Betty spent the next week trying to immerse herself in school and work and find some kind of normalcy. She had occasionally still found her mind running back to what had happened to Jason and his death. The police said they had found his body, bloated and slightly decayed in the river which meant he had been in there for at least days if not weeks, but how Jason's body would fall into the river after his suicide was still not sitting right for her, she would start to think of possible scenarios, but they were always stopped short when she would hear his voice…
You need to understand that what you are doing is dangerous…
Jughead's words rang through her head like a broken record, the second she found herself digging into it she would hear him and for some reason she couldn't stop the shiver it sent up her spine. And without knowing exactly why she would heed his warning and try to drop the unnerving instinct and need to uncover more. It wasn't like her to give up, but there was something more sinister behind all the events that had happened, and the fact that she was a young 17-year-old high school student was not lost on her. Until she had a better grasp on who or what was behind all of this she knew digging wasn't a great plan.
She attended all her classes, finished all her work in a timely manner, and managed the Ice Cream store after school hours while still finding time to sit in Archie's room and study while he plucked away cluelessly at somewhat out of tune strings or go shopping with Veronica, maybe even still get grilled about her encounter at the Wyrm from Kevin. But as the days dragged on her feet began to feel like they were dragging as well in her pristine white chucks. It was finally Friday and Archie had a football game that night that she had promised she would go to. She got ready for school just like any other day, but as she started to descend her stairs she heard her mom in the kitchen speaking in a hushed tone. Betty halted on the last step straining to hear, her books clutched to her chest.
"I am a reporter, I report the news and the truth," Alice hissed into the phone. Betty took another step forward, but it was impossible to hear the voice on the other end. "You will not threaten me into silence," She said harshly before slamming the phone back to the receiver. It rang quickly after and she heard alice grab it and slam it back down hanging up on whoever it was. She listened still as her mom cursed under her breath before running water into the sink. Betty nonchalantly straightened herself then sauntered into the kitchen pretending she hadn't heard anything.
"Morning mom," She said cheerfully before sliding herself onto a seat at their kitchen island and placing her books on the cold granite surface. Alice looked up seeming to blink away angry tears and smiled effortlessly.
"Good morning darling," She shut off the water that had been running for no reason and dried her hand on the towel that hung off of the oven. "Did you need a ride to school?"
"No, I'm meeting Arch, but thank you," Betty said studying her mom, before glancing at the table and seeing a stack of papers that looked like professional documents. Her mother followed her gaze and quickly grabbed them sliding them back into the dark brown envelope they were next to and tucking them under her arm, she walked over and mechanically kissed the side of Betty's head.
"Sounds good pumpkin," she said trying to hide the shake in her voice before quietly leaving the room. But Betty had seen enough in that quick glimpse to know the name on the top of the autopsy report had been Jason Blossoms, the words fatal gunshot were directly under it. And it would have made sense seeing as Jason could have shot himself, but if that were true why did the diagram directly under it show the two lethal shots were portrayed by large red dots on his upper chest, an extremely odd place and angle for someone to shoot themselves. Betty closed her eyes trying to burn the image of that envelope in her head, every fiber of being knowing she had to get her hands on it. But for now her only choice was to embrace the normalcy she had been working so hard towards, so she grabbed her book bag swinging it over her shoulder and left the house yelling to her mom to have a good day. Archie was waiting for her as she ran down her steps and followed the sidewalk to his side. He comfortably slid his hand through hers and leaned down to kiss her, brushing his lips softly against hers.
"Good morning," He smiled sweetly and she smiled back as they fell in step together and headed towards school. Betty had contemplated telling Archie that she had feelings for him after her encounter with Jughead, but she had decided that in order to forget that night she had to go on like it never happened. She went forward with her original plan and her and Archie had talked, he agreed that they should definitely see where things went after all this time of such a close and happy friendship. And to her surprise things had fallen perfectly into place, they had kissed that night sweetly before Archie had walked her home, telling her goodnight politely. They had spent everyday together like normal sharing small peck kisses and innocent hand holding, and Betty normally would have mused about how sweet and perfect it was like a chapter from a Nicholas sparks novel, it was all of those things, until she found herself tossing and turning her body slick with sweat underneath her floral comforter, as his eyes raked down her body his hand feeling every part of her as he infiltrated every dream she had. No matter how many times she woke herself up, when sleep consumed her again there he was like clockwork. But after a few nights of Jughead visiting her behind her closed eyelids, she started to long for it, craving seeing his face and the way his dark greyish green eyes would find hers.
