hair pin and a broach. The broach was a large starburst made up of blue and clear crystals and the hair pin was a tiny comb with the same shade of blue gems lining the edge of it.

“I’m putting this on right now, you all know how I love my broaches.” I joke as I pin the broach onto the collar of my sweater. “Oh, this is just darling. Thank you, Heather.”

Once admiring all of the jewelry I had received so far, I pick up the final box, which must be from Heather McNamara. This box was much larger than the others, so there’s no way it could hold jewelry too. I unwrap it and open up the box to see a delightful white fabric with small blue and yellow flowers scattered across it. I pull it out of the box and unfold it to find out that it was a simple short sleeved dress. The top of it was clearly cut to lay slightly lower than the shoulders and around the waist there were two thin strands of dark blue ribbon. “Heather, this is magnificent.” I smile in awe of the dress.

“Me next.” Heather Chandler buds in abruptly, cutting off my moment. We all take our gifts for Heather and sit them down in front of her. We continue cycling like this until everyone had opened all of their presents. By the end, Heather Chandler had the bracelet and ring I got her, a pair of red kitten heels from Heather Duke, and a blood red satin neck scarf from Heather McNamara. Both Heather Chandler and I got Heather McNamara some form of pearl jewelry and Heather Duke got her a white sweater covered in yellow sunflowers; I had never seen someone so excited over a sweater in my entire life. Heather Duke had received a pair of emerald earrings from me, an absolutely beautiful gold hand mirror with a clear green glass handle from Heather Chandler, and a pearl necklace with three spherical emeralds in the center of it from Heather McNamara.

The get together was probably the most entertaining and pleasing experience I have ever had with the Heathers. Everyone was happy because it was the holiday season, not to mention the fact that every single one of us were having jewels and gems practically thrown at us. Sadly, I didn’t have time to go home and admire all of the presents I had been given because by the time I returned home, I only had about fifteen minutes before J.D. was supposed to arrive for the two of us to have our little Christmas.

Just after putting away all of the clothes and jewelry I had received and setting J.D.’s present out on by bed, almost right on time, the doorbell rings. I rush back down the stairs to find that mother had already let J.D. inside and was greeting him, something that still made me slightly uncomfortable.

The second J.D. and I make eye contact, though, his attention is fully directed onto me. I smile lightly towards him as he begins to walk over to me. “I’m sure Veronica can show you up to her room.”  Mother comments before returning back to the kitchen.

“Merry Christmas.” J.D. smiles, lifting up a small box he had hidden behind his wrist.

“Come on.” I instruct, leading him up the stairs and into my bedroom. “You first, I insist.” I state as we sit down on my bed and I hand J.D. his present. “As I recall, the time you have me your jacket for a few days you made the comment that it was the only one you owned, so…” I explain as he pulls the denim jacket out of the box.

“Thank you, Veronica.” J.D. smiles as he looks back up at me. “But now you.” He says, once again going to hand me a small box. I unwrap the small present to find an absolutely gorgeous silver necklace with a heart cut sapphire in the center.

“You’re going to have to stop buying me such expensive gifts, I feel bad.” I laugh as I take the necklace out of the box and, with slight difficulty, put it on myself.

“Don’t. I like getting you things, it makes you seem happy.” J.D. replies, keeping his eyes directly in line with mine.

“I’m not happy because of the gifts, I’m happy because I’m with you.”

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 56

I wake up on a calm winter morning, pulling my blankets around me tighter as I feel the cold air surround me, before finally opening my eyes to the sunlight spilling in through my window. Sitting up on my bed, I run my fingers through my hair as I attempt to fully wake up. Once my memories are able to settle back down in my head, I glance over at my calendar and realize that it was already December 23rd and I haven’t bought any of my christmas presents for anybody yet. After this terrifying realization, I look down at my clock and see that I had slept in until eleven o’clock; two warning signs that my life wasn’t incredibly in order at the moment.

I stand up and slide on a robe before going downstairs to find mother and ask her to take me out to the mall. Unsurprisingly, I find her in the living room watching television and working on some embroidery project.

“Um, mother?” I start up, gaining her attention. “I was wondering if you could take me out to the mall, I need to get some Christmas gifts for friends?”

Mother sighs with a small laugh before standing up and responding. “This seems a little last minute, but that’s fine. I need to get some groceries for our Christmas dinner anyway. Can you be ready in about thirty minutes?” She asks and I nod happily before rushing back upstairs to get dressed. Almost a week ago, or at least some time before the end of the semester, the girls and I had planned to have our friend Christmas on Christmas eve and I had talked to J.D. about getting together with him and we decided that we could after I got back from going out with the girls, but apparently I had managed to get so wrapped up in tests that I forgot about those plans until today.

Once I’m ready, I grab my purse and go back downstairs to meet mother. She is still in the bedroom when I get downstairs so I decide to sit on the couch and wait for her. Luckily, in just about five minutes she comes out of her room to get me. We go out through the garage door and get in her car before driving off to our town’s mall.

“So, who are we getting presents for today?” Mother asks me as we walk through the main entrance of the mall.

“The Heathers and J.D..” I inform her as I try to brainstorm possible gifts for them.

“Do you know what stores you want to go in?” Mother asks, slowing our walking pace as we pass by the stores.

“I’m not quite sure, I’ll see.” I respond, glancing inside os all of the stores that we pass. “Here.” I state as I turn into a jewelry store. Buying clothes for the girls was rather risky because they are very picky, but jewelry would be much easier; pearls for Heather McNamara, emerald for Heather Duke, and ruby for Heather Chandler. As I walk around the store in search for three specific colors, I silently think to myself about what I could get for J.D.. He’s never seemed very materialistic, at least not for himself, and I know he reads a lot but I’m not quite sure what. As I semi-mindlessly wander around in this small box of a room filled with gems and jewelry far outside of my budget, an idea strikes me; a new jacket.

