Chapter Two:

I've been standing in front of the mirror for 20 minutes trying to decide if I should but any effort at all into my appearance for tonight. I mean I think I have a shirt laying around here somewhere but to be honest it doesn't get much better than this. I mean who am I trying to impress anyways its not like Betty will be paying attention to me and I'm certainly not interested on trying to get with Veronica no matter how charming she may be.

I decide to just leave as is and make my way to Pop's. When I walk through the door I spot Archie and Betty already cuddled up in a booth, I hesitantly walk towards them.

They turn their attention to me as soon as they spot me, I notice Betty distancing herself for Archie by about an inch. 'Jug you're here' Betty says with a huge smile plastered on her face. 'Yeah well it wasn't exactly my choice' I say staring daggers at Archie. She looks at Archie and slightly sighs and then quickly turns back to me 'Well no matter the reason I'm glad its happening , I think you and Veronica would make quite the match' by the look in her eyes I can tell she genuinely believes it too , not a hint of jealously.

We here the door open and everyone's eyes dart to the door and low and behold there she is the raven haired princess herself. She's wearing a different dress than this mornings , this one is much more seductive. She scans the room and her eyes lock onto us but only for a second , when she starts to walk she's looking around her like a celebrity pretending not to notice their fans. I swear it takes her forever to reach the booth , when she's walking its like its in slow motion , I'll give her this she sure knows how to make an entrance.

She comes to a halt in front of me and I just stare at her confused. She coughs and then I realise I have to move over for her to sit down , I shuffle over quickly and mutter my apologies. She sits down a lot closer to me than I had anticipated , I'd move further away but I'm already up against the wall. Its dead silent for an entire minute until Betty pipes up 'Veronica you look amazing , doesn't she Juggy?' she looks at me with eyes of steel. 'Ugh yeah amazing' I mutter after quickly glancing at her, I swear I can here her snorting of amusement. Again its back to the silence , I can see its driving Betty crazy she hates awkwardness. 'Hey Arch I'm going to go order some fries and shakes for the table , come with me' she says pulling his arm. He looks at her confused and then she throws a knowing look between him and us, 'Oh yeah sure , we'll be right back' he says to us before jumping out of the booth.

I realise I'm going to have to make some sort of an effort here I don't want her to think I'm a bad guy. 'So Veronica how are you Riverdale so far?' she turns to answer me and she's a lot closer to my face than I'm comfortable with. 'Its really…quaint. I mean it's the polar opposite of living in the city' she says with a smile. 'Well maybe that's the appeal' I can't stop myself. She blinks clearly taken aback , I'm sure she's not used to guys disagreeing with her but then she starts to laugh. 'That is very true, I'll tell you one thing the city definitely doesn't have guys like you' her eyes are completely black and she puts her hand on my leg and starts to gently caress it. I'm frozen , she's flirting with me! 'Thanks' is all I manage to say , I gently lift her hand and take it off my leg. She looks at me puzzlingly but just at that moment Archie and Betty return.

Betty hands Veronica a milkshake, 'Sorry I forgot to ask you your flavour so I just guessed, you strike me as a chocolate sort of girl'. Veronica laughs playfully , her eyes are back to their normal shade of brown. 'You can read me like a book'. The more I think about it the more fitting it does seem , I mean Betty is clearly a strawberry milkshake kind of girl it just fits her, she screams strawberry. Whereas Archie is Vanilla through and through. Now me I'm a chocolate milkshake kind of guy and because of that I can now see why my friends were so keen to set me up with Veronica.

As soon as they sit down Betty and Archie go straight into couple mode. He has his arm around her , she is making circular motions in his other arm with her finger on top of the table, he has his head craned into her neck and is whispering in her ear , she's giggling like crazy. It makes me want to scream seeing them like this , this feels worse than every nightmare I've ever had combined into one.

I realise I've been staring , I can feel my hands aching from balling my hands into fists. I quickly try and act cool so nobody will notice but its too late. As soon as I make eye contact with Veronica I know she has noticed , she's giving me this crooked smile that is dripping with pity. I try and play it off but theres no point.

I stumble through the rest of the night adding a little to every conversation to make it appear I was paying attention when I was in an entirely different world. As we get up to leave Archie offers Veronica a ride home , 'Actually I don't live too far , care to walk me Jughead?' I look at her stunned , 'Uh… yeah of course' I stutter through saying. As we start to make our separate ways I turn to see Betty looking at me excitingly , she gives a thumbs up.

Me and Veronica walk in silence for the first few minutes , I knew it wasn't going to stay that way though. 'So you're in love with Betty huh?' she says knowingly. 'I..I..I… no , what!' I can barely string a sentence together I'm so caught off guard. 'Come on you can save the act , I saw the way you were staring at them I thought you were going to explode. The only explanation is you have feelings and I'm assuming they aren't for Archie' she says with a laugh. 'Okay fine yes I have feelings for Betty' I stop in my tracks and look directly at her 'But you can never ever tell her!'. She starts to walk ahead 'Relax its our secret , I think its pretty lousy that your best friend starting dating your dream girl though'. I look down, 'Archie didn't know'. Veronica slaps my arm 'Why didn't you tell him?! I thought he was your best friend , this is the kind of stuff you tell your best friends.'. 'I know I know but I didn't want things to be weird and I never had any of intention of doing anything about it until recently'. She looks at me sadly and I cant stand it. 'Look I'm fine I don't need you feeling sorry for me' I cross my arms , she laughs at me huffing. 'I don't feel sorry for you I just think it's a shame you never told her'. 'Well I don't see what difference it would've made I mean she clearly chose Archie' I cant stop the pure anger in my voice. 'Of course she chose him! You didn't give her the option of making a different choice.' Veronica says with disbelief. 'Shit you're right , where does that leave me now then?' I ask. 'Look I like Betty and Archie so I'm not saying you should break them up , but I am saying you should show her she has options you know? When you're around her drop the attitude and act like a potential romantic partner would , be the real you with her. If she doesn't pick up on it then drop it and let her be happy with Archie, after all you can't make somebody love you' she says. I look at her stunned, 'You're right'. She throws her head back and laughs, 'Tell me something I don't know'. She stops in front of an apartment complex, 'This is me'. 'Oh okay' I look down awkwardly, 'Thank you , you know for this talk its given me a lot to think about'. She smiles 'Anytime Jughead'. 'And I'm sorry about tonight , this probably isn't how you expected your date to end' I say whilst shrugging. 'Its cool , we would've never worked out anyways' she laughs. 'Whys that?' I ask. 'Theres only enough room for one moody person in my relationships and that's all me' she says with a wink and then walks into the apartment. I stand there stunned for a minute and then regain my composure and start to make my way home.

I can't shake what Veronica said , I need to show Betty that I could be the guy for her. I mean all she's ever seen is moody sarcastic Jughead, theres more to me than that I've just always been too scared to show it but if it means I could win Betty then I'll try anything.

I make it home and fall face first into bed. This has been the longest day of my life , I've never known exhaustion like this. I'm glad I'm so tired because I don't think I could deal with staying up all night replaying the way Archie and Betty were looking at each other , I need to push that as far out of my mind as I possibly can. This is it, the new Jughead Jones and I swear I will get the girl.