Author's Note : Next chapter! Yay! Please review!
Chapter Twelve Song : "Home" by Sheryl Crow
Disclaimer : Don't own the characters. Just really like them.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN :
At the end of the day, Betty crept into the Blue and Gold office. Jughead wasn't there but Toni was.
"Hey there, Ponytail," Toni said as she popped the lens off of the camera she was holding, "he's not here. He and the boys bailed after your little display in the hall with Red."
"There was a reason for the display," Betty said, fighting down a wave of nausea.
Toni glanced up at her, "There usually is."
"Jughead isn't making this better or easier for me, you know."
Toni sat down the camera that she was tinkering with and focused all of her attention on Betty, "You've got him shook in way I've never seen before, okay. It's like he can't see straight when you're around and that's not like him."
"He's the one saying it can't happen." Betty muttered.
Toni let out a sigh. It wasn't as though she were exasperated, more like she has just heard something she was expecting and still didn't like it.
Stay away from me. The words were emblazoned on her mind like a brand; a still open wound that ached. But she couldn't do it. She couldn't stay away from him. She wanted to help him. No. That wasn't entirely accurate. She needed to help him.
"Hey Toni," she cautioned, easing into one of the seats at the table, "What do you know about something that comes in a striped wrapper... like a straw?"
Toni's entire demeanor changed. She straightened, her jaw tightened, her arms dropped to her sides as though she had just snapped to attention. "Are you talking about JJ? Betty Cooper, you had better not be messing around with that junk or Archie will be the least of your worries. Jughead will flip his little gray beanie if he even hears your name in the same sentence as Jingle Jangle?"
"I'm not messing with it." Betty said, "I don't even know what it is."
Toni snatched up the camera and jammed the lens back on, which in Betty's limited knowledge, seemed like it couldn't be good for the mechanics of the piece of equipment.
"Keep it that way!" Toni spat.
"Look," Betty decided to try logic, "I'm just curious. Fangs and Sweet Pea brought some of those wrappers to Jughead. He got really upset and then kicked me out of the office when I offered to help."
Toni calmed back down the slightest bit, "No big surprise there. Like I said, you've got him shook. If he got even the hint that you were involved with that stuff...my God, he would burn this place to the ground."
"I'm not exactly a wilting flower, Toni."
"You're not exactly a serpent either."
"Is that what it'll take to get him to let me in- I mean- to let me help?"
"Don't go getting any ideas, Ponytail."
The door swung open, banging against the wall and causing both Toni and Betty to
jump where they stood. Cheryl Blossom breezed in, looking gorgeous and annoyed.
"TT! I've been waiting!" Her sharp eyes found Betty, "Oh. It's you."
Betty could actually feel it as her face involuntarily contracted into a "WTF" expression. Toni looked at Cheryl as an indulgent spouse might; the way you look at someone that you love and would kill for but you know they're saying or doing something completely inappropriate.
"Cheryl..." Toni reprimanded in a slow, gentle tone.
"I know, I know," Cheryl hissed with exaggerated reluctance, "Hobo said I have to be nice."
"Cheryl!" Toni repeated, her tone firmer this time.
"Kidding!" Cheryl said with a Cheshire Cat grin to her girlfriend, then turned her eyes to Betty, "So not kidding."
With that, the statuesque red head turned on the heel of her Louboutin stiletto and made her exit, leaving behind only a trace of Chanel perfume.
"Hobo?" Betty asked.
Toni rolled her eyes, "That would be Cheryl's pet name for Jones."
"But..."
"It's a love/hate relationship." Toni explained in simple terms as she pulled on her Serpents jacket and used both hands to pull her long hair from under the collar, "You just gotta roll with it. Anyway, remember what I said about the JJ, okay? Got it?"
Betty chewed on her bottom lip while she mulled over Toni's words. Her hesitation to respond did not sit well with the other young woman.
"I said, Got it, Ponytail?"
"Got it!" Betty affirmed at once.
After Toni had left the office, Betty lamented the fact that she really hadn't garnered any new information. Just the name of the drug. She knew from what Sweet Pea had said that the River Vixens could be a valuable source in this case, but that would be an arena that would have to be entered into with caution, what with Cheryl potentially reporting to Jughead and all. She could riddle that out later.
For now, she could focus on Jason Blossom to distract herself from her newly acquired battle with Jughead Jones.
What she really needed to know was what had happened between Jason and Polly. Her mother wouldn't even speak to her about it. Cheryl seemed to hate Polly. No one was saying anything on the subject. There was still one source that she hadn't yet tried to tap. And he was very partial to her.
Dad.
When Betty arrived at his house, Hal Cooper was in the garage up to his elbows beneath the hood of a classic Ford. Smiling at the nostalgia, her father had always dragged her out to tinker with one engine or another when he would visit her in Chicago, she walked into the open garage and leaned against the front fender of the car.
"Hey!" Her dad said with a smile as he caught sight of her, "Perfect timing! Why don't you grab a wrench and tighten up that hose for me?"
Betty's smile widened as she complied. They worked a moment in silence before Betty worked up the courage to ask what she had come to ask. Ever since she had been a small child, she had been able to tell her dad anything, usually on the phone but still anything. Maybe the distance helped with that...because at the moment, she couldn't seem to find her voice to ask the question that was burning in the back of her throat.
"Dad? I need to know about Polly and Jason." She finally managed to rasp.
Hal stopped working and instead braced himself on both hands and stared sightlessly down at the engine, "Betty..."
"I heard mom at the river, dad," Betty said when he didn't continue, "I heard her say she hoped Jason was burning in hell. That's a horrible thing to say over someone's murdered body, dad. What happened? What did Jason do that was so bad?"
Her dad turned away from the car. Betty reached over and picked up a rag from the tool box and offered it to. His smile was sad as he accepted it and began to wipe at the grease on his hands. She couldn't figure out if he was stalling, looking for more time or if he was searching for what to say. All she knew was that the last thing in the world she wanted in that moment was to be placated. He turned and sat back against the front of the car and Betty came around to sit beside him. She watched her father take a deep, shaky breath as though to steady himself.
And then he started to speak.
"Jason and Polly had a fight. A big fight, Betty. Afterwards, Polly was devastated. And I came home from work one day and heard the water running in the bathroom upstairs. I went up and called to her, asking it she was okay. When she didn't answer, I kicked in the door."
Betty felt sick to her stomach and the backs of her eyes started to burn.
"Polly was trying to hurt herself, Polly. That's why I sent her away. Why your mother decided to move you all back here. To be closer while she gets help. To stop Polly from trying to take her own life again."
Betty wiped at the tears that were flowing in a steady stream down her cheeks. Polly tried to commit suicide? How could that be? She'd always been sparkly and full of life. Even the idea of her being in such a dark place didn't compute for Betty. "But..." She started, "what would they fight about that was so bad? I mean, I can't imagine Polly..."
She trailed off. She couldn't bring herself to say the words aloud.
Her dad took another breath, "There were rumors about Jason. That he was dealing drugs."
And just like that, red, blaring alarm bells began screaming in Betty's head. Drugs! Jason was dealing drugs!
"When Polly confronted him about it...it got bad."
Had Jason been dealing in Jingle Jangle? Was this a connection that Jughead didn't know and needed to? A connection to what had happened to her sister? Had Jason gotten Polly into drugs, too? Maybe that was what had pushed her sister over the edge. Maybe there was a link between Jason's murder and Jughead's drug situation.
She needed to talk to him.
Soon.
Author's Note : Thanks to everybody who is reading! Thanks to everybody who is reviewing! I appreciate all of it! That's it for now. Till the next!