Chapter Text
we can begin at the top,
am I waking you up?
The rain just can't stop raining. Drops of water hit the train windows very quickly, as the vehicle stops on the train station in Centerville, only a few stops before a certain Town With Pep. The red-headed boy looks through the window and wonders, what the hell is he doing.
He hasn't been in Riverdale for over five years, ever since the graduation. Mary Andrews moved in with Archie after his dad died summer before the senior year, but she didn't stay there for long. She came back to Chicago, where she always belonged, so Archie didn't have a reason for coming back.
Archie Andrews loved Riverdale, it was his home. For a little while, he even thought that he would stay there after finishing school, he felt like this town needed him. But in the end he decided to follow his high school aspirations to become a musician. SATs went quite well for him, so he said, screw it and chose a college far away from the state of New York. University of San Diego in California, majoring in music.
The thought of coming back is moderately terrifying, not because of the town itself, but because of the people that he's most likely to see - his closest friends from school and one girl in particular.
The chocolate-eyed girl with the most beautiful smile he has ever seen. The girl that he was mad about. The girl he has been already planning a whole life with, but the stupid graduation changed everything.
Archie sits impatiently, waiting for the train to stop. He runs his hand through the orange hair, trying to figure out what's gonna happen next. But most importantly, who sent the damn note.
a week ago
"Dude, it was awesome!" says Munroe, one of Archie's best friends, and gives him the high five.
"Thanks, man." Archie walks out of the recording room. the new song might be a hit, he thinks and takes a sip from the water bottle on the table.
Gina, his manager, walks into the room and announces that his first album will be finished soon. She excuses Munroe for a moment and sits next to Archie on the couch.
"I'm really proud of you, kid," she tells him, touching his arm. "I was hoping you wouldn't waste your talent and hard work and here we are." She hugs him quickly while tapping his back and leaves the room.
Gina was like an older sister he never had. They met at the local bar where he was singing his first songs written by himself on Friday nights. She discovered his music and then everything happened so fast. Many people working for him, record studios and writing songs many hours a day. That's how his life started to look like. Everyone was there for him. He wasn't use to that, Archie mostly had a role of a selfless hero rather than a center of attention. He wasn't use to people actually helping him.
Young musician comes to the apartment he's been visiting a lot since he moved to San Diego. He knocks on the door and stands in front of it. He's really excited to tell them about the album, his biggest fans.
The door opens and behind it, there's a little human. A blonde little human in particular.
"Hi!" the little girl looks up to see his face and hugs Archie's legs before he can realise it. The kid takes his hand and leads Archie to the living room. "Come on in!"
"Hey Juliet," the young woman kneels by the girl. "can you draw us something?" she asks the little one and taps her back.
"It's good that you came," she points at the couch for Archie to sit down and sits on it herself, looking very concerned. He usually doesn't see her like that. "we need to talk."
Betty Cooper. His best friend since childhood, his greatest supporter and one of the most important people in his life. She didn't change much from high school years. She's still the same blonde girl with eyes filled with joy, although she, now, wears her hair mostly down. Also she has matured a lot over these years, his friend was always the responsible one from their group of friends, but after she had Juliet, it felt like she simply decided to take whatever the universe planned for her and turn it into something special.
"What's going on?" he urgently sits next to Betty and looks in confusion. His excitement about the first album fades after the blond girl explains the situation.
"Did you get this invitation?" she takes the white envelope from the table and hands it to him. "I can't believe it." she sighs.
Red-headed boy opens it carefully and looks at the invitation. "Wait," he's confused. There has to be a missing piece to this story. "it's just a homecoming invitation, you're able not to go, you know that, right?" Archie's surprised. Betty wouldn't make such a big deal if it was just about it.
"What? No!" Betty breaks the envelope out of his hands, pulls a little note and shows him. "This is what I'm talking about." she says irritated.
If you don't want anyone to know your secrets, you better come to the homecoming.
-Anonymous
"Who would do that, Archie?" her eyes fight not to tear up. "Who's messing with our lives again?" she freezes in place for a moment and then goes. "Did you get one?"
"I- I don't know. I haven't checked my mail." he thinks and then practically jumps out of the couch and heads towards the door. "I think I have to go. I call you later!" he shouts and leaves Betty alone.
