𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 ⚢ beronica

【 four. 】

It takes an alarmed Betty about 2 seconds to take in the surrounding mayhem, and another second to spot Cheryl Blossom calmly perched atop a nearby table, high-heeled legs crossed and dangling gracefully as she sips from a red plastic cup and watches the chaos with indifference. There is a slice of pizza being thrown across the room, a table that has been flipped over is sliding across the mahogany floor, and someone is yelling out "WHAT IF THE NEIGHBORS CALL THE COPS" and yet, Cheryl's face is displaying nothing besides some vague disapproval as she beholds the chaos in front of them. Once Betty and Veronica emerge from the closet, however, and Betty's eyes lock with Cheryl's, the girl finally registers some emotion-annoyance, to be more exact, in a look that is a strange mix of glower and frown.

Betty turns her attention back to Veronica; all determined, intense gaze sweeping the living room to piece together the scene, and Betty feels it burn upon the surface of her lips, the lingering taste of their not-five-minutes-old kiss. Had any half-filled cup been available nearby, she would have drunk from it, to try to wash the sensation away. Instead, she braces her muscles more tightly around her frame and wills herself to stop. Thinking. About. This.

Then, Veronica is boldly advancing towards the center of the mess, and in the following minute, the details emerge: Reggie Mantle, in true red-blooded teenage jock manner, had woken up from his drunken stupor halfway through Betty and Veronica's excursion into the closet, and indignantly protested having been unwillingly skipped in their game of seven minutes in heaven, and missed his opportunity to "explore a couple of bases" with Veronica. His resentment had escalated into irritation, and after an inconvenienced Cheryl had enlisted Archie to assist her in escorting Reggie outside and preventing him from bursting into the closet and interrupting the girls inside (which... surprises Betty), the room had evenly split into those backing Archie and Cheryl, and those backing Reggie.

In the midst of the tumult, Betty follows Veronica when the latter walks towards Reggie, still being held down on a couch by three other boys. They've barely approached him, when Reggie wolf-whistles the two of them and slurs flirtatiously, "can we go back to the closet and I'll be the meat in that sandwich?"

Immediately, Veronica rebuffs with ease, "that's the most idiotic thing you've ever said, and you've already established an impressively high bar."

Reggie is apparently unaffected by her dry rejection. "I'll take Betty if you can't handle all this, Lodge," he adds, undeterred and winking suggestively at Betty.

Betty recoils slightly at the suggestion, but it's Veronica who actually displays the most significant reaction, her entire countenance transforming into an icy glare. "Oh, you are in for a rude awakening if you think you're going anywhere near her."

Reggie attempts to push himself off the couch again, and the three suffering boys struggle to keep him pinned down. Betty is about to pull Veronica away from the eye of this hurricane, but she stalls mid-motion when Veronica leans forward, lays a hand on the boy's chest, and murmurs, "because this is your birthday, because my bottle did point to you, and because you need to stop destroying your own house."

Betty knows it's going to happen before it even begins to, and as though her body wishes to spare her mind, she automatically averts her eyes, and doesn't quite catch Veronica's lips briefly make contact with Reggie's. What she feels instead is her heart turning over in her throat, and what she sees-because of course, that's where her gaze lands-is Cheryl, watching the scene intently, oscillating her attention between Veronica and Betty.

Kevin swoops in almost immediately, pulls Betty and Veronica by their arms, and once they are removed from the turmoil of the living room and are gathered by an empty corner of the foyer, he whispers urgently, "we gotta go! I heard one of the neighbors called the station-where my dad works, in case you need a reminder-to report this party going past midnight and the underage drinking, and I don't want to be grounded till the year 2037 for lying about sleeping over at Archie's."