For the second week in a row Veronica and her friends found themselves spending their Saturday afternoon at Archie's house, as it was the best option for all involved.
For Veronica, the Pembrooke was out of the question ever since her dad had been released from prison, she herself had been spending more time dodging her dad only returning home just in time for her curfew.
If she wan't about to subject herself to her dad's company there was no way she was going to subject Archie and her friends to Hiram Lodge.
Now, her life here in Riverdale may have been different compared to her old life in New York but there was no way Veronica -and her Balenciaga- would have ever been caught dead walking back into that trailer park.
Not to sound like an absolute spoilt princess, but Veronica had hated every minute inside that trailer the last time she was there and it had nothing to do with the fact that she had been investigating whether or not Jughead's father was a killer hired by her dad at the time.
Plus going to the South side of town just seem like asking for trouble especially now that there was a lone gun man out there on the hunt just waiting for people to kill.
Honestly it was best to just avoid Betty's house since Alice would have spent all afternoon creating a hostile and unwelcoming environment for her, Archie and Jughead, and today was all about relaxation.
This week had been harrowing enough with Moose being hospitalised, so the idea of a weekend just relaxing sounded heavenly. After an afternoon at Archie's, Veronica had planned on going shopping with Betty and had even booked herself into an all day spa session a few towns over for tomorrow, which would not only have the added benefit of placing her in the right mindset for the upcoming week but would allow her time away from her dad's attempt at 'getting to know her'.
Veronica knew that her plans for a quiet afternoon was once again in jeopardy as soon as she saw the frown on Betty's face when she passed over Jughead phone to him, Veronica silently stood up and made her way to the kitchen to give the couple some privacy while grabbing some ice-cream.
x.x
When Betty passed over Jughead's phone she saw the latest text Toni had just sent about how she had finished washing Jughead's clothes for him, Betty would have swore she could feel her stomach actually drop as she imagine all the ways in which Toni could have gotten a hold of a full laundry load of Jughead's clothes.
Betty knew all about Jughead's new Southside friend; 'Toni Topaz' the photographer who had been spending her evening helping Jughead bring the Red and Black up to newspaper standard, or that's what he said but Betty couldn't help but feel like Jughead was just being oblivious to the crush she had on him.
No-one spent time in a dusty office cleaning it up just to be a photographer and with the amount of text and memes Toni kept on sending, it was clear she had other things on her mind besides friendship.
"What was that about?" Betty asked gently prodding Jughead once he finally put his phone back down.
"Oh, my shirt got kinda messy the other day cleaning out the Red and Black and seeing as I didn't have a way of washing my clothes for this week Toni offered to throw the shirt in with her weekly laundry." Jughead replied seeing no reason to lie. He still hadn't quite gotten around to telling Betty the truth about his association with the Serpents and how he had been spending time with some of the junior members both in and out of school…. And it wasn't only for protection, a few of them were actually decent people that Jughead enjoyed talking to.
"She washed your shirt?" Betty asked looking confused and darting glances at Jughead's phone.
"Yeah, my machine at home broke down this week and since I don't have the money to fix it…." Jughead trailed off hoping that the information he had given was enough of an explanation.
"So she doing your laundry?" Betty asked more confused than before. "If you had let me know I could have done them"
"She's not doing my laundry, it was just one shirt." Jughead emphasised, he wasn't sure why this was an issue. "I was already planning on asking Mr. A if I could use their machine until I get enough saved to buy another now for the trailer."
Jughead had no intention of going over to Betty's house with a bag full of dirty laundry, he would rather hand wash everything than feel Alice's disapproving stare and listen to all the snide comment she would make about him not having a working washing machine and free-loading off Betty.
"So what's she like?" Veronica questioned coming back to drop the first two bowls of ice-cream off on the table for Betty and Jughead.
"She is really cool, without her help South side High wouldn't have a news room let alone a newspaper, plus she did agree to be the photographer for me"
"Why don't you invite her over, we can get to know her" Veronica stated while walking back into the kitchen for more ice-cream knowing Betty had been feeling slightly jealous of the mysterious girl that Jughead seemed to be spending his time with.
Veronica herself wasn't worried about Jughead making new friends over at that school, as the recently new kid in school she knew how isolating it could have been if she hadn't met Betty and Archie at Pop's that first day.
More importantly Veronica had a much bigger issue to contend with such as her dad being at the Pembrooke living as freely as can be, pretending as if he hadn't threaten to implicate her mother in his crimes just so she would speak on his behalf.
There was also the issue of Archie behaving erratically most of the time, he always seemed angry at the world in general after the shooting and try as she might to get to the bottom of that particular mystery Archie had remained tight-lipped as to what exactly was bothering him.
As a matter of fact Archie had been behaving like a brooding ghost since they had been there; just hanging out in the back ground not really joining in in any of the conversations or jokes.
Veronica was beginning to wonder whether it was a good idea having impose their company on Archie like this especially since he was now the sole carer for his dad now that Mrs. Andrews had gone back to Chicago when she heard Archie speak up.
Veronica wasn't really sure what Archie had said but she could hear the change in Betty's tone through the wall, and Jughead's rebuttal then Archie pipping back in whenever the situation seemed to have died down leading to more back and forth.
Sighing Veronica just stood there staring into the bowls of ice-cream as they started to melt, she briefly thought about just leaving the other three in the living room and walking out as Archie said yet another thing, she had just wanted a stress free weekend and now it sounded like Betty and Jughead were arguing.
