Hold You Down

Chapter 20 - Breaking Point

"Veronica, I'm sorry...Babe please look at me" Archie tries to reach over to her, feeling extremely guilty and heartbroken making her break down like this.

He attempts to put his arm around her, but she pulls away crying even harder."I don't want to hurt you anymore" she says through her tears."Ronnie, I'm sorry I should not've said that...come here please" Archie wraps his arms around her. 

Veronica buries her face in his shirt, sobbing a little less, allowing him to comfort her. At this point, she feared they've been hanging onto their relationship by a tiny thread that was about to give out.

"How can you still love me if I'm a constant reminder of hurt?" Veronica asks as she untangles herself from Archie's hug.

"I don't know, all I know is that I'm in love with you Veronica Lodge, even when I tried to fight it, I can't help myself, I think you're the one" He says nonchalantly.

"Arch.." Veronica says but her boyfriend cuts in "I Know, I know, you hate talking about the future and all, but seriously Ronnie..." Archie stares at her to convey that they're lighter mood was over and he had important thoughts to deliver.

 Veronica nods in anticipation, straightening out a little noting his serious shift.

"It hurts because I don't know how to fix any of it, I want to be able to forget it all, I wish SO BADLY that none of this ever happened, it changed everything, but I can't let go of the idea of us in the future one day, happily married, after we've gotten past this mess, I want to get past it so bad, and I've been trying, but it's just always creeping up in the back of my mind, making me doubt everything!" Archie's rant comes to a conclusion, Veronica is half enlightened as to her boyfriends worries, but mostly, she's confused about the main things that worry him, so she 

decided to press on for more info.

She had learned techniques for proper communication, and was keen on proving to Archie that she was understanding him, and could somehow help him through this. "Arch, what specifically is making you doubt us? I know you don't want to upset me, but I have to hear the truth from you" She says.

"Ronnie, there's so much, I don't feel up for this conversation right now, our food will be here soon (he hopes)", looking down at his phone, realizing that almost 40 minutes had passed. He was exhausted and starving, and couldn't handle Veronica's interrogation right now.

"I've spent the last month and a half worrying about if this was the breaking point, and honestly Archie, at some point the pain was so bad that I wished you would just dump me so that I wouldn't be living in a constant state of guilt, but then I realized how selfish I was being..." she trails off.

"You're not selfish, I'm sorry I ever called you selfish, you're the most generous person I know" he scoots closer to her on the couch, face her intensely waiting for her to continue.

"But now I know I want this, you and I, and I know we'll have to work on it, so I was think that maybe we could see a therapist together?" Veronica finishing her sentence to shock in Archie's expression.

"Ronnie, I really don't think that's for me, I can't just talk to strangers" he says.

"Well you can't seem to talk to me either Archie, so I don't see where this goes from here? What we just let the tension swallow us? or tear us apart eventually?" Veronica says becoming more angry with how quickly he shot down the best solution to their issues.

"I mean what do you expect is going to happen if we go on like this?" She yells.

Archie looks at her with astonishment, not realizing that this had been something she wanted badly, for them. Before he could give in and say anything to her, the door bell rang, "I'll get it" Archie practically leapt out of the room full of tension.He quickly grabbed the food and thanked the delivery man before returning to Ronnie.

"So you wanna eat here or in the kitchen?" he says holding up the plastic bag full of take out containers.

"Are we seriously not going to talk about this Archie?" she says clearly a little upset with his dismissal.

"Ronnie..." he whines, an unattractive quality on him, "I'll go, whatever you want, I'm starving let's eat" he says walking toward the kitchen counter and opening up the boxes.

Archie noticed that Veronica ordered him extra of his favourites, and specified the mild instead of spicy sauce that he couldn't handle. Instantly he felt guilty, for being such a stubborn asshole, when all she was trying to do was fix them. He walks over to his girlfriend, who's still upset on the couch.

"I'm sorry" he says, reaching his hands out to pull her up, "I'm hungry and I'm an asshole" he smiles at her face softening, "I know you're right about the therapy, and as much as I would like to fight it, I think maybe we'd get further in if we had a mediator?" He smirks at her.

Veronica laughs as she reaches up to his face to kiss him, "Thank you" she whispers into his mouth as they continue to kiss.

Veronica is happy that he's coming around to the idea, and more so that he's showing significant intent of fixing their relationship too.

She feel less alone suddenly.

There's finally been somewhat of a break through in their status she thinks, as she makes her plate and sits next to Archie on the high stools in the kitchen.

Archie shovels food into his mouth as if he hasn't eaten in days, and originally Veronica found this habit quite annoying and impolite, but now that she's gotten to know his body, she finds it endearing and understands why he's so ready to eat all the time.