Work Text:
Being a Heather was.. different.
Veronica was finding out just how easy it had been to label them as separate entities from her, sitting sheltered from her spot on the outside. Heatherdom had turned out to be a whole lot more challenging than Veronica had ever anticipated, and she was reaping the consequences.
Never go home sober, but never let them see you drunk. Never put out on the first date, but don’t be a prude or they’ll lose interest. Don’t wear red or green or yellow or god forbid pink, don’t wear pigmented lipstick, don’t wear heavy eyeshadow, and don’t you even think about wearing open toed shoes.
In short.. being a Heather came with a lot of rules. But she had gotten the hang of them eventually- it seemed the confidence and the bitchiness and the glamour just came with the makeup and thigh-highs.
The other Heathers were mysteries too. Heather Chandler, impenetrable and illustrious, standing seven feet tall in her heels. Heather Mac, who existed only to lick the wounds Chandler made, to balance out the mega-bitch with a kindness that Veronica was slowly coming to realise as genuine.
But Veronica had always prided herself on being apt, and the Heathers were just another puzzle to crack. Heather Chandler was mysterious, but nothing that couldn’t be explained with a traumatic backstory and mommy issues. Heather Mac was sweet, but it was hard to coddle her when she acted like the rest of them.
Heather Duke, though…. She was a locked door.
She would always eat, tearing big hunks off of Veronica’s burger or sipping on a soda, following it up with a trip to the bathroom where Veronica held back her hair and reminded herself that Duke was as evil as the rest of them, and this vulnerable girl hunched over the toilet seat to look back up at Veronica with watery brown eyes was a Heather: read, a monster.
There were the good days, days when Heather would talk and laugh and joke with the rest of them until Veronica couldn’t tell where the line between her and the Heathers started and ending. She would catch herself wanting their company, bizarrely enough.
And then Heather would open her fat mouth and make a mean comment and suddenly Heather would go back to being sullen and forlorn, as though Heather had access to her control panel.
It all came to a head at Ram’s party- pyramids of booze, several keg stands and baggies of unlabelled substances littered the house, girls in bikinis being hounded by boys in trunks all sitting around the pool and all very, very intoxicated, like some sort of Playboy fantasy.
Veronica swallowed, and allowed her feet to step over the threshold. Surely, one inch into Satan’s territory wouldn’t bar her entrance into Heaven? And then Heather was making some half-asses bitchy comment about her dress, and she went back to wishing she could clack her ridiculous heels together and disappear like Dorothy.
Soon enough, she was drunk enough that everything faded into a pleasurable sort of haze. She was enjoying herself, enjoying the way every guy’s gaze was glued to her dress and specifically the way it revealed boobs she didn’t even know she had. Dazed, she wandered around, finding herself by the pool.
Kurt was farting around in the deep end trying to remove bikini bottoms without the guests in question realising, and she scoffed. Until she realised who was sitting next to him, and she felt herself burn with rage.
Because the girl next to him was her friend, and her friend was currently looking very uncomfortable as Ram sat next to her on the pool’s ledge giving her what was clearly meant to be a back massage, although his hands were getting far closer to her chest than the rigid muscles of her back.
Veronica seethed, and considering going in to save her, before realising that a more diplomatic solution was required. (Maybe the Heathers were rubbing off on her).
She pointed one finger vaguely towards the white fence surrounding the pool, watching Ram’s attention drift first from the girl in front of him to Veronica’s chest to where she was pointing.
Asshole. He couldn’t even pay attention to the girl he was harassing?
Sure, Heather may have been a bitch, but Veronica was not stooping to the Heather’s level. So, she was stepping in.
‘Yo, Ram, emergency!’ She spoke, smiling sweetly at him like she wasn’t watching him grope her friend right next to her. ‘I just saw some freshmen sneaking over the pool fence.’
‘Where are you little pricks? I’m coming for you!’ He snarled, stalking over to where Veronica had pointed and releasing Heather, who looked very eager to be rid of the jock.
Veronica let her feet carry her over to the edge of the pool and plop herself next to Heather, who was curled up with her knees up to her chest. She took her feet out of her heels, sighing with relief as she swirled them through the blue water.
‘Are you okay, Heather?’ She murmured, watching the little whirlpools forming around her feet.
The girl looked conflicted, a stark contrast from the shrewd Heather Veronica usually knew.
‘I don’t need your help.’ She bit, drawing her feet closer to her knees and tucking her head into her knees so that her voice became a muffled echo, her hair falling around her face.
‘Of course you do, Heather.’ Veronica said simply. ‘Everyone needs help.’
