"What. The. Fuck?"

She hasn't seen her looming figure since the day that the person she thought she knew she loved died. It's been three months and Veronica had no idea whatsoever as to why the girl in a red robe had come back to haunt her.

Everything's kind of okay in school right now, there was barely anything happening. Veronica was just... there. They all just existed. Heather McNamara's, Martha's, and a bit of Heather Duke's company was already enough to make her tolerate the rest of her senior year.

It was almost Halloween, and by that, Veronica means only one, very, specific day.

Valentine's Day.

She was a mess.

In all ways physically, emotionally, and mentally.

To have this incident happen is more than enough to trigger the switch she's been keeping turned off for a long time.

"What are you doing in my room!?" Screamed Veronica, holding the length of a croquet malette in her arm, ready to strike at any time.

"Really, Veronica?" The figure replied and rolled it's eyes. "The irony of this makes me want to dig myself out the grave just to be able to feel the pain of pulling my hair out."

She's still the same. The sass was so prominent, Veronica refused to believe she was dead and was just a ghost in front of her. Maybe it wasn't even a ghost. Maybe it was just a figment of her imagination.

Chandler scoffed, "Take a picture, Veronica, it'll last longer."

"I don't need to, given the fact that your lifeless body's already imprinted in my mind," Veronica relented, letting the croquet mallet fall to her bed.

Heather Chandler, or at least, the physical figure that Veronica perceived that looked so much like her -and acted like her as well, had her arms crossed.

Veronica let herself fall to the bed, resignated and given up on trying to figure out why she came back.

She looked the same. Oh so fucking monstrous and beautiful. With that playful smirk forever plastered on her face and her overly-poofy hair. She was no doubt, very attractive. Even women, even Veronica, found herself fascinated and breathless.

But not wanting to really show it, she rolled her eyes and put an arm to her head, "Why are you here?"

Veronica felt a shift in the temperature of the room and she felt her bed sink.

Can ghosts do that?

"It's boring in the afterlife, Veronica,
if I have to sing kumbaya one more fucking time."

"Yeah, I know. You told me that three months ago. What's new?"

Veronica did not have any reply, but she felt something, an arm, it felt solid??

Can ghosts also do that?

The arm wrapped around her torso and a sigh was heard from the seemingly solid figure now laying beside her.

"I miss you."

Veronica snorted, "Who doesn't?"

"Kurt and Ram are still dumbasses on the other side. I have no fucking idea why they haven't gone away yet."

Veronica lay there, unmoving, due to the tingly sensation of the arm around her torso, and the thought of something she would've rather forgotten. She looked to the figure beside her expectantly.

"And JD?"

"He isn't there. I haven't seen him."

Veronica didn't know what she expected. Veronica's stare deflated and Chandler definitely noticed it.

"The last time I actually saw him was that day that..."

"He almost blew up the whole school?"

Chandler was quiet, deciding to study Veronica's reaction before continuing.

"Yes."

Veronica was exhausted. She let out a puff of air inside her cheeks.

She thought about how she was going to enter college in just a few months time. She got accepted into Harvard, Duke, and Brown. It was quite confusing to choose which one to enter now that she doesn't really see a certain motive to choose one over the other. All of them would be okay. Everything has been okay.

When she was part of the Heathers' clique, she knew she would follow the girl with red scrunchie to college, eventually. She thought about it several times an hour, a day, a week. But several times she also thought whether or not that was necessary. Highschool had been a four-year social curse. Now that it had passed they should eventually come to terms with the fact that they need to go through college and try to apply for jobs and all that "lame and batshit business stuff" as Veronica would quote Heather.

Life with the two other Heathers and a single Martha had been so complacent that she forgot what it felt to actually want something to happen so badly. Well, she hadn't forgotten how it felt to want her highschool life to go back to normal, if that counted.

Even after the drama had died down, and everything had settled, Veronica felt so different after everything that had happened. It was no wonder, though.

The people in the school newspaper were actually getting good and sneaking in intellectual and Inquirer-worthy issues into the paper and she had to admit that she was quite proud despite the fact she had close to nothing to do with the paper except be in it from time to time. The dubbed "very mysterious and disturbingly haunting" issue about Veronica's ex-boyfriend blowing up in a field with a bomb attached to his chest had somehow not become much of a bother to Veronica. She had gotten a few wishes for condolences from a few of her schoolmates, but other than that, there was completely nothing else to talk about.

Veronica thinks that perhaps the fact that the flow of talk had been so stagnant in Westerburg triggered her friend who happened to be the lead of the newspaper committee.

The yearbook comittee, known to be head by Heather Duke herself, was just second in how active it was to the newspaper committee. However degoratory that status may seem, it was actually quite relieving to Heather. She had been under the pressure of maintaining the title for so long, that when she actually did not succeed in doing so, she just laughed through the phone in relief with Heather McNamara and Veronica on the other line. She explained how she had tried so hard to do something she somehow knew she would eventually fail at maintaining and with the knowledge of that in her head, together with the fact that she indeed held that duty for so long, she cried as she laughed. It was a mess, really. McNamara didn't get it much but when Duke said she was feeling better than ever with a few sniffles in the conversation here and there, she felt the slightest bit enlightened and that was fine with her. Veronica, however, being someone who loved to see the bigger picture of things and analyzing them, she looked deeper into what Duke said and realised some things she couldn't have if not for what she'd been through.

