fragile // heathers au

four // problematic

The three drove to Veronica's parents, deciding to go to JD's after as they were running late already. They pulled into the driveway. Mackenzie ran up to greet her grandparents on the porch while JD and Veronica were still getting out of the car.

Veronica's mother, Valerie, hugged Mackenzie first. "Hi sweetie. Who's that with your mom?" She asked.

"That's my dad, grandma." Mackenzie replied bluntly. Valerie's smile dropped.

"Nicholas," Valerie said to her husband.

"Yes Valerie?" He asked, not looking up from his paper.

"You might want to see who's with Veronica." Valerie told him and he looked up, seeing his daughter and her high school sweetheart get out of the car together. 

"Hi mom, hi dad." Veronica said as she walked up.

"Veronica, you're not alone this time." Valerie said, not saying hello to her daughter.

"Oh, yeah. You remember JD." Veronica replied.

"Yes, I remember your boyfriend from high school. You never mentioned he was Mackenzie's father however." Valerie said.

"I figured that was obvious." Veronica chuckled nervously. "He was sort of my first boyfriend." 

"Nicholas, can you and Mackenzie go inside so I can talk to Veronica?" Valerie asked and Nicholas nodded, ushering his granddaughter inside, promising her fresh cookies.

"What do you want to talk about?" Veronica asked her mother.

"I never wanted to tell you this, but Veronica, I know." Valerie said.

"Know what, exactly?" Veronica asked as JD lit a cigarette for the two of them to split.

"I know what happened when you were in high school." Valerie said. "I know all about what happened to those other kids." 

"What do you mean?" Veronica laughed nervously.

"Heather Chandler and those boys? I know what actually happened, Veronica." Valerie said.

"What actually happened?" JD asked.

"You two killed them, all three of them. More specifically, you killed them and used my daughter as your partner in crime." Valerie accused the truth. Veronica felt her breath catch in her throat.

"Is she talking about that book you wrote in high school?" JD asked Veronica, coming up with a quick cover-up.

"What?" Valerie asked.

"Veronica wrote this weird story in high school for the psych unit in English. She had to write motives for murder. You didn't actually think we killed people, did you?" JD asked Valerie. 

"It was pretty convincing and realistic." Valerie remarked.

"That was the point of the assignment." JD said. "If we had killed them, don't you think the cops would have figured it out?" He asked and Valerie nodded. Veronica felt a bit of worry as he just easily manipulated her mother. Who's to say he won't manipulate her, she wondered. She stood up and stubbed her cigarette out on the railing, next to tons of little indents from Veronica's cigarettes over the years. She brushed her finger over the divots and sighed. She shook her head and went inside, Valerie and JD followed her into the kitchen where Nicholas and Mackenzie were eating cookies. Veronica sat at the kitchen table and snagged one of her daughter's cookies. 

"Veronica, sweetie, your father and I wanted to know how Mackenzie's appointment went." Valerie said as Veronica bit into the cookie.

"Kenzie, go play while the grownups talk." Veronica said and Mackenzie whined but did as told. JD sat beside Veronica, and Valerie sat next to Nicholas.

"Veronica, you aren't telling us how the appointment went." Nicholas spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

"She has autism." Veronica told her parents. "And I don't want to talk about it." She added.

"Baby it's kind of something you gotta talk about." JD replied.

"It doesn't need to be talked about. It isn't a big deal. She's the same kid. She'll just have therapy from now on." Veronica explained her reasoning for not wanting to discuss Mackenzie's diagnosis.

"But not meds, right, Veronica?" Valerie asked.

"I don't know yet. Hopefully not." Veronica said, not wanting to medicate her eight year old daughter. Then there was silence in that old Victorian-style home. No one knew what to say, so no one said anything.