Faux.

lifetime

"Veronica Lodge is trouble, her whole family is.. So stay away. Got it?" Fred Andrews demanded as he slammed his fist down on the table.

This was what Archie had been greeted with first thing in the morning when he had been sitting around eating his cereal.

Apparently his father had found out about the Lodges moving to California and was not pleased.

"Got it." Archie nodded as he slumped down in his seat, glaring at the fist that was still clenched before him.

His father was never one for violence, but if it got the job done.. violence would slip through the cracks anyways.

"Look, I'm just trying to protect you, son. You know the Lodges are up to no good, I doubt their daughter would be any more different." His father spoke in a softer tone, but it was still firm and demanding.

Archie had no words, nothing came to his mind at the top of his head to go in an defend Veronica Lodge, the same girl he had called a drama queen the previous day. 

"Look.." He muttered out, "Veronica may not be the nicest person I know, but she has good intentions. I don't have any doubts that she wouldn't want to follow in her parents' footsteps."

Archie looked up and was met by the shocked eyes of his father, he too was shocked by the situation. He wasn't one to usually defend such a person but when his father had spoke of Veronica as if she was as cruel as her father, he couldn't handle it.

"Son..do you—do you like Veronica?" Fred questioned, his brows furrowed as he waiting for his son's reply.

"What? No." Archie spoke, shrugging off the suggestion his father had implied.

"Then why would you defend her? I've met Veronica, Archie. You know she isn't exactly polite, you could do better, Arch." Said father replied, his eyes piercing into Archie's.

"Look, my birthday's tomorrow, can we please just drop this?" Archie spoke, watching as his father's eyes became wide before trying to casually pretend it never happened.

"Right, of course." Fred replied, forcing a smile.

"You forgot, didn't you?" Archie asked, and repeated his question when his father gave him no indication of an answer, "You did, didn't you? You forgot my birthday."

"Archie.." His father spoke, reaching an arm out to grip his shoulder only for his redheaded son to take a step backwards.

"No. I'm going out." Archie replied, walking towards the door, "I'll be back later."

Before Fred could even think of a reply, the front door slammed shut and out ran the sophomore, rushing to get away from his house.

He fished out his tangled headphones from his pocket and struggled slightly to untangle them as he jogged. 

Once they were finally straightened out, he plugged the end into his phone's headphone jack and hit shuffle on his playlist—watching as a random song came up..one that he hated. He skipped through his Spotify songs until his skips for the day had run out. In frustration he yanked the headphone cord out and shoved it back into his pocket along with his cell phone, jogging up to a park and sitting down under a shade-providing-tree.

Archie was deep in thought about everything happening lately he didn't notice the approaching footsteps or the Latina kneeling next to him until she spoke.

"Hey." Veronica replied, giving an awkward smile, "You okay?"

"Please, like you really care." Archie scoffed as he looked back down at the grass beneath him.