Author: gracegonsales
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Summary:
Angsty and love-triangly. In which Archie is obsessed with Veronica, who is obsessed with Cheryl, who is obsessed with Toni, who is obsessed over by Jughead, who is obsessed over by Betty.
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It wouldn't be the last
The fresh note of a guitar strum floated through the crisp air during their lunch hour as Betty tried to get Jughead's attention, who was scowling in the opposite direction at his best friend. He was trying to signal to Archie to take his side in their conversation, but lacked what it took to tear his attention away from his obsession. Bughead had both long finished their lunches and were well into a deep debate on whatever conspiracy they had been digging into this week when the blonde had groaned at the lack of dialog flowing back in her direction.
"Archie!" Both Jughead and Betty snapped at the same time.
The chiseled jaw had turned back in the pairs' direction, although he was still having an extravagantly difficult time peeling his eyes off of Veronica Lodge. Her hand was loosely wrapped around a different redhead's wrist with her head tipped back in a laugh. She was obviously very beautiful, but something about how free and comfortable she looked as she laughed with Cheryl Blossom was striking Archie in a whole new way. She looked happy.
She had been the focus of Archie's immediate attention literally any time she was within viewing, or listening distance. He set eyes on her for the first time the day the Lodge's had come into town and she had been on his mind every day since. It had been nearly six months since their family had arrived from New York and Archie's obsession had only grown more, thanks to Betty, since she had been integrated into their inner circle of friends. He'd spent plenty of time making Veronica laugh and he'd spent even more memorizing her laugh while he watched her laugh with Betty or Kevin. But even then, she wasn't always as carefree and light as she was while standing next to the Vixen and it made Archie wonder what had sparked the change in the girl of his affections.
When Archie finally plucked his gaze from the brunette, Jughead met him with a half confused, half disgusted look. "Dude, you've been staring at her for like fifteen minutes. It's getting kinda creepy."
"I didn't know she was, like -- friends with Cheryl," was all he replied as his eyes swept back in her direction, earning another eye roll from both Betty and Jug.
Betty spoke up this time, her eyes darting towards Jughead. "Well obviously both of you are clueless,"she scoffed as she pushed up out of her seat and abandoned their conversation altogether before heading towards the girls standing across the courtyard.
When she reached them, the boys had observed the blonde joining in on the laughter before she nodded back in their direction. Cheryl had peeked to one side of Betty and Veronica around the other to view what the blonde had been nodding towards, Cheryl tossing her hair over her shoulder with an almost icy expression and Veronica scrunching her eyebrows together briefly in confusion as she offered a half-hearted wave towards them.
"Ugh, Betty," the Serpent griped.
She knew how immediate the repercussions of whatever words she'd exchanged with Cheryl and Veronica would affect Archie and merely by association, him. The blonde was trying to get to Jughead Jones, even if she had to make a play at Archie to get his attention. And like clockwork, as if Jughead's thoughts were narrating the very arch in this scene, Archie's face had been skewed up in an atrocious mix of confusion and embarrassment.
