"Hi, I'm Katy," Katy said, stepping forward with her hand out to shake Archie's when the silence became unbearable for her. Archie blinked out of the trance he and Veronica were in and looked at her almost confused that he missed a second person standing with Veronica and reached out his hand to shake hers. "Veronica's roommate."
"Yes, Katy Keene," Archie said, shaking his head and chuckling, his eyes darting back to Veronica for a second and Katy was more curious than ever to know what happened between them. "Jughead mentioned that you would be here as well, can I take your bags?"
"Yes please," Katy smiled, he was a gentleman, handing over her bags and then nudging Veronica who made a face and stalked to the car, tugging her bags behind her with more force than necessary. "The train ride was uh… long."
"Yeah, I'm sure it was," Archie said with a sad sigh as he watched Veronica and then turned back to Katy and smiled warmly. "Welcome to Riverdale, shall we?"
To say that the car ride to Veronica's childhood home was awkward would be an understatement, Katy fought the urge to make conversation just to fill the silence and just sat quietly next to her friend who had not said a word since she said Archie's name. Katy sighed and looked outside, watching the scenery that she would have appreciated on any other car ride other than this one.
Archie looked as if he were going to try to speak but thought better of it, the curiosity was killing her, she needed to know what happened between them. Katy, Kevin and Betty spoke about it once when Veronica's friends came up to Yale and Veronica left them alone while she went out on a date.
"She has the worst taste in men," Betty said with a sigh, taking a sip of her wine. "She knows Chad is an evil prick but she still takes him back every time he comes crawling."
"Oh remember Nick?" Kevin asked and Betty made a face, she couldn't decide which one of Veronica's relationships she hated more, Katy loved it when Veronica's friends were over and she could get an extra glimpse into her roommate's life before her. "She should have stayed with Archie, he was her soul mate."
"Archie?" Katy asked, her ears perking up at the mention of someone new, she had heard the stories of Nick and Chuck and she had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting Chad. "Who's Archie?"
"Jughead's best friend," Betty told her and Katy gasped excitedly, this was news, she never knew Veronica dated her brother's best friend. "She didn't mention him?"
"She wouldn't," Betty said with a sigh as Kevin rolled his eyes. "And we don't know why."
"I think I might need some context," Katy said looking at them completely confused and Kevin put his drink down getting ready to tell her the story.
"Well, in Jughead and Archie's senior year at Riverdale High, Archie and Veronica had a romance for the books, there was sneaking around and hiding it from her brother and epic love declarations and he was protective and she was happy and everything was perfect," Kevin said with a dreamy sigh and Katy looked between her new friends still confused as to why this was the first time she was hearing about this and why her roommate was currently out with the furthest person from perfect. "But alas, just like all great love stories, this ended in tragedy."
"What the drama major is trying to say is that they broke up at the beginning of our summer holiday that same year and no-one knew why," Betty said, rolling her eyes at Kevin who shrugged unapologetically, if he was telling a story, you would be enraptured. "Their relationship was strong, strong enough that Archie was willing to change his plans to go to a school closer to Riverdale for her, they kept it a secret from Jughead because he was against Veronica dating in general but Veronica dating his best friend would have been the ultimate betrayal."
"And yet here he is, dating her best friend," Katy said, chuckling as Betty's cheeks turned scarlet, their romantic relationship was still new, every time someone mentioned it she blushed. "So what happened to Veronica and Archie? Why did they break up? Why does she never talk about him?"
"Your guess is as good as ours," Kevin said looking over at Betty who nodded as well confirming that Veronica never confided in her either. "She still hasn't told us, that day when she got back from the lake house, Reg and I were back at Betty's, Veronica just grabbed her things and told us it was over, she was off to her grandmothers and then leaving early for Paris to meet her parents and that was it, we had no clue what was happening but of course we were pissed at Archie for breaking her heart."
