Sunday had gone exactly the way Izzy had predicted although dinner had been slightly later that normal neither Pop nor GG had mentioned it. Everything else had gone according to schedule until GG had started talking about 'he-devil's' walking among them but unlike every other time where Pop had let his mother's comment pass he actually got into an argument with GG after sending Izzy out of the room.

Then yesterday over breakfast Pop had spent all morning watching Izzy and acting nervous before telling her that he wanted to sit down and have a talk with her later on in the week, but if that wasn't vague enough he also refused to play along with her usual antics where she tried to cajole some type of clue out of him. What if Pop knew she was still struggling to cope after the shooting; even GG had found it odd that Izzy had switched on all the lights and had locked all the doors.

In other news 'Shady man' came to the diner after Izzy left work on Sunday which allowed Jughead to somehow take a picture of him for his murder board at the trailer and if all went well tonight Izzy and Jug would be able to follow 'Shady man' after their shift, and he texted to tell Izzy that he had invited someone from his new school to help them find out who 'Shady man' was.

Izzy's plan of having a normal school week was derailed when Cheryl 'revenge is my middle name' Blossom made things weird by defending FP in the middle of lunch and now instead of heading to the gym for extra cheer practice 'for idiots who can't tell their left from their right' like she was meant to she was in the music room with Izzy.

"We need to talk" Cheryl stated plainly walking in, she was glad that the rest of the Pussycats weren't there to witness her act of contrition, there were only three people she would ever give a meaningful apology to JJ, Nana and Izzy so it was best for people not to see her having to do this.

"I don't have time for this right now." Izzy stated despite being the only person in the music room, she only had an hour of rehearsals before she had to drive to Pop's to go follow 'Shady man' with Jug now wasn't the time to be distracted by Cheryl.

"Please Iz, I realised that you were right…" Cheryl admitted reluctantly, after being ignored by Izzy because of the FP situation Cheryl had thought long and hard about the entire situation, she thought about what Izzy had said and came to the conclusion that there were some valid points made about FP being given a raw deal, the town had even made Jughead transfer school because of something her dad did. Since Izzy ignored her first apology it was obvious she wanted Cheryl to do more and she had done she'd gone out of her way to show Izzy she was sorry.

"I'm sure you heard about how I defended F.P at lunch and I even wrote a letter to the judge asking for leniency for him and as of this morning, I hired F.P an actual lawyer instead of that overworked and underpaid lawyer the town provided for him. A lawyer who can actually help FP with his case and he said he might be able to get FP out in time for Christmas so can you just forgive me already." Cheryl whined listing all the things that showed she was trying to earn Izzy's forgiveness; action spoke louder than words and Cheryl had done a lot of actions so she deserved to be forgiven.

"Are you fucking kidding me Cheryl?" Izzy asked feeling more hurt and more anger as the seconds went past. The more Cheryl talked the more pissed off Izzy got, Cheryl knew how to apologise and what was happening here wasn't her apologising it was her trying to…. to bribe or blackmail Izzy into forgiveness. "I don't have to forgive you and I don't want to forgive you and while I am sure Jughead will appreciate what you've done, trying to get me to forgive through some type of bribery won't work. You know how to apologise I may have forgiven you if you had just come in here and said sorry, if you had done something to show you are sorry instead you think arranging for FP lawyer is… just get out."

"But I am. I did." Cheryl began earnestly seeing where she went wrong. "I apologised on Saturday and you still told me to leave the diner."

"I'm sorry you got hurt isn't an apology Cheryl." Izzy huffed out repeating back the bullshit apology Cheryl had tried to give on Saturday. "It's I'm sorry I hurt you. Or I am sorry I threw your mum's death in your face or even an I am SORRY. All you had to do was come and say sorry and mean it. Not go on about getting FP a lawyer or writing a letter because I don't care.

The problem isn't the fact that FP in jail is ... Just go before you make this worse." Izzy sighed it wasn't up to her to explain to Cheryl where she was going wrong.

