Youth | ✓ |

Year 8

YEAR EIGHT

NEW YORK
MIDDLE SCHOOL

IT WAS THE START OF THE NEW YEAR, but it was different this time around. She wasn't in Riverdale anymore, she was in New York. They had moved this summer, she wasn't entirely sure why but it had given her enough time to say goodbye to Cheryl and Toni, and to avoid Archie every step of the way. He had tried to say sorry so many times but she was done, done with him. He tried too many times, she ignored him every step of the way, had brushed past him without another glance at him.

"Besides I can't last a day without you."

"Then how did you survive summer?" She pointed out.

"I didn't."

Was that a lie? He had uttered those words at the beginning of their seventh year, and she didn't know whether those words had remained true. They didn't, when it had reached the middle of the year those words had faded and Betty Cooper had filled them. And Veronica had disappeared from his mind.

・ ◦ ・

RIVERDALE
MIDDLE SCHOOL

ARCHIE STARTED his eighth grade year, this time with a blonde, and not a raven head. He didn't think much of it, but he knew it was different. Betty had taken the best friend position, and it was too different for him. Though he had never said that to her face. He didn't know if those words Veronica had uttered last year were true about the innocent girl beside him. A voice in the back of his head said that he should believe Veronica's word, they had been friends for a year and he had taken Betty's word over hers. Was he an idiot? Had he lost something irreplaceable, something he shouldn't have had in the first place? Was that why she had been in a bad mood that one time during lunch? When he had tried to cheer her up, had forced her to look at him?

He tried to get a glimpse of her face but she lowered her head, letting her hair fall in front of her face, covering it entirely. He brushed a few of the hairs from her face hooking it over her ear and leaned in to whisper into her ear. Her breathing quickened at the sensation of his hot breath hitting her ear as he began to whisper softly.

"We're in this together Lodge. You can't get rid of me ever, I'll be there for you whether you want me to or not. I will not abandon you." His face was still close, warm breath still hitting against her ear.

His cheeks had heated at the distant thought, had he really traded her for this? Betty hadn't done anything wrong, had she?

・ ◦ ・

HER FIRST WEEK in New York had been splendid, though she thought that it might've been her father demanding that she had a good time. Especially when she had come home like a wreck during that one day during February.

She had come into the house with tears streaming down her face, she slammed the door shut and had hurried up the stairs. Her father calling out behind her, her mother not far behind.

"Mija." They had said, calling out to her.

But she ignored them and slammed her bedroom door shut locking the door behind her.

They had knocked on her door furiously, "Veronica you will open this door immediately! I want to know why my daughter is suddenly slamming all the doors in my house." Her father had shouted through the door.

But she didn't listen, she couldn't. She was drowning and there was going to be no one to pull her out.

They hadn't asked about it, but she knew that they had somehow found out that she and Archie had fallen out. Maybe it was because Veronica had flinched every time they brought him up. But everything had cooled down now that it was a new school year and she hoped for something different this time around. Hoped for a quiet year, hoped for a new start.