"At first we assumed that it was because he was going to college across the country, but they never spoke again and she refused to say anything," Betty said, biting down on her lip and looking down in thought. "The first few times we asked about Archie, Veronica would stand up and walk away without saying anything, there were a few rumours about him and Ginger, this girl that Archie had a fling with before he and Veronica started dating, there were rumours that they might be together but Veronica never said anything and that rumour faded very quickly, so eventually we just stopped asking."
"Reggie wanted to go all Alpha Male and fight Archie for whatever he did but Archie never came back to Riverdale and Veronica changed her number and moved on," Kevin said with a sigh, the entire situation was still confusing all these years later. "You would think that when her best friend went to the same campus as him and started hanging out with him she would ask but no, she just fell in love," Kevin said, turning to look at Betty with raised judging eyebrows and Betty smiled guiltily.
"I mean I was curious, when I got to campus and started hanging out with Archie and Jughead it was very awkward, I was always stuck between forcing him to tell me what happened and being pissed at him for hurting her and not wanting to give him any indication of how she was or how sad she was after their break up, so I never brought her up, I barely spoke to him," Betty explained. "Archie always looked like he was going to ask me about her but he never did."
"What do you think happened?" Katy asked.
"I wish I knew, Archie would have done anything for her," Betty told Katy. "She loved him and he adored her, I can't imagine anything that he could have done to make her shut down the way she did and she refuses to tell us, I keep thinking it has to do with college and the things that they were fighting about before they broke up but it doesn't make sense, none of it does."
The car started to slow and Katy blinked herself out of the memory looking over at Veronica who already had her hand on the door waiting to open it. Archie saw Veronica ready to flee and his expression looked troubled but he opened the doors as soon as they had parked and Veronica was out of the car.
"I guess I'll get the bags and show you up," Archie said to Katy who had moved at a much slower pace out of the car. "She really wasn't expecting to see me, was she?"
"She was expecting a bodyguard or a man who looked like a Santa," Katy said with a smile, reaching out to take one of her bags when he pulled it out of the boot. Veronica had fled up to the apartment without so much as a glance back to see where her bags were. "Which are people I assume I will meet this week?"
"Urm, yes," Archie chuckled. "The bodyguard, Andre, is probably picking Jughead and Betty up from Pop's right now and Smithers is on his way to help us with the bags."
Katy looked in the direction that Archie had nodded his head to see an old man with the warmest smile walking towards them. Once introductions were made and the bags were taken up to the apartment, Katy turned back to Archie and thanked him for picking them up since Veronica was nowhere to be found, Archie's eyes flicked to the closed bedroom door where Katy assumed Veronica was and then he said goodbye to her and left. Katy took a deep breath and turned to Veronica's bedroom door, opening it slowly and walking toward the lump on the bed that was her roommate and friend and sat down next to her.
"I'm the worst host, I'm sorry," Veronica said, flopping over onto her back and staring at the ceiling.
"Ok, what is happening," Katy asked after a minute, poking at Veronica's side. "Who were you just now? I thought you were going to stomp on his foot and then storm away."
"Oh damn why didn't I think of that, it would have been so much more satisfying," Veronica laughed, pushing herself up so she was sitting. "I don't know what happened, I wasn't expecting to see him until the party, I heard his voice and all this rage came flooding back."
"Will you please tell me what he did?" Katy asked and Veronica sighed and then nodded. "Really?"
"Yes really," Veronica said, chuckling at the shocked expression on her friends face. "If there was ever a time I should talk about it, it's probably now when I'm going to see him the whole weekend, it wouldn't be fair to Betty or Jughead if I caused a scene because I have unresolved issues."
"It would not," Katy agreed, pulling Veronica up to a sitting position. "Speaking of Betty, you know she's going to want to hear this as well."
"I know, and I will tell her everything ... eventually," Veronica promised. "I should freshen up, I'll meet you in the lounge?"
"Sure, Smithers showed me where that is, so I will not get lost in this behemoth of an apartment," Katy said and Veronica grimaced and looked at her friend apologetically. "Relax I'm teasing, I'm going to find and raid your kitchen and see if there is any comfort food, I feel like it's going to be needed for this conversation."
