Summary: Betty is dead, and Veronica is finding it hard to cope. Song: The night we met

I am not the only traveler
Who has not repaid his debt
I've been searching for a trail to follow again
Take me back to the night we met

And then I can tell myself
What the hell I'm supposed to do
And then I can tell myself
Not to ride along with you

"Betty, you can't keep doing this" Veronica was struggling to keep her calm as she kept her eyes on the dark road.

"Can't keep doing what? Cheryl needs help, not your scorn Veronica. Just because you're busy hooking up with Archie- "

"Oh, so that's why you're on your crusade of blame? Cause I stole Archie from you?" Veronica knew she had fucked up when Betty's eyes darkened.

"Fuck you" she said, "Fuck you Veronica. Pull over, I want out of the car."

"Betty, that's insane. It's super dark out, and we're in the middle of nowhere- "

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR VERONICA!" Betty yelled, her voice hoarse with unshed tears. She began banging on the passenger side door and Veronica finally relented by pulling over. Betty hopped out, her ponytail bouncing as she began to quickly walk away from the car. She turned back for one second, saying "How could you honestly say that I'm mad you stole Archie from me? Do you honestly think that little of me?". Her sky-blue eyes were full of unshed tears, and Veronica opened her mouth to explain, but Betty was gone. Looking back on this moment, she would've run after Betty, telling her how much she meant to her, and made her get back in the car. But Veronica only shut her car door and reluctantly drove home alone, tears streaming down her face. Betty's body was found 10 days later. If Veronica could travel back to that night, she would've run after Betty through the brambles and saved her.

I had all and then most of you
Some and now none of you
Take me back to the night we met
I don't know what I'm supposed to do
Haunted by the ghost of you
Oh, take me back to the night we met

It had been 3 months since Betty's mutilated corpse had washed up on the shores of Riverdale, and Veronica was more alone than ever. She couldn't stop remembering the days Betty was just missing, the days when she really had thought she'd just turn up at school or in Pop's diner. The day after their fight, Veronica had gone to Betty's locker to apologize, only to be surprised when she hadn't shown. She'd convinced herself that she was sick, and it wasn't until Jughead said that she hadn't come home that her world crashed down around her. Every day was now a struggle, and she couldn't even go to school without remembering how Betty should be there, not in a grave that people seldom visited. She knew it was wrong to feel alone, that Archie and Kevin and Jughead and even Cheryl were grieving alongside her, but she couldn't help feeling separated, since she was the reason that Betty was dead. Taking one look at her last 'F' paper, she sighed. School was just impossible. How could she possibly do algebra or write an essay when Betty was dead? She missed those 10 days when she still had hope and not just empty grief, the days she spent searching for Betty with her friends instead of missing her wherever she went. The last time she had seen Betty she had made her cry, and she could not stop the guilt from bubbling up whenever she reminded herself of that fact. Betty had died upset at her, and she couldn't cope with that. She constantly ran through the police investigation every day in her mind, trying to figure out how Betty had one moment been walking through the woods, and the next moment been killed. It just didn't make any sense how she could be dead. Betty was so tough, and so young, and so sweet. How could she just be gone? How was it that she'd never see Betty again?

She remembered the day that they'd found Betty clearly. The whole group had been sitting in science class when a police officer had ducked in, announcing that he had news regarding Betty Cooper. Veronica's heart had soured, only to crash and burn when she saw the look on his face. She heard the words "murdered" and "raped" in his speech but found herself unable to focus on anything because it couldn't be true. She had blurted this out and he had just fixed her with a pitying look that she despised. Even now she couldn't accept it. One day, she kept telling herself, Betty would walk in and everything would be okay. She couldn't accept the story that the cops had told her. The official story was that Betty walked alone in the woods for some time before she happened upon a group of boys who had just committed a robbery in a neighboring town. Drunk and exuberant with happiness at their newfound wealth, the boys had attacked Betty and raped her. She had started crawling away, crying, when they decided they couldn't have any witnesses and had stabbed her to death. This was known because the boys had been caught a few weeks ago and had confessed. Betty's death was impossible to accept because there just was no explanation. She was gone because of a senseless act of violence, because some boys had decided to torment her. Because of those boys, every day when she walked in the hall, she had to stop by Betty's now empty locker instead of seeing her friend. Veronica just couldn't understand it. Situated between two others, the only thing that gave any indication of who owned it was the letters and flowers taped to it, all expressing their grief and disbelief that the blonde would never make anyone laugh ever again. At the top were several letters from Jughead to Betty. Written one day after she was found, the first said Nope. I refuse to believe that you're dead, Betty. The cops made a mistake. You're still here, you haven't left me alone. The second letter, dated a few weeks after the murder, was simply one sentence: I miss you, please come back. Splotches adorned it, showing the tears that had been shed while it was written. The last, written messily and with less splotches, simply stated: Betty, I love you. It was at this moment that Veronica recalled that Betty and Jughead had never said I love you during their relationship, possibly due to them only being together a few months at the time of her death.

