I do not own Riverdale, Archie Comics or a lot of cool things. You have been warned.

Chapter One

And then came the downpour.

And though everyone was weaponed with umbrellas, he was not.

And she came, unsuspected, drowning him in the meantime.

The best thing about life is that it is what you make it. Riverdale was exactly as it always was, exactly what the founding fathers made it. Riverdale was nothing more than the sleepy town where I lived my life. Sweet Water River continued to flow, Pop continually fed the youth. The school was made up of a collective of students with promise. The type of kids where the teachers swore that if just given a little more than what Riverdale had to offer, they'd go far. The type of kids where the girls had candy apple red lips and the boys laughed with a boisterous boom. Riverdale was consistent and it never changed which was just as well. Because I, the Riverdale native did not take well to change.

Consistency.

I am nothing if not consistent.

I've already searched for the jacket I wear every day, I spice things up a bit by not attempting to leave it in the same spot.

Inconsistent.

I flick on the radio and hear Creep by Radiohead playing and roll my eyes to myself. Crystal thought it was clever to play a band named Radiohead during her morning announcement which I am sure they would find a crude joke on her behalf considering their success but I never did have the heart to tell her. I do relax a little though to the sound of the song, it just shows that I am consistent enough and I'm not running too late. Unless, of course, she's running late too.

I barely dry myself enough, as I do every day, and sit down on the bed naked wishing I could light up my cigarette here. I would be killed though, so I don't bother.

"Good Morning Riverdale. The sun shines today in some sort of sick joke to tell me that, as per usual I have started the morning without my right-hand man..."

I hear Crystal's voice echo through the room as I hit the alarm on my radio. Shit, super late again.

Late like I am every fucking morning.

My jeans don't move even an inch as I try and pull them up my wet body and I hear the morning cry of Abel telling me that I am, admittedly, running later than usual. Several hushes later and then violent shriek tells me that his mother has managed to calm him. Ok, I am not so sure that he will remain silent and to me it's just a sign that we are in the calm before the storm.

"Juggie!" Veronica slams on the door of my room. "Get up, Crystal's bitching about you on the station and I'm trying my damn hardest not to ring in and join her!"

I groan out loud and hope she hears it because this pounding headache isn't easing up. I scowl at the door and I almost hold up my middle finger to it before I hear little fists pounding along with his mother. "Juggie!" Abel shouts.

I smile to myself and pull up my jeans as hard as I can. The radio reads six-thirty-six. Ok, so six minutes late, not too bad for a Monday. Six minutes late but I haven't even left the house so I fumble around for my keys and shove them in my pocket then reach for the Marlboros on the table next to me, shoving a stick between my lips and I walk out the bedroom door.

I walk down the long corridor that is the connection between me and the other world. The other world being the domestic bliss of this house. Down my end, it's dark, it's not exposed to the afternoon sun at all which I am positive is the perfect condition for growing mould and once I hit that second lounge room – or what Veronica insists we call the 'formal living' – I am in the world of cupcakes, children and a loving relationship. A world encased in a white picket fence and I'm sure, with enough persuading from Ronnie, a dog. A nice dog like a Golden Retriever or Labrador. I walk out of the formal living and straight into a cooked breakfast.

As lovely as this seems, bacon, eggs and toast with a dark haired three-year-old and his mother who spends a small fortune on sculpting her eyebrows, I'm brought right back down to reality.

Veronica is glaring at me with the plate of food hovering over the trash can. I almost leap to the safety of that plate of food. "Ronnie," I say holding my hands up in truce, my unlit cigarette bobbing up and down as I speak. "Don't do that, what has that food ever done to you?" I slowly edge over to her, gently taking the food off her to place back down on the table.

The kitchen was bright, French doors in every direction, expansive benches right from one side of the room to the other, a gigantic sized fridge. Fruit strategically placed on the bench to create the illusion that the occupants of this house might enjoy a health fix from time to time. Sunlight pouring in as though it was the middle of summer but we just left winter. Riverdale was good at that.

Keeping up appearances.

Ronnie shakes her head and slides a cup of coffee along the bench to knock my plate. "White, no sugar," she says with a laugh. "Honestly, you're going to be an hour late, Jug!" she says and then she pulls out a stool for me to sit on.