"I am sorry I am. I had no right to say those things about you or your mum, I was hurt and lashing out and it's not an excuse but I miss you, I miss my friend and I will do whatever you want. Please Izzy, If this year has taught me anything is that everyone can be easily taken away Daddy killed JJ, Fred Andrews got shot and Moose is still in the hospital recovering. The town is changing and I don't know what to do, I don't know how to… please, you are my best friend." Cheryl confessed to no effect, in fact Izzy had back away from Cheryl to sit on a stool and was re-adjusting the mic stand. "I'll… I'll volunteer, you always say I should come to the old people home with you so I will."

Izzy simple watched as Cheryl got flustered, it was obvious she was grasping at straws and her efforts would have been funny if Izzy wasn't equally as annoyed as she was hurt.

"Cheryl this isn't about how sorry you are or what you are willing to do to make it up to me, it's about what you did. My mum shouldn't have been something you used to hurt me no matter what, just like how I never use your relationship with Penelope to hurt you because some things are just off limits and you know that."

In over a decade of friendship, she had with Cheryl they had fallen out a number of times but they always made up and in all the time Cheryl had never used her mum as a weapon to hurt Izzy so the question she had was why now? Why choose this argument to bring up Sharon Tate, it hadn't even been personal, they were talking about FP being in jail it had nothing to do with Izzy so why did Cheryl bring up her mum.

"I promise I will never ever do it again" Cheryl quickly reassured even placing her hands on her chest as if she was taking some type of pledge, it almost made Izzy want to smile at how over-dramatic Cheryl could be.

"You should never have done it in the first place." Izzy's tone sounding more hurt than angry. "Your actions have consequences and this is one of them so…. just deal with it"

Cheryl was losing her best friend and no matter what she did it or said Izzy wasn't forgiving her and she may never forgive her. Izzy managed to cut Cheryl out of her life and she hadn't even blinked because they were other people, she had Josie, Valerie, Melody, and even Jughead not to mention the people from the diner or her volunteering group but Cheryl had no one else, no real friends who weren't either scared of her or trying to use her and the Blossom name, there was no one else who would be there for her, no one who called her to see how she was, no one else willing to hide her in their house when Penelope Blossom became too much of a monster to deal with, now that JJ was gone there was no one else who was willing to put up with her.

Yes, Cheryl was difficult she knew it, everyone knew it but Izzy didn't care, she didn't care that Cheryl could be cruel to people or that she had a near pathological disregard towards everyone else unless the benefited her.

Izzy had ignored all that and had chosen to be her friend. Cheryl couldn't lose her friend, the only real friend she had left just because of one thoughtless comment.

"I need you in my life because you make me a better person." Cheryl pleaded she knew she was crying but if Izzy didn't forgive her Cheryl didn't know what to do, she would truly be alone in this world. "I want you to forgive me because I made a mistake and I am really sorry for what I did, what I said and I didn't go about it the right way but you have to know that I never truly meant to hurt you, I was angry and lashing out and I promise to never do it again, just let me try to earn your forgiveness….. Tell Jughead that the lawyer has already been paid a month in advance so he shouldn't have to worry about the bills."

"I'll think about it" Izzy replied referring to giving Cheryl the chance to earn back her forgiveness. It had only been a week of her giving Cheryl the cold shoulders and she already missed her friend, she had no one to call while they both binge-watched shows on Netflix, and as much as Jughead let her twisted sense of revenge do what it wants Cheryl was the one that actually got it, she even helped Izzy on a few occasions.

Cheryl walked out squeezing past Melody, Josie, Valerie and Veronica who were all standing in the doorway watching what was going on.

x.x

Izzy stayed silent watching as the others came in, it was obvious by the look on her face that she didn't want to talk about Cheryl's apology. What Cheryl had done for FP was really nice but now it just felt like Cheryl was throwing out money and words and doing anything she could just so Izzy would forgive her, some part of Izzy knew Cheryl well enough to admit that she wasn't actually trying to bribe her -not really- since action always spoke louder than words Cheryl never learned how to use her words to apologise properly.

