Veronica walked out of her room and raised an eyebrow at her brother sitting at the dining room table, all his books open and spread out in front of him, it had been a long time since she saw him doing any school work. Jughead had his final football game at Riverdale high that Friday, so the last thing Veronica expected was him off the field and in their dining room.
"Hey, how's the studying going?" she asked peering over his shoulder and he shot her a look of annoyance.
"It's going like I should have started 2 months ago," Jughead gritted out letting his forehead drop to the open textbook in front of him, repeatedly. "We have our final game of High School to win, I need to be on the field, preparing the guys and training, I don't even need to take these stupid tests."
"Yes you do," Veronica reminded him laughing at his frustration and hugging him from behind as he hung his head, sometimes it was nice to see her perfect brother feeling like a failure too. "What's for lunch? I'm starving."
"You can order something, Smithers is off today remember," he told her and Veronica groaned as she remembered. "Or you could cook us something."
"I burn water," she deadpanned and Jughead gave her an unimpressed look. "Fine, fine, I'll see what we have, but if we still have to order something just know that it's your fault we have to wait for delivery."
Jughead was still chuckling at her when she entered the kitchen and started digging in the cupboards, she supposed she could make pasta, which was probably the only thing she could make without burning the house down or Smithers help. She was in the process of getting all the ingredients out when she felt hands on her hips and turned sharply to find Archie grinning down at her.
"What are you doing here? Besides scaring me?" she hissed, slapping his arm before wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down for a kiss, wary of the door where her brother could walk in at any minute.
"Study session," Archie told her between kisses, hoisting her up onto a counter so he wouldn't need to bend down so much and Veronica giggled. "I feel like I haven't gotten to touch you in weeks."
"I know, I've missed you," she said tugging at the ends of his shirt as he kissed down her neck. "I thought Jughead was never going to let you leave the field."
"That was his plan but coach forced us to take the weekend off and actually get some studying done, we're back at it on Monday," Archie told her and Veronica frowned, the Bulldogs were training non-stop for their final game, which meant late nights and early mornings on the field or working out, which made Archie's body so much leaner than Veronica would have thought possible but she wouldn't get to find out just how much because he was always either training or sleeping, Archie wasn't exaggerating when he said he hadn't touched her in weeks.
"Arch, can you grab a bottle of water for me too," Jughead yelled and Veronica brought a hand to her chest, she almost forgot he was just in the other room. "And hurry up, we're burning daylight."
"I'll be out now, I'm helping Ronnie reach the top shelves," Archie said and they could hear Jughead snicker at that, Veronica was so short. "Don't pout," Archie whispered to her and kissed her pouted lips.
"I do actually need your help, can you get me one of the pots in that cupboard," she said with a sweet smile, pointing to the cupboard above the stove and Archie just chuckled and nodded, turning to get it for her. Veronica used this time to admire him, tilting her head and biting her lip as she watched his t-shirt riding up as he reached up, exposing the skin of his tanned abdomen to her.
"How's the view?" he asked when he caught her and she sighed dreamily.
"Exquisite," she whispered pulling him in for another kiss, making up for all the kisses they didn't have while Archie was busy.
"Veronica there is a ladder that you can use," Jughead's irritated voice said sounding alot closer than it should and Veronica and Archie broke apart from each other just in time for Jughead to burst through the swinging door and head straight for the bottles of water that Archie had taken out of the fridge for them. He paused and frowned at the sight of his sister sitting on the centre island and his best friend standing with a pot in hand next to packets of ingredients. "You're not supposed to make the guest cook."
"But he's so much better at it than I am," Veronica told her brother, giving him a sheepish smile to which he just raised his eyebrow. "Fine I'll stop bothering the 'guest', go study, both of you out, I'll call you if I need you."
Jughead rolled his eyes, grabbed the water and looked to his friend as if to say, hurry up and left. Archie put down the pot he was holding and reached out to hold Veronica and help her off the counter, any excuse to touch her. "Don't burn the house down," he joked stealing one last lingering kiss before following Jughead out to the dining room.
Veronica sighed and went to the fridge to grab the cheese she was going to need when she heard her brother speak.
"We've never actually had to talk about this before but my sister is off limits," he said and Veronica bit down on her lip and moved closer to the door as she felt her heart start to race.
"What?" Archie asked with a nervous laugh like he thought Jughead was joking and Veronica cringed.
"I love you man, you are one of the best guys I know but... my sister is not another girl for you to add to your black book," Jughead said, Veronica could tell that he wasn't accusing Archie of anything yet but the threat in his voice was there. She wanted nothing more than to storm into the room and scream at the misogyny of her brother but she couldn't let them know that she was listening.
