bruises // heathers

eleven // just like heather?

"Are you guys going to get married?" Giselle asked a few days later at the dinner table that Veronica insisted on buying. She felt that it was impersonal to eat at a counter for all meals. But at that moment, they were playing a game. The question caused Veronica to choke on her water a little bit and blush whereas it didn't faze Jason.

"Hopefully." He answered. "Do you want us to get married?" Elle squirmed in her seat as he asked this.

"I guess." Elle replied.

"What?" Veronica asked, seeing Elle's reluctance to say what she clearly wanted to.

"I wish you guys got married before I was born." Elle responded.

"That isn't always how things work out, Elle." JD reminded his daughter, who nodded as if she understood this.

"I wouldn't have married him right away anyways." Veronica told Elle. JD asked what the hell she meant, Veronica hurried to explain herself when seeing his mix of frustration and hurt. "I mean that I would have waited at least a year of us being together with Elle to get married."

"Why?" JD questioned.

"Because I would have wanted to see if we could be together for a while with a kid when we were that young." Veronica explained.

"Well what about now?" JD asked.

"I don't know, Jason, are you asking me to marry you?" Veronica asked in response.

"Would you marry me?"

"Are you asking me to marry you?"

"What if I was?" JD smirked at Veronica, knowing it reduces her to putty in his hands. But Veronica simply frowned in response.

"Jason, are you asking me to marry you?" Veronica asked, she sounded tired.

"Yes." JD replied as if he hadn't just decided it but as if he had been planning to ask her for years. "Marry me, Veronica."

"You're joking, right?" Veronica asked, feeling herself begin to shake a little in worry and possibly a bit of fear.

"I'm not joking." He said seriously.

"Why would you even want to marry me?" Veronica asked.

"Because I love you and you love me." JD answered, he wasn't asking her if she loved him, he was telling her. That really annoyed her, but only because he was right. Veronica couldn't hide any of her feelings from JD.

"I do love you," Veronica sighed at the unsaid half of her sentence.

"Then marry me, Veronica." JD said. He was telling her to do it. He was not asking her to marry him, he was telling her to marry him.

"Ask me." Veronica responded.

"Veronica, will you marry me?" He asked, but she knew deep down it wasn't an option. She was going to have to marry him and even though she wanted to, she was hesitant.

"Yes, Jason." Veronica smirked as she teased him with his first name to make her nerves die down.

"Don't call me that." JD replied, kissing Veronica as she was about to do it again. Elle giggled as her parents kissed deeply. Veronica was breathless when JD pulled away. "More later." He whispered into her ear before nibbling on it which caused her face to turn firetruck red.

Veronica coughed, trying to shake the burning sensation she felt when he touched her. "So, are you nervous for school tomorrow?"

"Not really. You said that Ashlee and Lindsay go there too?" Elle questioned.

"Yes. When I went to drop off your paperwork, I stopped by Heather's to see if they would be in the same school as you. You'll be in their class." Veronica reassured her anxious little girl.

"You're gonna be just fine. Don't stress it." JD told Elle. "Just remember to stay by... what are their names?"

"Ashlee and Lindsay." Veronica supplied JD the information.

"Of course. Just stay by Ashlee and Lindsay, I assume they're like their mothers and are 'well liked'." JD used finger quotations when describing Heather McNamara and Heather Duke as well liked. It made Veronica snort with laughter.

"Maybe I'll be like Heather." Elle smiled at this thought but it made JD and Veronica terrified. What if she was like Heather? What if she became the mythic bitch later in life and some kids like them decided that their little girl deserved to die? "She said she was friends with Ashlee and Lindsay's moms before she was friends with you, mom."

"She was. They became friends in elementary school." Veronica smiled tightly, she hated talking about Heather.

"Heather calls you a pillowcase, mama." Elle turns to her father. "She calls you Jesse James." Elle giggled, thinking this very funny. She felt Heather's long fingers stab into her shoulders. Elle stopped laughing once Heather poked her.

"Giselle?" Veronica said, trying to get her daughter's attention.

"Heather says you guys are why she's dead." Elle whispered, tears staring to stream down her face.

"That is not true." JD lied. But just as quickly as Heather upset Elle, she fixed it and Elle was back to being smiley and acting as if nothing happened.

"Honey whatcu' for! Welcome to my candy store! Time for you to prove you're not a pussy anymore!" Elle sang, being purposely silly.

"Giselle!" Veronica shrieked at the language her daughter used.

"And step into my candy store!" Elle laughed as she finished the verse.

"Watch your language. You're not even eight years old. You don't need to say that stuff." JD warned Elle.

"Heather says it." Elle pouted.

"Heather is dead, for starters. And she's also seventeen." JD reminded Elle, who only pouted more. "Stop pouting."

"That's just my face." Elle replied, folding her arms across her slight chest.

"You have to take a shower so your hair is clean for school in the morning." Veronica said, stopping the brewing debate between her now fiancé and their daughter. "Go do that, okay?" Elle stormed off to get in the shower. She was famous for extremely long and extremely hot showers. They fill the entire bathroom with heat and cloud the vision of anyone who goes in because there's so much steam.