Veronica wasn't really sure what was going on since she arrived after everyone one else but 'Bughead' seemed to be spending their afternoon arguing for no apparent reason; Jughead had only been going to Southside High for a little over two weeks now it really wasn't enough time to cause these petty little arguments between them; about who was meant to call whom and at what time.
She honestly didn't think Betty had anything to worry about, Jughead wasn't doing anything wrong as far as she could tell, he hadn't been pulling away moreover Jughead was even making the effort to spend his Saturdays -hanging out- with them when he could have easily tried to make plans with some of his new friends to get to know them outside of a school setting.
Sure Jughead wasn't around like he used to be but that was a given seeing as he now lived and was educated at the other side of town. Veronica had just assumed that they wouldn't be seeing him as often when he was a part of the Northside community working at the Blue and Gold with Betty on a daily basis, walking back into the living room Veronica could now hear what Archie was saying.
"Wait if you have a problem with this girl washing his clothes then what do you think about Izzy having a drawer full of Jughead clothes at her house" Archie asked jumping back into the conversation. He didn't know who this Toni girl was exactly but he was knew that if this was Betty's reaction to a shirt being washed then she won't be too happy about Jughead having his actual stuff in a room at someone else's house.
"You leave your clothes over at Izzy's house?" Betty questioned feeling like she was just jumping from one topic to another that afternoon, and with each new topic Betty felt like she knew even less than before or said topic was just a prelude to yet another argument.
Something was off and for the life of her Betty couldn't place it, she didn't normally argue with Jughead like this especially over such silly things but it just seem like as soon as one thing was put to rest another thing just popped it's head up.
Jughead chuckled "Yeah I spend time over there and over the years I have left and lost random pieces of clothing to the Tate house"
"Jug, Izzy has an actual drawer full of your clothes in her house" Betty repeated
"- Are you guys talking about Izzy" Veronica asked holding the now half melted bowls of ice-cream and placing it one front of Archie before retaking her seat next to him.
"Apparently Jug here has his own chest of clothes at Izzy house." Betty explained knowing Veronica would find it as strange as she did.
"Yeah, I am pretty sure the women's jeans and clothes we saw at the trailer belonged to Izzy." Archie explained knowing it was something Veronica had puzzled about the night they had broken into FP's trailer looking for evidence. The clothes obviously didn't belong to Gladys or Jellybeans plus it looked modern compared to the other female items laying around.
Jughead wasn't above throwing Archie a glare, he had no idea what was going on but it didn't feel like Archie was trying to help nor did Jughead even know why this was an issue with anyone."Think of it as me leaving clothes behind when I stay over than me actually moving in"
"It's kind of strange to leave your clothes in someone else's house" Veronica added slightly seeing things from Betty's point of view.
"But is something we've done since we were like eight when we started having sleep overs. I spent as much time at the Tate's as I did my house or Archie's. It just got practical to leave some clothes round there" Jug said feeling slightly defensive and judged."I am sure if you go to Izzy's spare rooms you see a bunch of crap from everyone, I know for a fact that Valerie keeps a spare set of pj's and what she calls her 'man hunting' jeans over there. Plus Josie and Melody leave change of clothes over there as well in case they stay the night. Anyways I can guarantee that if I went upstairs now there will be one of my shirt or jeans up in Archie's room."
"Jughead calm down we are not judging you, although I for one have not left any clothes at a male friend's house I have been known to leave the occasional LBD at other friends house just because I know my parent's wouldn't have approve of such a purchase." Veronica explained watching as Jughead got worked up during his little speech.
"Now enjoy your time here with the ice cream I am so willing to share" Veronica joked trying to defuse some on the tension lingering in the air although she noticed Betty and Archie exchanging glances.
x.x.
"What was that about" Jughead questioned Archie once Betty and Veronica had left. Christmas was just a few short weeks away and the girls wanted to get started on their shopping list before the shops began to over flow with last minute holiday shoppers.
"What was what?" Archie asked innocently
"The comment about Toni, South side high, my clothes… Izzy" Jughead listed all the tiny topics Archie had gone on about causing one little snit or another.
"It was nothing Jug" Archie replied smiling back at his friend "I thought she knew, it seemed strange that she was freaking out about someone washing a shirt when it feels like you live with Izzy half the time"
"I don't live with Izzy, I live at the trailer or I have lived with you and I have even lived in the janitor's closet at school or did you forget about that?"
Jughead couldn't explain it but the whole afternoon had felt off, maybe it was the lingering tension he was left in before the girls left or maybe it was the whole pointlessness of the argument itself that had Jughead feeling a certain way.
"Look Jug I am sorry, really man. I didn't mean to put my foot in it or cause any trouble. You wanna go play some video game upstairs" Archie offered.
"Sure, you can show me how you play and I'll just do the exact opposite to win" Jughead joked following Archie up the stairs.
x.x.x.x
Writer's note:
Sorry it took so long to post but i had written this chapter from Betty's POV but Veronica just kept sneaking in so i decided to re-write the whole/most of it from Veronica's POV instead.
So let me know what you think. Is there something in the water? Is someone gaslighting Bughead and watching the implosion or is this just a bump in the road for them. it could jus be an afternoon of things not going their way like how once you trip you seem to find yourself doing it over and over again.
Now if anyone has a solution about the Cheryl situation i will be open to your thoughts.
Brace yourself we start seeing Hiram in the next chapter... I do wonder what he's been up to.
Lastly comments and reviews are welcome