Planning Your Future

Take Me Back

September 3, 1993

Veronica's POV

I wake up at three in the morning. I can't sleep. I'd rehearse but my dorm has a rule about music. We can't play it after eleven, and can't play it before eight. I decide to sit in my car for a while, doing vocal warmups. I fall asleep an hour later. Then I was awoken by a knock of the window. JD's standing outside the car. He goes around and get in. "Why are you in your car? At six in the morning?" He laughs. So I was asleep for two hours. "I couldn't sleep so I came out here to practice, but that's what got me to fall asleep." I set my seat back so I can lie back. "Now I'm going back to sleep. So either put your seat back and join me, or get out." I say. "Okay. I'll stay." I hear the seat get put back so I guess he's staying.

At nine, we both get up and meet the guys at the studio for a last minute rehearsal. "Okay. Are we ready tonight?" I ask everyone. They all nod. "Great. Let's do a full run-through here before we go to the the theater." I suggest. We do it and it's amazing. "Okay so we'll meet at the theater at about seven to rehearse and get ready?" I collect my things. "That sounds good." JD says.

"So what do you want to do before we have to go to the show?" I ask as I drive. "Eva was gonna come over and we were going to hang out for a few hours." He says. "That's fun." I smile. "So you really like her, huh?" I look at him. "Yeah. She's cool." I can tell he's trying to hide a smile. "Stop that!" I hit him. "What? Stop what?" He laughs. "If you like her, say it. None of this 'she's cool' bullshit." I say. "Okay, fine. I really like her! Happy?" He hits me back, lighter than I hit him. "Yes. Very." I smirk.

JD's POV

I go back to my dorm and Eva shows up later. "Hey." She comes in. "So are you excited about your show?" She asks, sitting on the bed. "Yeah. We're so ready. If all goes well, we'll get a record deal out of it." I sit beside her. "Well I'm coming so you better impress me." She leans forward, kissing me. I kiss her back. "I promise I will." I say against her lips. "Good." She says against mine. We turn so we're facing each other. We're interrupted by the door opening. We stand up as Kyle walks in.

"Hey JD." He notices Eva, "Oh, hey Eva." He smiles at her. "Hi, Kyle." She waves. "So where'd you go this morning? You left at like... six something." Kyle leans against the wall. "Oh. I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, so I was going to go and sit at the park or something. But on my way, I saw Veronica just sleeping in her car. I got in the car, she went back to sleep, so I just sat in the car with her until we went to rehearsal at nine." I explain. It was kind of weird but I had nothing better to do. And her being alone in her car sounded like a bad idea. "Cool. Um, can you help me get something?" Kyle points to the door. "Sure." I follow him out.

He stops as soon as I close the door. "What did you need?" I thought we would be going to his car to get something. "You sat in the car at six in the morning with your ex, and don't think that's weird?" He crosses his arms. "No? She's in a serious relationship and I'm trying to be in one. Also Veronica and I didn't have a healthy relationship. We fought all the time, we used sex to deal with our issues, and we just didn't trust each other. Us sitting in the car together means nothing. Don't make this something more than it is." I say. "I'm sorry, but didn't you say you two weren't getting back together before you did?" He raises an eyebrow. "Because I didn't think we would. Because I thought she was happy without me. But now I know she's happy without me. Also, I didn't realize how toxic we were when we dated before. I do now. So stop making me feel weird about my friendship with Veronica." I push past him.

I go back inside. "Hey, what was that about? I could hear you guys fighting?" Eva asks. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. He was just being Kyle." I shrug. "So where were we?" I sit back down. Eva pushes me so I'm laying down on the bed. She gets on top of me and starts to kiss me. I let it happen until I start thinking about my relationship with Veronica. We went really fast, and that ended poorly. I move my head and start to slide out from under her. "Can we talk?" I ask. "Uh, sure." She sits up. "So we've been dating for about two weeks... And I just think we should take things slow. It's just that I've been in relationships where we moved pretty fast, and none of them worked out. And I really like you so I want this to last." I say. "You're right. I like you too. So I'll take it slow if that's what you want." She puts her head on my shoulder.