Numbering Their Days

by ForASecondThereWe'dWon

This is a collection of Riverdale stories inspired by prompts in NeonDomino's Bingo Challenge. Characters, ratings, and genres differ from story to story, but will come to include a wide variety of major and minor characters and ratings up to T. M-rated additions will be published separately. Enjoy! LATEST CHAPTER INSPIRED BY THE PROMPT "BABY SHOWER."

1. Speculate

Author's Note:

All of the chapters posted here will be one-shots (I think) working through my assigned card in NeonDomino's Bingo Challenge. For each chapter-story I add, I'll list the prompt that inspired it and the story's rating. Numbering Their Days is rated T, but you can find my M-rated stories for the Bingo Challenge on my profile page.

XO ForASecondThereWe'dWon

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Prompt: 8. (Word) Speculate

Rating: T

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"I thought you only wrote nonfiction," said Archie, taking a crunching bite out of the apple in his hand. "True crime kinda thing."

Jughead rolled his eyes and looked up from his laptop. Archie had his arms draped over the chair's back, the whole thing turned backwards at the Andrews' kitchen table. Jughead had come over to hang out when an idea had struck him and he'd set up shop in the kitchen.

"I do. I did. You know my original manuscript was based on Jason's murder and the investigation and everything."

"So then what's speculative fiction?" Archie reached over and pulled Jughead's computer towards him. His eyes darted across the screen. "Jason didn't get murdered by a swamp monster. Is none of this real?"

Jughead frowned and pulled his laptop back.

"That's the point of speculative fiction, Arch. You're supposed to speculate. We've been so consumed by what happened, this is like taking a break. Thinking about what could have happened."

Jughead chewed his lip and leaned his face close to the screen, riding the crest of a brainwave.

"Except, with this genre stuff, what could have happened is actually stuff that could never happen? Like the zombie apocalypse and Total Recall?"

"Exactly." Jughead's voice was low and serious, but he didn't look up. He didn't even really hear what Archie was saying.

"So, can I have, like, a superpower?"

Jughead's head shot up, a wedge of black hair swinging down from his hat.

"What? No. My story's not even about that."

Archie sighed deeply and slid backwards off his chair, making the legs scrap the floor. He stared down at Jughead, chomping his apple, but his friend was now totally checked out, his fingers clicking frantically as he wrote another dramatic scene for the swamp monster. Archie's shoulders slumped as he faced defeat. He walked out of the room and pounded up the stairs to the second floor. Stopping halfway up, he leaned over the banister and shouted back into the kitchen.

"You know, you're a terrible house guest!"

Jughead raised one hand to give Archie the finger. With the other, he kept typing.