She walked into school, letting Archie's hand go and making her way to her locker putting away some of her books before closing it back up, and turning around to find her redheaded boyfriend back in front of her kissing her softly at first, then shakily sliding his hand to her face pulling her closely trying to deepen the kiss, Betty stiffened against him taking everything in her to not pull away. He let go smiling, clearly not aware at all that she was finding herself more and more tormented with the life she was leading. The boy she had always wanted was right in front of her, finally kissing her back the way she had always wished for, and she should have been so happy, but that pesky unsure feeling always found its way into her heart. She suddenly felt suffocated and took a step back from him.
"Hey Lovebirds," Veronica called from her locker, starting to walk over to them. Archie waved, smiling brightly before turning back to Betty.
"So I'll see you after my game tonight right?" He looked at her longingly and a lump formed in her throat as she saw the unmistakable signs of a nervous boy about to make a move, she inhaled his cologne and nodded trying to let herself want it, want him. "And your mom still thinks you are staying at Kevin's…" His eyes questioning nervously. Betty could only nod again forcing a smile before squeezing his hand. Kevin finally walked through the school's main entrance and Betty sighed heavily dripping with relief.
"Ready for our sleepover Kev?" flirtatiously at him as she walked up to him linking her arm with his. His brows furrowed together looking between her then to Archie who gave him and proud smile and Kevin just laughed nervously, sharing a quick look with Veronica.
"You know I love our slumber parties, we always have the most interesting adventures," He said giving Betty a pointed look and she shot him a warning glance. Archie waved at both of them before turning to Veronica and walking off to their class together, Kevin looked after him eyes wide. "So…. by sleeping at my place you do mean defiling a certain chiseled, ginger, grecian god right?" he asked pulling her with him to their home room. She nodded fighting the blush that crept into her cheeks unwillingly. "And does said grecian god have any idea that little miss cooper has already been defiled?" He whispered close to her ear, she glared at him pulling her arm away from his.
"I was not defiled," She argued sticking her chin slightly in the air "It was one stupid kiss, that we are never talking about again remember?" she looked at him challengingly and he sighed nodding in agreement.
"I'm just saying, I have never in all my life seen sparks fly like that, and I watch a lot of romance movies," She glared at his words as he playfully made his hands look like an explosion. "I'm talking massive fireworks, like full on chemistry grenades," He added an exploding sound for effect and Betty shushed him, grabbing both his hands and pulling them back down to his sides.
"Okay fine I will drop the very sexually charged warzone that is you and Jughead Jones," He laughed.
"Keep your voice down Kev," She threatened under her breath looking around and making sure no one had heard anything.
"Okay fine," He pouted. "But seriously Betty," He started his eyes losing their sparkle and growing dark. "Do you want this with Archie?" his question hit her oddly hard. No one had questioned their relationship so far, most the response they had gotten were "finally" or "oh thank goodness" including Veronica's "I thought there was something between you two". But then again no one else had been there that night, no one else had woken her up in the middle of her dream because she was mumbling the serpents name, only Kevin had seen all of that. She gave him the most reassuring look she could muster and grabbed his shoulders.
"Yes Kevin, I truly have always wanted Archie," She said making sure that what she said wasn't exactly a lie. But her attempt at wordplay wasn't lost on her cunning best friend.
"And now?" He asked not letting it go.
"You know what I meant," she laughed brushing off his disapproving look. But he seemingly decided to drop it for the moment as their bell rang forcing them to walk inside the classroom and find their seats.
The rest of the day played out like any other, and Betty began to get a nervous sinking feeling in her stomach every time she looked at the clock and realized it was an hour closer to school being over and then Archie's game would come and go and she would end up in his softly lit room probably watching him play video games for awhile, or singing along to him strumming away at his guitar, and then she would be snuggled up with him in bed. It made her stomach twist uncomfortably. It was at that moment that she realized she had to find a way out of their plans. She knew Archie would fully respect if she said she didn't want to do anything physical, but she didn't even want to have to reject him like that, she did want to be with him, or at least she thought a piece of her still did but not like this. She had too much on her mind and she still hadn't forgotten about the autopsy report, nor had she forgotten that Jughead would probably still find his way into her dream world, even if she were in Archie's bed. Her moral compass just couldn't seem to justify any of it. The final bell rang for the day and she still hadn't come up with a valid reason to bail on their plans tonight without hurting his feelings, so she avoided Archie as she went straight to the girls restroom. While she examined herself in the mirror her long blonde hair pulled back into her signature ponytail, and even with it pulled up, the soft curl still landed right in the middle of her back, she pulled it tight and started collecting her things from the counter. Her phone vibrated in her back pocket and she grabbed it her heart racing, but she calmed down significantly when the name popping up on her phone was Aubrey, her assistant manager at the store.