I take the seat and settle my cigarette next to the coffee. Abel eyes the cigarette curiously but I push it further away. "Not for another twelve years, kid," I say to him but he runs away, toast flying from his tiny mouth.

"I wish you wouldn't say things like that to him, he's impressionable," she says, taking a sip of her own coffee.

"Impressionable?" I say with a mouthful of food, taking a deep sip of my coffee. Our ongoing joke. I like my morning coffee black with three sugars. "He's a kid, he's not going to think back in twelve years and remember I've said that."

"Just get to work, Jughead," she says shaking her phone in my face. "Seriously, I will call in."

"I don't take kindly to threats," I say with a shrug. The food is gone from my plate and I should be running out the door but I shove the cigarette back in my mouth and pull out my keys. "Another day in the life, eh Ronnie?"

She smiles and pats me on the back as I go to walk out the house. "Jug?"

"Hmm," I say, drinking back my coffee before handing the empty cup to her and then tightening my belt.

"You need a shirt."

"Uggh!" I almost yell before finding my flannel hanging on the front door handle. "Archie must have known," I say pulling my arms through. "Tell him thanks!"

"He reads your mind," Ronnie replies, rolling her eyes. "Abel, come and say goodbye to Uncle Jug!"

Abel comes running through the corridor and I give him a wave, "See ya later, Kid!" I yell behind me rushing to my beat-up car to get to work, no doubt hearing the very obvious digs from Crystal Myers on my way there.

"Have a great day, Holden Caulfield!" shouts Veronica, at least I start my day with a smile.

"Good morning Riverdale! For those who have been following, Jughead Jones has just signed his own death sentence – ah! Sorry guys, here he is now!"

I saunter in slowly as not to distract but I shake my head and mouth to her; "Sorry, car problems," which she just rolls her eyes at me in reply. She knows by now I have every excuse under the sun. Not that she believes any of them but at least I try and give her an excuse, right? Not much use in just admitting that I am shit at keeping the time.

I drop my bag on the floor next to my seat and pull my hat down further on my head. It was going to be a shit day but at least I still have this second cup of cold coffee sitting on my desk which Crystal must have made about an hour ago, I drink some down.

She announces the next song and then glares at me from across the desk before standing. Crystal was slim and dark eyed with even darker, butt length hair that she wore down at all times and had a glare that has easily killed me one hundred times over. I shrink back in my seat. "Cryss," I start, putting my hands up in truce for the second time this morning. "I had a rough night..."

She just shakes her head and shoves a pile of papers to me. "A rough night?" she hisses, "You were at mine for most of that night, you stayed up late writing again, didn't you? By the way, you have ash on your shirt..."

I pretend to look shocked by her accusations but damn, she knew me well enough to know I had been up writing until God only knows when, I stutter a bit. "Well maybe a little," I try as I brush the ash off my shirt. Crystal sighs and then takes a sip of her own coffee. "Hey! Why is your coffee hot?"

She laughs. "Yours would have been too if you had been on time!"

"Touché," I reply.

I flick through the pile of papers she gave me and read over the plan for the day and then read out one of our fan questions. "Dear Jug and Cryss – hey, that's us!" I say pointing at Crystal jokingly, "My girlfriend has been accepted to College out of state and I haven't. Is long distance worth pursuing? Or do you think it's a lost cause?" I feel my mouth getting dry but Cryss looks up from the song list and nods her head.

"Keep going," she mumbles. "Otherwise I have to read the list of dribble the other kids have sent through."

I lick my lips and keep reading, the words seem to grow on the paper but Cryss is waiting so I continue. "I would appreciate your help because I don't know what to do. Water Vixen's Man."

I snigger and try to laugh it off a bit. "Ok, so now it's an investigation between which one of the ten water vixens have been accepted to an outside college, these kids are stupid."

"You and your damn investigations, Jug. Not everything needs to be investigated!"

"At school," I start but I noticed Cryss puts her hand up when the song finished and I thank her for that because I didn't really want to get into what I did at school.

"Good morning, Riverdale and my apologies," I start with a grin. "It's shining out there -"

"And yes, you got to see a lot more of that when you were running late, didn't you Jug?"