Whenever J.D. had given me his leather jacket for a few days, when I gave it back I found out that it was the only one he has. Simply another leather jacket wouldn’t do him much good, it would practically be two of the same thing, so I decide that after I get presents for the girls I’ll stop in the mall’s department store and see if there are any denim jackets to my liking.

“This looks like something Heather Chandler might like.” Mother states, snapping me out of my thoughts, and holding out a bracelet beside me. It was a rather simple but gorgeous charm bracelet; the band was pearl and between every few of them hung small teardrop shaped rubies. “There was a matching ring, too.” Mother points out, probably acknowledging my awe towards the gift.

“She’ll love it.” I smile, taking the bracelet in its case and following mother over to where she said the ring was. The ring was even more beautiful than the bracelet. Tiny pearls dotted around the golden band and right in the center was a square cut ruby. I pick it up in its case too and continue skimming over the store with two more colors on my mind; green and yellow.

WIthin about thirty minutes, and with the great assistance of mother, I’m able to pick out gifts for all of the girls. “Now I just have to get something for J.D..” I sigh to mother as we leave the jewelry store.

“Do you have anything in mind?” Mother asks me as I begin to lead us to whichever big department store our mall has, I never bothered to remember the name of it.

“Yes, I want to get him a nice jacket.” I comment as we walk into the store. In moderate silent between mother and I, contrary to the loud conversations of other last-minute Christmas shoppers that filled the entire mall, we walk around the store until happening upon a small section of mens jackets.

After shuffling through them, majority of which were leather, I find a black dyed denim jacket with a fur lining. I slide it on over my sweater and try to compare the sizing of the denim jacket to J.D.’s leather jacket from the few times that I had worn it. It feels quite similar, possibly slightly larger, which I take as a good thing because he could still grow into it.

“Have you found the one?” Mother asks, walking back over towards me as I put the jacket back on it’s hanger.

“I think so.” I respond before leading us over to the nearest cash register to check out.

“Goodness, Veronica. That jacket was twelve dollars.” Mother remarks as we leave the mall and go back to the car.

“You’ve seen some of the things J.D. has gotten me before,” I begin to explain, referencing the time I showed mother the going steady ring he got me. “And now this is Christmas, so lord knows what he’ll get me now.” I smile, placing all of my bags in the trunk before driving back home with mother where I wrap everyone’s presents.

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 55

I wake up Monday morning and am immediately filled with a sense of worry at the thought of finals and midterms today. Today I had midterms in mathematics and english, since they were year long courses, and a final in World History, because it was only a semester. Not feeling like dressing up today at all, I put on a pair of denim capris and a thick blue sweater to keep my warm. I pull my hair back into a ponytail before lacing on a pair of saddle shoes and grabbing my bookbag to rush downstairs and eat breakfast before leaving to catch the bus.

Not wasting any time talking to the Heathers or J.D., I go straight to my first period upon arriving to school so I can sit down and attempt to study just before the class began.

The school system was kind enough to make today and tomorrow half-days, since taking three finals each day would only take about four hours anyways. So after four straight hours of testing I escape from the school and go to meet J.D. at his motorbike. After a few minutes pass by, I spot J.D. headed towards me, hiding towards the back of a small crowd of students.

“Hello, how was your day?” I ask J.D. once he gets caught up to me.

“Very tiresome.” He laughs, spinning his keys around on his forefinger. “Oh, I think it may be  the season finale for The Twilight Zone tomorrow, so are you still coming over after you and the girls go to Rosie’s?”

“Yes, of course. I can’t believe it’s the end of the semester already.” I sigh, a laugh finding its way into my words. “I guess this means that we’ve been together for about three months now.” I think out loud.

“I guess so, huh?” J.D. smiles, leaning forward and kissing me quickly. “Come on, I’ll get you home.” J.D. says before we get on his motorcycle and drive back to my house. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow around five.” He reminds me as he drops me off in my driveway. I nod and say goodbye before watching him speed out of the neighborhood.

***

The Tuesday school day was all too similar to Monday. Although, I feel my sluggishness begin to turn into excitement as I sit in my last period class, gently tapping my foot on the floor as I watch the clock tick down the last five minutes of the day. Finally, a bell echoes throughout the classroom and I snatch my books up from my desk before practically running out of the building and over to Heather McNamara’s car. On my way out, I pass by J.D. and we simply smile at each other before continuing on our way.

“We’re free!” I hear a voice call out from behind me. I turn around and see Heather McNamara walking over towards me, a golden smile playing on her lips.

“I know, but for barely two weeks this year.” I laugh, rolling my eyes.

“God, it’s just so unfair. We got off for almost a whole month last year.” Heather complains, unlocking the trunk and putting her book bag in it.

“Yes, but this year we get a spring break. Although, Washington has always had a spring break and their winter break is still almost a month.” I point out. “But I’m pretty sure that their summer is shorter.”

“Oh, what are we talking about?” Heather Chandler asks as she walks up with Heather Duke.

“Nothing, just winter break.” Heather McNamara shrugs, opening her car door and sitting down. The other two girls and I sit in our regular seats before driving off to Rosie’s.

“Why don’t we get hot chocolate this time, we can be festive.” Heather Chandler suggests, turning around to face the back seat as she speaks so Heather Duke and I.

“That sounds fun.” I smile. The thought of hot chocolate on this cold day made me happy, enjoying it with my friends made me even happier. We arrive at Rosie’s, about three hours earlier than usual because it was a half-day, and go sit down at our regular booth. We order our hot chocolates and begin to chat about school, christmas, boys, and pretty much everything else in between. Whichever one of them originally came up with the idea of these weekly trips to Rosie’s was ingenious; it let’s us catch up with one another on a very constant basis and gives us a chance to complain about things or gush about things.

