Heathers Requests/One Shots

Learn From My Mistakes Pt. 1

Thanks to @Dolly-The-Sheep for the prompt! Sorry it took me so long to get to this one! Credit to samifulton on Tumblr for this amazing art (the format is a little weird, but the art was too great not to put it).

Veronica was exhausted. Not physically- okay, yes physically because she had been up for a solid day or two, maybe three studying for final exams, living off coffee and Monster energy (not a good mix).

But she was also exhausted mentally. Her boyfriend had only died a month and a half ago. It seemed so wrong to study and schedule hang outs with Heather and Heather. But it also seemed wrong to nearly have a mental breakdown whenever she drove past a Seven-Eleven, to avert her eyes when she saw a trench coat, to bite her lip and look away whenever the dark eyed kid that sat next to her in Trigonometry glanced her way at all.

So when her cousin Janis called her for advice, she was more than glad to push aside what she had doing (she was so far gone, she didn't remember what she was doing) and flop on her bed, answering immediately. "Yeah cuz?"

"Stop calling me that," Janis snapped. She liked to think she could hear the affection in her voice. She could picture Janis now, spread starfish style on her bed, looking up at the NASA posters and glow-in-the-dark stars on her walls like a collage, with bits of soft purple ceiling peeking their way through here and there. "Ronnie, I need help."

Janis admitting she needed help? Oh wow. "Yeah Janis?" Janis was silent for a couple seconds, but Veronica knew not to rush her. Janis did things on Janis time.

"Well... y'know how I told you about my friend, Cady? She's become Plastic. Like, full Plastic." Veronica had caught onto her high school's lingo, like the Plastics, while Janis had caught onto the Heathers. "And I know you have your own problems, with your boyfriend blowing himself up and all those suicides, but-"

"Jan, they weren't suicides." It felt so good to tell someone. Silence on the other end, then some muffled noises as Janis ether knocked a blanket off her bed or sat up.

"What? Ronnie, I-"

"No, I killed the. I mean, like, we killed them. Me and- and J.D. By accident, on my part at least, but J.D. tried to kill them. We made it look like suicides, and then he tried to blow up the school. So, I shot him-"

"Ronnie, you shot him?! Just- from the beginning?" Veronica felt bad. Janis had her own problems. "I'll tell you everything after you tell me everything. Deal?" Veronica laughed; Janis sure did think of everything.

"Sure." Then it all came spilling out. Janis stayed silent as Veronica laughed and cried, letting her rant. Veronica let her eyes wander along the photos in her walls. They told her story pretty well.

There were ones of her when she was younger, with her on her mom's shoulders at Disney World, or her and her dad doing homework together. Then her with Betty Finn and Martha in elementary school and middle school, doing movie nights and late night baking.

Then high school. Slowly the ones of Martha and Betty Finn faded out to  her and the Heathers, them at the mall, them trying on shoes, them playing crochet. And then J.D.

Them having slushies, looking happy. Too happy. Then the one at Heather Chandler's funeral, one Heather's parents insisted on taking because 'They looked so good' and 'It would be a waste not to get a photo'. Then Kurt and Ram's, again Heather's mom. Then the last one, with her, Heather, Heather, Martha, and Betty Finn having a proper slumber party.

All the ones that had Janis with them weren't pasted on her wall with the stickers and the construction paper backgrounds like the others. They were printed in one of those Polaroid wireless printers, with all the patterned borders.

"Wow." Janis said the only appropriate response for Veronica's story. "Wow. So, your hot new emo boyfriend killed the Regina of your school, along with two idiot jocks, then you blew him up?" Veronica blinked, then laughed, rocking herself back and forth.

"Yeah, I- I guess. Now, your turn." Veronica sat up, grabbing a big blue pillow from her bad and hugging it to her chest. Janis took a big breath, then started talking. Her words got faster and faster until they were tripping over each other, competing to see which one she would say first. Veronica managed to piece most of it together.

There was silence after Janis stopped speaking. "Could I speak to Cady? Maybe over the phone?" Janis hesitated. "Just for a little bit? I might be able to help." Janis paused again. "Hello?"

"Oh right, you can't see me nod. Sure. I'll send you her number." Veronica was about to say goodbye, but Janis hung up before she could. Veronica's phone dinged with a text from Janis.

Here goes nothing, she thought as she hit the number.

(791 words)