#also this is a straight up proof reading DISASTER so please ignore any tense changes

[jugsdead-blog]

“Please stay.” for Jugronica!

please stay // jeronica

Veronica Lodge hadn’t really imagined herself to be the kind of girl who cries alone on a swing-set in the middle of the night. If anything, she thought she would be alone in her penthouse, wrapped in a silk robe like Britney in the “Lucky” video. Her life, however, has been full of surprises over the course of the last year.

Another night, another verbal sparring match with her mother, another slammed door, and here the great Veronica Lodge sits, alone. “Away from the prying eyes of the masses,” is what she will say if anyone asks her.

Veronica is internally rehearsing the speech she’s going to give her mother upon her own inevitable return home when she is startled out of her thoughts by the heavy sound of footsteps behind her. She whips around to surprise her would-be attacker, but swallows the scream bubbling in her throat as soon as she sees who it is.

Jughead doesn’t even give her the courtesy to look sheepish for scaring her nearly to death. His death, she adds confidently, like he can hear her. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even really acknowledge she is there or that the mascara she had so carefully applied earlier in the day is smudged beyond recognition around her swollen eyes. He just moves to sit in the swing beside her, shoes digging into the gravel below them.

“What are you doing here?” She asks him after a few long seconds. It comes off more accusing than she intends, but he either decides to ignore it or doesn’t catch on.

He digs his feet in deeper. “What I’m always doing: walking to Pop’s. Only I ran into a Nicholas Sparks heroine on the way.” He looks around the darkness and clicks his tongue. “Thing is, I don’t see Ryan Gosling chasing after you, and it’s not raining so…” he trails off. “I thought I may as well step in. See what the deal was”

She’s so caught off-guard that she feels her jaw slacken. “Oh my god, you’ve seen The Notebook. Oh my god, you know who Ryan Gosling is.”

He smirks but there’s no sarcastic bite behind it like there is when he usually smiles at her.  “And yet, no one will believe you when you tell them.”

She sobs a small laugh; the sound reminds her why she’s there in the first place. She feels her face fall and tears spring to her eyes. She looks down, ashamed. No one in Riverdale has seen her cry yet. Before leaving New York, she promised no one ever would.

Veronica hears the gravel rustle under them, and a strange sort of panic rises in her throat.  Before she can stop herself and think about what the hell she is doing, she sniffles a pathetic sounding “Please stay,” and reaches out for his arm, grabbing the cheap fabric of his jacket.

There’s a pause in his movements, but Veronica doesn’t look up at his face, choosing to remain focused not he wear and tear of his jacket. She won’t let Jughead (won’t let anyone) see her face when she’s like this.

“I wasn’t leaving.” He clears his throat, sounding uncharacteristically embarrassed. ”There’s, um, a rock in my shoe.”

“Oh,” Veronica says lamely. But she doesn’t let go of Jughead’s arm and Jughead doesn’t move to pull away.

Her grip tightens on his jacket and she begins to cry, leaning into him slightly, cheek resting lightly on his shoulder. It’s uncomfortable for the both of them; the swings are bent unnaturally to accommodate this strange embrace.

Jughead’s reaction is—different. It isn’t like it would be with Archie: all panicked apologies and unsure touches. Or with Betty, bless her, with big sad eyes and pitying words. Instead, it’s just…Jughead. Sarcastic, brooding Jughead, who remains still and silent as she cries into his shoulder. But he’s the only solid thing in her world right now, so she hangs on.

They stay like that a long while after she finishes, until Veronica stands up and casually offers to treat him to a burger “so as to counter all the blackmail material you currently have on me.”

Jughead doesn’t say a word, only nods and follows her to Pop’s.

In the middle of Jughead’s third burger, when they’re arguing over what Ray Bradbury really meant when he wrote Fahrenheit 451, it occurs to Veronica that she doesn’t know Jughead Jones nearly as well as she should.