By the time Katy had gathered all the chocolate and ice-cream that she could find, Jughead and Betty were back with paper bags full of food labelled 'Pop's'.
"Don't tell me you were going to stuff yourself with junk food before you ate Pops' Riverdale famous burgers and milkshakes," Betty said when she saw Katy's junk food haul. "Didn't Archie tell you we were bringing food?"
"And where is Archibald?" Jughead asked, looking around for the redhead.
"He had an errand to run," Katy lied, sharing a knowing look with Betty who cringed, she knew what a bad idea sending Archie to the station was but she couldn't voice her concerns to Jughead when he suggested it.
"He didn't tell me he had things to do," Jughead mumbled, reaching for his phone to call Archie and check where he was.
"How bad was it," Betty whispered to Katy once he had left the room and Katy sighed and shook her head. "That bad?"
Before Katy could answer, Veronica burst through the door grinning from ear to ear and running straight into Betty's arms for a hug. "B, I missed you."
"I missed you too," Betty said with a laugh, hugging Veronica back just as tightly.
"So let's see it," Veronica said, stepping back next to Katy and motioning with her hands for Betty to hand something over.
"See what?" Betty asked slowly, her eyes darting back to where Jughead was still on a call with Archie, checking where he was.
"The ring," Veronica said with a roll of her eyes and Katy giggled at the look on Betty's face at being caught. "Come on B, Juggy only talking to me through text, the blushes when we video call and I mention my brother's name, that only happened when you first started dating, and finally this party? You didn't even try to pretend like it was for something else, like all of us being in Riverdale together for the first time in years, could be one excuse."
"You know, a normal person would wait until the person with news was ready to share their news," Jughead said to his sister as he walked in shaking his head and putting an arm around Betty's shoulders. Betty looked up at him and their eyes locked, silently communicating with each other.
"I really hate it when you guys do that," Veronica said, rolling her eyes and looking at Katy who shrugged, she had no idea what those two were deciding. "Well?"
Betty sighed as she turned to them bringing her hand out from behind her back where she had just put her ring back on her finger and Veronica and Katy started screaming before the ring was fully in front of their faces, grabbing both Jughead and Betty into a group hug and then holding Betty's hand out so that they could marvel at the rock on her finger.
"I cannot believe you didn't tell me," Veronica said, turning to Jughead, there were fresh happy tears in her eyes and mock frustration in her voice at not knowing this plan beforehand.
"You are terrible at secrets," Jughead said and Veronica gasped at the accusation but had to concede that yes, she was terrible at keeping secrets especially from Betty.
"Don't even try to deny it," Katy said, walking over to her bag and pulling out a bottle of champagne she had stashed inside just in case. "This calls for a celebration."
"When are mom and dad getting here?" Veronica asked later when they were standing out on the balcony looking out over the town. Now that the engagement party was confirmed, she was sure Jughead would have made sure their parents were there.
"Tomorrow afternoon," Jughead said and Veronica nodded, just in time for the party and then gone again, she guessed she should be happy that they still made it to the big events in their lives, the frequency of their visits hadn't changed much since the Jones siblings were in high school. "We didn't tell them why they need to be here but I think they suspect as well."
"I can't believe you guys are engaged," Veronica said, turning away from the view to look into the apartment where Betty and Katy were catching up. "I can't believe you're marrying my best friend."
"I know, if you told me that I was going to marry your best friend when we were in high school I would have laughed in your face," Jughead told her and Veronica rolled her eyes, Betty always had a little crush on Jughead but he never saw her in that way.
"Do you ever think you're too young?" Veronica asked, thinking out loud, she and Betty were only 21, marriage was the furthest thing from her mind but Betty and Jughead were so stable and happy that they made her wonder if she was just behind.
"No, we've been together for a while," Jughead chuckled, glancing at his sister to see if he could figure out what she was thinking. "She's almost done with school, I have a stable job, we're young but we know that we want to spend the rest of our lives with each other, I thought it was time and clearly she did too."