"Yes," I agree, "I might have but I feel I saw a lot more of the back of my eyelids."

Crystal laughs, "Go on!"

"We had a submission this morning from River Vixen's Man, 'Dear Cryss and Jug' – which is us by the way - 'My girlfriend has been accepted to College out of state and I haven't. Is long distance worth pursuing? Or do you think it's a lost cause? I would appreciate your help because I don't know what to do' well, that's a tough one."

A tough one? A tough one? I feel manic laughing at myself internally. That's one of the first signs of craziness, right? I feel a little crazy. I feel like I have space travelled back in time, five years back. The smell of cigarettes and vanilla already hazing my mind as Cryss talks in slow motion.

"Relationship advice? Well Jug here isn't great at that, didn't you once say you had a relationship with a bird?"

I force a laugh, trying to shake the smell out of my memory bank, such a disrespectful thing, that memory. Trying to remind me of vanilla. I can barely stand the sight of a vanilla shake these days. "In my defence," I reply. "it did frequent my car daily for about a month. Longer than most people in my life..."

Crystal laughs out loud but eyes me seriously. Shit, now I'm going to get a heart to heart, one on one session with her when we're done. "But in all seriousness, Water Vixen Man, it's a tough one."

I sigh out loud and speak up. "I can't imagine long distance being easy but if the love is there..."

"Seventeen-year old's change though, if she's your first love, then maybe it's worth the break. How many people can say they're with their High School Sweetheart? I'll open the lines for High School Sweethearts to call in and prove me wrong."

I chuckle, knowing that Ronnie will be listening in. "I don't want people that I live in calling in, you hear me, Ronnie?"

Crystal bites her lip and smiles. "Any advice, Jughead?"

Advice? I have a list of things to say, I keep a scroll in my pocket about what not to do. "All I say is that love conquers all, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. If you love something, sometimes you have to let it go. Any other clichés?"

"Be serious, Jug!"

I sigh and run my hand over my face. I feel my heart start beating faster and the slightest amount of anxiety catch in my throat. Fuck you, Water Vixen Man. "You gotta let go and let her see the world. All the best parts, all the crap parts. The parts that you're not in. Because she's either going to love it and leave. Or she'll hate it and somehow fit you into her world again."

"Woah dude," Crystal says with an amused smirk. "That's really philosophical!"

I shrug and grin back.

It's been five years of feeling sorry for myself so I have a collection of philosophical musings in my mind.

"Jug," Crystal starts, "We have Veronica Andrews trying to call in, you want to let her through?"

I just shake my head.

Riverdale remains as sleepy as it always has. I often form visions in my mind of leaving this place, cutting the ties, loosening these shackles. Maybe I would get some big gig in New York city. I feel like I know New York, the falling snow, the noisy streets. Walking through Broadway with a hot latte and a croissant, some high-ended affair in Manhattan. I feel like Ronnie has told me so much about New York that maybe I had grown up there too. I needed to upgrade my life. But the truth is I haven't even upgraded my phone or the cheap brand of cigarettes that I have been smoking since I was sixteen. Dad always said I romanticised Riverdale, oh to live the American Dream. It was just that, a whole lot of dreams that I never, ever lived. I just think that maybe Dad dreamed as much as I did but never admitted it.

I stood out on the street and leaned on a lamppost, pools of water forming near my feet. Crystal had insisted that the sun would stay out the entire day but I knew better than that. The strong smell of coffee beans infiltrated the air and tangled with my cigarette smoke. The Coffee Club had the best coffee in town, there was no denying. I could barely stand the smell of a vanilla shake let alone sit in Pop's most days so Archie came to the party and we have now been frequenting Coffee Club for years. Archie was inside getting my double shot latte and scowling at me from indoors. It was his ritual. To frown upon my smoking addiction.

I see him shove the glass door with his foot and come outside to meet me.

My best friend was still the same. The love and respect I have for this six-foot-something red head was what Ronnie describes as 'sickening' but he was always here for me and, well, I owe him my life. I owe him my car and the roof over my head and quite often the food in my stomach. The coffee that I am about to devour, like I haven't been quenched in a month. And though I could go on and on for months about the love I have for my best friend, I don't voice it because he is glaring at me as I take a drag of my smoke.

