Say My Name

Chapter Twelve

"You mean with Reggie?"

"Yeah, Reggie and I were gonna go back to his place after the dance, but he ended up driving me home and walking me up to my door like the stupid gentleman he is. Gross."

Betty gave her a muddled look, raising her left brow. "Huh? You didn't like that?"

"It was okay, I guess, but sometimes the whole gentlemanly thing gets old. Sometimes I want a guy who's... I don't know, dangerous. Someone who wants me right then and there and kisses me passionately." Veronica had a lot more experience with guys than her. She told Betty she lost her virginity in the eighth grade to a boy she barely knew, and the two of them were playing spin the bottle, then one thing led to another.

"But most guys at our school are pussies who don't know what a clitoris is."

Betty snorted. "Oh, my god."

"Am I wrong?"

She opened her mouth to say something, then started shaking her head. "I wouldn't know."

"Oh, right, I forgot you're a prude."

She gasped. "I am not a prude. Take that back."

"Betty Cooper, you are the biggest prude on the planet." She laughed and Betty rolled her eyes. "No, but you're right, though. I do need to get laid. I need to go to a party and let loose for one night."

She nodded in agreement. It didn't surprise her that Veronica wanted to get drunk at a random party. She spent the entire summer getting wasted practically every night, leaving Betty at home most of the time because she hated going to parties.

"You do too."

"What? No, I don't," she fired back. "I'm perfectly content with staying in my bedroom."

"Oh, my god," Veronica replied. "You're so stiff. You always do this!"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Stiff?"

"Yeah, stiff."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means--" She raised her voice. "--you're in your own bubble a lot of the time. You're scared to get out of your comfort zone and live a little.'

Betty turned to her in protest. "I'm stiff because I hate going to parties?"

"No, you hate going to parties because you're stiff," she corrected her.

"Oh, my god." Betty rolled her eyes and shook her head in annoyance. "You're ridiculous."

"Okay, but it's not just parties you're scared of. It took you years before you finally tried out for the cheer team."

"Well, I did it."

"Yeah, after I forced you into the gym!" Veronica's words couldn't have been more true, and it made her mad. She sat in the seat with her arms crossed and let out a sigh. "I'm not stiff."

"Oh, yeah?" They turned on Betty's street, and Veronica stopped right in front of her house, putting the car in park. "Prove it to me then." She unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to her.

"What?"

"Do something wild with me next weekend."

"Wild?"

"Mm-hm."

She was terrified of her proposition. Betty hated doing anything out of her comfort zone because it made her nervous. "Like.. what?"

"I don't know. Just... something that'll prove that you're a loosey-goosey and not a stiff."

She smiled at her word choice and huffed out a breath. "Veronica, stop."