"I love you guys," Veronica said with a happy sigh, hugging her brother's side and he shook his head at his weirdly emotional sister, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Veronica was trying her hardest to keep her emotions in check, she wondered if she and Archie would have been engaged young or if they would have waited until they were older, they never really touched on marriage when they were together, they just knew that they would be together forever.
"Do you know that when we started dating, I thought you were going to hate me," Jughead told her and Veronica raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought that you would stop talking to me or shut Betty out, but you were so happy."
"It's because you were thinking that I would be like you," Veronica laughed, nudging him and Jughead frowned and looked at her confused. "If I told you that I was dating your best friend you would have hated every moment of it and you would have made it impossible for us to date."
"I would not have done that," Jughead protested and Veronica raised both her eyebrows in disbelief until Jughead finally conceded, a strange expression crossing his face. "Ok fine, I probably wouldn't have been happy about it, at first, but I would have come around to the idea."
"Really?" Veronica asked, she was trying her hardest to keep a smile on her face but this conversation was killing her, it brought up too many thoughts of what could have been, thoughts she was trying desperately not to have especially after seeing Archie earlier that day. "So if, lets say, Archie and I dated in your senior year of high school you would have been perfectly fine with it after a while?"
"Senior Year?" Jughead asked, with his eyebrows raised, she could tell he was trying to be light hearted about the topic but his face was set in a grimace. "Oddly specific."
"Well that was the last time we saw each other so that's the only Archie I remember," Veronica said like it should be obvious, and Jughead tilted his head slightly, looking as if it had just occurred to him that his sister and best friend were never in the same place at the same time in the last 5 years.
"Well that's different, Archie was terrible in high school, he couldn't hold a relationship longer than 3 months and when he did he lost interest too easily," Jughead explained, frowning at where this conversation had gone. "It's not like he was any better when we started college but his last relationship lasted a year and a half so I might be more open to it now."
"I'm not asking for your permission to date Archie," Veronica said forcing herself to keep her face straight and the tone of her voice light, she wasn't even able to enjoy teasing her brother with the weight of this conversation hanging over her. When she cut Archie out of her life she completely cut him off, he didn't exist, she heard stories about him in passing from her brother and other people in their lives but she didn't know anything else. "I was just making a point."
"I guess you're right, I was a piece of work in high school, even if Archie were good at relationships I wouldn't have let you date him," Jughead said and Veronica looked at him confused, forgetting to correct him on the assumption that he 'let' her do anything. "Aside from being a protective ass, I was not in the best frame of mind dealing with the aftermath of my breakup with Toni."
Veronica took in the look on her brothers face and frowned, there was something else he wasn't telling her, he still looked guilty, but she knew he wouldn't tell her what that look meant just yet, she would have to wait until they were completely alone without the chance of someone interrupting their conversation for her to ask him what was going on in his mind.
"Veronica," Katy sing-songed, sticking her head out to call her friend. "Girls night is in full swing and you and Jughead are standing out here looking like you're preparing for a funeral not an engagement party ... oh God, no-one died right? You guys just look morbid because it's the Jones way? Right?"
"Relax, no-one died," Jughead said laughing at Katy's panic at saying the wrong thing and then turned to his sister. "You always choose the weird ones to be friends with."
"And here you are engaged to one of them," Veronica shot back as Katy stuck her tongue out at Jughead.
"That is my cue to leave, I'm meeting Archie and Toni at Pop's for our own catch up," Jughead said, hugging his sister and leaving her and Katy on the balcony.
"No breakdowns," Katy asked, searching Veronica's face and Veronica rolled her eyes. "I have to check, this is Betty's weekend, we are not ruining it with your Jones brooding, no matter how used to it she is."
"Yes ma'am," Veronica giggled, throwing an arm around Katy's waist as they walked back inside. "Kevin's here!"
"V, it's been too long," Kevin said, holding out his arms to grab her and Katy in a hug. "The gang is finally back together."
"And Reggie is on his way," Betty said, checking her phone, joining in on the group hug. "I missed you guys."
