Planning Your Future

Love Thy Neighbor (Part 1)

November 28, 1991

Veronica's POV

JD and I are sitting on the porch swing, my head in his lap. We hear a car door shut and Heather and James come up the stairs soon after. "Hey!" I smile. They sit on the railing of the porch. "Hey guys." Heather is wearing a yellow dress and black flats. James has on a plain white polo with khakis. I sit up and make eye contact with James. "Hey James could you help me with something really quick?" He looks hesitant but goes anyways. Once inside, I lead him into the living room. "So have you thought about what you told me the other day?" I ask. "Um... a little. I'm obviously not going to do it today. But I don't know." He shrugs. "Well nobody's rushing you. Breakups are never easy." I pat him on the shoulder. We're about to walk out when Heather opens the front door and runs in holding a newspaper, JD following behind. "What?" Heather hands it to me, "Just look at the front page." I do as she says and feel my blood begin to boil:

Heather Duke is a Homo?

I look through the article trying to figure out how and why this is happening. "'Heather Duke, the former best friend and murderer of popular girl Heather Chandler has been found to be a homosexual. Henry Baldwin, Heather Chandler's cousin, told the Sherwood News that he'd known for over two years but didn't want to tell anyone. He shared that she had had a crush on the deceased Heather Chandler. He said he was afraid Miss Duke's secret friend might hurt him. He did not reveal the identity of the friend, but it has been speculated that it may be a lover.'" I slam my hand on the table. "I am going to kill him!" I grab my keys and run to my car. JD, Heather, and James manage to get in before I quickly back out.

After I park, I don't even wait to get out. I'm heading to the door until I realize the TV vans outside the house. I bang on the door anyways. There's some soft talking inside, then the door opens. Henry's mom is at the door. "Hi! Excuse me!" I push past her and march towards Henry. "What the hell, Henry?" I shout, holding the newspaper up to his face. "'Try to forgive her' my ass! You do remember that time I punched you in the face right? I'll do it again if you continue with this homophobic bullshit!" I notice the fact that there are cameras around me. Not that it matters, but it's still a little awkward. Henry laughs and turns to the camera, "here's that secret lover you were looking for." The camera crew laughs in response. "As her boyfriend, I very much disagree with that. You know, the boyfriend she chose over your dumbass?" JD comments. I smile at him before turning to Henry again, "I don't have to be gay to know the difference between right and wrong! Heather loving differently than others isn't wrong. You being a horrible fucking person is wrong!" He looks shocked, as he should be. "And you!" I turn to the camera crew, "You people are sick! You pretend to be so good! You believe that you're good Christians and are 'doing the Lord's work!' Well guess what! While you're hating 'the gays' for how they feel, you're forgetting the rule that trumps all of your other bullshit rules from the Bible. It's called 'love thy neighbor' people! So stop being bible-thumping cherry-pickers and use some common sense!" I turn around and walk outside.

"Veronica!" I turn around to see Henry running after me, followed by the camera crew. "What? I'm done with you! I forgave Heather because I knew it would eat away at me if I didn't! She told me she was gay way after that! Do I think it's weird she liked Heather? Yes! But that's because I knew that Heather Chandler was a despicable human. You act high and mighty when you're nothing but a bigoted douchebag who peaked in high school!" JD gets past the crew and makes it over to me. "Hey, are you okay?" He asks. "Yeah." I nod, holding back tears. "Do you support this too, JD?" Henry asks. "That depends," JD shrugs, "I support Heather being who she is. I don't support how she's treated Veronica and everyone at the school. But I'm working to forgive her for that." I look up at him, proud.

"That's not who she is! Her wanting to be with women is a choice!" Henry yells. "When she told me who she was, she was sobbing! She hated that she was gay! She didn't like it! Why would she cry about something she could change?" I'm actually crying now. "Is this your way of coming out?" He laughs, acknowledging that this was being recorded by looking at the camera. I slap him as hard as I can. "Just shut the fuck up for once! I like men because that's the way God- or whoever is up there- made me! She likes women because that's the way she was made!" I grab the collar of his shirt, "If I find out you've said another word against Heather, I'll kill you!" I let him go, "Burn in hell!"

The car ride back to JD's is dead silent. Heather breaks the silence once we're almost there, "That was amazing. I've never been so proud and scared in my life." I smile, "I appreciate that." I wipe my eyes as I drive. "And even JD was incredible!" Heather exclaims. JD smirks and looks out the window.

Jill greets us as we walk in. "You guys are on the news!" We come in and sure enough, we're on TV. We get to watch the entire fight again. I have to walk away because I can't listen to his voice again. "Hey, it's okay." JD holds me and kisses my head. "Why don't you go lay down until dinner's ready. I think you need a rest after that." JD suggests. I do as he says and go upstairs.

Once I get up, I go back downstairs and join JD on the couch. "Hey." I cuddle up next to him. "Hey. You feel better?" He asks. "Yeah." I smile. "Well dinner should be ready in about thirty minutes." He says. "Sounds great."

Hey guys! So yes: the title is a reference to The Prom. Which was an amazing movie and I will not accept criticism at this time! But yeah... Henry will not get redemption EVER. I'll keep him as a dirtbag.