#I WAS TRYING TO BE MYSTERIOUUSSSSS

[darwinquark]

Heyyy girl, I have been thinking about the last chapter ever since it was uploaded and I am kinda confused, does tony tell jug that veronica was there when she heard or does she choose not to mention it at all? Also in the sequel will jug know about how betty treated veronica in the hospital? And will barchie still be talking to jug (I don't think they will be talking to veronica still) and will they know about the (hopefully inevitable) jeronica getting back together

So I had a whole scene written between Toni and Veronica that I ended up taking out because it felt like too much that I'll add beneath the cut, but basically Toni is caught between knowing something feels off about how Veronica left/the way the Ghoulies conveniently took credit for everything, and knowing Veronica has been a shitty person before and could very well have just left because she didn't care enough to stay. And I think her major goal is just getting Jughead to heal and move on, regardless of what happened. So she's definitely being guarded with what she's letting Jughead know - he knows Veronica came to the hospital the night it happened, but he doesn't know how badly she lost it, and she's also keeping the scene I've added below from him (if I decide to keep it as a headcanon lol) because she's torn over how real it was or wasn't.

Betty and Archie do end up forgiving Jughead, and sadly on Betty's half it's somewhat born out of feeling like Jughead was just another victim of Veronica like she was, which sucks. Archie probably would've forgiven him regardless. That said, their friendship is never quite the same and they definitely drift after senior year ends. I'm not actually sure if Jughead will know what Betty did at the hospital, but both Jughead and Veronica go back to Riverdale at one point for a book signing thing in the sequel and Archie and Betty are both there. Veronica and Betty will have a scene where that's confronted.

Here's the scene Toni/Veronica scene I ended up taking out, which would've come right after the hospital scene - let me know if it helps flesh Toni out a little more. I was just going for mystery! Leaving you guys as confused as Jughead 😂

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The knock on the door came three days later.

Veronica glanced up from the box she was taping shut, squinting through the mess of hair that’d fallen loose from her bun. The movers weren’t supposed to be there for another few hours.

Besides, only a handful of people knew to use the back door, and of those handful, two hated her guts and one was in a coma.

Unless.

Her hands stilled.

“Yes?”

“It’s Toni,” came the muffled reply, and her shoulders loosened a little. “I tried the front door but it was locked and no one answered.”

She abandoned the tape dispenser and made her way over to the door, wincing at the blast of sun that hit her eyes as it opened.

“Hey,” Toni greeted with a cautious smile, stare flickering a little when it took in her appearance. Admittedly, a stringy bun and yoga pants wasn’t her typical aesthetic. “How are you?”

Veronica blinked at her.

She’d had rum for dinner three nights in a row.

Toni shook her head. “Stupid question—did you get my texts?”

“Oh,” Veronica said, pushing some of the hair out of her face, “I switched number a few days ago, so no, sorry.”

“Well, definitely give me the new one because there’s been a ton of upda…” she trailed off, frowning at something behind her.

Veronica followed her gaze to the boxes scattered in the foyer. She cleared her throat. “Sorry for the mess.”

“Are you moving in or something?” Toni asked, stare tracing over the sprawl of half-packed clothes and personal items.

“Moving out,” Veronica clarified, an upside to her tomber en disgrâce being that she couldn’t care less who knew she’d lived there anymore. “Been here since May, actually.”

Toni’s stare flicked back to hers. “What?”

“Yeah.” She turned away, plucking a discarded sweater off the floor. “Came with the whole disavowing my parents thing.”

Toni blinked. “I—” she shook her head briefly, “I mean, where are you going, then?”

“The city.”

She felt Toni’s eyes on her shoulders. “Like for good?”

She’d never thought about how strange that expression was before, ‘for good’. “I guess, yeah. The movers are going to be here in a few hours, though, so I should probably finish up packing.”

“When are you leaving?” Toni pressed, and Veronica’s jaw tightened a little.

“Tonight.”

Silence met her back.

She carefully folded the cashmere, ignoring the words hanging unsaid between them.

What about Jughead?

“He woke up, Veronica.”

Her hands froze around the sweater.

Her heart leapt into her throat, thunderous and pulsing.

“Sorry, I know I should’ve let with that, I just—” Toni lapsed into a laugh, hope flooding into her voice. “It was only for a second, but he nodded yes and no to some questions before drifting back out, so the doctors are feeling optimistic.”

Veronica stared hard at the fabric in her hands.

