Lover From The South

Chapter 3

Archie's nervously bites his nails as he waits for Veronica in the parking lot of one of the fanciest apartment complexes in Riverdale. She told him to wait outside. She doesn't want him to face her parents tonight. One, because he's so pure and innocent and she doesn't want her parents to ruin that and two, because she's afraid the north and south side topic may come up and she has to end whatever there is between her and Archie before it even started.

"Hello there handsome" she smiles as she taps his shoulder.
He spins around. As his eyes land on her, he gets the same feeling in his chest that he had when he first saw her. She's wearing a beautiful light blue summer dress. It's definitely less revealing and less sexy than what she wore at the party but her hair is just as wavy. Her golden necklace matches her golden earrings. A little smirk grows on his lips when he sees the white Nike sneakers on her feet. That's why she seems shorter. "Wow" he smiles "you look... you look beautiful"

"Thank you" she giggles as she feels her cheeks heat up. "I thought I'd go with the cute summer dress for a first date and since I don't know what you have planned, sneakers"

"You look absolutely stunning Ronnie. Are you sure you want to go out with me?"

"Yes!" she smiles softly. The glimmer in her eyes makes his heartbeat increase. She takes a step closer to him and brushes her hands over his chest.

"Sorry, this white Tshirt is all I had" he mumbles embarrassed. He's been with Veronica for less than 5 minutes and even though he's trying to ignore it, he can feel the financial differences between them.

"I like it. You look really handsome Archie and look it matches my shoes!"

Archie chuckles "it does. So do you want to stand here and talk or can I take you on a date now?"

Veronica nods with a wide smile on her lips.

So Archie opens the door to his car for her. It's a very old car. Nothing fancy at all but Veronica doesn't care. It's only a 15 minute drive to Archie's place. She can't believe she has never seen him before even though he lives rather close to her.
When they arrive, Archie gets out of the car quickly so he can open the door for Veronica.

"So what are we doing here? At your place?"

"Well" Archie says as he walks her around his trailer. Jughead's family and Archie's share a small yard. His mom put a lot of effort into making it look nice and pretty. "I planned a picnic. I know it's not fancy but I cooked some good food and got all the pillows and blankets that I could find and I even bought some candles—"

"You did all of this by yourself?" Veronica interrupts him.

"Yeah" Archie nods. "It took forever to cut the little hearts and paint them but it was so worth it" he says as he points to the blanket. Just now Veronica realize a bunch of little red hearts all over the place.

"You painted them? Why didn't you buy red paper?" Veronica giggles.

"We didn't have any red paper and I chose to get candles instead" Archie mumbles.

Veronica bites the inside of her lip. She didn't want to offend him. Going into a store and buying whatever you need is a privilege that's so normal to her that she sometimes forgets that not every one is lucky enough to be able to do that. She cups Archie's cheeks and smiles softly. "This is the cutest thing anyone has ever done for me. I love it. Thank you"