THREE

july 13th, 4:34pm

It had been almost a week from the night Lea and Jughead conspired till three in the morning. They had spoken more in the past week than they had in the past year, and if she was being honest, she didn't realise how much she missed Jughead. It was no rumour that if you spent enough time around Cheryl Blossom, you began to think like her. Lea found it relieving to have an outsiders input - it made her feel as though she wasn't grasping at straws.

Lea was scrolling through more articles on small town murders when she heard a sharp knock at her bedroom door, making her jump in her seat.

"Luke is here!" Her mother called, her voice muffled by the wooden door.

"Just send him up!" She called back, closing her laptop and moving books and folders on top to cover it.

The sound of heavy footsteps skipping up the stairs could be heard, growing louder as Luke reached the upstairs hallway. Lea practically dived back onto her bed, grabbing her phone in the process. The screen opened back up onto Instagram, which she began to scroll mindlessly, just as a soft knock was heard at the door.

She called him in and the door opened, revealing a shoe-less Luke. His hair was messy and he had bruise-like bags under his eyes. Upon seeing Lea, a small smile spread across his tired face and he closed the door quietly behind him. Wordlessly, he shuffled across the floor and over to her bed, throwing himself next to her. Luke wrapped an arm around her stomach and rested his head on her shoulder, holding her tightly.

"Hi." Lea spoke, chuckling at his actions.

"Hey." His greeting was distorted due to his cheek being pressed against her shoulder. "Are you okay?" He began to mindlessly play with the frayed fabric on the side of her t-shirt.

"Yeah, are you?" She shifted her head to look at him through the corner of her eye. Most of what she could see consisted of his hair and the tip of his nose. He didn't say anything in response, but she felt a faint nod as he moved his head.

After a few minutes of scrolling down her timeline, she felt Luke chuckle.

"Your letters are so big." He gently tapped on the screen.

"I can't read them otherwise." She smiled slightly, flicking his hand away with her finger. "I'm getting better at it though." She locked her phone and turned on to her side to face him. Their faces were mere inches away from each other as they stared.

"That's good." He muttered. His eyes fluttered shut as he let out a sigh. Lea watched him for the next few minutes, taking in his breathing and the way his eyes occasionally moved under his eyelids.

Jughead had phoned her earlier on, asking if she had asked Luke anything about Jason. Of course, there never seemed to be a right time or place to ask. Most days when Luke came over to her house, he would end up falling asleep instantly. It didn't seem appropriate to ask him whenever they went out in public. In all honesty, Lea thought, when was the right time to ask him about his best friend's death? It wasn't like she would be asking how he was doing. She would be asking for in-depth details about anything he knew. Details that could lead to a potentially harmful dead-end.

But then again, she thought, if she couldn't talk to Luke about it, who could she talk to?

She watched Luke's face closely, noticing how his breathing slowed the longer they stayed there. Lea wasn't a stranger to Luke looking rough, for football often treated him poorly. But, she couldn't help but notice the grazes on his face, surrounded by purple and green spots. It concerned her endlessly - he'd been showing up like this for the past week.

She reached her hand up to place on the side of his face, letting her fingertips dance over the harshest spots on his temple. "Have you been fighting?"

A moment of silence passed, and it was almost like the two of them were holding their breath. Luke eventually responded with a sigh.

"It's just football." His eyebrows furrowed as his eyes remained closed.

The first red flag. Football practice starts next week.

"Kinda brutal." She sighed. "Who did it?"

"Reggie elbowed me more times than I can count." He said.

Reggie had been on vacation since the start of summer; the second red flag. Lea couldn't hold her tongue after that.

"I thought he was away?" She asked, moving her hand to run through his hair. She could feel a particular harsh spot at the back of his head that wasn't usually there. Before she could ask, Luke pulled away like a flash, his tired eyes opening quickly.

"He, uh - came back early." He grunted, rolling over abruptly so that he was facing away from the girl.

For a second, it seemed as though Lea would stop there, as not a word was said from the girl. However, she began to grow agitated as she stared at the back of his neck. His loose fitting shirt revealed dark purple and yellow patches on his skin that we're safely hidden underneath the white cotton. Bruises. It was at that moment that Luke began to walk on thin ice around his suspicious girlfriend.

Lea asked a question that had been playing on her mind for the past two days. Ever since she saw it happen, she needed to know the context, for she couldn't figure it out alone.

"What were you talking to Clifford about?" It was a bold move. It was a question that even she, herself, didn't even know if there was any malice behind it. Although, Luke's reaction proved all that she needed.

