Perfect Illusion

Prologue: The Moon Embracing The Sun

A lot of people told him that he was such a humble, down to earth kind of guy.

He won the robotics fair and the only thing he said in response to all the congratulatory greetings he got was, "If it wasn't for Cara, I couldn't have won the thing."

He won the state basketball championship and was named the MVP and all he does was run to where his school's cheerleaders stand and hugged the girl of his dreams.

And he would later told people who congratulated him on his victory that Cara's cheerleading team helped him focus, and so, it was all because of her.

It doesn't help either that his most favorite subject is Biology, and that people in general knew how much he loves marine biology.

Sometimes people would shake their head after they gave him his much deserved praise, or after he talked about his love for marine biology. He would catch people throwing him sad smiles when they thought he wasn't paying attention to them.

"At least marine biology loves him back and gave him what he craved from it, knowledge."

And then he would breathe deeply and usually tried, and failed, to chase his bad thoughts away from his head.

He's well aware what they implied by saying those completely unrelated stuffs about him behind his back.

"If only Cara Oswald was able to love him as much as marine biology did."

Yeah.

If only.

***

It was an unusually quite Friday.

He just got out of his chemistry class, his smartphone at hand. Cara told him a while ago that he should head straight for the cafeteria and eat with the others because she has something to do. He offered to buy her lunch and dropped it off to wherever it is she needs to be in and she declined with a thank you, saying that she could take care of the lunch and not to worry so much about her well being.

And so he did what she asked.

He packed his own lunch so that he could save himself from the abomination that is their cafeteria's food. Although, he must admit, that their desert was fabulous.

"Andrew!" his childhood friend Barrett waved, calling out so that he would sit right next to the guy.

"Hey there, bud."

"Dude, sit down here and listen," Barrett immediately chipped in, which left him no time to pull his lunch bag out of his backpack, "You know that I have history class with Ethan just now, right?"

At the mention of Ethan's name, he perked up, curiosity gnawed his insides just by hearing his so called rival's name.

"Yes, and?"

"And I heard back in class that he just got together with Amy from AP Biology two days ago."

"Oh, really?" he smiled a little, filled with relief that Ethan has somewhat found his own happiness; and with that, he hoped, Cara will get some kind of closure for her feelings as well.

"Not so fast," Barrett goes on, "I also heard that he's supposed to see Cara today at lunch. To "talk things out", or so he said."

"What the heck do they even need to talk about?" Andrew's fist clenched, looking everywhere and nowhere all at once. He knew that something seems off about Cara's text. She flat out refused to tell him where she would be going to and what was it she has to deal with.

She just told him that it was supposed to be something very important to her.

So that's what it is.

"Barrett, did you call me just to tell me this?"

"Well, yes," Barrett shrugged, "I thought that you deserve to know, bud. Isn't Cara supposed to be your girlfriend?"

"She is," he replied shortly.

"Well, I thought that it isn't fair. The whole school knows that you guys are dating, and yet, they also know that Cara has been pining for Ethan for as long as the Earth has spin."

"Well, she-"

"What is it?"

"She's..." he found himself speechless. What was it that he desperately wanted to say? That Cara loves him? That she doesn't have feelings for Ethan anymore?

"I need to find her," Andrew said, standing up so fast it left him dizzy for a little while. He thanked his childhood before he stormed out of the cafeteria, looking around senselessly for the most plausible place that Cara might've headed to.

The first place that came to his mind was the football field, which was where his feet automatically drags him to. After he came up with no sightings of Cara around the football field he decided to check on the small clearing next to their school, which was Cara's favorite place.

He tried to call Cara's phone and it went straight to voicemail, signs that she turned her phone off. She never does that, not unless she doesn't want to be bothered.

"Cara?" he called out. He stepped on twigs and dried leaves as hard as possible to make his presence known.

"Cara!" He called out louder. Andrew hoped that she wasn't here. He sincerely hoped that she would find somewhere less private to talk with Ethan, somewhere with more people around. Somewhere that doesn't make him feel deeply insecure about the state of their relationship.

But then again, he never felt safe either. There's always something, something between him and Cara that prevented him from trusting the girl he loves completely.

"Ca-"

Before he could properly begin his next call, he spotted Cara's black tresses behind one of the far off tree.

Standing directly in front of her was Ethan, with a look so miserable he was positive the guy could cry at any moment.

Andrew hesitated for a bit before he swiftly inched closer to the pair, trying so hard to get a closer look and listen to what the pair was talking about. He hasn't been able to pinpoint the topic of their conversation due to Ethan's highly questionable choice of facial expression, but said expression gave birth to even more questions that tortured his mind even more.

"But Cara-"

"Please, Ethan," he heard Cara's plea, which gave his heart a strange clenching sensation, "You know I couldn't possibly-"

"How about Andrew?"

"I love you, Ethan!"

And that, Andrew's sure, was the final stab on his already battered heart.

Or so he thought.

A second later came Ethan's "To hell with it!" followed by the most dreadful kiss he has ever witnessed in his entire life.

A lone tear dropped down his left cheek, followed by another, and five other, and a lot more.

Andrew has always known that he was her second choice.

And he has always hoped that she would learn to love him one day.

But he's aware now, that everything he's ever wished for was just a perfect illusion, fit into the mould to mend his broken heart.

A perfect illusion.

***

Here's the first chapter of this short story! I was inspired to write this after I rewatched Riverdale 2x08 and the scene where Archie told Ronnie that he loves her and she became momentarily paralyzed and stuffs kinda made me imagine this story. So random, I know.

I'm a Varchie and Bughead shippers, btw.

Do vote and if you'd like to, feel free to give me constructive criticism!!!

Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you soon!