"I don't have a black book," Archie said and Veronica could hear the defensiveness in his voice, she wondered if they ever fought and she swallowed hard at the thought of them fighting because of her. "Even if I did, even if something was happening with her, you know that Veronica would never be just another entry."
"Maybe not intentionally, I notice things you know," Jughead said and Veronica held her breath, knowing Archie probably was as well as they waited for Jughead to continue. "You and the kid are alot closer now, you spend more time around each other, alone, maybe even too much, she's had a crush on you for a long time, I don't want you giving her the wrong impression."
"What impression would that be exactly," Archie asked rhetorically and Veronica could hear him grinding his teeth.
"The impression that you might like her as more than a friend, I do not want her thinking that there is something going on between you two and then get her heart broken when she realizes that you're just leading her on," Veronica flinched at her brothers words and waited for a sign that she needed to walk in and diffuse the situation. "You know what I mean Archie, you don't do it intentionally but I've been there when the girls that you flirt with incessantly, get their hopes up and then get let down when you find a Val or, what was that other girl you dated when we first got to high school ... Carlie something."
"And that's not going to be Veronica," Archie explained sounding completely exasperated. "V and I have always been close, you and Toni always left us alone when you were off doing whatever you were doing, you're just noticing now because T isn't here to distract you."
"Whatever feelings you think you might have for her, squash them," Jughead snapped, mentioning Toni was the best way to flare up her brothers anger and Veronica bit her lip hard, wondering if she could walk in and put an end to this conversation somehow, when her brother started talking again. "We're out of here next year, half way across the country, I don't want you to do to her what Toni did to me, I don't want her to be left behind like I was."
"Jug, Toni and I are very different people," Archie said calmly.
"I don't care, I'm not willing to test that theory on Veronica," Jughead countered, it was a long moment before Archie's voice came filtering through the door to Veronica.
"Okay, consider it squashed," he told Jughead sounding defeated, like he wanted to spill the beans but he didn't think that he would come out of that fight without losing something.
"We have the game on Friday and finals in like 3 weeks, I don't need to worry about you and my sister as well," Jughead said and Veronica could picture Archie just nodding at Jughead's words waiting for this outburst to pass. "I mean she's practically your sister too, you've known her since she was born."
"Jug," Archie warned and Veronica itched to open the door and look at their faces because she was fairly certain that Archie had just given them away.
"Look," Jughead said with a long sigh. "She's my baby sister, I'm going to protect her for as long as I can."
"I know Jug," Archie assured him and Veronica felt her throat close up at the emotion in her brothers voice. "I promised you I would do the same, remember?"
Veronica rolled her eyes at that, why did either of them think she needed protecting, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself as proven by her most recent encounter with Nick St Clair.
"I remember, I just ... I had to get that out," Jughead replied with a forced chuckle, relieved that this conversation was now out of the way. "Now how the hell did you get 2x + c."
Veronica pushed herself away from the door and to the other side of the kitchen, sagging against the counter as her heart rate slowed. Jughead wasn't stupid, he picked up on how much more flirty everything was with Archie in the past few weeks but to get his outright disapproval like that was hard to hear. Sighing, she started to measure out her ingredients, she needed to talk to someone removed from the situation who could give her advice because right now all she see's is disaster.
"I don't know babygirl, your brother is as hardheaded as they come," Toni said on the phone later that night when Veronica called her to ask her for advice and fill her in on everything that had happened since her 16th birthday.
"You did say that I should call you to sort him out if he has a problem," Veronica reminded her friend, Toni also said that Jughead would get over it after the initial shock but Veronica did not believe that anymore. "And well, he has a problem."
"I also didn't think you or Arch would man up and become an actual couple," Toni mumbled and Veronica rolled her eyes.
"Toni," she whined. "You're supposed to be giving me solutions."
"I know, I know," Toni soothed. "And I would love to able to tell you that I can fly down there and make your brother see reason, but you know how volatile our relationship is right now, I'll probably hurt your cause more than help it."
"You're right, I could blame you for this," Veronica snapped and then sighed, she couldn't blame Toni for her brothers over-protectiveness, she was probably the only reason Jughead was so distracted and only suspected what Veronica and Archie were. "I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated ... I want to be able to hold my boyfriends hand in public and glare at those stupid girls that throw themselves at him, I want to stop lying to my brother."