Her vision was hot and blurry.

“He woke up, girl!” Toni repeated, lapsing into another joyful laugh, and Veronica nodded stiffly, forcing her hands to resume folding.

“That’s great.”

She blinked rapidly to clear the tears from her eyes.

“It’s more than great, it’s incredible!” Toni laughed, though it petered a little when she noticed her enthusiasm wasn’t fully shared.

Veronica placed the sweater in a box and reached down for another one.

Started folding it into neat little squares.

“Are you,” Toni faltered a little, “I mean, you’re going to go see him, right?”

Veronica’s jaw flexed as she folded the sleeves across the chest.

She’d known this part was coming.

“I think it’s better if I don’t.” She reached over and dropped it into the box, topping it off. “I don’t want to give him the wrong impression.”

A stiff beat of silence followed. “And what impression is that?”

She drew in a steeling breath before turning around, pulling her face into a mask of indifference. “Jughead knew what we were, Toni. He knew I was going to New York. None of this is a surprise.”

Toni just stared at her, visibly thrown. “Think he probably assumed you’d wait for him to come out of a coma first.”

She forced a shrug. “That’s on him.”

She turned around and reached for the tape dispenser as Toni broke into a scoff. “Okay, what’s going on here, Veronica? Because I watched three security guards carry you out of the ICU while you were screaming your fucking lungs out to stay, so this whole ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em’ routine isn’t really landing.”

“It’s not a routine, Toni, it just is what it is.”

“Look, I may not have been able to make out the details of your screaming match with FP,” Toni pressed in a hard voice, “but I know something went down there—something you’re both not telling the rest of us.”

Veronica’s jaw tightened as she kept packing.

“And now three days later you’ve packed up your life and you’ve changed your number and no one can get a hold of you and it’s almost like—”

“Like what?” Veronica snapped a little, tensing under the line of questioning.

“Like you’re trying to disappear,” Toni steeled right back.

A stiff silence followed the accusation.

Veronica merely stared down at the box, fingers tight around the tape dispenser. Struggling to drum up the stomach for what she knew had to come next.

“What happened with FP, Veronica?”

She couldn’t leave loose ends. She couldn’t leave any thread of hope or misunderstanding that he could follow back to her, otherwise what was the point?

He’d follow you anywhere—New York, prison, his fucking grave—and you’d let him.

She loosened her jaw and shrugged on the skin of the absolute cunt she’d been in prep school.

“Toni, everything about this fetid menstrual stain of a town is miserable.” She eased around to face her with a cold expression. “I sleep in a diner. There is a sex tape of me getting fingered by a townie. I spent Christmas being questioned by the police about gangs that sound like reject Hogwarts houses, I mean,” she gave a hollow laugh, “this macabre comedy of errors was never supposed to be my life. And Jughead getting shot five minutes before picking me up? Pretty thunderous wakeup call that I could be next.”

Toni’s eyes flickered in naked appall at the selfishness of the comment. “Is that all it was?”

Veronica’s shoulders tipped up coolly. “I’m not dying here, girl. It was a fun social experiment while it lasted, but I’m done pretending I have anything in common with any of the frankly incestuous people that live here, or that my life was ever meant to be as small as theirs. So yeah, I’m going back to New York, and yeah, I don’t want anything about this mortifying stretch of time following me there, and yeah, that means my coup de grâce is essentially a disappearing act. That’s it.” She shrugged again, pointblank. “That’s why I’m leaving. FP and his latent syphilis have nothing to do with it.”

Toni eyed her for a long, silent stretch before turning wordlessly toward the door. She paused in the doorway, hand catching the frame. “This will crush him. You doing this. Regardless of the reason. You know that, right?”

It took her a second to look up at her.

Veronica stared back vacantly.

“He’s a big boy.” Her mouth took on a horrible slant. “Surprisingly big, actually.”

Toni’s face flooded in disgust. She took a final beat to take her in, as if searching for any last shred of her that was worth knowing, before shaking her head and shoving the door open. “Have a nice life, Veronica.”

“That’s the plan.”

The door swung shut behind her, and Veronica waited till the sound of her car pulling away had fully faded before slowly sliding down to the floor.

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#reply #tkof #idk I just thought I was overexplaining which I do all the time in my writing #hence the 15k chapters #so I cut it out 😂 #should I put it back in? #I WAS TRYING TO BE MYSTERIOUUSSSSS #wbbs