"Thanks for coming, man," he says, taking a sip of his own cup.

I shrug. "It's four PM," I say with a smirk. "You know what that means."

Four PM on the dot. Our daily coffee date. He always thanks me like it must have been a huge effort to find the thirty minutes to come out here with him. As if I we don't do this every day. I never say anything though. Archie pulls his jacket higher up his neck and takes a sigh of relief. "Coffee date," he says bumping his shoulder to mine but the I realise something.

"Where's V?" I ask. Not having Ronnie here is a cardinal sin and the only thing I can think of that would warrant her not being here is either the kid is sick or she's at her mom's. "No espresso today, huh?"

Archie just nods quickly. "Yeah."

"Yeah. What?" my eyes widen a bit as I chuck my cigarette out. "She's not pissed at me because I left a towel in the bathroom, is she? I thought we'd agreed she won't go in there anymore..."

Archie laughs but shakes his head. "You know my wife likes things..."

"Obsessively, compulsively, disorderedly clean?"

"Well, yeah," Archie replies with a shrug. "You could say that. Disorderedly?" he asks.

"I just did a thing, don't think too much into it," I reply smirking.

"Don't worry, I won't."

We stand in relative silence and it's the little things that Archie Andrews doesn't usually do that catches my attention like the way he usually doesn't pick at the hem of his jacket or how he doesn't usually just stare at cars driving by like they're of an interest to him or how today he's not talking about how gifted his music kids are and he's not banging on about the amount of talent there is in Riverdale and asking me to try and get their music on the station. "Something eating away at you, Arch?"

Archie laughs. And it's loud. "What? Noooo!"

I raise an eyebrow, that was not such a convincing 'no', I feel. "No?"

He laughs again. "What?"

I grab my friend by the shoulders and shake him. "Man, we've shared a home since we were sixteen. You and your wife literally came home from your Honeymoon and I was living at your house. I know you. So, tell me why the fuck you're acting so weird."

Archie takes another long sip of his coffee and then points at mine as if trying to encourage me to drink too. "Long day, bro," he says quietly. "Sorry."

I just nod in acceptance and wonder if maybe Ronnie's not here because they've been fighting so I leave it. The last thing I need is to be trapped in a lovers quarrel because Veronica will then lay into me and she scares the shit out of me. "Don't worry about it. It's been a long day here too."

Archie nods in agreeance, his brown eyes flicking up to meet mine. "I heard your question on the radio."

I don't skip a beat. "Don't, Arch."

"What?" he says throwing his hands in the air. "You gave that kid a good answer. All morning in the staff room we were trying to figure out who Water Vixen's Man, was."

"Such enthralling conversations in the Riverdale High staff room I am sure."

"Oh ha-ha," he adds sarcastically. "But seriously, you answered well considering you went through that with Betty."

I hold up my hand, trying to silence him. "Don't Arch."

Archie always had the increasingly annoying knack of saying things and asking question when any other normal human being would not. When we were kids, I used to put it down to him just being a little more immature than others. Now that I've known him twenty years, I figured it's just him.

He sighs and runs a hand through his red hair. "Jug, it's been years. And I don't know why you're so wound up about it. You were eighteen and she went to College, she didn't die. And now look, you gave some sound advice to a kid whose girlfriend is going away. Like Crystal said this morning, it's not like everyone ends up with their High School Sweetheart."

"Easy for you to say, you did," I mutter.

He just nods. We've had this conversation at least a million times in the last five years. And it goes around and around in circles. Sentence structures and replies only varying slightly.

Archie throws his cup in the trash can. "She left to study. She has a phone. She has a computer. You could have emailed, called, texted..."

I sigh impatiently. Yes, there was a thousand things I could have done. "Well I didn't. And you're right. It's been years." Five years to be exact, not that I have been counting.

"V, Kev, Josie, Reggie, shit even Cheryl, we all went and visited."

Archie pulls up the hood of his jacket and I was counting down the seconds until he left because I didn't want to hear all the things that I could have done. "I gotta wind up this afternoon, I'll see you at home," I force out.

He nods. "See you soon."