On typical milkshake days, I only have about an hour in between Heather dropping me off and J.D. picking me up, but today I have almost four hours. Also on typical milkshake days I have homework but today I have none so I’ll have to make up something to keep me occupied during my free time. I decide to start up on a new crochet project, a hobby which I have been rather negligent of since I began studying for finals and midterms. Since it was becoming much colder, I decide to start a simple granny square blanket; nothing too fancy, nothing too big, but enough to keep me busy.

I make excellent progress until about two hours later when the phone begins to ring. I reach over to my bedside table and grab the phone to answer it, and I become very surprised when I hear J.D.’s voice on the other line.

“Hi J.D., is everything alright?” I ask, still confused as to why he may be calling when he’ll be picking me up in about two hours.

“Yes, of course. I was just thinking about you and wanted to ask if I could come pick you up a little bit earlier, maybe in about twenty minutes?” J.D. requests, his comment about me making me blush.

“That sounds wonderful, I’ll go tell mother right now. Goodbye, J.D..” I respond before hanging up the phone and walking downstairs to find mother. After trailing around almost all of downstairs, I eventually find her in the master bedroom watching television.

“Hello, Veronica. How was the last day of the semester?” Mother asks with a smile, sitting up on the bed.

“Very busy, but luckily that’s all over with now. This afternoon, of course, I was going to go over to J.D.’s house like I do every Tuesday to watch television, but since it was a half-day at school today I was wondering if I could go over there earlier? I just got off of the phone with J.D., and he said he could come get me in about twenty minutes if that’s okay.” I ask for permission, hoping that she’ll say yes. After all of the craziness that finals have brought along, I need to escape to somewhere where I can be calm.

“Yes, do you know when you’ll be back?” Mother replies.

“Thank you, and I believe that I should be back around six o’clock, or at least some time before dinner.” I explain, knowing that dinner was her main concern in when I would be back.

“That sounds good. Goodbye, Veronica.” She smiles back. I nod before going back up to my room where the twenty minutes before J.D. arrives feels like twenty hours, but eventually the sound of a doorbell signifies that the time has passed. I rush downstairs and smile when I am met with J.D. after opening the front door.

“Hello, are you ready?” J.D. asks before beginning to walk back over to his motorbike. I nod and follow beside him to get on his bike and drive back to his house. As we enter his house, a question enters my head and I decide to ask J.D. about it.

“Is there any reason for me coming over early, like, in particular?” I question J.D. as I follow him into the living room.

“Well, since you mention it,” J.D. starts, turning around to face me and wrapping his hands around the small of my back, making me blush. “I thought that I could help you destress, you know, after finals and everything.”

“You did?” I smile back, placing my hands on his shoulders. The last time something like this happened we were interrupted by a phone call, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been hoping for something like this to happen again, but this time preferably without the interruptions.

“Yeah.” J.D. responds quickly before leaning down and kissing me. After a second of shock, I run my fingers through his hair and pull him closer to me. A few moments later, J.D. pulls away and looks down the hallway beside us, confusing me, before wrapping his hand around my wrist and leading me towards his bedroom.

Once inside, he quickly closes the door before directing his attention back onto me. He grabs the sides of my waist and lifts me up before setting me down on the edge of his bed and pressing his lips back against mine. I raise my hands and slide off his leather jacket, tossing it to the floor before taking off my blue sweater I wore over my dress.

J.D. pulls away once more, but this time to look me up and down and smile, which causes me to blush. In the moderate silence, I realize how heavily I was breathing. “I thought that the point of this was to calm you down, but it sounds like it’s getting you wound up.” J.D. comments with a small smile.

“Hush.” I roll my eyes, placing my hands behind his neck and pulling him back towards me.

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 54

A few minutes later the doorbell rings and I rush downstairs to answer it. Upon opening the door, I am met by J.D. standing below a dark gray sky. “Did it rain on you on the drive over?” I ask, hoping he will say no because I would feel quite guilty if it had.

“Luckily no, but it looks as if it’s about to start.” J.D. replies with a small laugh. There was something about his tone that filled me with happiness; it was one of those moments where his outsider facade was set aside and he was just a happy, lightly shy teenager.

“Come inside before it starts.” I reply, snapping out of my thoughts. I open the door all of the way and step to the side and he can come inside. I lead him back up to me room and grab all of my books and notes from my bed before sitting down on the floor next to J.D..

“What is it that you need help with?” J.D. asks, staring at the tall stack of books, folders, and binders that stood beside me.

“Pretty much everything.” I sigh, picking up a large packet of notes from my english class.

“Come on, Veronica. You’re the smartest person I know, there’s no way you need me to help you study everything. Hell, you’ve probably already memorized half of those books.” J.D. reasons with me, making me smile lightly. “Here, hand me what you just picked up and I’ll flip through it and make up some questions.” He suggests with a shrug. I hand him the notes and watch him as he looks through them. Something about his demeanor made me smile; as he read, I witnessed him slipping into a state of disacknowledgement of his surroundings. Something about it made him seem pure, almost ignorantly innocent.

“Shakespeare, huh?” J.D. smiles, looking up from the notes to make eye contact with me, snapping me out of my train of thought in the process.

“Oh, yes, our last unit was about him.” I explain.

“Okay, here we go. Why were Romeo and Juliet forbidden to be with one another?”

“Their families had a long lasting feud.”

“Who did Juliet’s parents attempt to get her to marry?”

“Paris.”

“How did Romeo kill himself?”

“Poison.”

“And Juliet?”

“She stabs herself.” I reply almost immediately to all of his questions.

“God, Ronnie. Are you sure you need me here?” J.D. laughs, looking up from my notes.

“Yes, of course. And even if I didn’t need you for studying, I just like being around you.” I reply with a light smile which he reciprocates before looking back down at the papers.

“The rest of this is pretty much facts about Shakespeare’s life, do you want to go over it?” J.D. asks, quickly flipping through the last few pages.

