AN/ HEY GUYS! I PROMISED A SEQUEL, AND HERE IT IS. DON'T HATE ME TOO MUCH FOR THE TIME JUMP BUT I PROMISE I'LL MAKE UP FOR IT. I HAVEN'T SAID THIS, BUT COMING BACK TO WRITING, BACK TO THIS STORY, IT'S LIKE COMING HOME. I'VE MISSED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, AND I DIDN'T REALISE HOW BIG A PART OF MY LIFE THIS WAS UNTIL I BEGAN WRITING AGAIN FOR REAL ON THURSDAY. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT UP TO NOW AND I HOPE IT CAN CONTINUE :)
TO ANY NEW READERS WHO HAVE HAPPENED TO JOIN US WITH THIS, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! HAVE SOME LOVE *SENDS LOTS OF LOVE* THIS IS A SEQUEL, SO I'D RECOMMEND READING THE PREVIOUS INSTALMENT 'I'LL BE HERE WHEN NOBODY ELSE WILL' BECAUSE I'M NOT SURE IF THIS WILL REFER TO IT MUCH YET.
FINGERS CROSSED THIS DOESN'T SUCK TOO MUCH.
HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY IT...
It had been eleven years since Cheryl Blossom had been in Riverdale. Eleven years. Somehow, eleven years had passed since she'd last been here, and though her own life had changed drastically, the town appeared remarkably unchanged.
As she carefully drove down Main Street, she stole a glance at her son in the passenger seat. Jason Blossom was now ten. Where had those years gone? Cheryl wasn't sure, because it felt like only yesterday that she had left the hospital, aged just nineteen, cradling her tiny bundle of joy, promising he would be happy forever.
At first, seeing her new-born son had been hard for Cheryl, because he was the double of his uncle. Jason Blossom looked just like his namesake. He had the same ginger hair, the same build, and - as he grew older – the same expressions as his long-dead uncle.
Thankfully, these days, Jason showed very few characteristics that would link him to his father, John-Phillipe Thibedeau. The boy might be fluent in French, but other than that, everything about him would make an onlooker only think of his mother. To hear him talk, and to see him interact with others, it was like watching Cheryl. That was what Veronica had said that week when she'd stayed with them in New York. And that made Cheryl's chest swell with pride that her son was just like his mother, and not a bit like his father.
She was glad of that, because Jason's father had turned out to be more of a monster than a Prince Charming.
Breaking up with John-Phillipe had been hard. It had been difficult, and messy, considering they had never been married in the first place. The court cases had been disastrous, and getting her share of the apartment had been nearly impossible. Yet she had done it, and with John-Phillipe running off to Paris with that disgusting floozy Cheryl had caught him in their bed with, Cheryl had now full custody of their son, Jason. Closing that particular chapter of her life had been a long and arduous process, but now it was done, Cheryl was more than ready to start writing the next one.
That's why she was returning to her roots in Riverdale. Over the last twelve years, she had abandoned pretty much everything that had happened to her in the town, reinventing her life and her personality as soon as she arrived in New York.
In New York, she wasn't Cheryl Blossom: sister of the dead boy; she was Cheryl Blossom: girlfriend of the hottest foreign student in the city.
However, the second John-Phillipe left, her new life, the new Cheryl, it all began to unfurl, and she suddenly found herself back where she was as a teen; completely lost with no idea where to turn. She had to find herself again, find what she loved.
Sure, she had Jason, but there was something missing. If she was completely honest, that something had been missing long before she met her ex-boyfriend. That something was what Cheryl desperately needed now everything was falling apart again.
And the only place she could find that something was in Riverdale…
"So this is where you grew up?" Jason asked, as he looked around the abandoned streets. "It's pretty quiet…"
"Not every where's like New York, Jay-Jay," Cheryl replied, smiling softly at her son.
"I don't get why we had to move. We could have stayed at home."
"Jay-Jay, we've been through this, we had to move, and since your dad ran off with all the money, there was no way we could afford property in New York."
"And somehow, we can afford property here?" Jason asked, repeating the sceptical response of his father when he had told him on the phone a day earlier.
"Yes we can." Cheryl muttered, as the car passed Riverdale High. "We don't need to worry about money living here. We're going back to my old house."
"But doesn't Granny live there?" Jason mumbled, his voice shaking with nerves.
"She lives in Thornhill, just outside of town. It got rebuilt a few years ago, and Thistlehouse – our house – got left empty. When Great-Nana Rose died, she left the house to me, so it's ours."
"But isn't Thistlehouse the haunted house?" her son quivered.
Cheryl rolled her eyes, silently cursing herself for letting Betty and Jughead babysit her son when they were in New York a few years ago. "There are no ghosts in Thistlehouse," she hesitated, sounding like she was trying to convince herself, never mind Jason. "That was just Uncle Jug trying to scare you. You know what he's like with his stories."
"Can we see Aunty B and Uncle Jug? And Auntie V?"