Hey! SOS. family emergency, can you close for me?
The text ended in a heart and kiss emoji and Betty sighed suddenly feeling the sweetest relief she had ever known. She responded quickly letting her coworker know she would be there by 5. Which also happened to be to be right when Archie's game started. It couldn't have worked out better and she left the bathroom and exited the school feeling so much lighter. She sent Archie a text apologizing and saying she would make it up to him and that she wished him a good game, his response was understanding but he still wanted to know if she would come over after her shift. She hadn't fully come up with a response yet, so she just stuffed her phone in her bag deciding she would take awhile to respond and pretend to be busy for the time being. Once she was home she took a quick shower, putting on a slight bit of makeup and slipping her work clothes on. She pulled her wet hair into loosely done french braids on either side of her head, the shorter parts of her bangs falling out and curling softly around her face framing her blush pink cheeks. She slipped down stairs and looked into her mom's office cursing internally when she saw her impeccably dressed mother with a glass of wine still occupying her desk. Betty sighed frustratedly but decided she would find the right time to snoop another night, she checked her phone the time reading half past four. So she turned on her heel not even explaining her change of plans to her mother. She grabbed her book bag hoping it would be slow enough that night for her to get a little homework done, and she started her walk to Dairy Dreams, the local Ice Cream shop that she had worked at over summer. The owner had called recently asking her and Aubrey to stay with him for their senior years, he had apparently been struggling with finding new employees seeing as it was technically considered the Southside even though it was right on the border. In fact you could even feel the slight rumble when a train passed by on the tracks that separated the north and south. But with Jason's death and the crime rates rising, he wanted to maintain a certain image and with Betty being the homecoming queen of Riverdale, and Aubrey, even though she attended southside high, was strikingly gorgeous and put together, she was from a great family who held a lot of respect in the south side and didn't get caught up in the violence and drugs. They were both the perfect poster to get every type of customer and make them all happy and keep business up.
Betty pulled her pink hoodie tighter around her shoulders and hooked the zipper pulling it up over her grey work polo to fight off the cool fall breeze that was slowly creeping its way into the nights as summer came to an end. She rounded the street corner seeing her work come into view and quickening her pace. She opened to the doors to the brightly lit establishment that was flooded with all kinds of shades of pink and blue, the signature color of all their product all the way down to the spoons they handed out. Aubrey stood at the register her perfectly curled brown hair resting on her shoulders as she mindlessly refilled their spoon container. Betty waved silently as she made her way to the back pushing through the 'employee only' door and setting her stuff down on the stainless steel cart they used as a makeshift table. Aubrey met her in the back smiling warmly as her phone played soft music in a small plastic cambro to amplify the sound only a little louder.
"Thank you for coming in," she said, grabbing her phone and muffling the music as a popular country song continued to sing, mixing with the pop music playing outside over the speakers filling Betty with a comfortably familiar feeling as she listened to both songs clash with each other just like they always did and for the first time in about a week she felt at peace, not really worried about anything that had been consuming her brain.
"Of course," Betty smiled "has it been slow?" Aubrey just nodded her eyes wide with exhaustion and they both laughed. Aubrey looked back down at her phone her long eyelashes casting soft shadows on her pink cheeks. Betty watched her as her small slightly upturned nose scrunched in disgust at whatever she was looking at. "You okay?"
"Yeah just another stupid story about the serpents that's circulating facebook," she sighed closing her phone. A cold sense of panic flooded Betty as she thought of their leader. None of the stories ever showed up on her feed but she wasn't connected to people in the Southside and the overwhelming need to know what the story was about filled her. "I don't have to leave for another hour or two…"
"What is the story about…" Betty cut her off and the girls shared a look, Aubrey searching her face with confusion. "Did it mention Jughead?" Betty asked in a small voice and the confusion grew on her friends face, her eyebrows knitting together tightly.
"It never mentions Jughead," she said flatly "Why? What do you know about him?" she studied the blonds face not looking away but the chime went off signaling that the front door had been opened and Betty quickly took the opportunity taking off her jacket and running to the front register to greet the customers.
They worked, letting light hearted small talk fill their time but Betty could tell her question was looming over them making the air slightly tense. The store stayed pretty dead except the small handful of customers who were still willing to brave the cold in search of a frozen desert. She tried to keep herself busy and grabbed a damp rag walking to the front to wipe down some of the tables, her back was turned to the front door when she heard the chime go off assuming that Aubs would greet them, she focused her attention on a particularly bad stain of red that a cherry had left, rubbing hard on the white acrylic material.
"So you guys offer anything as sweet as you?" the dark raspy voice asked too close to her...