“No, I know most of that stuff since it was pretty recent.” I explain to him. I set the pile of school papers in front of me to look through and try to find something that I need practice on. “Here, see if you can make up some stuff to quiz me with on this.” I instruct, handing him my World History binder and flipping towards the back of it. History was typically my worst subject, possibly tied with science, but english and mathematics always came to me rather easily so I decide to focus mainly on World History and Biology today.

J.D. takes the binder and flips through it for a few minutes before beginning to fake quiz me. “What does Mesopotamia translate to?”

“Land between two rivers, roughly.”

“Good. What was religion like in Egypt, what was one of their gods?” He questions me. I pause before responding, not quite knowing the answer immediately, which causes him to look up at me, making me nervous.

“Didn’t they just have animism? With the spirits in animals and nature?” I ask, assuming that they still had similar religions to nomads. He looks back down an the paper and I watch his eyes flick up and down.

“Not quite. Their gods did have correlations to nature and agriculture, though. One of their more important gods was Ra, whom they related to the sun.” J.D. explains to me. “Woah, Veronica Sawyer getting a question wrong!” J.D. teases me, making me feel rather self conscious.

“Hush.” I reply, looking down at my hands in my lap.

“Hey, I was just messing around. I didn’t mean to be rude or anything.” He apologizes almost immediately after hearing my reply, and he sounds quite sincere when doing so. “If you get this one right, then we’ll just say that it cancels out the last one.” J.D. sets up a game, attempting to make me feel better. It was so absurdly childlike, ithe gesture made me smile already.

“What was the first dynasty in China?”

“The Xia Dynasty, right?” I answer in the form of a question.

“She’s back at it again, folks.” J.D. jokes, making me laugh. Inviting him over to help me study definitely made the process much, much more enjoyable.

“Hey, don’t you have anything you need to study?” I ask J.D., interrupting him before he can ask the next question.

“No, I do most of that stuff on my own.” He shrugs it off. We continue quizzing me for almost an hour, bouncing back and forth between History and Biology. Although we spent about a quarter of our time talking and not studying, I feel like being able to review the material verbally helped engrave it into my brain more.

“It’s about 6:00, we should be having dinner sometime soon. Do you want to wrap up and head out?” I ask J.D., noticing the rather late time on my watch. He nods so I begin packing up my school stuff before walking J.D. back downstairs.

“J.D., why don’t you stay for dinner?” Mother asks, stopping us halfway from the front door. J.D. pauses for a second before turning to me, possibly for some sort of suggestion. I nod happily, J.D. seemed to enjoy Thanksgiving quite a lot because it got him closer to my parents so having him over again for dinner seemed like a nice idea.

“That sounds wonderful. Uh, thank you for the offer.” J.D. responds with a smile.

“Great, I’ll go set the table for four.” Mother smiles before turning back around and going back into the kitchen.

“I’m wearing my normal clothes, is that alright?” J.D. asks me in a slightly hushed voice, clearly overworring.

“You’re fine.” I laugh at his overreaction.

“I know your mom has obviously seen me normally before, but what about your dad? Will he be weird about it?” He continues.

“My father never had an opinion about you, at least not like mother did, and she likes you now. Just calm down, it will be just like every other dinner we’ve had.” I try to calm his worries.

“Alright.” J.D. sighs, still not sounding completely convinced, which was oddly humorous to me. Mother sets the table and fetches father. We sit down to eat and within five minutes J.D. had completely forgotten about everything and was seemingly having a nice time building a better relationship with my parents, something which was massively important and solidifying for J.D. and I in the long term.

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 53

“I can’t believe this is our second to last trip to Rosie’s for the semester, and the next one is actually on the last day of the semester.” Heather Duke sighs to the group in our booth at Rosie’s.

“You guys have been doing this for years, this is even more crazy for me.” I laugh, thinking about how fast the semester has gone by. I wish I could just take all of that extra time I have had the previous few weeks and have them right now. I needed time badly; even going on this trip to Rosie’s was risky. Finals and Midterms start in less than a week and I need to be cramming, I really need to do well on finals this year so I can look good on all of the college applications I’ll be filling out next year. “And then to make it even more crazy, it’s the end of the semester which means finals and midterms.” I sigh, causing Heather Duke to nod in agreeance.

“I don’t get why you two are so stressed out, as long as we pass enough classes to graduate we’ll be fine.” Heather Chandler shrugs before taking a sip of her milkshake.

“Not if you want to get into college.” I remark with a small laugh. Midway through my statement, it occured to me that Heather Chandler most likely isn’t going to college. “Oh, do you not want to?” I ask slightly cautiously.

“You do? I always just assumed that I wouldn’t. Besides, now I’ve met Tommy and he’s already in university so whenever I graduate he’ll be able to get a job that will keep both of us quite comfortable.” Heather Chandler explains her thought process. It was one that majority of the girls in school had, Heather Duke and I were incredibly clearly the exception in this case.

“Remember, Heather, you’re only a sophomore and some things may change. You may want to try a little harder because you may end up having to support yourself for a little while.” I advise Heather, trying my absolute hardest to not sound rude because that wasn’t my intention at all. Almost anyone could get a job to support themselves on just a high school degree, but Heather’s lifestyle may require a little bit more income.

“Tommy and I have been quite serious for a few months now. Besides, if it’s only me I can get a good enough job on a high school degree to keep my going.” Heather explains, disproving my previous assumption. I didn’t know that her and Tommy were so serious that she was considering marriage around the time that she graduates. Of course I knew that they were going steady, just not that much. “What about you, Heather? Are you going to try to get into college?” Heather Chandler asks Heather McNamara, the only one who hasn’t given input in the situation yet.

Heather shrugs before beginning to speak. “I don’t know, but I don’t think I will. I hope that I will find a permanent partner within the next year or so, since I’ll be graduating next year, but if I don’t just yet I can get a simple job to support myself or have my father help me out.”

