Train Tracks // Beronica One-Shots

What a Wonderful Mess I've Made

Ever since Betty went to college, she's chosen to opt out of the monthly family dinners that Alice Cooper so desperately wants to keep in tradition. There are many reasons for this, and right now, with her mother's piercing words etched into her brain, she's all too aware of every one of them.

She leans her head against the window, the gentle vibrations of the subway running through her skull.

"Oh Betty, I wish you hadn't stopped taking your Adderall, sweetie. You need to be able to focus, you don't want to end up like Polly."

Betty's hands curl into tight fists as she tries to fight the images of Polly being dragged away from her in a dusty rehab corridor. Polly, the only person in the whole entire world who understood what it was like to live under that roof, with that mother. The only person who cared.

Her mother hadn't even said anything new or particularly wounding, just the same old remarks about how she should really start watching her weight because she was looking a little pudgy. How she should buckle down before no man wants her. How she had a B on her last report card and "that will not stand, Elizabeth Cooper." How she should really dump those friends of hers, the ones she has known since she was old enough to understand what friendship meant, because they were obviously a distraction.

It didn't matter, because Betty knew what her mother really meant. Stop being happy in situations where I cannot control you.

And now Alice Cooper has finally snapped and given her an ultimatum. Dump her friends, lose that weight, and get her GPA back to a rightful 4.0 within the next quarter or they would stop helping her pay for college.

Betty had looked at her father then, because even though he had never been particularly supportive, she had widely regarded him as being the softer of her two parents. But Hal Cooper refused to meet her eyes, even for a second, and continued to look at his wife.

"Your mother has made her decision, Betty."

Betty curls her fists tighter and her nails dig deeper into her palm, where she can feel them break skin. She feels the first tear slip down her cheek and she can picture her mother's condescending frown in her mind. "Ladies do not cry in public, Betty Cooper."

Get it together, Betty Cooper. She tries to tell herself, but it only makes her cry harder as the absolute hopelessness and desperation of the situation crashes into her. A sob escapes her, and then another, and then another, and she can't stifle them anymore as she furiously wipes at her eyes with the sleeve of her pink sweater.

"Oh, no," A velvet voice calls from across the aisle and Betty glances up to see a girl staring at her.

The girl has raven black hair and large eyes, and she's sitting with a group of friends wearing cat ears. They're all moderately drunk by the looks of it. She pulls herself up and sways over to sit next to Betty.

"Hey, don't cry," she says, sadly, her tone pleading as if she might start crying too.

"Oh my God, sorry," Betty tries to chuckle but it comes out sounding more like a strangled sob.

The girl pets Betty's shoulder and says, "It's all gonna be okay."

"Not this time," Betty admits, the words spilling out where she did not give them permission to come. God, she is just leaking all over the place tonight. Her nails dig deeper into her skin in an effort to distact her mind from the noises inside her brain.

"Of course it will," The girl says, and she sounds so sure of herself that it makes an amused Betty smile just a little. "Oh, I made you smile! I'm Veronica by the way."