Planning Your Future

Love Thy Neighbor (Part 2)

January 6, 1993

Veronica's POV

I haven't talked to JD since New Years. I've been so ashamed over what happened, that I couldn't talk to him. I just avoided him. Now I'm back in Boston. I know I'll have to talk to him. I'm just scared because my guilty conscience is killing me.

Owen asked me to hang out before rehearsal. He can clearly tell I'm nervous about something. "What is it?" He asks. "What do you mean?" I bite into my sandwich. "You look lost in thought." He says. "If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell JD?" He nods, "I promise." I take a deep breath, "I kissed Alyssa. We were fighting and then we started talking in a friendly way, and it just happened. I felt guilty right after. JD's going to be pissed if he finds out." It will 100% start a fight. "Did it mean anything?" I just sit there. "I'll take that as a yes." He picks at his food. "I don't know. I still love JD." I love him a lot. "Then a kiss means nothing. It was probably a bunch of old feelings coming back up." He shrugs. I guess Owen's right. It means absolutely nothing.

We go to rehearsal. Sam is already there, tuning his guitar. "Hey. How was your break?" He smiles at us. "Good. You?" I sit at the piano. "Good. It was a little boring. But that's because my family is boring." He shrugs. "Where are you from again?" I ask. "Illinois." He says. "Hey guys." JD comes in. He leans down to kiss me, I kiss his cheek instead.

"So I have a new song written if you guys want to start that." I pull out the music. "Hell yeah." Owen smiles. "Okay. Then let's do it." I play through the song. I even wrote solo parts for Owen and Sam. I was really proud of it when I wrote it. Erika loved it when I sang it yesterday. "It's so good. And you even wrote solos for the two of us?" Owen puts his arm on my shoulder. "Yeah. You guys have nice voices and it's time we showcase them a little more." I hand out the sheet music.

I notice halfway through that Alyssa is peeking in to listen. I ignore her the rest of rehearsal. Finally, we dismiss. Alyssa's gone by the end. "Okay. I'll see you guys on Friday. Work on your vocal parts, at least." I don't put away my music just yet. "You coming?" JD asks. "I'm gonna hang around." I tell him. "Okay." He kisses my forehead and leaves with the guys.

I practice the piano part in the song. I play until my fingers hurt. "Hey, can we talk?" Alyssa comes in. "I don't really want to." I get up and start packing up. "Veronica, I shouldn't have done that and I'm sorry." She says. "I get it. It's really fine. You don't have to keep apologizing." I try to move past her. "I still feel like we should talk about it." She stands in front of me. "I don't want to talk about it!" I snap. "Okay? I don't want to talk about how I kissed someone else while I'm with JD, when we're already dealing with things. I don't want to talk about how I actually liked the kiss. I don't want to talk about any of it!" I yell. "I just-" Alyssa's interrupted by Miles knocking on the door. "Veronica, JD's on the phone. He says it's very important." He tells me.

I go to his office and pick up the phone. "Hello?" I say into the receiver. "Veronica, Owen got attacked. He had to be rushed to the hospital." I start to feel lightheaded. "What?" What happened? "Just meet me at the hospital. Bring Sam if you can." He hangs up. "What is it?" Miles asks. "Owen got attacked by someone." I don't even give him time to respond. I drive to Sam's school. I bang on his door until he answers. "What?" He is already in night attire. "We need to go to the hospital. Owen got attacked. So get dressed." I cross my arms. He quickly throws on a shirt and comes with me.

JD is in the lobby. "Hey. What happened?" I ask. "I don't know. I just saw a crowd of people and he was on the ground, covered in blood." He looks shaken. "Have they said anything?" Sam looks scared. "No. I'm just waiting for them to give me any information. His mom should be here soon." JD tells us.