His body stiffened and he quickly sat up on the bed, turning to face Lea. "What do you mean talking to Clifford?" He asked. His glossy eyes held so much concern that she thought they would start to crumble under the pressure from his furrowed eyebrows.

"I mean, at Jason's funeral." She sat up to face him properly.

Luke ran his hands over his face. "Babe, trust me when I say, it's better to stay out of it."

She scoffed. "I can't stay out of it if I don't know what it is."

"Please, just, trust me." He was practically begging. They both faced each other fully, one, determined and the other, exasperated.

"How am I supposed to trust you when you're clearly hiding something?" She folded her arms.

"Lea - don't." He turned away from her, hoping she would stop.

"You know something, don't you?" Lea stood from the bed.

"I don't know anything, Lee." He leaned forward, sitting on the edge of the bed, with his head in his hands.

"You're lying."

"You're putting words in my mouth." Luke rubbed his eyes, his shirt tightening around his fragile shoulders as he moved.

"Then use your own." Lea's voice began to shake and crack, her throat closing up. Arguments weren't foreign to her, as putting people in their place was a hobby of hers. However, disagreements with those closest to her tended to hit home.

"I swear to God." Luke muttered, standing up from the bed and turning towards his girlfriend.

"Do you know that Clifford told me to not ask you anything? At the funeral. I was told to leave you alone." Before Luke could get a word in, she continued. "I saw you both. In the corner." Luke stared at her with tired eyes and swallowed deeply, running his hands through his hair. "What? Did you think no one could see you?"

"He was asking me if I wanted anything of Jason's to take." He spoke softly and quietly.

Lea analysed him for a moment, watching how his weight shifted from each foot.

"Is that the best excuse you could come up with?" She near whispered. Luke huffed, turning and pacing.

"Okay, Lea." He turned sharply to face her. "You know what? You're right. You're always right. Is that what you want to hear?" Lea felt her mouth go dry. "I am hiding something. I'm hiding the fact that I'm absolute agony that my best friend is dead and gone. I'm hiding that I feel completely responsible for him not being here. I'm hiding how devastating it is because I don't want to upset you."

A long moment of silence passed between the two. They could hear the unsteady breaths the other took, and the sound of Lea's mother washing dishes downstairs. As Lea took a hesitant step forward, Luke stepped back.

"I miss him, okay? I miss Jason." His voice cracked when he spoke his friends name.

In the months that they'd been together, Lea had never seen Luke like this. So broken and defeated. The Luke she knew put on a face in front of his friends, and never in front of her - at least that's what she believed.

"Luke, I didn't —" Lea began to hide within the depths of her shoulders, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"I thought you were my safe space." He cut her off with a quiet voice. "You're supposed to be one of the only people in my life who I can come to for anything."

"I am. Which is why I'm asking y-"

"You're not asking, Lee. You're interrogating."

At that, Lea had nothing else to say. She had put so many of her words in her boyfriends mouth that she managed to lose her own. The couple stared at each other for a few moments, in complete silence. They were still feet apart when Luke sat down on the end of Lea's bed.

"Jason drowned." He whispered. "He reached into the water to grab Cheryl's stupid glove, and the boat tipped. I don't know what more you want from me."

"Luke —" Lea walked forward and sat down next to him. The moment her hand touched his, he shot up.

"Jus — Just leave it." He was headed for the door. "I love you. I'll see you later."

With that, he was gone.

Lea was frozen until she heard the front door close. Quickly, she raced to the window, watching Luke walk down her driveway to his car. He ran his hands through his hair, flinching when he reached the same spot on his crown that she did. She watched as he took his phone out of his pocket, beginning to dial furiously.

He sat on the hood of his car for a few moments, glancing around the street. He was talking to someone on the phone, seemingly in an angry conversation. It was as Luke sat on the hood of his car that Lea saw it.

A motorcycle passed, coming to a halt when it reached the blonde and his car. She watched with a sense of curiosity and confusion as the interaction took place.

Luke ended the conversation on the phone, walking towards the figure on the bike. Even though her window was open, she couldn't hear a word over the motorcycle engine. The two exchanged words for only a minute. Luke waved his arms wildly but the presence on the bike remained calm and still.

All of a sudden, the person on the bike seemingly finished the conversation, and began to drive away. Luke watched him go, before getting into his car and slamming the door. He started the engine and headed in the same direction.

The third red flag.

july 22nd, 8:25am

Lea was working another shift at the diner when she met up with Jughead for the second time. In the empty diner, the two discussed Jason Blossom, other small town murders, and exactly where they would go from here. They were already in too deep, grasping at any kind of piece of evidence to backup their theory.

