Georgia Peach

Chapter 8

  Janis is being softly shaken awake- no, actually Cady's just trying to get up without waking her, nevermind. She lets out a soft hum of disapproval as Cady gets up, shooting an arm out to grab her friend's wrist before she gets too far away.

"Oh! Sorry, Jan. I didn't mean to wake you up..."

" 's fine," She was still groggy, she had a killer headache and the fluorescent lights were not helping. She clapped a hand over her eyes, "Do you have an ibuprofen or somethin'?"

"No, sorry."

"Ugh, okay. Where are we?"

"Riverbend ER...we can go see Jason now, if you want?"

Memories of last night flooded her brain. Christmas dinner, the bonfire, the stars, Huggie and Jason...Jason. Janis rushed to stand up, stumbling immediately lightheaded. Cady caught her and steadied her, "Hey, woah, no rush. Craig told them he was Jason's dad and we're his cousins, so we can go in like whenever..."

Both Janis and Cady were startled by someone's hand slamming on the front desk, "What do you mean I can't go see him? I'm his girlfriend!"

"Ma'am, you're not his family and you're not any of his emergency contacts, I'm sorry. I can't allow you to go see him."

Cady sighed, "She's been at it since she got here a few hours ago."

Janis looked over Cady's shoulder to see who the disruptive woman could be. She was dressed to the nines in a red pantsuit and some sizable platform heels that gave what Regina's stilettos a run for their money. Her red hair was tied back neatly with a blue ribbon. Honestly she looked like she walked right out of the 80s or something.

Janis had to stifle a laugh.

The woman pulled her phone out and began to furiously text, "Fine! Fine, whatever, but when Jason Dean wakes up could you tell him Heather is fucking stuck in the waiting room for him?"

That got Janis' attention, and by the looks of it, it got Cady's as well. The woman, Heather apparently, whipped around and sat in one of the seats across the room without even looking up from her phone.

"So that's definitely Chandler, right?" Janis whispered.

"Definitely."

"We should talk to her."

"And say what? Hey, I'm sorry my uncle tried to kill your boyfriend?" Cady gave her an incredulous look.

Janis paused for a moment. Clearly they couldn't say what Cady just suggested, that was asking for trouble. Suddenly she realized that Heather had referred to herself as Jason's girlfriend, and Janis was pretty confident he had said that Veronica was his girlfriend, not Heather. She smirked, "No, but I have an idea for an opener."

She was still a little wobbly on her feet, the lights still too bright and her headache still pounding, but Cady helped guide her across the waiting room quickly. Cady cleared her throat in an attempt to get Heather's attention, the girl in red didn't so much as look up at them.

"Uh, hello? Heather Chandler, I presume?"

Heather scoffed, "God, what do you want? I'm kind of busy?"

She reminded Janis of Regina, a shared look with Cady tells her that she also sees the resemblance, "Just wondering where Veronica was. Figured Jason would appreciate the presence of his real girlfriend."

Heather froze briefly before pocketing her phone and finally looking up at Janis. She had dark freckles, shimmery blue eyes, and her cheekbones looked like maybe they could cut glass. Janis felt her heart stop, Heather looked a lot like Cady but with sharp points and no soft edges.