"I don't see why not," Cheryl nodded, turning her car off of Main Street. "Why don't we pop and see the Jones' now?"
"Can we?" he begged, grinning at his mother.
That smile, and the sound of excitement in his voice, was the first time they had been seen in her son since she and John-Phillipe told him they were breaking up. Jason had been miserable for the last three months because of it, and since Cheryl had taken him away from all of his friends in New York back to her childhood town of Riverdale, he had hit an all-time low. Watching his grin made Cheryl beam, and she pulled up outside the offices of the Riverdale Register.
Walking into the building, Cheryl was struck once again by just how much time seemed to have stood still in the town over the last twelve years. The boards around the reception were the same as they were twelve years ago, and – as she remembered – an entire wall was devoted to *that* news story; the one news story Cheryl did not want to see still plastered on the wall.
Grimacing, Cheryl turned her back from the board where the words FOURTH JULY TRAGEDY TAKES SINISTER TWIST: JASON BLOSSOM MURDERED screamed out from all directions, along with the photo of her twin brother staring at her.
"Isn't that Uncle Jason?" the boy asked, looking at his mother for confirmation.
"Yeah," Cheryl replied, her voice cracking as she thought of her brother.
"He looks cool."
"He was," she stammered, her eyes pooling with tears. "He loved football JJ, just like you. He loved dinosaurs too when we were kids, and those stupid cards…"
"Pokémon!" Jason interrupted, glaring at his mom for calling them stupid.
"Sorry," Cheryl yelped when her son snapped, smirking slightly at how offended he was about her dismissing his card game. "He had tonnes of the things, more than you could imagine."
"I wish I could meet him, Mom," Jason stated, noticing how thoughtful his mother had gotten. "Do you think he would've liked me?"
"He'd have loved you JJ." Cheryl chuckled, smiling at her son with pride. "He'd have been the most amazing father, and uncle. You two would have been best friends…"
Noticing the suddenly wistful expression on his mother's face, Jason nodded slowly, turning to read some of the other stories to give his mum some time to think. He knew that his mum still desperately missed her brother, and it was one of the reasons why she never went anywhere near Riverdale. His Aunt Polly had always joked that it was like Cheryl was scared the town had an outbreak of plague or something, which was why people always had to come to their home in New York.
Jason himself knew it was more than that, it wasn't the things living in Riverdale that his mother was scared to be exposed to: it was the memories, and it was more than that… it was the ghosts.
The ghost of his uncle's smile, the smile that was apparently identical to his own. The way Cheryl's expression always became one of grief when he smiled made Jason sad. The ghosts of the past were things that were always walking around in Riverdale, according to Cheryl. Jason knew how much Cheryl hated moving back here, because his mother had spent so much of her life trying to escape her past, yet now, she had been made to dive headfirst into it. He hated how upset his mother had been these last few months, and desperately hoped that this might be the turning point she needed.
After all, his Uncle Jug had always said anything can happen in Riverdale…
A woman with greying hair shuffled out of the office and stood behind the desk, hastily sorting through scattered papers.
"Mrs Cooper?" Cheryl asked, and watched sceptically as the woman behind the desk's head shot up, and blinked in disbelief when the woman did a double take.
"Cheryl Blossom?" the woman replied, looking Cheryl up and down. "Do my eyes deceive me?"
"Your eyesight is perfectly fine Mrs Cooper."
"What brings you here? And after all this time…"
"Are Betty and Jug here?" Cheryl interrupted, not really wanting to have that conversation with the older woman.
"Of course, they're just in the office, I'll go tell them you've come, they'll be so happy to see you," Alice gushed, turning to go into the office, but immediately turning back to Cheryl when she saw Jason. "And who's this handsome young man?"
"This is Jason, Mrs Blossom, my son."
"Jason? Isn't he the double of…"
"He does have a look of my brother, doesn't he?" she said, cutting in with her own opinion so she didn't have to hear her brother's name drop out of Alice Cooper's lips.
"How old is he?" the woman inquired, focusing her gaze on Jason himself.
"I'm ten." Jason replied with a proud smile.
Alice looked wistfully at the boy, in a similar way to Cheryl. Sure, she would never be able to forgive the young boy's namesake for everything that happened with Polly, but there was no denying that Jason Blossom had been one hell of a charmer all those years ago.
"Anyway," Alice stammered, turning towards the office, "I'll tell Elizabeth and… Jughead… that you are here."
Cheryl smirked as Mrs Cooper opened the door to the office and shut it softly behind her.
Jason let out his barely stifled giggles. "She really doesn't like Uncle Jug does she?"
Cheryl turned to smile at her son and wrapped her arm around his shoulder and pulling him in for a hug. "No, she doesn't. Never has done."
"But whyyyyy?" Jason groaned.
"Becausssse," Cheryl teased playfully, "Uncle Jug came from the wrong side of town."
"But he's a Southside badass!" Jason replied.
"Jason Blossom!" Cheryl scolded, "I have never once introduced you to foul language such as that. Who on earth exposed you to that kind of word?"
