It's so hard for Veronica to keep her hands off Cheryl as they sit in the student lounge before school like they usually do. On the drive there, Cheryl and Veronica agreed to not partake in any PDA until they had the opportunity to tell their friends what's going on first. They owed them that much. It made sense, but that didn't mean it was easy. Especially when she had to resist the urge to kiss Cheryl goodbye as they parted ways to go to their respective first period classes. Instead they opted for a more subtle hug/cheek kiss combo, something they've done before so that any on lookers, including their friends, wouldn't bat an eye.
As soon as Cheryl was out of earshot, Veronica beelines it to Betty, attaching a powerful grip around the blondes arm. "Hey! Relax on the grip Ronnie."
"Sorry." Veronica apologizes, softening her grip. "I have some built up tension.." she trails off, probably not the best choice of words, but it's not like Betty understands the double entendre.
Betty looks at Veronica quizzically. She can sense a story is coming. "Spill."
Veronica tilts her head, Betty always seems to know what's up before she gets the chance to begin. "Well, remember that conversation we had about my situation with Cheryl."
"Which one?" She rolls her eyes. "We literally talk about it every day." Betty laughs. For someone who didn't want to talk about her problems, aka her unrequited crush on her current bedmate, Veronica sure did talk about it a LOT. She understands though, she was the same way with Kevin when she had a crush on Archie, although he more so drug the information out of Betty, whereas Veronica lets it all out of her own accord.
"Whatever," Veronica brushes off the comment, too excited to be offended. "Anyways, there may have been an update to that situation..." she dangles the sentence, leaving Betty desperate for more info. She releases Betty's arm and strides a few steps ahead of her friend, teasing her.
Betty skips down the hall to catch up, "What kind of update?" her voice is cautious, but full of hope.
Veronica stops and slowly turns around to look at Betty, the grin on her face saying it all. Betty doesn't need the verbal confirmation, but gets it anyway when an excited Veronica pulls betty in close, whispering, "We kissed!"
Her giddiness is infectious, "About time!" Betty excitedly exclaims, so happy for her best friend. They share a celebratory hug. Betty knows better than anyone how long this will-they won't-they business went on, and it's finally over. Betty feels like she can let out a sigh of relief, no longer feeling secondhand nervousness for Veronica. "Give me the details!" Betty practically begs as she pulls out of the embrace. She's had enough of Veronica beating around the bush, she needed to know everything!
"Last night we went to dinner right," Veronica begins, and Betty nods. Veronica told her about this yesterday when she declined her offer to meet at Pop's, she knew they were going out, she didn't realize they were actually GOING out. "Turns out it was a date." They continue to walk down the hall towards their lockers.
"What do you mean 'turns out' it was a date? Did you not know?" Betty asks her to clarify, laughing at the thought of a clueless Veronica going out with a no doubt ostentatious Cheryl. She could only imagine the sight, Cheryl practically throwing herself at Veronica, and the latter girl being oblivious.
They stop by Veronica's locker first, so she can grab her books for English. "It may have taken me SOME time to figure it out." She shuts her locker before continuing, too embarrassed to admit the exact details. "Nevertheless, it was a date." They walk toward Betty's locker next, which is only a few doors down the hall.
"So you're girlfriends now." The smile on Betty's face is so genuine, if Veronica didn't know her so well she might have been skeptical. Betty does have the tendency to come off as the old fashioned good girl, someone who doesn't know her personally might think she'd have a problem with a same sex relationship. "That's so exciting!" Betty opens her locker, the door blocking her view of Veronica's face. She rummages around for her things as Veronica continues.
"Well we haven't exactly talked about what we are, but I think it's safe to assume..."
Betty peers around her locker door to look at Veronica questioningly. "You haven't talked about it?" Her stare is reminiscent of a look a mother would give their child when reprimanding them for doing something irresponsible.
Veronica leans back against the lockers behind her, examining her nail beds. "We may have been too busy doing OTHER things." She shrugs nonchalantly. This time Betty's face whips around the locker door, looking exasperated. Veronica holds her hands up in defense. "Just making out, geez B, get your mind out of the gutter." She starts laughing, Betty has never been very good about discussing more intimate topics, not that there's anything wrong with that, she just preferred having a privacy boundary. There were some mental images she did NOT need to see, ever.
"Just promise when that does happen," she raises her eyebrow, insinuating that she knows it'll happen, and probably soon. "keep the details to a minimum."
Veronica's face flushes at the thought, "Oh of course. Cheryl would probably kill me for even trying to talk about it."
