The Difference

Halloween Party

The sinking feeling that I was being used never really went away, it just seemed to become bigger and more conspicuous. This morning I was walking down the hallway to my third period class when Veronica came up next to me.
"Hey."
"Hi...?" I looked at her over my books, wondering what she wanted. Right before she asks me any question, she'll take a deep breath. As if she's afraid that I won't answer how she wants me to. What if she has trust issues like me? She stopped in the middle of the hallway, I didn't notice until she pulled me back to her. She leaned into me and whispered as if she was scared of my answer.
"Will you go to the Halloween Party at Cheryl's house with me?"
"Uhm... sure?" I looked up at her, she didn't seem to be estatic at me saying yes, but there seemed to be a part of her that made me think she didn't want me to say no either. She gave me a quick smile, kissed me on the cheek, and ran to her next class. Her kissing me on the cheek only made my stomach flip flop, and my feeling of dread grow.
"Hey, Jug?" Jughead had his face burried into his phone, probably texting his girlfriend.
"Yeeees?" He grudgingly dragged his face from his phone to meet my eyes. He looked at me expectantly, while drinking his coke.
"So... who is... Cheryl?" Jughead spit out his drink.
"CHERYL BLOSSOM? Only a psychotic bitch who thinks I'm a hobo." Through his anger, he squinted at me. "Why... are you asking?" I realized I didn't know if you were supposed to tell people that you have a girlfriend, and the only person I would really tell is Jug. Or Sweetpea... Maybe Fangs. My eyes wandered from him and landed on Veronica. Jughead coughed at me.
"Don't... you're dating Veronica aren't you? That's not going to end well." Now it was my turn to spit out my drink. It was almost like he saw into my memories and felt the feeling of wrongness of it all.
"Why do you say that?" Even though he spoke the words swirling in my head, hearing them out loud still made me a little angry.
"Well... She was dating Archie, they were pretty serious. I heard that they almost got engaged or promised themselves to each other or something. But then they apparently broke up because of something Archie did with Betty Cooper or Cheryl." Jughead's cheeks became colored when he mentioned Betty Cooper. He didn't know her very well but he's always had a tiny crush on her since... forever. Even if his girlfriend is the gorgeous Eva.
"Veronica asked me to go to Cheryl's part with her. Can you and Eva come too please? I literally won't know anyone except for Ronnie." I begged him with my eyes.
"Please please please please pleeeeeease Jug" he rolled his eyes and tried to hide his smile as he caved.
"Okay fiiiiine its not like Eva and I were going to do anything important tonight."
Cheryl's House
As I walked into the mansion known as Thornhill, maybe a hundred thoughts raced through my mind, but the two loudest ones that caught my attention were somewhat... suprising. The first, holy shit how much money does the Blossoms have? And the second only appeared when I saw a girl with long curled red hair, in a white dress, laughing with someone. Whoa, but... why is she pretending? I saw her laughing. She is truly beautiful, the kind you only hear about in books, or when you hear someone talking about the person they love. She looks happy from the outside. Everyone around her seems fooled, but I saw the pain in her eyes, the pain I used to see in my sister's eyes, in my cousin's eyes, the pain that doesn't make you estatic about living. I wanted to know about her, I wanted to talk to her, I wanted to spend time with her, I wanted to be the one to make her laugh. I wanted to make her happy. Nope nope can't think like that I have a girlfriend. I felt a nudge in my ribs, as I turned to see Veronica holding my hand, asking what was wrong.
"Oh nothing, can you show me who Cheryl is?" Veronica looked up at the girl in the white dress, as if wondering why I was staring at her. Or at least thats what I thought... until Veronica pointed at her.
"That's Cheryl Blossom."

Oh... shit.