The next day I arranged to meet Veronica at Pop's. I couldn't put this to rest until I had made some kind of sense of it, her actions were just ludicrous. I was waiting at a booth in Pop's and took in the new vampire-mania that was sweeping through town. Pop's had an all new (or all newly renamed) menu: Vampire I-Scream, Dracu-Donuts, Severed Finger Hot Dogs among equally creative puns.
Just as I ordered an ice cream, and I will not call it anything else, I saw Veronica pull up in her expensive looking car. She was so glamorous, way too glamourous for Riverdale, looking at her, she just didn't really fit in around here at all. She walked into the diner, all fur coat and high heels, a true Hollywood beauty, under any other circumstance I would have been nervous about a dinner date with her.
Who was I kidding, I was nervous right now.
"Ah, Betty, there you are! It's so nice to see you again." She went in for a hug, which I reciprocated. There was no need to be rude.
"Hey Veronica, thanks for coming, I-"
"Not a problem, gorgeous. I've fancied a dinner with you since I got to town." She said with a wink.
What a charmer, no wonder everybody loved her, but I wasn't going to fall for it. I was above that… Wasn't I?
Stay professional, "T-Thanks for joining me. I wanted to talk about the party at Sweetwater River." Stay professional.
"A triumph, I thought!" She said with a laugh. She really did have a pretty laugh.
"Well, I arrived late, after the body was found."
"Aha, my pièce de résistance! Have you seen how my little game has transformed this town? Riverdale has never been hotter!"
"Why did you deface the body, Ronnie? Surely you see how wrong that was?"
"Seriously Betty, don't be such a prude. Look, if it wasn't for me that man would have died in anonymity. He would have came and went without any notice. Mr Finnigan would have been forgotten about by next week. Now look, look around, the man is an icon, a Riverdale legend, a worldwide star! What is wrong with that? If anything, I was honouring him."
"What is wrong about that is that he is now famous for a lie, a lie that had nothing to do with him. You wanted to honour him? Instead of making his death famous, why not make his life famous? His choices, the person he was, the people he loved? But no, Mr Finnigan is now famous for a childish, cruel, horrible high school prank. All because of you."
Veronica rolled her eyes, I think that was the first time I had ever seen any true emotion on her face. "Betty, stop thinking about this. Look, maybe I made a judgement error while I was drunk, maybe I made a mistake. But in my view, it's better to be famous than be a nobody. No matter how you got there."
Incredible… "Spoken like a failed Hollywood starlet."
Veronica's face fell, crestfallen. She shot me the most evil look and got up to leave, "Low blow, Betty."
I felt awful, it wasn't in my nature to be cruel, but there was something about that girl that threw everybody's emotions off-kilter. I ran after her, out of Pop's and onto the street. I didn't want to hurt her, she had thrown this town into chaos and her motivations are nonsensical to me, but seeing that look in her eyes, maybe I was harsh, and in that moment at least, I didn't think they were the eyes of anybody with ill-intentions. "Ronnie, wait!"
As I ran out of the door after her, I saw a raggedy looking man running full force down the street towards us. He must have been homeless, he had long straggly hair, an unkempt grey beard, eyes sunken in like he hadn't slept in days. I have volunteered at the homeless shelter for the past few years and he was a new one to me, he must be newly homeless, although his appearance would suggest otherwise.
Veronica looked like she was crying as she was stood on the curb, she didn't see him coming and the man clattered into her at full pelt. Both of them fell down into the road, causing a car to swerve and crash into the railing on the side. It all happened so fast, it was chaotic, the only thing I could think of was to check on Veronica. I ran to her and helped her up, she seemed ok, physically, at least. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, no thanks to this vagabond." Ronnie swung her handbag and struck the man with her purse across his back as he was getting up, though he barely noticed. It was like he didn't even realise what was going on at all, he seemed oblivious the the chaos he had caused. As he got to his feet, Veronica came into his eye-line again and he frantically grabbed her by the shoulders, looking at her with a crazed, psychotic look in his eyes. "Have you seen him? Have you seen the Riverdale Vampire?" His voice was gargle and croaky, like he hadn't spoken in days.
"Unhand me, sir." Veronica ignored his questions and with my help we managed to push him away.
"It's you, it's all you!" The man screamed and ran off down the street, back the way he came.
"Ronnie, are you ok?"
She swept the mud off her expensive coat and didn't even look at me, "Do you care?"
I felt awful, ever since she had arrived in Riverdale she had seemed like some monolithic figure, floating above it all, pulling the strings of chaos around our town. But looking at her now, she just seemed like a nervous, new to town girl who was out of her depth. "Ronnie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. Let me make it up to you, can I buy you a drink?"
"Why? Do you want to grill me for more information?"
"No, no, let's just sit and eat. No vampire talk, I promise."
That seemed to placate her for now and then we did exactly that. We went on to have a very nice day together in Pop's. We spoke for hours, about her history, about mine, about our hopes and dreams, about boys, obviously. It felt like we were actually becoming friends, something I had never felt with her before. We didn't speak about vampires that night, in fact, for the first time in a while I had almost forgotten about the whole thing.
Until the end of the night, that is.
She had walked me home and given me a kiss on the cheek as a goodbye. As I watched her walk away two thoughts suddenly bubbled up to the surface of my mind.
Why was the homeless man looking for the vampire?
And why was he asking Veronica?