Planning Your Future

You Happened

December 21, 1991

Veronica's POV

I look at Alyssa lying next to me. She yawns. I smile as she stretches her arms. She sees me watching her and smiles. "Good morning." I kiss her. "Good morning to you too." She runs her fingers through my hair. "So what do you want to do today?" I ask. "I don't really care." She kisses my cheek and begins making her way down to my neck.

I use my hand to bring her face to look at me. "Won't your mom wonder where you are?" She rolls her eyes, "I doubt it. She probably didn't even notice that I didn't come home last night. She takes Christmas very seriously." I laugh, "I get it. My mom is the same. That's why the house isn't decorated. My mom was the only one who cared about decorating." My dad probably only kept our personalized Christmas stuff. Like the ornaments I made in school as a kid.

"Yeah your house did seem very off compared to my grandparents' house. It's like the entire holiday aisle threw up on the house." She says. She looks at the ceiling then back at me. "What?" I stroke her cheek. "Are you serious? About this?" I know she's talking about us. "I am. I really like you." This is honestly a much healthier start than JD and I's relationship. We started dating a day after we met. Within a week we were acting like a married couple. I've known Alyssa for five or six months.

I hear the front door open. "Shit!" I shoot up. "Ronnie! I'm back!" I hear him start to climb the stairs. I grab my clothes and violently throw them on. Alyssa quickly jumps off the bed and starts getting dressed as she runs to my closet. My dad knocks on my door. Alyssa shuts herself inside. "Come in." I sit down to look natural. "Good morning, honey." He says when he opens the door. "Good morning, Dad. How was the conference?" I keep glancing at the closet. "It was boring. At least the food was good. So what do you have planned for today?" He asks. "I'm not really sure yet." I shrug. "Well I'm going to take a nap. I didn't sleep at all. The guy I had to share a room with snored all night." He rolls his eyes. "Okay."

Once he closes the door, I wait for him to go into his room. After he does, I open the closet door. Alyssa steps out, stressed. "That was close." She flops on the bed. "Yeah but now he's in his room. So what's today's plan?" I sit beside her. "I need coffee." She gets up. "Okay then."

We go to Beanie's and Heather is grabbing her drink as we walk in. "Alyssa?" She approaches us. "Heather? Hey!" They hug. I'm confused until I remember that they were counselors at camp the summer after senior year. "I'm so sad that you didn't come back to be a counselor with me last summer!" Alyssa gives a fake frown. I can't help but smile at her. "Yeah. But at least you got Veronica." In that case, thank God Heather couldn't go. Heather looks at me, "Veronica, I'm really sorry for how I treated you and JD. I already talked to him." I smile, "I forgive you." Now the only thing wrong with her liking him is the fact that they're about to be step-siblings. "But when I talked to him it seemed like you two weren't in a good place. Are you two not together?" She asks. "We broke up a few weeks ago." I'm so tired of telling people. "Well you guys have a good day." She hugs us both and leaves.

We walk around town after we get our coffee. "So you and Heather were fighting?" Alyssa questions. "Yeah she was being weird around me and JD when we were together. Then she started being hurtful because her boyfriend dumped her over her crush on JD. We got in a big fight over it and stopped talking to each other." I explain. "So do you think she'll ask him out now that you're not with him?" I shake my head, "Heather can't ask him out." She makes a confused face. "Her dad is getting married to JD's mom." She laughs, "I can see the issue there."

Alyssa's arm is swinging by her side. If we weren't here, I'd grab it. She notices that I'm looking at her hand and smiles at me. I see Henry coming out of a store. He stops dead in his tracks when he sees me. He stands there, probably thinking of something nasty to say. He finally approaches us. "Hey lesbo! Who's your friend?" He sneers. "Do you want me to break your nose again? Because I definitely will! Also if I find out you visited Heather again, I'll kick the shit out of you. She was doing really well until you told the news about her." I threaten. "I'm sorry I hurt your girlfriend!" He goes to "sympathetically" touch my shoulder. I push his hand away. I open the lid of my coffee and pour it over his head. "Now fuck off." He scoffs, "Fuck you, slut!" I grab Alyssa's arm and pull her away from him. "That's the guy from the news, right?" She asks. "Yeah." I nod.