He looks around his apartment, in the center of San Diego. He lives alone but has his friends coming over a lot. The boxes of thai food leftovers from last night order are still laying on the kitchen table. In his bedroom, there are white sheets that were supposed to have texts of his new songs, but he lately didn't have inspiration to write anything. He doesn't even dare to look at the bathroom. It's so untidy that he thinks his my mom would kill him if she saw this mess.
He walks to take the mail to see if he got the same invitation and yes, he most certainly did. It also contained a threat that Betty got. He's wondering who also got this. Cheryl Blossom? Reggie Mantle, maybe? Perhaps, even Kevin Keller? Did Veronica and Jughead also get it?
He didn't see anyone from his high school friends, excluding Betty, for over five years. He once saw Toni Topaz a few years back on vacation in Los Angeles. They didn't talk though, he just saw her having fun with some friends who weren't her red-liking girlfriend. He realized, at that moment, that not only he and Betty broke up with their high school sweethearts.
New York City has a lot of nicknames. The Big Apple. The capital of the World. The City of Dreams. It was most certainly a city of her dreams. A city of her goals and desires, but also a city of her tears and hard work. It was her home.
Veronica Lodge was never the kind of girl who would aim for the small town, so naturally she chose college in NYC, close to her family and her heart, she always says when someone asks her about the city.
Columbia University was the perfect choice for her. She decided to major in business, although it wasn't the surprise of the year. She literally had it planned since middle school. But the years of college and business school were over. Now, she decided to run her own establishment.
"Coffee for Veronica!" barista shouts and said girl takes her order and heads to Pétales De Rose, her freshly opened entrepreneurship, newest addition to Lodge Infinity. she probably should get an assistant, she thinks while ordering an Uber.
The Uber driver takes her to a location in Manhattan, where she just opened her new restaurant. La Bonne Nuit inspired her a lot. She still can't believe that she opened a speakeasy at the age of seventeen and she not only had it but she also successfully run a whole business.
Sometimes she would like to go back to Riverdale just to see how is her business doing but she can't.
Veronica would rather die than confess that she's simply scared of coming back. Her therapist probably would want her to go back there, to collide with her deep-seated demons, but she's not interested in doing that.
She opens the door of the building and walks inside. The decor is from the 1920s, inspired by The Great Gatsby - one of her favorites books of all times.
She stops to admire how well it looks after major renovations. Her interior designer, Brett Wallis, definitely outdone himself. The inside looks just like she wanted it, even better.
She met Brett through Kevin, one her best friends ever since high school. Kevin and Brett dated for a little bit, but something didn't work. Fortunately, her work with the young designer didn't suffer because of it.
Speak of the devil, she thinks while looking at her ringing cell phone. Veronica sees Kevin's name on the display and quickly answers the phone call.
"Hey," she starts. " I was just thinking about you." Veronica smiles, still unaware of what's going to happen to her very soon.
"By your good frame of mind I can already tell that you haven't seen the news yet." he speaks bluntly with a little bit of worry in his voice.
"What are you talking about?" she asks in bewilderment, clearly oblivious of what her best friend is talking about.
"It's just- I think that you should check your mail." he adds and then suddenly hangs up. what the hell, she ponders and hurriedly decides to go home.
She quickly searches for the keys, seemingly nervous. what mail was he talking about, she reflects.
Veronica lives by herself in an extensive apartment in Upper West Side. Her friends always like to implie how huge her home is, but she would rather use the word comfortable. They also can't live without talking about her love life 'cause this house is too big for just one person'. She got used to living alone though.
Besides a few flings, she didn't really have anyone important in her life after the red-headed Adonis. At first she couldn't understand why nothing worked out for her. She was pretty, smart, ambitious and successful. a perfect girl, she thought, so why did no one want her? She realized something in the end. The point was that they never really understood her, at least not like him.
Most of her friends were as single as she was, so she never felt weirdly left out by the concept of love. Except, of course, Katy and K.O. These two were the living definition of love. She shouldn't be thrilled about her best friends' misfortune in the area of lust, but she was simply glad that she wasn’t the only one without a soulmate.
