The Person That I Thought I Was, The Girl I Used to Know (A Riverdale Fanfiction)

It was late afternoon in the ghostly town of Riverdale, where Veronica Lodge sat in a booth at Pops. The greasy vapor that filled the air, fogged up the window. Veronica left a mark where she had been rubbing away the condensation, looking outside and praying that a certain redhead would appear in the distance. She sat back into the red leather booth, gripping the coffee mug she had been holding onto the last few days because of the lack of sleep she had acquired. The only thing coming up in her blank mind was the fact that she had lost everything and everyone she had ever cared about.

It had been four days since Archie had left, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling she had felt when he spoke his last words through the phone as it shook in her hand. Every song, every scent, every figure she saw walk by, brought her mind back to Archie.

Veronica’s head whipped around to the sound of Pop Tate cashing in a customer, but her brain directed her somewhere else. Somewhere darker.

“And where are you off to at this late hour Mija?” Hiram smirked, blocking Veronica’s way to leave through the front door. Veronica knew that her father’s game would always consist of him keeping a close eye on her, but she was experienced with him, knew how to handle his mind games.

“Just going over to Betty’s for a quick, word…That is alright with you… right Daddy?” Veronica spoke with a certain amount of confidence towards her father, only because she knew the effect it constantly had on shaking his own. Veronica had walked past him, pushing him to the side, only to peer into his study and see a short haired redhead, sitting with his back towards her. She knew that fringe from anywhere. But she wondered why her boyfriend would be sitting in her Father’s study. That’s when she saw what really took her by surprise.

A gun. Not just any gun, a Glock 34 hand gun. Her father’s Glock 34 hand gun. In her boyfriend’s hands, Archie’s hands, drenched in blood.

“Archie-“ Veronica started.

“You can leave now Mija.” But this wasn’t a suggestion, nor a request. This was a demand from her father.

“Ms. Lodge?”

Veronica’s eyesight was blurred.

“Veronica, are you alright?” It could have been the caffeine, or the single hour of sleep Veronica had slept the night before, but the smile in front of her was too familiar for her to ignore.

“Archie?” Veronica hummed, pushing herself off of the booth she sat on, hoping to walk closer to the redhead she saw so clearly.

“Veronica,” she heard.

“Archie come home,” she cried, feeling tears staining her cheeks.

“Hold on Ronnie. I promise I’ll be home soon, you just have to hold out hope.”

Veronica felt 2 strong hands grasp at hers, but pulled away, attempting to stable herself.

“Archie, I need you. I-I’m so lost.”

Veronica felt her feet becoming too weak to support her weight, and soon after felt herself fall in and out of consciousness, before collapsing to the ground with a thud.

Everything was black, yet Veronica felt as though her mind could finally comprehend every emotion she was feeling.

All Veronica wanted was her friends, her boyfriend, the people that cared most about her. The people she needed most at this moment. She remembered the time there were three other people sitting around her. Archie, who would sit beside her, his arm dangling around her shoulders, as Jughead who would sit across from him, doing the same to Betty. The four would sit in the booth for hours, sipping away at their milkshakes and chatting through Jughead’s newest conspiracy. But Veronica’s mind pulled her away from her fond memories of the group, leading her to the one memory that her brain wouldn’t let her forget no matter how much she wanted to.

“Ronnie, you have to stop coming here,” Archie sighed, running his hand through his thick red hair.

“You’re kidding right? Archie come on.“ She sat on the other side of his jailcell, seeing the books he had tossed onto the floor the night before. The small carpet stained with blood from - she hoped - the last prisoner.

“Ronnie, it’s too dangerous!” Archie screamed back. Veronica’s heart was racing. She had just broken into the jail to see him. She needed to see him! What didn’t he understand about that?

“Veronica, I miss you, but with your father on our tails…You can’t risk being here…With me-“

“I get it Archie…I’ll leave if that’s what you want…Or ‘need’ right now,” she laughed sarcastically.

“Come on Ronnie you know I didn’t mean it like-“

“Save your breath,” Veronica scoffed. She walked away from her boyfriend without another word, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, but she couldn’t - no, she wouldn’t let Archie see her cry.

“Mija,” she heard.

“She’ll be fine she just needs to rest,” another voice said.

“Ar-Archie,” Veronica moaned, only because of the ache her head wore. Her eyes began to flutter open, only to see the sight of her father and mother crouched down next to her, and Veronica jumped up seeing her father standing so close to her.

“Darling, you fainted,” Hermione sighed, attempting to sit her daughter back down.

“Get away from me!” Veronica screeched, rushing back towards the doorway of Pops.

“Veronica, there’s nothing to be afraid of Mija,” her father tried. Veronica felt her eyes shut once again, the world beginning to spin faster than she could control.

“Mommy? Daddy?” Veronica’s high pitched 7-year-old voice had sung, echoing the halls of their New York penthouse, while the pearls around her neck bounced softly as she ran, trying to find her parents. It was the day she had first seen the other side of her father. The darker side.

Veronica had walked into his study, knowing that it was a place she had been forbidden to go into, but had always wondered what treasures lay inside.

What she didn’t expect was to find her father, his hands stained with blood as he clutched onto a razor-sharp knife with his victim’s body lying in front of him, and that god awful smiled that she had never been able to forget, plastered on his face.

Veronica’s eyes opened once again, her palms sweating in anticipation of what she would do next.

“Veronica calm down,” her mother soothed, walking closer to her daughter, only to frighten the raven-haired girl more.

Veronica’s hands shook, her nails digging into the palms of her hands as she felt the blood pass over them. And what she did next, she didn’t know why. As she reached into her purse, still attempting to keep herself from falling, what she felt fall into her hands was something her parents, and even she herself, had not expected.

“Veronica put the gun down,” Hiram said. Fear crept into his normally confident tone.

“Why daddy?” Veronica cried, her tear stained face stinging from the saltiness of the water rushing down her cheeks. “So that you can put my friends and I through all of this again?”

“I’m done Daddy!” She yelled. “I’m done playing your stupid games! I’m done being part of your criminal life! I’m done being your daughter.” Veronica breathed in, her finger threatening to pull the trigger at any moment.

Was this really what it had come down to? Had she lost everything? Her boyfriend, her reputation, her family, all gone. But what really hurt her, was that Veronica had lost herself.

“I was done with you a long time ago Daddy. I was done with you when I watched the police take you to prison when I was seven years old. I was done with you when you shut down Southside High because you needed somewhere to build your drug empire. I was done with you when you sent Archie to prison. But you always won. You always made it seem like everything you did was for me. So, you know what?”

Hiram’s face was blank as he watched his daughter closely.

“Now, you get to lose.”

The banging sound of a gunshot flooded the room, but to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t Hiram’s body that fell to the ground with a thud. It was Veronica’s.

Alina Wang | Holy Trinity School | Grade 8