Highschool had ended and Veronica was headed somewhere she knows she could start anew.

Although, despite all her plans and goals, tonight had definitely been something she had not been anticipating to happen.

"Heather?"

"What?"

"Why'd you come?"

There was no reply for a bit so Veronica continued, "Why'd you come back? Was it to ruin my life again? Jesus, if you were doing it again, you should've at least give me a warning, you know."

She heard the ghostly figure on her bed groan. She heard shufflling and she heard the creaks her bed produced as the figure moved.

Do ghosts get annoyed?

"God, Veronica, you're so talkative. Makes me want to die all over again."

"No, but seriously, why?"

Veronica turned her head to now see Heather in a different position, facing the opposite parallel wall that the bed was near to. She was sitting, her back leaning to the wall, with one of her legs bent while the other lay flat on the bed. She had her two hands intertwined placed atop of the knee that was raised.

There was a short silence before the conversation was started once again, this time, it was the strawberry-blonde redhead that spoke.

"It's Valentine's Day."

Veronica almost rolled her eyes twice at that remark.

"How romantic of you to just show up at my door-"

"Really? I didn't think you'd appreciate it that much."

Veronica moved beside Heather and took on a position similar to her very pale companion, but instead had both her legs drawn up to her chest and her arms had wrapped around them to prevent them from moving away. She was so tempted to hold that hand that looked so warm and cozy to hold. She looked at it for a few more seconds before looking at Heather's face.

She was still looking straight ahead at the wall opposite the side of their bed.

Veronica swallowed before talking again, "Why now? If you could've done it during graduation or something, of all days, why now??"

Heather turned her head to Veronica, their eyes meeting before she went back to staring at the wall.

"It was the only time I could."

Veronica perked up at the answer, "The only time you 'could'???"

"On certain days like this, or some other spiritual holiday, whatever, I don't really know how exactly it works, but there's this classification system for spirits??" Heather paused, wanting to slap Veronica's amused expression off her face. "I think it specifies when a ghost or whatever can visit."

Veronica's mouth spread into a wide grin and planted herself in front of Heather, making them face one another. Heather's head, however, was facing down.

"Gosh, Heather, hearing you explain something is such a rare sight."

"Shut up."

Veronica chuckled but then frowned. She asked the almost upset figure with scrunched up eyebrows, "You're classified on what, now?"

She could somehow see the cheeks of this pale, pale figure be tinted a light shade of pink. This made Veronica frown deeper and knit her two eyebrows closer together in confusion.

Heather sighed before answering (Can ghosts breathe air?? Do they even need air?), "We're classified based on our endeavors for the visit."

"Ooh, pretty big word, 'endeavor', huh?" Veronica teased before realising what Heather just said.

With that, the cheeks of the pale figure had darkened a shade of pink and Veronica's confused expression just completely unraveled into one of shock and amusement.

"Holy shit! Oh, my God!" Veronica started exclaiming as she burst into a fit of giggles. Heather just kept silent as she watched the living figure of Veronica shake with laughter. Her cheeks were almost red as she did so.

As the laughter died down, Veronica went back to her spot next to Heather and looked at her.

"So, are you saying that," Veronica bit down the urge to start laughing again, "you came here because-"

"Yes! Alright? I came to visit because this stupid system wouldn't get me to the other side unless I visit someone with my last unfulfilled endeavor!"

"Which was-" Veronica couldn't hold her laughter so she just coughed.

"Yes, ugh, romantic."

Veronica calmed down once she saw Heather in a melancholic state. She was upset, too. She had both of her knees now drawn to her chest like what Veronica had done just a few moments ago. She laid her head to rest in between her knees.

Veronica scooted closer to Heather's figure and thought twice before hesitantly putting an arm around her shoulder. It was a very cold experience, but Veronica was surprised to feel that it was solid.

When Heather felt this, she immediately fell closer into Veronica's much warmer figure. Veronica responded by adjusting to how Heather used to hug her sometimes back in the day.

They were silent for a moment, Veronica's head in Heather's still-fluffy hair that still smelt of strawberries and conditioner.

"I missed you, too."

-

Hi! So this is me, almost a year later, doing stuff. I still can't get ahold of writing romance and stuff but yes, this is what I just managed to make. Hope you liked it, and I hope to see your feedback. I haven't written in a long time, and this draft has been here for m o n t h s and it was only just yesterday I continued to do like 3/4 of the actual writing.

Again, I hope to see your comments, and as always,

All the love, tuffhufflepuff xx

P.S. Excuse the grammatical errors first, I haven't edited it yet.