"Archie is probably feeling exactly the same," Toni said and Veronica sighed, she knew that, she and Archie had a small disagreement before he left about telling Jughead, she wanted to tell him and face the consequences of her brother hating them for a while but Archie refused. "You could always wait until the holidays, Jughead won't be stressed about all the things that are currently making him so high strung and ..."
"That's a whole month from now," Veronica complained but considered Toni's words, their final game and their final exams, his nerves were strung up so tight that if she dropped this on him no-one could predict how he would react. "I hate it when you're right."
"He'll probably be a prissy bitch for the summer but by the time he and Archie move into their college dorm room he'll be fine," Toni said fondly and Veronica could hear how much she missed Jughead and Archie.
"Archie has applied to colleges closer to home," Veronica said a little hesitantly, waiting for Toni to tell her that it's a perfect idea, that it's not a mistake to reorganize these future plans to lessen the strain on a new but very important relationship. "T?"
"Has he said anything to Jughead yet?" Toni asked and Veronica's heart started to race at the tone of Toni's voice and the worry that sentence held.
"No," Veronica whispered squeezing her eyes shut as the tears started to prickle behind them, she thought she was going to cry, she wanted Archie closer to her, of course she did but at what cost, he wanted to be where Jughead was, she knew that, when they spoke about him settling on a college closer to home, she saw his hesitation but she ignored it because she was so excited that they would be together, that he was thinking about them long term, that he was considering it.
"V, I know that you and Archie are in this honeymoon phase right now and I don't want to take you out of that, but Jughead and Archie have had this dream since we were kids, as much as Archie wants to be closer to you, he won't let Jughead down like that, just like Jughead refused to," Toni said as gently as she could and Veronica knew she was right. "I know you and I know Archie and if both of you are serious about this that you will survive the long distance, you've done worse commutes, remember when your parents were in Washington and made the two of you fly there every weekend for 3 months?"
"But what if this ends up like you and Jug," Veronica asked, taking a shaky breath to calm herself, she remembered those commutes and she hated them, she would do it for Archie but she really didn't want to spend that much of her last years in High School travelling. "You guys fought so much about this, you knew that long distance would be the end for you but you also knew that you would end up hating each other more if you tried to compromise and now look where you are."
"We don't hate each other," Toni reminded Veronica, she and Jughead were currently not talking but Toni had hopes that it would change and they could in time become friends again. "You heard all that? I thought you had no idea what was happening when we fought."
"Of course I heard it, you guys weren't exactly quiet," Veronica reminded Toni, no matter how much Jughead and Toni tried to shield Veronica from the more heated moments of their relationship Veronica knew, she was there, in the same house all those arguments happened in, she just chose to turn a blind eye to the problems and hope that it just resolved itself, she's surprised they didn't break up as soon as Toni chose her college. "I don't want Archie to resent me, or Juggy for that matter."
"Have you told this to Archie?" Toni asked and Veronica sighed.
"I haven't had the guts to bring it up again," Veronica said with a laugh. "I just really love him T, and I want this to work."
"And it will, Archie is smitten by you, I could tell on your birthday," Toni said and Veronica smiled to herself.
"Everything just feels like it's heading for a brick wall, I don't want distance to break us," Veronica said flopping down onto her bed and taking a deep breath, blowing out the air slowly. "Either way you and Jug would have had the distance, it was either this year or the rest of the years you were in college."
"You and Archie are not Jughead and I," Toni said and Veronica's breath caught as she thought about Archie telling Jughead earlier that he was not Toni. "Do not base any of your decisions on how Jug and I ended."
"I won't," Veronica said. "I promise."
"Good, talk to Archie," Toni said. "He might look like your typical all American idiot quarterback but he has a heart of gold and some really good advice, he helped me alot last year when things were going down with Jughead, you guys will figure this out."
"Or ... you could just fly down to Riverdale and be here as protection when I tell my brother and then just not leave because as soon as you do he will kill me and Archie," Veronica said in a rush.
"Veronica," Toni said exasperatedly but then realized it was a joke, already laughing with Veronica. "I miss you too kid, so much more than you know."
"Me too," Veronica said.
"I need to go now, but keep me updated ok?" Toni asked as someone called her name in the background. "Love you."
"Bye," Veronica whispered after Toni had already hung up, she sat on her bed listening to the dial tone for a while after Toni had cut the call just thinking about everything that had happened that day. Toni was probably right, she and Archie had been a secret for so long, waiting a few more weeks until tensions weren't so high to tell her brother wouldn't kill them, they would just need to use this time to iron out their own problems and thoughts about the future.
Everything was going to be fine, it had to be.
