Chapter Text
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
-Marcus Aurelius
Truth be told, Veronica doesn't believe that color exists. She didn’t always think like that. A younger Veronica, one who spent all her time reading magazines about love and watching old soulmate sitcoms in her mom’s lap, would be disturbed that anyone thought like that. But this Veronica, the one who’s 16 and sure that she's met everyone New York has to offer without any inclination as to what red looks like, believes otherwise.
Really, it's a conversation she overheard from her father that squashed her belief in color. On the phone he talked about patenting the rights to expensive glasses that allowed its wearer to see in color, regardless of their soulmate status. It wasn't that that bothered Veronica, it was his reasoning for why he wanted the rights to the glasses. She stayed just out of sight at the mouth of the kitchen and listened to the conversation he held with one of his business partners. Their maid, Lucinda, walked by but Veronica pressed her fingers to her lips and shook her head when she turned to walk into the kitchen. Lucinda moved on with a slight nod.
The conversation she overheard made her eyes childishly well with tears. Her own father, clear as day, tells the phone that he can’t see color. Her own father can’t see color, the same man who’d been married to her mom for over sixteen years. She thought they fell in love. She thought that's why they had her . She thought they were soulmates.
For the next week she kept waiting for her father to come and chastise her for eavesdropping, that her emotional turmoil was punishment for listening in on things that were none of her business. She hoped that Lucinda had told on her. She hoped her father would come and they could both laugh about what happened and then he would take her shopping.
Weeks bled into months; her father never came.
Veronica’s 17 and still colorless when Hiram Lodge is arrested for stealing unbelievable amounts of money. It isn't until he's shipped off to prison that the events that will define Veronica for the rest of her life are set into motion. She starts receiving death threats on social media, her mom and her are evicted from their home in New York, and 13 of their 14 properties throughout the country are reclaimed by the government, all in her father's name except for a small home in a little town called Riverdale that her mom had purchased solely for nostalgia.
She googled Riverdale. It was a tiny, tiny town that had one grocery store, three restaurants, and a population count that paled in comparison to New York City’s millions. To even go to a mall, Veronica would have drive one town over. Her mom says that she’s going to have to learn how to do that: driving.
"Ronnie," her mom says on the car ride there. No chauffeur, no private jet. Just a mother and her daughter driving to their new home. Veronica didn't even know her mom knew how to drive.
They turn left onto another nameless road lined with thick trees. They take a right and drive along the riverside.
Riverdale: the town with pep! Only 50 miles.
“Veronica, are you listening? I need to tell you something.”
She forces herself to tear her eyes away from the rushing water.
Her mom takes a deep breath. "Your father and I aren't soulmates. I want better for you, mija. I wanted you to know.”
Even though Veronica isn’t surprised - she’s known for a while - a part of her clung to the hope that her mom had found her soulmate somehow. Color is something Veronica believed in less and less every day.
Veronica doesn't know why but her eyes water assuming her mother sees the same drab grays that she does.
For the first time in her life Veronica understands what it means when they say life is meant to be lived in color, which is especially ironic considering she can’t see them.
But even if she couldn't see it at the time she knows now that New York is colorful. Maybe she didn't know what red looked like but New York is bright and the lightest of lights and the darkest of darks all mix together to create a city that Veronica desperately wants to belong to again.
Riverdale, in stark contrast, is one small town color of grey. That feeling runs through the core of Riverdale, right down the boy in the beanie who orders the same burger from Pop's everyday only to leave it untouched in favor of his laptop.
The majority of her two months in Riverdale have been spent here, in Pop's, tagging along with her mom who landed a job in the small diner a week or so after they arrived. She's yet to make a friend in Riverdale if Pop’s and Smithers didn't count. Which is really her fault. She's fallen into a haze that she can't climb out of. These mood swings came in New York, too, but they were a lot easier to hide behind designer dresses and one dimensional friendships. In contrast, today for the first time since she was 7, Veronica wears jeans.
Her mom slips into same booth Veronica loiters in everyday. She slides a chocolate milkshake and a basket of fries her way and smiles the same tired smile that she's worn since they've got here. They always share the free meal that Pop allows Hermione each shift with each other. The best part of Veronica’s day is always when her mom takes her break and brings them the same indulgent basket of fries to split. On their slow days (which were everyday) Veronica could usually weasel Pop out of a chocolate shake or two, free of charge. Pop’s is her favorite thing in this town, if not her only.
