People often ask me about “Betty and Veronica,” a short story I originally published in the literary journal Gargoyle in 2010 and again in my short story collection in 2012. Why? Probably because famous writer and thinker Roxane Gay named it as the highlight of “her favorite book no one has ever heard of” in a 2017 New York Times “By the Book” interview.
Seeing that the collection is out of print (it depresses me that no one has ever expressed interest in republishing it), I offer a PDF of the story below for those curious. It might seem quaint and obvious now, but keep in mind that I wrote and published it years before that Riverdale show and even before the introduction of Kevin Keller, the Archie universe’s first gay character.