Betty nods in response, believing there's truth to that statement. "You're gonna talk to her about your label though right? Like you said it's PROBABLY safe to assume, but you should make sure you're on the Same page, for both of your sakes."
Veronica agrees. That's a conversation they should have had this morning, but kissing is so much more fun, Veronica thinks. "I'm gonna suggest we skip Pop's tonight to do just that. You'll cover for me?" It's not like Veronica to skip Pop's night twice in a row. She doesn't want the guys to become suspicious. She doesn't need them asking questions she's not ready to answer, or them thinking Cheryl's having some sort of relapse.
"Of course." Betty assures, she shuts her locker and they once again make their way down the hall towards the classroom. "So where'd you guys go on your date?"
"We went to dinner at this cafe on 9th."
"9th Street." Betty chimes in, knowing exactly the place she was talking about. Her parents used to take her and Polly there for breakfast on their birthdays and random holidays. A tradition they've don't a poor job sticking to in the past few years.
"That's the one." Veronica says as they enter the classroom. "She and Jason used to go there a lot," she sits down at her desk, "she wanted to share it with me now."
Betty awwws at the sweet sentiment, hand over her heart. She didn't realize Cheryl had the capacity for sentimental gestures. For a moment she felt like this was perhaps information the redhead wouldn't be too keen on her knowing. There was obviously a softer side to Cheryl that she hid from everyone else. They may be friends now, but she still had a reputation to keep up, and nauseating sweetness did not fit that profile. She decides to drop with the questions, as to allow Cheryl some privacy. "I can't express how happy I am for you guys."
"Thanks B." Veronica leans over her desk to get closer to her friend, talking quietly. "Do us a favor and don't mention this to the boys. We'd like to tell them ourselves, and like you've pointed out we still have stuff to figure out as it is."
Betty mimics Veronica's position to keep their conversation private. "No problem, I swear I won't tell them, not even Jug, I'm sure Cheryl would want to be the one to tell him anyway."
It was weird how close Cheryl and Jughead had become over the past few weeks. They have calculus together, which sparked their weekly study sessions, which then grew into them just hanging out. Betty MAY have been a bit jealous at first, but that was squashed quickly when Jug invited her to join them one day. Needless to say, she was bored out of her mind during the study portion, and then completely lost during their pop culture discussion.
Veronica laughed, "You're probably right. It's still so weird to me that they are like besties."
"Oh god, don't use that word." Betty joins the laughter, the word is such a ridiculous match for the pair. When their laughter dies down, Betty chimes in with an important question, "So how are you gonna go about telling Archie?"
Veronica huffs as she slumps back in her desk chair. Telling her ex-boyfriend, who she never officially broke up with, that's she's now dating the girl who caused her to initiate their split in the first place, was NOT something Veronica was looking forward to. She lets out a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose in helpless frustration. "No idea."
"Arch Just wants you to be happy. He might be bummed at first, but he'll get over it." Betty reassures. Archie's a good guy, he'd never purposly get in the way of his friends happiness, especially not for selfish reasons.
Veronica knows this. "You're probably right, but that doesn't make it any easier." She falls forward, propping her head up on her desk.
"You gonna tell him together? Cheryl will be there for support. You won't be alone." Betty asks, trying to comfort her friend.
Veronica takes a deep breath, "No, I think it's best just I do it. I owe it to him." She sits up straight in her desk.
"Don't stress, it'll be ok." Betty places a comforting hand on Veronica's arm.
Veronica melts at the touch, once again slumping in her seat, this time laying her head directly on the desk. She suddenly feels so down, the dreading the situation.
"Hey," Betty cooos. "You were so happy like 5 minutes ago. Focus on that, focus on Cheryl."
The mention of Cheryl's name causes Veronica to smile. She tucks her arms up under her head to get more comfortable, as if she was actually in bed as opposed to in class, which was just about to start. Just thinking about the redhead made Veronica feel so much better. She has to resist the urge to send her an "I miss you" text. They've only been apart for 10 minutes max. She didn't want to start this relationship coming off as overly clingy, afraid to scare her away.
That notion however didn't seem to bother Cheryl, cause Veronica's phone buzzes I'm her pocket a moment later, a message from Cheryl on the screen that says "3rd period is too far away :( I miss your face"
Veronica's face flushes and the dumb smile on her face grows with every re-read of the message. She manages to take a silly selfie without the teacher noticing, the lecture now in full swing, and sends it to Cheryl with the caption, "This face? ;) ps miss you too"
Her phone buzzes again soon after, the screen lighting up with a heart and kissy face emoji. She thought the first day back at school following the lake incident, was hard. Being apart from Cheryl now was already proving to be a million times harder.