The leather cushions groan as her mom readjusts in the booth. She looks especially tired today, which is quickly becoming how she looks everyday. Still, she says, "You look blue, baby. What's wrong?"
Veronica shoves a fry in her mouth and shrugs. She sits up a little straighter. She tries to look normal a little harder. Hermione mirrors her.
"Just anxious to start school. There's only so much Netflix and Twitter a girl can take before she starts to go stir crazy. Besides, Edward Cullen has yet to step out of all these trees and save me from this town. School is kind of my last shot mom."
Veronica can see relief wash over her mom. She's the one person who's always been there for Veronica through her fair share of mental breakdowns and she knows that neither of them can take that right now. She breathes a little easier knowing that her mom can't tell that anything is wrong. She'll never admit how much she actually hates living here; her mom is doing everything she can to keep the two of them afloat on top of the scandal their fathers tied them up in. Besides, in these two months her mom has become her best friend. The least she can do is put on a happy face for her.
Pop calls even though their 15 minutes aren't up. Veronica refuses to acknowledge the irony of that with her father in jail. Hermione scoops up a handful of fries, stuffs them in her mouth, and attempts to finish their conversation with a full mouth in two sentences. “You’ll finally be a senior. And you’ve been asking for a change of scenery for months. This is good for us.”
Hermione pats her daughter on the shoulder and dusts off her apron. They both smile but it doesn’t quite reach either of their eyes.
-
That night the Lodge women wall themselves up in Hermione’s room the second she gets off her shift to pick out Veronica’s outfit for her first day of school. The Lodge women are prepared, if nothing else.
Hermione sits patiently on her bed while her daughter rummages around her closet in search of an outfit for tomorrow. Veronica comes bursting out with a grin and the dress Hiram gave her for their seventieth wedding anniversary.
“Okay, what about this one? Be honest. I'm going for ‘New York darling meets small town charmer’ but I’m not trying to be over the top about it.” Veronica twirls in the dress that belongs to her mother. She still hasn't quite gotten used to wearing the same clothes more than once, hence raiding her mother’s closet.
Hermione shakes her head. “That one doesn’t look right with your eyes.” She rummages through the heap of dresses Ronnie piled in her lap and holds one out. “What about this one?”
She holds up a darker dress, one that Veronica instantly likes better than the one she has on. “Yes, thank you!”
She shrugs the old dress off and pulls on the new one. The old dress pools around her feet and Veronica kicks it carelessly back into the closet like it didn't actually cost a fortune. Her eyes wrack over her body. Dark eyes, dark dress. That combination seems simple enough but she's suddenly irrationally upset that she can’t tell what goes well with her eyes. Her mom snaps her out of the haze she falls into a moment later.
“Ronnie, what is it?”
Veronica forces herself to look away from the mirror. “Nothing to worry about. I just wonder what colors are like sometimes. Do you?”
Hermione smiles and pats the bed next. Veronica falls into place next to her with a frown.
“Did I ever tell you about when you were born?”
Veronica shakes her head then rests it on her mom’s shoulder.
“Well, when you were born the doctors handed you to your father and you just screamed. Ah, mija, you were such a crier. But then they handed you to me and you calmed down enough to open your eyes and they were brown. The most beautiful brown eyes I’ve ever seen.”
Veronica’s brows furrow. She tries to make sense of that. “I don’t understand.”
Hermione draws her daughter close. “Soulmates aren’t always romantic. Sometimes your soulmate doesn’t love you back, sometimes your soulmate is your best friend, and sometimes your soulmate is your daughter who you know is going to be the saving grace of your complicated marriage who makes it all worth it.”
Veronica gapes. She's heard of best friends who, by definition, are soulmates who date only to find out they work better as friends. She’s heard horror stories about seeing color only to find the person still sees in black and white. She's even heard whisperings of a girl from Riverdale who's dead brother was her soulmate. And that boy who comes in the diner everyday, she's sure that his soulmate has to be his laptop. Still, Veronica never considered that her soulmate would be someone she didn’t love romantically. It makes her uneasy and that much untrusting of her eyes. What if they betray her?
"Do you think my soulmate will be romantic?"
Her mom leans down and presses a kiss into her hair and squeezes her arm reassuringly. "I couldn’t tell you, baby. You'll have to find them first."
