Hold You Down

Chapter 8 - Hallways & Pain Meds

"Archie wait!" Betty tried to whisper yell as bet she could knowing that Veronica's mum was home.

He just stared at her briefly before walking out the front door, Betty was not about to give up, especially when she knew how badly V needed this. She quickly scurried toward the door and caught Archie angrily staring at the elevators, as if he was trying to will them to move faster.

"Hold on Archie" she pleaded, "I'm so sorry about this morning, if I had known about... I would of never said any of those things to you" Betty said, hating herself for giving in to her darkness before she had a chance to hear him out.

Looking at him now, the heartache was written all over his face, and the way he carried himself. She had a million questions about the happenings of that night, much like Archie had yesterday. Betty was again trying to connect the dots in her head, she knew why, and most likely where and when, not that the setting had too much of a difference, Betty knew it had happened at or after the party due to the state Veronica was in, self destruction and bad decisions seemed likely. But 'who', was most pressing, Betty thought back to the end of the night, hours after Archie had stormed out, she herself had been exhausted, and was certain that her friend V was using more than just alcohol to keep herself going, energy wise, and to numb the hurt that Archie's blow up had caused. But as far as she could remember, all of the guys had surrounded Veronica on the dance floor, and after spending half an hour upstairs with Toni and Kevin trying to console V in the aftermath of her boyfriend's revelations, Betty was sure that the only boy in Veronica's mind was in fact Archie. 

Then, Betty thought about the 'how' and instantly felt guilty for leaving her broken friend at the party alone, thinking to herself that she should have been there to prevent this. But as Betty recalls, Veronica was is no mood to leave the party, and had assured an exhausted and drunk Betty that she could take care of herself. It helped that Toni was still there, but Kevin was leaving with Betty, and the inner circle of people there who were willing to stop Veronica from making stupid decisions was now down to one. 

The 'goods' had long left, leaving the 'bads' to influence Veronica deeper onto the path of destruction. People like Cheryl, Tina, Moose, Chuck, Reggie... and then it had dawned on her, that the most likely contender was probably Reggie Mantle, and a whole new wave of sadness rushed over her as she realized what that would do to Archie. His level of competition with Reggie had often caused major trouble.

Betty moved over, closer to Archie, until she leaned into a big hug, "I'm so sorry Archie".He stood there briefly non-reactive of Betty's hug because he had been drained, but then the familiar smell and comfort of his oldest friend soothed him, and he hugged her back, letting go, and starting to cry, much like he was when she had found him that morning. Once Archie had caught his breath, he pulled back and asked Betty "why were you so willing to forgive Veronica immediately, but had so much rage directed at me this morning?" he asks mostly out of curiosity, but part of him wants her to feel bad for forcing him to come here, only to have his heart further crushed.

"Arch, I'm sorry, I know it doesn't seem fair right now... BELIEVE ME when I say that I'm shocked, disappointed and crushed that Veronica would ever hurt you like that" she starts, but then pauses to sigh, because she's afraid of his reaction was going to be when she admitted to being a neglectful friend, who choose to shine a blind eye to Veronica's tell-tale signs of destructive behaviour.

"After you left, she was unconsolably crying for a half-hour in the bathroom upstairs, so when Kevin was finally able to cheer her up, I didn't stop her from drinking herself into oblivion, and I also didn't say anything about the fact that every time she emerged from the bathroom, Veronica seemed to have this manic intense high level of energy, I should have forced her to come home with me, instead of letting her get so out of control, I could have stopped this..." Betty trailed off.