"Did you know that I had my first kiss with Dilton Doiley?" Betty asked, staring at her vanilla milkshake. She usually went for a strawberry milkshake when she ate at pops, but after the events of the day, she wanted to stay far away from anything resembling red. Veronica's eyes went as wide as saucers when Betty said that.
"Wait really?" Veronica asked. She had picked up Betty after five hours of interrogation. After Dilton spontaneously combusted, the kids from the support group were taken to the police station. They didn't even give them time to take a shower this time but allowed them to right after their separate interrogations. They were given random clothes that they had at the station since their school clothes had to be confiscated.
"Yeah," Betty said. "It was on the way back from our Washington DC trip in eighth grade. We were sat together near the back of the bus. Everyone was tired and caught up in their emotions. I leaned over and gave him a quick peck. In response, he handed me some gum."
"Wow," Veronica said. "That's a really douchey thing to do. You're probably the prettiest girl he ever kissed, if not the only girl he ever kissed."
"Yeah," Betty sighed. She leaned against the window and ate a fry. Veronica put her hand on Betty's. Veronica and Betty had been bestfriends since they were six years old. Ever since the first day of kindergarten, it was B and V; forged in fire.
"Homecoming week is officially canceled," Veronica said.
"Such a shame, I had a hot date to the homecoming dance with Jughead Jones," Betty said
"Wait, like the Jughead Jones that goes to our school?" Veronica exclaimed. "The same Jughead Jones that set that abandoned 711 on fire? The one that also impregnated Toni Topaz with triplets in ninth grade?"
"Yeah," Betty said, with a smirk.
"Betty, that boy has so many red flags about him," Veronica said.
"I like bad boys," Betty shrugged.
"It's believed that he has committed arson and abandoned Toni, causing her to drop out of school to raise his babies," Veronica shouted. She wasn't shouting in an angry way at Betty, but more of a concerned way. "And do you not know what happened with his brother?"
Everyone knew about Jughead's older brother, Peter. A year before the Jones family moved to Riverdale, Peter posted a threat on his Facebook. It said he was going to set the boarding school was attending "ablaze." The FBI was involved, but he was never charged with anything. He dropped out of school and went off the grid.
"That doesn't define him," Betty said.
"Fine, you can dig your own grave," Veronica said.
"You can't judge me," Betty said. "Everyone knows about yours and Archie's complicated love story."
"Love might be a strong word," Veronica said, staring at her barely touched Hamburg. Betty had a feeling that something had happened between them that day. They had been Riverdale's on again off again relationship since eighth grade. They started dating during the Washington trip, leading to Veronica sitting with Archie on the way back, causing Betty to have her first kiss with Dilton Doiley.
"That's different, Archie isn't a criminal," Veronica sighed.
"Not that we know," Betty said. They then finished up their meal, and Veronica paid for Betty's. That's how Veronica works: if you see one of your classmates explode, you get a million hugs, platonic kisses on the cheeks, and random three in the morning text asking if she was ok. When you see two of our classmates explode, you get a free meal at Pops.
They walked out of the diner and discovered they were being watched. A man who looked to be in his early thirties had watched them eat. He had an FBI badge on his shirt. "I guess I'm a suspect," Betty sighed.
"This is so weird," Veronica said. "People use to not just randomly explode."
"Maybe it was just random confidence and the explosions will stop now," Betty said. How naive Betty was at the time because there would be more combusting. A lot more combusting.