After seeing a bunch of envelopes lying on the glass table in the living room, she remembers that she left them in this place this morning. She reaches for them and reads their fronts, looking for a specific one.
One of the letters attracts her attention. The sender is Riverdale High School. She didn't see this name in years. She opens the envelope and realizes that it is an invitation. An invitation to a homecoming, to be specific. Everyone who graduated the school more than five years ago is invited. And, of course, she had to graduate it six years ago.
That's not the only card in the enclosure. She notices a little note and by its content, she can already say that no one from the Riverdale High School office wrote it.
If you don't want anyone to know your secrets, you better come to the homecoming.
-Anonymous
what the hell, she immediately thinks. The thoughts are coming to her mind so hastily. All of the nice memories she has associated with Riverdale are covered with the awful, even traumatic ones. Murders and serial killers. This place is a living memory of her family breaking. Veronica Lodge is not going anywhere, and certainly no one will threaten her, she speaks to herself. But, at that point, is she really so sure of it?
She takes her phone and calls one of the most frequently called contacts.
"Hey," Veronica hears a familiar voice in her ear. "did you get a letter?" she notices the change of tone in his voice, just like he knew how she would feel in this situation.
"I did," she answers neutrally, trying to play it cool and act as if this note didn't completely throw her off. "what do you think about it? This note is just a silly joke, right?" Veronica tries to reassure herself that everything is going to be just fine.
She sits on the beige sofa and puts her feet, free of the high heels, on the coffee table in front of her. Suddenly she feels so tired, even though the day barely started for her.
"Veronica, I don't think it's just a joke," he tells her sincerely, so she would understand the seriousness of the situation. "someone apparently wants to bring us all together. I believe we should go."
They should go? Jughead Jones can't be serious right now, she judges. They weren't in that nightmare town for six damn years. She wouldn't lie saying that Riverdale left its mark on her life and most definitely not in a good kind of way. She associated many things with Riverdale, but the things she remembered the most were just funerals and broken hearts.
Drama is her middle name when it comes to this town filled with maple syrup and she perfectly knows about it.
"You know what?" Jughead gasps through the cell. "I'll meet you in a bit and we're gonna talk, okay?’’ he tries to keep her calm.
Veronica doesn't hear a single slight knock on her door, but she can tell by the sound of groaning and taking off the shoes that her best friend Jughead came to the apartment.
Oh, Forsythe Pendleton Jones The 3rd. She always thought that Forsythe would sound nicer and certainly more professional than Jughead, especially considering the fact that he started college and wanted to become a writer, but he insisted to call him like that, claiming that it will be more original and people will easily remember his name. since it's simply weirder, she wanted to announce.
He's been a rock of hers throughout all these years. At first it was strange - seeing him in New York, but without Archie and Betty by their sides. They were all supposed to study together in the city. Rent an apartment, kickoff their careers. Little did they know that the graduation would change almost all of their plans for future.
Veronica and Jughead ended up living in the same big city and growing into besties for life and even more - literal platonic soulmates.
Comparing their friendship in Riverdale and in NYC, they could say that before, they were far away from being even close friends. They were more like their best friends' sweethearts. But, now, said best friends were nowhere to be found - as if they even wanted to find them.
He comes from behind her and touches her shoulder to comfort the raven-haired beauty. "You okay?" he mumbles and sits next to her on the sofa in the living room.
"Define being okay." she voices while changing the position on the couch, seemingly uncomfortable. "Are you coming?" Veronica pops the question.
"I think so," Jughead says softly. "well, not only we were threatened, but Ron-" he looks at her, trying to meet her chocolate eyes. "it's just one stupid homecoming. We can still have fun."
"I will think about it." of course, she'll say no, she thinks but doesn't want to upset Jughead too much. "I'm actually kinda tired right now.
"I get it, but please," he takes her hand to show how serious he is. "really think about it."
It's not like she doesn't want to go at all. Part of her would love to visit the town she went to high school, but she also knows that aside from all of her past friend, there will be him.
Archie fucking Andrews. The boy she would do anything for. It even scares her now, how a guy could have such an influence on her. Thinking about him makes her sick to her stomach. Not because she hates him though, but because if she saw him, she would feel the feelings she hasn't experienced in such a long time. She would want him back.