A not so small part of Izzy was ashamed to admit that she was struggling to forgive Cheryl because JJ wasn't here to smooth things over, Jason was dead and Cheryl now how to figure out how to apologise properly without him in her ears guiding her.

It wasn't just hard listening to Cheryl apologising without hearing Jason's influence, it was soul crashing there was no reference to Poppies or baking or any number of things that were so obviously the Jason part of Cheryl's apology, come to think of it, this was their first fight since Jason died.

It hit her once again; there was no more Jason, her best friend's brother and her own semi-friend was gone, someone who had been a part of her life was gone.

He was dead, he wasn't going to be there anymore, he wasn't going to listen to Izzy sing or roll his eyes at her cheesy jokes or say he wasn't interested in her day just to sit at the diner and listen to her bitch about life before running off to some party or football game.

Mr. Blossom had killed him and now she didn't have a friend, Cheryl didn't have her twin. In that moment Izzy wanted to let it go and forgive Cheryl for everything, they lost Jason and being angry with Cheryl was tiring, she didn't want to lose her as well.

"Go fix it with her" Josie demanded pulling the plug to Izzy's mic calling and end to the day, it had been obvious from the beginning she was and had spent half the time sighing into the mic instead of actually singing. Josie snapped her fingers in Izzy's face since she was still daydreaming, "Go fix it with Cheryl."

"I-"

"No" Valerie interrupted. "You didn't want to tell us what's was going on with the two of you because if you did then we would probably have to take your side and hate Cheryl with you but she's apologised so go forgive her" Valerie ordered packing up her things, if there weren't signing she needed to get home there was a shooter on the loose and a history paper due first thing in the morning.

"She-" Izzy tried again before Mel walked over and actually slapped her hand over her mouth.

"Let me guess she said something bitchy and really mean and you want to forgive her but you can't since you need an apology" Mel questioned knowing she was right. "She has apologised, it was a good apology she said sorry and everything and this is Cheryl we are talking about."

Izzy tried saying something else but it was muffled by Mel's hands. "I don't care, now go accept her apology because it's been over a week since I heard her insult someone's clothes and I am missing it. Now put on your big girl pants and go makeup with her cause you are really mopey when you have no one else to be bitchy with." Mel declared finally letting go seeing as Val and Josie were nodding along they also agreed.

Did any of it matter, Cheryl was right, they lost too much after rehearsals she was going to go following a maybe shooter around town with Jug and who knows what could happen.

Did it really matter whether she forgave Cheryl today or tomorrow, Fred nearly got killed in front of her so while it might be nice to find out why Cheryl brought up her mum in an argument it wasn't important, she promised never to do it again and Izzy believed her.

Cheryl was doing her best, they all were, Cheryl had screwed up and she apologised, sure she sucked at it to begin with but she found herself in the end- even without Jason- Cheryl had come up with her own way to apologise and it was obvious she was sorry, anyone could tell she regretted her action.

"Fine, but I want you to know I already decided to forgive her" Izzy huffed at the trio and the smug, judgemental look thinking they knew her so well.

"Yeah but without us, you would have spent days dragging your feet before letting her know." Val countered walking out the door. "How the two most prideful people in school become friends" Val muttered shaking her head.

What was with people making comments about her friends today? She wasn't really offended by Val and the girls making fun of her but was it really that odd to be friends with Cheryl or Jug?

"You know it's because of us right, and Jason" Mel began as they left, they were too far away for Izzy to hear the rest but she didn't have to be there to know that the rest of the conversation would be about how stubborn Izzy and Cheryl were.

Izzy found herself smiling, hearing the bickering between everyone else while they left her to go sort out her mess with Cheryl, she really had the most amazing friends in the world.

x.x.x.x

Writer's thought:

So was that apology Cheryl enough or not? I have struggled with it for months and this was the best that I could do. I think Izzy has some really good friends in her corner.