“Mac’s got herself a pretty foolproof plan, considering that her father probably has enough money to keep all five of us supported for the rest of our lives.” Heather Duke teases, causing our small booth in Rosie’s to fill with laughter.

***

Midterms and Finals start tomorrow and I am absolutely panicking. It’s already Sunday afternoon and I’ve been studying almost everyday over the previous week but I’m still scared that it’s not enough. Heather Duke is the only other one in our group planning on going to college, but her studies are more so literacy while mine are mainly mathematics. Besides, I’ve never really been quite close to her so inviting her over to study may be quite awkward for the both of us, not to mention the drive-in incident. I would quite like a friend to study with, though. I would still be reviewing so I wouldn’t feel guilty and I would have someone here with me since I haven’t been very social recently.

After a decently lengthy mental debate about how beneficial it would be versus how distracting it would be, I decide to invite J.D. over. He’s a year above me, so although he may have not taken these same classes at Westerburg, he would have taken something very similar somewhere else. I pack all of my papers I had strewn out over my bed back into their respective folders or binders and put them off to the side before reaching over to my phone to call J.D..

“Hello?” I hear a familiar voice ask on the other side of the line.

“Hi J.D., it’s Veronica. Um, I was wondering if you weren’t too busy right now, maybe you could come over and help me study for a little bit.” I request.

“No, I’m not busy at all. I can be over there in about ten minutes.” He responds.

“Perfect, I’ll see you then.” I smile before hanging up the phone. I stand up from my bed and go downstairs to look for mother. I find her in the kitchen, just beginning to prepare for dinner.

“Hello, Veronica. How have you been, how’s studying?” She asks with a warm smile.

“It’s been going quite well. Speaking of which, I just invited J.D. over to help me study, is that alright?” I ask her.

“Of course. Just, uh, keep your bedroom door open.” Mother replies, making me laugh under my breath. I thank her before returning to my room to wait for J.D. to arrive.

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 52

“Hey, um, I just wanted to ask to be safe, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but was everything okay that time?” J.D. asks me as we get back in the truck seats after the last movie the drive-in was playing that night ended. I take a deep breath before responding and try to recall if my emotions had any drastic changes.

“I believe so. It felt… normal, I guess.” I explain to him, almost surprised by the fact that during the entire trip I wasn’t reminded of the incident.

“Really? That’s great, Ronnie.” J.D. replies, an oddly strong tone of sincerity in his voice and a kind smile playing on his lips, which causes me to grin too. We drive back to my house, carefully navigating through the dark night.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” I say as we get out of my father’s car and walk up to my front door.

“Goodnight, Veronica.” J.D. replies, placing his hands on the small of my back and pulling me closer to him to press his lips against mine. I respond back by raising my hands and resting them on his shoulders for a moment before pulling away.

“Goodnight, J.D..” I smile back before turning around and walking inside. I trail into the living room, J.D. still on my mind, and find mother and father watching television.

“Oh hello, Veronica, how was you night?” Mother asks, also drawing father’s attention to my presence.

“It was swell. And father, your truck is back in the driveway.” I respond to mother and inform father before we say our final goodbyes for the night and I head upstairs. The day had left me exhausted; I had two tests and went out that afternoon with J.D. so I wasted no time in taking off my makeup, changing into pajamas, and going to bed.

***

Friday passed by all too slowly and throughout all eight hours I was trapped in school I only craved the end of the day more and more. The final bell rings and I rush out to meet J.D. at his motorbike. “Hey, Ronnie.” I hear a voice greet me from behind. I turn around to find, unsurprisingly, J.D.. I smile and quickly say hello before stepping closer to hug him. “You wouldn’t happen to have any plans for this afternoon, would you?” He asks.

“I suppose not, why?”

“Well why don’t we go back to my place, you can call your mom from there and tell her where you are.” J.D. suggests and I suddenly smile as I’m reminded of when we first began dating and I would go over to his house but lie to my mother and tell her I was with a Heather. “What?” He asks, acknowledging my smile.

“Oh, nothing.” I brush it off with a small laugh. “But yes, we can go back to your house.” I answer his original question before we get on his motorcycle and go back to his house. It’s a Friday, so I don’t suppose his father will be home this early. My guess came true when we pulled into the driveway and the van was missing.

We go inside and he immediately shows me where one of the telephones are so I can call my mother. “Hello?” I hear mother ask on the other line, answering very quickly after I had begun calling.

“Hi, Mother, It’s Veronica. I was just calling to let you know that I’m at J.D.’s house right now, if that’s alright.” I inform her, silently praying that she doesn’t ask me to come home.

“Yes, that’s fine. Could you tell me his phone number so I can call you if anything happens or if I need you home?” Mother requests and I quickly realize that I don’t know J.D.’s number by memory so I call him over to tell it to her. “Goodbye, Ronnie. I guess I’ll see you later this afternoon.” Mother says to me after J.D. gives me the phone back.

“Goodbye.” I respond before hanging up the phone and going to sit down next to J.D. on the couch. While I was speaking to mother, he had gotten us Coca Colas. “Thank you.” I say quietly, picking up my drink.

“Of course. Also while you were on the phone, I found a channel that’s playing some christmas movies, does that sound alright?” J.D. asks as he turns to face me. I nod happily before we divert our attention back to the television.

We continue watching television and interrupting it with conversation every so often for almost two hours, during which I feel myself fall into a very specific mood, one which I don’t experience very often. It made my heartbeat quicken and my lower stomach feel airy. Not really knowing why, I turn to my side to face J.D., which quickly grabs his attention.

“What is it?” He asks with a soft laugh, possibly slightly confused as to why I’m looking at him, a question that I didn’t really have the answer to either. J.D. was normally the one to initiate these sort of things, so I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. Throwing out any caution or fear, I place my hands on his shoulders to quickly pull him closer to me and kiss him. A moment later he puts his hand on my waist and pushes me away slightly.