Lea recited the argument that she had with Luke, from start to finish. Jughead's head snapped up when the mentioned the arrival of a Serpent. He looked even more confused when she told him that Luke spoke to them, and followed the bike.

Jughead continued to write on his laptop. As Lea listened to the clicks of his keys, she thought deeper and deeper about the past couple of weeks. She remembered the phone call that her and Luke shared on July 4th; how he practically dismissed her help. She thought back to the day of Jason's funeral; how she saw him and Clifford Blossom caught in a heated discussion. She shivered thinking of how close she came to Clifford, and how Luke took a sudden disappearance in the aftermath. That night, he was completely off the grid. She didn't hear from Luke until the evening afterwards, in which he received an earful over the phone.

For the past week or so, Lea declared, Luke hadn't been himself. He showed up to her house covered in bruises and imperfections on his skin. He was a lot more distant, which, she could only attribute to his depression over the loss of his friend. Even in their most intimate moments, Luke maybe thought that Lea never saw the state of his body, but she noticed everything.

"Okay." Jughead began. Lea looked up from the trance her hands had kept her in.

"Number one, is that Luke genuinely misses Jason and has awful coping mechanisms." He began to list off his theories. "Number two, is that Luke is just as suspicious as us and is trying to find things out for himself. And number three —" He seemed to stop himself before glancing at her. "Number three is that Luke killed Jason."

Lea nearly choked air. "Are you kidding me?"

"Not even a little bit." He shook his head.

"Jughead. Luke and Jason were best friends. There is no way. He wouldn't even be capable of it." The theory was dismissed by Lea instantly.

"I beg to differ. He's athletic, a member of the football team, he's even roughed me up a few times." Jughead looked directly at Lea as he spoke. His burning eyes caused her to look away, believing that she somewhat played a part in not stopping her boyfriend from bullying her old childhood friend. She knew what she was guilty of.

"That doesn't mean he's capable of murder. If that was the case, the whole football team would be a suspect." She sighed and sat back in her seat. "What would even be his motives?"

Lea hated that she had even asked the question. She couldn't believe that she was even allowing the prospect of it.

"All I got for that is jealousy." The boy admitted. "Luke is a golden boy. He has everything he wants. It could've just meant that Jason had something he didn't. From what you've been telling me, he seems just as suspicious as a criminal would be."

That's the moment Lea stopped listening to the ludicrous theories.

"No, Jug. I'm sorry, but my boyfriend is not a murderer." After she spoke, she noticed that he was typing again. "Have you been writing all of this down?" He nodded. "You're not going to publish it are you?"

"I would like to one day, yeah." He reached for his coffee.

"Could you maybe censor our names?" Lea asked.

Jughead looked up at her in confusion, placing his coffee back down. "Why would I want to censor your names?"

Lea stuttered for a moment. "B-because — I don't want to be tied to this. I argued with Luke for you."

Jughead made a sudden sound of disagreement before speaking. "Hold on. I don't remember asking you to speak to him about it at all. You took it upon yourself to offer. Which, I gratefully accepted, thank you for your sacrifice."

Lea rolled her eyes and scoffed at the boy.

"Don't act like your own curiosity doesn't play into this." He said.

"I-It does, but —" She ran her fingers through her hair. "Maybe we're thinking about it too hard."

He pushed his laptop aside. "In what way?"

The blonde sighed. "Okay, so - we can both agree that Jason didn't drown." Jughead nodded. "Can we agree that maybe he just, ran away?"

The beanie clad boy squinted his eyes at the thought. They had both been so caught up in the disappearance of Jason being a murder, that they had overlooked everything else that it could've been.

"What would be his motives for running away?" He asked.

"Clifford and Penelope aren't exactly model parents." She leant forward, speaking lowly.

Jughead seemed to consider it for a moment. "Okay, that's definitely an option."

As he typed a few words down, he chuckled to himself.

"What?" Lea asked.

"Nothing." He said, looking up from his screen. "I'm just surprised that you haven't named a particular group of people as your number one suspect."

She knew instantly who he was referencing.

"As much as I dislike the Serpents, I don't think they're killers." She shrugged.

"The Ghoulies are." Jughead originally meant it as an offhand comment. That was before the duo gave each other the exact same look at the exact same time.

"Oh my god." Lea said. "The Ghoulies. It's perfect."

"Yeah, some would say a little too perfect."

"It's more reliable than anything else we have." She sighed.

"Eh, I don't know - the Luke thing seems pretty - " Jughead began to joke.

"No, Jug!"