A Touch Of Colour

Confrontation

Veronica went to school with a spring in her step. She was going to ask Archie on another date, considering she enjoyed their last one. She ran into Betty in the corridor, and they walked to the student lounge together, as they had some time before classes started. Betty sat on the armchair next to Jughead, kissing him hello. Veronica sat on the loveseat with Kevin, and Archie sat on the other free chair.

"So I watched this movie yesterday, about these two people, soulmates, but they... unsoulmated? If that's like, a thing? I don't know. But they were soulmates, and then their sight went back, and they met their other soulmates," Jughead said, picking at his nails. "Can that happen? Like, in real life?"

Betty and Archie shared a look. It's happening to him too, Betty thought dreadingly.

"Uh, I think so. A 'Universe Mistake' apparently," Kevin looked at Betty, pity in his eyes.

"Along with the other soulmate thing? Would I- would they have another soulmate?" Jughead asked, quickly correcting himself. The group pretended not to notice.

"Yeah, that happens too," Archie muttered.

During lunch break, Veronica asked for Archie to meet with her at her locker, so after he finished eating, he headed through the hallways, to her locker. She was stood there, reading Kevin's book to preoccupy herself.

"Isn't that Kevin's?" Archie pointed at the book in her hands, recognising the cover from the previous day.

"Yeah, how'd you know? I just borrowed it so I had something to do while I was waiting for you. I'm only a few pages in, but it's quite interesting," she smiled. "Anyway, not what I wanted to talk about. Firstly, I wanted to make sure that you're okay with me not wanting to know whether we're soulmates or not. I don't want to touch for a while, I just want to get to know you. I know, it's weird, but I just want to date the normal way. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable or impatient with that, so."

Archie didn't know how to respond. He was kind of on the fence about this, he knew from the beginning that that's how she wanted to do things, and he respected that, but he also didn't want to get too attached if she wasn't his soulmate. He gave in, because he was interested by this charming girl, and wanted to see where it would go, soulmates or not.

"Alright, I'm okay with that," he smiled.

"Wait, really? Literally no one in New York wanted to date me without touching me. Oh, no, not like that, I mean- you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. What's your second thing?"

"My second thing is a second date. What do you say? Want to go out with me again?"

"I'd love to," he beamed.

The two teenagers, one wearing a black coat loosely around her shoulders, sipping on a vanilla milkshake, dark hair falling past her shoulders, the other with a varsity football jacket on the seat next to him, wearing a simple T-shirt (he felt that a button-down was too formal for Pop's), sat in a booth next to the window.

"So, you really think that Betty and Jughead aren't meant to be? It's a shame, they seemed so fit for each other," Veronica sighed.

"Yeah, it kinda sucks. I remember when they first met, we were in middle school, they instantly clicked. One time they were hanging out without me, and that's when they found out that they were soulmates. They forgot to mention it to me at first, but I caught on when Betty kept getting so excited, and pointing out the colour of things. I asked her if she'd met her soulmate and didn't tell me, and then she said that she and Jughead were soulmates.

"I was jealous at first, I actually had a crush on Betty, and she liked me back, but we weren't soulmates, so I eventually moved on, because I knew that there was someone out there for me," Archie smiled.

Archie and Veronica spent the next two hours talking, eating, and drinking milkshakes. Archie offered her a ride home, but Veronica politely declined, explaining that her mother was coming to pick her up. She told Archie to hurry home though, as she wasn't ready for him to meet Hermione Lodge. She didn't say that, though, she just told him that she had to order takeout and it'd be a while before her mom came.

Kevin sat at his desk, finishing off his biology homework, when he got a message from Betty.

Hey, Kev.

Betty, hey. What's up? Kevin typed.

I wanted to talk about Jughead and I. Can I call you? She responded.

Of course, he replied.

"Hey," Betty's voice flowed through Kevin's phone speaker as he pressed the button accepting her call.

"Hey, everything okay?" Kevin asked.

"Jughead and I talked," she sighed.

"Oh, how'd that go?"

"He asked me if I was seeing differently. I told him that everything was slowly fading to black and white, and he said it was the same for him. I asked what that meant, for us, and he said "I guess we're no longer soulmates". I-" she started crying, Kevin could hear her sobs over the phone.

"Wait, did you guys break up?" Kevin gasped.

"Yeah, we broke- we broke up," she sniffed. "Kevin, is there- is there any chance that you could- you could come over?" Kevin pulled his phone away from his ear to check the time. It was only 7:30, his dad would surely let him.

"I'm going to go ask my dad, okay? I'll call you back, Betty," he said.

"Okay, see you," she sniffed, hitting the somewhat-red, mostly-grey end call button.

Kevin hopped down the stairs, entering his dad's office. Tom Keller was sitting at his desk, flipping through some paperwork.

"Hey, dad," Kevin smiled.

"What's up?" his father asked, not looking up.

"Can I go to Betty's? She and her boyfriend-"

"Kevin, it's getting a bit late," Tom interrupted.

"I know, but I've finished all of my homework, and Betty needs me," Kevin explained, flashing his dad puppy eyes.

"Fine. But don't get home too late. 10 o'clock, tops," Tom sighed.

"Thank you!" Kevin beamed.