Expecting rejection, I go to turn my head away from his but he almost immediately turns me back to face him and presses his lips against mine. I respond quickly, obviously since I was the one to start this, and run my fingers through the back of his hair. After moving both of his hands to my waist and tightening his grip, J.D. pulls me onto his lap. I raise my hands to take off the sweater I wore over my dress and toss it down on the couch beside us. I move my hands down onto his shoulders and pull him slightly away from the couch. Wrapping my hands around the collar of his leather jacket, I slide it down his arms and throw it over by my sweater.

I feel J.D.’s hands move towards the small of my back to pull me closer towards him. I place my hands back on his chest and begin to trail kisses down the side of his neck. Suddenly, and quite humorously, the sound of a telephone ringing fills the house. We both laugh softly before I move once more to sit down on the couch so that J.D. could go answer the phone. Attempting to avoid accidentally eavesdropping, I pick my sweater back up from the couch and slide it back on.

“Who was it?” I ask with a smile as J.D. walks back over towards me.

“Your mother.” He laughs, causing me to laugh too. “Come on, I have to take you home now.” He explains, nodding his head towards the front door. I stand up and follow beside him to his motorbike before he drives me back home.

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 51

“Okay, on a scale of one to ten, how excited are you?” Heather McNamara asks happily as we walk back from my front door to her car.

“Calm down Mac, it’s just ice skating.” I laugh at her high amounts of energy as I sit down in the back seat of her car alongside Heather Duke.

“But it’s so festive! It makes it feel like it’s Christmas already!” She rambles on from the driver’s seat.

“Mhmm. Hello, Heather.” I greet Heather Duke as we pull out of my driveway to finally go pick up Heather Chandler. Once we have everyone in the car, we drive off to some indoor ice skating rink, which was surprisingly a decent half hour away. I haven’t been since I was a little kid, but to no surprise Heather McNamara knew exactly where we were going.

When we arrive, we all pile out of the car and pay for entrance and our shoe rental. As I sit next to Heather McNamara and lace up my skates, I am reminded about the fact that she may not know that Doug and J.D. are friends. I feel as if the news may make her happy, so I decide to tell her.

“Heather, you and Doug are still going steady, right?” I preface the question, just making sure they were still together to avoid a possibly awkward conversation.

“Yes, why?” She asks as she sits back up, having finished putting on her shoes. When she hears me mention Doug she begins to smile, which is something I was also highly guilty of doing with J.D.

“Well, J.D. has recently told me that he and Doug have some class together and they’ve become decent friends.” I inform her with a smile.

“Aw, Ronnie that’s wonderful! We’ll have to go out sometime, all four of us together.” She suggests. I want to be able to meet Doug properly, and I assume Heather may want to meet J.D. properly and the idea of a double date sounds wonderful.

“Oh yes, we must.” I smile widely. “You know, J.D. mentioned that Doug sure does talk about you a lot.” I comment, which seems to make her even more giddy if that’s humanly possible.

“He’s so sweet.” Heather sighs, looking at me with diamonds in her eyes.

“Can you two finish up your little gush sesion so we can go?” Heather Chandler interrupts, overdramatically pretending as if she had been waiting for hours. I roll my eyes before standing up and, with slight difficulty, walk alongside the other girls onto the actual ice rink.

We skate around for about an hour or so, and luckily none of us fall or make a fool out of ourselves in some way. In fact, the only ordeal that occured was that we lost Heather Duke for about ten minutes, but Heather Chandler eventually found her out by the concession stand flirting with some Remington boys.

On the drive back home, I could already feel my feet becoming sore. My ankles and achilles had blisters on them, even despite wearing thick bobby socks. “So, I know our conversation was cut a little bit short earlier, is there anything else you want to talk about?” Heather McNamara asks as she parks in my driveway, clearly referencing what Heather Chandler said to us at the ice skating rink.

“Not really. I’ve told you all about J.D. before, but I’ve never heard much about Doug. Tell me, what’s he like?” I ask her and she starts smiling ear to ear as she curls her legs up into the seat with her.

“He just does all of these really cute little things for me. Like, you know how Heather always has me wear yellow? Well, for our one month anniversary he got me this gorgeous necklace with these gold pearls on it, look.” Heather gushes like a little school girl, taking off the necklace she was wearing and handing it to me. It was gorgeous. It was a plain gold chain and clustered in the middle were three gold pearls, each separated by little gems.

“Oh my goodness, this is gorgeous.” I comment as I admire the necklace before handing it back.

“Oh, and when we first started going steady this is the ring he got me.” Heather continues, holding her left hand out in front of me. On her ring finger there was a gorgeous golden ring where the band was two rings weaving in and out of each other and right in the center there was a large square cut yellow gem.

“He sure does shower you in gifts.” I smile as I look back up at Heather.

“Well I happened to notice a ring on your finger too, let me see!” She exclaims, reaching out towards my hand which I raise for her to see. She holds onto my hand lightly and she began beaming so much that I could practically see the reflecting of the ring in her eye. “I don’t see why the other girls don’t like him, I think he’s swell.”

“Thank you, Heather.” I smile appreciatively as I rest my arm back down by my side.

“I suppose I should let you get going now.” She suggests, putting her feet back down on the floor board.

“Sure, I’ll see you on Monday.” I reply before getting out of the car and returning to my house. I find mother and tell her that I’m home before going up to my room. Talking to Heather had put my attention almost fully on J.D. so I decide to call him. Sitting down on my bed, I dial his number and raise the phone to my ear.

“Hello?” I hear J.D.’s familiar voice answer on the other line.

“Hi, it’s Veronica.” I respond, smiling at the sound of his voice.

“Oh, I was just about to call you. How was skating?” He asks, immediately jumping into a conversation. As always, it was nice to hear him asking about how things in my life were going, it reminded me that there was someone who really cared about me.