I was like a kid throwing a tantrum. It was ok for Archie, just as always everything turned out for him. He had the girl, the job, the kid, the house.

He also had his best friend living with him like he always has since we were sixteen.

And like the true Jones I am, I only had the few cards I was dealt and none of them played out right.

I got home after signing out for the day. V texted to let me know it was burgers for dinner tonight and I wracked my brain for what I could have done to deserve such a luxury. I almost drooled on myself as I was thinking about what she might put on my burgers or if maybe she had ordered from Pop's instead.

I pulled up into the driveway and Archie had beat me home, maybe he felt bad for bringing up Betty and so he conned Ronnie into feeding me. They knew the way to my heart.

I swung open the door of the house, Abel was asleep on some sort of make shift bed he had created out of his mom's good towels, both her and Archie were standing in the door way, smiling at me. I point down at Abel, "Looks similar to what I used to sleep on when we were at High School."

Archie laughs but Ronnie looks shocked and shakes her head; "Jug," she says, shoving my shoulder. "Don't say that!"

"A joke, V," adds Archie, "Just a joke."

"It would have been funnier if it wasn't the truth," she says.

I sigh out loud and chuck my jacket on the sofa. "Don't get so wound up, Ronnie," I say throwing my cigarettes on the kitchen bench. "We don't need your negative vibes infiltrating the burgers."

She spins on her heels to smile at me and Archie takes a stool next to me, fingering the packet of cigarettes and frowning. "How many of these do you go through a day?"

Twenty. "Five or six," I say with a shrug. He nods in approval.

"I'm just cooking off dessert and then we can eat. Oh, you're awake baby!" she says as Abel runs to his mom's side.

Archie keeps quiet but I'm too busy trying to figure out what's in the oven for desert. I couldn't smell it yet but I am starving from not having eaten since breakfast. Archie grins as Abel runs to the side of the bench where we are. "Hey Buddy," he says giving Abel a hug. "You gonna give some love to uncle Juggie too?"

Abel nods and throws his body to my direction so I scoop him up in my arms and give him a kiss. I love this kid. I've literally been in this kids life since the moment he was born. I give him a tickle and kicks me to let him free. "Fine kid," I say placing him on the floor. "But don't come screaming to me when you don't get your way."

"I don't scream," Abel replies seriously, well, as seriously as a three-and-a-half-year-old can, "Screaming is for babies."

"I thought you were a baby?" I argue back but he runs away.

Ronnie clears her throat. "Had a good day, Jug?"

I nod and take a sip of the cola she just handed me. A good day? I guess so. Consistently good just like the rest. "Sure, it was good."

"And how are things going with Crystal?"

I laugh to myself and Archie gives me an apologetic look. "What do you mean, Ronnie?"

She tries to appear non-prying but, that's not the way of Veronica Andrews. "Oh," she says with a small shrug, wiping down the bench. "I just, well, she's different, isn't she?"

Different? Amazing? Carefree? Funny. "Sure."

"It's just that Archie needs to tell you something."

Archie chokes on his drink and his eyes widen. Something tells me that Archie wasn't planning on telling me anything. These two were nuts and now I'm smack bang in the middle of it. "I was?" he asks.

I withhold a grin and raise an eyebrow to my friend. "Yeah Arch?"

Archie glares at Ronnie but it just makes her place her hands on her hips. "Yes!"

"About Crystal?" I ask them. "What does me and Crystal have to with anything?"

"Everyth-" Veronica starts but Archie holds up his hand.

"V, stop, Crystal has nothing to do with this... I don't even know why you mentioned her," he says with a questioning laugh.

"You're right," Ronnie says. "I just... wanted to know?"

Archie sighs loudly and then turns to look at me. "We have an announcement. I just don't know how to tell you."

"He knows exactly how to tell you, he just won't!" Ronnie pipes up.

I start laughing. "Guys, it's just me. Jughead. You know, the guy you've known your whole lives... lives in your house... eats your food..."

"Fine, if you won't make the announcement, then I will!" Ronnie stated.

I hold back a laugh. "Don't tell me you're having another kid," I say with a wink. "This little dude is enough for me," I say, throwing my thumb over my shoulder to where I can hear very loud singing.

"I ate flowers today!" Abel says running over to me and pointing at his stomach.

