Chapter Text
They get dressed into their new uniforms in silence. She doesn’t know why Betty was being so frosty with her but she wouldn’t wait for her to bring it up. Veronica closes her new locker and turns to face her. “I don’t get it, Betty. Why have you been avoiding me?”
“Because, Veronica!” Betty throws her hands out, glancing around as she hisses, “You kissed me.”
Veronica’s eyebrows raise in surprise, “What?”
Betty crosses her arms, the slowly emptying space only helping to exacerbate her judgemental look.
Veronica scoffs, she had never been good at being looked down upon. “It didn’t mean anything, Betty. You can relax. I haven’t turned you gay.”
“What?” Betty spluttered. “That’s not– I’m not homophobic! I was going to ask if you were homophobic, kissing me like it was something to gawk at and not a perfectly normal thing for people to do.”
“That’s not what I was doing! I– you know, was trying to show we were serious about being cheerleaders, that we could bring the heat…” Veronica’s face grew pained, “Which, now I’m saying it, doesn’t sound as good as I thought.”
Betty’s frown slowly lifted until she was giggling into her hand. Veronica joined her a second later. It was all vaguely ridiculous now she had spoken it aloud.
Eventually the giggling slowed and Betty looked up, a grin still on her face. “I was so ready to rip you a new one. I haven’t had the chance to do an anti-homophobic speech to a girl before. I was kind of excited.”
Veronica snorted, something she never did in public. Her face heated up at the undignified noise and she covered her face as Betty tried to stifle her laugh.
She lifted her face out of her hands after a moment, quite happy to pretend it didn’t happen. “I’m genuinely sorry I made you worry. If it helps, I, uh,” Veronica trailed off, for the first time that day feeling her bravado fail her. The room was empty now, everyone already heading to training. Cheryl might be annoyed they were late, but when was Cheryl not annoyed?
“What?” Betty asked, the happy look on her face fading now they were heading into more serious waters.
“Okay, you can’t tell anyone, but I’m not exactly straight.” At Betty’s surprise she sighed. “Yeah. Look, I told my parents about a girl and they, well, didn’t exactly react well so I broke it off and kept to the straight side of bisexual since. They are convinced it was just a phase. They can’t know any different.”
Betty blinked and then put her hand on her arm, her gaze comforting. “I’m sorry, Veronica.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
Betty shook her head and guided her into a hug. Veronica felt her shoulders relax and she let out a relieved sigh as she all but melted into the hug. She didn’t realise how much she wanted Betty to like her, or how much she wanted to be a person Betty could like.
“Guess my subconscious saw a pretty girl and the opportunity for no consequences and ran with it, huh,” Veronica laughed into Betty’s shoulder, trying to lighten the mood.
Betty straightened in shock, pulling back from the hug, but not entirely letting her go. Shit.
“Wait, Betty, I didn’t mean… I swear I’m not a creep or anything. I wasn’t–”
Veronica was so rarely flustered that this came out of nowhere. What was even more shocking, however, were Betty’s hands raising to cup her face. “Tell me to stop and I will.”
Betty slowly pulled her face closer to press their lips together. Veronica was shocked, but only for a moment. In the next she deepened the kiss and pulled Betty closer, her hands dropping to her hips.
She felt the kiss all the way down to her toes, this was so much better than their first attempt. Pulling back when she ran out of oxygen, she stared at Betty and the lipstick once again staining her mouth. “I didn’t think you…”
Betty smiled, "I’m full of surprises.”
Veronica couldn’t help but smirk, “Clearly.”
They spent a moment just grinning at each other before they heard footsteps down the hallway. Betty’s eyes quickly widened and her ponytail flicked Veronica in the face when she turned. They quickly jumped apart but the footsteps, thankfully, passed them by.
Veronica pulled a mirror out to check her makeup, and then passed it to Betty so she could sheepishly wipe the lipstick off.
“Close call,” Betty whispered.
Veronica smiled at her, feeling oddly gentle, “We should probably rejoin the world before someone actually comes in.”
Betty nodded. They smiled at each other one last time before they both slipped out the door.
***
While the boys were warming up there wasn’t a lot to do so the two of them walked around the track. Seeing Archie prompted Veronica to ask the question that had slowly grown louder in her head since the kiss.
“What about Archie?” Veronica asked, her head tilted in confusion as she turned to look at Betty. “Last I was hearing you were head over heels while he remained blissfully ignorant.”
Betty fiddled with her hair before finally meeting Veronica’s eyes. “That’s a long story.”
“I’ve got nothing but time.”
She huffed a laugh and then stared out at the cloudy sky, “I’ve known Archie since we were four years old.” She smiled sadly and she wanted to hold her hand, to make this easier for her in any way she could, but they were in public so she quietened the instinct. “He proposed to me when we were kids and I told him to ask again when we were eighteen. He was the all american boy and I was the girl next door. It made sense. There hasn’t really been a question of if, but more of when. Like we were… inevitable.”
“Okay…” Veronica frowned, “And how do you feel?”
“What?” Betty straightened.
“Well that’s a lot of what is and what should be but not a lot of what you want to see happen.” Veronica stared at her, “Do you even want Archie, or have you just been told you do?”
“Hah,” Betty shook her head, “Isn’t that the question.”
They keep walking in silence, Veronica fighting not to press further hoping Betty would say more without her having to.
“When I picture going out with Archie the dream never gets past the words. He tells me he wants me, kisses me, and then nothing more is there.” Betty finally looks at her, “But then I saw you and, God, it was like someone had taken a film off of my eyes. Like I had just woken up for the first time.”
“Really?” Veronica sucks a breath in, stopping walking in shock, forcing Betty to come to a stop too. She didn’t mean for her voice to sound so small, but a part of her hadn’t expected Betty to want to continue anything with her, that ending the drawnout, childhood dream would have been too much for her.
“Yeah.” Betty smiled at her and Veronica didn’t feel like she usually did when she got someone to admit to liking her. Usually she felt powerful but here, right now, she just felt like a girl.
She felt her age and immortal at the same time. She felt like she could fall in love just like in the movies. In New York she had honestly started to think she was incapable of such deep feelings. It’s why she kept her head in the clouds with any drugs or alcohol that was around. She didn’t want to have her feet on the ground. But here, with Betty? She would go anywhere with her if she could just hold her hand.
She hushed her voice low and leaned closer to Betty’s side as they started walking again, “I wish I could kiss you right now.”
Betty blushed, elbowing her in the side, “I wish you could, too.”
Right there, it felt enough for the wish to go both ways, but they would need to find some privacy somehow so they could fulfill it before Veronica lost her mind. She got a taste of it in the changing room, but she wanted to get to know every inch of Betty Cooper, especially now she had permission.
Archie was coming back around the track and Veronica suddenly got an idea. “Betty?”
“Hm?” The girl said, looking at her with a smile on her face Veronica loved.
“Would you go to the dance with me?”
Betty huffed, amusement glittering in her eyes, “Thought you said you couldn’t do stuff like that?”
“That’s not a no,” Veronica half-sings, she felt invincible with her.
Betty laughs outright, “Of course I’d go with you, Veronica, but my family wouldn’t be happy about it either.”
“I have just the thing,” she says and then yells out Archie’s name, forcing him to come over to them, a confused look on his face.
“Archie, would you escort us to the dance?” She said sweetly and Betty shook her head at her, smile still present. With its brightness it didn’t seem it would be disappearing any time soon.
“Yeah, it’s Veronica’s first dance she deserves people to go with, even if just as friends,” Betty jumped in.
Archie tries to say no to them but there was no denying the powerhouse that they were together.