‘Not me.’ Her eyes hardened, and she stepped away, fluffing her bob with her hands and turning her back to Veronica.
As she turned on her heel to leave, Veronica grabbed her arm, not missing the way the girl flinched as Veronica’s fingers closed around her wrist. Letting go, she heard a small sob come from Heather as she brought her face in her hands.
‘What do you want from me?’ She snarled, turning back to Veronica. Her eyes were rimmed with red and shit, and Veronica realised with startling clarity that Heather had been crying before she even got here, before she had stepped in.
‘I don’t want anything, Heather.’ Veronica whispered softly.
The expression in the girl’s eyes changed, and she looked.. tired.
Her shoulders stiffened, and for a moment she looked like the Heather Veronica was accustomed to.
‘Of course you do.’ She muttered sharply. ‘Everyone wants something. Sex, money, drugs. It’s our job to give it to them. That’s the price of being a Heather, Veronica, and if you can’t handle it, you better get the fuck out of here before you burn.’
Veronica’s eyes widened. ‘It doesn’t have to be that way, Heather.’
She laughed, a bitter sound that reminded Veronica of glass breaking.
‘God, Veronica, you’re naïve. Heather might give you special treatment because you’re her little project, but it’s not like that for the rest of us.’
‘Then what is it like, Heather?’ She snapped. ‘Tell me.’
‘Look. You don’t get it.’ Her eyes hardened as she walked Veronica inside Ram’s mansion, dragging her inside a little en-suite bathroom off the entrance and locking the door.
‘You were lucky. Heather saw something in you. She’s the reason you look like this. But me and Heather, we’ve been like this forever. Always hot. Always wanted. When you look like us, you’re a commodity. You’re something for people to use and throw away, bevause that’s what you are. That’s the price of being popular.’
She reached into her purse and brought out a lipstick and applying it over her lips. Veronica.. didn’t know she wore lipstick.
‘Heather doesn’t let us wear coloured lipsticks. That’s her thing, you know. Me and Heather have to wear nudes.’
Veronica started to speak over her, but Heather interrupted.
‘Just.. don’t. You don’t know how it is, Veronica, so don’t even try.’
‘It’s like..’ Her voice cracked, and Veronica could see tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She rubbed at them fiercely, fidgeting with her wrists.
‘You spend all this time, all this effort, being pretty. But all guys want is your body. And you can’t give them that, or you’re a whore. But you can’t stay pure, because then you’re a prude. You can’t let them take control, because that’s their permission to do whatever they want to you. You can’t be on top, because they want the pleasure of breaking you. They want to take something from you that you’ll miss, so every time you feel a piece of you gone you’ll think of him.’
She looked up towards the ceiling, trying to prevent the tears in her eyes from falling down her face.
‘We’re basically prostitutes, Veronica.’ She said matter-of-factly, despite her voice shaking slightly.
‘Heather.’ She inched closer to the girl, nudging her shoulder slightly. ‘Maybe that’s how it is. But it shouldn’t have to be.’
‘You shouldn’t have to sell yourself just to survive. And I’m sorry, that I didn’t realise sooner. God, people should like you for you, Heather, not for your body, because you’re great.’ She continued.
Heather sniffled. ‘I’m not though. Heather‘s hot and commanding and sexy, and Heather‘s sweet and kind. What am I? I might as well a pair of tits and some legs.’
Veronica sighed. ‘Is that really what you think?’
She nodded, a small bob of her head, and laughed wetly.
‘But you’re not, Heather.’ She murmured softly. ‘I don’t see a clone. I see somebody that follows, sure. That doesn’t make you a sheep. You’re witty, and independent, and smart, and sharp. You’re beautiful, Heather, and don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t.’
‘Jesus, Veronica, are you coming onto me?’ She mumbled, wiping at her eyes.
Veronica laughed, a bright sound that rung against the walls of the small bathroom.
‘No, Heather. But.. you’re my friend.’ She said, smiling at the girl in green.
Her arms opened, and wordlessly she offered Heather a hug. She scoffed for a second before accepting, and they held each-other close for a second, Heather squeezing out the last of her tears onto her back whilst Veronica hugged her tight.
‘You mean it?’ Heather whispered into the fabric of her dress.
‘Of course.’ Veronica pulled away, rolling her eyes. ‘Look. I know I can’t change what you’re going through. But I can help you. Whatever you need- I’m there. If you want someone to talk to, or you need a guy off you, or anything I can do- just say my name and I’ll be there.’
They hugged again, before leaving the bathroom together. Heather’s eyes were slightly red, but nobody apart from them would know what had gone on.
And true to her word, from that day on, Heather had a real friend.