Sighing, she turned away from Betty's locker and made her way out of the school. She couldn't go to class anymore, it was too empty. Why hadn't she appreciated Betty more when she was alive? How was she supposed to live without Betty and actually be happy? How was she supposed to talk to people like there wasn't a hole in her heart? Every day that she looked at Archie, Kevin, and Jughead's broken faces was too much, because she simply hadn't done enough to save Betty. She knew full well that her grief and guilt was consuming her, but she didn't care. She'd rather be consumed than forget Betty. She'd give anything to go back in time to the day they met, and relive it over and over. She'd do anything to just be able to see Betty again, and tell her how much she loved her, and say goodbye.

"Veronica."

"What, Archie?!" she whipped around to face the redhead, angered at her thoughts being interrupted.

"You can't keep going on like this. We all can't keep going on like this. It's unhealthy. We need to move past our grief" he had a defeated posture as he spoke, as though he did not really believe what he was saying. Archie looked, for lack of a better word, like he was slowly drowning. His eyes had bags, his skin was pale, and a smile had not graced his face since Betty had died. He had quit football, and was unable to write songs anymore for a reason she was sure that even Archie didn't know.

"You don't think I know that? I know it's unhealthy! I know I'm supposed to be moving on but I can't! I can't just move on, because every fucking time I remember that she's gone, I can't breathe! Because it's my fault! Every day I remember that I should have gone after her and it kills me! What am I supposed to do Archie?" Veronica shouted, tears streaming down her face. She ran away, not wanting to see Archie's reaction to her outburst. Oh, how she'd give anything to go back to when she met Betty. Every night, Veronica went home and laid on her bed, too sad to even cry. Her own room wasn't a safe place, she only thought of how her phone should be going off with texts from Betty. On a normal night, she would be laughing as Betty sent her jokes, but now nothing was normal. Now, there was nothing but silence. Silence that was her fault. She doubted that she would ever stop thinking about how Betty's death was her fault, doubted that she would ever stop feeling guilty.

When the night was full of terrors
And your eyes were filled with tears
When you had not touched me yet
Oh, take me back to the night we met

I had all and then most of you
Some and now none of you
Take me back to the night we met
I don't know what I'm supposed to do
Haunted by the ghost of you
Take me back to the night we met

Veronica sat at her desk in her room, trying to keep her tears from falling. It was Friday and she sat alone, reminding herself of how she should be hanging out with Betty and Jughead at Pop's. God, she missed her. The worst thing was that it now seemed everyone had forgotten about her. Her memorial, once adorned with new flowers and cards daily, had fallen into disrepair, with only Jughead ever adding anything anymore. He usually added notes of updates on his life. The latest had said: Update 31: I still miss you. She had tried to talk to him about Betty, but he wouldn't hear her. It caused him too much pain to talk about her, and she knew he was struggling enough without constant reminders of what he had lost. Archie had thrown himself into music and had closed himself completely off from her. Ironically, the only one she actually felt like she could talk to was Cheryl. The school had moved on as well. Teachers taught class normally, acting as if there wasn't a student missing who should be there. After the assembly in which they addressed her death, the faculty had largely forgotten about Betty. She felt so enraged, and also empty that they had just forgotten her. They had just thrown her out like last night's trash, had acted as if her death was some sensational news headline and then moved on. This was why Veronica found herself curled up on her chair, repeatedly rubbing her face so as not to cry when thinking of Betty. Sighing, she forced herself to get up and go take a shower. It had been 4 days since she had last had the motivation, and she was beginning to stink. Turning on the hot water, she looked at herself in the mirror. Mascara perpetually running down her cheeks, blotchy skin, red eyes. Standing in the shower, she let the hot water wash over her skin, feeling something shift. She thought of Betty, and upon conjuring up an image of her, her chest constricted and she felt tears building up, but then it released.

The next Monday, Veronica found herself walking into school. She walked down the hall where Betty's locker was, only to pause when she noticed something was missing. Betty's locker had no more letter on it, or flowers, or anything. It was empty. Veronica ran over, only to be shocked back into reality when a new girl appeared and opened the locker. She blinked, trying to process how they could've just given Betty's locker away after she had died, forgetting her. You have to let go, a gentle voice in her head told her, the first she'd heard of the sort. She now knew Betty was never coming back, wasn't holding out any hope that one day she'd just walk in and everything would be okay. She had lost her, and it wasn't okay, but she had to let go of her. It's what Betty would've wanted. A tear slipped out of her eye as she went over all of their memories in her head, accepting that she could never make more. Pushing a more genuine than not smile on her face, Veronica walked over to the new girl.

"Hi, I'm Veronica, what's your name?"