SouthSide Sweetheart ∞ Archie Andrews

0.9

"Kevin I'm having breathing problems! Kevin I-" before she could finish, she had bumped into something rock hard making her jolt backwards. She landed flat on her ass earning a few giggles from people around.

"Oh god," Archie quickly gasped and bent down slightly, wrapping his arms around Courtney's waist and hauling her up. "I'm sorry I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Archie..." Courtney trailed off, staring into his eyes and getting lost for a moment before coming back to her senses. "Uh it's okay."

She looked down to see his hands still on her waist, keeping her steady. Archie caught in and quickly moved his hands and coughed awkwardly.

"You've got football practice." Archie stared at her.

"What?" He asked, snapping out of his trance.

"You've got football practice," she raised a brow.

"Oh yeah." He nodded.

"I'll see you later." She smiled walking away, however Archie latched onto her wrist making her turn to face him.

"I'm sorry..." he apologised. "I didn't mean to go off on you like that, I was just angry."

"So every time your angry you just plan to take it out on the nearest person?" She raised a brow.

"N-"

"I'm joking," she laughed. "I'll see you later yeah?"

"Yeah." He nodded, releasing her wrist and smiling at her. "I need to ask you a question later okay..."

"Okay." She nodded, turning and walking away.

~~~

Betty, Veronica and Courtney had now gathered outside.

"Veronica." Betty spoke up. "Why did Why did you defend me? I know the crowd you ran with in New York.
Why are you being so Nice?"

"When my father got arrested, it was the worst thing ever." Veronica explained. "All these trolls started writing horrible things about us.
We'd get letters and e-mails saying that my dad was a thief, my mom was a clueless socialite, and that I was the spoiled rich-bitch ice princess."

"And what hurt the most about it was the things the trolls were writing were true." Veronica admitted, looking slightly hurt. "I was like Cheryl. I was worse than Cheryl. So, when my mom said we were moving to Riverdale, I made a pact with myself to use this as an opportunity to become maybe, hopefully, a better version of myself."

"That's a lot of pressure." Courtney said, holding out her can of Pringles. "I don't share these with just anyone."

Veronica let out a laugh along with Betty. Courtney was never good at comforting just anyone but she could make them smile and laugh so she used that as her special ability.

"When Polly and Jason got together It meant everything to her and nothing to him, and..." Betty sighed before finishing off her sentence. "And things got super intense and weird and toxic and my mom turned on Polly. Said Polly wasn't her daughter anymore, said all these awful things to her.
Jason hurt Polly, but it's my mom who broke her."

Veronica looked over and saw Archie jogging with his football team. "Archie." She called him over.

"You're so doing this." Veronica whispered to Betty.

"What?" Betty questioned, making Courtney slightly happy that she wasn't totally out of the loop.

"Slaying your dragons, Betty Cooper, one by one." Veronica whispered before Archie finally reached the group.

"Hi, Teen Outlander." Veronica greeted.

"Archiekins," Courtney greeted, sending him her most charming smile before stuffing her face with more pringles.

"Hey." He said, chuckling at Courtney.

"Nice outfits." Archie complimented as he spotted the cheerleading outfits.

"Betty here has something she wants to ask you about the Back-to-School dance." Veronica announced.

Courtney silently 'oh'd' as she had finally caught on to what was going on.

"Go on, Betty, ask." Veronica cheered her on. Betty nodded akwardly.

"I was wondering if you wanted to..." Betty quickly blurted out something, chickening out last minute. "Come with the three of us."
"Huh?" Archie frowned as Veronica looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"A-"

"It's your first dance at Riverdale. You should have someone to go with, even if it's just a friend." Betty lied smoothly, not realising that she had interrupted Courtney.

"I mean, I'd love to." Veronica shrugged, not knowing how to answer at this point.

"I-"

"I'm not really in the headspace for a dance." Archie answered, seeming slightly troubled.

"Oh." Betty nodded. "That's okay."

"Totally unacceptable, Archiekins. We need an escort. Take a break from being a tortured musical genius and come spend a blissful evening with not one, but two newly-minted River Vixens and our very own Southside Sweetheart." Veronica announced.

"Actually..." Courtney sighed in relief as she finally got to get a word in the matter. "I'm kind of going with someone."

"Really?" Betty questioned. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Who is it?" Veronica asked, watching as Archie's expression had changed as soon as Courtney had announced it.

"I didn't think it was important." She shrugged. "It's Reggie."

"Reggie Mantle?" Betty asked.

"You were serious about the Reggie thing..." Archie trailed off, seeming slightly upset.

"No, Reggie asked me out at lunch and I rejected him but Kevin told him I said yes." Courtney explained. "I don't even know what to wear to a dance."

"I'll help you. Come dress shopping with me after school?" Veronica asked, earning a nod from Courtney. "Betty?"

"Sure." Betty nodded.

"I guess it's just the three of us, Archie." Veronica said. "We'll text you time and place."

"Okay." He chuckled. "Yeah, okay. Bye."

"Bye." Betty said, watching as he jogged back onto the field. Silence falling over the group.

___________________________
Double update over sadly :( but I will begin to update more frequently since I want to finish this book as soon as possible and maybe even make a book two.

Update 2/2

— Sofia xx