Definition of Want (Bughead)

COMMANDO

Veronica was eyeing the impressive pair of angel wings on the mannequin as she spoke but turned with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"You have a need, oh?" She repeated.

"That's not what..."

"One does not come to VS just to get lounge panties. You shop at Target, even I know that. You come here to get sexy underwear..." her eyes lit up like Christmas lights that Betty had still not taken down from the apartment, "You liar!"

"I'm not looking for a relationship, that's true," Betty insisted again.

"But you are looking to get laid, are you?" Veronica surmised.

"Well...I mean..." Yes, she was. Exclusively by Jughead, but Veronica was sure as hell not going to be told that now.

"B, if you needed some sexy lingerie, why didn't you ask for Christmas? Oh, I know the cutest little boutiques in Italy and France! I could have had them all sent over for the Holidays and then when we were in Chicago I would have been your wing-woman!"

"I just think it's weird that my best friend has bought most of my sexy underwear," Betty said with a shrug, fishing out her wallet, "A girl has to be independent and buy her own sexy matching things eventually."

"You have to let me help you, then," Veronica said, strutting confidently through the black and hot pink halls. She grabbed like underwear was going out of style, and Betty trailed behind like Bambi stumbling through the forest. Veronica held up a bra, thrust it out to about Betty's chest, and hummed before grabbing a slightly bigger pair. Betty had tried to touch a cutesy little cotton pair, but Veronica slapped her hand away.

"That's baby pink. Do you know what baby pink means?"

"Uhm..."

"Childish. It has bows on it, even, yuck. No. Fine for Netflix days, not fine to catch a man." Veronica said, instead of dropping a dark pink shade in Betty's hand, "See the difference?"

She did not, but she wasn't looking for an impromptu lecture on color sexiness, so she just nodded.

"Okay. We have..." Veronica maneuvered her arms, which were so full that little scraps of panties were falling out left and right and she was catching fallen bras by her fingers, "Eighteen pairs here."

Betty nearly choked. She'd been hoping to find two or three nice pairs. This was just overkill.

"Oh, stop! You try them on, obvs. You want to feel sexy in them, right?" She said, offloading them onto Betty's arms, "And you'll just know. If you need a tiebreaker, I'll be waiting out here," Veronica said, plopping down on a gilded armchair near the fitting rooms. She crossed her legs, pulling out her phone to scroll on Instagram. Betty paused for a second, staring down at the colors and patterns in her arms. Veronica looked up.

"What are you waiting for? Go on, try them on!" She said, shooing Betty into a fitting room.

There was every type from stripper risque to conservative hot. There was every shade of the rainbow and some in between, every type and every style. Betty felt like Veronica had picked out basically the entire store's worth. She spent the next half-hour trying them on, turning and twisting her body in front of the mirror, whittling down the choices.

She wasn't trying to imagine it, but somehow she always wondered what Jughead's reaction would be in each pair. And she wouldn't say she was buying for him (but, then again, who else was she sleeping with?) but if she turned to see herself in something that she thought Jughead wouldn't be as jazzed about, chances were she wasn't either.