"You have been weirdly M.I.A recently, Elizabeth Cooper," Veronica said, squinting her eyes at her favourite blond as she swirled her straw around in her milkshake, chocolate of course. Veronica was avoiding a conversation with Archie and she needed to talk to someone, but she chickened out on telling Betty exactly why she was summoned to Pop's that afternoon.
"Me?" Betty asked surprised at the accusation but there was a slight blush to her cheeks that told Veronica that there was more to this story than she was letting on. "I've been M.I.A because I've been covering for you, if there's a reason you haven't seen me its because you've been too busy being the quarterbacks secret girlfriend."
"Betty Cooper, we have been friends for far too long, I know all your tells," Veronica said, she was just teasing at first but by the way Betty was squirming in her seat she knew that there was something Betty was hiding from her.
"No, I-" Betty started but then looked at Veronica's face and deflated, she could not keep any secrets from Veronica no matter how hard she tried.
"Well? Veronica prompted, taking a sip of her milkshake and looking at her friend pointedly. Betty pressed her lips together and looked around to see if anyone was listening before leaning in closer, by this point Veronica was practically vibrating in her seat, Betty cooper had a huge secret if she was this nervous to tell her. "Spill it already!"
"Ok," Betty said with a giggle holding her hands up to tell Veronica to calm down. "Every time I've covered for you lately, I've been with Reggie."
"Ah huh," Veronica said waiting for more but then her eyes went wide as she realized what Betty was telling her. "Reggie Mantle? Like yey high, dark hair, sharpest jawline we have ever seen, Reggie?"
"That sounds like him," Betty said biting her lip as she leaned back and watched Veronica's face trying to gauge how she was going to react, she knew Veronica didn't like Reggie like that but Betty wasn't sure what feelings could be brought up by news like this. "V, you need to say something before I start thinking the worst."
"I cannot believe the idiot acted on his feelings," Veronica said clapping her hands together and grinning, her eyes sparkling at the news even as Betty's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"His feelings?" Betty asked, sounding both confused and annoyed that Veronica hadn't shared this information with her. "You knew that he had feelings for me?"
"No, not exactly, Kevin and I guessed at his feelings but we never confronted him and we could never tell if you liked him or not and of course we didn't want to meddle," Veronica said quickly and Betty fixed her with a look that told her she did not believe a word coming out of the raven haired girl's mouth. "I promise B, Kev and I would have played cupid if we thought you felt the same but we wouldn't jeopardize our friend group, OMG Kevin is going to freak out when he finds out."
"He already knows," Betty said slowly, with a slight cringe, knowing how much her best friend hated being the last to know anything.
"He what?!" Veronica asked, loud enough that the people in the booth a few rows down turned to see what the commotion was. "I'm the last to know?"
"Well you've been busy with Archie and I don't blame you," Betty said softly, smiling at the people who turned as an apology for her very loud and excitable best friend. "The boys have been keeping me company on those days and it went from both of them together to just Reggie after a couple of visits, and then he kissed me and we haven't stopped."
"Kevin you sly dog," Veronica said with a smile and Betty rolled her eyes. "Wait, so are you dating?"
"No, not exactly," Betty told her stabbing at the strawberry at the bottom of her milkshake glass. "We've just kissed a couple of times so far, no need to define it yet."
"Betty Cooper, you do not 'just kiss' with anyone, you've always been an all or nothing girl," Veronica said with a laugh.
"I know but this is Reggie and he's never been a one woman guy so I don't even know how to broach that topic," Betty told her and Veronica shook her head. "But enough about me, we are here to talk about you, why are we having this friend date?"
"I'm too excited about this to even think about that right now," Veronica said shaking her head and laughing. "We are coming up with a plan of action to open Reginald's eyes, you are no-one's second place."
A/N : It has been a hot minute since I've updated, I promise I have not given up on this story, I have hit writers block, i haven't been able to write anything recently and with everything happening in the world, its been an anxious time, here in South Africa we are in a national lockdown but since I can work from home, I am and it's been busier than a normal work day, its ridiculous
I still have a plan for this story, since there is nothing at all to do for the next 2 weeks, I am hoping that I can get my shit together and actually write the next few chapters
I hope you guys are staying safe and being careful with your health
Also if you guys are looking for something Varchie to read, there's a story on Wattpad called 'The fill-in boyfriend' by honestlyvarchie , its adorable, I need to catch up on reading other Varchie stories, I've seen so many updates and I'm so excited to read all the stories
Let me know what you guys think about this chapter
Until Next Time (^^,)