“It had its ups and downs. It was fun and I got to talk to Heather McNamara a lot, but now my feet are in a lot of pain.” I laugh at my own slight misfortunes. “But speaking of Heather, I told her that you and Doug are friends now and she thought it would be fun to go on a double date some time.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Also, are you still okay with going back to the drive-in?” J.D. asks, a slight hint of caution still lingering in his voice. I respond yes, possibly a little bit too overconfident. “Great, I was thinking we could go on Wednesday if that works for you.”

“Wednesday would be perfect, and I’ll try to get my dad to let us borrow the truck again.” I inform him with a smile.

“That’s wonderful. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Goodbye, Ronnie.”

“Goodbye, J.D..”

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 50

“So, any plans coming up soon?” J.D. asks from across our booth in Rosie’s.

“Partially sadly, yes. Heather Chandler had the idea of going ice skating this Saturday because it’s December and I haven’t been ice skating since I was about seven so I’m thoroughly prepared to make a fool out of myself.” I laugh at my own overly dramatic problems. “What about you?” I counter back and J.D. shrugs lightly.

“I never have much of anything going on, I pass majority of my time by reading.”

“Well if you don’t have much to tell me in that arena, is it okay if I ask about, you know, what’s been going on recently?” I ask, very vaguely hinting around the subject of his father.

“I already figured that you were going to ask.” He sighs with a small smile. “I also already know what you’re going to ask; so yes, I’m fine. What’s been going on recently is a sort of, if you will, cycle. It typically happens about once, sometimes twice, with every building project, so about every time we move. Something happens at work or there is some kind of complication and it makes him upset, aggravated. Because of that, he drinks, and then because of that, he comes back home at random times both drunk and mad and typically takes it out on me.” J.D. explains. Hearing that this happens consistently is almost too much for me to hear.

“Why did you say you had to go back when you dropped me off last weekend?” I ask, still perplexed as to why he would describe the situation in such a way. He takes a deep breath and keeps his gaze positioned downwards before beginning another response.

“When I’m not there he takes out his anger on other things, he breaks stuff. When I come back, it’s then my fault that he broke stuff because I wasn’t there so he gets mad at me for that, and, well, you know. That has only happened once, though, and it was about two years ago. it’s a lose-lose regardless, might as well take the path of least resistance.” J.D. explains to me further. It was absurd and awful that he had these episodes mapped out almost to a science. It’s happened so often that he knows when it will happen, how often it happens, and the specific consequences his otherwise usual actions will have during the time that it’s going on. “But,” J.D. begins, interrupting my thoughts. “Because this has happened before, I do know when it will stop; and it’s going to soon. He’s been calming down and now most of the time he comes home sober. Last Saturday when you were there was completely random, and I’m so sorry that things happened the way that they happened.”

“No, don’t apologize. Like I said, his actions are in no way your fault, so you have no reason to be apologizing.” I reassure him in a probably less than adequate attempt to make him feel slightly better about the incident last weekend and the overall situation involving his father that is, luckily, now calming down. “I just wanted to ask, obviously to make sure that you were okay, but also because we haven’t really been talking as much as we typically do recently. You know, you’ve been pretty quiet, especially that day after it got really bad one night.” I explain to him, hoping that he will provide some reasoning for this.

“Yeah, I don’t know, I guess I get sort of embarrassed about it.” J.D. shrugs, keeping his voice and head down.

“No, no, please don’t be; remember what I said, you can always talk to me about anything. Please never feel bad or embarrassed about stuff going on in your life, ever.” I attempt to reassure him once more, placing my hand on his.

“Anyway, that’s enough of my sob story.” J.D. laughs, slightly uncomfortable, but clearly attempting to shift the focus onto something less saddening. “How is school going for you?” He asks. We rarely ever talk about school, so it’s nice to at least for once.

“Well the end of the semester is nearing, so I’ve started going over some earlier material from when this year started and that’s been slightly stressful, but overall it’s going quite smoothly as it typically does.” I inform him. I had always been naturally advanced academically, and advanced courses were part of my regular schedule, but this year had been rather burdensome. It’s nothing too crazy, though.

“Wait, Veronica, we genuinely have three weeks before finals and you’re already reviewing?” J.D. asks as he laughs.

“Yes, I enjoy being prepared.” I reply jokingly sassily. “What about you, how is your academic life?”

“I’ve been looking into colleges recently and reading lots of ACT and SAT prep books, so that’s the source of my small amount of stress, but sadly I’m not some prodigious genius like you so I’m not piled up in school work.” J.D. says, rolling his eyes overdramatically as he mocks me.

“I’m not that smart.” I smile, attempting to sound slightly humbled.

“Well, if you’re not so smart then what’s your GPA?”

“That’s not important.” I respond, holding back a small laugh and blushing as I remember that I currently possess a 4.0 GPA. “Anyway, that’s enough about school.”

“Glad you said that, because I want to ask you about something else.” J.D. picks up on a new topic but his vagueness makes me anxious.

“What is it?” I ask with a smile, trying to not get too nervous or wound up.

“It’s been about two weeks since we went to the drive-in, and I wanted to give you some time before asking if you thought it helped or if it did, well, anything really.” J.D. says, still very uncomfortable when discussing what happened there with me almost three months ago now. I take a deep breath before filling him in on how it affected me.

“I do believe that it helped. At the beginning I was scared, obviously, but around the time when we left it was almost normal again.” I explain, cautious about opening up but he nodded along kindly.

“That’s wonderful,” he smiles in response. “And I was thinking that, if it’s still okay, we could go there again some time next week. Maybe to help a little bit more with, you know, what happened, and also just to act like we’re normal teenagers.” J.D. suggests, laughing as he jokes about our personal abnormalities.

“That sounds like a great idea. Thank you for caring about me and trying to make things, I guess, normal again.” I reply, appreciating what he’s been trying to do for me as of recent.

