World
A Riverdale where the Blossoms are boss of Riverdale (kinda like the Lodge's right now :D ) and the Andrews do the same in Greendale
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Cheryl and Archie are forced to marry, even though they have never met before
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It's a business deal she is informed on her 18th birthday. One that has been arranged even before either of the children had been even born and her parents have dreaded telling them for almost as long. But it's what have kept the family in business, and more importantly incredibly rich and in this society, this is really all that matters. Cheryl can't deny she likes the money, but is this extravagant lifestyle a good trade for her freedom?
In any case, it's too late now, unless she plans to run away in the next two weeks, and since that would break her beloved brother's heart, she won't. The wedding with the Andrews' boy has been set up twenty years ago, which had given the people involved a pretty long time to organize and plan. Unfortunately for Cheryl Blossom and Archie Andrews, this means they are to be married in a big and public wedding, about two weeks after the girl turns eighteen. It also doesn't matter that neither of them had ever met their betrothed even once in their lives.
The Blossoms used to be the family calling all the shots in their small town for centuries. That is, until the Andrews family settled there some decades ago. Cheryl isn't sure on the details, but somehow the Blossoms have been dethroned and they didn't take it well. A family feud lasting for fifteen years had broken free and neither of the two families had shied away from violence and murder. So, one day, one of their respective ancestors came up with a pact to keep the peace. The Andrews' relocated over to the next town, getting Greendale under their control pretty easily, and the Blossoms would get back Riverdale. Neither was supposed to set foot into the other's territory. Until the first born children of both families reached eighteen years of age, then they would merge their families into one and control all of this side of Sweetwater River.
Cheryl has no intention of marrying some boy she'd never met before, tells her parents as much. They don't care, not that she would have expected anything else, and prepare for tomorrow night's dinner. Because, of course Cheryl will not have to marry a boy she's never met before, that's why Archie and his parents are invited over and then the girl is expected to leave with them, to move into her new home before the wedding. There would be no cancellation, no matter what, but all of the involved thinks it's best for the future bride and groom to get to know each other some before vows are exchanged.
She spends the night locked in her room, in turn video chatting with Veronica and Betty and venting to her brother. Jason is engaged to Betty's older sister, out of their own free will, and she's happy for both of them, but it pisses Cheryl off that she has to be the one being forced into an arranged marriage. It's the twentieth century for god's sake, gay relationships are just as common, so why can't her brother just be forced into this?! Before hanging up and going to bed, she invites all three girls to the wedding and a bachelorette party, because if this is her wedding, than she'll do it her way.
She meets Archie Andrews for the first time out in the backyard, where she has just readied her archery gear and for a split second she debates if accidentally shooting him would get her out of this. She decides that it would probably get her into more trouble than she would get out of and so she puts the boy and arrow to the side and pretends to be interested in meeting him.
The first thing she notices is that his hair color matches hers and she thinks that she at least doesn't have to worry about her children not inheriting it. Then she mentally slaps herself. She doesn't know the guy and she doesn't want to marry him, so why is she picturing their children in her head? He's taller then her and she has to look up to see his face and she doesn't like it one bit – neither the face, nor the fact she can only see it by looking up.
The face is incredibly handsome and he looks like someone Cheryl could have easily fallen in love with given the right time and circumstances, but she's protesting against this union on principle alone and so she is * not * thinking about how attractive he is. Because really, he isn't. No way. And then he starts to speak and she prays she is not seriously melting into a puddle right before him, just like her mind tells her she is. Damn, and how is it possible that her family has found the man of her dreams before either of them had even been born?!
She swears she's in love with him when he tells her he won't marry her if she didn't want to. He would find a way out of this, without hurting either one of their families, she just had to say the word. It's everything she has been thinking of ever since her parents told her about the wedding, but she's not sure anymore if she actually wants it. Could it really be that bad being married to a handsome guy you might even be already developing feelings for?
And then it hits her. Maybe * he * doesn't want her and is looking for a way out himself and so she tells him to please do exactly that, because arranged marriages are so not her thing. She's crying over it later that night in her room, her two best friends just a phone call away and her brother again sitting beside her, though he's not entirely sure he knows what's going on.
Cheryl leaves with Archie and his family two days later, because there * is * no way to get out off this and this marriage is absolutely happening. They are not speaking to each other, not even actually looking in the others direction and Cheryl can just feel the comfortableness set in deep in her bones. So this is what the rest of her life will look like, she thinks. With any luck, she won't have to share his bed, and the wedding night and formal meetings are the only occasions she's required to actually be his wife. Because she can play that game, too. If he doesn't want her, she doesn't want him either. This is nothing but a business deal and it will never be anything else.
They spend the next two weeks in separate bedrooms, only interacting when there is absolutely no other choice but to and it seems that nobody cared even in the slightest that they were about to marry two people that can't stand each other.
Cheryl has her bachelorette party three days before the wedding, and she knows Archie is doing * something * that night, too, but hell if she pretends the cares. Betty and Veronica arrive at the house in full on party mood, despite the circumstances and the red head decides to fully take advantage of a night out. Her friends try to be reasonable, try to cut her off more than once as the night progresses but when Cheryl get home that night she's just sober enough to make it to her bedroom without breaking her legs on the stairs.
And when she wakes up in the morning with a monstrous hangover, her head is nestled onto Archie's shoulder and their arms are slung around each other in sleep. She's about to snap at him, ask him what the hell he thinks he's doing in her room, in her bed, when she sees he's awake and smirking down on her. He's not in her bed, but rather she's stumbled into the wrong one last night and the boy didn't have the heart to kick her out. He'd been watching her sleep for the last thirty minutes, thinking maybe she doesn't hate him as much as she used to anymore.
"Good morning" He's smiling, and she hates that smile, because it makes her insides weak when she is supposed to hate him.
"Morning" She's embarrassed, enough so to hide her face in his shoulder, even of that puts them in an even more intimate position. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." She trails off. She didn't mean to * what *? Fall asleep in his bed, in his arms? Get so drunk last night that she didn't even notice? Fall in love with him when he clearly doesn't want her?
"Don't be" He reassures and she doesn't feel any better after it. It just shows even more that she's right. He doesn't want her, and today, she has just enough alcohol in her system still to be pissed about it. So she does what she has sworn herself she wouldn't do – ever. She confronts him about it.
"What is your problem with me?" She pulls her arms back to her own body and shifts so her head is laying on her own pillow, not him anymore.
"I don't..." He starts, but she doesn't even hear him, cuts him off mid sentence in her rambling.
"Is it just because we are forced into this, or are you actually not the least bit interested in me?" This time she stops and looks at him, awaiting his answer. He takes a moment longer to make sure she's really finished.
"You think I'm not interested in you?" Is she crazy? How can she not know that she's the most beautiful girl he's ever seen? Maybe, he chastises himself, it's because he's never told her that. "You were the one asking me to find a way out off this arrangement" He rakes a hand through his hair and props himself up against the headboard.
"Only because I thought * you * didn't want this"
And then they are actually laughing at how ridiculous this situation is. Have they really been spending the last two weeks avoiding each other and dreading the upcoming wedding for nothing? Were they really on the same page here? When he leans down to capture her lips lightly with his she thinks, yes, it seems like they are.
They are both smiling in their wedding picture.