"That would be me," a voice declared from behind Cheryl and Jason's eyes lit up.
"Uncle Jug!" he exclaimed, running into the open arms of Jughead Jones.
"I've missed you bud," Jughead said with a smile, picking up Jason and swinging him in his arms. He looked up to Cheryl with a smirk. "Nice to see you Bombshell."
"You too Hobo," Cheryl replied without missing a beat. "Where's the Hobo's wife?"
"Right here," Betty said as she walked back into the room, closely followed by her mother. "My, my Jason, look at how grown up you are all of a sudden!"
Jason took a step back and wrapped his arms over his chest, blushing slightly.
"Aww, feeling shy JJ?" Cheryl teased, hugging her son.
He shook his head furiously, moving to hide behind his mum.
"Bless him," Betty crooned, smiling softly at Cheryl and Jason. "He's adorable."
There was a low rumbling sound and Jughead laughed. "The kid's hungry."
"Clearly takes after his Uncle Jughead," Cheryl sniped with a smirk, holding her hands up in mock surrender when she saw Jughead's reaction of faux anger. "So kiddo… what do you crave?"
"I could go burger…" he suggested. "Can we get a McDonald's?"
Betty, Jughead and Alice let out a low, knowing laugh at that question.
"Are you telling me eleven years later Riverdale still doesn't have McDonald's?" Cheryl interrogated, and the trio laughed harder. "Some places really do stay frozen in time, don't they?"
"But I want a cheeseburger mum…" Jason groaned.
"How about we get a burger at Pop's, JJ?" Cheryl suggested, "I'm sure Pop Tate still owns his diner right?"
"Obviously," Jughead replied proudly. He turned to Jason, "He makes the best burgers in all of America bud."
"I find that hard to believe," Jason stated, crossing his arms and placing heavy emphasis on the word 'I' in a manner so identical to Cheryl's that it left the four adults reeling.
"If that hasn't changed, your Uncle Jug is telling the truth JJ," Cheryl replied. "I'd kill for some cherry cola if he still sells it."
"Cherry cola for Cherry Bombshell," Jughead whispered, and Cheryl's eyes narrowed instantly. "Shit, sorry Cheryl," Jughead apologised, "I didn't realise she was still a sore point."
"Who's she?" Jason demanded to know.
Betty opened her mouth to speak but Cheryl immediately responded to her son's question. "Nobody, Jason. Just somebody I used to know."
Jughead and Betty shook their heads at Cheryl and Jason looked at his mum in confusion.
"Are you sure of that mum?"
"Very, JJ," she replied, hastily pulling her car keys out of her bag and handing them to her son. "Take these and go get in the car. I'll be out in a second."
Confused and slightly hurt, Jason frowned before hugging Betty and giving Jughead a halfhearted high five on his way towards the door.
As soon as the door shut behind Jason, Betty turned to Cheryl. "I know she's still hard for you to talk about, but please don't blame the kid for that."
"I'm not," Cheryl insisted. "Jason just doesn't need to know about that specific chapter of my life. He already knows I'm terrified of my mother being released from prison for good behaviour and keeping a suspiciously low profile at Thornhill. He doesn't need to know anything else."
"Toni was never a bad thing though Cheryl," Jughead argued hating the wounded expression on Cheryl's face at the mere mention of her ex-girlfriend's name.
"I know," the redhead confessed. "She's just my greatest regret."
Betty smiled sadly and gave the redhead a hug. "That's natural."
Cheryl shrugged her off. "It's been eleven, nearly twelve, years since I left this place. Why am I still not over her?"
"Because you still love her," Jughead replied, his voice taking on the disturbing tone of an omniscient narrator. "You always have loved her and you probably always will."
"I wish I didn't love her," Cheryl confessed. "My life would be so much easier if I didn't."
"Well, nothing worth having comes easy," Betty interjected. "And Toni Topaz was definitely worth having."
"I wonder what she's like these days," Cheryl pondered wistfully before regaining her composure. "No, I don't wonder. I can't wonder." The redhead shook her head as she spoke, before turning to leave. "I'm going to go join JJ and take him for lunch. It was nice seeing you guys."
"She's still the same girl she was eleven years ago Cheryl Blossom," Jughead called after her, and smiled softly at Betty when he heard the door shut after the redhead. "And she still loves you."
Betty slapped him mockingly on the arm. "Don't go telling her that. Some wounds are best left unopened."
"Is that for her sake or Toni's?" Jughead asked.
"I honestly don't know," Betty replied, shrugging her shoulders. "I just know Toni's heart is going to shatter the second she sees Cheryl."
AN/ THANK YOU SO SO MUCH FOR READING THIS CHAPTER AND SUPPORTING (OR CONTINUING TO SUPPORT) THIS FAMILY. PLEASE KEEP ME POSTED ON WHAT YOU THINK GUYS! SEVEN REVIEWS AND I WILL POST THE NEXT CHAPTER. I'M SO GLAD TO BE BACK!