She does find them. Her.
Betty .
It's ironic that a town with so few colors can bring the greatest changes.
She meets her at Pop’s because when Veronica isn't sleeping or forcing Smithers to watch Criminal Minds with her, Veronica is at Pop’s and only Pop’s. She likes milkshakes and the soft New York-like glow Pop’s has. Later, she'll like it for entirely different reasons.
Two Veronica-aged teenagers come into the diner laughing that day. A bulky guy with a goofy smile and a varsity jacket holds the door open for a girl in a high ponytail who’s face Veronica doesn't quite catch. Their laughs are contagious and Veronica finds herself smiling and watching them sink into a booth a ways away from her. She loves her mom and Smithers but she really misses having friends her own age.
She's caught in thought and accidentally staring when she catches the guy’s eyes. He grins unbelievably wide and ushers Veronica over. She blushes uncharacteristically at being caught and abandons the double chocolate shake to say hello. Being this friendly must be a small town thing, Veronica assumes.
(Being that friendly is an I-find-you-attractive-thing but Archie never tells that to Veronica when she later gushes about how nice everyone in Riverdale is.)
Only a short couple of booths separate them and Veronica awkwardly stands at the head of their table without an explanation why before she allowed herself to consider how stupid she must look now. She does all she can to not make eye contact with the girl who sits across from Archie. She's too embarrassed to meet her eyes.
“I’m Archie,” the guy says first. His smile is wide and spreads adorably across his face. He’s attractive, Veronica decides, and she does have taste for the finer things in life.
“Veronica,” she introduces. She extends her hand politely and Archie shakes it with a laugh.
“Are you new here, Veronica?” a feminine voice asks. “I'm Betty Cooper.”
Veronica reroutes her attention to Archie’s counterpart and from the moment she meets her inviting smile and warm eyes, the world becomes overwhelmingly different. It takes Veronica a whole ten seconds to realize what's just happened.
Betty’s eyes are dazzlingly calm in color, even if Veronica doesn't know what that color is. Pop’s neon signs paint the whole diner a pretty shade of something, the same something that flushes Betty’s cheeks and make her lips pop against her skin. Her lips, however, are void of the smile they wore moments ago. Betty’s mouth opens and closes and opens again - Veronica recognizes her teeth as white - but she doesn't say anything.
Archie, on the other hand, does. “Have you two met?”
The two of them snap out of their little trance. Veronica instantly wants to ask Betty if she sees too but she remembers what her mom says, that soulmates aren't always romantic and then she remembers that they aren't even always returned and decides that seeing color and finding out if her soulmate sees back is just a little bit too much for one day.
She tries to answer Archie but a meaningless lump of sounds string together instead.
“What is it? Are you okay?” Archie again. Betty continues to stay silent and it makes Veronica ache a bit.
Veronica looks to Betty’s eyes again to try and gauge just how fucked she actually is. She receives her answer when she finds herself lost in the pool or warmth they provide. In all of her life, Veronica doesn’t think she’s ever seen anything quite as beautiful as the color of Betty’s eyes. They’re different. For all she knows the color is red, even though she knows that eyes can’t be red. But if Betty’s eyes were she knows she would love them. And she would love them if they were green, too. Or blue, or brown, or whatever color she suddenly can’t bring herself to look away from.
But Betty looks away and there is color high in her cheeks. Veronica thinks she sees tears glistening in her eyes. She isn't sure what’s worse: how hurt Betty’s tears make her feel or the words that immediately follow.
“You need to leave, Veronica,” Betty says, far harsher than Veronica figured she could’ve. “You need to leave right now.”
“But my mom-”
“Please,” Betty pleads and Veronica instantly knows that she’ll do anything for this girl, even if that meant that she hurts herself in the process.
She backs away from the table and away from confused Archie, from teary-eyed Betty, from her mom who tries to stop her when she's nearly out the door.
“Please,” she echos Betty’s word and looks into her mom’s eyes and tries to tell a thousand words with just one look. Hermione nods and lets her daughter go, confused and upset that she still has two hours until her shift is over.
Overwhelmed, Veronica stumbles to the far end of Pop’s property and calls Smithers to pick her up. When he pulls into the parking lot and asks Veronica what's wrong when she climbs into the car, he's met with tears and mumblings about a girl named Betty.