Veronica walked out of Pop's early the next morning, with her arm's full of coffees and pastries for her and her friends, all 4 of them still fast asleep when she left on her coffee run. She was sure she would feel the effects of little sleep and a lot of alcohol soon but she always woke up early when she drank and she needed something to do so she wasn't left alone with her thought's.
"Do you need some help?" a voice asked and Veronica stopped dead in her tracks and squeezed her eyes shut, she was on this coffee run to stop her thoughts from driving her crazy but all she did was run straight into him. Slowly she looked around the pastry boxes perched on top of the coffee's to see Archie standing in front of her, hands in his pockets and a nervous smile on his face. It would have been so much easier to hate him if he were smug.
"Yes," she said after a second, almost denying his help and stalking away like she did at the train station the day before but the time for acting like a spoiled brat was over, this was her brothers best friend, even if she had avoided it the last 5 years, he was always going to be in her life, she might as well stop making it so uncomfortable for the both of them. "Please."
Archie reached out and took the boxes that she was balancing on top of the coffee's and looked around for a place to put them. "Where's your car? Or Andre?"
"I might not have thought this all the way through," she muttered, loud enough for him to hear and he burst out laughing which caused her to giggle at her stupidity as well. She had gotten up and taken a run to Pop's, with the intention of grabbing a coffee and running back but when she got inside she decided that she had to get coffee's for everyone, completely forgetting that she would have to walk back to the Pembrooke with everything she bought.
"Clearly you haven't had your coffee yet," he said as if that solved her absentmindedness and she shook her head and sighed, trust Archie Andrews to save her when she got herself stranded on her second day in Riverdale. "Come on, I'm parked right over there."
"Thank you, after yesterday I thought you might be a bit frosty toward me," she said, looking up at him out of the corner of her eye and he shrugged, keeping his eyes straight ahead. She doesn't know why she was bringing up her previous behaviour but if they were going to be civil for her brother and Betty's party, she might as well get that out of the way.
"I thought about it, but you know me, I could never resist a damsel in distress," he said and even though she knew that he was joking, she still bristled at the term. "I didn't mean it like that."
"I know," Veronica said, smiling to herself when he opened the door for her to get in when they got to his truck, ever the gentleman. The drive to the Pembrooke was quiet, Archie didn't say anything and neither did she but she kept stealing glances at him, she was still as attracted to him as she was in high school, there was a new matureness to him now and Veronica felt as if she could fall in love with him all over again. But then memories of why they broke up came flooding back and she shook her head and sighed, this was not the time for those thoughts.
"We're here," Archie said, bringing her out of her thoughts and Veronica nodded, going to open the door when Archie reached out a hand to stop her. "Veronica…"
"This weekend is Betty and Jugheads," Veronica interrupted, smiling up at him so he knew that she was not trying to start an argument but they were not having whatever conversation he wanted to start. "Whatever happened in the past happened, there's no point in discussing it, we can't change it, we can just move forward and be friends again."
"Friends," Archie repeated, he let go of her hand and nodded, but his face was hard, he wouldn't say anything for the rest of the day because he wouldn't want a fight to ruin Betty and Jugheads party but Veronica could tell that this was not over that he would want to discuss what happened 5 years ago and their lack of contact since, she didn't want to hear his explanations and excuses for cheating on her with Ginger, the hurt of seeing them together was still as fresh as it was the day she fled to New York to be with her grandmother but that was a discussion for another day.
"Yes," she said to herself because Archie was already out of the car and at her door so he could open it and help her out.
"Well let's get up there before the coffee's get cold."
A/N: Please don't hate me, I really have been trying to be a productive writer and nothing short of getting COVID and being forced to do absolutely nothing for the last week of 2021 helped my creativity. It also helped that being back at work made me want to do anything but work and so completing this story has become my main focus
I hope you will be happy to know that the next 2 chapters are drafted out and I will be editing and uploading as soon as I am happy with them and the conclusion so there is at least 2 more chapters, maybe 3, it depends on my muse, but I have been writing this since 2019, it's about time it comes to an end
Anyway, let me know what you think, I hope people still remember this little story of mine
Until next time (^^,)