[Reason tells her that staying is wrong, but that's in the bigger picture. In the immediate moment, she's holding the hand of the boy she's missed all summer. She's kissed other guys, but it was always one-offs, never sex, never anything that would amount to anything. They had broken up, they had, but Veronica wonders if she fooled herself when she believed she wasn't counting down the days to ... this. Here. Him.

Veronica lifts up his hand, fingers still twined, but all with the intention of pushing him and it back, hand placed over his head, fingers untangling and retangling as he finds herself satisfied by the closeness that she's brought them to.]

I'm worried about what's going to happen to you when I leave. To us. [But she knows her father won't hurt her, not in the way he might her mother.]

But I think, ultimately ... [Her eyes find his here, as her body shifts more comfortably so her body is placed over his, legs on each side.] It's unfair to leave. For both of us. [They can make it work. And if there's anything about straddling Archie Andrews, it's that it sends a big message.]