Chapter Text
“Hi Mija. Your home late? What’s in the bag?” Hermione asks sipping her red wine as Veronica walks through the door.
“I had to pick up some stuff at the store…” Veronica hesitates. “For a school assignment Archie and I are working on.”
Hermione nods suspiciously “Oh well, how was class?” She’s referring to Veronica’s confirmation class that she attends every Sunday.
“It was Good.” Veronica says quietly. She avoids eye contact as she tries to quickly pass by.
“Your father and I are so proud of you. We can’t wait to see you confirmed in front of our family. It’s approaching quickly now. What is it? About four weeks?”
Veronica gives her mother a soft smile and nods before slipping into her bedroom.
“Thanks Mom,” She pauses. “I’m just going to wash up before dinner.”
Veronica hurries into her bedroom and shuts the door. She walks into her bathroom, locking the door, ensuring that no one will come in. Butterflies form in her stomach as she pulls out the convenience store bag she just lied about. The truth is, she skipped confirmation class this week in order to go to a store outside of Riverdale. She couldn’t risk someone in this small town seeing what she was about to buy. She shakily pulls out what’s in the bag. A First Response pregnancy test. She’s staring at the test when a hard knock hits the door.
“Veronica!” Hermione’s voice echoes through the bathroom. “Dinner!”
She shoves the test back into the bag and hides it under the sink before leaving.
Dinner drags on for what feels like hours. Hiram and Hermione partake in small talk. They don’t like to talk about their business dealings with their daughter, even though she’s a shareholder of the company. Veronica can barely look her parents in the eyes knowing there is a possibility that a human is growing inside of her.
“Are you alright mija?” Hiram looks concerned. “You’ve barely touched your food.”
Veronica takes a deep sigh.
“Yeah, just stressed about school and everything. I’m not that hungry.”
Dinner continues on and Veronica just stares at her plate.
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While getting ready for school in the morning Veronica sees her tired brown eyes in the mirror. I’m gonna need A LOT of concealer today, She thinks to hers. While applying her makeup, she sees the dreaded brown bag out of the corner of her eye. She grabs it and throws it in her purse. She can’t risk her mother snooping in her room and finding it.
Archie texts her asking her if he can walk her to school. She can’t face him yet. She needs time. She texts back: Andre’s driving me. See you there xoxo
Veronica’s arrives at school and makes a b-line for her locker, trying to avoid the student lounge where Archie and her friends are most likely sitting. While grabbing books from her locker she sees Betty appear out of the corner of her eye.
“Hey V!” Betty’s always cheery in the morning. Veronica on the other hand, is not.
“Since I lost Jug from the Blue and Gold to the Serpents, I was wondering if you could read this article I wro-”
Before Betty can finish Veronica feels a wave of nausea come over her. Covering her mouth, she runs to the bathroom and into the first open stall. Luckily no one is in there because she doesn’t bother shutting the door. Her throat burns as the bile rushes up. She feels tears forming in her eyes. She always ends up crying when she throws up. She hates feeling weak.
Suddenly, a pair of delicate hands pull her hair back. She feels a soft soothing touch against her back and turns to see Betty knelt down beside her.
“V…” Betty looks concerned. “Are you okay?”
Veronica stands up and grabs a tissue to wipe her mouth.
“Betty,” Veronica says weakly. “I was gonna try to work through this on my own, but I have to tell you something.”
She looks around to make sure no ones in the bathroom with them. Betty looks attentively at her as she pulls out the brown bag.
“What?” Betty questions. “Bad lunch today?”
Veronica glances up at her tall blonde friend with sad eyes as she pulls out the pregnancy test. Betty’s eyes grow ten times wide.
“Oh my god!” She whispers. “What! For real?” She looks shocked.
“Keep your voice down!” Veronica whispers “And I don’t know yet. But Betty, you can't tell Archie. I'm not ready for him to worry yet. I just needed to tell someone. It's eating me away.”
Veronica feels a lump in her throat from holding back tears.
“I can't talk to Archie yet, I definitely can't tell my parents-”
Betty stops her friends rambling by giving holding her in a soft embrace. A weight feels like it's been lifted from Veronica's shoulders. At least if everything goes down in flames, she's still has Betty.
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Veronica’s able to avoid Archie for the first half of the day. Lunch approaches and she decides she can’t avoid him anymore. Although very oblivious, she knows Archie would realize somethings up if she went the whole day without talking to him. They usually can’t go 10 minute without their hands on each other, so she braves up and heads toward the cafeteria. She spots Archie’s fiery red hair and heads over towards the table.
