Hold You Down

Chapter 3 - Guilt.

Archie was staring at his girlfriend from across Moose's living room. But quickly his thoughts of the party were replaced by other memories. This decently big room, he had become familiar with when he had met Moose in the second grade, connecting immediately through the mutual love of sports. They had spent hours at each other's houses' growing up playing various video games, sports in the yard, and even trying pot for the first time.

Of course, now that he looks back on those memories, he's aware that Reggie was often present in those memories as well. Moose and Reggie were best friends, and although Archie had primarily hung out with Betty and Jughead as a kid, he also remembers his more boyish side that was freed when he hung out with Moose and Reggie. Reggie had always taken things to far, and been a bad influence, but in Archie's mind he had alway meant well, and those risky situation caused by Reggie somehow proved to be more fun than most nights a Pop's. Reggie was definitely an escape, and now thinking about it, so was Veronica, they shared similar traits.

They were both....wild. Archie shook his head in sadness thinking about how inevitable them sleeping together seemed. He always thought, that if Veronica ever dumped him, it would surely be for Reggie.

Archie knew something about Reggie that most people didn't, which was that he was a hurt little boy deep down. All of his male bravado, and excessive man-whoring, was to cover up the deep insecurity he had developed when his father had left in the fourth grade. Reggie's world had been flipped upside down, and all he could think about was that he wasn't good enough, not for his father, and certainly not for anyone else.He looked at Veronica, she carried a nervous expression waiting for him to finally speak. Veronica was anxious, shifting awkwardly, her body was becoming hot, but she was cold and shivering on the outside, she could only equate this sickly feeling to back when she had a fever in December.

Still shaking, she hears Archie clear his throat fragilely, he barely makes a noise."Why Reggie?" he asks her, his voice full of jealousy and heartache."I was anger and hurt, and very very drunk, Reggie was just there..." she trailed off hoping that she had made it believable.

"Your lying!" he erupted, she had triggered his anger, "I told you to tell me everything... not the half truth!" he said even louder accusingly.

How am I ever suppose to trust her again, he thought to himself.What was he going to do when they weren't together, would he be constantly worrying about her, who she was texting, was sleeping with Reggie really an accident?Archie couldn't convince himself of that, because he knew Ronnie was calculated, but also impulsive, especially when angry.

He knew that he had hurt her that day, not to mention that his out burst at the party humiliated her in front of everyone. The harder he thought, the more Archie began to realize that she was probably planning her pay back from the moment he stormed out of the party.

But was it always Reggie? How calculated could she have been in her state of god knows what. Archie hated when Veronica allowed herself to loose control, this was often in the form of various drugs and alcohol, he knew she loved her pills and cocaine in New York, he had also come to find out that she had spent her whole summer before arriving in Riverdale seeing a drug rehabilitation councillor, a therapist, a psychiatrist, and had a sobriety coach with her at all times.