CHAPTER 2:
-ARCHIE's POV-Please don't fall apart.
I can't face your breaking heart.The shrill sound of my alarm goes off at 7, making me jump as I hop out of bed. I throw some shorts on over the boxers that I slept in, and open my curtains to let the light in.
It still feels like a dream when I see her. The raven hair she's always had cascades down her back- it's longer now. She's doing her makeup, lightly, but she's still the most breathtaking human being I've ever seen.
Sometimes I wish I could move on, but then I realize I don't really want to. I just want her- and that's all I've really ever wanted.
She's always been perfect. For every weakness I had, she made up for it. Her smile and her laugh are deeply embedded into my brain and I don't think anything has ever made me so happy as her.
She turns her head and sees me staring. Surprisingly, she floats to the window.
"Hey, good morning." she smiles shyly, totally out of character for her.
"Good morning." My stupid self can't think of anything else to follow that. But when I'm around her, sometimes words escape me because she makes my heart feel so many things that I can't control. "Do you need a ride to school?" I offer, mentally cursing myself for doing that.
Great job, you can't even look at her without feeling sorry for yourself and yet you just offered to spend more alone time with her. She smiles again, I'm sure it's a gesture of politeness.
"That would be great." she nodded.
"I leave at 7:45, and usually I get coffee before school?" I don't really know why I ask, Veronica runs on coffee. She always said it was a New York thing when I would tease her for it. Really, it was a blessing, because a coffee would bring a guaranteed smile to her face. As her boyfriend, I would get her coffee every morning and say it was 'my duty'.
And then she would kiss my cheek, and tell me how she thought I was the sweetest guy she'd ever met.
"Only if you're letting me buy them. I'm 99% positive that it would be my turn to pay." I'm glad she's joking around me. I would hate to be the thing ruining her experience, even though she did shatter my heart into a thousand pieces.
I didn't like thinking that she could ever do something bad to me, or when other people thought that.
I remember one night at a party, everyone was a little too drunk and decided to play truth or dare. Reggie forced me into it, said it wasn't a big deal until it was.
"Archie, truth or dare?" Josie asked.
"Truth," I said. At that point I figured it couldn't be that bad, they already knew everything about Veronica leaving.
"What's your biggest regret?" she asked, as everyone continued to sip on their drinks. I was about 4 beers in- not including the shots we'd all taken.
My mind must have escaped me, because I decided to spill my heart to everyone in that room. "The day before Ronnie left..." her name still stung as it came out of my mouth. "I gave her a promise ring, told her I was gonna marry her someday. She said nothing would make her happier."
The room was silent, as it should've been. Leave it to Cheryl Blossom to break that.
"Well, we all knew the Ice Queen would leave one day. We're probably better off without her." she sighed, tapping her red acrylic nails on her cup.
"Some of us aren't anything without her." I said, getting up angrily and calling an Uber.
That night, I cried in my dad's lap for almost an hour. I wished she would come back to me, I wished I wouldn't have defended her. I wished a lot of things.

YOU ARE READING
heal.
Fanfictionshe's been closed off for as long as she can remember, mostly when it comes to her family. not because she was ashamed- she was scared. no one would understand, she was sure of it. veronica lodge didn't let people in. and when they got in, they didn...