do you think Archie found out Veronica was married when they met up at Pop's? I'm thinking about the "I was devastated when I found out you were married" but knowing she had been married for a year already because we saw her and Chad celebrate their one year anniversary. So do you think he found out before while he was in the army?
i think he found out she was with chad via social media. i always had a ~feeling archie would follow her life from a distance and she would do the same to his, just to make sure that the other was safe, given they ended in good terms.
i think they talked a few times through the years even if not regularly, things like birthdays at first (that turned into generic messages after a couple of years, but still reminded), fred's death mark when v would inevitably pray and send archie a sunshine emoji or something like that, just little things. but never a big conversation or exchange, just enough to keep the memory in his heart.
i think whenever he spent too much time without posting anything she'd get worried and ask for a sign of life. i think when he went through really bad stuff, he'd often find comfort looking at her pictures on the feed, in saying hello and getting a heart emoji back.
through social media, he's seen all the boyfriends she paraded around with and he was happy for her. he wanted that for her, she deserved it more than anyone. happiness. and it'd be disappointing to go on dates and have casual sex and never feel anything for anyone, but as long as she was happy it'd be fine. but the pictures would always disappear when a breakup happened.
when chad showed up in her social media, pics and pics of them as friends at pj clarke's happy hours and not long after as lovers in front of the hudson, archie tried his best to cheer for them as time went by and the pics didn't disappear. she stopped sending things or asking for signs of life and archie kind of knew that this was it. during his last mission he didn't have a lot of time to think about social media. there were more pressing matters in fighting a war where a lot of people died because of him, and it was better to be away from her, anyway.
when he was released and went back to riverdale, the first night, in the community center she gifted him with and invested on, he opened instagram after almost a year without checking anything. he followed a bit of jugs career, and betty's pictures of her cat, and then there it was:
from a year ago, veronica in a wedding dress in what looked like a small ceremony, katy and ko kelly with her, a ring on her finger probably more expensive than everything he ever owned, mr. and mrs. gekko. pictures of marsha's vineyard. no more pictures since then.
he just hoped that guy was a good one. that he deserved her.
it was a violent pain, seeing all that. almost like heartburn. he had to blink tears away. she wasn't his girl anymore, she hadn't been his girl for years, he made sure of that.
(and yet, she answered when he called)