“Ronnie! Hey! where were you this morning?” Archie says, excited to finally be seeing her today.
She plops down next to him and he pulls her closer, arm around her waist.
“Fashionably late.” She takes in a breath as she looks over to Betty. Betty gives her a watery smile and continues to munch on her salad. Kevin and Betty are in deep conversation when Archie leans into Veronica.
“Wanna come over after school? My dad won’t be home.” He looks at her with that big goofy grin of his she can’t help but smile over. She forgets all her worries when she sees him. He makes her feel happy and safe. Like she’s capable of anything.
“Sure,” She giggles. “I‘d love to.”
On the walk home from school, Archie asks Veronica about her dad. They have recently been feuding over Veronica’s affection. She ensures him that he’ll come around, even though she knows he won’t. Trying to steer the conversation away from her, she asks him about wrestling. Archie admits he misses basketball since wrestling doesn’t come as easy to him, but he’s been working on some moves with Kevin.
They arrive at the house and Archie grabs her hand and leads her into the garage. Without hesitation, he wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her hard. He doesn't wait for her to take the lead like she normally does. She rests her arms on his shoulders, as she kisses him back. They stumble backwards and fall in the couch, lips still interlocked. Using one hand to support himself, he uses the other to run down the side of Veronica's body. He gets to her legs then slowly starts to creep his hand up her skirt. He touches the lining of Veronica’s lace underwear and she becomes tense. She can’t stand keeping things from him, especially something like this.
“What's wrong?” Archie questions. She can tell by the furrow of his brow that he's truly worried.
“It's fine. Keep going.” She says quickly, placing her mouth back on his.
“No Ronnie seriously. We don't have to… “ He looks at her up and down “...do this right now.”
She has to tell him. Veronica takes a shaky breath and gets up to grab her purse. She feels like vomiting again. Telling Betty was different. It was just saying it out loud. But telling Archie means it's real.
She sits back down on the couch holding her purse. Looking at Archie with wet eyes, she pulls out the pregnancy test for the second time today. Archie gives her a puzzled look.
“Whaa- why do you have that? Are you...” his eyes dart to her belly causing her to feel self conscious. He stands abruptly and runs his hand through his hair, pacing the room.
“I haven't taken it yet. I wanted to tell you before… She tries to ease the tension.
“So you don't know yet.” He looks relieved.
“Well no not for sure. But I haven't gotten my period for a while and it's never this late. Also the reason you didn't see me this morning because I was in the bathroom with Betty throwing up-” Archie interrupts before she can finish and holds her tightly.
He hates seeing her like this. He sees she's putting on a brave face, but he can tell it's killing her inside. She's usually so happy and confident. He knows he has to be strong when she's weak.
After sitting there for a couple moments in each other's embrace, Archie breaks the silence.
“Do you wanna take it? I mean we can wait, I just feel like we should, ya know, rip off the bandaid. Plus it could be negative and then we don't have to worry about it anymore.”
Veronica nods and gets up to grab her purse. She likes that he says ‘we.’ It makes her feel like he's in it with her. Like he won't leave.
“Do you want some water?” He asks “Don't you have to… pee on it.”
“Uh yeah right.” She murmurs.
He grabs her a water and leads her upstairs to his bedroom, holding her hand. They agree that they should use his bathroom incase the off chance his dad comes home.
She takes the test in the bathroom while Archie paces nervously outside. Should a positive sign show up on the test, he thinks about his dad's reaction. This would crush him. His mom would be devastated. And Veronica- he doesn't know how Veronica would react. Before his mind can wander down that path, she opens the bathroom door. Her eyes are a little red. It hurts him to see her upset.
“We have to wait.” She mutters as she opens the door a little more, allowing Archie to step in.
The test sits in top of the counter. Just a piece of plastic with the power to change their whole world. Veronica sits on the edge of the tub and Archie joins her. Breaking the nervous tension floating throughout the room, he grabs her hand. She lets him in and squeezes it back.
The timer on her phone goes off and she stands to silence it. Archie stands too and suddenly feels frantic. He feels like he should say something to her. He opens his mouth but no words come out. He grabs her by the arm and feels her soft smooth skin that he loves so much. “Ronnie-”
She turns quickly to face him and shakes her head.
“Lets just look.”
He nods.
Veronica picks up the test and stares at it. It feels like hours before she turns back to Archie, her fingers quivering. She looks at him with devastation in her eyes.
“It's positive.”