"Well Uncle Juggie ate crap all day," I reply.

"Jug!" Ronnie whines, "Honestly!"

I look at Archie and Ronnie, "Well?"

Archie shook his head but sat down at took a sip of his soda. "Uh..."

"So, you guys are having another baby?" I ask.

Ronnie steps back from the bench and flattens her dress, takes a deep breath and blurts out; "Betty's moved back in town, she's here!"

It was like a foreshadowing that I should have paid more attention to. River Vixen's Man, Archie being weird at coffee date. The universe was trying to tell me something but I didn't listen. If I had listened then maybe I wouldn't be standing here right now with my mouth open so wide, it was about to catch flies. Abel was tugging at my shirt, trying to get my attention but I couldn't pry my eyes away from his parents. The way Archie's face contorted or the way Veronica just stood there with her hands on her hips just waiting for me to respond.

It was like the heart I once owned before it was torn out, was shoved back into its empty cavity but it just doesn't fit properly any more.

Betty Cooper was in town. Here, in Riverdale where I live.

Betty Cooper was back in town for good.

"Well ain't that a kick in the metaphorical guts," I say forcing a laugh.

Archie tries to laugh too and I give my friend a nod in respect. He was trying to make this as simple as possible but naturally, in the life of Jughead Jones, things weren't so simple. "Yeah."

Veronica rolls her eyes and shrugs. "She's back to live."

My life was permanently put on hold. Betty was back in town and she mentions it as if things were as they were five years ago, would it be a rewinding of time where we would go strolling through the woods? Go and watch Archie play music as if we were some sort of cult following and then go and sit in her sickeningly pink room and talk about our dreams and aspirations? Where we thought, we were young gods trying to decipher the way of the world? Veronica had a gift in pretending we were still the same young gods we were all those years ago.

Veronica's candy apple red lips moved almost as if in slow motion. I could barely make out the words she was saying. I could hear her describing Betty's shotgun trip home and how Mama Cooper was so happy and now Betty's a teacher at the High School and Archie was so pleased because he got to see her everyday just like every other mundane day in his life from birth until the reckoning that was Betty's leaving.

It was like watching an art form unravel in front of my very eyes. Veronica's arms flew through the air and her grin explained so much to me. She was happy to have her friend home. She believed Betty would just slot right in next to us during coffee date and would be a standard guest at Veronica's candle light suppers. Archie seems to believe it too because his eyes are stuck to his wife, nodding at the right times, make sounds to show he is listening.

Jughead on the other hand? Well, I can barely process anything past Betty's name.

"That's great," I say clapping my hands together. "I'm so happy for her."

Ronnie just bites her lip and slides a plate across the table in the same fashion she did this morning when she fed me. "Hungry?"

"I'm not hungry," I mumble as I shove back from the bench and jump off the stool. I snatch my cigarettes off the bench too and start to head out of the kitchen but I have second thoughts.

I turn around and see Veronica has placed a glass next to the plate, I walk back. "Sorry," I say quietly. "I'm actually starving now."

I will go and eat these in the darkness of my room.

I eat and then lay back in my bed, not even bothering to unzip my jacket or kick off my Docs. I close my eyes.

Lace. Hands smoothing over lace, nails sticking to the gaps, threads unravelling. Splayed fingers on dimples of hips, teeth pulling at flesh. Laughter against lips.

Cracking of thunder, pattering of rain, bare feet on concrete. High ponytails and pulling of hair. Hard grips. Fingers between thighs and back scratching.

Tonight, I don't even bother trying to force myself not to dream or breathe.

My thoughts are short and abrupt and stuck in my eighteen-year-old brain.

I reach for my laptop that's been on all day, scrolling through the crap that is my jotted down notes of writing and start typing.

And then came the downpour.

And though everyone was weaponed with umbrellas, he was not.

And she came, unsuspected, drowning him in the meantime.

And for once in a long time, the words came a little easier than they had before.

Author's Note: I should not have published this but, alas, I did much to the dismay of my friend Bekah, I am sure.

Not sure if I am going to finish this or not, I guess with the right amount of interest, I shall.

A shout to Bekah of course and Meg, love you both for your encouragement!

- Cara