“It’s the least I can do, you deserve all of it.”

[retro-pure-jdonica]

chapter 49

“So I know we haven’t talked about Thanksgiving since, well, Thanksgiving, but I think I actually like your parents.” J.D. laughs as we walk up to his front door.

“It seemed like it, and it’s amazing that you think that.” I respond with a smile.

“Yeah, you know I think it’s really important for, well, us.” He comments slightly shyly before getting out two bottles of Coca Cola from the refrigerator.

“It is, isn’t it.” I reply with a wide smile. “So, um, have you talked to Doug recently?” I ask, attempting to pick up with another topic.

“Yes I have, and he talks about Heather a lot.” J.D. sighs with a small laugh. “Do you want to go see what’s on tv?” He asks, handing me one of the bottles.

“Sure.” I smile before walking into the living room with him. J.D. goes over to the television and flips through channels before finding a station playing Leave It To Beaver which we agree on. We carry on only about half watching the show for the next hour or so, the other half we spent talking about pretty much everything; School, friends, family, and anything else that we thought the other would be interested in. It felt nice to hear J.D. talk about Doug, because before J.D. met him I never once heard him talking about friends and it’s really good for J.D. mentally to have somebody else that he’s close to other than me.

Although, our conversation is cut short when we both hear the front door swing open before being slammed shut. I look at J.D. and he sits silently with his eyes closed for a minute before looking back up at me. “Come on.” He says quietly, resting his hand out for me to accept before standing up and leading me towards his kitchen and presumably towards another door, but to do so we had to walk past the foyer.

“Well, the bitch is back.” I hear his father slur as we attempt to sneak past him, giving me the instinct to run. I feel J.D.’s grip tighten around my hand before turning around and leading me back into the foyer.

“Don’t call her that.” He states firmly, letting go of my hand. I take this as a chance to take a step or two back away from his father.

“Oh, are you going to do something about it?” His father asks again, taking a step closer to him as he seemingly becomes suddenly enraged, which only makes me more fearful for both J.D. and I. “Huh?” His father taunts, placing his hands on J.D.’s chest and pushing him backwards. Almost reflexively, J.D. turns around, grabs onto my wrist, and rushes towards the front door. We slip outside and he briskly shuts the door behind us.

“Veronica, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he would be coming home or that he would ever talk to you like that.” J.D. apologizes quickly as he sighs, running his hands through his hair.

“No, no, please don’t apologize. It’s not your fault that he’s like that. Let- let’s just go back to my house.” I suggest, guessing that the best place to be right now is away from his father. J.D. nods before we walk back over to his motorbike and ride back to my house. “Do you want to come inside?” I offer as we pull into my driveway, assuming that his answer would be yes.

“No, I can go back home. I’ll call you later, though.” J.D. replies, shocking and confusing me.

“You really want to go back there?” I ask, attempting to tap into his thought process.

“I don’t want to, but I don’t have much of a choice. I’ll call you later.” He sighs, sounding sad and fearful before turning away from me and driving back to his own personal hell.\

***

He never did. J.D. went back home to his father and never called me. He didn’t even call on Sunday either. Now it’s Monday and I’m waiting for him after school by his motorbike, nervously tapping my foot over and over again. I keep on scanning the small crowds that keep flowing out the front doors to see if I can spot him. “Hey, Ronnie.” A voice calls from behind, startling me as I whip around to see who it is.

“J.D.! You scared me.” I sigh, realizing who it was. “Why did you never call me, I thought something may have happened?” I ask, looking him up and down and seeing that he was perfectly fine and had no new injuries.

“Sorry about that, I just got caught up with school stuff. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” He smiles loosely before we get onto his motorcycle and drive to my house. Once we pull into my driveway, we both get back of of the bike and we walks me up to my front door.

“I’ll call you later tonight, okay?” I smile and he nods. I place my hand on his shoulder and pull him closer to me to kiss him goodbye. When I pull away, I slide my hand down his shirt, accidentally pulling down the neckline to reveal a large purple bruise on his collarbone. “Oh my god.” I practically whisper, staring at it almost in awe.

“Veronica, please don’t worry.” J.D. says, removing my hand from his shirt as a terrifying thought slips into my mind.

“Di-did this happen on Saturday when you went back?” I ask, feeling myself nearing tears. J.D. doesn’t respond verbally, instead he lowers his head, almost like he felt guilty or ashamed. I raise my hand over my mouth and feel a tear roll down my right cheek. I let J.D. go back home, I didn’t even try to convince him to stay, and right when he did he got hurt again. “Why didn’t you call?”

“I didn’t want to worry you again.” He responds, still keeping his gaze downwards and he fidgets his hands. I wrap my arms around his chest and hug him gently, trying to avoid pressing on any bruises that may remain. When we pull apart, he meets his eyes with mine and sees that I’ve been crying. “Please don’t cry, just think of how it was two weeks ago. It’s getting better, I promise.” J.D. attempts to reassure me with the most pitying smile I’ve ever seen. He was being physically abused and he was worried about me because I was crying.

“Do you still have to go back home now?” I ask, referring to what he told me last Saturday when he was leaving as I wipe away my remaining tears. He’s been focusing on my well being while I haven’t been near attentive enough with his and I need to fix that.

“I can stay.”

[retro-pure-jdonica]

IM SO SORRY FOR ABANDONING BUT IM HIGHKEY OVER HEATHERS I LOVE YOU ALL BUT IM ABOUT TO SPAM WITH THE REST OF MILKSHAKES AND SLUSHIES AND THEN ITS GOODBYE THIS HAS BEEN SO MUCH FUN THANK YOU ALL

[retro-pure-jdonica]

trucks with small wheels are the automobile equivalent to corgis

[retro-pure-jdonica]

when is society going to advance enough to stop naming sequels ____ 2 and start calling them ____: but its the second one