Young Gods || [Not Updating]

•5•

[Chapter Five]

Veronica Lodge has a terrible taste in boys.

It's no secret. Anyone who's known her for even the shortest amount of time knows that. It's one of her most basic traits.

Veronica Lodge also likes boys who are bad for her.

Not bad boys. Well, not always. Some of them are actually pretty decent. They just react badly to being involved with her. Like she's the extra ingredient that turns sweet wine into poison.

Sometimes, she wonders if she should give it a rest.

Relationships are hard at the best of times. She's seen healthy relationships. Or, at least, she thinks she has. They're tiring enough.

Veronica's relationships are a whole other story. They take everything from her. Engulf her whole and spit her right back out. She's too much and too little. A constant contradiction. Scared to give up power but ready to give up pretty much everything else.

It's more than possible that she's the problem.

A trained psychologist might say that she pushes people away and clings desperately to the scraps she's left herself. They might even say she has unrealistic ideas of love. Or that her family have ruined any chance she had at a normal, loving relationship.

Not that Veronica doesn't already know all of those things. You don't need a degree to see that she's up shit creek without a paddle.

So, she prefers not to think about it too much.

It's the best way to live really. Thinking leads to feeling and feeling leads to complete and utter destruction.

So, why is she spending so much time thinking about Jughead Jones?

It's not like she likes him. No. It's definitely not that. He's just good to have around. A healthy supply of nostalgia. A friend.

Like an old movie that she swears has stood the test of time. As great as he seems at the minute, it's only a matter of time before she starts to see the corny acting and bad cgi.

Is that why she's helping him? Because she's stuck on the past?

She likes to believe it's because it's going to vex her parents.

She tells herself that's why she demands that he walk with her to the nearest ATM. He'd have walked her anyway but she has to make it seem like he isn't doing her a favour.

The power balance, her abuela used to call it, you can't do anything from the bottom of the pyramid.

"So, not that I'm trying to talk you out of it, but why is it you want to expose your dad?"