the varchie college chronicles (college au)

chapter 9

archie's point of view:

"bro, are you alright?" reggie asked me. we were heading home from our early morning football practice on a tuesday afternoon, and i was lost in my thoughts.

"what? sorry bro." i replied, having been pulled out of my deep thinking.

"i said, are you good? i asked you the same thing several times but you've been so blanked out that i'm sure you haven't heard." reggie answered me.

"yeah, i'm fine. but stuff has just been going on and i'm not sure why." i told him, without much elaboration.

"like what?" he asked, confused.

"well josie has been extremely distant recently. and i kind of want to end things with her and pursue veronica because these feelings came back and she's done with clayton." i decided to fill him in, not necessarily because i wanted him to know about my situation, but because i needed somebody's thoughts about it besides my own.

reggie hesitated momentarily before responding. "josie's cheating on you." he told me.

"what?" i asked, not sure i had heard correctly. he repeated himself, and i felt angry for a split second, but for the most part i didn't care. "how long has this been going on?" i inquired, upset.

"at least a couple of weeks." he told me. "i walked in on her and sweet pea making out at that football party that you didn't go to."

"you didn't think it would be a good idea to tell me?" i was shocked.

"i would have. but josie told me not to, said she would tell you herself. clearly she hasn't, though." he sighed. he continued to tell me everything, including the fact that veronica had come to him too, worried because josie had threatened her admission into the school.

"i can't believe her." i felt played, i hadn't thought that she would cheat on me. i wasn't upset, because i had planned to end things before i broke her heart, but apparently she had already moved on. it just made everything simpler.

-

i sat through my two back to back classes, completely zoned out without a thought in my head about anything but my soon-to-be breakup with josie.

there had been a quiz in my calculus class, which i'm pretty sure i had messed up badly on, because i couldn't focus my mind on the topic of derivatives when i had all of this other stuff going on.

i exited the large lecture hall after going through my weekly routine of listening to the group of people complaining about their lack of understanding towards math.

"sorry guys, i would normally stay and explain everything but i need a nap." i said with a sigh before i left.

"bye archie!" my table group said. there were two girls, midge and ginger, and this guy that referred to himself as mad dog, on the wrestling team.

-

when i got back to my dorm hall,the first person i saw was veronica.

"hey, what's up?" i said, heading towards the armchair she was sitting in at the end of the hall. she was curled up on the chair, barely fitting on the seat in that position, looking at her phone.

when she noticed me, she looked up, before an expression of what looked like panic cane up on her face. her eyes darted around the room, as if she was looking for someone, before they settled on me.

"hey!" she said, with a warm smile. she seemed to have relaxed after that.

we continued to have a conversation, chatting and laughing away before i spotted josie from the corner of my eye. as i noticed her, veronica abruptly put a halt to the conversation, saying "i should go", before rushing off.