Consequences

Chapter 8

Veronica Lodge—the 'Northside princess'—was cleaning toilets.

This was her absolute 'favorite' part of her job as a maid.  Before everything happened, she was already wary of toilets, as whenever she felt like breaking down, she would hide in one to cry. But now, scrubbing and unclogging the dirty toilets in the bar was an actual nightmare.

Veronica stopped at a particular stall, sighing. The stall had "Serpent Princess" written on it. It was Betty's own stall, as she had the privilege of being a Serpent Princess.

Betty Cooper had been happy, for a while, but during the war, she couldn't take it anymore and just gave up the role.

'Her loss,' Veronica Lodge had always thought.

Although she and Jughead had never seen eye to eye, she knew that he loved Betty a lot, but even that was not enough for Elizabeth Cooper to stay.

"Veronica!Veronica! LODGE! VERONICA!!"

Veronica snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone call her name.

"Jeez Antoinette! Are you trying to make me deaf? I heard you the first time!" she complained.

Toni, dismissing the complaint, continued, " Stop yelling at me Lodge, I'm here to tell you WITH REGRET that I have to substitute you for a day. Orders from FP. He said you have to go home to take care of Jones."

Veronica Lodge bit her lip. Both jobs—cleaning the toilet and taking care of Jughead—were not appealing to her at all. But... taking care of Jughead was slightly better than cleaning toilets, right?

"Thanks Toni," she hugged her. "You're the best."

"Hey! Get your hands off my girl!" Cheryl boomed as she entered the bathroom.

"You're just jealous," Veronica smirked as she gave Cheryl a hug too.

"Ew, you smell like toilet!" Cheryl yelled at Veronica's fading figure.

————————————————————————

"Jones, you're supposed to be resting in bed," Veronica sighed exasperatedly.

Jughead Jones, flipping through Serpent documents, blatantly ignored the raven haired girl behind him.

"Jughead! Did your concussion affect your hearing? FP demanded you to rest, not work!" Veronica yanked the documents out of his hand, finally capturing his attention.

"Lodge, give them back!" Jughead furiously tried to snatch them back.

"I will, after you get in bed and rest," Veronica walked away from him and hid the documents behind her back.

"I would, but I don't trust you with Serpent documents, who knows what you would do with them?" Jughead snapped out of anger.

At that moment, Jughead knew he had messed up.

Veronica Lodge threw the documents at Jughead and left without a word.

He had crossed a line that was not to be crossed.

Quietly, he picked up the scattered documents, trying to find a way to pick up the mess he had made with Veronica.